Page 81 of The Alpha King's Fate

The gun shook in his hands as he stepped back. And his fear... His fear called on the darkness that lived inside him.

“They said they’d taken care of you!” Ambrose added, his voice rising as his panic set in.

He stepped forward, and Ambrose stumbled back.

“Stay back! I’ll shoot!” he shouted.

His face tightened. His jaws stretched as his teeth lengthened. Ambrose’s fear turned to terror, and the gun cluttered from his fingers.

“You and I are going to have a little chat, Mr Ambrose,” he growled.

Ambrose’s eyes widened, and he fell to his knees as he reached for the gun. It went off, knocking him back a step as a bullet lodged in his shoulder—silver, by the smell of it. Ambrose smiled as he aimed the gun again.

Someone spilt all the beans on werewolves. Was it another situation like Andrea, who’d been desperate to join the Hunters? Was there some sort of memo out there alerting humans of things they had no business knowing?

“In a few seconds, you’ll be in crippling pain. The poison has already started working into your organs. They’ll shut down slowly, and mine will be the last face you see,” Ambrose grinned.

He had big balls for a dead man.

Without responding to the bullshit, he dug his claws into the bullet wound until he grasped the bit of silver. When he pulled it out and held it up to inspect it, Ambrose lost his cockiness. His terror returned as he stepped back, firing again and again.

He didn’t feel the pain. No. There was a more significant pain inside him that couldn’t be matched. When Ambrose fired his last bullet, he’d backed himself against the wall. His Head of Security’s breathing was harsh as he kept pressing the trigger on the useless gun. His eyes went to his dead comrades and then back to him as if he was only just realising that he’d played a stupid game.

“As I said,” he growled, grabbing the human by the throat and lifting him. “You and I are going to have a little chat.”

Chapter 37

Layla winced at the loud jackhammering in her head as she rolled over. Something cold and hard dug into her back, making her more uncomfortable. Why was her body hurting so much? And what was that smell?

She slowly opened her eyes, only to close them again. The light above her was blinding, and it made the headache worse. Her limbs felt so heavy that she couldn’t lift her arm to cover her nose. It smelled like crap in the room.

‘Miss Layla?’

The voice in her head sounded louder than the pounding. Her eyes opened and widened as everything came back to her.

She’d been caught! And somehow, she could hear Faith’s voice.

She sat up slowly, wincing as her muscles refused to move like she’d been comatose for months. But once she was upright, she had to suck in a breath as she looked around her.

She was in a cage. A metal cage used for wild animals and not high enough for her to stand. There were several similar cages around her in the large, cold room that looked like a warehouse, and there were no windows. The only light in the room was the over-bright spotlights on the ceiling.

Did they even allow them to go outside? To see the sun? Being deprived of this was a wolf’s worst nightmare.

She put her hands on the bars and tried to shake some of the drowsiness from her head. Big mistake. Her head felt like someone sliced it in half instead. Everything was spinning and not making sense.

There were so many cages in the warehouse, some stacked on each other. All of them looked occupied.

So many people... So many wolves. A shiver went down her spine at the severity of the situation. What the hell were the Hunters doing to them? Why had they imprisoned and not killed them, as Jax told her they always did? And why did it smell so bad?

She looked down at her body and realised there were bruises on her arms and legs. Normally she healed before any bruises could form, and her head wouldn’t have hurt for that long. Her wrists and ankles had been rubbed raw by something— probably whatever they used to tie her. Someone had undressed her and put a white hospital gown on her.

They’d also put a tagging bracelet around her ankle like she was an animal.

‘Miss Layla, are you okay?’

She looked around again at the people in the other cages, looking for Faith. Though she caught her scent, it was very faint. Her head was too unfocused to allow her to pinpoint where she was.

Some people in the cages were lying down while others were sitting in the middle, hugging their knees. There were closed buckets in every cage. The smell hit her more when she realised what it was. She didn’t need to be a genius to know what the bucket in her cell was for. But there was another smell that she couldn’t pinpoint.

---