Chapter Sixteen: Embracing the Bliss

"Why am I an exception?" Layla inquired. She couldn't maintain contact with Alpha Niklaus for long, so she looked down again. "Akila told me about you," Alpha Niklaus said. "Women and children ought not to be denied protection, and you fall into either category. It will be a bad decision to let you go. We will be your family." Layla bit on her mouth at Alpha Niklaus's words that she fell in the category of a child. She might looked malnourished and too lean for her age, but that didn't mean she had the brains of a child. She stamped down the annoyance that rippled briefly through her at being likened to a child. It undermined all her past experiences. She had taken up adult roles before she became fifteen. Although she had never once been acknowledged for it, Layla had been the the major provider of her family. She had to meet up with Donkor's unreasonable monthly quarter, yet often beaten to a pulp despite working herself to the bones for their upkeep. Not that she would w