Page 13 of The Alpha King's Fate

What would she have done? Asked him to check on the man who’d sold her? The man she washed her hands of?

She walked out of the security rooms to the staff hallway and turned towards the lobby. A couple of cleaners pushed their carts toward the service elevators, but she didn’t lift her head to check if she knew them. She wasn’t in control of herself yet.

“Layla, can we talk about this?”

She pushed open the door into the hotel lobby and only took a few steps forward before she froze.

There was something in the air that didn’t feel right.

Something dark and twisted.

Something she hadn’t felt since she came face to face with the Hunters.

Jackson’s large hand slipped into hers, and he gently pulled her towards the elevator.

She could hear the way his heart started to pound in his chest. The same way her heart pounded. He didn’t let go of her hand until the elevator opened in the basement, and he led her to their car.

How did he drive away so calmly? How could he resist the urge to speed out of the parking lot and through every red traffic light?

The day she had been afraid of was here. The Hunters were back.

Chapter 7

Jax drove in the opposite direction to the packhouse, fighting the urge to put his foot down on the gas.

How had he not sensed them approaching the hotel? Or had they been there all along, but he was distracted by his worry about Layla and her dad?

Since Layla went out first, he couldn’t be sure if they saw her face or if her eyes were still glowing. Would the Hunters have sensed them? Masking himself became second nature to him, but Layla had been on the verge of losing control.

“What are we going to do?” Layla whispered.

“Nothing. We’ll go and lay low for a few days until they go. I sensed only a few of them; they might be passing through.”

Those words did nothing to ease his mate, and they didn’t ease his mind. Had he missed something? He’d been carefully watching the new employees at his hotel, but most of the ones he’d gotten rid of were still in town. He was still watching them, too. Still monitoring their calls and emails. But he was aware he couldn’t watch the whole city.

“The last time we thought they were just passing through, they brought a hunting party back.”

The fear he could feel in her coloured her voice.

“Everyone’s been laying low since they were last here; we don’t even come into town anymore. We’ve done nothing that could have brought them into town.”

“Or they figured out who I am because my mother’s picture is all over their bases.”

He couldn’t lie to her that it wasn’t a possibility. Hunters were the most tenacious bastards he knew. They would hunt their targets until they got them; Rebecca was a perfect example. She’d lived on the run, abandoning her husband and two little girls for their safety.

Would Layla do that to him?

He looked at his mate and saw all the colour drained from her face. She gnawed on her bottom lip, and her eyes flashed again.

“We’ll figure it out. We can lead them away again if it comes to it. We can hide anywhere in the world.”

Layla didn’t say anything back but took a deep breath and slowly started to mask herself. To hide the fears mirrored inside him.

Before marking her, he would have looked at her face and assumed she felt nothing. But now that he was a part of her, he could still sense those emotions she was trying to protect him from, the same way she felt his.

The last time the Hunters were in town, Layla thought of running away. If she thought for a second that leaving him was an option, she had to think again. He would always know where to find her.

Another thought occurred to him. The Hunters were so advanced in technology that they would also know how to find them. Why hadn’t he thought of that first? They already said too much out loud in the car.

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