Prologue - Layla #2
Leonid cupped a hand to his ear, playing the perfect jester as he leaned forward. “What was that? I didn’t quite catch it.”
“I said no,” Layla replied, chest flushing. “You know I don’t.”
Rhett laughed in delight, “Look how red she’s going! Aww, don’t worry, Layla! We can find you a boyfriend!”
She glanced up, breaths coming faster now. She didn’t know what to say. She never knew what to say when they did this. They’d tie her up in words and jeers and leave her reeling. Even staying silent kept her on the backfoot.
“What?” she asked lamely, cringing at herself. God, why couldn’t she be witty and quick like her brother? Her brother, who, yet again, was standing silently by.
So much for family.
“Would you like that?” Rhett asked brightly. “I know the perfect guy for you! Tall, handsome, strong, all that shit. Would you like to meet him, Layla?”
“Rhett, you asshole,” Leonid said with a lazy grin, eyes sparking in vicious glee.
She was sure her face was on fire now. She didn’t dare turn. Didn’t dare even glance at him.
“Don’t be so ridiculous, Rhett,” Dominic sneered. “As if anyone would go within an inch of her. Ignoring the fact that she’s not even one of us—”
“I am one of you,” she said, surprising herself with the conviction in her voice.
The room fell silent. Layla could practically hear her heart hammering away in her chest. The temperature dropped several degrees. The scent of tea leaves burned her nose.
“What did you say?” asked Dominic, his voice dangerously soft.
She swallowed reflexively. “I…”
He rounded on her in a sudden burst of speed, arms shooting out to trap her against the countertop, thick arms filling her peripheral vision.
A small, pathetic sound escaped her, and she curled into herself, eyes fixed on his shoes.
He was close enough that she could smell the trees on him, the loamy earth.
“Tell me how exactly you reckon you’re one of us.” When she didn’t immediately reply, he stooped closer, his breath brushing against her hair. “Go on, mutt. Give me details.”
“Come on, Dom,” Leonid said lightly, “you’re gonna make her cry.”
Theodore laughed nervously as the others snickered, but Dominic remained stoic. Silent. Expectant.
She swallowed.
“You don’t have to be cruel,” she whispered, risking glancing up through her lashes at him.
His eyes searched her face, his expression blank, before it cracked open into twisted disgust. “You think this is cruel, Hawthorne? You’ve got no fucking clue.
What’s cruel is that you continue to insist you’re part of this pack, that you’re a wolf like us, when you’re nothing like us.
You’re an embarrassment to the Volkhovs, sixteen years old, and no sign of a shift.
You might as well be a pathetic little human. ”
Tears were burning a path down her cheeks, and although she was desperate to wipe them away, she couldn’t move. Not when he was there, so close to her, his hatred seeping from him like venom.
“You’re weak,” Dominic spat, finally pushing away and turning his back to her. “You’ll never be one of us.”
The words landed like a bomb in the small kitchen. She couldn’t stop the tears now; they came thick and fast, alongside an angry throbbing in her throat as she tried desperately to keep her choking sobs at bay.
Dominic jerked his chin at Leonid and Rhett as he walked towards the door. He paused just long enough to glance over his shoulder.
“You’re lucky your brother shows such promise,” he said. “Otherwise, the Alpha would’ve cast your whole family out by now.
Then he left, Leonid and Rhett right behind him.
The door slammed behind him, the sound echoing through the empty house long after he was gone.
She stood by the counter, shaking, the faint scent of smoke and earth lingering where Dominic had been. Blood was roaring in her ears, drowning everything else out.
Seconds passed. Then minutes.
Theodore shifted, and she looked up at him, suddenly desperate for him. Her big brother. A male who ought to protect her. Or at the very least, give her some consolation, one kind word—
He cleared his throat. “Layla, what were you doing before we came home?”
Her stomach twisted. “What?”
His eyes narrowed. “What were you doing just before we came in?”
Her heart quickened. “Nothing.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m not,” she said, too quickly.
He took two slow steps closer. “The others may have been fooled, but I’m not so easy. That’s not tea I smell.”
She swallowed, hands trembling, “I don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“I said don’t lie,” he shouted, and she jumped back. He looked at her then, his expression caught somewhere between fury and desperation.
“Layla, do you have any idea what would happen if you were caught?”
“Theo, please—”
“Do you want us killed? You, me, our parents?”
She pushed off the counter, fighting the urge to shrink from him. He’d always been so much bigger than her. Taller, stronger, broader, better. The prime example of a fine young alpha.
And didn’t he know it.
“Don’t pretend to care so much about our family,” she spat, dashing away her tears with her sleeve, “not after you stand by and let Dominic Volkhov insult our house, our parents.”
“That’s different,” Theodore said through gritted teeth. “I’m building an alliance that will look after us all-”
“You’re nothing but a trained dog!” Layla threw her hands up in the air. “What kind of friend talks about your home like that? Your sister?”
“We’re not talking about Volkhov,” Theodore said, “we’re talking about you and your insistence on practicing magic even when I’ve expressively told you—”
“You’re not in charge of me!”
“The fuck I’m not!”
“Why is it you only remember you’re my brother when it’s to order me around?”
“Because, believe it or not, I’m trying to protect you. To protect all of us. It’s as the Alpha says. Magic comes at a cost. Witchcraft always has consequences. Our own great-grandfather died when the witches tried to seize control for themselves. I’m looking out for you-”
“Yeah, right,” Layla spat. “You’re doing a fantastic job of that. I haven’t done anything wrong. I told you.”
Theodore’s eyes flashed in anger before flicking to the door.
She realized, a second too late, what he planned on doing.
“Theo,” she yelled as he sprinted past her, taking the stairs three at a time. “Theo, stop!”
She was no match for him. By the time she stumbled into her bedroom, he already had one of her grimoires in hand, disentangling it from the mess of blankets. He held it up to her, jaw working.
“Unbelievable.”
“Theo…”
“I told you to throw these things on the fire! If anyone else, including our father, found them—”
“It’s not what you think,” Layla said, hands clenched into fists. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone!”
“Then what? What could possibly justify breaking the pack law?”
Yet again, tears of pure frustration welled in her eyes, and she growled as she furiously rubbed at her face. “I was just trying to…that is…there’s a spell—”
“You were using magic to try and shift.”
Layla looked up at him, heart sinking into her stomach. She nodded, suddenly feeling a hundred times smaller than she was.
Theodore groaned, chucking the grimoire onto the bed, running a hand down his face. “I can’t keep covering for you, Layla. Do you know what Dominic would say if he knew?”
Layla’s breath caught. “He already hates me.”
“Not like this,” Theodore said. “He’d tell his father. And once the Alpha hears—” he broke off, his jaw working. “I can’t protect you from that. I won’t.”
The words landed heavily.
Layla blinked fast, but a tear slipped free anyway. “You’d tell him yourself if it meant keeping your place.”
He didn’t deny it.
Silence stretched between them.
Finally, Theodore moved to the window. The moonlight caught the edge of his jaw, his expression tired and bitter, “You don’t understand what it’s like,” he said quietly, “every day, I have to prove we’re not at the bottom of the food chain.
That we belong in this pack. You think I can do that if my sister’s off practicing witchcraft? ”
“I wasn’t hurting anyone,” she said.
“That doesn’t matter,” he snapped. “Perception matters. You think any of them care what’s true?”
Her voice trembled. “I just wanted to…feel like I wasn’t useless.”
His shoulders stiffened. For a heartbeat, she thought he might soften. But when he turned back to her, his face was stone. “You want to feel useful? Then stop making this harder for me.”
For me.
The words twisted like a knife.
He moved past her, shoulders tense and angry. “You’re done with this. I mean it. I catch you doing it again, and I’ll tell the Alpha myself.”
Layla’s breath hitched. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would.”
He stalked away before she could respond, jaw tight, every line of him radiating frustration.
Layla stood frozen in the doorway, tears streaking silently down her face, listening to his heavy footsteps thundering down the stairs.
“You used to stick up for me,” she whispered into the air.
But he was gone.
And she was alone.