Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 249

Chapter 29: Nameless But Not Blameless

Maeve

“Aaron?” I said into the dark as my door opened and closed, a shadowed figure moving through the room toward my bed. I sat up, pulling the sheets over my bare chest.

I blinked rapidly to adjust my eyes to the darkness. A drawer squeaked as it was roughly opened, the sound of fabric falling to the ground overwhelmed by murmured curses.

“I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow.” I said, scooting to the side of the bed and slipping my legs out of the sheets. “What are you doing?”

“Get dressed, Maeve. We have to go.”

“Go where?” I laughed, standing and reaching over to my bedside table to turn on the lamp. Yellow light filled the room, washing over his face. “Aaron, what’s wrong?”

“Turn off the lamp, right now!” he exclaimed, panic flashing in his eyes.

He was filthy, and his clothes were damp and smelled sharply of rainwater and dust. He had dark circles beneath his eyes, and he looked exceedingly wary. I stepped forward, narrowing my eyes as I closed in on him, ignoring his demand.

He had blood on his shirt. Lots of it.

“Aaron?”

“That’s not my name, Maeve.”

I froze, any warmth I felt by his presence evaporating into thin air and leaving me feeling suddenly exposed. I crossed my arms over my breasts, not taking my eyes off of his. “What kind of game is this? Why are you covered in blood?”

“My name is Troy.” He took a step forward, his eyes boring into mine. I opened my mouth to speak, but the only sound that escaped was a choked laugh.

“Okay, Troy.” I said sarcastically. But he looked at me, coldly, his eyes vibrant gems in the lamplight.

“Turn off the lamp, Maeve. I’m serious.”

“Not until you tell me why you’re covered in blood.” i felt the sudden urge to step away from him. Troy? Who the hell was Troy? All the suspicions I had had about him came rushing forward as I looked over his face, the face I hadn’t recognized. The eyes that seemed so new, so incredibly unique. And his chest, scarless, when I knew it shouldn’t be. “You’re not Aaron, are you?”

“I’m not. I never have been. Aaron is on an island somewhere. He’s safe. He’ll be returned to his family.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, an edge to my voice. “Why are you here?”

“A mission,” he said as he took another step, his hands outstretched in a show of surrender. “I didn’t come here to be your breeder. I never meant to even touch you. I was here to free Romero from the tower.”

“Who?” I took a step away from him.

that was me. Troy. Not Aaron. !

“I need you to listen to me. I need you to know that everything that has happened between us, everything meant everything I’ve ever said and done with you.”

Igaped at him, a strange feeling beginning to well in the pit of my stomach.

“I love you,” he said earnestly, the words echoing in my ears. I felt bile rising in my throat, the fight-or-flight response rippling across my skin.

“Don’t say that to me. Don’t you dare say that to me. You lied to me, you’ve been lying this entire time-”

“Gemma was right all along, Maeve. I know you had your own suspicions. I don’t have the scar, do 1? That’s because I never fell out of a tree when I was a kid. I’ve never been to Winter Forest. We met for the first time that day in the market.”

I had been right all along. He had trapped me in his web of deceit. Everything he had said to me, everything he had done to convince me..

“Leave my room, now!”

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11:57

Chapter 29: Nameless But Not Blameless

“Do you know why I took off after I met you in the market? Because I wanted you. I sought you out of the crowd. You pulled me in. I didn’t know who you were. Then you were not who I wanted you to be—

The light abruptly shut off, and all around us the electric hum of the castle powered down, blanketing us in a dark, complete silence. His face changed, panic and confusion lining his face as he tensed, looking slowly towards the door. I felt his fear. The downy hairs on my arms stood on end as the sounds of rushing footsteps echoed through the corridors below. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

“What’s happening,” I was interrupted by the sound of Troy struggling to pull my dresser along the wall and positioning it against the door, preventing it from opening. I heard the shared door open and a similar scraping sound coming from his room. He came back into my room, bending to the ground and tossing a simple cotton dress at me. Then he walked to the bed and pulled off the sheets.

“What are you doing?”

“Get dressed, Maeve, we don’t have much time.” He was ripping the sheet into strips, cursing under his breath as he wound and knotted the strips together to form a makeshift rope.

“We don’t have much time for what? If you think barricading me in this room is going to stop me from screaming for help-” Voices echoed from below, skrill commands. Doors began to open and shut, exclaimations of surprise and then terror cutting through the still air of the castle.

Suddenly, he was in front of me, gripping my upper arms so tightly I could feel his fingernails pinching my skin. “Don’t make a sound!”

I pushed against him, slamming my fists into his chest. He grabbed the back of my head, twisting his fingers into my hair and pulling me into a kiss so intense it made me feel a rush of warmth that blurred my senses long enough to drown out the first piercing scream that ripped through the air.

He broke away from the kiss, his lips lightly brushing against mine as another scream echoed from somewhere on the lower levels.

He let me go, pushing me away and reaching down for the dress.

“Put it on, now!”

Screaming continued to sound from below, followed by muffled snarling and yelping. I was frozen in place as the sounds of chaos and destruction began to reverberate through the castle, snapping back to reality as Troy pulled the dress over the top of my head, catching a lock of my hair and pulling it unintentionally. “Ouch!”

His hand flew over my mouth. “Shut up!” he said as spun me around, so my back was against his chest. He backed us away from the door as the sound of footsteps began to sound in the hallway and the incessant shrieking from below grew louder.

“We have to go. We’re going to climb down-”

“MAEVE!” Gemma cried; her voice filled with panic. She was pounding on the door, her fearful sobs cutting through the sound of violence echoing through the castle.

I fought against Troy’s hold on me, elbowing him hard in the chest, which caused him to loosen his grasp enough for me to be free of him and run toward the door. I pushed against the dresser, but it was stuck in place, caught on the carpet. “Help me, Troy!”

He was standing there, stock still. His eyes were on the door as Gemma continued to hammer on it with her fists.

“Gemma! I’m trying!” I cried, hot tears rolling down my eyes. “Troy, help me! Please!”

Suddenly, her fists left the door and the only sound from her was a few choked sobs. “Troy? Are you there?” Gemma said, oddly calm.

“I am.”

“You have to get her out. Promise me.”

“I promise. I promise you, Gemma.”

“Troy?” I turned to him, fire blazing in my eyes. “She knows?”

“Maeve, listen to me,” Gemma said in a desperate whisper. “You have to go with him. Please. You have to trust me.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you!” I screamed, desperately pushing against the dresser. She was crying softly now, her sobs muffled by the door separating us. I began to pull the drawers out of the dresser, my hands clawing the wood as I pulled and pushed and screamed out in frustration. “Help me!”

“Troy, you have to go now. You have to get out. The tunnels, they came through the tunnels. We’re overrun.”

“I’ll get her out.”

“Get her out of Valoria. Get far from here. They’re looking for her. They’re—they’re killing everyone-“Gemma’s voice was drowned out by a crashing sound, followed by shattering glass and the menacing yelps of wolves coming up the stairwell down the hall. “Go, go now! I can’t hold them off for long.”

“NO!” I screamed, beating my fists against the dresser. “HELP ME, YOU BASTARD!”

Troy wrapped his arms around my chest, pinning my arms to my sides as I writhed and kicked his shins with my heels.

“I love you, Maeve. I love you,” Gemma sobbed, her voice breaking.

I screamed, bucking forward, which caused him to drop me, his body falling on top of mine.

“GEMMA!” I clawed at the carpet as he caught me by the ankles, dragging me further from the door, my fingernails digging into the carpet as he pulled me toward him. He lifted me, crushing me to the wall next to the window and holding me there while he wound the makeshift bed sheet rope around his arm, taking me around the waist by the other.

I heard her being ripped apart. Her screams faded and were overwhelmed by the sound of snarling and snapping jaws. The last scream had to give was ripped from my mouth as he broke through the glass of the window, pulling me up onto the sill.

“Do you trust me?”

“F*ck you.”

And then he jumped.

Troy

I was dizzy, turning my head and retching violently into the hedges we had landed in. I fought against the twisted branches of the scrubs, the arm I had wound the sheet around was broken and bent in an impossible angle. I could hear Maeve trying to catch her breath, gasping as she tried to move against the shrubbery. “Are you okay?” I asked through gritted teeth. She went totally still.

Then she rolled out of the scrub, falling flat on her face onto the grass and groaning painfully as she spit grass from her mouth.

“Don’t you dare—”

She was running before I could even blink. I rolled out of the bush like she had, biting my lip until I nearly bit clean through it to stop myself from screaming out in pain as I landed on my broken arm. I got up, vomited, then limped after her.

She had turned the corner, heading toward the kitchen garden and the door leading into the servant’s hall and kitchen. I hissed her name, cursing her under my breath as I jogged along, dragging a violently twisted ankle and clutching my mangled arm to my chest as I followed her around the side of the castle.

And then I saw them, standing near the entrance of the kitchen garden. Ernest had Gemma’s body draped over his arms, holding her as though she was weightless. Maeve raised her hand, blood dripping down her wrist as she reached over to Gemma.

“Don’t-“Ernest pushed Maeve away, sidestepping away from her. Maeve lunged at him, her bloody hand coming down on Gemma’s chest with an audible thud, leaving streaks of crimson across her friend’s clothes and jewelry. Ernest pushed Maeve away again, hard enough for her to stumble and fall onto her knees. “Leave her, Maeve. It’s too late.”

“I can help her-”

“Go.” Ernest gripped Gemma, bringing her body into his chest and cradling her.

“Ernest, wait. Come with us.” I reached out to him, but he passed by, dodging my touch.

“Get her out of here, Troy.”

“Come with us, please.” I was ready to beg, but he looked me in the eyes. His eyes were lifeless. There was nothing there.

“I can’t leave her. I won’t.”

“1-I understand,” I said softly, backing away. Maeve was watching the exchange, her face stained with tears and her mouth slightly open, but silent.

Ernest walked away from us, disappearing into the darkness of the field of tall grass with his lifeless mate clutched to his chest.