Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 248

Chapter 28: The Rejected Mate

Ethan

Rowan’s chestnut hair was falling around his face, casting long shadows over our sharp, shared features. Looking at him was almost like looking in a mirror sometimes but with lighter, wavier hair. He had my build and my height, and there had been times when someone had approached him from behind, thinking it was me, and vice versa.

But he had his mother’s emotionally driven personality. He was sensitive, shy, and somewhat boyish in demeanor. I had hoped sending him to Red Lakes would break him out of it.

But as we sat in Rowan’s lodgings, a big log cabin overlooking a large bluff leading down to the sea below, I could see l had been very, very wrong.

Kacidra was sitting on the other side of the living room, her hands folded in her lap. She was the one Rowan was supposed to marry. And judging by the look on her face as she gazed at him, her blonde brows knitted in a tight frown, she wasn’t all too pleased about it. Neither was Rowan.

“What happens if she rejects me?” Rowan was picking at the seam of his jeans, his light blue eyes downcast and focused on everything, and nothing, at all опсе.

“It’s supposed to be dreadfully painful,” Kacidra quipped, but she quickly shut her mouth and looked at the floor as I gave her a stern, fatherly look of disapproval.

I would give anything to see Kacidra and Maeve go head-to-head.

*Are you certain you’re being rejected?” I asked, scanning his face. Rowan shrugged, looking up to glance at Kacidra.

“Hanna hasn’t spoken a word to him since he’s been here,” she said, but then bit her lip, shaking her head.

“She’s said one word to me-”

“Rowan, don’t-”

I watched them, an unspoken exchange passing between the two youngsters as they glared at one another. “What exactly is going on around here?”

“Do you want to tell him, or should I?” Rowan peered over at kacidra, who significantly paled.

“I don’t think we should,”

“We could use his help, Kass. Please.”

Kacidra sucked in her breath, looking from Rowan to me. I was growing impatient with them, the two of them having been so secretive since I had arrived in Red Lakes the day before. I had been missing Rowan and was excited and incredibly shocked to see his progress on the solar farm when I arrived. The entire project was nearly complete. The crew in charge was busy running lines to the buildings and houses in the village, with Rowan overseeing everything

Oh, yes, Rowan would get his radio towers. He had earned them.

And Rowan should have been excited about that, but he was forlorn and distracted, constantly in the company of Kacidra, who hovered around him like an anxious bird, her eyes wide and mouth at his ear.

I had made it clear within an hour of arriving that I had no expectations that they would marry, unless they chose to go through with it. Rowan had found his mate. Kacidra had no interest in marrying Rowan and sacrificing her own happiness in the event she found her mate in the future. Rosalie and I wouldn’t force them into a union, even if Eugene demanded it.

Rowan could, and would, marry Hanna. She was his mate, after all. Their marriage would still unite our packs.

“My sister sees things,” kacidra said, matter-of-factly.

“Oh?” I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Visions, Dad.”

“I see.”

“No, you don’t. Look-we-“Rowan paused, closing his eyes for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. It was something I had seen Rosalie do on occasion. If Maeve favored me in physical looks and personality, Rowan heavily favored my wife..

“Hanna is rarely ever lucid, Alpha Ethan.” Kacidra swallowed, her neck moving against the words. She was nervous. “Please don’t tell my father I’m telling you this.”

“Why?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Because he plans to send her away. She’s betrothed, you know, to a man from another pack.”

“Ah, the man named Wrenn who everyone in the village has been talking about, I presume?”

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Chapter 28: The Rejected Mate

well, he needs to send her away, or so he thinks. Something about this place

“Yeah.. that’s the one,” she growled, shaking her head. “My father wants to it just do you remember my mother at all, Alpha Ethan?”

“I do. How could I forget?”

Rowan snorted, crossing his knee over his leg as he leaned back in the chair. Kacidra pinkened and inhaled deeply.

“She saw things too. Her dreams were at their worst in her last few months of life. She she was very close with Hanna. Hanna was especially devastated by her death but.. but after Mom passed away, Hanna began to have dreams. She started sleep-walking; dream dancing is what Mom called

“And you think this is getting in the way of her bond with Rowan?”

“Yes, I am certain of it. But…”

“She said my name when she was sleep-walking, I mean, dream dancing,” Rowan said quickly, his cheeks flushed with color.

“She doesn’t ever talk when she’s dreaming, so it was significant.”

“But people dream all the time? In fact, I had a dream last night-“I began, but was quickly interrupted by Kacidra, her face drawn in frustration.

“It’s not the same. I guarantee that it’s not the same. She goes somewhere, I think. And not in this not in this plane, if that makes sense,” Kacidra said.

“It doesn’t, but-“I began.

“She keeps a journal. Kacidra and I have been looking for it for the past week,” Rowan cut in, giving Kacidra a sober smile.

“I think she writes down her dreams in it. My mother kept a dream journal. My father has it. He never let me see, but she would have taught Hanna to do the same thing, I know it,” kacidra explained.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to say,” I looked from one to the other, my eyes narrowed as I tried to understand. “I don’t feel the mate bond with her when she’s dreaming, Dad. And she dreams almost constantly,” Rowan told me.

“It got worse after Rowan arrived, Alpha Ethan. It wasn’t nearly so frequent before,” Kacidra said.

“If we can find her journal,” Rowan explained, we might know why she’s why she’s-” He looked down at his hands, shrugging helplessly.

“Why she’s stuck,” kacidra finished, sighing deeply as she looked up at me expectantly. They both were looking at me, in fact, as though I had all the answers.

I blinked, shifting my gaze from Kacidra to Rowan. They were both serious about this, I could tell. “Well, what do we do? You are asking for my help by telling me this aren’t you?”

“I guess so, yeah. We are, aren’t we Rowan?”

Rowan nodded in response to Kacidra’s question, biting the inside of his cheek.

Oh, Goddess. I wished Rosalie were here.

“My dad will send her away before”

“I won’t allow that. My alliance with your father will be cemented by the unions of our children, even after”

“I won’t do that to Kacidra, Dad. What happens when she finds her mate?” Rowan snapped, his hands clenching into fists on his lap. Kacidra was surprised by his outburst, her mouth slightly ajar as she gawked at him.

“You won’t be marrying Kacidra, Rowan, not any.”

Someone was yelling outside of the cabin, their voice carried by the stiff breeze coming off the water. There was more shouting, and several people ran by outside of the bay windows on the opposite wall from where we sat.

Rowan leaned forward in his chair, peering at the shadows racing past behind the curtains. Kacidra stood, concern lining her features, “I have to-”