25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

L ayla stopped banging on the door and screaming when there was no response. She turned and leaned against the door to look around again. The room felt even smaller.

Her throat started to close up, making it harder to breathe.

Was she still at the hotel? Did Jax know where she was?

"Breathe, Layla," she gasped.

Her knees gave out, and she slid to the floor. So much for being the queen, the woman worthy to stand beside Jackson. She couldn't even get out of the room. Jax had been right—she was not ready. She was a liability and should never have come with him.

If she had left when she'd wanted to...

Pain lanced through her chest, but she forced herself to breathe through it. She had to think. She was still alive, which meant Jax was also alive. He would move heaven and earth to find her.

Her heart calmed down as her panic started to dissipate. She pushed her fear to the back of her mind and focused on her link to Jax.

‘Jax?'

No response. She couldn't even tell if he could hear her. Was he still conscious? She knew he was alive but had no idea what was happening to him. He was close, though; that much she was sure of.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her surroundings. No one was outside her room, but there was a lot of that oppressive aura. And Jax was somewhere in the middle of it. Her relief at finding him was short-lived when she realised he was surrounded. And he was angry. His rage came through clearly as if he was right next to her.

She shot to her feet again and faced the door. She had to somehow get out of the room before Jax hurt anyone. He'd told her many times that they couldn't fight the Circle but must have known what separating them would do to him. Was this a trap?

Her phone rang, startling her out of her thoughts. She fumbled as she dug through her pockets for it and saw Dylan's name on the screen. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of calling him? Dylan knew the Circle better than she did; he would know what she was supposed to do.

"Layla, I can't reach Jax. Has the trial started?"

She'd opened her mouth to tell him what had happened when the tone of his voice registered. He was anxious.

Dylan wouldn't have called unless it was urgent. Was it an attack on the pack?

"What happened?"

There was a pause on the other end.

"Dylan!"

"I don't know if I should say anything when you guys are facing the Circle, but I don't know what to do."

"Spit it out," she ordered.

Was it Hope? Britney? Had her sister succeeded in running away?

"Faith hasn't called her mother for over a week," Dylan said. "We called her college, and they confirmed she hasn't been in her classes. She's missing."

The phone clattered to the floor.

Fear filled her body as she imagined the worst. Taken? Like all the wolves that were missing in the other packs? Like her mother?

Was it the Hunters?

Her fear turned to terror. If Hunters had Faith and her mother...

"Layla!"

Dylan's voice echoed through the small room, snapping her out of her thoughts. She fell to her knees and picked the phone back up.

"Are... Are you sure?" she whispered.

"There were Hunters spotted up north near her college."

She sucked in a breath. Hunters. Hunters were going after her family again. The thought whirled around in her head, along with images of the face she would never forget—the merciless Hunter who'd killed Amber with no remorse right in front of her.

"Layla?"

"We're coming," she whispered.

She cut the connection and tried to slip the phone back into her pocket, but it clattered on the floor again. Her hands shook too much when she tried to pick it back up. Her whole body shook. She'd encouraged Faith to go out of her comfort zone to pursue her dreams when she'd known how dangerous it was out there. A gentle Omega who wouldn't hurt a fly.

And now...

She couldn't even finish the thought. Her mind shut down, overtaken by overwhelming emotions.

She had to get Faith back. She had to get Rebecca back. She should have gone looking for her the second she'd wondered if her mother had been taken, too. That was the only reason Rebecca would have stayed away from her grandchild that long.

Something sparked up inside her, a fire to match Jax's rage. It rose so quickly inside her that it pushed everything else aside.

And it was completely separate from her terrifying emotions that she knew that it was her wolf. The wolf that had abandoned her after brutally murdering the witch that had attacked her pack.

Her eyesight became sharper the way it did when her eyes glowed, and somehow she was on her feet. It took her a moment to realise that the wolf had gone further than just invading her mind. Her body had been hijacked. The fear and anxiety were gone, leaving only the wolf's anger.

She had forgotten how it felt to be at the mercy of a monster, to watch herself do something as if she was watching someone else. It still felt strange and a complete violation, but for the first time since she had realised what that voice in her head was, she welcomed it.

The door she had been uselessly banging on broke off its hinges and fell forward after only a few well-aimed punches. She could smell the metallic scent of her blood and feel it dripping from her fingers as she stepped over the door and looked in the direction she sensed Jax. She was in an unfamiliar hallway with several doors close together that probably led into rooms as small as the one she had broken out of. Maybe they were all prison cells, too.

With her wolf leading her, she sensed what she knew was dark magic all around her. It seemed to come alive as she walked past it, almost as if it was trying to get her. But her wolf didn't seem concerned.

It was only when she got to the end of the hallway that she realised that was where they had intended to take her when she'd checked in. The young man sat at the front desk smiling even though no one was waiting to be served. The lobby was empty. She could sense that something was off with him even more now that the wolf had enhanced her senses. He was not human; he was something even her wolf didn't want to get close to.

He turned his head in her direction as if he'd known she was thinking about him.

"You are a fascinating little thing," he drawled. "Come closer, little wolf."

As if. She bared her teeth, ready to fight through him to get to Jackson if she had to.

And then the scent of blood assaulted her nose. A lot of blood. She forgot about the weird man and rushed to the door the Circle members had gone through. When she touched the door handle, a great force pushed her back, knocking across the lobby. She'd never been hit by lightning, but she imagined that was how it felt. The jolts continued to go through her body, making her body twitch as she lay with her limbs at an angle in the middle of the lobby.

And then the screams started.

She pushed herself to her elbow and watched the man as his smile widened. It was almost as if he was getting off on that pain —what the hell was he? And he didn't make a move to investigate the commotion.

The screams became louder, forcing her back to her feet. She was too late. Jackson had broken the rules, so the Circle was within its rights to retaliate.

‘Not today.'

The voice in her head startled her. It had been over a year since she'd heard it, but she had no chance to process that when it forced her back to the doors.

‘Stop!' she screamed, but her hand was already on the handle again.

And nothing happened.

It was almost as if the wolf allowed the magic to flow through her, charging her up from the inside as she easily turned the handle and shoved the door open.

It took her a moment to register what she was looking at. There were so many limbs and so much blood... It made her feel nauseous, but not her wolf. The monster loved what she saw. It had loved what she had done to Hailey, too.

It still scared the shit out of her.

Several people were seated, looking out of place in the mayhem, and they were all looking at her as if she had grown another head. But she ignored them as she focused on her mate.

Jax had someone by the throat, dangling him up in the air. It was the man Jax had warned her not to piss off.

"Jax, stop!"

Red eyes turned to meet hers. Half beast, half man, the man she loved was covered in blood and full of murderous rage.

Jax threw the man aside and ran around the mess he'd made to pull her into his arms, covering her in blood in the process. She could feel his heart working hard as it beat against his chest.

"Did they hurt you?" Jax asked.

"No. But we have to go," she whispered.

Would they make it out alive after what Jax had done?

"I need to finish what I started," Jax growled as he released her and turned away from her.

‘At what cost?' she asked him in his head, grabbing his arm to stop him.

Why was he going against everything he had taught her?

‘We have to stop them, Layla.'

‘We can't afford another war. We have to go, Jax. The Hunters got Faith.'

Jax turned back to her, and his rage disappeared. He shifted back to the form she was used to.

"How?" he growled.

But he started to pull her out of the room before she could answer. She was at the doors when she looked back at the man Jax had been about to kill and saw the snarl on his face. His anger hit her in the face, and she stumbled as if it was a physical punch.

Maybe she should have let Jax kill him.

As soon as that thought entered her head, she pushed it away. Despite how crazy they all seemed and all their stupid laws, dark magic and assassin vampires, they were wolves. They weren't supposed to be the enemy. The Hunters were the enemy they all had to worry about.

Jax pulled her out of the hotel without anyone stopping them. He was peeling out of the car park when he met her gaze.

‘How did you break through the Circle's wards?'

She remembered the way they had all looked at her and shrugged. In the back of her mind, she already knew that was one more thing that made them different—another reason for Jax to doubt their bond.

The wards going out of the parking lot felt like a little tickle, a far cry from how strong they'd felt when they had arrived. But she didn't relax until Jax had sped further from the hotel and made sure no one had chased after them.

And only then did the wolf loosen its grip on her and disappear as if it hadn't come.

It was inevitable now.

They were going to war with the Circle.