Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 261

Chapter 41: Friend?

Maeve

“Mama?” i crept into the room, my feet silent on the wide plank floorboards bathed in violet twilight, “Daddy?”

Dad stirred, rolling over and leaning on his elbow as he watched me enter the room, his hair ruffled from sleep. He motioned for me to come to the bed, pulling down the covers as I climbed in between them and laid my head against the mattress, snuggled tightly between their two pillows.

“What’s the matter?” Mom asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she rolled over, tucking her body around mine.

“I had a bad dream,” I sniffled, resting my cheek against her arm. Dad reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear before he laid his head back, facing me.

“What did you dream about?” he asked, his blue eyes dark and focused in the dim light.

“I was swallowed up by water. Lots of it.”

“Well, did you swim?” he replied.

“No, the water was too big. I tried, but I was too little, and the waves were too high over my head.” I stretched one arm upwards towards the vaulted ceiling.

“Hmm…” Mom said dreamily, on the edge of sleep. “But you learned how to swim this summer, darling. In the lake”

“It wasn’t a lake, Mama. It was BIG water.”

Dad snorted, his mouth touched with a wry smile, “It was just a dream, kiddo.”

“There was someone else with me.”

“Who?” Mom asked, stroking my back with her fingers. Her touch relaxed me, making my eyes flutter.

“Was it Rowan?” Dad smiled, closing his eyes.

“No. But he was probably the one who threw me in,”

Dad laughed shortly, rolling over onto his back.

“It was a woman. She was a ghost, like she wasn’t really there.” I yawned hugely, sleep settling back into my bones.

“She was there to protect you, sweetie,” Mom said quietly, tucking me closer to her chest.I sniffled, closing my eyes, trying not to think of the dream where I had been struggling in empty, bleak darkness miles below the surface of an unforgiving sea.

“I’ll take you to the beach tomorrow, okay? Just me and you. We can put our toes in the water. You’ll feel better,” Dad was barely awake, his voice far away and dream-like.

“Do not sleep, my starling. Sleep, my doe…” Mom sang softly, her voice calming me and making my body submit to the slumber I had been rudely awoken from.

I closed my eyes.

***

I rolled onto my side, water sputtering from my mouth as my lungs contracted, desperate for air. I inhaled through my mouth, deeply, my throat burning and my mouth tasting strongly of salt.

I blinked into the sun. It was blinding, reflecting off the space around me. I sat up, shielding my eyes from the bright orb as I looked around.

Sand. Golden, coarse sand. The beach was at low tide, seaweed lining the shoreline where the tide had risen and then fell away again.

Leaving me behind.

I tried to stand, but my legs wobbled and gave way, and I fell back onto my knees into the sand, the small particles biting into my skin.

I was still in the oversized white shirt, the soaked fabric clinging to my skin. It clung to the thermals as I tried to stand again, this time successfully, and I looked out over the water.

It was calm, a bright turquoise where the beach met the gentle waves.

Troy. Where was he?

“Oh, no!” I cried, but the words came out as a cracking, strained whisper. Where was everyone? Where was the skiff he had thrown me on before before

I remembered the wave that had snapped the masts. I remembered his face as he pulled the knife from his coat pocket, the gleam of metal as he aborted his mission of tying me to the skiff and sliced through the cables holding to skiff to the Persephone instead. He had said something, desperation clouding his eyes as I fell away, down and down and down into the storm as the wave broke over the Persephone and swallowed it whole.

And then I remembered nothing.

I had dreamed of my parents. I knew that for certain. I had seen them clear as day. Mom with her glossy, white hair falling around her face as she scooped me into her arms, Dad with his piercing blue gaze. But I couldn’t remember what exactly I had dreamt about. Was that even possible? To remember your dreams within a dream. And my parents had been young in my dream. So young.

How far away they were now. They probably thought I was dead.

I looked around, my gaze settling on the sparse palms and knotted, low hanging trees I couldn’t recognize or name. I walked along the sand, my mind jumbled as I tried to piece together the fragmented memories of the storm.

“Oh, Myla,” I whispered as I gazed back over the water, seeing nothing but sparkling blue water and softly capped waves. This tangled web | found myself in, by no fault of my own, was destroying everyone I loved one by one. First Gemma, then Ernest. Now Myla and Cleo.

And Troy.

I walked into the palms, sitting down on the shaded sand and cried. Oh, how I wished I could take it all back. I would have been nicer to him. I would have told him how I really felt. That I wanted him. That I needed him.

That I loved him.

My throat ached as I swallowed against the lump in my throat, my sobs of despair and heartbreak dry and choked as I tried to regain my composure. I needed water.

But the only water around was the salty, undrinkable water rolling against the sand. The same water already filling my belly and making me even more dehydrated. I looked around, seeing nothing but an endless beach.

If I was alive… if I had survived, surely someone else had. Surely the other three skiffs had made it off the boat to safety.

The thought was enough encouragement to make me rise to my feet and turn towards the trees, where the sparseness of the brush eventually gave way to thick, almost lightless jungle.

I moved into the jungle, walking for what felt like hours. The sun was low in the sky now, casting an orange glow through the trees and thick, wide-leaf vines. Birdsong erupted around me as I walked and startled the creatures lurking on the forest floor around me. Lizards scurried up the trees as I passed, their forked tongues flicking in warning.

Night fell. My feet were bare and aching, the skin blistered and raw from sliding over wet tree roots. A chill swept through the jungle, making me shiver and hug my arms around my chest to try to warm myself. I had been walking all day, never once coming across a bubbling stream or freshwater pool. Even the large leaves of the vines held no water. The only water was in the air, a suffocating humidity that during the day had caused me to sweat profusely and now stuck coldly to my skin.

I entered a clearing shadowed by a large, moss-covered rock. I leaned against it, sinking onto my bottom with my head resting against the moss, closing my eyes.

The night sounds of the jungle erupted around me as my breathing slowed. The chirping of frogs, the scurrying of small critters in the brush.

But then I heard something else, something bigger, moving through the dense foliage. I opened my eyes wide, adrenaline prickling my fingertips and making the hair rise along my arms as the thing grew closer, and closer. Then it quieted. A sniffing sound. I paled, pressing my back against the rock and holding my breath as the creature stepped into the clearing, moonlight glistening along its back.

It was a pale gray in color, its fur short and its body oddly elongated and desperately lean. Its legs were long, its back legs slightly longer than the front legs. A long neck and narrow face with a long, skinny snout and small ears. It was a strange-looking creature, and it must have thought the same thing of me as it peered at me from the other side of the clearing, its small head tilting side to side.

I had seen dogs before, but nothing like this. They were always small, fluffy creatures tied to leashes and paraded around the more affluent neighborhoods in Mirage. This was not a small creature, or a fluffy one. It was tall and lean and practically naked, its odd coloring a sharp contrast to the dark green of the foliage behind it.

‘Friend?’ came a voice within my mind. I blinked, shaking my head at the intrusion. I could only mind-link with my family since I wasn’t twenty-one yet, but this creature was trying.

‘Friend?’ It said again, nervously lowering its head. It was trembling, its small, round eyes fixated on mine.

ADV

9.

Chapter 41: Friend?

“Can you understand me?” I said aloud, my voice dry from lack of use and severe dehydration. It straightened its neck, fear evident behind its eyes as I spoke.

“Can you understand me?’ I said over the mind-link, an odd feeling tightening my chest. Was I really talking to a dog?

The dog just stared, its tail wagging once in reply.

Are you a shifter?” I asked.

It snorted, shaking its head rapidly. I held my hands out, slowly reaching towards it, inviting it to me.

“I won’t hurt you.” I said aloud as it took one step forward, gingerly lowering its snout to sniff the ground around me. It was feet away, too far to touch

“Wolf,’ it said, baring its teeth.

“No, not yet,’ I answered, shaking my head.

It stepped forward, sniffing my foot and then the tips of my fingers before taking a step backward and sitting back on its haunches.

‘What’s your name?’ I asked.

“Dog.’ it replied, its tongue lolling out of one corner of its mouth. I laughed, unable to stop myself, which startled the creature. It arched its back and reared away, still seated, obviously unaccustomed to the noise.

“I won’t hurt you, friend.’I said, reaching out to it again.

It stretched its neck, sniffing my fingers and then licking them, its tail brushing back and forth through the mud.

*Here?’ It asked, tilting its head.

“Why am I here?’ I’m lost. I need to find water. I’m hurt.”

“Drink

“Yes, drink. Can you show me where?’

It sneezed hugely, shaking its head.

‘Water, I-‘I said, but the dog stood, dancing in a tight circle before pouncing towards me, its front legs bending playfully.

“Me!’ It said, running into the brush. I stood, gaping after it as it pounced excitedly through the foliage, its strange-shaped head popping up yards away

it barked excitedly, turning in a circle once away, beckoning me to follow.

“Well,” I said to myself as I rose, using the rock for support this creature is either going to lead me to water, or back to its people.”

The dog, which I had realized was very much a male as he stopped and lifted his leg to pee on the side of a rock, was very thin, however, Maybe he was out here all alone and was half starved? Some long forgotten passenger from a shipwreck, perhaps? I thought about asking him, but his infantile language over our mind-link made me question how much he could actually understand other than basic commands.

He had understood water, at least.

We walked through the night, the dog always several yards ahead of me, his snout occasionally snapping to attention when something small ran in the space around us. Finally, we reached another clearing, and I almost fell to my knees in thanks when the sound of trickling water flooded the air,

A pool of water was being fed by a small waterfall, the area around it flat and cool in the shade of several large, vine covered trees. The dog whined excitedly, doing a little dance as I ran to the water’s edge, scooping the cold, fresh tasting water into my mouth and closing my eyes as it cured the painful, burning dryness in my throat.

Once I had drunk my fill I sat back, watching as the dog lapped at the pool and then sat a few feet from me, watching me closely. I reached to him, smiling broadly.

“Thank you, friend’, I said.

‘Friend. Water.’

“Yes, you found water. You saved me.’

The dog stepped towards me, trembling, and licked my hand, allowing me to reach up and scratch him behind the ears. He liked this, leaning his head towards my touch and nuzzling my arm. Eventually he curled into a perfect, although boney, ball beside me, his head resting on my thigh as I sat back against a tree and closed my eyes, thankful for his warmth.

I slept like the dead, a dreamless sleep. I woke to the sound of frantic barking in my ear as the dog nudged me with his snout, licking my face between barks to wake me up.

“What’s that matter?* l yawned, looking around the clearing.

Through the trees, I could see the beach. Golden sand swirled around huge, black rocks. Waves broke over the rocks, sending a massive spray of water up into the air. The beach was only a quarter mile away, based on my judgment.

I stood, patting the dog on the head assuringly as he trembled by my side.

And then I saw it. Something shining in the sun. I squinted, focusing on the object just along the tree line where the beach met the jungle.

It was a boat. A skiff. The very same as the skiffs that once hung from the side of the Persephone.

And then I was running.