Page 119 of The Alpha King's Fate

He looked back at all the wolves who pledged to follow him to their deaths. The Night Walkers blended so well in the shadows that it was hard to see them, even with his superior vision. And all of them painted their faces and bodies, covering their scents in case the Hunters used their hounds.

They were warriors. Bred for this very purpose.

“It’s time to go hunting,” he whispered.

Chapter 53

Layla sat on the edge of the filthy mattress on the floor, staring at the blank wall.

There was no TV or a comfortable bed, and they hadn’t provided another meal. The only thing they gave her was a new gown. The Commander liked mind games. Her people were stuck in their cages, cursing her for what they thought she did, losing their trust in their Queen. They thought she was living in luxury while they suffered.

She hadn’t been able to mindlink Faith or Rebecca, but she could sense their emotions, even from the basement.

The Commander never had any intention of treating her like a person. He was trying to alienate her to continue using her for his sick project. Motherfucker.

Her fists clenched for so long that they were numb. But she wouldn’t make the mistake of moving too soon again.

The sound of wheels rolling on the concrete floor shifted her attention to the door. They kept the overly bright lights on in the small room, so she still couldn’t tell what time it was, but the scent of the food on the trolley told her it was breakfast time. Someone was having bacon, sausages, eggs and toast, so it definitely wasn’t for her. The food was for the Hunters.

They surrounded her. The base was more extensive than she first imagined because they took her down several flights of stairs, past several rooms occupied by Hunters. They’d looked like sleeping quarters for the guards responsible for guarding the wolves that ended up down there. She’d caught the scent of at least two other wolves in the rooms next to hers.

The only good thing about the room was that she could stand at full height and stretch her legs. Other than that, it was a more dangerous prison than the cage she first occupied.

The room was a vault with the same gas contraption on the ceiling. The door was silver, but even though she could touch it, it was a thick, heavy one that could only be opened electronically by the authorised guard’s fingerprints. Her special guard. The one who ran his mouth in the warehouse only took her as far as the stairs, where he’d handed her to a team of other Hunters. She could sense four of them standing outside her door as they had since locking her in. They hadn’t moved, even for a toilet break.

The trolley wheeled past her door without stopping, and frustration bubbled up inside her. They were taking too long. Her body ached from trying to hold everything in, and her skin itched from the tension.

Her gaze returned to the wall and then lowered to the bucket in the corner. As if she could use it, even if she wanted to. There were cameras on all four corners of the room. The red lights on them blinked since they locked her up. She didn’t dare look directly at them in case her eyes were glowing. Her emotions were unstable, and she'd felt her wolf for the past couple of hours. Felt the beast in all its murderous glory.

Diedre told her she just needed to trust herself and her wolf. There was nothing to lose now. She was stewing in powerful emotions that almost overwhelmed her, but for a change, she couldn’t tell which belonged to the wolf. They felt the same. She also wanted to see the Hunters’ blood—to rip them apart.

The scene that excited her wolf when she walked in on the carnage Jax caused at the Circle’s trial played in her head on a loop. That would be the Commander’s future, even if she endured more crap to get to him. She would wait.

The trolley rolled back the way it came, past her guards and towards the elevator at the end of the hall. Maybe they would get her after breakfast. The Commander was eager for his plan to work; he’d probably have several other Hunters for her to bite.

And she would. She would bite the crap out of them.

‘Are you going to listen to me now?’

The voice wasn’t as jarring as the first time in the warehouse.

‘It depends. Are you going to just do things without telling me?’

Or just disappear after dropping her in shit? How could she listen to something so unreliable?

‘Unreliable? Really? Who is it who keeps getting you out of trouble?’

And it still listened to her thoughts without permission.

‘It? You still have no idea what you are, do you? You think I’m a monster and have no place in your world. But you seem to forget one thing. I’m you. There is no separation. My thoughts,my actions, everything is all you. You need to realise that quickly before you get everybody killed.’

The voice disappeared, leaving a hollow feeling as the wolf cut her off again.

Before she could react, the sound of a keypad at the door drew her attention back to her situation. The door whirred and swung open, and a Hunter with a full arsenal strapped on his body stepped in. He ducked as he stepped past the threshold and straightened to his full height when he stood before her.

He was the tallest one she had seen, and his features were just as off as the guards who’d stood outside her door all night. It made her wonder when exactly the Commander started his experiments. Had they found a way to enhance themselves even more?

‘Get up,’ he growled.

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