Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 65: This Is It

Troy

The landscape was totally changed from the lush greenery and long beaches we had been following for roughly a month. The shallows of the pass gave way to deeper water, allowing us to travel at a quicker speed, the engines working double-time as we sped forward into the unknown with the compass pointing straight ahead

It was a week before Maeve’s birthday She had been moodier than usual as we neared it, knowing what it meant.

She would finally come into her powers She would feel that I was her mate

Or she wouldn’t do either.

And as I watched her pacing across the deck of Persephone, her hair pulled up in a heavy. tangled heap of a bun on top of her head, and I wondered if she even wanted to come into her powers. Not knowing whether or not she was cursed had kept her stable distracted Now there was no way to ignore the truth, whatever that may be

“This is it,” Keaton said, holding the compass out at arm’s length “It’s wanting us to go straight into that cove, to the west.”

“I see it.” I watched the horizon as the strange, sand covered plateau grew larger as we neared We hadn’t seen land in a week. Keaton tossed me the compass and left the upper deck, moving swiftly as he walked towards the doors leading to the lower levels of the boat. He would be telling Pete to continue west, no doubt. I felt my chest tighten as adrenaline prickled my fingertips

This was it. We’d have at least one moonstone. And that would be one less stone Damian would have at his disposal.

“I feel strange.” Maeve said as she appeared at my side, her face drawn with anxiety.

“It’s going to be okay. We don’t know what we’re going to find, but we’re the only ship out here. Maybe you should lie down for a while. Usually, she would fight me on this, but to my surprise she nodded, walking gingerly down the stairs with one arm cradling her swelling belly. I was shocked at how quickly her pregnancy was progressing. Her usually graceful movements had become strained and uneven. She was uncomfortable.

“We’re going to make this quick,” I said to myself under my breath, wanting nothing more than to turn this ship around to get her back to her parents. We only had a few months to make the journey to Winter Forest by ship before the ice began to form on the northern seas. We couldn’t miss that window.

A few days later, we made camp on the beach, the Persephone bobbing just off the shore. The water was deep here, the beach giving way to a steep drop-off instead of reefs.

There was nothing green as far as we could see. Everything was covered in coarse golden sand

a desert, we realized, as a group of us men shifted and spent an hour running a wide berth around the camp, climbing to the top of the plateau to gaze out over the ocean behind us, and the rolling sand dunes on the other side of the plateau. No buildings. No trees. None of us picked up the scent of other people or wolves. We were alone.

Maeve and Myla wanted to take the compass and find the tomb as soon as possible, but Keaton dismissed the notion. We had been aboard the Persephone for a month straight, and we were wobbly on our feet when we stepped out of the skiffs on the shore. We all needed rest. Those

all, we needed to scope out the area before we

hands while Maeve slept next to me under our tent, debating my next move. I worried, constantly, about everything these days, but especially about

Maeve

through the thick, tangled brush ahead of us along what was once a pathway

bushes that took us down into a deep, ashen valley. We saw stone buildings

we found a trail, and a road, an ancient one, a road that eventually

on my knees as I bent over to catch

our heads. I was roughly four months pregnant now and feeling it.

behind when he decided to leave our beach camp and follow the compass west on foot. I refused, knowing that he would need me if he came upon the temple. The crew of the Persephone was exhausted, and

the map,” Troy replied, stooping down to run his fingertips over one of the pavers. “It’s an archaeological

know?” Troy stood, brushing the dirt from his

See those tools? And there– Pete pointed in the distance where

to abruptly end, dropping off into a deep,

the downy hair rising on my arms as I caught his

the stone-‘I began, but Troy turned away from me, stalking down the pathway until he reached the edge of the hole, looking down into its

he said, his voice

down in shock as we tried to make sense of what we

of the hole that we gazed into. The ground sloped down at an easy decline and was littered with various excavation equipment. The site itself looked to be a city center of some kind, a square, with ornate

and stretched out his arm, holding it over the site and flipping

is it,” Troy said softly, closing the

I began to follow Troy down

as we entered the square,

in. Most of the + tunnels were caved in, however, and we only had

the dig site.

of us, peering into the

far. It’s damp, I think there must be water on the other side. Do either of you have a

It was starting to rain now, the sky

of the tunnel and there was nothing? What if the