Chapter 2 - Layla

Breathing the familiar scent of her pine forest home, Layla sighed with relief. Though she enjoyed her job as a messenger between the packs in their little corner of the world, this latest trip to Blackwell Falls had been the longest she had ever taken.

It was still a miracle to her that wolves liked to do things the old-fashioned way when it came to passing on important information, but as her mentor had told her often, the general population of the world had no idea that supernaturals existed, and it was best to keep it that way. Sometimes it didn't matter how careful you were when it came to technology; someone could always be listening.

Besides, before Karl Ryker's untimely yet highly justified death, it had given Layla a chance to get away for a few days at a time. From him, from his cronies and from her-then boyfriend. Now, it was an excuse to forget everything and her lack of an actual life and just get out to experience the world.

"If you love it here so much now, why are you always so eager to be the first messenger on the job?" Darwin asked, his voice a low grumble.

She was so intent on the scents around her, the sounds of the crickets and other small animals chirping and rustling in her ears, that she had almost forgotten she wasn't alone.

"You'll understand it one day," Layla insisted, keeping her eyes closed just a little longer. This was always her favorite part of her return, reacclimating with all the wonderful nature that Nightstar had to offer.

It was so quiet, so peaceful, not at all like the bustling cities and larger towns she was sent to on a monthly, sometimes even weekly, basis.

Packs didn't often cross borders. They preferred to keep their territories private. But one thing could be agreed between them all—if they didn't at least communicate a little to keep each other up-to-date on certain matters, they would all one day be sitting ducks for the humans.

Sure, werewolves were ten times stronger and faster than them, and there were other supernaturals besides, but humans outnumbered them all by more than ten to one, and that number grew yearly.

One could argue that the job she, Darwin, and a handful of other wolves across the world did was one of the most important.

And that made Layla feel special, too, even if Darwin didn't quite see it that way. He'd understand one day, when he was older, she was sure. She'd taken her distant cousin under her wing the moment she had learned of his appointment, but she had yet to mold him into a proper messenger.

Real messengers loved their work—the travel, the social aspects, the freedom and getting to be a lone wolf for half of your life.

Darwin clearly hadn't seen the beauty in all of that just yet.

"I'm sure," Darwin scoffed, though his tone suggested that he didn't quite agree. "What was so important that you had to high tail it to BWF at the drop of a hat, anyway?"

Layla didn't answer. She stopped dead in her tracks, ears strained to listen.

Something just beyond hearing had caught her attention. As she listened, it grew closer, getting easier to hear. "Shhh!"

She placed her index finger over her lips and looked Darwin hard in the eye, warning him not to argue as he so often did. Young, weak and inexperienced as he was, he had a tendency to get himself into all kinds of trouble. It was incredible to her he hadn't gotten himself killed just yet.

But for once, Darwin actually listened to her, and it was clear from the look on his paled face that he had heard it, too.

"Are we being followed?" he mouthed, and Layla gave a curt nod, gesturing for him to follow her quietly.

She had been looking forward to making it back to Nightstar in time for the monthly full moon bonfire. Nothing was about to spoil that, so she quickened her pace, hoping Darwin would have the good sense to keep up.

The wind was blowing back toward their pursuer, making it impossible for her to even attempt to make an identification on scent alone.

She cringed. Who was sneaking about out here in the dark? By now, ninety percent of the pack would already be at the top of the hill. And besides, there weren't many who would try to sneak up on them for the fun of it.

"What if it's one of Karl's men?" Darwin hissed, and Layla hushed him quickly. Whoever it was, she didn't want them to hear his questioning. Nothing was worse in this kind of situation than not knowing the enemy you were up against. It wouldn't be the first time she had been targeted.

As a messenger, she often had a target on her back. She knew the drill well enough. Get somewhere better suited for a fight or manage to outrun them altogether. Even better, draw them into the place you knew that your entire pack was gathering and let them have at it.

Jack and his army guys would have a field day. She was sure that half the time they were so bull-headed and annoying because they'd been too long away from the action. They were like that, just as many army guys she'd been around were, but they were generally a walk in the park compared to the guys Karl had allowed into the pack.

Guys like Christian, her now-ex, who had disappeared without a trace when Karl's cronies and supporters fled after Jack's takeover.

Until she'd learned he had set up his own pack further west, that was. She hadn't heard from him directly, only through her fellow messengers, and luckily no route had been set up between his new pack and theirs.

But still, the thought crossed her mind. What if he has come back to cause trouble?

It would be just like him. And if it was him, she quickly decided, she wanted to be the first to have her go at him.

She was just about to turn and face him when she realized he wasn't behind them any longer. Her thoughts had distracted her, and hell, he moved fast.

Before she could stop, she smacked up against something that felt like a damned brick wall.

Stumbling backwards, she was only saved by outstretched arms.

"Get off me! Get your filthy hands off me!" she screamed the words instinctively.

"Well, hell, darlin'," said an all-too-familiar voice. "No need to get your panties in a bunch."

Zander! Growling low in her throat as she steadied herself, she glowered at the new beta of the pack. The scent of him wrapped around her, resisting the tightening of her throat. Why did he have to smell so good when she was so furious with him?

"What the hell? Are you trying to get yourself killed, Zander?" Layla demanded when her throat eased a little. Darwin remained behind her, more than a little awkward. He stared down at the floor, clearly too scared to look the beta in the eye. But Layla did just that.

And oh, those eyes, deep and blue like the ocean…

Get a grip, Layla!

He was just as handsome as any other member of the Nightstar pack, there was no need to go losing her head over him, especially when he was Zander Mallox, the beta whose reputation for being a player was known amongst practically every pack in a three-hundred-mile radius.

Not to mention the fact he was a bully—a charming one, at that, but a bully nonetheless.

Especially when it came to her. She seemed to have a special target on her back. She told herself it was simply because he was the new beta and she the best-known messenger in the pack. Their paths crossed more often than not, most of Jack's messages coming from him—that was, whenever he wasn't swanning off to gods knew where.

"Killed? By you and him?" Zander asked, inclining his head to Darwin without so much as glancing in his direction. Layla felt sorry for the omega. He was so low in the pack he was practically invisible.

And yet, here Layla was, feeling as if she were the only person in the world as Zander stared down at her, his blue eyes blazing cold teasing fire at her.

She knew all too well what was coming.

"Don't make me laugh, darlin'," he said in his usual drawling tone that made Layla quiver as much as it made her cringe. "It's been a while, and you might crack me up."

"We thought you were an enemy, sneaking up on us like that!" Layla insisted, her hands tightening to fists at her sides. "I was just about to turn and tear you a new one."

Zander didn't so much as blink as he seductively closed the distance between them in a single, languid step. Layla had to crane her neck to meet his gaze as his chest almost touched her chin.

"If I was an enemy, darlin', you'd be dead already," he said, his voice low, little more than a breath that caressed her face and made her suck in a breath of her own. "For a messenger, your survival skills are severely lacking, Layla. Maybe you could do with a few lessons?"

"From you? Not a chance," Layla growled back at him. She forced herself away from him, all too uncomfortable in his presence. No matter how she tried to stay away from him, he always seemed to find her. "I heard you coming a mile off and scented you just as fast."

That wasn't entirely true, but he didn't need to know that. Nor did he need to know that the mere scent of him now was driving her wild. It frustrated her to no end. This was Zander Mallox, the cocky, good-for-nothing beta of the pack who teased and tormented and flattered his way into the pants of any she-wolf who took his fancy.

Since he and the others had arrived in Nightstar and dispensed of their former alpha, they'd all had more than their fair share of women. And by the smell of him now, it hadn't been long since attempting another conquest.

She wasn't sure what annoyed her more, the fact she actually found him frustratingly attractive, or that he had just come from the arms of another woman to taunt her.

"If that was true," Zander said, and his tone suggested he might close the distance between them again; he didn't, and Layla was almost disappointed. "Then how did I get ahead of you?"

"I…umm…" Shit! He had her there. And she wasn't sure how she could one-up him on that.

"She was busy worrying about me," Darwin put in. Out of the corner of her eye, Layla saw him raise his head for just a moment. He gulped and lowered his gaze once more, clearly uncomfortable with having spoken out. Layla was grateful to him.

"What was I supposed to do? Lead an enemy right into the heart of the pack with all of the children around?" she demanded. "I'm not a fool."

She blushed. She had, in fact, been considering leading him right there so that Jack and the others could take care of it quickly.

With a pack of army veterans around, it wasn't worth risking Darwin's life—or her own, for that matter.

Zander crossed his own arms then and cocked his head. He regarded her silently for some time. Her heart thundered at the way his deep blue eyes examined her. It was almost as if he were physically touching her, and it did all kinds of strange things to her body—things she would rather not admit.

"You could have fooled me. What were you doing so far out here, anyway? It's not safe."

Layla bit back the urge to snap his head off. Yes, he was an annoying pain in the ass, and yes, he deserved it, but he was the pack beta, and though she was a messenger, she was also too low in the pack to push her luck.

"We're on pack territory. We're safe," she argued. "Darwin was meeting me at the border. I just got back from Blackwell Falls."

Why she felt the need to tell him all of that, she wasn't sure. Her frustration was only growing the longer she remained in his presence.

"Besides, how could it not be safe if you are so big and bad, prowling out around here?" she asked, meaning to sound sarcastic, but when she saw the way his lips twitched upwards in a smile, she realized she had actually sounded more like she was giving a compliment.

"Well, I suppose you got me there," he conceded, shrugging and dropping his arms back to his sides. "But still, Karl's old followers might still be about."

"It's been months," Layla protested.

"Yeah, and they are still lurking out there."

"Oh, Zander, I didn't know you cared," Layla snarled back at him. "I can handle a few disgraced assholes."

Zander cocked a brow. He definitely didn't look convinced. "Maybe you should fight me sometime and we'll see just how you'd match up."

He glanced her up and down again before he added, "Somehow, I don't think you'd last all that long. You're a little too scrawny. I could pick you up and snap you in half in a millisecond."

He was talking about destroying her, kicking her ass, and yet it sounded entirely more erotic than threatening. The way it made her quiver was infuriating.

She tightened her hands into fists and dropped them to her sides, feeling as though she might actually be able to get one swing in before he was able to subdue her.

It was almost tempting. Her arms still tingled where he had gripped her to steady her after she ran into him.

"I'd like to see you try," she growled at him instead. Darwin gulped audibly, and Layla knew she was pushing the line. Zander would be well within his rights to show her who was boss.

Again, he closed the distance between them.

"She didn't mean that, Zander," Darwin said, his voice shaking. He took a step toward them, but Layla knew he was too young and inexperienced to be stupid enough to try and get between them.

Besides, the violent, erotic tension between the two of them was so thick, she wasn't sure he would be able to even if he tried.

"Be careful what you ask for, Lala," Zander rumbled low in his throat.

Lala? That was the last fucking straw. Nobody had called her that since she was a child.

She bared her teeth, ready to throw herself at him, about to dare him to accept her challenge, when the sound of footsteps alerted her to the arrival of someone else.

Bile filled her throat when she recognized the scent of the woman approaching. It was the same scent that still lingered on Zander, but it was thick and choking now.

Sandy Miller liked to wear far too much perfume. It was practically a crime for a werewolf, with their senses so heightened. How she could bear to smell herself like that was a mystery to Layla.

"Zander, come on, you've been gone so long!" she called from the trees, and Layla's stomach twisted. "Can't we just pick up where we left off? I'm fed up with you teasing me. I need more."

More? Layla felt sick. Why it bothered her that Zander had clearly been fucking her, she didn't know.

But when Sandy appeared at the edge of the clearing, her blonde hair golden even in the shadows, Layla felt the urge to rip her head off. She couldn"t have said why, but it took all her effort to control herself.

"Maybe instead of bugging me, you should get back to whatever fun you were having with her," Layla snarled, and she was shocked when she thought she saw a flash of hurt in Zander's eyes.

She blinked and it was gone.

"Maybe you're right," Zander growled back at her. "I can see I'm wasting my time here."

"Maybe if you weren't such a fool, you would have realized that before you tried to sneak up on us," Layla snapped at him. Again, she could have sworn she saw hurt darken his blue gaze, but before she could read too much into it, she grabbed hold of Darwin's wrist and said, "Come on, let's get out of here before all the good food is gone."

She practically yanked Darwin's arm out of its socket as she dragged him away. All the while, she could have sworn she felt Zander's gaze on her, but she didn't look back. She was scared of what she might do if she did.