Page 27 of Pack Nightmare

She shakes her head. “No, he forbade us from speaking to Dom because he said he wasn’t truly the alpha. My mom was too afraid. So we didn’t really have anywhere else to go for help. But now… I mean, you’re here, you’re the alpha, and I thought… maybe you’d have a solution.”

And suddenly, I get it. This is what Roxanne meant, that the pack didn’t have trust in my uncle, so he couldn’t protect them. Not even from their own families.

“You bet I do,” I reply firmly. “I’m going straight over to your house and forbidding him from ever laying a hand on you or your mom again.”

“No, you can’t!” She pulls away, shaking her head with wide, terrified eyes. “I don’t know what he’ll do if he knows I told you.”

“What does it matter? He can’t disobey the alpha command, so you’ll be safe.”

“It’s more than that. They want you dead. My dad and his friends, they have been trying to come up with a way to take you out since you arrived. Their goal is to kill you before the eclipse, so you never fully claim the seat as alpha.”

“Don’t they understand that my blood is tied to a spell protecting this place?” I sigh, abruptly weary. “I don’t want to be alpha any more than they do, but I don’t have a choice, apparently. If a Harridan isn’t alpha, it breaks the contract or whatever with the earth magic and this will no longer be a magically protected place.” I think I’ve gotten the gist of it, even if I’ve left out some details.

“Well, that’s the thing; because of my dad’s bloodlines, combined with my mom’s, I’ve probably got the most second-most Harridan blood in the pack. They think that’s enough to keep the magic going.”

“Wait, so they’re still planning on trying to force you to be alpha?” My anger resurfaces. “And you told them you don’t want it?”

“My dad doesn’t care what I want. I think it’s always been about getting revenge on your mom. I’d bet he pounced on my mom so quickly after yours left because she had no fated and had so much Harridan blood. In fact… never mind. Just suffice it to say, I think this has been his plan for a long time.”

Her abrupt stop in the middle of a sentence gets my suspicion up. “Wait, what were you going to say?”

Amber fidgets with the sleeve of her sweater. “I don’t really know anything. It’s just a feeling I got.”

“I love feelings.”

She sighs, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “Okay. A couple years ago, my mom admitted to me she had a fated mate—I never knew growing up, I always assumed she was unfated—and he died just days after your mom left. Fell off a cliff while he was hiking with a bunch of friends.”

A sick feeling twists in my stomach. “And?”

Amber turns to me with wide eyes. “And something made me wonder if my dad had something to do with it,” she admits in a whisper. “He was one of the kids hiking. It seems awfully convenient that he was rejected and she lost her fated just a couple days later, doesn’t it? I grew up sort of believing they had their own kind of fated/unfated love story. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder.”

My heart is heavy for her. “I’m so sorry, Amber. I’m sorry that this has been your life. It’s not fair, and you don’t deserve it. Neither does your mom.” I pull her into a hug, and the dam breaks, hot tears leaking onto my shoulder as she cries. “I won’t go confront your dad just yet. But I’m going to figure out how to get you and your mom out of there, and soon. Okay?”

She nods into my shoulder, then sighs. “He just… can’t know I told you. After I failed to beat you in the alpha challenge, he was furious.”

Anger rises like a wild beast in my chest again, and I suddenly realize Landon was right. It feels like something is trying to claw its way out of my skin, but the casing is too tough for it to get through.

“I promise he won’t know,” I answer through my teeth. “Can you stay somewhere else? Like over at a friend’s house for a while? Maybe under the guise of a sleepover for the weekend?”

“I could probably,” Amber answers dubiously. She leans back, wiping her cheeks and gazing at me with pink, tear-filled eyes. “But then I’d be leaving my mom alone with him.”

“I understand. Well, do the best you can to avoid him, and I’ll get to work on a solution. But I promise I won’t do anything without talking to you first, okay?”

“Okay,” Amber sniffles. “Thank you, alpha.”

“Please, just call me Layla,” I reply with a smile. “We’re friends, right?”

“Okay, Layla,” she smiles back. “Friends.”

Chapter Fourteen

Layla

I get Amber sorted out and make sure she’s ready to her next class before I leave. Then, instead of heading for the library as I’d intended, my feet—for whatever reason—lead me to Derrek’s office.

Fortunately, he has office hours Friday afternoons before his last class of the week, and there’s not another student talking to him already.

He’s leaning over his desk, one hand toying with his curls while he reads. A light knock at his door gets his attention, and he looks up at me in surprise.

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