Chapter 19 - Zander

He couldn't just sit still and wait for whatever was happening at the far end of the lawn, and so Zander paced up and down the porch. Jack and the others took up defensive spots all over the place, leaning against the house or on the railing, standing on the stairs while Christian's men remained on the lawn, awaiting their alpha.

It took all Zander had in him not to pick a fight with them again after what they'd done to Layla that night, but right then, his senses were all fixed on her, trying to listen to whatever the hell they were talking about. It was next to impossible. They were standing too far away, and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, carrying their voices away from him.

When he saw Christian put hands on Layla, his hackles rose once more. He would have charged all the way down there and ripped his arms right off his torso if it weren't for Jack and the others, who warned him to let his mate do what she needed to do.

"She asked you to trust her, remember?" Jack told him, and Zander's hackles only rose further.

"If it were Bonnie down there, would you just be waiting around up here?" Zander snapped at him. Jack laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"No, but you would be standing in front of me just as I am in front of you right now, ordering you to keep a level head on your shoulders. If he harms her in any way, I'll help you tear him apart myself."

By then, it would be too late. Zander was about to say so when he heard Christian barking for his little dogs to come running.

Turning, prepared to fight, Zander was surprised to see Layla walking back up toward the house as Christian's men rushed right past her. Whatever had been said, it had worked; Christian and his men were headed for town.

"Remember, Zander, go easy on her," Jack warned him before he stepped out of the way. Zander rushed down the porch steps to meet Layla.

The second he reached her, he saw just how badly she was trembling. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

Layla shook her head and reached out for him in a way that made his heart swell. "Please, just take me home."

There was nothing he wanted to do more, and so he scooped Layla up into his arms. "I've got you."

There was just one thing he needed to do first, so he walked back up to the manor where his friends were all still standing.

"Jack, tell me you aren't taking this lightly," he growled at his alpha, meeting his gaze unflinchingly. "We need hawk eyes on those guys until they're gone."

"You have my word they'll be watched," Jack assured him before he inclined his head to Layla. "Now get her home. She's exhausted."

Jack was right. Layla hadn't even attempted to protest when he had picked her up, and her head now rested on his shoulder, her eyes closed as if she were totally unaware of anyone else's presence.

"Call me if anything happens," Zander said. "I mean it. Call me."

Jack nodded, a look of understanding in his eye.

"You keep your wits about you, too," Jack warned. "I'll send one of the guys to keep an eye on the house."

"No, don't. Send them all to keep watch on the B and B. I've got the house covered," Zander said, shaking his head. If a single one of Christian's men set foot anywhere near their home, he'd rip their head clean off their shoulders.

Zander didn't bother to ask Layla what she wanted when they got home. Instead, he carried her straight up the stairs to bed. And she didn't offer up a single protest until he began to unlace her boots.

"I…I can do that," she said, yawning. She had been doing an awful lot of that lately. Carrying his child was clearly exhausting her, even if she was glowing with pregnancy.

"I've got it. You just relax," Zander insisted, and she huffed as she threw herself back against the mountain of pillows she insisted on decorating the bed with. "What did he say?"

He shouldn't have asked, but he couldn't stop the words from leaving his lips.

Layla laid her arm over her face and growled, "I don't want to talk about it."

Zander gritted his teeth and placed her boots under the bed, kicking off his own before slipping onto the mattress beside her. "Okay."

Pulling her into his arms, he nuzzled his face into her throat and kissed her. "What can I do to make you feel better?"

"Just hold me?" Layla suggested, and Zander smiled. He could certainly do that. But not knowing what had happened between her and Christian was killing him.

He was only able to hold his silence for a few minutes before he asked, "What can you tell me about him?"

Layla stiffened. "Who?"

"Christian."

The name was like acid on Zander's tongue.

"I'm not sure you really want to know."

Layla burrowed into his chest, hiding her face, but Zander pulled her back and looked her in the eye. "I need to know. You might have information we don't."

Layla's eyes sparked. Clearly, she did.

"Layla, you told me to trust you," he pointed out, biting the inside of his lip. "How can I, if you won't trust me too?"

At that, Layla sat up and pulled her knees into her chest, her stomach not yet big enough to stop her from wrapping her arms around her legs.

"I hate talking about him," she said, and the way she quivered made Zander angry. Whatever this man had done to her, it was bad.

He rested his hand on her lower back and said softly, "I wouldn't ask if it weren't important."

"He was an asshole, plain and simple," Layla said, and Zander feared that was all he was going to get. Then she continued, "He used to be a member of the pack long before you guys came to town, but he was overconfident and stupid and he challenged Karl at every turn until Karl saw a way to get rid of him without upsetting the half of the pack that might have actually sided with Christian."

"What happened?" Zander asked, his chest tightening at the emotion in Layla's voice.

"There, um…there was an incident, a murder, and whether he did it or not, Karl pinned it on Christian and turned the entire pack against him. He was exiled for it, but Christian never gives up on what he wants, and just before you guys came to town, he was trying to worm his way back in."

Zander could see the pain it was causing for her to talk about it, and he was about to tell her he"d heard enough when she continued, "He and I dated a long time ago. He was always an asshole, but he was also a charmer. And he was…obsessed with me. I was weak and stupid, and well, this pack wasn't exactly the kind that fights against dominant males getting what they want no matter the cost."

Zander felt sick. He wanted to tell her to stop, but he could see from the way her shoulders were starting to slope that she needed to release it, she needed to tell him the truth even if she didn't know it.

"He belittled me and tormented me and…and laid hands on me more than once and…and when you came to town with your, well—"

"Shit!" Zander exclaimed, cutting her off. Anger boiled in his stomach. Not at Layla or even at Christian, but at himself. He sat up and pulled her into his arms. Gripping her chin, he turned her face to his and looked her in the eye as he said, "I'm sorry, if I had known, I never would have—"

Layla cut him off then with a kiss. It was soft and lingering and it made Zander's heart race.

"Don't apologize," she whispered against his lips, her breath sweet. "You couldn't have known, and besides, who knows? If we hadn't hated each other so much when all of this began, we might not be where we are now."

It was an odd thing to think, but just as oddly, it kind of made sense. If she hadn't been so frustrating to him in the beginning, he might never have taken the time to even look at her.

"Strange, isn't it?" Layla asked, smiling up at him. "How far we've come."

Zander returned her smile, nodding and running his nose over hers.

"It certainly is," he said as he held her and kissed her firmly. She kissed him back with a pressure that told him exactly what she wanted.

With the emotions of the day all coming to a head, Zander couldn't resist.

Even as his hands snaked under her dress, he whispered, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," she breathed against his lips, kissing him again. "I need you, Zander. I need you to wash away everything else."

Zander was all too happy to oblige. He would do it as many times as it took to make her feel whatever she needed. Whether she wanted to be numb, sated or merely loved, he would give it all to her.

Delicately, he pulled off her dress and dropped it on the floor by the bed, trailing kisses all over her body as he pulled off her panties.

Her fingertips tickled his lower abdomen as she pulled at the hem of his t-shirt, helping him to tug it off with one hand hooked in the back of the collar. He shivered at the simplest of her touches and yanked off his belt quickly. He needed to feel more.

When she cupped his face in her hands and pulled him down on top of her, lying on her back, Zander struggled to slip out of his jeans and lie atop her.

Holding himself up on his elbows, he cupped her face in his own hands and kissed her, feeling the warmth and feminine fragility of her body beneath his own.

Her hands trailed from his head, over his shoulders and down his back, her fingertips tickling him all the while until he was so sensitive, his cock so hard, that it was painful.

He needed to be inside her. And when she wrapped her legs around his waist, her hands coming to cup his buttocks to pull him into her, he knew she felt the very same way.

He entered her slowly, filling her up in a way that made her breathe out a long and pleasurable sigh.

Again, her hands came to his face, and she kissed him, her lips still brushing his as she looked him in the eye and whispered, "Make love to me."

Zander's body quivered with need as he began to do just that. His thrusts were slow and deep, sensual and needy. He offered her everything he had, their lips twined just as the rest of their body parts were.

Soon, it was impossible to tell where he ended and she began. Lost in a haze of intimacy and pleasure, Zander realized nothing had ever felt like this before. And he wasn't ready to lose the sensation. He slowed even more, his fingers hooked in Layla's hair, holding her head in place as he kissed her lips, her throat, her breasts.

She arched her back like a cat, angling her pelvis back and forth, thrusting to him as much as he was to her. Their panting became one. Their bodies became one. Their wolves became one.

Everything around them simply melted away as Zander lost himself in his mate, hoping she felt everything that he was feeling.

Angry sex in the forest had been wonderful. Surprise sex in the bathroom had been glorious. But this, this was utterly breathtaking, a reconciliation like none before it. And Zander felt as if he truly were washing away everything that had come before, because nothing could ever compare to being with his mate.

The way her body responded to his, how she moaned and writhed beneath him in pleasure, the way her sex squeezed around his cock when she climaxed, it was something he would hold dear forever.

"That's it, baby," he whispered in her ear. "I've got you."

They made such sweet love that Zander couldn't blame her when he saw a tear roll down Layla's cheek. His own eyes welled up so violently that it was hard to hold back tears. Nothing had ever felt as powerful as this, and as he came, he couldn't help but growl, "Fuck, Layla, I love you."