Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Whatever she said to me, whatever she tried to convince me was the truth, it didn’t matter. The White

Queen was dead and would still be dead. Gone. Never to come back

“Did you hear me?”

I snapped my attention back to Kacidra, seeing for the first time the exhaustion and utter despair

lingering behind her green eyes. “No-l… I’m sorry. I’m just-this is all just-”

She embraced me, the two of us standing as close together as we could with the swell of my

pregnancy in the way. I found myself resting my chin on her shoulder, sniffling as tears continued to roll

hot and angry down my cheeks. She was trembling, her chest shaking with silent, desperate sobs.

“What do we do now, Gemma?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”

“Ethan will kill Hanna,” she said with conviction.

“I don’t know if he will. I doubt… I doubt he would. But I can’t say

“How did you come back?” Her question sent a chill up my spine

as I slowly untangled myself from her embrace.

I looked into her eyes, swallowing back the trauma I still felt from the night at the castle that plagued my

dreams, turning them to nightmares.

“1-I just woke up in a clearing… 1–” | turned from her, looking over at Rosalie where she lay lifeless in

her bed.

I felt a surge of raw emotion as I imagined what Ernest must have been thinking seeing me sprawled

out in a similar fashion, lifeless. I reached up and ran my fingers over the necklace I was wearing, the

circular moonstone set in white gold. I had a small burn mark on my chest, the scar only a smooth,

white patch on my skin now, but at one time it had been raw, aching.

Suddenly, the room seemed to spin. I reached to grip Kacidra’s shoulder for support. She said

something in alarm, but the blood hammering in my ears drowned out her words.

The first thing I remembered after the invasion of the castle wasn’t the cloudless, morning sky above

my head. It wasn’t Ernest’s voice lifted in shock.

I remembered waking to an awful stinging sensation on my chest. I had reached up to touch it, feeling

only the necklace my mother had given me. It was hot, so incredibly hot to the touch that I couldn’t help

but let it go. And then I sat up and watched as the bite marks on my hands and arms faded. I thought I

had

dreamt it.

Suddenly, it was so real.

What had Rowan told Ernest about Hanna and her dreams? Something about a ring? No, there was

something else…

“Oh, Goddess!” | shouted, reaching up to pull the necklace from my neck, snapping the chain.

Kacidra was startled by my outburst, reaching out to try to grab my arm as I moved hastily toward

Rosalie.

“What are you doing!” she cried as I crawled on all fours over the bed, essentially straddling Rosalie’s

body. I pressed the necklace to her chest where the skin was exposed above her shirt, praying to the

Moon Goddess to help me, to show me what I needed to do.

Rosalie was still covered in splotches of blood from where glass as sliced through her skin. “Blood…

her blood, oh! Of course!” | was delirious. I had officially lost my mind as I ripped open her shirt to

expose more of her chest and pulled a tiny piece of glass from the skin that covered her sternum.

Kacidra had her hands on my shoulders, trying to pull me away from Rosalie, but I shook her away, just

as I lifted the piece of glass over the necklace and held my breath as a single drop of blood rolled down

its edge and landed silently on the

moonstone.

Nothing happened.

“Get off of her, Gemma! What if someone sees us,”

“I don’t understand,” I said in a panicked whisper.

“Come on,” Kacidra pulled me away from Rosalie and I sunk to my knees next to the bed, staring up at

the profile of the White Queen as she lay still.

“She’s gone, Gemma.”

“I know… I just thought-how could I have possibly thought,”

But suddenly, Kacidra tilted her head to the side, eyeing the necklace. “Is it… supposed to look like

that?”

“Like what?”

I got to my feet, the breath catching in my throat as I looked down at the necklaee laying limp over

Rosalie’s chest. It was glowing so faintly it was almost impossible to notice it. I could see the skin

around where the necklace lay began to pinken, to warm. I grabbed Kacidra’s hand, squeezing it.

Holy shit. I was right.

A flash of light filled the room, and Kacidra screamed, sinking onto the ground and taking me with her.

“Not again!” she bellowed.

I cradled her head against my chest as I tilted my head toward the ceiling, watching as the light from

the necklace began to fade until it was gone completely.

“We‘re okay,” I said softly, letting her go and clutching the side of the mattress to pull my body upright

enough to lay my gaze on Rosalie once more.

Her coloring was different. The gray tinge of her skin was blossoming in a rosy apricot once again. I

held my breath as one of her fingers twitched. “Rosalie?”

She let out a low, pained moan, and I jumped to my feet.

Kacidra had scrambled to her feet as well and we were standing shoulder to shoulder as we looked

down on her, tears rolling down our cheeks and dripping onto the mattress. She reached up, and in a

swift, deliberate motion snatched the necklace from her chest and threw it across the room, crying out

in pain as she placed her hand over her chest.

“Rosalie!” I cried, taking her by the shoulders.

She opened her eyes, blinking into the soft twilight coming

through the bay windows.

“Oh, my Goddess, Rosalie! You’re okay! You’re—”

“Where’s Hanna?” she said weakly, her eyelashes fluttering as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

Kacidra let out a choked sob in reply.

“I need Ethan,” Rosalie whispered, her breath coming in short rasps. She sounded, and looked, awful.

But she was alive.

“He’s coming, I promise.”

“We’re all in danger, Seraphine,” she breathed, wincing as if in incredible pain.

I stood a little straighter, caught off guard by the mention of my mother.

“It’s me, Gemma. Not-”

Rosalie had begun to ery, something I had never seen her do before. She struggled to open her eyes,

but turned her head to look at me, pain etched all over her face. “Maeve can’t come back, she can’t-”

I watched as Rosalie struggled to form the words. Kacidra had risen and left the room, and suddenly, I

was surrounded by

people as Georgia and Shelly appeared, as well as a few warriors and Gretchen, the housekeeper.

Everyone seemed to be talking at once.

Rosalie still had her head turned toward me, her eyes watering as she looked at me.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whispered, knowing she couldn’t hear it over the crowd that had formed at her

bedside. “I promise. It’s going to be okay.”

But she shook her head, her brow furrowed as she inhaled deeply, letting out a blood-curdling scream.

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