Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 27 : Plans in Ruin

* Xander*

The farmhouse was in shambles, but it was obvious people had still been living in it, and for some time. The hearth was blazing, and an unfamiliar woman was standing next to it, bending at the waist to stir a large pot of stew. She didn't look up at us as we came into the room. Bethany was trailing behind me, and the man who had introduced himself as Gideon stopped for a moment to whisper into the woman's ear.

She glanced at me only briefly before laying the spoon across the pot and quickly leaving the living room. I heard the front door open and shut as we began to walk up a flight of stairs.

‘‘My sister. Alma." he said, motioning his hand dismissively. “She doesn't talk much."

I followed him through an incredibly narrow and ill-lit hallway until finally he stopped walking, and pulled out a heavy set of keys. Fuiy rippled through me as he unlocked the door.

“You locked her in?" I sneered, but Gideon only shrugged.

“I locked everyone else out," he said calmly, glancing at me before stepping out of the way to let me and Bethany cross into the bedroom.

It was a dark room, the only light coming from a single window with faded lace curtains. It was stuffy in the room, and cramped, with little room to walk around with three grown adults now taking up most of the free space.

Lena was lying on the bed on top of the bedspread, her arms limp at her sides. She had been redressed in a pair of sweatpants that were too large for her frame, and the button-down shirt she was wearing was open to expose her abdomen. I sucked in my breath as my gaze traveled from her face to her stomach, where four long, deep gashes stretched from beneath her breasts all the way to her hip bones.

The injury had been cleaned and was no longer bleeding, but the entire area was coated in the black muck I immediately recognized as blood root, the same substance Henry had used to treat the wound on my chest-the wound Jen had given me.

“Who are you?" I breathed, directing my inquiry at Gideon without looking over at him.

"That doesn't matter right now. My brothers are dealing with the hybrid, and Alma will see to Lena's care-"

“Hybrid?" I asked, and this time I did look at Gideon.

He was not a very tall man, standing only a few inches taller than Bethany. His dark hair was swept back, his eyes a soft, pale green. But his skin was so pale I could see the fine, blue veins in his face and neck, and his fingers were long and narrow as he motioned to Lena's wound.

“She should have been dead," Gideon said calmly, shrugging one shoulder. "All of you, actually. No one has survived these creatures-"

"There's more than one?" I ground out, a dozen questions blurring my thoughts. “What the hell is a hybrid?"

“It's the thing that did this to you. A wolf, a shifter, but changed. They're feral. Rabid... and when that new part of them takes hold they become increasingly out of control. We'll kill the creature, I hope you know. Whoever it once was, is already long gone."

"What is the new part of it? What is it mixed with?" I asked, clenching my hands into fists. “What does it want, exactly?"

Gideon glanced at Bethany, and it sent a jolt of suspicion through my body.

"What," I began, looking at them both, "are you not telling me?"

assume you want to stay with her, or do you want the opportunity to interrogate whatever fraction of humanity is

down at Lena, my heart squeezing painfully. I didn't want to leave her. I didn't know if

Gideon assured, his

more time. “You're going to tell me everything," I stated with conviction, to which

obvious they were related, all of them short of stature with their odd. translucent skin and pale emerald eyes. We were

Saliva covered her

and rusted beam with her amts crossed behind her back. She

just watching. After several minutes of silence from the group, he nodded toward one of his brothers, who stepped forward and swiftly removed my knife from Jen’s side. She howled, the sound so shrill it sent a ripple of gooseflesh

Elaine, and Henry?" Gideon asked in a business-like

in a delirious maimer, tilting her head back and looking at us down the

come

as he accepted the knife from his brother. He wiped it

knife by the hilt, turning it over and over in my hands as

are you?" I

It was the ugliest, most terrifying

nothing short of a choked whisper as her lips

happened... to Jen?" I asked, narrowing my

now7 two different sizes. She didn't answ'er, instead

of them here," exclaimed one

are there?" Bethany croaked,

Not any others this close to a settlement in this r—" Gideon began, but

was about to say. I knew he knew the truth about me at that moment. How he knew-I wrould need

Gideon shook his head slowly, his gaze leaving mine and

"We can't," he said.

"Why the f*ck not?"

few7 days. She's the only one of her kind for miles, from w'hat we know7. I'd rather take the slight risk

as

following close behind, her footsteps crunching in the dead

"Blood, of course."

the estate, and I didn't w7ant to. I w7as sitting upstairs in the bedroom, my head resting against the wall as I leaned back in a rocking chair. I'd tried to close my eyes, but found myself staring out the window7, watching the sky darken as

shallow7 and pained. Her wounds w7ere still open and exposed, and I found myself on the verge of breaking

how things were supposed to go. If I'd known... If I'd

was carrying a tray and quickly handed me a huge pewter bowl of stew7, which I accepted

meeting

was

and I knew7 it had given the stew a somewhat acrid taste as I lifted my spoon to my mouth and tested it. Bethany told me it