2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

L ayla opened the window and leaned out to figure out what was happening. There was something in the air pressing down on her. Fear and desperation. She recognised it only because she had felt it too much in the months she had been there.

All around her, she heard the sounds of fighting. Growls. Snarls. Yelps and whines. She heard the clinking of weapons and shouting. She heard children crying.

The gates had been open when Jackson's people gathered at the front of the house, but they were firmly shut now. The fighting seemed to be beyond the gates, maybe in town. She didn't know why she could hear that far, but the sounds brought her out of the depression she had sunk into the past two weeks.

People were dying. She could hear their gurgling as they took their last breaths, terrifying her, breaking her. She heard a girl scream and then nothing. As if her life had just been ripped from her.

Shock forced her to step back from the window and clutch her chest.

These were Jackson's people, and he wasn't there to protect them because of her. This was her fault.

She looked down at the keys she had gripped tightly in her hand. It was her fault, yet she was safe in the packhouse. It wasn't right.

"Help! Help me!"

Layla leaned out of the window again and tried to focus on where the sound had come from. And when she saw it, her breath hitched, and her heart stopped beating. Two girls, no older than nine or ten, pounded at the gates, constantly looking behind them as if the threat was getting closer.

Something inside her pushed her to move before she could think too deeply about it. She unlocked the door and ran down the hallway and the stairs. Only as she was speeding towards the gate did she realise she was running faster than usual. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Her heart was now beating like crazy, and she felt invincible.

"Please, hurry," one of the girls cried. "They took our father. Please help us."

No one was in the guardhouse when she finally reached it, but after a few seconds, she worked out which button to press to open the gate. She rushed out to meet the girls as they ran inside.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" she asked as she quickly inspected the girls.

"I don't know where our mum is," the younger girl said.

The little girls trembled, and tears fell continuously down their cheeks. They reminded her so much of Britney that her protective instincts kicked in. She put her arms around them briefly and looked towards the sounds of fighting. The gate was still open and the commotion was getting closer. The hair rose on her neck, and goosebumps appeared on her arms at the vicious sounds. And the screams... Her heart cracked with each one.

"Run to the house and lock the door behind you," she instructed the girls. "If anyone comes who you don't know, don't open the door. Just go and hide."

The girls ran as soon as she released them, and then she turned her attention back to the gate. What could she do? These were clearly werewolves fighting; they would kill her instantly if she went out there. She didn't even have a weapon.

She ran back into the guardhouse to look around and then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the back wall lined with weapons. Knives, swords, guns... She'd never had any weapons training, so she knew she would probably hurt herself, but she picked up a small knife that she felt a little more confident with once she weighed it in her hand.

She was about to run back outside when she thought of the girls she had sent to hide. She couldn't leave the gate open. When she returned to the controls, she finally noticed the security screens at the side. There was fighting on every screen. Giant wolves lunging at each other and ripping each other apart. Men and women fighting with weapons.

Children... The children.

She couldn't sit and not do anything.

Among all the buttons on the control board in front of her, she saw a button to open the gate manually. She would still see if anyone tried to go inside if she stayed close enough to the entrance and could get to the kids in the house first if someone got too close.

Once again, something pushed her to press the button, and she ran out of the guardhouse to slide the gate closed. And then she let out a breath as she held the knife in front of her. The thought that she would probably die that night filtered through her mind but she pushed it away.

She knew she was being stupid. She was that idiotic girl that got in everyone's way and got people killed. She knew everyone trained; it was why Jackson had kept her locked up so she wouldn't see them. They were more experienced than her. They wouldn't fault her if she stayed inside.

"The wards around the packhouse should hold. You'll be safe once you get through the gates. Take your sister."

A woman's voice carried over to her from somewhere down the road. She squinted and saw a woman coming out of the shadows of the trees onto the road and handing a bundled-up baby to a boy who didn't look old enough for such a big task.

"Come with us, mummy," the boy sniffed.

"I have to get the others. I love you, Max," the woman said. Her voice was breaking. She could sense the emotions the young mother was trying to hold in.

Without hesitating, she ran towards them.

"I'll take them."

The woman was startled for a moment, although she didn't know why. From what she had learned, wolves had a strong sense of smell. They would have known she was nearby.

And that was another reason why this was a stupid idea. They would get her before she did anything.

"I'll take them to the gates," she insisted as she stuck the knife down the waistband of her jeans before she took the baby from the boy.

The mother only hesitated briefly before she kissed both children and then ran off towards the fighting.

"Take my hand," she ordered the boy.

There was no time to fall apart now. A war raged around her; she couldn't afford to make any mistakes. The moment they were inside the gates, she handed the baby back to the boy.

"Go and knock on the door. There are two girls inside who will open it for you. Be careful."

Only when the boy started moving did she look at the gates. What did that woman mean there were wards around the house? Protective wards? Like witches and magic stuff? Was that a thing?

More screams echoed in the air, and she prayed with everything in her that it wasn't the woman who had just left her children. She ran towards the screams. She didn't know how, but she could easily pick up the direction it came from. The rows of houses sat between wooded areas, and she imagined that helped to hide the town if anyone looked from the sky. The screams were coming from those woods.

She pulled her knife out as she approached and kept her eyes open. The full moon didn't really illuminate much under the trees, but she didn't need it. Everything was so clear it might as well have been daylight.

The moment she found the source of the screams, her heart stopped for the second time that night.

A huge man was pinning a young woman down and tearing at her clothes.

The same way those three men had done to her.

In her mind, she could see herself as that woman, unable to move, waiting for the torment to end. And then that anger she had felt before towards Amber ripped through her. She would not freeze again.

One second she was far from the scene, and the next, she had jumped on the man's back and put the knife through him. Her anger didn't go away even when the man slumped forward and she could no longer hear his heart beating.

It was the girl's sniff that briefly brought her back to herself. She pulled the dead weight from her body and felt relieved when she realised she had gotten there in time.

"Get to the packhouse," she whispered to the girl.

There was already another fight that had grabbed her attention. Like a thief in the night, she stayed in the shadows as she went towards the fighting. Her anger fueled her actions, and part of her recognised this was another out-of-body experience. This was not her. But it didn't matter now. People were dying because of her.

It felt like hours later when she finally snapped out of it and realised she had blood splattered all over herself and dripping down her hands. Her breath hitched when her mind's eye showed her what she had just done, like a horror movie. She had fought like a coward, attacking them from behind because she knew she couldn't win a real fight. She had fought dirty, but she had won. There were bodies littered all over the woods.

Her hands shook as she raised them to look at them, unable to fathom what she had just done. The knife dropped from her hand and clattered onto the paved road.

What was happening to her?

"Retreat!"

She heard that call from a distance, making her look around at where she was. She had come further into the town than she had intended.

The children. She had left them alone.

She turned from the road and started to run back through the woods in the direction she had come. When she arrived at the gates, many children were waiting inside. Some were wounded, but they were huddled together and waiting anxiously. She had saved them. It didn't make up for feeling like she was the cause of it all, but at least it was a start.

"Miss Layla," a girl called out as she ran towards her. "Are you okay?"

It was the girl she had saved from being violated.

Was she okay? No. She probably would never be. The things she had done were still going through her head.

But she nodded, and then the girl rushed into her arms.

"Thank you," she whispered.

She didn't deserve to be thanked. Because the fighting was over, but the air around them had changed from fear and desperation to despair.

People were dead. It was her fault.