59. Chapter 59

Chapter 59

H e shouldn't have opened his mouth.

Though Layla hadn't pushed him away, he'd sensed her mood change. The last thing he wanted to do now was tell her he would die. He just wanted to hold her and Hope until the day he did. Dylan was devastated by the news. Layla would be worse. He couldn't do that to her.

Eventually, she fell asleep, but he'd stayed up to look at her and Hope. How could Fate be so cruel as to give him something so perfect and snatch it away?

Hope started to whimper, but Layla didn't stir. It had to have been a difficult few days for her to go through labour while thinking he was dead. He'd only thought the worst for a short time, so he had no idea how she'd handled that for so long.

He slowly untangled himself from Layla and got to Hope before she started crying. She was due a feed but he knew he had to check her nappy first. Max had taught him that when the kids had taken over his room after the attack. He remembered feeling depressed because he didn't think he would get to hold his child before he died.

But there she was. The little lady who would be the best part of him. Unless her mother's genes were more dominant. He looked down at the little face and the head full of red hair and couldn't deny it was possible. Layla didn't even know her strength yet. She'd somehow healed their precious little girl and didn't even know it. The doctor had told him Hope should still have been in the incubator, getting help to breathe. But her lungs were working just fine now.

Her little face scrunched up, and she opened her mouth to start crying as if to prove his point.

"It's okay, Princess," he cooed as he finished changing her and picked her up. "Daddy's here."

Max's baby sister had been small, but Hope was much smaller. He felt like a giant holding her and worried that maybe he was holding her too tight or would break her. But he didn't want to miss a moment of this.

When he turned around, Layla was awake and already leaning against the headboard, waiting for the baby.

And that was when he realised she had masked herself again.

She was hiding from him.

He met her gaze as he handed her the baby, but Layla lowered her eyes and immediately started fussing over the baby. He bit his lip to stop himself from dying anything and turned around to pour her a drink instead.

"I'm starving," he said quietly as he set the drink on the nightstand. "I'll go and get us something to eat."

"I'm okay. I'll wait for breakfast," Layla said.

"You're breastfeeding and skipped a meal. I know you're—"

"What are we doing, Jax?" she interrupted.

"Eating and then going back to sleep, I hope. I heard you're supposed to sleep when—"

"You know that's not what I meant," she cut in again.

He sighed and sat down at the edge of the bed. How did he explain to his mate that he couldn't give her what she wanted?

"We'll figure it out. We don't have to make any decisions immediately," he replied, holding her gaze. "We can just enjoy this, can't we?"

Layla looked away from him, and briefly, he felt her sadness again.

"But how can I enjoy anything when you're still going to send me away?" she whispered.

"I don't want to send you away, Layla."

And that much was the truth. But what he wanted and what he could have were completely different things.

"I can stay with you?" Layla didn't look at him when she asked, and she had already masked herself again.

"Yes. I'll figure out where we'll go in the morning, and then we'll go. Just the three of us."

He had too much money to ever spend in his lifetime, never mind the three months he had left. He would take his girls off somewhere the witch wouldn't find them and enjoy the time they had left. That was a better plan. Dylan could take over officially, and he'd get to experience a taste of heaven before his past deeds sent him to hell.

Layla looked up at him, and her lips slowly pulled up into a smile. Her emeralds twinkled and flashed briefly before she looked down at the baby again.

"I'd like that."

"I'd like that, too," he answered, a smile playing on his lips.

When he stood, he kissed his little princess' head and then her mother's. Before he pulled away from them completely, he kissed Layla's lips. Just a chaste one, but it was enough to put a bigger smile on her lips. And it was enough to make her drop that mask.

He closed his eyes and basked in the glow for a moment. What would it feel like to have Layla express everything she felt and for him to tell her the same?

Layla's stomach grumbled, and his smile widened as he opened his eyes.

"Not hungry, huh?" he teased before he turned to walk out of the room.

He was at the door when his phone started ringing, cutting into the silence and startling Hope.

"Shit," he swore as he rushed to his nightstand to pick it up. His phone hardly ever rang because he preferred to mind link. But he was too far from his land for his pack to be able to reach him in emergencies, and Dylan was too far to mind-link if he found anything. He had to learn to put it on silent.

"Yes," he answered quickly.

"You've got to move, Jax. Hunters are coming."

Dylan's voice was strained and low. His blood ran cold at the fear he heard in it, and he stopped moving before he reached the door.

"Where?"

"I found Amber's tracks when she shifted in the woods. She was heading towards the city, but I hadn't found her when I saw Hunters stopping at a gas station in Wolfdale."

"But how do you know they're here for us? What if they're just passing through?"

"It was a hunting party, Jax."

One or two Hunters in town could be passed off as a Hunter following a lead or passing through. A hunting party consisted of hundreds of them. They rolled into cities in the buses and vans and trucks to set up, usually under the guise of a ‘convention' of some sort so the humans wouldn't get suspicious. Then they started actively hunting. They didn't stop until they felt they had obliterated every wolf.

He looked back at Layla and knew she'd heard that conversation.

"Where are they now?"

"They checked into our hotel. I had to sneak in the back to use the phone."

His blood ran colder and felt like ice in his veins.

"Get out of there, Dylan. You should have run the second you saw them—"

"I have to go cover my tracks. I don't want to lead them to you."

"Dylan!"

But his Beta had already cut the line. He re-dialled it immediately, but it rang through until a hotel employee picked it up. He hung up and looked back at Layla.

"Just pack the things we need," he told her. "We have to leave straight away."

The warriors who had come to rescue Layla were asleep in any spot they could find in the house. He ran down the stairs and put the lights on.

"Hunters!" he called out loud and in the pack link before dialling Micah's phone. "We move in ten. Help Gavin; I don't think he's fully recovered."

Micah answered at the first ring as the warriors around him shot into action.

"Evacuate," he told Micah. "There's a hunting party in Wolfdale, but I'm not sure where they are going. Call Alpha Chase and Brax and tell them to move."

How to avoid a Hunter was lesson one in a werewolf's life. They would head deep into the forest, deeper than where the witch's old pack used to live. Even Hunters didn't dare head out that far. It was why they had flourished for generations. But there was no telling how determined the hunting party would be. They would have to keep moving and covering their tracks until someone told them it was safe to return.

"Yes, Alpha. I'll raise the alert."

When he returned upstairs, Layla was already dressed and throwing baby supplies into her rucksack. Hope was fast asleep on the bed.

"How long do we have?" Layla asked.

"They move quickly. Remember I told you their hatred of us had turned them into something more than human? Greater speed is one of the differences," he answered as he looked around the room to make sure he wasn't leaving anything that would identify them.

One of the warriors would come in after they all went outside to use one of Diedre's potions to mask their scents. Hunters always had hounds that were probably on the same level as hellhounds. They had to thoroughly cleanse the house in case they got past the wards. They normally did. He didn't know how they always knew how to break a ward, but it never stopped them. And if it did, they had long-range weapons to fix that problem.

Ten minutes later, they were all outside the house, piling into cars that they would leave in different directions.

As he drove out first with his mate, baby, and Faith in the car, his hands tightened on the wheel.

Fate, that fucker! He wasn't allowed even five minutes to enjoy his family. He'd just made a plan, for fuck's sake. Now instead of hiding on an island somewhere, he was running for his life.

He glanced in the mirror and watched Layla make sure Hope was strapped in properly in the car seat. She couldn't hide how worried she was. Maybe because he couldn't hide it.

Was his family going to survive a hunting party?