14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

L ayla sat by the window all night as she used to when she first arrived at the packhouse. She'd locked the door from the inside even though she'd known Jackson wouldn't come. It was her anger making her act out.

Jax wouldn't hurt Britney. He'd gone out of his way to protect both of them before she knew what being a mate meant. But her emotions were unstable, and her wolf seemed to have pushed forward again. The threat around her felt so real that she probably would have fought Jax to protect Britney.

What kind of mate did that? How could she have stood there, ready to attack Jackson?

What was wrong with her wolf that it had been dormant since the shift, but now in the space of a few days, it acted out a few times? She trained for a year and tried to shift and speak to her wolf again, but everything failed. Why now?

There were no voices in her head. Nothing to indicate she was going to shift.

She knew she still had a wolf only because it enhanced her senses, and she was stronger than ever. She even healed faster after rough training sessions. If anything, that part of her had gone beyond her expectations.

She just didn't know if she would ever shift again. If she would ever run with the pack.

Was that why Jackson said she was different? Because she had a defective wolf?

Would everyone she loved reject her?

She looked back at the bed and saw Britney sitting against her headboard, still holding her pillow like a shield. Her sister was dozing off as she had done all night and was still terrified. The best thing she could have done for Brit was to leave and let her calm down. Instead, she'd sat there without saying a word to her because she was too much of a chicken to go and speak to her mate.

Brit's eyes closed, and she almost fell over until she startled awake and clutched her pillow again.

And when she looked over at her by the window, her fear returned.

What was she supposed to do? Her mother said Brit would be one of them, but what if she was wrong? They would never let Britney go when she knew their secrets. It was a rule the Circle enforced that she only escaped because she was the Alpha King's mate.

"I want to go home," Britney whispered.

"Then you shouldn't have done this," she snapped.

Britney flinched and lowered her gaze. It didn't hurt her as much as it did in the beginning. She had become numb because of the constant ache in her heart throughout the night when she sensed all her sister's emotions.

She'd wanted to scream that she was still the same person who'd raised her. She'd wanted to beg her sister to stop being terrified of her, but she'd been too angry. Now there was nothing. No pain, no anger. She'd pushed it all to the back of her mind where it couldn't hurt her.

"Will you really kill me?" Britney asked.

Her mouth dropped.

"Are you fucking serious?" she hissed. "I chose you over my mate! I sat here all night with your ungrateful ass, and you still think I'd do that? This isn't a game, Britney. If you thought I was in trouble, I don't know why you didn't think of a better plan than putting yourself right in the middle of it. Did you not see the men who were protecting you for the past couple of years? What about the luxury you lived in and having your college tuition paid for? You thought you could go against people who can do that for you armed with nothing but your wits? That was very stupid!"

"I'm only stupid because you haven't told me anything," Britney answered, still looking away.

She could relate to that. She would have done many things differently if Jax just told her what she was and what she was up against.

"You're right. But that doesn't excuse the fact that you lied to me. I kept things from you because I knew that your whole life would change once you were here. I was trying to protect you."

That sounded familiar. It was what Jackson always said to her, and she hated that. Despite their differences, Britney hated that, too.

"You're here now and want to make adult decisions, so I will tell you what you're up against. We are werewolves. Everyone here can shift and rip you apart if you even look at them funny. Do you still think I'm crazy? Do you still think it's a joke?"

Brit was stiff when she shook her head.

"You might have thought you were making things up just to come here, but you're a half-blood, too, Brit. All the shit that happened to me will happen to you at one point or another."

Brit's head whipped up, her eyes wide. She could hear the girl's heartbeat start to accelerate. That wasn't how she meant to tell her, but Brit forced her hand.

"But I'm not... I lied," Brit whispered.

"Why do you think I brought you here? You'd have started attracting attention; this would have been the only safe place for you. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to get you out of this before they figure out you're still just human."

Rebecca might have helped, but her mother hadn't checked in since before Jackson's birthday and the memorial. Trust their mother to do that. When they didn't need her, she was everywhere. Now that they needed her, she'd disappeared. Again.

She heard the sound of engines and looked back out of the window. Two cars came out of the garage and came around to the front of the packhouse. The sun hadn't risen yet; where were they going?

"So you turn into a wolf?" Britney asked.

She sighed and looked back at her sister.

"Only once. I haven't been able to do that again."

"What about Mum and Dad?"

She didn't know how much her mother would want to tell Brit. For years she heard her mother's voice in the mindlink, but the woman never reassured her about anything. She'd let her grow up thinking she had an imaginary wolf friend that could talk to her. Brit had no such obvious signs of being a wolf, so Rebecca wouldn't want to tell her anything.

"Let's focus on you for now. You're supposed to be training with the others until you shift. They're a million times stronger than you, so I'm sure I don't have to tell you what a bad idea that is."

Britney's fear filled the room again.

"I can't fight," Britney whispered.

"Don't worry. I'll find a way to get you out of here, and you can go back to that useless father you love so much," she snapped before she looked out of the window again.

Several warriors were heading to the cars, and Dylan stood next to one of the cars. She could tell by the look on his face that he was communicating with someone. Were they going on a mission? Things had been peaceful lately until the false alarm at the hotel. No one left the territory in the cars except for a few supply runs into town.

Britney sniffed. She always hated it when her sister cried, and it seemed now wasn't an exception. She turned back to look at the girl she had raised and saw her face buried in the pillow. It was too much to take in. Any normal person would have believed she lost her mind after she chose to live in the forest. It wasn't Brit's fault.

She desperately wanted to go over and comfort Britney as she would have before, but she wasn't sure that would be welcome. But the numbness started to disappear. The emotions she shoved to the back of her mind started to return. Her heart began to ache again because her sister was in pain.

She stepped forward, but Britney raised her head and flinched back again.

And it speared her right through her heart.

She had to get out of there. She walked towards the door instead but stopped when she heard footsteps in the hallway. They slowed and then stopped in front of the door.

Keys. Where did she put the keys? She hated fighting with Jax; she hated the distance growing between them. It was time she learned to trust their bond and speak to him like an adult.

When she found the keys on the window sill, the footsteps had already carried on past the door. Jax didn't even try to speak to her.

Her shoulders slumped as her heart took another hit, and this one felt worse than the others. She shoved everything back again. There was no time to fall apart when they were in the middle of a crisis.

She saw Jackson come out of the packhouse with a bag in his hand.

Was he... Was he going somewhere without speaking to her?

‘Jax!'

He looked up at the window as Dylan took his bag from him.

‘Where are you going?'

‘I have work to do. We'll talk when I get back.'

He got into the back of one of the cars without another word. He didn't even look back.

And that hurt more than anything else she felt that night.