Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder Chapter 261

Chapter 41: Friend?

Maeve "Mama?" i crept into the room, my feet silent on the wide plank floorboards bathed in violet twilight, "Daddy?"

Dad stirred, rolling over and leaning on his elbow as he watched me enter the room, his hair ruffled from sleep. He motioned for me to come to the bed, pulling down the covers as I climbed in between them and laid my head against the mattress, snuggled tightly between their two pillows.

"What's the matter?" Mom asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she rolled over, tucking her body around mine.

"I had a bad dream," I sniffled, resting my cheek against her arm. Dad reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear before he laid his head back, facing me.

"What did you dream about?" he asked, his blue eyes dark and focused in the dim light.

"I was swallowed up by water. Lots of it." "Well, did you swim?" he replied.

"No, the water was too big. I tried, but I was too little, and the waves were too high over my head." I stretched one arm upwards towards the vaulted ceiling.

"Hmm..." Mom said dreamily, on the edge of sleep. "But you learned howto swim this summer, darling. In the lake" "It wasn't a lake, Mama. It was BIG water."

Dad snorted, his mouth touched with a wry smile, "It was just a dream, kiddo." "There was someone else with me." "Who?" Mom asked, stroking my back with her fingers. Her touch relaxed me, making my eyes flutter.

"Was it Rowan?" Dad smiled, closing his eyes.

"No. But he was probably the one who threw me in,"

Dad laughed shortly, rolling over onto his back.

"It was a woman. She was a ghost, like she wasn't really there." I yawned hugely, sleep settling back into my bones.

"She was there to protect you, sweetie," Mom said quietly, tucking me closer to her chest.l sniffled, closing my eyes, trying not to think of the dream where I had been struggling in empty, bleak darkness miles below the surface of an unforgiving sea.

"I'll take you to the beach tomorrow, okay? Just me and you. We can put our toes in the water. You'll feel better," Dad was barely awake, his voice far away and dream-like.

"Do not sleep, my starling. Sleep, my doe..." Mom sang softly, her voice calming me and making my body submit to the slumber I had been rudely awoken from.

I closed my eyes.

I rolled onto my side, water sputtering from my mouth as my lungs contracted, desperate for air. I inhaled through my mouth, deeply, my throat burning and my mouth tasting strongly of salt.

I blinked into the sun. It was blinding, reflecting off the space around me. I sat up, shielding my eyes from the bright orb as I looked around.

Sand. Golden, coarse sand. The beach was at low tide, seaweed lining the shoreline where the tide had risen and then fell away again.

Leaving me behind.

legs wobbled and gave way, and I fell back onto my knees

clinging to my skin. It clung to the thermals as I tried to stand again, this time successfully,

bright turquoise where the beach met the gentle

Troy. Where was he?

whisper. Where was everyone? Where was the skiff he had thrown me on before

I remembered his face as he pulled the knife from his coat pocket, the gleam of metal as he aborted his mission of tying me to the skiff and sliced through the cables holding to skiff to

I

of my parents. I knew that for certain. I had seen them clear as day. Mom with her glossy, white hair falling around her face as she scooped me into her arms, Dad with his piercing blue gaze. But I couldn't remember what exactly I had dreamt about. Was that even possible? To remember your dreams within a dream. And my parents had been young in my

away they were now. They probably thought I was

I couldn't recognize or name. I walked along the sand, my mind jumbled as I tried

back over the water, seeing nothing but sparkling blue water and softly capped waves. This tangled web | found myself in, by no fault of my own, was destroying everyone I loved one by one. First Gemma,

And Troy.

and cried. Oh, how I wished I could take it all back. I

That I loved him.

sobs of despair and

the salty, undrinkable water rolling against the sand. The same water already filling my belly and making me even more dehydrated. I

Surely the other three skiffs had made it off the boat

towards the trees,

felt like hours. The sun was low in the sky now, casting an orange glow through the trees and thick, wide-leaf vines. Birdsong erupted around me as I walked and startled the creatures lurking on the forest floor

through the jungle, making me shiver and hug my arms around my chest to try to warm myself. I had been walking all day, never once coming across a

shadowed by a large, moss-covered rock. I leaned against it, sinking onto my bottom with my head resting

of the jungle erupted around me as my breathing slowed. The chirping of frogs, the scurrying of

arms as the thing grew closer, and closer. Then it quieted. A sniffing sound. I paled, pressing my back against the

back legs slightly longer than the front legs. A long neck and narrow face with a long, skinny snout and small ears. It was a strange- looking creature, and it must have thought the same thing of me as it peered at me from the other side of the clearing, its small head tilting side

They were always small, fluffy creatures tied to leashes and paraded around the more affluent neighborhoods in Mirage. This was not a small creature,

a voice within my mind. I blinked, shaking my head at the intrusion. I

lowering its head. It was trembling, its

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Chapter 41: Friend?

from lack of use and severe dehydration. It straightened its neck, fear evident behind

me?' I said over the mind-link, an odd

just stared, its tail wagging once in

a

hands out, slowly reaching

I said aloud as it took one step forward, gingerly lowering its snout to sniff the ground

I

stepped forward, sniffing my foot and then the tips of my

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