Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 110 : Show Me the Portal

*Lena*

I woke to faint sunlight filtering in between the thick curtains blanketing the frost-covered windows in my room at the castle of Winter Forest. Another day closer to the war, another day further from Xander.

Maeve had gone out into the woods with the book last night, and we had waited up for her to return. She came inside, her parka hanging loose over her shoulders and her glorious copper blonde hair tousled and fanning out beneath her hat. Her face was blank and flushed, and she had a distant look in her eyes.

She handed my mom the book, murmuring, “All of us are meant to gather–you and I, Lena, Mom, Clare… Mara too."

“We'll get Mara here as soon as possible–" Mom had begun, but Maeve turned on her heel and walked away, gliding up the staircase like a ghost.

A feeling had settled in my gut that twisted and lurched for the rest of the night, making it nearly impossible to sleep. Whatever Maeve had seen, or heard, had wrecked her beyond words.

Her face at the breakfast table was like frosted glass when I finally joined the rest of the family for our morning meal. She didn't touch a scrap of food, and my mom silently took away her tepid and stale cup of coffee and replaced it with a new one, which Maeve didn't so much as sip.

Grandma was staring at her, her eyes narrowed on Maeve's face. She was searching for something within Maeve's eyes that I myself couldn't see. I shifted in my seat and pressed a hand over my growing belly, pressing gently until I felt the baby kick against my touch. I heaved a breath, and reached for my tea, catching my mom's eye.

“The midwife is coming tomorrow," Mom said with a smile. “She has a birth to attend to today."

“She's been rather busy the past week," Grandma added with a sigh, her mouth curving into a proud smile. “If I'd been told that Winter Forest would be as it is now, I wouldn't have believed it. The pack has come so far in forty years."

“Have any of you been to Egoren?" I asked.

Grandma shrugged one shoulder as she dropped a sugar cube into her coffee and stirred. “Your grandfather has, several years ago now, after Soren came back with his daughter, Ciana."

“What is it like?"

“He said it's rather beautiful, lush and green–a temperate climate, much like eastern Findali. Forested. But, I haven't been there myself." Grandma brought her coffee to her lips, giving me a smile. “He said–"

“The book showed me how I will die."

Maeve's voice broke through the conversation like a heated blade. I dropped my fork, and Mom spilled her coffee across the white tablecloth as the three of us stared at Maeve. A single tear rolled down her cheek. She reached up and wiped it away, sniffing as she shook her head and tucked her hands in her lap. “I'm fine–"

but tenderness and concern in her

escaping her

as Maeve met her gaze. Maeve gave a sad shrug, tilting her head to side as though trying to physically brush away

like so long ago now. We'd talked about the rumor that my grandma was immortal, which had seemed so incredibly far fetched at the time. But looking at my

it all laid out on the table and open for

her voice that

shifted her weight in the chair, her mouth opening to protest my grandma's inquiry. Knowing your own death… that was deeply personal. I couldn't imagine what harboring

our bed," sas all she said, reaching for her coffee

lower lip, her eyes shifting from Grandma to

eyes as she

Lena. There's a lot you need to know and to

sunk into my chair and toyed with a piece of bacon as Grandma left the dining hall. Mom sucked

don't think it was painful," Maeve said in a near whisper, sucking in her breath. “But

talk about it now, Maeve," Mom replied hastily, catching the edge of grief

was a gift," Maeve choked through a sob. “What

out of her chair in an instant kneeling before Maeve with her arms wrapped around her stomach. I felt tears welling in my own eyes. I had known they were close, but my mom could feel every jagged edge

I'd been as close to anyone, other than Xander, as Maeve and my mom were close to

rose from my chair, totally unnoticed by them as I left the room and hurried upstairs. Grandma was talking to a maid in the hallway, and she turned to me as I

to the temple together," I said, coming to a stop on the

***

the women Maeve mentioned have powers that go beyond the limitations of our kind," Grandma explained as we walked through the old village of Winter Forest, which was on the outskirts of the city that had spread out beyond it. Grandma's arm was looped in mine as

inlet. In the summer it was covered in thickets of white roses, but now it was

was considered “the old ways," which the Church of The Moon Goddess, which was the more prevalent religion outside of Winter Forest, considered pagan

mostly left that to the temple attendants and priestesses who lived and worked around the temple, which had grown greatly in size over the

blasted through what Mom and Grandma called the “spirit realm" and

wooden pews led to the altar, where a great statute of the Moon Goddess was erected. A pendant hung around her neck, three moonstones in its center–the

in a circle, smiling. “I come here when I want some peace," she said with a grin, then sighed, a pang of sadness flushing the color from her

I asked