Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 58 : Fated Babe

Maeve

Cleo felt over my belly, finding a spot just below my navel where my stomach went suddenly limp, as

though the muscles I had there just up and disappeared. I looked down, slightly concerned.

“It’s just your ligaments loosening up,” she said with a smile, unrolling a length of measuring tape and

laying it vertically over my skin. “You’re going to start feeling

something like… being snapped with a rubber band, every once in a while, around your waist.”

“Yeah, I’ve felt that a few times,” I said, watching as she measured my stomach. I definitely wasn’t

showing yet, but I did feel a little softer, looser. I had tried to explain it to Troy, trying to find a word for

the way my body felt. What had he called it? Limp noodle?

Ah, yes. My bones felt like overcooked pasta. I was suddenly clumsy, dizzy, and extremely fatigued. I

felt so out of sorts, like my mind and body were no longer connecting. And when I brought it up to Cleo,

she had simply nodded, telling me it was all totally and completely normal.

“You’re measuring ahead, but I expected that, carrying twins and all,” Cleo said, rolling the tape around

her finger and putting it back into the bag Una had given her, which was full of practically everything

needed to tend to a pregnancy and deliver a baby. She pulled out a stethoscope next, placing it on my

skin to listen to whatever lay beneath.

“Can you hear them yet?” | asked. She put the stethoscope away and gently prodded my stomach. It

was amazing to watch her work. She had delivered so many children during the course of her career.

There was no one else I trusted with my pregnancy more than Cleo.

She was also the only person even remotely qualified to deliver the babies, especially given the fact

that we were traveling into the unknown.

–

–

–

“Not very well, but I guarantee you, they’re there. Both of them. You’re probably txo

–

months along, I’d say.”

“When will she start getting round?” Myla was standing in the corner of the room! shared with Troy,

watching us with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked a little uncomfortable.

“I already feel round,” I said as I pulled my shirt down. I struggled suddenly to sit upright, needing

Cleo’s assistance as a wave of dizziness washed over me.

“You’re likely a little anemic, Maeve. I’ll let Olly know. You’ll need more iron in your diet.”

“Your boobs are huge,” Myla said curtly, and both Cleo and I turned to her.

“Are you okay,” I said, but Myla was already out the door, slamming it shut behind her. “What’s her

problem?”

Cleo sighed deeply as she put her tools back in the bag, running her fingers along the smooth leather.

“Her biological mother died in childbirth, remember?”

“Oh,” I replied, feeling incredibly insensitive. I blushed, drawing my knees into my chest. “I’m sorry, I

wasn’t thinking,”

“It’s not you, honey. She’s concerned.”

“But… I’ll be fine, won’t I?

Cleo gave me a soft smile, nodding. “You’ll be fine. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I wouldn’t let

anything happen to her, either.”

“Is that what she’s upset about?”

Cleo folded her hands in her lap as she sat down on the edge of the bed, looking over at me with a look

that told me whatever was said between us was not, under any circumstances, to be repeated.

“Myla asked me recently how to prevent a pregnancy from occurring. She is terrified of it, Maeve. She

may not have known her mother, but she was orphaned moments after she was born. That would make

anyone have second thoughts.”

“She was talking about having ten children with Keaton when we were in Dianny-”

“And maybe someday she will, but for now…” Cleo trailed off, picking at a patchwork

18.25%

15170)

quilt “She’s not ready. And I don’t think Keaton is, either.”

“What did you tell her to do?” I asked, genuinely curious. I hadn’t ever even considered it given that I

was in a situation where I was supposed to get pregnant instead of not

*Not have sex, for one. But that’s not plausible after meeting your mate, is it?” Cleo laughed, shaking

her head.

“Cleo?” I asked, taking advantage of our moment alone to ask her something I had never known. “Did

you ever find your mate?”

Cleo’s smile faded, her eyes shimmering suddenly with a distant, somber memory.

“1-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry-”

“It’s alright, darling. I just haven’t talked about her in a long time.” Cleo’s expression underwent a series

of expressions as she got lost in her memories. After a moment she looked up at me, the corner of her

mouth twitching with the shadow of a smile. “I did find my mate. Her name was Olivia.”

“How old were you when you found her?”

“Oh, twenty-two, I believe. So young,” She laughed gently, looking down at her hands. “She was

beautiful, truly. I know everyone thinks their mates are beautiful but Liv was just… I was enraptured by

her. She was the daughter of a lesser Alpha from a small pack in the West. I was training under the

midwife in her village when we met and we… ran away together.”

“You did?” I leaned in, wanting to know more.

“We had to. She was being married off. Her father would have never approved of our relationship. We

thought we’d have a chance if we fled to the Isles, but…” She trailed off, knitting her brow, “We were

caught. I was arrested,”

“Arrested?” I was shocked.

“For kidnapping her, if you can believe that.” Cleo rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulders

“What happened then?”

“I didn’t see her again for many years. Twenty years… the longest years of my life. By

35 343

1518D

that point, I had trained to be a midwife. I ended up setting up a practice in Mirage. That’s when-“She

exhaled deeply, her eyes misting with tears. She met my eyes, shaking her head. “I’ve never told Myla.”

“Told her what?”

Cleo bit her lip, looking suddenly so young. Cleo was a beautiful woman already, but at that moment, I

could picture what she would have looked like in her youth.

“I was… I was working in Mirage. A man came to me; he said his wife was struggling in labor. When he

brought her inside, I thought–I just…” A single tear rolled down her cheek. She looked away from me,

settling her gaze on a random spot on the far wall. “I hadn’t seen her in so long. And then, there she