Lowlander Silverback (Gray Back Bears #5)(26)

Some mate he was.

Beaston had said his duty was to make her happy, but this was all he was capable of. Ruining her. Every heartbeat hurt, every movement of his muscles as he sat in the chair next to her and watched his mate break. It took an hour before she’d cried herself out, and when she lay spent, Kong picked her crumpled body up in his arms and strode from the room before she could see the nurses pull the sheet over Mac’s face. And as he walked Layla through the front door, something deep within him broke. He could feel himself changing from a cellular level outward. He no longer gave a shit about consequences. This was where the winds of change turned to a f*cking hurricane. There was no more cowed Kong, trying to please everyone so that the people he cared about didn’t get hurt anymore. He was Kong, dominant death-bringer silverback who had been pushed too far.

Hurting him was one thing, but his people had hurt his mate.

And now they were going to pay with rivers of blood.

****

Layla closed her swollen eyes against the moonlight that streamed through the window of Kong’s Camaro. All of the crying had brought on a massive headache.

He’s gone.

Another wave of grief threatened to buckle her, so she wrapped her arms more tightly around her middle to keep from falling apart into tiny pieces. She was a broken mirror now. She’d been punched in her middle, and now the jagged shards of her heart were barely holding together.

Kong hadn’t said a word the entire way to…wherever they were going. Maybe he was just driving through the wilderness, she didn’t know. Two hours of complete silence had been good for her, though. She needed Kong right now, just like this. Quiet, sitting beside her, ready to hold her in case she fell apart. She wasn’t strong right now, but he was cutting a rigid profile.

Strong Kong. Weak Layla.

Mac.

Her family wasn’t whole anymore. It had been beautiful for a moment there. Even if it was hard, she’d had Kong and she’d had Mac, and her little make-shift family had felt complete. It had taken her years to build it—to let the right people into her heart—but after a blinding, joyous second, it was over. Dreams broken, and she hadn’t gotten to say goodbye.

Kong pulled under a wooden sign over the white gravel road that read Grayland Mobile Park.

“What are we doing here?” she asked in a hoarse voice as he pulled in front of a semi-circle of singlewide mobile homes.

Kong didn’t say a word as he put the car into park. The driver’s side door creaked open, and the car rocked as he got out. With long strides, he walked around the front of the car and opened her door, then reached over, unbuckled her, and pulled her out cradled against his chest.

“You’ll be safe here,” he murmured. “Ten-ten is magic.”

“Ten-ten?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked over at the Gray Backs who had filed out of their trailers and gathered in front of them. Faces so somber in the deep shadows of a porch light off one of the trailers, they were almost unfamiliar. She had rarely seen this crew without smiles on their faces.

Willa approached first, her bottom lip trembling as she hugged Layla and Kong. Kong went rigid with Layla in his arms but allowed the affection. It wasn’t until after Gia, Georgia, and Easton piled around them, hugging them up tight, that Kong relaxed by a fraction.

Another wave of tears fell from Layla’s eyes as she rested her forehead against Willa’s. Strange bears and their affection, but it was working. At least she didn’t feel numb anymore.

“Can I kill him now?” Easton said in a hard voice.

“No,” Kong answered. “I just need you to protect my mate while I take care of some things.”

“What things?” Layla asked, voice shaking.

Kong looked down at her with the saddest look. His eyes were still the blazing color of early spring moss, churning like storm clouds. “Mac is dead because of me. You’re crying because of me. I can’t fix what’s been done, but I can avenge him. I can avenge the hurt that’s been done to you.”

“I don’t want you to. I want you to stay with me.”

A small smile crept into the corners of Kong’s lips. “If I can, I’ll come back for you.” With that, he lifted his gaze to Creed and settled her on her feet. “Watch over her?”

Creed’s dark eyes were somber as he nodded once.

Kong leaned forward and pressed his lips against her forehead. He let them linger there as Layla clutched his shirt in her clenched fists. “I can’t lose you, too.”

Kong eased back and gripped her arms. The corners of his eyes tightened, and he looked fearsome as he said, “You stay here with the Gray Backs.”

And then he released his hold on her and sauntered back to his car without glancing back. The engine of his hotrod roared to life, and Layla stumbled forward as his car faded into the distance the way they’d come.

As his taillights disappeared through the pine forest, a horrible feeling that she was losing the rest of her make-shift family washed over her.





Chapter Ten


The hours of driving hadn’t cooled Kong’s blood. His rage hadn’t lessened. He hadn’t wised up or conjured second thoughts on the revenge he would take.

Hours of driving had only given him purpose and allowed him to calculate exactly what it was he was doing by going after Rhett.