Page 26 of The Alpha King's Fate

“Again,” Jax growled.

This time she was sure it was anger that she felt.

She went for him before he was ready for her, but when her shoulder connected with his torso, he staggered back only a little before he flung her back across the field.

Was he teaching her or trying to make her feel more worthless? Like she couldn't even defend herself, so how would she protect her child or the pack?

Fury licked through her veins, and her eyesight sharpened even more. Jax cocked his head to the side when their gazes met across their battlefield, and his eyes flashed red. She pushed his emotions to the back of her mind and felt the fury feeding something inside her. He was no longer her mate but an enemy she had to beat. An obstacle to navigate to finally free herself of all her self-doubt. A challenge. And the wolf inside her didn’t like being challenged, it seemed.

She felt a surge in her body that she hadn’t felt since she attacked the witch, and the air shifted. For a second, she wasscared she would hurt him, but she knew that wasn’t possible. No matter how angry she was, Jax was still a part of her.

She went for him again. And again. He blocked her every time, and each time, she went at him harder. When she finally knocked Jax off his feet, she wanted to celebrate, but he was back on his feet in seconds, faster than she had ever seen him move. Was that what she was doing, too?

Maybe it was her wolf’s instincts, but it felt like they were mirroring each other somehow. She was on him again in a second, and this time when she knocked him off his feet, she picked his whole weight off the ground in a move that was always difficult when she practised it in her self-defence classes. She threw all the moves at him and landed more than he blocked.

She was starting to feel proud of herself when Jax went from the defensive to the offensive. And she realised he had been holding back the whole time. Of course, he had. He didn’t think she could do this either.

With that realisation, her wolf retreated to wherever it had hidden the past year, and she became aware of her surroundings. They somehow fought their way into the woods, and Jax pinned her against a tree trunk. She tapped against his arm, and he loosened his hold but didn’t let her go. His huge arms caged her in, his lips only a breath away from hers.

Even though he was messy and a little bloody, he wasn’t even breathless, as if everything she did to him didn’t affect him.

“Why are you giving up now?” he asked. His eyes returned to their beautiful ice-blue colour.

“I’m not. I’m just tired,” she lied.

“Layla,” he growled in warning.

“What? Do you expect to teach me everything in a day?” she snorted, pushing at his chest so there was a little distance between them.

“You were picking everything up quickly. If we just—”

“I’m tired,” she repeated.

Jax held her gaze, and she could tell she disappointed him. She’d disappointed herself.

“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours? What aren’t you telling me, Layla?” Jax mused, almost as if he was thinking out loud.

“Why are you assuming I’m hiding something? Usually, only the people guilty of that make those sorts of assumptions,” she retorted.

“It’s not an assumption if I can feel it, mate.”

She shook her head and pushed him further away until there was enough space between them for her to slip under his arms.

“I’m going to check on Brit before I shower and get ready for dinner.”

She heard the sigh behind her but kept walking. They came further into the woods than she thought.

“I’ll come with you. I know I promised we’d have a picnic, but—”

“No, stay here,” she said quickly. “You still have people to train, and I don’t think Brit is ready yet. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Layla.”

But she continued walking, keeping her mind off the clusterfuck she had created. She focused on nothing and cleared her mind the way she used to before Jax admitted how he felt about her. He’d called it masking. The last thing she wanted was for Jax to feel her panic.

It had been a day since Brit admitted she lied to her.

Her sister played on her emotions by pretending to go through everything she had seen a counsellor for when she was younger. She told everyone about the voices in her head until she learned that it was better to shut up. Brit must have spent a long time recalling the details of the past she tried to put behind her.

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