Page 91 of The Alpha King's Curse: Part Two

“You can’t.”

She almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of that familiar voice. She rose to her feet and looked in the direction it had come from. And there stood Rebecca, naked as the day she had been born, actually speaking to her as if she had the right.

Her anger transferred from Jackson to Rebecca with ease, maybe because it was easier to fight with someone she was not attached to.

“Did you follow me?” she growled.

How long had that woman stood there and watched her fall apart?

“It’s dangerous out here. You should go back,” Rebecca said.

Standing face to face with her mother like that, she could see why her father had preferred Britney. It was like looking in the mirror. Did Wolves stop ageing after a while? Because Rebecca didn't look a day over thirty.

“I’ll go back when I’m ready,” she growled again.

“Why does Jackson want to take your baby?”

Her anger turned to rage. Just hearing her mother’s voice brought up all the emotions she’d had to deal with when her mother had disappeared. It didn't matter to her that Hunters had come so she’d had to leave them out of necessity. What mattered was that in all those years when she had come to her as a wolf and spoken to her, she hadn’t once come out and explained herself. She’d let her go through life feeling lonely and like a freak when just a few words would have saved her a lot of heartbreak.

“I don’t know what you and Jackson have been discussing but I don’t want anything from you,” she growled. “You were dead to me the moment you left us.”

Rebecca looked away and blinked away some tears.

“I know. And I understand. I just wanted to make sure you settled into your new life and you are safe before—”

“I don’t care what you want, Rebecca. I’ll figure things out on my own, just as I always have.”

“Okay, fair enough,” Rebecca said with a nod. “But there are people out there who want you dead, and I’d rather you stay close to the packhouse until Jackson returns.”

“It doesn’t matter. Once I leave, I’ll be of no use to them.”

Rebecca stilled, and then her eyes glowed. They looked identical to hers when she’d seen them in the hotel elevator.

“I said you can’t leave. You’re safest here.”

“And I said you can’t tell me what to do.”

She turned away from Rebecca and started walking back the way she had come. She would leave. It was what Jackson wanted, and now she would make sure it happened so she never saw that man again. Being with him but not with him hurt too much.

“I never meant to leave for good,” Rebecca said behind her. “I thought I would come back in a few days and lie that I’d had a family emergency. But the Hunters will always be after me, and I didn’t want this life for you. I live in the shadows. I move with the wind. I can’t put my roots down anywhere because the Hunters will cut them off.”

She felt a pang at those words. That was the life she was destined for because she would have to make sure Jackson never found her.

“You and Brit are still the greatest accomplishments of my life, and I will protect you while I still can,” Rebeccah added. “Even if you leave him.”

“Gee. Thanks,” she said sarcastically.

“I know that won’t make up for what I did. But it’s all I have to offer, Layla. And I’ll offer the same to Britney when she starts to go through it.”

She froze. ‘When’ Brit went through it? Jackson said there was no way to tell, that she would have to watch Brit and see what happened.

She turned back around to the woman who had given birth to them.

“What do you mean? Brit has been okay. She doesn’t see or hear things. She’s a normal girl.”

“She’s my child. She’ll be a wolf even though your father is human. Red wolves can never be half-bloods, just as Jackson’s child would never have been half-human.”

“She’s almost eighteen. I’ve been speaking to her; she’s fine.”

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