Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

A wave of excitement washed over me as the humming started up again, a handful of darkened figures

coming into view as the moonlight cast shadows over their bodies.

I held my breath as I turned my gaze upon the sleeping warrior, a second skiff appearing in my

peripheral.

They were sneaking into the cove.

I knew without a shadow of a doubt it was the crew of the Persephone.

I could have cried, but instead, I very quietly attempted to stand,

leaning against the tree for support as I shimmied upright.

Suddenly, the first skiff let out a roar as the engine was pushed to its max, the boat flying into the cove in

a boom of noise.

The sleeping warrior woke with a start, crying out.

But it was too late.

The first skiff met the beach and continued up the sand, sliding to a stop and spraying a sheet of sand

over the warrior. The warriors’ tent flashed with light as someone turned on a lantern, shouts of alarm

ringing out from within as everyone woke up and began to file sleepily outside.

Then all hell broke loose.

The beach had erupted into chaos. All around, me people were scrambling out of their clothes and

shifting as the crew of the Persephone stormed the shore. I could hear Damian screaming harsh

commands as he emerged from his tent, his voice lifted in surprise as Keaton jumped out of the skiff, a

long spear in his hand. Myla followed, then Pete, and several other familiar faces began to run toward

Damian’s meager forces, not even bothering to shift.

I fought against the rope binding me to the tree outside of the tent as I watched the fight take place. The

entire crew of the Persephone was on the beach now, outnumbering the seven or

so warriors Damian had at his disposal by at least three people.

Damian hadn’t been expecting this. He had underestimated us.

“Keaton!” I cried over the fray. He turned his head toward me, nodding once before using his spear to

block a wolf from lunging at him, smashing the creature down onto the sand with all of his strength.

But my outburst had drawn the attention of someone else, Damian, who had been standing

dumbfounded as he watched his warriors get completely overrun.

He stalked toward me, pulling a knife from his pocket.

Suddenly, a dark wolf appeared out of nowhere, who I recognized as Myla. She tackled him to the

ground, holding him down by his neck. She looked at me as if asking for permission.

I nodded.

“This isn’t over. You kill me-you think that will solve this, that it will bring peace… I was never the one you

needed to worry about. Everything is already in motion-” Myla bit down, and Damian went quiet. I looked

away.

“No!” Came Opaline’s voice in a shrill wail of utter despair. She was running toward us, frantic, her eyes

wide with disbelief.

“Cut me loose, Myla!” I screamed, seeing the knife Opaline had a death grip on. I wondered why she

hadn’t shifted yet, when everyone else had besides Damian. She looked scared, and distraught, but

most of all, dangerous.

Myla had leaped in front of me, standing between me and Damian’s body. Opaline stopped short of us,

holding the dagger up as though she were going to strike Myla with it, but her hand was trembling.

“Do you realize what you’ve done?” she screamed, her eyes welling with tears. “It’s over now, all of it.

Damian was the only one she would listen to. He was the only one who could reason with her. She’ll do

it, Maeve. She’ll take over the pack lands and leave nothing but destruction in her wake!”

“Tasia? No, she won’t. She can’t. She doesn’t have an army-”

“She doesn’t need one! Don’t you understand? Don’t you see?” Opaline was desperate, her voice

carrying over the sounds of battle behind her on the beach.

Myla let out a low growl in warning as Opaline stepped forward, but she had let her arm fall, her knife at

rest along the side of her thigh. “Tasia is the only one who can defeat your mother. If she makes it to

Lycenna … it will be over, Maeve. Winter Forest will fall. Damian was trying to prevent that from

happening. He wanted the crown, of course. He wanted power. But he knew if he let Tasia wage war

over the moonstones, it would destroy everything, and he would be left with nothing to rule but a land

of chaos, a land the Moon Goddess would leave behind.”

“I’ve had enough of this magic!” I hissed, bucking against my restraints.

“You don’t understand what his death has started. I can’t help you. I can’t-I won’t be on the wrong side of

this war.”

“Damian is the one who invaded Valoria. He was the reason,”

“I loved him,” she said softly, her eyes fixed firmly on mine. “He didn’t need to die!”

“He deserved it, Opaline, for the carnage that he caused and wanted to cause in the future. He was

going to kill me and take my children,”

“He would have saved the pack lands from Tasia. Now there’s no one who can stop her.”

“You’re wrong about her. The Daughters of Artemis are a peaceful people”

“Oh, Maeve. There is so much you don’t know.” Opaline swallowed, then looked down at Damian, her

face turning red as anger began to replace her fleeting grief. “I was supposed to be his Luna. I was

supposed to be the one on the throne. I was going to take your mother’s place, you know. Lycaon was

supposed to be the one we worshiped, not the Moon Goddess

and her daughter. It was supposed to be him. He was the rightful heir, not Morrighan.”

“That was thousands of years ago! It’s over!”

“It’s far from over! Once Tasia has the moonstones, she can rule, and she will conquer every corner of

the pack lands. She will kill everyone who worships the Goddess. She will kill everyone in the line of

Morrighan, don’t you see? She killed her own people to do so,”

“What?” I said, the word falling from my tongue in an almost inaudible whisper. Opaline nodded her

head, a wicked, oddly timed smile creeping across her face.

“Like I said, there’s so much you don’t know. So, so much you don’t know.”

“You’re lying.”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” she said quietly, and then she turned away, walking across the beach

toward the trees.

“Cut me loose!” I screeched, knowing I had to get to Opaline before she escaped.

Myla bit into the rope that held me against the trees, and within a split second, my hands were free, my

arms tingling as the blood began to rush back to the fingertips. “Where’s Troy? Myla!

Where is he?”

Please, I thought desperately, don’t tell me he’s still in the tomb.

It had been three full days.