48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48

J ackson gripped the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were white.

He should have known. Left alone, Layla would do the one thing she had been trying to do since the day he met her: run away.

She could sense how angry he was, but she was still emotionless. She was sitting in his passenger seat, her head held high as if she had done nothing wrong. Did she even think of all the things that could have happened to her out there alone? Had she thought of the baby? She'd walked so far she'd almost reached the boundary of a rival pack, for fuck's sake!

He clenched his jaw to stop himself from saying anything. If he spoke, she wouldn't like what he'd say, and her time at the hideout would be anything but stress-free.

He snuck another look at her. The skin on her shoulders and face looked an angry red, and if she had been out any longer, she would have started blistering. But it looked like she had already started healing.

Pregnant wolves tended to be more sensitive to the elements. If he recalled correctly, they grew more sensitive to everything, period. Like some of their human counterparts, only a million times worse.

He should have thought of that before he'd left her. It wouldn't have changed the outcome, but he would have made sure she had someone with her before he'd left. But he'd been too busy kicking himself for failing to say the words that would have fixed things once and for all.

His chest tightened again.

Just a few words, but his heart had stopped just at the thought of them.

He'd expected Cain to be the one to try to stop him, not himself.

He looked at her again and saw how dry her lips were. They were deep in the middle of nowhere, and she couldn't have adequately prepared for the hike without knowing where they were. She was smart; hadn't she thought about that?

He stopped the car and got out to open the back. When he realised Layla had left her charger, he loaded more supplies into the car and headed out immediately. He grabbed one of the first aid kits and a bottle of water before returning to the driver's seat. When he held the bottle out to Layla, she looked at it as if he was offering her poison.

"Stop being immature," he growled.

Layla's gaze snapped to his, and her eyes flashed for the first time since he'd told her she had to leave the packhouse. A wave of anger that almost matched his own hit him in the face briefly before Layla shut down again. She folded her arms across her chest and turned to look out of the window.

No one would ever believe she was the same woman who'd breathlessly called out his name just a day before.

He growled and put the water and first aid kit between them before starting the car again. He didn't try to speak to her again. By the time he drove down the driveway of the safe house, he was still angry, and Cain was furious. If Layla couldn't see that this was the best place for her after he'd told her a witch wanted her dead, then something was wrong in her head.

But his beast wasn't angry about that. Cain was furious that she dared to try to leave him. Again. Like he hadn't yet realised that she would never be theirs.

‘Mine,' Caine growled.

‘No. Don't be like Diedre and Dylan. We're doing this to save her life."

Before he left, he would do it. He couldn't afford to chicken out again.

Layla slammed the door when she got out of the car and marched into the house with her rucksack. When he carried a box full of stuff to the pantry, he saw her chugging a bottle of water from the fridge with its door wide open as she cooled herself. The urge to drop everything and take care of her hit him out of nowhere.

Damn woman.

If he'd just said those fucking words, he wouldn't have to feel any of that shit.

Once he packed all the boxes, he put her phone charger on the kitchen counter and met her gaze. Layla was leaning against the counter on the other side of the room with her arms crossed and an air of defiance around her.

"What part of ‘a witch wants to kill you' made you believe you could walk out there safely by yourself?" he growled.

"We've cut our ties now, Jackson. Out here, I'm just a pregnant human; I doubt anyone I meet will know who I am. Why would anyone want to kill me?"

"My scent is all over you, Layla," he growled. "Or have you forgotten how many times I came inside and all over you?"

Layla's cheeks coloured, and she looked away from him. He had no idea why he brought it up when he knew what even thinking about fucking Layla did to him. He clenched his fists and turned away from her before he did something stupid.

"Everyone knows who I am, especially in this area," he said gruffly. "And I already told you you're too far from anything; you can't walk unless you want to get lost in the woods."

He walked back to the pantry to give himself a moment to think. He couldn't leave her again, but he hadn't spoken to Faith yet to see if she would stay with Layla for the next few months. If she agreed, it would still take her to pack and head to the city. He also needed a warrior he could trust to keep them safe.

Which meant he was stuck with Layla until then. Stuck with the knowledge that he was nothing to her. Stuck with that pain in his chest that wouldn't stop until he severed their bond.

He sighed and pulled his phone out to send quick messages to Faith and Micah. Micah would know which warriors hadn't turned on him and send one with Faith. When that was done, he took some potatoes off a shelf and walked out of the pantry.

Layla was still in the kitchen, standing in the same spot as if she hadn't been walking for hours.

He took some meat from the fridge and put all the ingredients on the counter.

"What are you doing?" There was panic in her voice.

"What does it look like? We need to eat."

"You're staying?" More panic.

He stopped what he was doing to look at her.

"You keep endangering my baby. I obviously can't trust you to be alone."

"There is no one and nothing here!" Layla said, walking towards him. "I was never in any danger."

"And the fact that you can't get that simple fact in your head is why I'm staying," he growled, turning to face her.

His anger returned, and he welcomed it. It was a lot easier to deal with than anything else.

"What would you do, huh? If someone caught you and imprisoned you?" He stepped forward until he was only an inch from her. "If they sent me a piece of you every day to torment me? If they killed my heir and then you?"

He felt a frisson of fear from her.

"You don't know my world, Layla. You don't know the depths of the depraved things my enemies would do just to hurt me."

"But I'm nothing to you! Why would they?"

After everything, that's what she still thought?

He put his arm around her and pulled her forward, closing the gap between them. The contact set him on fire, as it always did. How did someone feel all of that and think they were nothing?

"You're mine," he growled.

Layla shook her head, but her eyes flashed and her heart thumped against her chest.

"No," she whispered.

"Mine," he repeated.

And her eyes stopped flashing. They started to glow as her mask fell off, and all her emotions surrounded them. And her wolf's emotions surrounded them. He closed his eyes as he tried to take all of it in.

There was a lot of anger, but Layla's wolf knew what those words meant.

"Mine," he whispered.

And Layla's wolf accepted that fact.

"Don't say words like that," Layla whispered.

Unable to resist, he brought his lips down to her. Layla opened up to him without resistance and allowed him to devour her. Allowed him to show her how he felt without saying the words.

He backed her up until she hit the kitchen island and lifted her onto it without taking his lips from hers. It was a bad idea. He was going to die, and Layla would be left mourning for him. But he couldn't help pressing himself between her legs as he got lost in everything she did to him. It would be like this forever between them if he didn't reject her.

Cain reared his head, and all his emotions doubled. He was drowning in lust and need. In love. In flames that charred every part of him, yet he couldn't jump out of them.

When he undid the button and zip on her jeans, she didn't stop him. She lifted herself to allow him to remove them and buried her fingers in his hair. She drew him closer, as hungry for him as he was for her. He fumbled with his jeans, and moments later, he was buried exactly where he wanted to be.

"Mine," he growled.

‘Mine,' Cain added.

It took seconds. Layla threw her head back and screamed his name. Her muscles started to milk him, and he tensed a second before he joined her.

He was breathing hard when he looked down at the face of the woman who'd changed his life. For a change, Cain hadn't tried to mark her, but maybe the beast now understood the fucked up situation they were in.

Maybe he would never get the guts to reject her.

But he knew he would cut off his limbs before he tied her soul to him.

He kissed her again before he pulled out and helped her off the counter. He couldn't hide his feelings, no matter how hard he tried to push them back. Clearly he would have to leave her alone until she had the baby, or he would give in to his selfish needs. He would mark her and condemn her to his fate.

This was the last time he would see her.

This was goodbye.