Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 297

Chapter 77 : An Act of War

Rowan

Dad had been in Mom’s room with the door closed for two days. Gretchen, Georgia, and Vicky had busied them selves with making food and tending to the house, carrying trays of tea and snacks upstairs on a regular basis, the trays untouched as they rested on the carpeted floor until they were eventually cleared away by Gretchen.

Despite the amount of people in the house, it was dead silent. Every once in a while, someone started the washing machine in the laundry room, or a tea kettle squealed in the kitchen, but otherwise, the many occupants of the house walked around in somber, quiet steps, waiting for the door of the master bedroom to open and for Ethan to come out and explain to us what we needed to do.

Mom was alive. So was Hanna. We didn’t know until we got home from Mirage that they had both survived whatev er catastrophes had happened in our absence. The plane ride home had been the longest five hours of my life.

I was sitting in the den with my hands tucked between my knees, watching Vicky and her daughters chopping vegetables in the kitchen. Talon came into the kitchen, looking grave as he bent his head to whisper in his sister’s

ear. He noticed me as he straightened up, giving me a tight nod, then motioned his head toward the back door as he stepped into the den, willing me to follow.

| stepped outside, closing the backdoor behind me as I moved with quick steps after Talon, who was walking briskly toward the gate leading to the trails that wove around the grounds of the White Queen’s castle. All plans to move the extended family into the castle, for the time being, had ceased when we returned. No one wanted to be far from Mom.

“We need to talk to Hanna.” Talon held the gate open for me as I passed through, shutting it with a soft click. “Now.”

“No,” I replied firmly, tucking my hands into the pockets of my flannel jacket against the cool breeze rustling the trees. We walked along the fence, and I knew he was mean ing to walk out onto the road leading down to the village. Kacidra and Hanna were staying in a cabin on the outskirts of the forest, not far from where we were now.

“I understand that she’s your mate, but,”

“But nothing. Hanna didn’t do this.”

“Gemma isn’t sure”

“Gemma wasn’t there!” | swallowed against the fury ris ing in my throat, struggling to catch my breath. We had heard a brief synopsis of what happened in the aftermath of the event that had momentarily killed my mother and put my mate in a coma.

coma.

Gemma had saved Mom’s life, but how she had done so was a mystery. She told us Mom made her promise not to tell anyone what happened in the bedroom where Mom’s body had been laid out. Not even Dad, which made him fu rious. He had locked himself in their bedroom after that, no doubt to get the truth out of Mom.

“Otto has already tried to talk to Shelly. She’s terrified, Rowan. She’s not saying a word.”

“Then we will talk to Kacidra, she was with them. But not Hanna.”

“Why not? Tell me,”

“Because I forbid it.”

“You’re mate killed your mother, Rowan-”

“Talon, shut the f*ck up.”

Talon stopped walking, stunned into silence. I turned to him, fighting against the embarrassment that sent a furious

Lv.1

blush up my neck. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“I’m sorry,”

To my surprise he smiled, his brows arched in surprise. Then, he laughed heartily, throwing his head back.

“What the hell is so funny?” | stammered, tightening my hands into fists in my pockets.

“I’ve never heard you talk like that before. You sound ed… so much like your dad. It caught me off guard.”

“Oh,” I murmured, looking away from him as adrenaline prickled across my skin. I was thankful we were out of earshot of the house. Even though I was a grown man, if Dad had overheard me say that to Talon … “Mom told me Aunt Georgia taught Maeve and I curse words when we were young.”

“Yeah, she did. Ernest too. Vicky wasn’t much of a help in that regard, either. I’ll never forget the time you called Ernest a ‘shithead in front of your father. You must have been seven, I think it was shortly after Maeve’s first birth day because we were all in Winter Forest for a visit. He turned-turned purple, just furious beyond belief. I was try ing so hard not to laugh and then Ernest turned to Georgia and asked her what shithead meant-”

“In front of Dad?”

“Yep. I thought he was going to kill all of us. Your moth er ended up being the one to tell Ernest what it meant.”

“Oh, no.”

“Yeah, oh, no is right.”

“I didn’t mean to cuss at you, Uncle Talon,” I said a little sheepishly as we started walking again. “I’m just… I don’t know what to do here. I just know Hanna wouldn’t hurt any one, anything… She spent her summer here combing low tide to throw stranded fish back in the water.”

–“We have to get the truth, Rowan. That’s all. Until she, and your mother, tell us what happened…”

“I’ll talk to Kacidra first. Okay? She’ll talk to us.”

“I want her to take us to the temple and show us exactly what happened. I haven’t seen it yet, but Otto said it’s in shambles. There’s not much left of it.”

“An explosion of some kind, maybe?” | suggested, but Talon shook his head.

“Gemma and Otto said the only injuries Shelly and Kacidra had were bruises and cuts from broken glass. Ros

alie too, and those wounds haven’t healed.”

I swallowed against his words, my skin feeling hot again despite the chilly, early fall weather. Mom should’ve healed almost immediately. Her blood had powers. It wasn’t sup posed to be this way. 

Kacidra ran her gloved fingers over the altar, which was cracked in half, the statue of the Moon Goddess directly behind it was missing its head. Talon looked around in awe, his eyes creased with concern.

“I told you, there’s no way she could have done this. There was a bright light and… it felt like all the air had left the temple. Then the air just… exploded all around us.”

“That can’t be… this…. this was a weather event?” Talon turned in a circle, looking up at where the ceiling of the temple used to be.

“No. Something happened in Hanna’s dream. I don’t know what happened though; she hasn’t said anything to me about it. She hasn’t said anything at all.”

“I need you to walk me through it,” Talon turned to us, his hands tucked behind his back.

I looked at Kacidra, who grimaced, tucking a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “The air… it was wind, but it was deliberate. Like it was knowingly chaotic. I know that doesn’t make any sense but… it shattered all the win dows. Hanna, she… I think she pushed Rosalie out of the dream-”

“Rosalie? What do you mean?”

Kacidra looked up at Talon, her hazel eyes darkened to a deep green by the overcast, gray sky above our heads. “Rosalie went into the dream with her,”

“That can’t be possible,” I said weakly, looking around. I craned my neck to look around Talon’s body as I caught Otto in my peripheral, Shelly walking beside him with her arm tucked into the crook of his elbow.

Kacidra saw them approach, and Talon turned around to face them, a silence falling over the temple as Shelly let go of Otto and stepped forward, standing at the entrance to the sanctuary.

“Hanna’s mother was Lycennian,” Shelly said, her voice bold and commanding.

Kacidra seemed relieved by her presence, and I felt a pang of jealousy at the look of comfort that passed through her eyes.

Kacidra and I had once been close, but not so much anymore. It was my fault; I had been busy. I had been priori tizing splitting my time between getting to know Hanna and helping my dad piece together Maeve’s whereabouts while also bringing peace to Valoria.

“You will know about Leera, Talon. She is the mother of the boy, my brother, who fell out of that tree roughly ten years ago.”

“Maeve’s breeder. At least the man who was supposed

to be,”

“Leera was my mother,” kacidra interrupted, her face falling at the words. She picked at her gloves, looking up at Talon. “She had powers like Hanna, just not as powerful.”

“What does that have to do with what happened here?” Talon asked Shelly.

“I don’t have the powers Hanna possesses. They are very, very rare. She doesn’t understand the power she has, Talon. What … what we witnessed,” she tilted her head to ward Kacidra, “it wasn’t just Hanna’s power. Someone else was involved. Someone who can manipulate air. Hanna’s powers are with water.”

“I don’t understand -” Talon looked to me for an expla nation, but I shrugged helplessly.

“My grandmother told me about a Dream Dancer who left the pack when she was a child, a man who could ma nipulate air and water, which was unheard of. His departure was a huge deal to the pack, and the only time they sent warriors out into the pack lands to locate him. He hadn’t had children for the pack yet. They needed him for… for breeding. But he also took something from the Alpha, something sacred. A map.”

“A map? To what?” Talon crossed his arms over his chest, looking impatient.

Shelly glanced at Otto, who nodded his head, urging her to continue.

— “To Lycaon’s tomb, to the moonstone he hid away from

his sister, the first White Queen.”

“What does that have to do with”

“Oh, my Goddess…” Kacidra abruptly sat down on a pile of debris, her body slumping forward in shock as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

“Gemma has a moonstone,” Shelly continued, swallow ing hard around the words. “She brought Rosalie back to life with it.”

“I’ve seen a lot of strange, unexplainable magic over the

years but this —” Talon’s cheeks were turning red, whether by frustration or the cold, I wasn’t sure.

“I think someone else is after the moonstone, and that’s who Hanna fought with in her dream,” Shelly finished, clearing her throat as she shifted her weight.

Otto reached out and took her by the hand, pulling her close.

“How is that possible?”

“It shouldn’t be, but whoever this person is has powers that supersede anything I’ve ever heard of, more power than Hanna and Rosalie combined. Hanna was successful in taking Rosalie with her into the dream. They were look ing for Maeve. Rosalie wanted proof she was alive and… I believe Hanna got Rosalie out, but may have let this other Dancer in…”

“In? As in, here? The temple?” Talon looked around, set tling his gaze on Kacidra. “Do you agree that is what hap pened?”

“Shelly would know more than me. I didn’t know… and I still don’t know, my mother’s connection to the pack that Shelly is from. But I saw things from the outside. There is no way that Hanna could’ve done this with her powers. And Rosalie… when Hanna shifted, Rosalie came to her. She reached out to her. Then there was the bright light and…

and then we saw Rosalie holding onto Hanna, protecting her. I think Rosalie was trying to save Hanna from whatever she was facing, and Rosalie saved her.” Kacidra began to cry, wiping her tears away with the fuzzy red gloves she had on her hands. I breathed deeply, looking over at Talon.

“Is this proof enough that Hanna wasn’t the one who hurt Mom?”

“That’ll be up to Ethan, Rowan. Hanna and Rosalie need to explain what happened, what Shelly and Kacidra couldn’ t see. He’ll wage war, I know that much. This thing… this person, desecrated the White Queen’s Temple. If that’s not an act of war, I don’t know what is.”