Page 95 of The Alpha King's Fate

Too late, Faith. It’s already too late.

But she didn’t say that out loud as her eyes closed, exhaustion finally claiming her.

It felt like only seconds passed when her eyes opened again. Her mental escape had been too fleeting. She was stuck in a nightmare of her own making.

Had she left the first time she ran into the Hunters, would everyone else have remained safe? A part of her told her that the Commander would have chased her down anyway, that he would have imprisoned more wolves all over the world in his quest to find her. But she should have tried. She shouldn’t have just waited at the packhouse.

The training hadn’t done her any good anyway.

Guilt immediately ate her up. She couldn’t blame Jax for this. This was all her.

With a sigh, she pushed up onto her elbows. The pain was still the same as before she passed out. She bit her lip to stop crying out as she dragged herself to the small mat in the middle.

‘Miss Layla? How are you feeling?’

It was a relief to hear Faith’s voice. It meant they didn’t take her while she’d been unconscious. They didn’t torture or kill her.

‘I’ll be okay,’ she answered.

Her limbs were numb as she pulled herself into a sitting position. Her head felt more muddled; everything swam in her head, making it hard to grasp more than one thing at a time. They injected her with several substances while she was helpless. She dared to look down at her body when she was finally upright.

Her breath caught, and she looked away immediately.

She healed people before. She somehow healed the injured warriors and Diedre. She cured Jax’s curse. But now she couldn’t heal herself. She hadn’t even stopped bleeding, like the poor scout they took before her.

Was he starting to feel better?

Her gaze went to the cage across from her, but it was empty. Only his faint scent remained.

‘He’s gone,’ Faith said.

‘They took him again? But they’d already injured him!’

‘No. He didn’t make it through the night.’

Her shoulders slumped. That was the second person in hours, not counting those who looked dead in the cages.

‘Now that they have seen you once, they will leave you alone for a while. We just have to get through this until—’

‘Do you think Jax can save us from this?’ she asked.

‘Yes. Our King is the only one who can.’

She didn’t want to crush the girl’s spirit. Hope was all they had, and she sincerely hoped they could escape and see their loved ones again.

But it was time to face reality. Jax wouldn’t find them. It would be up to them to find a way to be reunited with their loved ones.

She turned her head to look up at the cage above Faith’s. Did the little girl have someone to return to? Or were her loved ones also in the cells?

‘She’s asleep. She stopped crying days ago.’

The metal doors scraped open again, and the smell of food drifted into the room. Wolves stirred and sat straighter in their cages.

‘We get one meal a day and one bottle of water. I think they lace it with something, but if you don’t eat, they’ll take you out, and we’ll never see you again.’

Was that how they were keeping down such powerful wolves? Using drugs and fear of the unknown?

The girl above Faith shuffled forward and put her little face between the bars again as she looked towards where the food was. Her curly locks were matted and dirt was smeared all over her face, but her brown eyes caught her the most. They were as dead as the Hunters’ eyes. There was nothing left inside the little girl.

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