33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

H e hadn't heard or sensed her coming up.

He'd felt the bond pulling him back to Layla, but he hadn't heard her.

He'd only realised she was there when Rebecca looked around him. For the first time since she had known about her hiding in his woods, all of Rebecca's emotions smashed through whatever mask she kept them hidden behind.

He turned back and saw Layla leaning against the house. And then the blast of emotions he sensed from her surpassed her mother's. Shock. Anger.

Betrayal.

He sucked in a breath and stepped towards her, but her eyes began to flicker. Even from a distance, he saw her fist clench at her side before she pushed away from the wall and threw him a scathing glare.

And somehow, he felt like he was the one in trouble.

He turned back to Rebecca and found her already walking back into the woods.

"Are you fucking serious right now?" he growled.

"I've already messed up," Rebecca muttered without turning back.

He jogged after her, knowing her penchant for disappearing.

"So fucking fix it! She needs to know what to expect. What sort of mother are you?"

Rebecca didn't stop walking. He'd been surprised to see her out of the woods in the first place as if she had known he was coming, but now her eagerness to leave without saying anything again made him angry.

"She won't ever want to see me again now. I've been able to watch and protect her from a distance, but now she knows..."

"So you're just going to abandon her again? Did you see her? Did you feel her rage? Did you see her eyes?" he growled, getting ahead of her and blocking her path.

"I didn't think it would happen so soon," Rebecca whispered.

"You didn't think what would happen so soon? Stop talking in riddles; I don't have time for this."

"She'll be fine," Rebecca said. But she didn't say it with much conviction.

She looked back at the house, and he followed her gaze. Layla had gone back into the packhouse but he could still feel her rage as if she was breathing down her neck. The doctor had said she had to be stress-free, and this situation was anything but that.

"She's not going to last two minutes out there."

"So keep her here. She's safest with you; you know that."

"She's not going to be here much longer," he hissed. "She will be alone, and all the Hunters and the Circle will descend on her. She has no clue what's happening."

Rebecca took a step back. He could tell his words had shocked her.

He was so used to seeing wolves naked that he hadn't looked at her like that, but it suddenly occurred to him that this would be a first for Layla. What would his poor mate think about him standing with a naked woman?

He kept his eyes on Rebecca's face in case she could still see them. Part of him desperately wanted to go and check on her, but he had been waiting for this moment for months.

"What do you mean she's not going to be around?" Rebecca whispered. "She has to stay. You're the only one strong enough to be by her side, and she's having your baby!"

Her voice rose at the last part.

"Oh, does the thought of a child being abandoned upset you?" he asked sarcastically.

"I had to leave," Rebecca hissed, and for a moment, he felt the same rage he could sense in Layla. "I had brought Hunters to our doorstep. I had to protect my girls."

"You could have gone back."

"And said what? I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I shift into a monster? I'm sorry that some nasty assholes might come and slit your throats in your sleep if they find me? My face is plastered in Hunter bases all over the world," Rebecca hissed again. "I can't walk in the streets because their surveillance might pick my face up. The only thing I could do was stay in the shadows and make sure my girls remained safe."

Layla's rage increased, as did his urge to return to her. He knew she was listening to every word. He grabbed his hair and turned away from Rebecca when his frustration gnawed at him. What the fuck was he supposed to do? He could understand where she was coming from. Hunters didn't mess around, and Layla didn't understand that yet. But Layla had been a child forced to become a parent to her younger sister. He could only imagine what that would have been like.

"Just tell me what I'm supposed to do," he sighed, turning back to her.

"Stay with her, Jackson. By any means necessary. It took me years to get the hang of things, and I still got caught. But she'll be safe here with you."

"Just tell me what things I have to help her with."

It would do no good to say that he wouldn't be around. Layla was projecting so much that he was sure the others had already figured out something was wrong. He didn't want their conversation overheard.

"Everything."

"That's not an answer," he growled.

"She's a wolf, Jackson. You know what that means. Just teach her the basics," Rebecca sighed.

He took a step back and wondered if he'd heard right.

"You mean she's a half-blood," he corrected.

Rebecca met his gaze. Her green eyes showed so much sadness that he knew the answer without her having to explain herself. And if he was honest, he had already started to suspect as much. Layla was already too strong to be just a half-blood.

"You know what your role in her life is. Do better, Jackson, or she won't survive this. She'll be hunted by everyone just because of what she is."

Did Rebecca already know that Layla was his mate?

The redhead started to walk around him to head back into the forest.

"You have to stick around. You have to be there when she needs you," he urged.

"I have to keep moving, or they will find all of us," Rebecca said with a shake of her head. "And I'm pretty sure I'm the last person my daughter wants to see."

"I have more questions," he insisted.

"Layla's wolf will show her everything she's supposed to know when she shifts," Rebecca said with a wave. "Until then, she'll be vulnerable. Just tell her to learn to control her emotions. I'm sure she's calling every weirdo to us right now."

She probably was. He looked back at the house where all the extreme emotions were radiating from and then at the woman about to disappear into the shadows of the trees.

"She's already twenty-one. She doesn't have a wolf," he stated.

"She could shift tomorrow," Rebecca said. "Or in ten years. Red wolves are different, but you'll see that for yourself."

And then she was gone. Her scent, her emotions, everything.

"You make sure you come out if she calls you," he growled at the empty space before he turned and ran back to the house.

He couldn't sense where Layla was even though he could feel her, just as he hadn't sensed her when she had come outside. She already shared that much with her mother. He expected to find her back in their bedroom, but he was surprised to see her standing in the middle of the entrance hall facing the door. Her eyes had stopped glowing, but her rage had grown to murderous proportions.

And behind her, standing in the hall leading to the offices, Dylan stood with a strange expression.

‘What's going on, Jax?' Dylan asked in his head.

Had he seen Layla's eyes when she had come in?

‘Hormones,' he lied.

"You've spoken to her before?" Layla asked.

Her voice was calm despite the rage he could sense filling up the whole house.

"Briefly. She's a hard woman to find."

"But you found her, and you kept it from me."

That was a statement and not a question.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Dylan skulking back to wherever he had come from, hopefully, convinced that this was indeed due to hormones.

"Can we do this somewhere else?"

"Where? Outside with your friend Rebecca?"

He still couldn't get his head around the fact that Layla would one day shift and become a wolf that most wolves feared. But to some extent, it settled his mind. It meant Layla would be able to defend herself. She'd be able to live without him.

"You need to stay calm. It's not good for our son—"

"My daughter is fine," Layla growled.

She said her daughter. Hers. He bit his lip and took that shot. She was angry and probably didn't mean it. Or she probably did, considering she didn't want to be with him, anyway.

He sighed and looked away from her angry gaze.

"You're right. I can't hide you away from the things happening around us. Let's go sit down and talk. I'll tell you everything."

"I've heard that lie before," Layla snarled.

"Yeah... I'm sorry. I promised you I wouldn't give you any more half-truths. I've been worried about the baby, but you're right. Keeping things from you is doing the opposite of what I intended."

Something else would have worked much quicker to soothe her, but he knew the last thing she wanted right now was for him to touch her.

"Conference room," he said.

He walked past her and her rage and wondered how he had become the bad guy in all of this. Her mother had made him angry as well. He could have made more definite plans sooner if he'd known what he was dealing with.

The moment Layla walked into the conference room behind him, he shut the door and turned to face her.

"Had you already spoken to her when we went to dinner with Britney? Is that why you knew she'd been in London?" Layla asked, still calm.

He sighed and walked over to pour himself a drink.

"Aren't you more interested in what she said? I know you heard her. You're going to shift into a red wolf, just like her. So we need to prepare for that."

Layla sucked in a breath, forcing him to look at her.

"Red... She's the red wolf?"