Page 16 of The Alpha King's Fate

Everyone in the lobby tried to avoid him as if he was diseased. He showed everyone that he was from the other side of the tracks, the side that all the clientele would turn their noses at. And they could see that mess from six different angles. The cameras in the lobby captured every humiliating detail.

She’d looked away at that part and hadn’t pushed Jax’s hand away when he put it over hers to comfort her. There was a bigger issue to worry about now than how she felt about her mate interfering with her tumultuous relationship with Gerald.

Once security personnel took Gerald to the back, Jax slowed the video down so they could look at every face in the lobby.

“We’re looking for two, maybe three,” Jax explained. “Since we can’t sense them from the video, read their body language. They tend to be rigid even when not on duty. Shaved heads—”

“I remember.”

How could anyone who ever met a Hunter forget what they looked like?

But the longer she looked, the harder it was to tell. What if the Hunter was a woman? Did they keep their hair short, as well? Or, like in the military, they put their hair in sensible styles that wouldn’t get in their way?

Jax sped the footage up, and hours after security detained Gerald, she saw herself bursting through the doors coming out of the staff area. Her head was lowered when she took a few steps and stopped.

“I... did you see anyone?”

Jax rewound the footage to moments before they came out and enlarged the first of the screens. The camera pointed to thefront door. The lobby was a little busy as some people checked in and others headed to the restaurant for lunch, but she saw no one suspicious. Jax moved to the next screen, and once again, she only saw the people sitting in the sitting area in the lobby.

“Could they be wearing disguises?” she asked out loud.

“No. Hunters are set in their ways. They'll be in a standard dress code if they’re working or taking a break there. Like the human military.”

There was no one suspicious on the second screen, either.

She sucked in a breath on the third screen when she saw a young man speaking on his phone and smiling as he stood by the elevators. His hair was shaved close to his head, and he had a muscular build, but he was wearing smart-casual clothes: a button-down shirt and a pair of dark jeans or trousers.

The elevator doors opened, and another man came out, smiling at him. And like the first guy, he’d shaved his head and was muscular. Both men put their phones away and embraced before walking out of the shot.

Jax paused that screen before he played the angle from the staff doors again. The two men walked past just before she came out of the doors.

They hadn't even looked at her.

The weight on her shoulders lifted as she breathed and sat back.

Jax played the scene from another angle, and they watched the two men heading toward the restaurant. They watched themselves head out of the hotel, and the two men didn’t come out of the restaurant to follow them.

"A date?" she asked.

Jax stopped the video and sat back.

"I didn't think they were allowed any relationships," he said with a thoughtful frown.

“They must be allowed to. You said they’ve been born that way over the years, so they must procreate.”

She found it hard to imagine anything so evil could feel something other than hate for another human being.

She felt all the tension leaving Jax’s body as he sat back and looked at her.

“A date. I almost had a heart attack over a fucking date,” Jax said, and then his lips curled up before he burst into laughter.

It had been so long since she heard that sound from him that she watched him for a moment. And then the laughter bubbled up inside her, too.

There was nothing funny about the fear she’d had. Nothing funny about the thoughts of leaving Jackson and Hope so she could live as her mother did. But finding out that she had worried for nothing was such a relief, so much so she couldn’t help the hysterical, cathartic laughter.

She was still laughing when Jax pulled her to him until she straddled his lap.

Still laughing when he started to rain little kisses on her face.

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