Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 322

Chapter 102: Our World Would End

Troy

Maeve was sleeping soundly beside me, Will and Charlie nestled in her arms. Oliver was asleep on my bare chest, his mouth moving in a suckling motion as he slept. I rested my hand over his back, closing my eyes for a moment. Oli seemed to melt into me, succumbing to full sleep as the minutes ticked by.

It was not very late, but getting all three boys to sleep was an exhausting undertaking. It was not uncommon that one, or both of us, fell asleep with the boys while we fumbled through their bedtime routine.

I waited a few minutes longer before slowly rising from the bed, careful not to wake any of my sleeping family mem bers. I patted Oli softly on the back while I crossed the room to where their bed was, which was just a twin-sized mattress. with a railing all the way around it, like an oversized crib.

Rowan and I had built it only a few days ago, shortly after the gala. We found that the triplets slept better in the same bed, and I understood why. They had been together since the moment of conception. Who were we to separate them when all they had known was each other?

One by one I carried the boys to bed, laying them down next to each other. Will turned to his side and snuggled into Oli, their tiny noises touching, while Charlie sprawled out in the shape of a starfish, his tiny fingers splayed as he dreamed.

They were beautiful. I didn’t know it was capable of loving something so deeply, while also being terrified of that some thing at the same time.

Who would they become? And what would life be like for them when they were my age? I had made a promise when the High Priestess placed the crown of Poldesse on my head that I would help shape a world worthy of not only my sons but my grandchildren, and so on and so forth. That burden, even in its infancy, felt almost impossible to bear.

I left their crib and walked to Maeve’s side of the bed, pulling the covers up to her chin and tucking them around her. I wasn’t afraid of waking her up. I could beat on a drum next to her head and she wouldn’t even stir. She slept through the stirrings of the boys as well, and because my sleep was of ten paper-thin, I was the one awake in the dead of night when the boys woke up, and I didn’t mind it at all.

Rocking them back to sleep in the rocking chair near the window made me feel as though I was back on the Perse phone, slowly lulled to sleep by the soft pitch of the boat.

I knew I had at least an hour or so to myself now that ev eryone was asleep.

I could’ve slid into bed beside Maeve, but I was wide awake. I decided to go down to the library and sit beneath the mural for a moment and enjoy the solitude.

But I found myself sharing that solitude with Ethan.

Three days had passed since the gala. Three days of try ing to convince Ethan that Hayden wasn’t a threat, just a menace. Three days, and no word of Tasia’s whereabouts or plans.

We had been busy, however, with the boys and making plans for the future. Maeve and I would need to leave for Poldesse, and soon, to start our new life. But Maeve was re fusing to leave on the grounds that the moonstone business was unfinished, and I agreed with her.

But for now, we all felt entirely stuck in place, not sure of what to do next, and what to expect.

Ethan was sitting near the hearth, an untouched glass of fine scotch sitting on the side table as he looked down at a letter in his hands. He hadn’t noticed me come in, so I walked loudly across the stone floor, trying not to scare him as I came into the light of the hearth.

I had pulled on a cozy knit sweater and socks before com ing down to the library to fight the wet chill in the air and was thankful to find that Ethan had already created a warm, cozy space within the confines of the massive library.

“I was wondering if I’d see you tonight,” he said as he closed his book and leaned back in his chair, looking thought ful.

“What am I in trouble for this time?” I sank into the couch and chuckled to myself, remembering the night Maeve and I had spent here after the social, when I had been beaten to a pulp.

I felt my cheeks go red as I remembered the second night we had spent in the library, which had been a lot less inno cent, and tried to hide my blush before Ethan saw.

I wondered briefly if now was the time I was going to get punished for allowing Hayden to get away. So far, Ethan had only been angry he hadn’t had a chance to talk to the man

himself.

“I have something for you. Here-” Ethan reached into the pocket of the thick cardigan-like sweater he was wearing and tossed me a package. It was small, wrapped in brown paper, with a note scribbled in an illegible scrawl.

“It’s Charles’ journal. From the tomb. I had a guy in Mirage separate the pages. It took him a while, but he got it done, says it’s still in good shape.”

“Did he… read any of it?” I said stupidly, knowing full well Ethan wouldn’t have just given the journal to anyone.

“No. I paid him triple to keep his mouth shut in the event he saw something he shouldn’t have.” Ethan settled back in his seat, opening his book again.

Ethan seemed uninterested in speaking further. I leaned against the couch cushions and quietly unwrapped the paper, looking down at the three-hundred-year-old journal with in

terest.

I had read snippets of it, mostly the end that detailed Charles’ journey through the pass and the discovery of the tomb. The beginning of the journal was frayed and the pages had been stuck together, too fragile for me to pull apart.

But now the entire journal was readable, the man who had repaired had sewn a new spine. I could now flip through it in its entirety with ease but still needed to be careful not to tear the fragile paper.

I read it from the beginning at first but found it mostly about his family life. Skipping forward, I began to unravel the story of how Charles ended up on such a quest to begin with,

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which started with a summons from Alpha King Hector of Val oria.

A Priestess had come from the North one day, demanding an audience with the King. The Priestess, Onya, had brought two maids with her, and her daughter, a young woman named Alouette.

Alouette was a beautiful woman, and the Alpha King was immediately taken with her. But Onya refused to give her daughter to the king, stating Alouette would be the next White Queen and was not ready to marry.

The king was devastated and considered taking Alouette by force, but he soon realized he could barter with the Priest ess, who was actually the White Queen of the North.

The White Queen was looking for a relic that had been stolen from their temple. A great flood had washed their vil lage, and during the frantic process of trying to save what they could from their ancient temple, a gemstone had been picked from the statue of the Moon Goddess that they wor shiped.

The White Queen had been frantically looking for the stone for decades and had heard the king had an explorer in his court who she wanted to hire to find the stone, since she was unable to travel much further south without leaving her pack alone to fend for themselves.

King Hector made her a deal. He would let her use his ex plorer, a man named Casimir, in exchange for Alouette’s hand in marriage. Onya took it one step further, saying that he could have Alouette as his wife and Luna if his explorer re turned from his journey with the gemstone she sought.

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An agreement was made, and Onya produced a map, which would lead Casimir to what she said was an ancient ter ritory, long forgotten by the pack lands.

Charles had worked for the King for many years at that point and was immediately summoned to assist the royal ex plorer Casimir in his quest. Why Onya believed the missing relic was in the Southern Pass, they did not even ask. They just went.

But something interesting had happened before the quest began. I read over Charles’ words several times to make sure I was interpreting them correctly. I stood, which caused Ethan to look up from his book, his brow furrowed in concern.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, but I shook my head, begin ning to pace as I read aloud.

“I went to the castle at the behest of King Hector for a ca sual supper. A fortnight were we from a journey that seemed like it would be endless, and I feared the length in which I would be separated from my family. King Hector was a kind man, however. He invited not only myself but also my family, so I arrived at the castle with Mary and Callum, whose twenty -third birthday we had celebrated only the day before.

“The king raised a toast to my son in well wishes for his twenty-third year. But that is when I noticed Callum’s odd be havior. He was locked in a gaze with the fair Alouette, who looked just as shocked as Callum did. I knew that look, the same I often give my dear wife. Can it truly be that they are mates?” I looked up from the journal, catching Ethan’s inter ested gaze.

“Go on,” he urged.

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“I returned to the village with my family and hurried them into the house. Mary and I knew we could say nothing about the mate bond in front of the king, who had been treating Alouette as his betrothed. On explanation, Callum seemed forlorn but understood the dangers. Who was he to go against the king and pursue a woman with ties to Our Majesty, and Alpha? Even if she was, in fact, his mate.”

I had an awful feeling about this as I flipped the page, stealing a glance at Ethan.

“Onya came to our home a week later. She told us Alou ette was with child, and that child was Callum’s, and it would be a daughter. We argued about it, but Callum admitted to his being intimate with Alouette. How Onya and Alouette knew of the pregnancy so soon was impossible to us. But Onya spoke of a prophecy, that the missing relic must be found and re stored to its rightful people. If not, she said, the ancient packs lurking in seclusion would wage war, and everything we knew would be gone. If the relic fell into the wrong hands, it would all be over. She needed the relic before the winter solstice and was frantic in her seriousness on the timeline. She was fearful.

“I didn’t understand her. We asked her to leave, fearing King Hector would find out about his betrothed’s deception and retaliate against our family. But she was firm, saying our world would end on the full moon of Winter Solstice in three hundred years if the relic was not returned to the White Queen. I found this mystic hard to believe, myself a man of in tellect. Plus, the White Queens were rumored to be witches and were no longer recognized by the Church of the Moon Goddess-”

I flipped the page and found it blank. The next page had been torn from the journal, as if whatever had been written

was not something Charles wanted anyone to know. I slowly closed the journal, my fingers lingering on the worn leather

cover.

“When was this written?” Ethan said as he stared up at me, an unreadable expression crossing over his features.

“Three hundred years ago,” I replied, swallowing against the words. A prickle of adrenaline rippled over my skin as I gently set the journal on a side table, sinking back down on the couch. “The White Queens have the moonstones again. So… all must be well.”

“You don’t believe that, do you?” Ethan reached and clasped his glass of Scotch, bringing the amber liquid to his lips.

“Something doesn’t feel right about this at all. Charles found the moonstone after he was already shut into the tomb. We know nothing about what happened to Casimir or this King Hector guy after that. Obviously, Alouette survived. These are… likely relatives of Rosalie, right? There was no break in the White Queen line?”

“Not that I know of, but Rosalie may know for sure. There’ s a rectory in Mirage. It would have information about the past Alphas and Kings of Valoria. If Alouette became Luna of Valoria and had a child, it would be public information-”

“I’ll go tomorrow,” I said quickly, interrupting him. My mind was moving a million miles an hour. “When is… when is the Winter Solstice?”

Ethan blinked, then furrowed his brow. “A week from now, I believe. On the twenty-first.”

I exhaled, my chest tightening so abruptly that I had a hard time taking a new breath.

“Tasia is going to strike on the solstice, Alpha Ethan. We need to be prepared. That has to be what this… what Onya meant. It could be nothing else.”

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