Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 240
Chapter 20: Just Like Your Mother
Troy-Three Nights Ago
“Troy. So, you came.”
As if I had a choice. Romero was the whole reason I was in this place, trying not to get struck by lightning or drown in the unrelenting humidity while Aaron was stranded on a beach in the Isles of Denali, enjoying a cool drink and tanning his nearly translucent skin on the soft, white sand.
I eyed Romero coolly as he neared, his cane tapping against the stone floor with each slow step in my direction.
“You look like your mother,” he said with a strange, slightly menacing smile. I bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from saying anything, willing myself to have a filter for the first time in my life. “But I understand that you wouldn’t know her, would you?”
I swallowed, tucking my hands in my pockets.
“Ah, yes. That’s what I thought.” Romero finally reached the bars, sitting down on a stool. The action took most of his strength, and he was quiet for a moment as his heavy breathing returned to normal. “You know I’ve been up here for twenty years, Troy?”
I nodded, once, watching the man as he coughed into his fist.
“Ah, yes. Twenty years in this tower. Almost longer than that Alpha below us has been alive, did you know that? I’m sure you assumed he wasn’t the man that put me here, no, that was Talon. The half-wit’s father. Ethan’s Beta. Of course, King James was still in power then.” He looked away from me toward the landing of the stairs, snickering. “Ethan. Ha! Tell me, have you seen his girl? The daughter, what was her name… Maeve? Say, does she look like her mother? Do you know who I’ m talking about-”
“She looks like Ethan, Romero,” I said bluntly, color rising in my cheeks at the mention of Maeve’s name. In truth, I only knew what Ethan looked like from the handful of portraits I had seen scattered around the castle, but the resemblance was uncanny. Maeve was her father’s daughter, the fair version of her father’s dark and brooding characteristics.
“Ah, so he speaks more than one word at a time,” he laughed, a dry choking sound that made the hair on my arms stand on end. “I was told you didn’t start talking until you were five years n
“I didn’t have much to say,” I growled, struggling to maintain my composure. I hadn’t needed to say much as a child, anyway, having grown up bouncing from island to island in the Isles, working on the ships for the pack of Poldesse that crept through the waters like ghosts in the mist. I was one of many orphaned or abandoned boys absorbed by the pack and used like workhorses.
But I was different. I had Alpha blood. I was a descendant of Romero. My mother was his daughter, Madalynn.
He chuckled. “So she looks like Ethan, eh? How unfortunate for the girl. Her mother was a real beauty at one time. Ethan’s breeder, she was.” He paused, his beady blue eyes creasing with mirth. “And a sl*t.”
I was taken aback by this comment and narrowed my eyes on him. “What are you talking about?”
He didn’t answer.
Romero peered at me through the bars, his eyes cloudy with age. I wondered briefly if he could see very well at all now. “When do they come? The reinforcements?”
“A month, give or take,” I said shortly, watching his face fall and his eyes narrow.
“Ha! Damian has lost his grip on those wolves, hasn’t he? Insolent sod.”
“You realize what you asked of us, right? How difficult it will be to get you out of Valoria?” I sneered, stepping forward. I had heard of Romero, and had known we shared blood. That’s why I had been sent to Valoria when word of Ethan’s plans for the future of his family’s hold on Valoria trickled down through the trade route. His daughter was being used to bring forth a new heir, the breeder a man from his new alliance with the Red Lakes pack.
divulge a wealth of knowledge about Maeve’s family and their whereabouts but failed to mention a
me, Troy, in
a fine job of it, too. He was a fair leader,
you, did he?” He laughed, a shrill sound that echoed off the
as the man’s face stretched into a huge, sinister grin. “I’m here to facilitate your release. I’m acting as a spy
a man of his age, especially for an ancient man who had been held captive in a dusty, cobweb-covered tower for two
flashed behind them as he stretched his mouth into another wide, deranged smile. “You’re here to be a breeder for the
yeah. That’s my
need to be successful. We need to break the chain. We must ensure that the child
from his tower. I had been looking forward to
had to fulfill the duties of a breeder, I
do you have of an heir? Damien is
blood? The same blood that swims through the veins of her child? Maeve has the same powers. The same powers we
can mend scratches and broken
to it. There’s so much
allow her to
narrowed into slits. “Don’t let her trap you with her powers of seduction, boy. That witch
not? What will happen when she finds out the
won’t. I’ll be long gone by
the bars with both hands. “Oh, Troy, my child. My heir.
away from him, hands clenched into fists at my sides. “Tell me everything!” I hissed,
Alpha for ten years, ten years I could’ve been free of this place. Do you know why I remain? Why I rot away in the tower?” He let go of the bars and reached down, his back cracking as he groped in the dim light for his cane. He rose to his full height, leaning on the cane for support. “Ethan. Ethan is the reason. He and that whore unraveled my
Maeve? Why wait for
thundering clap. “I wanted Rosalie. I wanted access to her powers. She was the key, you see, to a fortune beyond anything you could over imagine. A treasure beyond the
next White Queen. She is my key now. And the child she births will fertilize our family tree, paving the way for wolves more powerful than you
“You’re delusional-”
oh, you are no mere breeder my boy. No. When the reinforcements come and rid the pack of Ethan’s stain, putting Poldesse on its rightful throne… well, you will be my heir. You will rule as
wipe out pack Drogomor,” I said, my voice falling flat as my cheeks began to warm with a mingled sense of fury and desperation. “This was the plan all along,
nodded, his teeth glimmering
shoulders squared. “Ernest and Maeve
Drogomor is circulated, Ethan and his son will come to rescue their precious Maeve. They will never return
what of her? Will you kill her like you so stupidly plan to do with the rest of the
lips stretching over his teeth, “a war we will win…
totally and completely out of his mind. I would be talking to Horace about this. I needed to get
this,” I said, turning away from him and
little Maeve,
“What do you mean?”