Page 77 of The Alpha King's Fate

Her steps quickened as if the wolf boosted her. She opened up her senses, seeking Jackson in the direction of the city. Though she was moving fast, her steps were light. It felt like running in the air.

Her fists clenched at her side as she fought to hold in the emotions threatening to break her apart. Jax was okay; thinking otherwise wasn’t an option. So she shoved those thoughts andfeelings to the back of her mind until only the wolf drove her. The anger. The confidence that she was doing the right thing.

She zoomed past trees and jumped over bushes and shrubs. The forest around her was quiet, like everything in it also sensed evil in the air. It was overbearing. Flashbacks of her run-in with the Hunters came back to her mind and Amber’s face as the light dimmed from her eyes. They were monsters. She couldn’t let Jax face them alone.

She was almost in the city when something snatched her feet and lifted her off the ground. And then a net of silver wrapped around her as she hung upside down.

What the...

She would have screamed, but the wolf’s emotions were still driving her. No fear. And that was stupid. She should have been terrified.

“See what I mean? Sometimes, the old ways are the best.”

The sound of that voice had her twisting in her silver prison, and a frisson of fear finally slipped through.

She was upside down but she would never forget that face. He came forward, still as cold and dark as she remembered from her nightmares.

“Hello, Catrina Smith,” he said with a smirk. “Or shall I say, Layla Carlisle?”

Chapter 35

Jax watched the metal jaws of the scrap processor as they crushed the car only for a moment before he placed a wad of notes in the attendant’s hand. The human grinned, counting his loot before he walked away.

The human never asked questions; he just took the money and went about his business. He hadn’t even blinked when he’d thrown his bloody clothes in one of the fire pits at the back of the yard. It made him shudder to think what else the human turned a blind eye to. Many of his cars ended up in the junkyard. It wasjust outside Wolfdale and surrounded by woodland. All he had to do was shift and run back home.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” the human said.

He nodded and looked around at the piled-up totalled cars around him. He’d been careful driving there but couldn’t be sure he hadn’t been followed. The Hunters were so different— what if they could track better? Heading directly to his territory wasn’t a good idea.

Gerald was hopefully well on his way to the next city, to another of his motels in a different getaway car, and the money in the go-bag would help him out for a while if he didn’t drink it all. Layla’s father sobered up quickly when he saw what they were up against. He only hoped he’d drilled it deep enough into that man’s head that he couldn’t speak about what he’d seen.

“I need to use your phone.”

Gerald took the last burner phone to call once he was safe. He hadn’t thought of calling Dylan to tell him he was okay while Gerald sped out of Wolfdale. He’d been more concerned with ensuring they lost the Hunters following them.

The man turned back and grinned.

“It will cost you,” he said.

“Of course.” He tried not to roll his eyes.

It was always greed that separated humans from everyone else. He took the last few notes in his pocket and handed them to the greasy human before he followed him to the office at the front of the yard.

Like the human who worked there, the office was disorganised and full of shit, but it was functional. An old phone sat on the desk, a dial-up one he hadn’t seen since he’d been a young boy. It was surrounded by discarded meals and rubbish. The stench alone would keep anyone else out of the room.

The whole pack memorised the secure phone numbers from when they were old enough to learn in case of any emergencies.He dialled it and wasn’t surprised when someone picked up straight away. It was almost sundown, and he’d left the packhouse early. They would all have been worried.

“Yes?”

“It’s me.”

He looked back at the human who was unashamedly eavesdropping on the conversation.

“Are you okay? Did you find them?”

He hadn’t looked for the scouts. Guilt plagued him the whole day about that. It would look like he chose Layla’s family over the scouts, but there was no way he could go back to the hotel when he knew how many Hunters were waiting for him.

“No. I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m coming home.”

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