Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 104: The White Wolf

“Look, this line, right here-” Mom and I were standing be hind Troy, leaning over his shoulders to peer down at the neat, faded scrawl just above his finger.”

“What does it say? I can barely see the ink!” I narrowed my eyes, wishing the rectory had more than archaic candles to light the dim room.

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“King Hector-his name is right here. He was the king men tioned by Charles in his journal. Look, he did in fact marry Alouette… and they had a son.”

Mom was silent as she scanned the page, her brow fur

rowed in confusion.

“That means there was a break in White Queen line at some point, right? Can that… can that happen?”

“Your family believes it can,” Mom broke in, looking con fused, like she was thinking of some long-forgotten memory or conversation. “He told me once that if Rowan had a daugh ter, she would be in line to my throne. It was a discussion we had before you were born, Maeve. Before we knew you were a

irl”

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“But would… say a female cousin of a White Queen hold the same powers as the White Queen herself? There’s no men tion of Onya, the White Queen in Charles’s journal, having any other children.” Troy turned to face Mom.

“Perhaps, but I’m not totally certain. There are no texts on this, you know. All there was… was the names of the queens etched into the temple in Winter Forest. That wall was de stroyed. We might never know who the Queen after Onya was, whether Aloutette became the Queen after her mother, or if it was someone else. There is the library in the castle in Winter Forest, but I’ve never seen any text in there that discussed this.”

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“So if I don’t have a daughter, Rowan could? And she could rule?” A strange glimmer of hope tightening around my heart. How close I had come to death for my sons… I knew in my heart I could not sacrifice myself just so the pack lands could have another White Queen.

Suddenly Troy jumped up, nearly knocking both me and Mom to the ground. He was pale, frozen in place for a moment before he turned to us, fear etched into every curve, every line of his face.

“Oh, Goddess,” he breathed, the words meant for no one but himself. He slowly looked at me, sheer pain flashing be hind his eyes.

“Troy, what is wrong? Are you hurt?” Mom had her hands on his arms, trying to get him to look her in the eyes, but he

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couldn’t.

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“Rosalie,” he said, looking past the both of us at the far wall. “Please don’t take offense to what I am about to say. But I must know. I have to know if Rowan and Hanna have been in timate. Have they-is there any way at all that Hanna could be pregnant?”

I gaped at him, then at Mom, who looked just as shocked as I was.

“I assume so, Troy. They’re mates for Goddesses sake!”

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“We need to go to them, right now. Hanna she-oh, how did I not realize this before?!”

smack him to get him to snap back

it. I had seen it before. On the map, I was sure. But I didn’t understand what it meant until right now, this very

was shaking her head, anxiety creeping into

was right, Rosalie. About Hanna. The moonstones,

born yet. She will be the twenty-first White Queen. Rowan and

for rational thought, “what does

But… the expedition the king sent out to retrieve the moonstone in order for Onya to allow Alouette to marry King Hector came back without it… which means he either married her by force, or Onya

have caused a break in the White Queen line,” I mumbled, seeing

running his

hair.

something like this to Rowan, long ago, when Maeve first arrived in Mirage to rule alongside Ernest,” Rosalie said softy, sitting down. “He said Rowan could rule over Winter Forest in the future if he had a daughter. I argued that wasn’t how it works, that the powers had to be direct…

couldn’t figure this out?” I asked in a soft tone, my

know. I don’t plan on

and walking away from the dusty desk, tapping his finger on his

take the stones and kill Hanna. That’s what we know, and all we need to know. It’s time to finish this.” Mom rose

Troy

of the atrium, overlooking the fields of long, brittle yellow grass. Hanna and Maeve were standing in the field talking to each other, too far enough

around their legs, whis pering through the grass.

Ethan, as well as the other “elders” of the family, such as Talon, Georgia, Vicky, and Paul, were holding a conference with Eugene of Red Lakes. It was likely Ethan was telling him exactly what was going on, and how his family was connected. I felt my stomach

castle was already heavily guarded by

along the perimeter of the castle’s grounds, little specks of black in

back on Hanna

she pregnant?”

gave me a dirty look, then settled,

know. It only

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is enough,” I grunted,

twice.”

going to the mother of the Moon Goddess? It’s insane, Troy. I

wide circle, his tongue lolling. Pete and Kacidra had

who threw a stick far into the field, and he took off

at first. But I-I

silence flooded the distance between me

sounds of thunder in the distance and the crinkle of the grasses as a breeze rippled through it. Tasia could move the air, and every time a gust of wind rattled the windows of the castle,

I was just

hear me?” Rowan shouted in a fatherly tone, which made Maeve

from us to make a

tapping my fingers on the terrace, “I don’t like the idea of them out there, just the two of them. Not with them being the target

Rowan said

to come to talk to the family soon, fill us in

moment, then began to

toward them, crunching through

This is your first time.” Rowan shifted without another word, shaking out his coat and sending a sprinkle of damp over

looked more ner vous than upset, and shifted myself. Her eyes went wide, and I realized the only time she had

tomb over me.

to whisper in her ear. Maeve hugged her body with her arms, shaking her