53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53

J ackson stood by the windows in his office, looking out at the training grounds. A few trainees had started to arrive, but it was far from the number that should have been there.

‘They've neutered you,' Cain snarled. ‘They disrespected you, and you let them walk away unscathed. How far are you going to bend over for them?'

"Stop it," he growled.

‘You're not their King. You're their bitch,' Cain snarled again. ‘You want to leave our child to a group of people who have no respect for you. The kid will be better off with Layla.'

Jackson picked up a paperweight and threw it across the room with so much force it wedged into the wall. It was one thing to have to suffer through all of this shit with his pack, but having that annoying, insistent voice in his head drove him crazy.

‘Let me out, Jackson. Let me hunt that wolf. Let me hunt all the people who've already hurt my mate. She will never be safe.'

"I have time. I'll make sure she is," he growled again before pulling the chair out of his desk and sitting.

‘No, Jackson. I'll make sure she is.'

And then the beast retreated. His mind became calm, like the time Cain had started hunting Cassie. Something told him there would be no stopping him this time.

He rubbed his tired face and sat back in his chair.

The most annoying part was that Cain was right. He was the king, but the moment he'd decided to leave his child as a legacy, he'd become too scared to step on anyone's toes. Was he even doing the right thing? His child would never know him. They would grow up with only stories about him, and those were not the stories he wanted his children to learn.

But Layla... Layla didn't know any of these stories. Layla wouldn't tell the child what a monster he'd been. She wouldn't tell the child how many throats he'd ripped out, how many limbs he'd scattered in all corners of the world.

But Layla would have her own issues to deal with. Maybe she had already started dealing with them.

How the hell did someone ignore a big, bright-as-fuck red wolf standing right in front of them?

A knock on the door distracted him from that unwelcome thought.

"Yes."

Micah walked in with another warrior, their heads lowered. Not because they respected him but because they were scared. Why did Micah need to see him with someone else at his side? He'd never done that before.

"Sorry to disturb you, Alpha. Beta Dylan has gone to the hospital with those kids."

If Cain hadn't retreated, he would have had something to say about his best friend taking care of the traitors.

"I've asked the doctor to arrange their transportation as soon as they are stable enough to travel. They'll go to... to the pack Cassandra now lives with."

He didn't miss the hesitation in his head warrior's tone. He didn't want the beast to know where his daughter was. But didn't he already know? Cain had their scent. He could find them anywhere.

"Okay," he said.

"Alpha Chase is still demanding an audience with you. His scouts returned to the gates as soon as the Circle left," Micah continued.

"Tell him I'll meet him tomorrow."

That arrogant wolf wouldn't stop until he knew what had happened in the meeting with the Circle and why he had a human on his land. He would have to get Chase on board if he wanted to keep the truce between them. For his child's sake. For the pack's sake, when they lost their Alpha.

"Have there been any more sightings of the rogues? I find it odd that they attacked two days in a row and then nothing."

"I don't think they will come near us now. I can sense the Circle's magic all around our land," Micah said.

Magic that hadn't worked on the red wolf. He wouldn't rely on anything that had already failed on the first day.

"Keep the patrols up, just in case. Tell Diedre to come and see—"

What was that? Was Layla in trouble?

He stood and opened up his senses to search for her heartbeat. It was steady, as it had been all day. But she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

"Alpha?"

He ignored Micah and rushed out of his office. Once he was in the lobby, Layla's sweet scent hit his nose. She'd come down recently, maybe twenty minutes or so before. How had he been so distracted that he hadn't noticed? He followed the scent to the door and growled. Perhaps the question should have been how she had gone all the way downstairs without anyone stopping her.

"The human went outside, Alpha. We were told to let her roam freely, though most of the pack is still apprehensive about her connection to the rogues."

Let his little runner roam freely? Fuck.

He wrenched the door open and ignored the trainees as he followed his nose. She'd gone up the same trail. Was she running away again? After everything he had done to keep her safe? After he'd gone against the Circle? No. He would lock her up forever if he had to. Chain her up to his bed as he had threatened before.

They had been getting on so well. How could she think she could just up and leave?

Before he even reached the woods, he sensed a presence in there that made his blood run cold. He whipped his t-shirt off and shucked his sweatpants as he ran, and shifted the second he reached the trees.

The scent...

Rogue. Rogue and magic. The pungent smell of the intruder mixed with the sweet scent of his mate. Fear ripped through him, something he had never felt until he'd met this half-blood. Fear that he would be too late. Fear that the witch controlling the rogue would get what she wanted and his mate would be lost just because she was his.

Cain ran faster, the trees whizzing past him in a blur as he went deeper into the woods. There was a deathly silence in the air as if the forest animals had sensed the impending doom in the air. Cain kept his teeth bared as his paws pounded the earth. He could sense Micah and the other warrior following, but he knew they would never catch up.

Then she saw her.

Layla was stepping back while the rogue snarled at her. Even from a distance, he could tell this one was a little different from the other rogues. It looked more rabid, more unhinged. More willing to do whatever the witch commanded.

Layla fell backwards and started to scramble back. Her heart was still perfectly calm despite the situation she was in.

Moments later, he launched himself over his mate and into the rabid wolf. He knocked it a distance away and rose immediately to attack it. Unlike the other rogues, this one turned on him. There was nothing in his eyes except darkness and the promise of death. The wolf's sharp teeth had already started decaying, but he knew it would fight to the end.

The rogue moved so fast that he didn't react quickly enough to dodge. It took a bite of his flank, even though it was only half his size. With his hind leg, he kicked the wolf off and went for his neck. Once again, the wolf dodged.

Magic. The wolf had been enhanced by magic. The bite hurt like fuck, and the magic swelled around him as if to confuse him.

But they had fucked with Layla. They were trying to kill his mate. And that just wouldn't do.

He lowered his head and watched the wolf's movements, looking for a tell. Anything to show what its next move would be. Cain was faster than anything on land; a hexed rogue would not best him.

The wolf's eyes briefly shifted to his left leg moments before it moved. And that was all Cain needed to intercept it and catch it by the throat. He clamped his teeth down, and the wolf stopped struggling in seconds, but he didn't stop until the head was rolling on the ground.

And only then did he look back at his mate.

She was still on the ground. Her heart was still beating steadily. There wasn't an ounce of fear anywhere.

And yet her mouth had dropped open, her eyes were wide open, and she was still steadily retreating from him. Her heart didn't show it, but her eyes did. She was terrified.

She had seen something she was not meant to see.

And he wasn't sure he could save her from the repercussions.