Page 30 of The Alpha King's Fate

With a sigh, he turned and left the room. Every step he took away from Layla felt like he was creating a chasm between them that he would never be able to cross. Their bond was unique; it was meant to be unbreakable.

But it felt broken.

Layla didn’t meet him for dinner, and she didn’t sleep in their bed. She was only down the hall, but it felt like she was miles away.

When the sun started to rise, he got up from the sofa he spent all night on and started to pack a bag. He was still the King, so he had a job to do. He had people to find and a threat to eliminate.

Even if his heart felt like it had smashed into little pieces.

Chapter 14

Layla sat by the window all night as she used to when she first arrived at the packhouse. She’d locked the door from the inside even though she’d known Jackson wouldn’t come. It was her anger making her act out.

Jax wouldn’t hurt Britney. He’d gone out of his way to protect both of them before she knew what being a mate meant. But her emotions were unstable, and her wolf seemed to have pushed forward again. The threat around her felt so real that she probably would have fought Jax to protect Britney.

What kind of mate did that? How could she have stood there, ready to attack Jackson?

What was wrong with her wolf that it had been dormant since the shift, but now in the space of a few days, it acted out a few times? She trained for a year and tried to shift and speak to her wolf again, but everything failed. Why now?

There were no voices in her head. Nothing to indicate she was going to shift.

She knew she still had a wolf only because it enhanced her senses, and she was stronger than ever. She even healed faster after rough training sessions. If anything, that part of her had gone beyond her expectations.

She just didn’t know if she would ever shift again. If she would ever run with the pack.

Was that why Jackson said she was different? Because she had a defective wolf?

Would everyone she loved reject her?

She looked back at the bed and saw Britney sitting against her headboard, still holding her pillow like a shield. Her sister was dozing off as she had done all night and was still terrified. The best thing she could have done for Brit was to leave and let her calm down. Instead, she’d sat there without saying a word to her because she was too much of a chicken to go and speak to her mate.

Brit’s eyes closed, and she almost fell over until she startled awake and clutched her pillow again.

And when she looked over at her by the window, her fear returned.

What was she supposed to do? Her mother said Brit would be one of them, but what if she was wrong? They would never let Britney go when she knew their secrets. It was a rule the Circle enforced that she only escaped because she was the Alpha King’s mate.

“I want to go home,” Britney whispered.

“Then you shouldn’t have done this,” she snapped.

Britney flinched and lowered her gaze. It didn’t hurt her as much as it did in the beginning. She had become numb because of the constant ache in her heart throughout the night when she sensed all her sister’s emotions.

She’d wanted to scream that she was still the same person who’d raised her. She’d wanted to beg her sister to stop being terrified of her, but she’d been too angry. Now there was nothing. No pain, no anger. She’d pushed it all to the back of her mind where it couldn’t hurt her.

“Will you really kill me?” Britney asked.

Her mouth dropped.

“Are you fucking serious?” she hissed. “I chose you over my mate! I sat here all night with your ungrateful ass, and you still think I’d do that? This isn’t a game, Britney. If you thought I was in trouble, I don’t know why you didn’t think of a better plan than putting yourself right in the middle of it. Did you not see the men who were protecting you for the past couple of years? What about the luxury you lived in and having your college tuition paid for? You thought you could go against people who can do that for you armed with nothing but your wits? That was very stupid!”

“I’m only stupid because you haven’t told me anything,” Britney answered, still looking away.

She could relate to that. She would have done many things differently if Jax just told her what she was and what she was up against.

“You’re right. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that you lied to me. I kept things from you because I knew that your whole life would change once you were here. I was trying to protect you.”

That sounded familiar. It was what Jackson always said to her, and she hated that. Despite their differences, Britney hated that, too.

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