50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50

T hree months.

That was how long Jackson had ignored her while Faith and Gavin imprisoned her. She'd felt like somebody had plunged a knife through her chest the whole time.

She looked back at the man following her at a distance and pulled a face. He stopped at a distance and lowered his head. His heart started beating a little fast as it had done since he'd brought her back home by force after her last escape attempt.

She knew she'd kept her emotions in check, and he hadn't seen anything wolfish, so why the hell was he scared?

She turned back to the dirt trail through the woods and looked at the distance she still had to go before she reached the boundary. Beyond that was No Man's land, only to be crossed once the baby was born.

It took longer to walk there because of how big she'd gotten. She looked overdue instead of seven months pregnant. Faith assured her it was okay and said stuff like Jackson had been a big baby, too, as if that was supposed to make her feel better.

The baby was taking everything from her. Her energy, her food. She was always hungry and tired. It had come on so suddenly that she'd even stopped trying to escape. How could she if she couldn't even walk to the boundary?

She sighed and put both hands on her back to support it. Her body ached in places she hadn't known she could hurt, and while Faith was a soothing presence, her heart longed for someone else. Even though he'd made it clear he didn't want her. Even though she had sensed him several times in the woods, meeting with Gavin or Faith. He never bothered to come to check on her in person.

"You're not that important," she told herself.

And it was better that way, anyway. She would fall apart if she saw him again, and it wouldn't be her wolf side doing the begging.

That side of her had been quiet since Jackson left her in the middle of the night. Sometimes she could feel the pain inside her when she let her guard down. There was just too much of it that if she allowed herself to feel it on top of her own, she would keel over and die. It had taken her several days of practising how to focus the way Jackson had taught her before she had managed to pull herself from that added pain and shut it off.

How could one man do that to her? How could he make her believe he was her whole world, yet she meant nothing to him?

It was a good thing he was staying away.

She moved her hands to her bump and felt that pain again. She was physically unable to run away now, but as soon as her little girl was born, they would go. She would put herself in Fate's hands and see what happened. They would have her baby only if she was dead. She'd come to like Jackson's pack but would go through anyone who tried to stand in her way. If he thought he could hide her baby there, he could think again.

She was not giving up her child. Ever.

She sighed and turned to walk back the way she had come. Even with the distance between them, she felt Gavin's tension decrease.

"Why are you even here?" she asked out loud. "I'm clearly not going anywhere now, and there's fuck-all out there. Don't you have a family to go back to?"

"Mr King asked me to stay here, ma'am," Gavin answered. "My family is okay. I talk to them all the time."

Just like she talked to Brit all the time. The conversations with her sister had felt more forced lately. She couldn't tell if that was because she was trying to hold all her pain inside or if Brit was still worrying that something was wrong with the men guarding her. If Jackson had just taken her to her sister instead...

She clenched her fists and controlled her emotions. Jackson wasn't there to protect her if she said or did something wrong; she had to protect herself.

The priority now was to deliver her baby safely, and then she would rejoin Brit. She would worry about them shifting when they were safe and hidden.

Maybe their mother would join them.

She'd had months to think about what Rebecca had said. She would never forgive the woman for leaving her, but if she'd really had no other choice... Her mother knew all the dangers out there and would help her protect Brit and her child. It was worth considering.

Where was the woman, anyway? She'd said she would be looking out for her, but she hadn't seen or sensed the red wolf anywhere.

She walked past Gavin, stepping carefully on the uneven path, and focused on her surroundings. Controlling that had become like breathing; she never had to think about it anymore.

She focused on individual sounds. The leaves rustling. Blades of grass blowing in the winds. Something slithering in the tall grass. And... footsteps?

She stopped walking and concentrated. Those were definitely footsteps. Someone was walking slowly, taking deliberate steps as if they didn't want anyone to hear them. But she could hear them. And she could hear the sound of the grass as they disturbed it.

She knew it wasn't Jackson because she would have sensed him coming miles away.

She turned back and tried to catch a scent. Any scent, just in case some poor animal had wandered into the territory. She'd noticed that anything that had been in the woods the first day she had tried to walk to the main road had since disappeared. They'd all probably sensed the danger with werewolves being so close.

The breeze was blowing in the wrong direction, so she didn't smell anything.

"Miss Layla?"

She remembered Gavin and realised he had been watching her the entire time. Had she done anything to give herself away?

"Sorry, I just spaced out a little," she mumbled.

Gavin was a wolf, he should have heard the same things she heard, but she could tell by the look on his face that he hadn't. Worry gnawed at her stomach as she realised they could be in danger.

Gavin gave her a pointed look, the same look she had seen on Dylan's face since he had caught her.

"Shall we head back?" she asked, turning away without waiting for his answer.

Jackson had said there was a ward around the place, like at his packhouse. Surely it would keep the intruder out?

She walked slowly out of the woods to the lawn at the back of the house and then looked back at Gavin. He still didn't look as if he could hear anything. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Maybe whoever it was was nowhere near them, but somehow she had picked their movements up. Just how far could she hear?

"Is something wrong, Miss Layla?"

"Um... no."

The house had a lovely garden that Faith fussed over every day and a large patio. On many nights she and Faith sat on the comfortable sofas with a warm drink, looking at the stars before bed. She would have loved the house if not for her being held there against her will.

She walked over to one of the chairs and sat but didn't relax. She kept her ears open. That person was still moving, and Gavin had gone into the house to get her a drink, oblivious.

But when he set a glass of cold water on the table in front of her, the direction of the breeze changed, and a familiar scent wafted up to her nose. Gavin tensed the same time she did.

And the wolf inside her became alert, forgetting their pain as they focused on the intruder.

Her enemy.

Amber.