Page 88 of The Alpha King's Fate

The screen lit up, allowing him to quickly log into the system. Ambrose had been useless, but there was somewhere else he could look for answers. Someone who knew exactly what the Hunters were doing and where they were heading. He should have thought of that when they took Faith, and maybe Layla would have been safe at home.

“We’ll be able to track all the trucks that left earlier. We just need more time—”

“More time for what? For the Hunters to torture her? To kill her?” he growled as he slammed his fist hard on the desk. A crack appeared on the polished surface. “Do you have any fucking idea what this is doing to me? She’s my life, Dylan!”

“I know she is,” Dylan said gently.

And then that air of resignation filled the room again—that sense of loss.

He growled as the unwanted emotions wrecked him, and looked over at Gavin, the source of all of it.

“I don’t even know why you’re here. You can’t help me. Go back to the pack, and maybe no one else will get taken on your watch.”

Gavin lowered his head immediately.

“That’s not fair, Jax. Your mate can command the Circle; Gavin didn’t stand a chance. I would have let her go, too, if I’d been at the gate.”

All true. But he wasn’t in the mood to be sensible or to spare anyone’s feelings.

“Just tell me what you remember about the Hunters that checked in for a date in the restaurant. When was it?” he snapped.

Dylan pulled his phone out without saying anything else, and after a few moments, he leaned over his shoulder to search through the files on the screen.

“They booked one room for the weekend. Paid in cash,” Dylan said when the information came up.

He pushed Dylan aside and looked through by himself. Anyone who stayed at his hotel provided an ID, even if they paid in cash. It wasn’t a cheap motel where people could hook up with whores or any such fuckery. If his instincts were right, they checked into the hotel secretly. He was positive relationships between Hunters were forbidden unless they were for procreation purposes. That ruled out their relationship immediately, or they wouldn’t have to go out to a different city. And they wouldn’t have been in civilian clothes.

A name and address came up in the town he’d just sent Layla’s father. Irvine Jones. It sounded like a fake name, and he was still a kid. But when he’d been that age, twenty-one, he’d already fought many battles and killed many enemies. Age was nothingwhen it came to Hunters. Those fuckers were taught to kill when they were still in diapers.

Pretty much what his father made them do when he’d been king.

“Follow the trucks that went north on the traffic cameras. And try to track down this kid, too. I need more information.”

Ambrose said to head north, and this Hunter kid lived in that direction. He pushed the chair back and stood, his attention already on the activity outside.

“Are you driving there?” Dylan asked.

“No.”

Like he could be patient enough to sit in a car for that long. He would head back through the forest the way he came.

“There are too many eyes on the hotel right now. I’ll drive you—”

“I need you to head back home. I need you alive. If anything happens to me... Stay alive for Hope.”

Pain lashed his heart at the thought of his beautiful little girl.

“Don’t say shit like that,” Dylan said. “I’m not saying don’t go, but you need me to watch your back. You need me, Jax.”

He looked back at his Beta, his only friend. Before Layla, they fought every battle together and trusted each other with their lives.

“I do need you,” he said.

Cain pushed himself back without being asked, and his body returned to normal. Sometimes the beast was more perceptive than he gave him credit for.

“I need you to raise my child if Layla and I don’t make it. You’re the only one I trust to do it, Dylan.”

“Stop it.”

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