Page 65 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

“You’re right. I can’t hide you away from the things happening around us. Let’s go sit down and talk. I’ll tell you everything.”

“I’ve heard that lie before,” Layla snarled.

“Yeah... I’m sorry. I promised you I wouldn’t give you any more half-truths. I’ve been worried about the baby, but you’re right. Keeping things from you is doing the opposite of what I intended.”

Something else would have worked much quicker to soothe her, but he knew the last thing she wanted right now was for him to touch her.

“Conference room,” he said.

He walked past her and her rage and wondered how he had become the bad guy in all of this. Her mother had made him angry as well. He could have made more definite plans sooner if he’d known what he was dealing with.

The moment Layla walked into the conference room behind him, he shut the door and turned to face her.

“Had you already spoken to her when we went to dinner with Britney? Is that why you knew she’d been in London?” Layla asked, still calm.

He sighed and walked over to pour himself a drink.

“Aren’t you more interested in what she said? I know you heard her. You’re going to shift into a red wolf, just like her. So we need to prepare for that.”

Layla sucked in a breath, forcing him to look at her.

“Red... She’s the red wolf?”

Chapter 34

Layla was still in a daze a few days later. Jackson had been walking with her every afternoon since she had seen him with her mother, but she was constantly losing herself in her thoughts. She couldn’t appreciate being outside.

Her mother had been there all along.

Her mother was the red wolf that everyone had told her was imaginary.

And she was going to turn into a werewolf.

She looked up at Jackson, who seemed to have his attention on something else. Maybe all the chatter going on in the town that she hadn’t been able to block out because she was distracted.

“What about Brit?”

“Rebecca disappeared before I could ask her anything, and I haven’t found her again since. She only comes out when she wants to be seen.”

Typical.

“Maybe I should bring Brit here—”

“She’s safer where she is.”

She called and texted Britney daily, and her sister seemed to enjoy the new residence. She hadn’t mentioned her fear of her bodyguards and Jackson again, but she knew it would still be on her mind. She couldn’t help wondering if it was because her sister was the same, and she sensed something different about them.

She needed to know if her sister would be like her. There was so much she would need to prepare to make sure they would both be safe wherever they ended up.

“The wolf gene might have skipped her completely,” Jackson continued. “It happens sometimes with half-bloods. Or she might shift when she’s eighteen. Or when she’s older like you. Or not at all, even with the wolf gene. I don’t know. You’ll have to keep her close and watch her.”

Brit would be eighteen before the baby was born. How was she supposed to watch her?

“Stop worrying.”

She frowned as she fought to control her emotions. Jackson had told her everything because she’d argued that it was better for her that way. She didn't want to admit that she’d been wrong. Ignorance had been such bliss. Now on top of the guilt of what she had done to Jackson and his pack, she had all the anxiety for her sister and her rage for Rebecca. Not to mention the feeling that Jackson had betrayed her.

Which was stupid because Jackson didn’t owe her anything.

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