Chapter 20 - Layla

He loves me.

It was the first thing that Layla thought about when sleep lifted from her the next morning. Their lovemaking had lasted well into the night, and exhausted, they had collapsed in each other's arms.

But as she rolled over in bed now, she realized she was alone. She stiffened, sensing Zander standing by the end of the bed. His body was so stiff she could feel the tension through the air.

"Zander, what's the matter?" she asked, but he didn't respond. She sensed he was listening to something and reached out with her own ears to listen too.

That's when she heard it. The sounds of fighting coming from outside the house were blood-curdling.

"What is that?" Layla gasped, grabbing the bedsheets to cover herself. A million answers rushed through her mind, but all of them ended with Christian. She should have known he wasn't just going to up and leave.

"Stay here," Zander ordered, darting for the door. "Lock the door."

Layla was about to protest, but then he looked back at her from the doorway and growled, "Think of our baby."

Layla nodded and he turned to leave again. "Zander, wait!"

Throwing herself off the bed, she hurried to him and gripped his cheeks, looking him in the eye as she said, "I love you, too." Then she kissed him.

He rested his head against hers and she felt his frustration at having to leave her.

"Be careful," she urged him, and he kissed her forehead before he turned and thundered down the stairs. She heard him go out the front door, locking it behind him and placing the key back through the letterbox before he shifted to join whatever fighting was going on.

Layla did as he told her, locking the door before she returned to the bed. Wrapping the bedsheets around herself, she covered her ears, trying to block out the noise from outside.

The fighting was close, and it was bloody. The sounds of screaming, of gurgling, told her that Christian's pack intended to fight to the death. More than one wolf would lose their life today, thanks to her.

Bile rose in her throat. This was all her fault. She could have prevented this if she had just gone with him.

No! she told herself firmly. Those were the things he would have said and the things she would have believed back in the day. This wasn't her fault. This was his for never taking no for an answer.

Soon, she couldn't stand it anymore. The noise was too much. The knowledge that Zander was out there, fighting for his life, for hers and for their baby's, was almost too much to bear. The nerves were getting to her stomach, making her morning sickness ten times worse than usual.

She needed to eat something before her stomach tried to turn itself inside out.

Slipping off the bed, she tightened the bedsheets more firmly around herself and popped her feet into her slippers.

Zander had locked the front door, and the fighting didn't sound any closer. She was safe enough to go downstairs and grab something from the fridge, or so she thought.

The second she stepped into the kitchen, the back door popped open.

When Christian's scent hit her nostrils, she turned to run, but he was quicker, appearing in the hallway before her in the blink of an eye.

"I told you you'd regret rejecting me," he snarled as he grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her close. "Now you'll get to watch your whole pack and your little boyfriend die, too."

"No!" Layla screamed, terrified at what might have already happened to Zander and the others. They would never have let Christian just waltz up to the house and let himself in.

"Last chance then, Lay. Come with me now and maybe I'll let them live."

His gaze was filled with confidence, his smile sickening. The way he held her close made her want to vomit.

And yet, she found herself saying, "Okay."

It was all she could think to do. She had to buy time. The child growing in her belly needed her to stay safe. Zander needed her to stay safe.

"Okay, I'll come with you," she repeated when Christian looked shocked. "But will you at least let me get dressed first?"

Christian pulled back enough to look at the bedsheet wrapped around her.

"I don't know," he mused. "I like this look on you."

Layla snatched herself away from him, growling. "If you truly want me as your mate, you'll respect me enough that your men aren't seeing every inch of me!"

She could feel the two men in the kitchen behind her. They were ogling her from behind, and she was certain they could see practically everything through the sheet.

Just buy time, she kept telling herself. Just buy time.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was buying time for. For all she knew, Zander and the others were already dead and dying. But she had to remain hopeful. Christian and the two fuckers behind her—the two men who had cornered her in Pine Valley—were the last ones she wanted to end up stuck with. If it came to it, she'd kill herself before she allowed that to happen, but for now all she could do was hope that her sense of Zander was right. She could feel her mate when she reached out. She could feel his strength and his determination, and she could tell he wasn't lost to her yet.

She just needed to leave him a clue of where to find her—that was if she could convince Christian to linger long enough for him to do so.

Just in case, she needed a plan B, and she was relieved when Christian gestured to the stairs and growled, "Hurry up. I want to take you home."

Layla took the steps two at a time. Christian had never been a patient man, so she hurried to dress before she raced for the bedside table. Pulling open the top drawer, she removed the memento she had kept from her first night with Zander. Why she had kept the bandage he'd wrapped around her leg that night, she wasn't sure, but she could only hope he'd recognize it now and that her plan wouldn't fail if all else did.

"Come on, Lay! I don't have all day!" Christian yelled from the bottom of the stairs, and she knew time was running out.

Grabbing the pocket knife she'd always kept under her mattress as a last resort to protect herself with, she moved to the closet and placed the bandage at eye level on a shelf before pricking her finger, praying Zander would smell the blood the minute he came looking for her.

She heard Christian's storming up the stairs just in time to hide the knife and suck the blood from her finger as she closed the closet door. Pulling a knife on someone like Christian would only get her killed faster.

"Come on, we're getting out of here before your little boyfriend comes looking," Christian snarled as he appeared in the room, only to grab her by the elbow.

"Please, Christian, be gentle," Layla protested, playing the weak and frail girl she'd always been with him.

She'd play him as long as it took Zander to come and find her. Even if that meant being the old Layla for a little while.