Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 20 : We Need to Go Back!

♦Lena*

The library on Morhan's campus was massive and modem, towering over the other school buildings and casting a tall, five-story shadow over the student commons as I sat in a quiet comer on the third floor, flipping through yet another useless textbook.

I'd spent the last six hours in the library. I'd pulled every book I could find that covered botany, rare flora, and medicinal plants.

There wasn't a single mention of blood root or anything like it.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, exhaling deeply as I closed the eighth textbook I'd flipped through that day. My eyes felt heavy, and I had a pounding headache. All in all. today had been a bust.

The only good news I received was that there had been a development in the murder case on the Radcliffe Estate. A note had been delivered to my apartment in the early morning of my fourth day back in Morhan. telling me I was to board the tram on Saturday, at exactly 7:00 A.M.. and make my way back to Crimson Creek. I knew I wouldn't have been called to return unless something significant had happened to stanch the threat lurking in Crimson Creek.

Back to business as usual. I guessed.

But. that also meant I'd be face-to-face with Xander once more.

I leaned forward in my chair, stretching my arms above my head and blinking several times to wash away the fatigue clouding my vision. I gathered up the books, my muscles straining under the weight of them as I carefully walked down the wide staircase leading to the counter where the librarians were currently lounging, not having much to do other than fetch the books I needed. It was fall break, after all. I'd never seen the libraiy so empty.

“I was wondering," I panted as I placed the stack of books on the counter, reaching up to wipe my brow, “are there any books on... ancient flora? Maybe even something about extinct flora and fauna found around the western continent?"

“Ancient?" said one of the librarians, looking down the bridge of her nose at me behind her glasses.

“Yes. I'm looking for something very specific."

“Well. Morhan doesn't have a catalog of ancient texts. We'd have to order anything over, let's say. two hundred years ago from the University of Breles-"

"Do you have anything here that has a single mention of something called blood root?" I pleaded, leaning over the counter.

“What's the taxonomic division it belongs to?" the librarian said as she adjusted her glasses and began to open a drawer beneath the desk.

“Bryophyta. I believe, but I could be wrong-"

“Moss?" she asked, giving me a quizzical look.

“It's-I've never seen it up close, but that's how it's been described."

“Hmm..." the librarian began to flip through the absolutely massive library catalog she had lifted out of the drawer, shaking her head. She eventually landed on a page, her finger running down the length of the catalog and coming to an abrupt stop. She peered down at it. tilting her head a little as she adjusted her glasses once more. "Well, there is a religious text, and it requires approval-"

“Approval for what, exactly?"

“It's not a text related to the Church of the Moon Goddess, for one. You know how those tilings go." She swiveled in her chair, then stood, canymg the catalog over to a huge computer that looked like it was made before the war that took place around the time my parents were bom. She blew a thick layer of dust from the keyboard then pressed what I assumed was the power button.

The sound of the ancient computer starting up was like a freight train, and it caught me off guard. She winced, shaking her head as she smacked the side of it a few times, which quieted it down.

"We never use this tiling for obvious reasons, but it is handy on occasion."

It took several minutes for the screen to flicker on. revealing pale green letters and a jet black screen. I watched as she typed in a few codes and eventually pulled up the book, then she drew in her breath.

"All. no wonder-"

“What is it?"

only ones to remain. It lias what you're looking for." She paused as she scanned the text on the screen. “All. yes. it includes a section of mosses and roots

"What other purposes?"

in the catalog, but both the electronic directory and the catalog are severely outdated when

straightened up. narrowing her eyes at the screen and

asked, unease washing over me as she left the computer and catalog and went to the opposite end of the long, curved counter. She began to open

out some time ago." she murmured, settling on a file and pulling it from the cabinet. She leafed through it. a look

checked it out?" I asked, unable to hide the franticness of my voice as my heart dropped into my stomach. I didn't realize I w as gripping the edge of the counter until my hands began to go numb from

“C. Maddox. I wonder-"

in my throat as I murmured an apology and

things when I arrived back to the apartment, my face flushed from the chill in the air and the internal battle currently taking place within my brain. She looked up from her perch on the floor in

a laugh. "You look

lied, shrugging out of my

the cabinet near the sink." she said, nanowing her eyes at

It's

suit yourself. I was going to grab a pizza for

to run as I crossed the living room. I closed

Carly's disappearance had

now I knew in my heart she was part of something larger, and

been looking for blood root as well. And. I thought, as I turned over in bed to face

an hour of wallowing in my anxiety and confusion, my mind began to dr ift into sleep. I relaxed, my

Xander.

♦Xander*

it hadn't quelled the burning in my heart. Lena's

anticipated her reluctance to give in to her feelings for me. Lena could be cold, and while I wouldn't consider her outright stubborn, there was a willpower in her that w as going to make all of this so much more difficult in the

that is. If w e made it off the damn farm in

head as I backed away from the tree stump I was balancing logs on to split. I wound the ax back, splitting a large log clean in two. It

an apple, chewing meditatively as I worked. She was supposed to be helping me by collecting the split wood and stacking in the lean-to against the side of the bam. but she

tire manor." I grumbled, setting

they've had you do the last few days? Seems

down once again. Elaine said something along the lines of. "Good job", which she'd been doing every time I swung the ax for tire past hour. I straightened up. glaring at her for the hundredth time. "Don't you have anything better to do than bug me.

share of the work for the harvest today," she

do

explore outside the boundary of the estate." she said, the comers of her mouth tightening

you

leaned back and crossed her legs. She was taunting me. She'd been taunting me ever since Lena boarded the train back to Morhan. I liked Elaine—as a friend of Lena. I trusted her. But she knew' I felt a certain type of way for Lena and had been

“What about it. then?"

to let me lead, of course. I'm a local. You'd

"I wouldn't get lost-"

a silent challenge as she looked at me. I pursed my lips, shaking my head and then giving the ax

“Fine, let's go."

jumping up from the felled tree.

have nothing to do. and like you said. I've split enough firewood to heat the

Let's go."

fell in step with

to go through the woods. And listen. Xander, you have to

we left the area of the bam and bunkhouse and began to w alk through

was a quiet day. Everyone else was working in the fields of squash and the apple orchard, which were situated at least a quarter

she said in all seriousness, turning to face me. "don't come back here. Get out of