Page 37 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

“You’re a very intelligent young lady, Britney. I’m sure you’ll do well wherever you choose to study,” Jackson said as he sat back and picked his drink up.

“It’s all thanks to Layla. I didn’t want to do anything like that after Mum left, but Layla forced me to,” Britney said with a little smile.

“I’m sorry to bring this up, but when did your mum go to London?” Jackson asked.

She froze with the cutlery in her hands, and her gaze met Jackson’s.

“How do you know where our mum went?”

She knew he had asked Dylan to find information about her, but there was no trace of her mother anywhere. She knew because she had wasted a lot of time looking until that letter had come for her father, telling him she’d left and wasn’t coming back. What had Jackson found?

“Um... Didn’t you mention that the other day?” Jackson asked.

Mention the woman who’d abandoned them? She thought about her a million times a day, but her name never crossed her lips.

Her anger rose, as it always did when she thought about the way Rebecca Carlisle had just disappeared from their lives. Her fingers tightened around the fork and knife in her hands.

But her anger was different this time. It was mixed with pain. In a few short months, she would abandon her child, just like her mother had.

“Shit,” Jackson whispered just before he threw his napkin onto his plate and stood. “Shall we head back, ladies?”

He didn’t give them much of a choice. Jackson prised the cutlery from her fingers and quickly forced her to her feet.

“Come, Britney. You can order a dessert from room service.”

How the hell had he known about her mother? Was that woman living her life somewhere in London, guilt-free, as if she hadn’t left a whole life behind? Did she ever return to their little backward patch of the world to see how they were? To see if her abandonment hadn’t ruined them?

She was in the elevator before she knew it, pushed to the back with Jackson standing in front of her.

“Is she okay?” Brit whispered.

“I’m sorry. I know that’s a sensitive topic, and I knew better than to mention it. She’ll be fine, don’t worry,” she heard Jackson say gently.

Brit knew she was sensitive about the issue, but she was sure her observant sister realised that this wasn’t her usual reaction. Her anger was bursting from her in flames she couldn’t douse. She grabbed onto the railings on the back of the elevator and turned away from both of them to try to control it. To breathe through it and focus so she wouldn’t say or do something stupid.

And as she did that, she saw her reflection in the mirrored walls.

Her flushed cheeks.

Her flaring nostrils.

And her eyes.

Her glowing eyes.

Chapter 21

That had been a stupid lapse of judgement. Jackson had been too preoccupied tracking Miss. Roberts’ and her guest’s movements that he’d forgotten the other threat.

He hadn't expected her eyes to glow in the middle of the dinner service.

Going downstairs when Layla hadn’t learned to control her emotions had been a risk to start with, but he’d put everyone in danger now. There was a Hunter in his hotel.

The stench of death that clung to Hunters was hard to hide. The darkness, the evil in their souls, always gave them away. Hunters were human, but they committed so many heinous acts in their mission to eradicate all werewolves that he could never sense any humanity in them. Just death and darkness.

He heard Layla’s elevated heartbeat behind him and turned to look at her. Her grip was so tight on the rail that he could see the metal bending between her fingers. He turned back to Britney quickly and gave her a tight smile.

“Don’t worry,” he repeated.

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