Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 282

Rosalie

“Well, I wanted to name him Talon, of course. I was desperately in love with Talon back then, you know,” Georgia said with a little laugh, giving Talon a teasing glance.

“I told you what would happen if you did,” Talon cut in, bringing his glass of whiskey to his lips and smiling knowingly at his wife.

“I hate to admit that Talon was right,” she laughed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “But he was right. Every time I said Talon, they both looked right at me. It was rather confusing for both of them, honestly. We even tried calling him TJ for a while, for Talon Junior, but he refused to acknowledge that, even though he was just a toddler.”

Ernest rolled his eyes, his arm draped over the back of Gemma’s chair as Georgia continued.

“Well, Talon had given our son the middle name of Ernest, a beloved dead uncle on his side of the family,” she paused, looking over at Talon to confirm this was correct. He shrugged, nodding. “Anyway, I started calling him Ernie, just thinking it was the cutest name I had ever heard, and it stuck.”

“And now we call him Ernest,” Talon finished, smiling softly at his son. Ernest pinkened at his father’s loving gaze, and turned his head to Gemma.

“I will let you choose the name,” he smiled down at her, his hand resting on her stomach, “As long as it’s not Ernest.”

“Oh, please,” Georgia laughed, waving her hand to dismiss his comment. “Ernest is a fine name. We could have named you Bartholomew-”

“Or Cornelius,” Ethan said with a wry smile.

“Or Richard,” Rowan said, leaning into the conversation.

“What’s wrong with the name Richard?” Kacidra cut in from the other end of the table.

“Well, it might have actually been a fine choice for you, Ernest. The nickname for it is Dick,” Rowan grunted as Ernest, who was seated directly across from him, kicked him in the shin.

“Nothing has changed,” Georgia murmured as she took a sip of her wine, giving me a sideways glance. I smiled, shaking my head as conversation erupted around me, the dining room feeling small, but warm, as we sat shoulder to shoulder around the modest-sized dining room table.

“Are Vicky and Paul coming?” Rowan asked, looking expectantly at Ethan. Ethan shrugged, but Talon shook his head, leaning forward to accept a bowl of green beans from Hanna.

“Vicky wants to be here, but Paul doesn’t want to risk it,” Talon said.

“I think that’s wise,” Ethan said soberly, giving me a look as ! settled back against my chair.

They were right; we didn’t know what was going to happen here in the North. Vicky and Paul had settled in Finaldi, starting a family of their own. They had three daughters, none of them yet sixteen. I didn’t blame them for not wanting to bring their children to what could soon be considered a war zone if Damian made any further moves. We were, essentially, waiting for

war.

“What did they name their daughters again? I can never remember.” Gemma was picking at her plate, slightly green around the gills.

I pursed my lips as I watched her struggle for a moment, looking as though she was going to throw up before she was able to regain her composure. Gemma had been sick her entire pregnancy so far with little to no relief.

“Well, there’s Caroline, the eldest. And then Katerina is the middle… or is she the youngest?” Georgia looked over at me for help.

“Katerina is the youngest,” I corrected. “Sarah is in the middle.”

“Oh, that’s right. The last we saw them they were talking about trying for a boy, if you can believe it,” Georgia said as she brought her wine glass to her lips, looking around to make sure everyone had heard the latest gossip.

Ethan furrowed his brow. “Try again? Isn’t that how Katerina came about? She’s worse than Maeve was. What is she now, seven?”

“Nine!” Georgia replied, nodding in agreement.

“Rosalie,” Gemma said softly, gingerly sipping from a glass of water, “How did you come up with the name Maeve?”

“You should ask Ethan that. He was the one who named her,” I said with a smile.

The entire table turned to look at Ethan, who blanched at the attention, clearing his throat.

“I thought it sounded nice with Rowan,” he said simply, expecting that to be a good enough answer. “Why are you all still looking at me?”

“It also means she who rules,” I said to Gemma, turning my head to glare teasingly at Ethan.

“Well, that is fitting, isn’t it? You know, I always wondered about her name. She’s the only Maeve I’ve ever met,” said Georgia with a smile.

“What names are you and Ernest thinking of, Gemma?” | asked, my chest tightening painfully at the thought of Maeve. I couldn’t bear it. I needed to change the subject away from her.

“Well, truthfully I haven’t given it much thought…”

“We‘ve been a little, uh, busy.” Ernest gave Gemma a reassuring smile, his eyes seeming to tell her she was safe, reminding her she was home.

“I’ve always liked the name Eliza, or maybe Jennifer for a girl. I haven’t even thought of names for a boy.”

“Rowan has a nice ring to it,” Rowan said with a sly smile.

I nudged him with my elbow.

“You know, I had a dream a few weeks ago,” Gemma began. “I don’t really remember the dream, but I remember hearing someone say Tasia, and I thought it was a beautiful word.”

Hanna jumped to her feet, shaking the table as she did so. She swallowed, looking around before nodding once and bolting for the door. Rowan and Kacidra both began to rise, but I motioned for them to sit, rising from my seat and grabbing my plate as I mumbled excuses.

I could hear Ethan’s rapid stride behind me as I walked briskly down the hallway toward the den. I nearly tossed my plate on the counter as I hurried through the kitchen, the porcelain dish rattling against the counter as Ethan caught up to me, his hand reaching for my shoulder.

Hanna had run out the backdoor and was moving quickly through the backyard, her dress billowing out behind her.

“Rosalie!” Ethan growled, but I darted out of his grasp, jumping down the steps leading out of the den and into the yard. “ROSALIE!”

I sprinted across the grass, barely making it to Hanna before she reached the back gate leading into the woods. She stopped short of the gate, however, and I almost tackled her to the ground by accident as I slid to a stop. “What is wrong, Hanna?” I cried, taking her by the shoulders.

She tried to push away from me but stilled as Ethan came to my side. She cowered, looking down at her feet.

“This has been going on long enough,” Ethan said sharply, his tone biting enough to make me wince. “Whatever you’re seeing, whatever visions are plaguing you-”

“Something is wrong,” she said, her lower lip quivering.

“We need you to explain it to us, Hanna. We don’t understand.” I kept my voice as soft as

possible, fearful she’d collapse into the grass and have another one of her spells. “What do you see? We know you’ve seen Maeve. We know you’re able to see things that are lost, talk to people who have passed on-”

“No, I cannot do that,” she said firmly, shaking her head.

“Why did you leave the table so abruptly?” Ethan said, his tone softening.

Hanna looked up, her eyes watering. “Everyone thinks I’m crazy,” she said, her voice cracking with long subdued anger.

I was slightly taken aback by this, seeing for the first time the real, deep-rooted frustration that plagued her. She didn’t want these powers. She had no way to control them. She likely didn’t know how to interpret them.

Oh, Goddess. How I wished Gayla was here at this moment. We had buried her near the Temple of the White Queens over a decade ago and planted white roses over her grave. She had been a Seer. She would have known what to do to help Hanna.

“I’ve been dreaming of a building for years now,” Hanna began, her eyes still downcast. “I don’t know where it is, or what’s inside. I only know that I’m being pulled toward it. But I always get stuck; someone always pulls me back under. But after I met Rowan, I… I’ve been pulled to another place, like meeting him has begun a chain of events that I’m somehow linked to in the other world.”

Ethan was listening patiently, but I saw his face change at the mention of another world outside of our own.

“I had a dream when Rowan first came to Red Lakes. Usually, my dreams were meaningless. I couldn’t control or manipulate them like my mother could. But this dream was different. Someone else was there with me, trying to communicate with me. I think she was… like me.”

“Another Dream Dancer?” I asked, hoping she would continue.

“I believe so. It wasn’t until I dreamed of Maeve for the first time that I realized I wasn’t completely alone. Maeve was in deep, deep water. She was dying. She wasn’t supposed to be there. I got her to the surface of the water and a wave just… took her away.” 

“I don’t understand,” Ethan said, but I quickly shushed him.

“But then I saw the building again, this time much closer, like whatever I had done for Maeve had allowed me to close in on it. But it was loud and chaotic. Before… I thought the building was the key to understanding my power. If I could only get to it, you know? Now, I’m not so

sure.”

“What does this other person look like?” I coaxed her to continue.

“I’ve never seen them. I’ve only ever heard a woman singing, or a shadow approaching, or like… when I found Maeve, some type of phenomenon I can barely put into words.”

“What about Seraphine?” I asked.

She looked up at me, helplessly.

“I see flashes of her sometimes, but she’s much younger than the pictures you have. I don’t know why. I don’t know what it means when I see her.”

“And the rings? How did you know about them?” I asked, my heart beginning to beat rapidly in my chest.

“The ring was just… there. And somehow I knew it was what Maeve needed. I knew who the rings once belonged to. But… that dream is fragmented, Rosalie. I tried to write it down afterward-.”

“In your journal? The one Rowan and Kacidra were looking for-” Ethan realized his mistake the second the words fell from his mouth, and he quickly shut it, looking away from us.

Hanna sighed, reaching up to twirl a lock of her hair around her finger. I had seen Kacidra do the same thing several times, and for the first time, I realized how much alike the two women actually looked. Kacidra, powerless and fair. Hanna, dark and tormented by her mother’s inheritance. Both plagued by the gift in different ways.

| stepped toward her, my eyes fixed on hers.

“Have you ever… dreamt on purpose?”

“Like, Dream Danced on my own? Without the pull-“.

“Yes! Have you ever tried to do it without being… what would you call it?”

She shrugged. “I’ve always avoided it-”

“What if you did? Could that possibly give you more control while you’re in the dream?”

“Like lucid dreaming, you mean?” Ethan was trying as hard as he could to follow along.

“I guess… I could try? I was always afraid too.”

“I’ll be with you.”

“Hanna,” Ethan said, a hint of impatience in his voice. “Why did you leave the table when Gemma was talking about what they were thinking of naming their child?”

“I know the name Tasia, but I don’t know why. It’s familiar but that was the first time I had ever heard it. I know that doesn’t make sense, but I…” She trailed off, looking toward the

house. Rowan was standing in the doorway leading back into the den, his hands tucked into his pockets. She smiled weakly, her cheeks turning rosy at the sight of him.

He probably hadn’t followed too closely because he wanted me to see if Hanna would speak to me.

“We need to do this, Hanna. We may need your help if-” | paused, looking up at Ethan. He nodded for me to continue. “We’re on the brink of war, Hanna. We need to know we can trust you. We need to know you’re able to control this power. Not for our gain,”

“You need to learn to control them, for Rowan,” Ethan said as he looked at our son. “And if what you’ve seen is true, you’re the only person who has seen Maeve since she left Mirage. We need you to find her.”