Page 49 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

“You’ll never be Alpha, Zach. You’re too much of a coward and dick to fit into that role. There’s a Beta and a Gamma, and all the pack warriors who would do the job better before anyone even considers you,” he pointed out.

“And yet I’m the one who’s been comforting them in their time of need. I’m the one who’s been checking up on them,” Zach growled, his fake demeanour fading as his real nature showed through.

“And where were you?” a man behind him asked. He was one of the people that Zach had turned long before Layla had arrived. He had done Zach’s bidding and planted seeds in people’s heads. “Playing house with a human while everything burned around you.”

His words caused the desired effect. The grieving pack members' anger rose as they looked for anybody to blame. It was part of the grieving process that he couldn’t fault them for.

“I admit I have been less than I should have been,” he said. “In the future, maybe you will understand why, but I never abandoned any of you. The pack that attacked was all bolstered by dark magic; they would have attacked even if I’d been here.”

“They wouldn’t have attacked if you hadn’t killed their Alpha. The Circle was right,” Zach said. “It doesn’t matter now because we’ve made our stand.”

Zach was right about one thing. All of this was happening because of him. Because of the witch's vendetta against him and her need to see him suffer before he died. The pack had a monster for a King, and they were paying the price for his sins.

But he couldn’t let them hurt Layla. He had chosen her over the pack before and knew he would choose her again even though she didn’t understand what she had done to him.

“Even if your human tries to drive away, we own these woods. She will be dead before we have our breakfast,” Zach sneered as he stepped back.

That smirk returned to the older wolf’s face, and he knew his time was up to convince anybody. There was nothing that he could say that would make the situation better.

“Get them,” Zach ordered.

Several wolves came forward at once to circle him and the car. He could see a considerable number of his pack outside the carport and sense even more of them surrounding the house. And he saw a few children on the grounds in front of the house. Young boys and girls watching the proceedings, their fear more than the adults.

They had already seen enough death when they had been attacked. He couldn’t let them see anymore.

“Do you know what the she-wolf you banished into the woods said?” Zach asked.

It was a distraction tactic to give the other wolves an advantage. They all knew he could take on all of them at once if he had to, but he was sure their grief, mixed with the fear of the Circle’s retaliation, was bolstering them,

“No. What did she say, Zach?”

“It’s Alpha,” Zach growled.

“Oh, that will never happen. But please, carry on. I’m sure you’re dying to tell me the real reason you’re using the pack’s grief to gain a position you’ve coveted even when my father was the Alpha.”

“Your father was a demented man who ran the pack to the ground with his constant raids and wars,” Zach snarled.

“True. That’s why I had to kill him.”

“And you’re just like him!” Zach spat out. “A rogue has bewitched you, and now the pack faces extinction. That she-wolf saw it with her own eyes. Your human is not normal.”

“Rogue or human? You have to make up your mind,” he said.

He kept his senses on the wolves that were going to attack him and the ones set to get Layla. And he kept his senses on Layla. Her fear was growing with each word that Zach spoke. If she let her emotions get the better of her, she would reveal her nature to everyone. And then it wouldn’t matter if she got away today or not. The moment he died, they would kill her for being an abomination.

He looked at the woman who’d lost her family.

“I’m sorry, Gina. I avenged your parents, but I will make amends to you,” he promised.

“You will make amends by dying and ending all of this today,” Zach snarled, pushing Gina out of the way. “I said get them. Everyone is dead because of them. We were happy and free before the human came.”

Gina was the first to move. She came at him so quickly that he would have been impressed if he wasn’t so guilt-ridden. She punched him so hard his head snapped sideways, and he caught a scent of his blood.

“They were all I had left,” the woman screamed as she shoved him.

Cain didn’t react. His beast felt all the emotions between the bonds magnified but he took all of it without complaint.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

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