Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 74: 

The Moon Goddess Took Her Mate’s Life on Her Twenty-First Birthday

Maeve

Myla tilted her head toward the beach, but I didn’t see him anywhere. “He’s here?” I asked, my voice catching as my chest tightened with hope.

Damian’s warriors were fighting for their lives all around me. Every member of the crew of the Persephone had shifted now, and the battle was moving off the beach as they pushed Damian warriors back against the rocky bluff to our backs.

Myla was glued to my side, guarding me, snarling anytime an enemy got near enough to be within lunging distance.

‘We need to get you on a skiff,’ said Myla over the mind-link, and I looked down at her, adrenaline prickling across my skin. ‘Some birthday, am I right?’

“Birthday?” I said aloud, then I felt the knot in my stomach loosen, the realization that it was, in fact, my birthday hitting me. It was just past midnight. I was twenty-one.

“Where’s Troy?” I said again, my heart beating so rapidly ! thought it might come out of my chest, forgetting about Opaline all together. I looked down at Myla, tears welling in the corners of my eyes. ‘Where is he?’ I said over the mind-link, fear creeping through my body. Did I have powers? I looked down at my hands, curling them into fists. Could …. shift?

‘He’s fine, he made it back to us. He wasn’t sure where they took you, but we were already preparing to go find you both. He’ s probably just wrapping up the details of what unfolded here with Keaton,’ Myla said as she turned, tilting her head towards the edge of the bluff.

I could see him, in his human form now, dressed again, speaking to Keaton. He had shifted back, too, and was pulling a shirt over his shoulders. I wanted to run to him, but I knew he must be busy or else he’d already have made his way to me.

It was quiet now. The battle was over in a matter of minutes. Myla was trotting across the beach back toward the skiff, shifting back into her human form and pulling her dress over her head, smoothing the fabric over her thighs.

“This felt too easy, Maeve! Damian only had seven warriors? That was it?” Myla asked when she returned to me.

I shrugged, wrapping my arms around myself as a cool breeze drifted in off the water.

“Besides him… and Rex and Opaline, so nine or ten people total. I’m not totally sure.”

Myla looked around suspiciously, her gaze settling on mine. “Who’s Rex?”

“Did Troy not explain?”

“He was stuck in the tomb for three days, in one of the collapsed tunnels at the dig site. Pete came back and led us to the tomb. We spent an entire day trying to remove the rocks from the opening of the tomb, and he just showed up behind us one day, having come out of another tunnel. He dug his way out.”

“He dug his way out?” | gasped, looking over my shoulder at Troy, who was staring right at me as he continued to talk to Keaton.

He hadn’t come over to me yet, and based on the look on his face, I wondered if he was keeping his distance on purpose.

TE

The moon was shining down on us, the sky dappled with stars. Myla walked past me toward where Damian’s body lay sprawled out on the sand, his throat stained red with blood. She picked up his arm, turning his watch towards me.

“It’s 12:23,” she said with a soft smile, letting his arm drop. “Happy Birthday, Maeve.”

trying not to think about his last

to him. He was walking with his hands in his pockets behind Keaton

the moon turned his eyes a deep, navy blue and a soft steel gray. He was wearing one

Gemma had barely explained it to me, too wrapped up in their own feelings to help me understand. I already knew his scent. His touch already set my skin on fire with lust. I was drawn to him

I try to

up and down, shaking her head. “You should

nodded, uncertainty tightening my chest as Troy stopped to talk to one of the crewmen, turning his head back toward me as if in

PARO

a

looking right at me, his face twisted in a confused expression as he placed his hand over the center of his chest. Pete had wrestled someone to the ground behind him, and Keaton had grabbed Troy by the shoulders, catching him as he

was running but barely felt the ground beneath my feet.

Myla scream with fury, spraying sand as she sprinted after Opaline, who had broken free from Pete and Keaton somehow and was taking off toward the skiffs with a large stick

I need you!” Keaton was smacking me on the cheek, making my eyes water. I reached

“Oh…”

“Get up, GET UP!

my vision obscured by

out!” Keaton was desperate as he pulled me upright

half open. My throat tightened as I stifled a sob, my head pounding so violently I felt like it was

_” 

back to Winter Forest,” he said with considerable effort, his lips

to go back

twitched into a smile,

are going, Troy, we’re

black with blood, the crimson liquid soaking through the gaps between his fingers where

but could only muster

It’s going to be okay. K-Keaton? Keaton?” I looked around, searching frantically in the dark for Keaton’s form. I felt his hand in mine suddenly, and he lifted it into the moonlight, his knife in the other hand. “Do it,” I said weakly, swallowing against the fear welling inside of me that was telling me my powers weren’t strong enough

even wincing at the pain. I held my hand over Troy’s mouth, my blood falling onto

face between my hands once

“Maeve?”

“I’m here.”

going to make

felt my world shatter at his

finality.

dropped onto his shirt. I could see

(Lv.1

He was right

me about Winter Forest,” Troy

hold myself together. Keaton’s hand came down on my shoulder,

there, but it feels nice. Crisp, and clean. In the winter the snow piles up against the buildings and we used to… used to slide down the snow chutes on flattened cardboard boxes. We–we-“I choked on my tears, not daring to close my eyes lest he take his