44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

R age.

That was all he felt when he saw Layla pinned down on the path. When he saw Laken and his sons with their filthy hands on her.

His vision was red as he slowed to a stop. He'd got out of the car and ran the rest of the way to the packhouse, but he hadn't shifted because he had assumed Layla had just seen something that had scared her, and he'd known how dangerous it would be for Layla if she saw Cain. But he couldn't rein his beast in now.

He growled in warning, and the three wolves let go of Layla immediately and backed away. Their fear polluted the air as they lowered their gazes. He had stopped Cain from carrying out justice many times already but this... This he would not let go of.

Dylan finally reached him and stopped beside him.

"Fuck," Dylan whispered.

Because he knew. He knew this was the end of them.

His gaze lowered to Layla, who was still on the ground, frozen in place. His mate. She felt... broken. They had done this to her.

‘Stay,' he growled in the mind link when the wolves continued to back away.

He told Cain they had to take Layla away from there first, and only then did the beast relinquish his control of him. Layla didn't need to see what was coming.

His body hummed with all the rage he tried to contain inside him when he walked to Layla. There was a blank look on her face as if she had given in to what had been about to happen. It didn't look like she could even see him.

"Layla," he growled.

Nothing.

Her jeans had been lowered to her thighs, and her panties were on display. He could smell the metallic scent of her blood as it dripped from her forehead, and she looked as pale as a ghost.

He'd kill them. There was nothing anyone would say that would change that outcome. He and Cain were in complete agreement on this.

He lowered to his knees and started pulling her jeans back up so no one would see her exposed. A crowd had begun to gather behind Dylan, and the last thing he wanted was to kill all of them, too. It was only when he made contact with her skin that she sucked in a breath and seemed to focus. He felt nothing from her—just a big, emotional void.

His fury blinded him. She had to leave before she saw him lose control.

"Get up," he growled.

Layla looked around and then quickly jumped to her feet. She backed away from the three wolves who had attacked her as she zipped herself up but stopped when she realised she was surrounded. That was when he felt her emotions. All of them. The fear. The anger. Her heart started to pound as she returned to his side as if she subconsciously knew that that was where she was safest.

"I told you to stay in the room," he growled.

Layla flinched and started to back away from him, too. He felt like an asshole for talking to her like that when she was clearly in shock, but he could not contain the fury that coursed through his veins much longer. He couldn't explain that his anger wasn't directed at her.

"You have to follow my rules, Layla," he growled again, gripping her shoulders and drawing her closer so she would look at him and not the men surrounding them.

She was shaking like a fucking leaf in the wind. He'd left her because he'd thought she would be safer. It was all his fault. He'd been too soft with his pack. He'd allowed them to believe they could get away with shit.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Layla whispered.

"You should have listened to me," he hissed, giving her a little shake.

Layla sucked in a breath again, and he knew he had said and done the wrong thing moments before he sensed her disappointment in him. But the need to kill had a hold on him; he couldn't comfort her until he had avenged her.

He would paint the whole compound red with the blood of those wolves. Just thinking of that brought his beast even closer, so he forced himself to let her go and look away. He knew his eyes were red. He knew his face had already started changing. Layla needed to understand how dangerous it was for her on his territory but not by seeing him like this. A minute later, and those men would have...

"Jackson!"

He heard Diedre's breathless voice as she rushed around the warriors who had gathered with Dylan and turned to watch her. And right next to her was Cassie's friend. The weak link he had banished. The girl who had dared to lay her hands on Layla the first time.

The girl stopped and looked at the three men before she started to back away, and it all finally made sense.

‘Stop her,' he said in the mind link before focussing on Diedre.

"You were supposed to protect her," he growled.

Diedre looked at the men and then Layla, and correctly deduced the situation. She was a fucking Seer. Why hadn't she seen this?

"I'll take her back inside," she whispered.

He allowed it only because he needed Layla away from this. Layla shook Diedre's hand off her shoulder before she wrapped her arms around herself and lowered her head to walk away.

He waited until he heard them walk into the packhouse before he turned to the three men. The youngest of Laken's sons was shaking so much he could hear it. He could hear the pounding of all their hearts. The blood rushing through their bodies. Their shaky breaths as they waited for their fate.

Two warriors brought the girl over and pushed her down next to the others.

"I'm sorry, Alpha," Laken said. "The Circle... When we told them about her, they asked us to kill her."

So they were traitors as well as rapists.

He didn't wait for Laken to say anymore as he gripped his throat and let his claws extend into his throat. They feared the Circle more than their King. More than Cain. It was time he showed everyone what a big mistake that was.

"Please, Your Majesty," Laken pleaded as he lifted him by the neck. "Spare my children."

Like the doctor, Laken had chosen to run a shop in town rather than become a warrior because he didn't have what it took. The man whimpered as his claws slowly punctured his throat. He was a coward. A man who forced himself on women was less than a man. He'd sealed his fate.

His face tightened as Cain came out to remind them who he was. His mouth stretched as Cain's huge teeth filled it. Fur started to sprout on the hand that held Laken in the air. It tightened, crushing the windpipe until he began to struggle.

And behind him, the little girl and her brothers were screaming. They were on their knees, begging him to spare their father, but there would be no mercy for any of them.

Blood seeped from Laken's wounds down his fingers. There was so much panic and fear in his eyes as he looked down at him. He imagined Laken could see his whole life flashing in his eyes—they said that happened moments before one died.

Without wasting more time, he squeezed with all his strength until the light died in the traitorous man's eyes. Until the gurgling sounds stopped. Until he couldn't hear the heartbeat, but he could smell his piss. He threw the body aside and watched it slam against the side of the house with so much force that it left a dent in the brickwork.

And only then did he turn to the wolves crying on the ground before him.

"What part of ‘she is my guest' did you not understand?" he growled.

His voice was deeper and raspy as he ripped his shirt off and kicked off his shoes. Everything was too tight on him as his body continued to change.

"What part of that did any of you not understand?" he asked, looking at the gathered warriors.

Their eyes were on the body he had thrown near them. There was nothing but fear in the air, and it fed his beast. It called out to his baser nature as Cain demanded his dues. But it wasn't just Cain. He was ready to raze the whole place to the ground.

In the back of his mind, this scene was familiar. This was who he had been before his impending death had softened him, but he had never taken his rage out on his pack. But his father had. Many times.

This wasn't about his father, though. This was about avenging his mate. The future mother of his child.

"I've given orders, but you all think you can piss all over me," he continued. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. "You think you can challenge me with no consequences. I have always been fair and protected all of you, have I not?"

"Yes, Alpha," one of the boys at his feet whispered.

He turned away from the warriors to focus on the young wolves before him. They were just kids; maybe their father had talked them into it. He still recalled the things his father had made him do against his will.

'They touched what is mine,' Cain growled.

And they would pay. He lifted his gaze to Dylan because, besides the three wolves begging for their lives, his emotions were the strongest. Because he had known? Or because he didn't want him to make the same mistakes his father had?

"Take them to the dungeon," he growled.

Shock resounded through his warriors, and the wolves in front of him whimpered.

No, he wasn't letting this one go. They had fucked with him long enough.