64. Chapter 64

Chapter 64

" K eep all the children who were not reunited with their pack or families in my room. Give them everything they need and keep people away from them. They're still terrified."

Some children hadn't stopped shaking since they arrived, but others were subdued. He could see the trauma in their eyes, and it made him wonder if they could see his.

"Your room? What about you and Layla?"

Jax didn't react when Dylan said her name. He already numbed himself to the pain before the first truck with the rescued wolves drove through the gates, and he kept busy until every person they saved was settled and comfortable. For the first time in a long time, he wished all the packs didn't rely on him. All he wanted was to hide away.

The sound of thunder forced him to look up at the sky. Would Layla even be safe in her dingy trailer in the storm?

He forced himself to look back at Dylan. Layla chose this. She left him because the bond wasn't forcing her to stay with him anymore.

So much for her words of undying love.

"Don't worry about us," he said.

"I haven't seen her around. Is she resting? The others told us what she went through and what she did for them. That was some heavy shit," Dylan said with a whistle.

That was a lot more than he knew. Layla didn't say shit, and after the blow she'd dealt him, he didn't even think about asking what happened at the base.

"Make sure Rebecca is comfortable," he said without answering. "Take care of the other Alphas. Find guest houses for all of them."

The sky started spitting. If Dylan had any more questions, he didn't voice them as he rushed back inside. While everyone was still recovering, they opened up the packhouse and the hospital for them. The rest of the pack members returned to their houses even though the situation was still dangerous. Once the other bases realised what had happened, they would come down in droves.

He figured they had a few days, at least. The wolves wouldn't need that long to recover with Diedre's potions in their system. And his territory was the safest for everyone because of Diedre's reinforced wards.

Thinking of Diedre turned his thoughts back to Layla. How could a wolf that could heal people and bring them from the brink of death just... disappear? Diedre was stronger than she had ever been because of Layla, and it was the same for him. Nothing changed. His senses were still sharper despite the giant hole in his chest.

He hadn't even felt Nia go. She'd just... fizzled out.

Looking back now, that had to be when Cain retreated and shut himself off. It was too much to handle his pain, never mind sharing it.

The shield he forced himself to wear started to slip.

He lifted his hand to his chest, but that didn't ease it. He wasn't as numb as he'd thought.

"Why are you standing out in the rain?"

He swallowed and looked away from the Alpha who came to stand beside him at the back door entrance. The rain had already soaked him, pelting his face, which he was grateful for. There were tears mixed with it. His heart was starting to split in two, and that hurt like fuck. He was no longer numb.

"Did you get everything on their research?"

He felt Chase's scrutiny before he answered, "It's all loaded in the conference room and some of it in the basement. Not just research—we even got their communications and some more locations. We'll have to find a safer location. We can strike first for a change and end this stupid war for good."

He nodded and looked up at the sky.

"Brax and Ryker will join us when we go after them. I'm sure when words get around about what we did, more packs will want to join us. The Circle won't have a say in this, or they'll have to punish us all."

"They won't punish everyone. Just me," he sighed. "They're not going to let me get away with what I did at the trial."

Especially Alpha Cole. The only reason that asshole hadn't come yet was because of the Hunters. Cole liked to talk the talk, but he wasn't the type to ever challenge a Hunter. Getting rid of compromised packs was probably that coward's idea, too.

"We'll deal with them when that happens. I'm so sick of all of them; I don't even want to think about those fuckers. They're worse than what we're dealing with right now," Chase said. "I don't like how easily they got in last time and the stupid narrow-mindedness that allows them to believe there is only one way. I'm sure there are more wolves than Hunters, so why do we always have to tuck our tails between our legs and hide?"

He looked sideways at the Alpha who had been caught in the crossfire of his feud with the Circle. He didn't want to think about what Alpha Cole was cooking up or Hugo's interest in how Layla broke through Cole's magic.

She wouldn't be able to break through anything anymore.

He swore and looked back at the sky, letting the rain hit his face again. Every thought was taking him straight back to Layla.

A flash of lightning filled the sky, and moments later, the rumble of thunder. The wind started to pick up speed.

"Where's Layla," Chase asked softly.

That question again.

Even with all the noise, he heard it. Her name cut him up this time. Tore his heart to pieces.

"Is she okay?"

He could sense the concern. Everyone had walked on eggshells around him since they came back. He bit down on his jaw, making sure the words in his heart wouldn't escape. It was pointless. He wasn't fooling anyone, and he couldn't tell them to fuck off and leave him alone. It was Cain's fault, though, for proclaiming they were brothers now. Equals. The beast would never go back on his word.

"You should come out of the rain," Chase said after a while. "They said the storm's going to be a bad one."

"You go ahead. Look through all the experiments on our people so we know how to help them," he said. "We can't bring Diedre back yet, so we have to ration the healing potions."

He didn't wait for an answer or look back as he walked down the steps and headed towards the training fields. He didn't stop even when he walked past the guard house, and several of his warriors bowed from the porch. He didn't stop when he was deep in the forest, in the darkness where the tree canopy was so thick most of the rain didn't pass through it.

He walked until he couldn't move anymore without breaking down. And only then did he fall to his knees and allow himself to feel the pain.

Surely love was not meant to be like that. Surely it wasn't meant to bring a grown man to his knees in agony.

Did the past two years mean nothing to Layla? What about their child, who she claimed she would never abandon? Was this not abandonment? Did she think about what this would do to Hope? Layla was the reason Hope thrived despite being unresponsive when she was born prematurely. Their bond always seemed unbreakable.

How could she walk away?

Why couldn't she just pretend?

He didn't know how long he remained lost in his thoughts, but Dylan's scent pulled him out. He wiped his face but didn't look back when his Beta stepped into the small clearing.

"We can feel all that, you know," Dylan said quietly.

Shielding his emotions had been the last thing on his mind when that dam broke. There was too much pain to hold in.

Dylan walked over to him, leaned against a tree trunk and shoved a bottle of his special whiskey in front of his face.

"Wanna try to get drunk?" Dylan asked.

He didn't need a second invitation. The moment he sat beside Dylan, he grabbed the bottle and took a few healthy mouthfuls. The liquid burnt down his throat and made him grimace. But one bottle wouldn't get him drunk, and Dylan knew that. And after what they had just been through a drunk Alpha King was the last thing anyone needed.

"Where did she go?" Dylan asked, straight to the point.

"She left me."

Dylan's shock almost made him laugh. It was funny. His soul mate bailed—broken her word, and he was out in the woods crying like a baby. Fate was a funny fucker. Why was Layla put in his path if everything was always going to end in pain?

"What do you mean she left you? You're mates. You have a bond."

"The Hunters did something. They killed her wolf. So she just got up and left."

Dylan turned to look at him, his eyes wide.

"How did they...?"

His question trailed off, and after a moment, Dylan grabbed the bottle from him.

"She's a red wolf, Jax. A legend. I watched her fucking disappear like a ghost and confuse the fuck out of those Hunters. She's healed our warriors. She commanded a Circle member, for fuck's sake. You can't kill a wolf like that," Dylan said, shaking his head.

"The bond is gone, Dylan."

"So what if it is? She belongs here; why did you let her leave?"

"Why would I force her to stay?"

Dylan looked at him as if he had grown two heads.

"Who said anything about force? Layla loves you, and that's all you need."

Did she?

He sighed and took the bottle back from Dylan.

"Did you even talk about it?"

"There was nothing to talk about."

"Nothing? What about Hope? What about her sister and mother? What about all the people here who have accepted her as the Queen—"

"I know all of that," he growled.

The pain slashed through his heart again.

"Then why did you let her go in the first place?" Dylan shouted.

His head snapped round to his Beta as anger replaced his pain. His eyes would have been glowing if Cain hadn't been so messed up. Dylan and Layla became good friends after she saved his life during her ill-fated escape attempt, but that didn't give the fucker the right to an opinion about this.

"Didn't you hear what I said? She. Left. Me."

Dylan lowered his head, but not before something flashed in his eyes.

"I see. Then what are you going to do about it? You brought her here the first time; I'm sure you can do it again."

Like fuck, he would. He looked away from his disrespectful friend and took another swig of the alcohol.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you're fucking lost without her. You're out here falling apart because you let her leave. That woman lives for you, Jax. I can't imagine what she's going through right now, but she shouldn't be alone. Go and get her. Do whatever it takes."

"She won't come."

"Then court her. Show her how you feel. Let her know that she is still the one your heart beats for."

He stopped mid-swig and looked at his Beta. Court her? Would that make a difference? He had already told her he loved her; what else did he need to prove?

Cain stirred inside him for the first time since Nia went, and the answer became clear.

He was going to get Layla back.