Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 73 : Winter Forest Will Fall 

Maeve

I spent the next two days being moved between Damian’s tent, where I was allowed to eat, and a tree just above the shoreline, where I was tied up, my hands occasionally bound together above my head if Damian felt like being extra cruel.

He had continued his ceaseless interrogations, asking over and over if I knew where to find the moonstone. He seemed less interested in how to use it, however, and was growing more nervous with each passing hour.

I was beginning to think this wasn’t his plan. That, or he was in way over his head doing someone else’s bidding.

I just couldn’t bring myself to believe that person was Tasia.

I had spent nearly three days in contemplation, racking my mind for any hints of malicious, secretive behavior on Tasia’s end during my time in Dianny. Our stay in Dianny had been an incredibly strange, confusing time, however, and even if she had said something, or done something, that would’ve given me a clue about her true motives I could have easily missed it.

Troy had said she could move air, I remember that much. Then I

thought about the strange storm that had rocked the Persephone while we traveled through the pass and wondered briefly if Tasia had been behind it. Wind creates weather, right? Or was it something else?

“I should have listened when you were talking to me about meteorology…” I sighed, thinking of Troy and wishing I could tuck the loose curl that had been tickling my nose for hours behind my ear. My wrists ached where they had been restrained, the skin raw and dappled with blisters where the coarse rope met and rubbed against my skin whenever I moved.

I felt a strange sensation in my belly, however, momentarily distracting me from my precarious situation. One of the babies was moving, rolling, his feet gliding over my belly button.

“Ooph, that feels weird,” I smiled, then grimaced as the other one, at least I thought it was the other one, kicked me sharply in the side. “You guys are getting big.”

It was well past dark now, the stars simmering over the calm surf rolling up the beach in the shelter of the narrow cove. Damian’s empty boat was still rocking in open water roughly a half mile from the shore, its white body reflecting on the water in the light of the moon.

“I gotta get out of here,” I whispered, wondering if anyone was going to come to release me from my bondage so I could lay down and go to sleep on one of Damian’s couches like I had the last two nights in a row, never out of the watchful eye of Rex.

T heard a low hum as I continued to watch the water, so low it was nearly inaudible. I tilted my head to the side, wondering if I had somehow gotten sand in my ear and it was messing with my hearing, but the hum was getting louder, growing closer.

I saw the skiff as it inched out from behind the rocky bluff sticking out of the water at the edge of the cove, the nose of the small boat lit by moonlight. I squinted, wondering if what I was seeing was real and not a figment of my pained and dehydrated imagination.

One of Damian’s warriors was sitting on the beach, his head slumped forward as he slept. He was supposed to be on guard while the rest of the warriors slept in a second tent nearby. He hadn’t heard the skiff.

up again, a handful of darkened figures coming into view as the moonlight cast shadows over their

my breath as I turned my gaze upon the sleeping warrior,

sneaking

doubt it was the crew of

instead, I very quietly

tree for

as the engine was pushed to

sleeping warrior woke with a start,

was too

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

hell

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

tree outside of the tent as I watched the fight

Damian had at his disposal

expecting this. He

head toward me, nodding once before using his spear to block a wolf from lunging

the attention of someone else, Damian, who had been

pulling a

to the ground, holding him down by his

I nodded.

peace… I was never the one you needed to worry about. Everything is already in motion-”

wail of utter despair. She was running toward us, frantic, her

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

Opaline stopped short of us, holding the dagger up as though she were going to strike Myla with it, but her hand was

welling with tears. “It’s over now, all of it. Damian was the only one she would listen to. He was

She can’t. She doesn’t have

you see?” Opaline was desperate, her

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

land the Moon Goddess would

magic!” I hissed, bucking against my