Layla closed her eyes and waited for that horrible sound of the lock turning. She was going to lose her mind stuck in the bedroom alone. When Jackson had been close to her, at least she had put all her focus on him. But now, all she had were her thoughts. Again.She had been feeling fine before, but she could still feel those cracks starting to form. If anything else happened, she was going to break. She waited for that sound, but it didn’t come.Instead, Jackson said, “What are you doing up here?” as he closed the door. She opened her eyes and strained to listen. Who was it? Had someone come to hurt her again? She muted the volume on the television and stood, waiting to see if they would come into the room. When they didn’t, she quietly made her way to the door. She could hear their muffled voices behind the thick wooden door. Without daring to breathe, she placed her ear against the wood to make the voices clearer. They were still faint, but she thought she heard Jackson’s crue

Holy...What the...She had never seen anything like the monsters in front of her. This was not her mind playing tricks on her. She could hear the snarls. She could smell the matted wolf. It smelled like something dead that should have been buried long ago.But the other thing, the one with the red eyes...It was the thing she had seen the night of the storm. It had jumped over her the same way.That couldn’t be real, but her mind told her it was. She’d thought the red wolf was huge, but this thing was humongous! Its teeth were razor-sharp and could easily chomp off half her body without trying. In the reduced lighting in the woods, its dark grey fur looked as silky as the red wolf’s. And while she had never felt afraid of the red wolf, she was terrified of this one.At least she knew she was supposed to be terrified. She felt nothing as she watched the wolves tumble and fight each other.And then a head rolled right to her feet.She stifled a scream as she looked at the matted wolf’

Jax pulled the ring from his sock drawer and looked back at Layla’s sleeping form.He’d broken her. He knew that. And yet he couldn’t reassure her about anything she had seen because they would kill her the moment she gave birth. He sighed and walked over to the bed. She hadn’t undressed, so he could still smell a hint of the rogue’s blood on her clothes. The witch would pay for doing this to her. He would find her, one way or another, before he died. Even if he had to give himself over to the Circle and their dark magic. He gently took her warm hand, and the contact sent a jolt through him stronger than anything. It had been days since he had been with his mate the way he wanted, and Cain was still content to wait for her to be ready. But for how long? Lust and need constantly flowed between them; he wasn’t sure how long he could hold it at bay. He slipped the ring on her engagement finger and let her hand go. Layla didn’t even stir. He hadn’t tired her much with the run, so he

He hadn’t meant to do that.He was supposed to be given her space to deal with the shit that had happened, but one thing had led to another and... He ran his tongue along his gums because they were itching. The urge to go back and do what she had asked was still riding him hard. He had to remind himself that she had no idea what she was asking for. And even if she did, he could never do that to her.He dried himself and then looked at the bite on his side. It had reopened and was still bleeding. It looked worse than it had before he had gone to bed. How the hell was that even possible if it wasn’t caused by magic? Could Diedre have got that wrong? If she couldn’t see his future, maybe her magic didn’t work on him at all. Maybe the witch had found a way to speed up his death. He put a thicker dressing on it before leaving the bathroom. Layla was still exactly where he’d left her, looking a little shell-shocked. He could commiserate. It felt different this time. A little more intens

Layla was dressed and wondering when Jackson would bring her something to eat when she saw the entourage of expensive cars coming up the driveway. She leaned against the window to have a better look as the people started to come out of their cars. They were all dressed in suits like Jackson. She’d assumed he had just made up an excuse to escape her questioning, but she’d obviously been wrong about that. A group of the visitors met before the front steps and started talking. There was only one woman among them, and she was dressed to kill. A tight, short dress that showed off all her assets—and even from her distance, she could see what fine assets they were. She was tall, like all of them, and her hair was in some sort of elegant curly do on top of her head.Something inside her hated the woman on sight. She never formed opinions about people if she’d never spoken to them but this woman... Her skin prickled just by looking at her. What sort of meeting was this anyway, where people d