Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

However, I didn‘t argue with him.

I glanced outside again. Thank the Moon Goddess, Derek was gone.

Soren returned with yet another bag in hand.

“Thank you so much,” I said with a smile–

but my happy expression faltered quickly as my eyes instinctively darted around.

My mind was drifting back to Derek. Would he also be able to track me down easily if he saw me?

Soren, observant as he was, didn‘t miss my nervousness. “You seem uncomfortable. Would you like to h

ead back?”

Nodding my head, I gave a weak smile. “I‘m sorry, just a bit tired now. I‘m looking forward

to sitting down once we get back.”

“You don‘t have to apologize, Ro. Growing a child can‘t be an easy thing to do.”

I followed him back to his limousine. His Beta, Thomas, was already waiting for us. Fortunately, Derek w

as still nowhere to be seen.

Once we got in the car, I let out a breath and tried to calm myself down.

Noticing Soren was looking at me, I cleared my throat. “So did

you find what you were looking for earlier?”

“It‘s a secret.” He blinked twice at me, and successfully lightened my mood.

But before I replied, he said, “ gosh, I‘m just so bad at keeping secrets! So I got

something for you-” I watched him reaching into a large white bag, “well something for your baby, to

be accurate.”

My eyes widened at the sight of an elegant black toy ship that Soren had presented in his hand. It was a

bout the length of my forearm, fairly large compared to most of the toy ships, but was sophisticatedly dec

orated in the most realistic way.

On its body, there were engraved letters reading “Avondale”.

“Soren, it‘s beautiful,” I whispered as he placed it in my hands. “You didn‘t–”

“I know, I know. I didn‘t have to, but I wanted to. I figured that, since you are living on the island, a ship n

amed after it would be a great representation of where your child will be growing up.”

I forced a smile and thanked him. “You are too generous. Thank you!”

Soren‘s gift was heartwarming.

However, knowing Derek was also here made Avondale no longer

an option for me to settle down long term.

I was the reason he‘d lost his hand. If he ever found me, I couldn‘t imagine what he would do to me and

my child for revenge. An overwhelming fear flooded me at the thought.

Soren asked all of a sudden, “Ro, something happened back at the market, didn‘t it?”

I sighed. I was a little taken aback by his question, but then I wasn‘t too surprised that he came to that co

nclusion– he was extremely good at reading people.

However, I didn‘t want to burden Soren with my troubles. And I couldn‘t let him find out who I was.

“Soren.. no, nothing. You have been

amazing with everything, but now that I am fully healed, I think it‘s time for me to find a place to settle do

wn.”

It took Soren a moment, but he said in an even tone, “I actually was thinking about that these couple day

s. I

promised you we‘ll figure out a solid plan for you. Let‘s get inside, and we can talk it through.”

As we spoke, the limousine pulled up to the house. Soren opened the car door for me and led me to the l

iving room.

After pouring me a coup of of warm water, he sat down next to me to explain his proposal in detail.

“I have a property on a different island within the Isles of Denali. As you know, I go on business trips a lot

, so I‘m not there most of the time. I‘m looking for someone to look after it. Someone I could trust.”

He gave me a minute to digest the information.

“It‘s a small island, not as busy as Avondale, so I wasn‘t sure whether you‘d like it there. But I figured I‘dl

at least ask you and see if you had any interest.”

To make the

offer even more appealing, he added with a smile and a wink, “Also, I pay well. You can be assured of th

at.”

My eyes widened. It seemed like a perfect solution to my problem.

“If you accept, it would be a huge favor to me.” Soren gave me a sincere look.

I didn‘t want to jump on the opportunity

just yet. Even though everything had seemed to work out really well so far, I just had an uneasy feeling.

“Thank you so much for the offer. May I think about it?”

“Absolutely!” Soren seemed to be happy that I didn‘t turn him down immediately. I realized I forgot to ask

for a piece of important information. “What‘s the name of the island?” “It‘s Papeno.”

Which Island is being used by Our Enemy?

The river was running particularly fast that night as I stood there gazing out at it under the moonlight.

I knew I didn‘t have long. I needed to get back soon. But I had snuck out to catch some fresh air.

At least, that‘s what I had told everyone.

I had fully intended to do just that, but now I found myself here–

standing on the cliff‘s edge, staring down at the water. I watched it run over the top of the jagged rocks,

white caps violently cascading over the brink before they disappeared on the other side.

Sometimes a branch would fly up into the air, smash into a boulder, and then fall beneath the surface, fa

ding away, never to be seen again.

I couldn‘t let myself think of her that –

way.

I couldn‘t let my mind go there… to the images of what it would be like for her body to hit those rocks and

break apart like those sticks.

It had been days, and still nothing. As I looked down at the water and saw how vicious it was, the idea

that it could destroy all traces of her made it easier to accept.

ΑΙΓΙΝΑ!

Talon‘s voice cut through my thoughts, and I turned to see him hurrying toward me.

“The King needs us in the war room right away!”

Ever since we counterattacked against the rogues and evacuated the northern villages, the situation alon

g the northern forest had been stabilized. We had now focused back on the west coast war

against the West King, Alpha Kal.

Talon‘s voice told me, though, that this was more urgent than usual.

VE

I turned and looked at him, his face illuminated by the moon‘s light, and took several hurried steps in his

direction. “What is it?”

“Kal‘s men have taken over three cities along the west coast,” he said.

I froze. “Sorry?”

“You heard me correctly.” Talon‘s expression could not have made

it more clear that the bad news was true.

I took a deep breath. “Why haven‘t we heard about this until now?”

Talon shook his head. “They were too fast,” he explained.

We rushed back to the war room.

“The last attack

happened a few hours ago,” Talon said, “Here.” He picked up a marker and made another X.

I looked at the pattern of Xs.

“The patrol didn‘t catch wind of them at all along the coast?” James asked, standing up

and surveying the map from a different angle. “It doesn‘t make any sense. Where could they possibly be

starting from to get to our mainland so quickly?”

We were all looking at the large map he had spread on

the table in the war room. It was the main map we used to chart movements of all kinds: troops, resource

s, attacks, withdrawals– everything.

“The closest point of Alpha Kal‘s territory is here,” Walter, James‘s advisor, said, touching

the map in one spot. “It‘s far enough away that we should have seen his forces coming, one would think.

He would have to use ships to get there, and we have ours in the open water

here.” He gestured toward our navy vessels indicated on the map.

James nodded. “Yes, I know, Walter,” He said it with less cynicism in his voice than I would‘ve been able t

enemy troops keep flooding into our territories without giving us any indication that they‘re coming.”

“Unless.”

I paused, studying the map.

A pang hit me in the stomach, one I didn‘t want to acknowledge, but it was there nonetheless. I didn‘t even

My cousin looked at me for a second, an eyebrow arched. “What is it, Ethan?” he asked.

I cleared my throat. Deciding it was better not to

say what I was thinking in the larger group, I changed track.

“Unless we figure out what he‘s doing.. we are going to continue to lose the battles.”

I saw James and the others deflate, as if they had hoped I was on to something.

“Yes, that‘s true,” James said.

We continued to study the map for several moments, but no one had any ideas.

The more I looked at it, the more I realized my gut instinct had to be right. There really was only one poss

be launching from.

The notion made a white–hot fire burn within me.

However, regardless of how I felt inside, I had to stay calm in front of everyone.

“It‘s getting late,” James finally said a bit after midnight. Our definitions of what “getting late” meant had ch

The others nodded and headed for the door. I hung back.

Once

the other leaders had all left the room, I turned to my cousin and said, “I hope that I‘m wrong, but I think I

James studied my face for a moment. “I thought you had an idea earlier. Why

didn‘t you share it with us?”

“I‘ll get to that in a moment,” | replied. Leaning over the map, I said, “What‘s the only place

on this map that‘s west of our naval patrols and east of the coast of the West Kingdom?”

I could see, in my cousin‘s face, the same betrayal and anger beginning

to well up inside of him as he pondered the possibility that what I was suggesting was true.

He stared at me for a moment before he replied, “The islands? But… aren‘t those part of Denali?”

I nodded. “Yes, they are.”

“But if Alpha Kal is actually launching attacks from these islands, part of

the Islands of Denali, he couldn‘t be doing that without permission. Without Alpha Romero knowing about

“That‘s right,” was all I could manage to spit out.

James was shaking his head. “But why–”

“Not that hard to guess.” Now that I‘d gotten a few minutes to sort through the information, I was able to p

From James‘s expression, I knew he had followed my logic. “It‘s not like we can force him to collaborate w

just like Kal can‘t force Romero, either.” James sighed. “So you think Romero is working with both sides?

“Or at war with both sides, depending on how you look at it. But the bottom line is, it

doesn‘t matter which side wins–his islands will be spared and kept safe.”

I paused,

“However, I believe that he prefers for us to win the war.”

dn t need to provide the reasoning behind my theory, because James already got it. He finished what I did

say: “…Otherwise, he wouldn‘t push for the marriage between you and Madalynn.”

“I‘ll need to figure out which island is being used by our enemy.” I tried to change the topic, but from Jame

No matter how hard I was trying to push it off, I knew he wouldn‘t allow me this time.

“I need you to move forward with marrying Madalynn.”

I pressed my lips tight and didn‘t answer.

His aging eyes turned to me, looking at me with pity. “Is this because of that girl… the breeder?”

I‘d forbidden everyone from mentioning her, including myself. However, at the same time, all I wanted

to hear was something, anything, about her. The conflicting feelings were making me lose my mind.

“I‘m too busy with everything going on to deal with a wedding right now,” I deflected. “This war, and our pe

“Is it so?” James looked at me quietly. “Ethan, don‘t lie to yourself. And please don‘t make me force you to

this.”

The truth was… I could not bring myself to face Madalynn. Not yet.

I didn‘t know how long it would take, but not yet– not right now.

Just like I couldn‘t bring myself to forget about Rosalie.

“Ethan, whether you are still upset about that girl or not… what happened already happened. It‘s a

sad situation for a lot of people. From what I heard, she was a sweet woman. But I must ask you to move

Before I could reply, he held up his hand, stopping me in my tracks, and left the room by himself.

The conversation was done.

My head was about to explode. Tonight would be another sleepless night for me.