Page 71 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

She was halfway down the drive when the gate slid open. People started running through them in droves. Some of them were naked, and some were half-dressed. She realised they must have shifted to evacuate to the packhouse where they would be safe.

“Move it, move it,” someone shouted at the gate as he herded people in.

She was the only one going the other way, pushing through the crowd with her hand on her stomach. Like the last time, there were weapons in the gatehouse. She snuck in while the guard directed everyone in and chose knives like the last time before running through the gates.

She kept running, aware that she probably looked a little unhinged to anyone who noticed her in the chaos. This wasn’t what the doctor meant when he said she was to be stress-free, but she couldn’t sit back and do nothing. Guilt surfaced as she thought of the baby. She should have locked herself in the bedroom and waited. If anything happened—

‘I will protect the pup. Go.’

She had only just realised what that voice was, but she needed to trust it. Once she was out there, there would be no time to get cold feet.

“Miss Layla!”

She slowed her steps to look at the young girl she had saved the last time. She was coming out of one of the houses along the road with a bag under her arm, helping an older woman.

“Get to the house as quickly as you can,” she told the girl.

“You’re pregnant! Come with me.”

She put her hand over her stomach again. Jackson would get angry with her and likely find a way to punish her.

But if he survived, he could punish her all he wanted.

“Go!”

She continued running until she was almost at the main gates. Only then did she realise she had become faster than she used to be.

Men and women lined up along the gates with Micah shouting orders. Dylan was already leading some of them to another side when there was a loud bang. The ground shook, and she took cover behind a tree trunk, unsure what the sound was. As the sound came again and a section of the wall started to shake, she realised what was happening.

The people on the other side were breaking the walls!

She looked back and noticed that too many people were still trying to get to safety. They were too close to the gates; they would be the first casualties if any wolves got past Micah and his guards. The children were screaming as they ran or were carried by the adults. Jackson had told her they shifted when they were around eighteen, so the children were in more danger without any defences.

The section of the wall came down, and a large, snarling wolf came through, and then another. They were almost like the one that had attacked her in the forest with the same look in their eyes, but they were well-kept and seemed bigger. Stronger. Harder to beat.

The screams behind her increased just as she heard a loud howl in the forest.

Jackson.

In pain.

It was too late. Someone was already hurting him, and he was still alone.

Something snapped inside her when she felt how much pain he was in. It was almost as if she was the one being attacked.

Her mind emptied as she pulled both knives out of her waistband and rushed towards the ruined wall. Her only thought was to get to him.

There were no shadows to hide behind this time, but she felt no fear as she launched at a wolf that had made it past Micah and his men. She’d slit its throat and was onto the next one before she realised it.

Jackson. Pain. Her mind felt broken as she completely gave her trust to the wolf inside her, carving her way through the enemy in desperation.

She had made it out of the hole in the wall using her knives, her limbs, her teeth. Using all the dirty fighting methods she knew. She was on a wolf’s back with her teeth sunk in his neck when there was a change in the air. Something rippled over her skin and made her tense moments before all the wolves outside the wall started to whine and yelp.

She jumped off the wolf and started to back off.

And then, all of a sudden, the wolves started to writhe on the ground, and their sizes reduced. Their fur began to disappear until all that was left was their naked human form.

So many of them, all along the walls and in the forest. They’d all come to kill them.

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