Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 14 : Get Rid of It

Jared led me through the village away from the party going on in the background. I stopped walking when we reached the kitchen garden, then had to hustle to keep up with him as he walked right past the house and toward the sparse woods beyond.

The “good" woods, I noted, not the scary forest to the north, void of light and filled with beasts, according to the man himself.

“Where are we going?" I asked as we started down a slow descent, the lights of the village fading until we were blanketed in pale violet light, the sun all but set.

“It's a full moon tonight," Jared said, not looking back at me.

“Oh," I said with a hint of annoyance. His answer had given me absolutely nothing. “Are you going to shift and eat me, then?"

He glanced at me over his shoulder, looking me up and down.

“You wouldn't be much of a meal."

I pursed my lips and followed him further into the woods for several minutes. Was this another one of his punishments?

“Jared?" I panted, trying my best to keep in step with him. He didn't answer, so I reached out and grabbed his shirt sleeve.

He whirled on me so swiftly that I had to dig in my heels to stop myself from running right into his chest. “What?"

“Archer and Scarlett. I didn't say or do anything–"

“I know," he breathed, giving me a sympathetic look. “He's defensive of her."

“Because they're mates," I added, and he nodded, but his face was cast in shadow. “And after her baby was taken from her–"

“He fought in the war in the Realm of Light, yes."

I found it a little hard to breathe. Archer? He fought… he would have fought alongside my cousins and uncles. Had Jared as well?

“I didn't," he said as if reading my mind. I was sure the question was clear on my face. “But I heard it was brutal." He turned and began walking again, but he'd slowed his pace so I could keep up. “I had responsibilities that kept me home," he added after a moment.

“I did too," I said softly, my heart stuck in my throat.

Jared glanced back at me, and to my surprise he gave me the softest, most knowing smile. It caught me off guard, and I hastily looked away from him as we continued along a well-beaten trail leading away from the village.

He got ahead of me again after a while. Night was falling, and he carried no lantern. We were blanketed in nothing but moonlight now. I fell even further behind when I eventually looked up, letting the light of the full moon dust my cheeks.

Tommy was a lucky man to have his twenty-first birthday fall on a full moon.

“Keep up," Jared said several yards ahead of me.

I pursed my lips and took a few quick steps to catch up to him so we were walking side by side again. He was very tall, and keeping up with his long stride had me panting with effort by the time we walked out of the woods and onto a bluff. I gasped, looking out onto a wide, sweeping plain broken only by a distant river.

“Woah," I breathed, taken aback by the view. I hadn't realized something like this was so close to Jared's house.

he said

down a step trail that wove down the bluff. Water dripped on our heads as we ducked into the trees at the bottom of the bluff, the last of the snow

though, where are you taking

replied, pausing to help me over a large rock

distance, moonlight illuminating what looked like ruins of some

then gasped,

us.

I wanted to show

I hastily wiped

“Are you crying?"

then glared at him, my vision blurred

the matter with

the circle, but I stopped at the edge, examining the ancient markings etched into the outer

them, especially on the full moon. But that was only based on the story my aunt Maeve had told me about her experience with a circle in what

suspected to have been the only one of its kind in my realm. Dianny was long gone now, buried

believe it," I

reached out to lean his weight against the rock I was examining. I swatted his hand

now, not with a full moon.

Yes. Maybe at some

knew anything about these

have in my study, you know," he continued, giving me a wry

softened with time. I felt no jolt of mystical electricity. I felt nothing, actually, but the cool

his pocket, leaning into me so the top of my head briefly brushed against his shoulder. He held out his fist, and I instinctively opened my palm

a clock?" he asked in a near whisper, as if we were

the somewhat crude craftsmanship. It was very, very old. That was obvious. At first, I thought it might have been forcefully removed from its other pieces because of the

it as I fought for breath. Jared made no

“You feel it too?"

the f**k is this thing?

Whatever it was, well, it was harboring something within its golden surface that threatened to suck every ounce of happiness right out

all the pieces

it," I

“But you think

can tell the time, yes." But the more I held it in my grasp, the more I felt it wasn't so much as telling the time as it was timing me, seeing how long

to bring them together," he admitted as I opened my palm to look down at it once more. Whether it was sheer instinct or some deeply rooted memory from my years studying ancient artifacts such as this one, I ran my finger over the face of it, then along the smooth edge. I pressed into that edge until the metal

ran my finger over the jagged end, slowly pressing until another piece slid free. This new piece was sharpened to a fine point and sliced through my finger, but I barely noticed the pain. “It's meant to fit into the other pieces like a puzzle. Together–" I turned it over, then held

“Eliza–"

to myself. “Then you're missing

“Eliza!"

square-shaped ridges that I knew were meant to open up to reveal something, but I didn't know what the something was. A code, maybe… a secret message… whatever it was, I knew it was bad. It was a Cipher Wheel, a Cryptex, a puzzle… something

through me. I could

What was happening?

it," I repeated, handing it back to