Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 64 : Shadow of Darkness

*Lena*

My chest squeezed as I watched Xander and my mom speaking in low tones on the terrace. I'd been trying to make my way toward them for the better part of five minutes but found myself stuck in meaningless conversations with practically everyone in the room.

He'd motioned me over, but I was stuck in place, chewing on a dry waffle I hadn't had the chance to dress with butter or syrup because of my cousin Kat's extensive questions about the reception.

She was the youngest daughter of my great-aunt Vicky and was heavily pregnant with her third baby. She'd fallen asleep during the wedding ceremony and hadn't felt well enough to attend the reception, but was begging everyone for any tidbits of drama or gossip they might have seen or heard.

Thankfully, Oliver and Charlie stumbled into the kitchen, both of them looking worse for wear and reeking of seaweed. Maeve cried out, pointing to the sand they dragged in behind them, and suddenly the entire room erupted in noisy exclamations as several different conversations converged into one.

I exhaled through my nose and sidestepped around a few people toward the coffee bar, pouring myself a mug while balancing my plate in my free hand. The wedding guests outside of the family, those who stayed in the guest houses and cabanas that dotted the palace grounds, would be attending a formal breakfast laid out in the ballroom.

Will and Hollis, I realized with a sigh of relief, weren't here at all. They'd most likely left for their honeymoon a few hours earlier, catching a private yacht to wherever the hell they were going.

I had just turned to head out onto the terrace when someone small tugged on the sleeve of my shirt. I looked down, seeing a sly-looking Luke peering back up at me with his steel gray eyes.

“What do you want?"

“I know something you don't know!" he teased, batting his eyelashes at me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, shifting my weight and looking down at him expectantly. “Oh? Are you going to tell me?"

“My information comes at a cost," he drawled, sticking out his lower lip. “I want to play hide and seek."

“With me? I'm too old. There are plenty of other kids around to play with."

“I don't like them," he retorted, crossing his skinny arms over his chest. “I want to play with you!"

“How about you tell me first, and then we can play–"

“No! I want to play right now!"

I set my unfinished breakfast down on the coffee bar and glared at him, flaring my nostrils as I relented to his request.

“One round, and then you tell me what you know. And it better be good."

“It's about your boyfriend," he said with a sly smile, then made little smooching sounds at me.

I ground my teeth, glancing over at Xander, who was staring right at me. “The adults need me, Luke. One round, in the back foyer. That's it."

He beamed and called out to the rest of the children, who were using the commotion Oliver and Charlie had started to scream and run between the legs of the adults without being corrected. My ears were ringing by the time Luke and I reached the foyer, which was less extravagant than the main foyer at the front entrance of the palace, but still had plenty of places to hide behind thick velvet curtains and several cabinets, tables, and plush couches near the open doors to the back garden.

Nine children belonging to a variety of my extended family members looked up at me.

“You have to be it, Lena," one of Keaton and Myla's youngest children said, clapping her hands excitedly.

“I don't want to be it!" I cried, playfully sticking out my lower lip.

“But you're the biggest, and the super oldest!" said one of my second or third cousins, a little boy with curly blonde hair.

I thought he was one of Sarah's, Aunt Vicky's middle child, but I wasn't sure. There were so many little ones in that branch of the family.

“Super oldest?" I said, pretending to cry.

Several of the children squealed in delight at my expense.

“Lena and I will both be it," came Xander's voice. I stiffened, surprised, but then relaxed as he came up behind me. All the children looked up at him with a stroke of fear lingering behind their eyes. “You have twenty seconds, starting… now!"

No one moved, all of the kids stunned into stillness. He leaned over me, baring his teeth and growling loud enough to make me jump.

All of the kids screamed and began running around in a panic, but their initial surprise dissolved in frantic giggles as Xander took me by the shoulders and turned me around.

“You're supposed to close your eyes," he said, nudging me softly in the ribs.

I closed my eyes, chuckling low in my throat as the sound of childlike chatter mingled with the curtains straining under the weight of children ripping them along the rod and cabinets opening and closing.

“How many are there?" he whispered.

“Fifteen, sixteen–" I counted loudly, then grinned, shrugging my shoulders. “Nine kids, I think. Maybe more."

“Damn, this is going to take all afternoon."

“We can pretend to not find any of them at all and give their parents some peace for the rest of the day," I suggested, and Xander laughed, but then a small voice burst out, “That's more than twenty seconds!"

“You can't even count, Amanda!" someone replied, and Xander and I both sputtered with laughter as we called out, “Twenty!" and turned around.

“Luke is the one I want," I whispered before we broke apart and began following the giggles throughout the room. It wasn't hard to find the kids. They were all really, really bad at hide-n-seek.

But after ten minutes, none of us could find Luke.

“Where is he?" Xander demanded, dangling a piece of chocolate in a gold wrapper he'd found in his pocket in front of the eight children looking up at us.

“Luke is a cheater. He hid outside!"

Xander tossed the chocolate to the little boy who'd snitched on Luke, and the rest of the kids whined for candy, to which Xander directed them to a bowl along the hallway leading to the foyer.

“Everyone is going to turn on you for telling the kids where the candy is," I teased as we watched them run toward the bowl in question.

“They can't reach it–" but Xander was silenced as one of the boys got on his hands and knees while Keaton and Myla's youngest daughter used him as a stool. She grabbed the entire bowl off the high-wall table and dumped the contents onto the floor.

“Oh, Goddess, we gotta get out of here," Xander said, looking a little pale.

“Let's find Luke," I said, taking him by the hand and leading him out of the foyer.

***

Luke was the family spy, and his skills in the art were practiced and polished to a fine edge. We spent nearly half an hour combing the garden for him without a hint of his whereabouts.

“Do you think he's even out here?" I hissed, growing impatient.

Xander sniffed dramatically, then screwed up his face in a scowl. “I can smell him!" he sounded loudly, and a bush rustled about ten feet away from us, a little giggle filtering through the foliage. Xander arched his brow at me, then pounced into the bush. A scuffle ensued, and after two entire minutes, Xander rose from the bush, sticks and leaves sticking in his hair while holding Luke up by the collar of his shirt. Luke's feet were dangling in the air as Xander stepped out of the bush, dusting himself off before lowering Luke to the ground.

“You guys suck at this game," he laughed, shaking himself off like a wet dog before turning to skip into the house.

“Not so fast!" I snapped.

Luke looked over his shoulder at me, a boyish gleam in his eyes. “Fair is fair," he snickered, then turned around with a finger outstretching and pointing at Xander. “He has something in his pocket."

“I have lots of things in my pockets," Xander said with a shrug. “That's not really a secret."

“You have something for Lena in your pocket!"

Xander ran his tongue along the inside of his lower lip, watching Luke with a sudden gleam of marked disapproval behind his eyes. He c****d his head, a silent challenge.

“I'm going to say what it is!"

“No, you're not–" Xander said sternly, but Luke stuck his tongue out at him.

“Luke, stop–"

“It's a little bag with a ring in it! A big, ugly ring!"