35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

J ax watched the metal jaws of the scrap processor as they crushed the car only for a moment before he placed a wad of notes in the attendant's hand. The human grinned, counting his loot before he walked away.

The human never asked questions; he just took the money and went about his business. He hadn't even blinked when he'd thrown his bloody clothes in one of the fire pits at the back of the yard. It made him shudder to think what else the human turned a blind eye to. Many of his cars ended up in the junkyard. It was just outside Wolfdale and surrounded by woodland. All he had to do was shift and run back home.

"Pleasure doing business with you," the human said.

He nodded and looked around at the piled-up totalled cars around him. He'd been careful driving there but couldn't be sure he hadn't been followed. The Hunters were so different— what if they could track better? Heading directly to his territory wasn't a good idea.

Gerald was hopefully well on his way to the next city, to another of his motels in a different getaway car, and the money in the go-bag would help him out for a while if he didn't drink it all. Layla's father sobered up quickly when he saw what they were up against. He only hoped he'd drilled it deep enough into that man's head that he couldn't speak about what he'd seen.

"I need to use your phone."

Gerald took the last burner phone to call once he was safe. He hadn't thought of calling Dylan to tell him he was okay while Gerald sped out of Wolfdale. He'd been more concerned with ensuring they lost the Hunters following them.

The man turned back and grinned.

"It will cost you," he said.

"Of course." He tried not to roll his eyes.

It was always greed that separated humans from everyone else. He took the last few notes in his pocket and handed them to the greasy human before he followed him to the office at the front of the yard.

Like the human who worked there, the office was disorganised and full of shit, but it was functional. An old phone sat on the desk, a dial-up one he hadn't seen since he'd been a young boy. It was surrounded by discarded meals and rubbish. The stench alone would keep anyone else out of the room.

The whole pack memorised the secure phone numbers from when they were old enough to learn in case of any emergencies. He dialled it and wasn't surprised when someone picked up straight away. It was almost sundown, and he'd left the packhouse early. They would all have been worried.

"Yes?"

"It's me."

He looked back at the human who was unashamedly eavesdropping on the conversation.

"Are you okay? Did you find them?"

He hadn't looked for the scouts. Guilt plagued him the whole day about that. It would look like he chose Layla's family over the scouts, but there was no way he could go back to the hotel when he knew how many Hunters were waiting for him.

"No. I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm coming home."

He almost put the phone down when the warrior spoke again.

"Alpha. I don't know how to tell you this, but..."

His heart immediately dropped to his stomach. Cain had been stewing over having to run away from a fight, but the beast stopped his silent treatment and stood to attention.

"Did they find you? Were you attacked?"

"No, Alpha. But... Miss Layla... Our Luna came to find you."

His whole body went cold.

"What?! Who let that happen? Why was she allowed to leave?"

Cain immediately tried to take over him. The phone cracked in his grip as his claws started extending.

"She ordered us not to follow her. She's been gone for hours."

Hours...

Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

The phone snapped in his grip, and the human immediately started shouting about paying for a new one. He dropped the pieces and ran out of the office without looking back. Layla... How could she? His heart was pounding as he felt for his connection with his mate.

The moment he was in the woods, he stripped out of his sweats and shifted, giving Cain free rein.

He should have thought of that. He'd assumed he would be back by Layla's side before she woke up, but the moment things went wrong, he should have remembered who he mated. Layla always ran head-first into any battle, whether to protect the pack or to try to save him.

But she was terrified of the Hunters and knew no one was allowed out of the territory. Why would she try to find him?

The distance back to the woods near the hotel was only half an hour if running at full speed but he broke his record. He'd been much faster since he marked Layla, but something else drove him. Fear mixed with rage. Cain's darkness. He had no control over his emotions as his huge paws thundered on the ground and his large body snapped branches, leaving a clear trail for anyone who wanted to find him.

The hotel looked quiet when he watched it from a distance. The heavy aura from the Hunters was gone, but that was impossible. They wouldn't have just left after what he did to them. They would have set out hunting. He didn't sense Layla in the hotel, either, and their bond was still muted even though he had to be close to her. He couldn't even feel her general direction as he should have been able to do as her true mate.

His mind started to shut down at the thought of what that could mean.

‘Find her,' he growled to Cain.

Cain was already moving, lowering his head as he searched for Layla's scent in the woods. Maybe she was waiting for him. Perhaps she didn't get too close to the hotel. The Hunters would have been looking for him; she would have sensed them. Maybe she ran in the opposite direction, leading them away from the territory as she did during the last hunt.

‘So where the fuck is she?' Cain shouted. ‘If she was here, we'd have found her already!"

He wanted to throw up.

He couldn't breathe.

His heart pounded against his ribs, trying to crack his chest open.

They had her.

No.

No, he wouldn't think like that. He was alive, so that meant Layla was still alive. He would find her. He would take her away and protect her from his enemies, as he should have done from the beginning.

‘You're doing it again. You're fucking shutting down instead of saving our mate,' Cain growled, and then without waiting for him to reply, the beast turned back towards the city. ‘I've told you several times that I will not let anyone fuck with what's mine. I'll get her back myself.'

He didn't argue. He was still trying to push back that thought that was trying to undo him. What if...?

Cain was about a mile away from the edge of the forest when they caught it. Layla's sweet scent. She was there!

A little hope shone through, pulling him from the depths of despair he had fallen into.

Cain didn't waste any time. He followed the scent, noticing no trail on the leafy ground. No broken twigs of branches like what he left behind. Layla probably masked herself. She'd perhaps hidden herself as she did when the Circle's assassin came into their room.

Why hadn't he thought about that? His mate was special; her wolf took care of her even though she didn't know how. She would have hidden in the shadows to avoid detection. She wouldn't have mindlessly gone in to save him, especially considering her wolf had attacked him as if he were the enemy. Saving him was probably the last thing her wolf wanted to do.

But the closer they got to the edge of the forest, the more uneasy he became. Why did Layla go that far?

The scent stopped abruptly in a small clearing. It took him a moment to register what he was looking at. What he could smell in the air.

There were tracks on the ground that were noticeable only because Layla hadn't left any traces before. And the land was disturbed in other places.

‘What...'

What the fuck happened? Where was she?

Cain sniffed around the clearing until he stopped at something else. Boot prints. Many footprints leading to the clearing and then away. And the scents... They were faint as if masked, too, but he knew that scent. He'd come face to face with it.

The dam he had been trying to hold back broke through as Cain let out a long, loud howl. He plunged head-first into the pit of despair, his limbs weakening as the raw emotions flayed him. Cain started to run again. And as the beast headed back into the city, following a trail that the Hunters didn't bother to hide, his mind finally snapped. His beast's urges merged with his own, and all the walls that stood between them shattered. The walls that separated man and beast.

The walls that kept him from burning the world to the ground.

They fucked with the wrong wolf.