Page 79 of The Alpha King's Fate

A little hope shone through, pulling him from the depths of despair he had fallen into.

Cain didn’t waste any time. He followed the scent, noticing no trail on the leafy ground. No broken twigs of branches like what he left behind. Layla probably masked herself. She’d perhaps hidden herself as she did when the Circle’s assassin came into their room.

Why hadn’t he thought about that? His mate was special; her wolf took care of her even though she didn’t know how. She would have hidden in the shadows to avoid detection. She wouldn’t have mindlessly gone in to save him, especiallyconsidering her wolf had attacked him as if he were the enemy. Saving him was probably the last thing her wolf wanted to do.

But the closer they got to the edge of the forest, the more uneasy he became. Why did Layla go that far?

The scent stopped abruptly in a small clearing. It took him a moment to register what he was looking at. What he could smell in the air.

There were tracks on the ground that were noticeable only because Layla hadn’t left any traces before. And the land was disturbed in other places.

‘What...’

What the fuck happened? Where was she?

Cain sniffed around the clearing until he stopped at something else. Boot prints. Many footprints leading to the clearing and then away. And the scents... They were faint as if masked, too, but he knew that scent. He’d come face to face with it.

The dam he had been trying to hold back broke through as Cain let out a long, loud howl. He plunged head-first into the pit of despair, his limbs weakening as the raw emotions flayed him. Cain started to run again. And as the beast headed back into the city, following a trail that the Hunters didn’t bother to hide, his mind finally snapped. His beast’s urges merged with his own, and all the walls that stood between them shattered. The walls that separated man and beast.

The walls that kept him from burning the world to the ground.

They fucked with the wrong wolf.

Chapter 36

The tracks led Cain to the woods near the hotel. He didn’t stop to think as his beast crossed the road and stalked through the packed car park, bigger than any car parked there. Rage blinded him. There was nothing but red in his vision, nothing but bloodshed on his mind.

The sun had set, but anyone leaving the hotel would see him. Cain was too big to be mistaken for the wolves that roamed the forest. But none of that shit mattered anymore. They had his mate. They had Layla, and they would all pay for that.

He approached the hidden side door and sniffed again. The scent of dead Hunter's blood lingered in the air, but they had cleaned everything up. Before or after any human saw them, he couldn't be sure. Hunters were very good at hiding their activities and getting rid of witnesses. Humans would never know just by looking at the pavement that something happened there that morning. The lack of police vehicles suggested a cover-up by both the Hunters and his security team.

Cain’s growl rumbled through the quiet car park as he lifted his head and looked at the hotel. Traitors. Fucking traitors. He would deal with all of them, too, the second he got his mate back.

Even though the bond was intact, he couldn’t sense Layla anywhere near him. Like his bond with Faith and the scouts. They’d taken her inside but had already moved her. Still, he needed to go in and check. He had to find any clues about the direction the Hunters took. His team back at the packhouse could follow the Hunter trucks on the traffic cameras.

He shifted to open the hidden panel and walked in once the door opened. There were no other scents in the room, so they hadn’t yet found his secret access to the hotel. But they knew it was there; it was only a matter of time until they found everything. Confirming a werewolf hideout was a big thing for the Hunters. They’d be back to do the job properly. His guess was they’d left in a hurry after grabbing Layla.

Another growl ripped through him as he rushed to the stairs and headed down to the underground parking lot. The almost non-existent scent of the Hunters hit him the moment he opened the door, but he’d already known they were long gone. Their trucks were gone and nothing looked out of the ordinary. No other cars parked there as if they planned it that way with Ambrose.

Just thinking that name made him slam his palm against the security panel to shut the door again before he started goingback up the stairs, two at a time. Rage still held him, controlling his every thought as the urge to go hunting filled him.

And he would. He wouldn’t stop until Layla was beside him again.

The Hunters had superior reflexes, but Ambrose was just human. How could he even dare to fuck with him? Just because he put Ambrose in charge didn’t mean he handed over the key to his kingdom.

The door opened on the penthouse floor, and he immediately caught the human scents nearby. Familiar scents. They were people he hired himself after a thorough background check. Either they were curious about what the Hunters did or were in on it with Ambrose. He assumed they were in on it. He couldn’t take any chances when Layla’s life was on the line.

The moment he walked out into the hallway, the secret door closed behind him. Two human men were feeling along the wall near the elevators, obviously looking at all the blind spots for the hidden door.

“I don’t think there’s anything here,” one of them said, straightening as he looked at his colleague. “I think they were just trying to get us out of the way. They’re not even here, so why the fuck are we doing this? I was supposed to be home an hour ago.”

“We should just do what he told us to. Those assholes looked like bad news. Someone said it was some sort of military sting.”

“Bullshit. It was all dodgy as fuck. Something wasn’t right with them, but they weren’t military.”

“Well, Mr Ambrose said—”

The second man stopped speaking when he looked up and saw him standing in the middle of the hallway.

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