75. Chapter 75

Chapter 75

J ackson stopped whistling when he walked out of the packhouse and saw Dylan walking up the steps. As if his Beta didn't already believe he had lost his mind. He never whistled. He couldn't remember a single time in his life when he had felt unburdened enough to do that.

"Alpha," Dylan said, lowering his head.

"Beta," he answered before he walked past him.

Petty. He knew that was petty, but damned if he would back down now. Layla would never go anywhere near Dylan again.

Micah was speaking to a group of young trainees about to start their training when he found him. The man immediately lowered his head and walked towards him while the trainees rushed towards the field. The fear was still there. It was fucking everywhere. He supposed it was something he would have to live with until his dying breath. His pack would never forget that he killed one of them and tortured three more. And then killed an Alpha in cold blood on his doorstep.

"Alpha," Micah greeted.

"What was so urgent that Dylan couldn't fix it," he asked.

"It's the new Alpha of the Red Moon Pack," Micah said.

He almost rolled his eyes as he started walking towards the gate. Kendrick's pack had never been a threat to him despite his outspokenness. He had assumed Micah would tell him of more attacks by this unknown witch. But it had been weeks, and there had been nothing. He'd probably thrown her plans back by killing the Alpha she had been planning with.

"The messengers refused to speak to Dylan and have camped out in the forest just beyond our boundary. Our scouts report that more of them are on their way," Micah said.

"We have more warriors than they do, and even our weakest link was stronger than their old Alpha. Let them stew there; there's nothing they can do."

"But our pack is now fearing an attack—"

"And they've all trained their whole lives; I have faith in them," he said. "Leave them be and do something more important. Diedre needs our help."

The pack was only as strong as their Alpha and their pack witch. If both he and Diedre were sidelined, then that was their biggest worry.

How did Diedre's magic become compromised? Who was he dealing with for them to be able to disable the strongest witch in all his territories? He'd felt the magic when he had put the jewellery on Layla. Had it been compromised even then? What about the charms she had made for all the warriors to protect their minds from the witch?

Sorting that out was more important than whatever the new Alpha of Kendrick's pack had planned.

"Help her find whatever she needs to fix this situation. I'm afraid she's been taking on too much by herself."

"I'll do my best, Alpha," Micah said with a head bow.

He looked at his Head Warrior briefly as he stopped at the packhouse gates. Even though he had sent the man's child away, Micah was still at his side as usual. Did he not hold malice in his heart like the others?

"How is Cassandra?" he asked.

"She has settled well, Alpha. It's her eighteenth birthday tomorrow. Her mother and I wondered if we could go to see her."

"You can see her whenever you can, Micah; you don't need to ask for permission. Just don't... don't bring her back."

Micah nodded and then turned to walk back to the house. Maybe after seeing what had happened to Cassie's friend in the dungeon, he was glad that Cassie had not met the same fate.

He was about to signal the guard to open the gate when a sound reached his ears. A low moan that went straight from his ears to his dick.

He knew that moan. He lived for that moan.

But what the hell...?

He turned back and heard the moan again. He didn't even have to open up his senses to search for her, even from this distance. It was as if she was pulling him back to her.

Cain stood to attention as if he had been summoned. He could see the red haze in his vision that told him his eyes had changed colour.

And then her scent hit him as if he was right next to her. As if he was already buried inside her and losing his mind.

His emotions mixed with his beasts. They were of one mind for the first time in a long time as their focus turned to the woman they had left on their bed. Lust... pure lust and need washed through his body, strengthened by the bond that had doomed them all.

"Alpha? Shall I open the gate?"

He looked back at the guard who had been waiting for his command. Could he not smell that? Her scent was everywhere. It made his blood pump rapidly as his stupid heart hammered in his chest. It made his beast drunk with emotions neither of them was equipped to handle.

It made him want... no, need those things he could not have.

He needed Layla. He needed to mark her.

"Alpha?"

"Open the gates for everyone to leave. Don't let anyone back in for anything," he growled as he started to walk back.

The wolves he met were still talking amongst themselves and heading towards training as if his world hadn't just tipped on its axis. How could this even be possible? The doctor had said it was her human biology that was dominant. He'd been prepared for that. Not this...

‘Everyone leave the packhouse and the grounds. Everyone,' he ordered through the pack link.

Could they truly not sense what was happening?

Sweat was already dripping down his forehead and chest, and anyone looking at him directly would see his body's reaction, which he could not hide.

But that scent. It was the most intoxicating... It wiped out his desire to do anything else except satisfy his mate.

"Alpha?" Dylan questioned as he came out of the packhouse with the Omegas and warriors that had been working inside. "What's going on?"

"Leave."

He couldn't manage anything else as he walked into the house.

He stood in the lobby as the house emptied quickly around him. And he stood there as the grounds emptied until no one was left around the property except him and Laya.

And still, her quiet moans filled his ears, and her scent filled the whole house.

The others had not caught it.

Because of her wolf side?

Like the red wolf who had given birth to her, had she allowed him and only him to scent her?

"Jackson..."

Her whisper reached his ears and made everything tighten in his body. Any thoughts of her heritage disappeared as he took the stairs two at a time.

When he walked into the bedroom, he saw his mate on the bed, sweaty and clutching the sheets as she writhed to relieve the pressure. She was still fully dressed, even though he knew what that must have been doing to her overly sensitive skin.

But his mate didn't know. She didn't know she was in heat and had summoned him. She didn't know he was about to plant his seed in her.

And she didn't know that he had already lost the will to fight the marking.

His face was already tightening when Layla looked over at him with her feverish eyes.

"Mine," he growled.