Page 11 of The Alpha King's Fate

How could he not? They had no idea what this meant. She’d felt the bonds being ripped from him, but what if that meant she could feel all the pain inflicted on him the same way?

When he finally parked the car in the underground parking lot, he turned to face his mate.

“I can help your father if you want me to,” he offered. “I can take over his finances and help him get clean. Then you won’t have to worry about him—”

“I’m not worried about him. That man is dead to me,” Layla said. “Thank you for the offer, but save your generosity for someone who’ll appreciate it. I’m just here to make sure he understands what I will do to him if he comes near Brit again.”

Layla left him no room to argue as she got out of the car. A year ago, he would have worried that all of that anger she was holding inside her would bring her wolf to the surface and expose them all. But his mate looked outwardly calm as she walked to the elevators.

He was impressed with her control, but the hard edges around her were a bit worrying. Had he changed Layla so much that she appeared just as ruthless as his beast?

Chapter 6

Layla was fuming when Jax led her through the doors to the hotel's security centre.

Gerald Carlisle said and did many things that would forever be engraved in her heart and mind, but their last argument kept ringing through her head. It was funny. She hadn’t seen or spoken to her father since the night Costas took them, but she remembered it like it was yesterday.

‘You’re going to have to think of your sister. I’m going to give him what he wants.’

‘I’m going to give him you.’

‘You’re a high school dropout. Scrubbing rich people’s toilets is all you’ll ever do.’

‘You look just like your mother; I’m sure you’ll make more money on your back.’

He’d cut her up with his words. How could a father ever think that about his child? How could he think that was in any way okay?

She clenched and unclenched her fists to control her anger as a man met them at the door and bowed his head in greeting. She’d forgotten about the hotel rules. When she’d worked there, she thought her employer thought himself superior to his employees, but now she knew it was just to avoid confrontation with werewolf guests. Sometimes a wolf could take certain looks as a challenge.

Mr Ambrose led them to another set of doors to a room with four doors, two on each side. She never had the clearance to enter any security rooms, so she was surprised to see a room set up like a jail. He unlocked one of the rooms and opened it before standing aside. Immediately, the stench of alcohol and filth filled her nose.

Jax stood aside, too, and what she saw made her angrier.

Gerald was curled up on the floor, lying in his vomit and other bodily fluids. He was covered in dirt and grime as if he was homeless, and his brunette hair was longer, more tangled and matted than she remembered. His t-shirt was torn, and his sweatpants lowered so she could see part of his ass. Real classy.

“He’s taken my girl... Bring her back to me,” Gerald mumbled.

This was where she had come from. She was the fruit of this man’s loin. Shame filled her as she looked back at her mate. What would he think of her? First, she’d introduced a mother who’d abandoned her and now a father covered in piss.

“Where’s Britney,” Gerald mumbled again.

Not ‘Where’s Layla?’. She had never been important to Gerald despite being the one who’d taken care of him.

Gerald rolled to face the door, and his eyes widened when he saw her standing there. Her father gasped and sat up.

“Rebecca?” he whispered.

Right. That was the other reason Gerald stopped caring about her. She looked just like the woman who walked out on them, more so now that she'd visibly changed because of her wolf.

“Becca, is that you? Have you come back to me?”

“It’s Layla. I doubt Rebecca would come anywhere near you right now.”

Her father’s disappointment was crushing, but the man stood and quickly came forward. She stepped back before he could touch her, and Jackson moved quickly to block him. Gerald stopped, and his hazel eyes narrowed on Jackson.

“Where’s Britney? Where’s my little girl?”

She took a deep breath to calm the anger that threatened to spill over before she stepped around Jackson.

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