Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 330

Chapter 110: Enough was Enough

Hanna

Enough was enough.

Tasia was tiring; I knew that much.

I was watching how she used the powers that we shared, trying to make sense of what exactly she was doing. She was moving in and out of consciousness, dipping into the dream

realm, the spirit realm, to harness the powers she had there to bring them into our reality, creating massive, earth-trembling gusts of wind that knocked me down several times.

She was not as powerful as she thought. It was likely, as I watched her begin to struggle, that she was in pain. And not just physically, but emotionally. Every time she took hold of her powers, she shed tears; her face twisted in agony. She had used these powers to kill her family. Her parents, her brothers and sisters. Her pack, families and children.

All out of greed. All for power. Power that was slipping through her fingers.

I was what she wanted this whole time. Her eagerness to destroy the moonstones and kill the last of the White Queens was Carl’s desire, something he had planted within her and watered over years and years of submitting to her culture, of being the only one who possesses powers she didn’t under stand and yearning to be close to someone who did.

But I’d had someone who understood me. My mother.

And her proclivity to nurture me, to build me in her own im áge, had been the reason I closed myself off and detested my powers in the first place.

I was not like Tasia.

And she hated me for it.

So, I took blow after blow, putting myself in her path so Rosalie could save Rowan’s life. Rosalie’s powers should have worked, but the blue flames rising from the fire built on a base of eudialyte stones, sacred stones that blocked the pow ers of our kind, had heated the silver blade she used to stab Rowan through the chest, poisoning him and rendering Ros alie’s powers to heal him useless.

His mother had nearly drained herself trying to save his life.

I had nothing but faint hope that she had been success ful. I could feel him hanging on. He was fighting.

And that shred of hope was all that kept me upright now as Tasia continued her attack.

Was it the fire itself that was making her weak? Was it the stones she lined the tunnel with, making it impossible to mind -link, and likely shift?

Why did the stones affect her?

And not me?

| glanced at Troy as he backed away from the clearing in the cavern, his eyes locked on mine as he carried Rowan over his shoulder as though he was weightless. He understood my

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plan. He noticed the droplets of water suspended in the air. He knew what I had to do to end this once, and for all.

I turned from my Rowan, wondering if I’d ever see him again.

And then, I closed my eyes, and pictured the unfamiliar temple from my dreams.

It was quiet in this realm. The waves lapped the shore in a rhythmic fashion like usual. I was standing just off the shore, waiting, wondering if I’d see Rowan appear like he had the

night I saw the girl with the white hair for the first time

But he didn’t come

I walked forward, my feet bare against the sand. The tem ple rose up in the front of me as I neared the entrance, the granite towering over me as I walked through the door.

It was clean inside, no cobwebs or dust.

But a single white rose lay on the altar, its petals wilted and yellowed along the edges like it had been cut some time ago.

The girl with the white hair was sitting in the pew closest to the altar, her back to me. She didn’t turn to look at me as I walked forward, sitting a row behind her on the opposite side of the aisle. I sat in silence for a moment, wondering if she would speak, but she did not.

She sniffled, and reached up to wipe tears from her eyes.

2128 “What is your name?” I asked.

“What do you think my name is?” she replied, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Selene,” I whispered without thinking, and she turned to me, her eyes creasing with pleasure.

“No one has ever said my name before,” she said softly as a tear fell from her white eyelashes, rolling down her cheek. “I like how it sounds. You must remember it, for later.”

“I will.”

She seemed pleased and gave me another tight-lipped smile as she looked at me almost as though she was trying to mesmerize my face.

“I won’t remember this,” she said, looking even more pained than before, “but I want to remember it. It seems un fair to me that I won’t.”

“Why won’t you remember?”

“You know.” She turned her face away, settling her gaze back on the altar. I couldn’t read the expression on her face, as hard as I tried.

“Are you stuck here?”

She shook her head, looking down at her lap.

“No. I’m just waiting.”

“For what?”

She turned back to me, more tears welling in the corners of her eyes. Her lower lip was trembling, and I felt the sudden urge to rise from my seat and go to her. I sat next to her and

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took her hand in mine.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” she whis pered, her voice trembling with indescribable pain. “I don’t know if we will ever meet. But I hope you fight. He needs you. He isn’t supposed to lose you now.”

“Who?”

“Do you know who I am?” she asked in a cry of despera tion, squeezing my hand.

All I could do was look at her for a moment, thinking she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I reached up and ran my head against her cheek, wiping away her tears. She leaned into my touch.

“I think I do-”

“We’ll never meet again, not like this,” she whispered, “I’m scared -”

“Everything is going to be alright,” I coaxed.

“He comes here all the time now,” she whispered, looking at the white rose on the altar. “You call him Rowan. He leaves a rose every time. Sometimes I wonder why, after all these years…” she tapered off, then looked up at me.

“He’s hurt, very hurt. Do I lose him?”

“I don’t know-”

“But you have to know. I saw him here in my dream, he was much older. That means he lives, right?”

… “I don’t have those answers! I can’t… I only know that you

have to fight. She will take them all away from you. Everything you love. Aunt Maeve will need you. Oliver will need you,”

“Aunt Maeve?”

My heart was tight in my chest as I looked at her, taking in her face. The shape of her eyes. The curve of her mouth.

“Are you-” I started to say but couldn’t find the words. I felt as though the air was being squeezed from my lungs, and then I was cast into nothingness.

“Wake up,” she whispered, squeezing my hand. “You have to wake up!”

I blinked and was back in the cavern.

Water pooled around my feet. The cavern was flooding, water running down the stalactites and falling in thick, sulfur smelling droplets over our heads. Tasia was wide-eyed as I slowly looked up at her.

She blinked, then closed her eyes. Her nose was bleeding, and she looked faint. She was tired; she had worn herself out.

All she had left was her ability to shift, which she did. I had several long seconds to gather my thoughts as Tasia struggled into her wolf form.

I thought of the white-haired girl’s words.

Fight.

How I did it, I don’t rightfully know, but just as Tasia shift ed I found myself on my knees in front of the fire, reaching for the knife Troy had thrown. It was still covered in Rowan’s blood, and the sight of it made me so incredibly furious.

A rush of water came down from the ceiling of the cavern, putting out the fire.

Tasia lunged, her long, sharp teeth bared in a gaping, open mouth smile as she flew through the air in my direction. I held up my hands to shield myself from her attack, and felt her weight on me, crushing me to the ground.

But I still held the knife.

And it had gone through her chest, all the way to the hilt.

Her teeth were only inches from my face as I pushed against her, trying to get her massive wolf body off of me. I dug the knife deeper, twisting it violently until I felt her start to succumb to what I had hoped would be a fatal blow.

She rose, staggering, then fell onto her side.

I screamed as loud as I could, every ounce of my energy pouring into the cavern as water began to rain down over us, pouring onto the floor. A great vibration caused me to fall onto my knees, making it impossible to stand.

The stalactites were falling, crashing into the clearing and splintering into thousands of pieces all around me.

| closed my eyes as I willed what felt like the last of my powers to come forth and destroy it all.

Just as I heard the ceiling of the cavern begin to crumble, I felt arms coming around my waist, lifting me, pulling me out of harm’s way.

“It’s done,” Ethan said into my ear as he ran from the cav ern, carrying me, his voice drowned out by the cavern falling

in on itself.

Troy

Rowan fought against me as we reached the entrance of the tunnel. He was definitely awake and feeling much better, but I knew what it felt like to get stabbed in the chest. He dug his fingernails into my back every time I took a step forward, and I finally had to set him down, unable to carry his weight any further.

“Where the f*ck is Hanna? You bastards left her down there?”

“Don’t try to stand-” | pleaded, but Rowan rose, his eyes promptly rolling back in his head as he passed out and crum pled to the ground.

“For the love of the Goddess-” | breathed kneeling to try to rouse him again.

Keaton ran to my side, panting.

“Why the hell did you set him down? We have to get out of here before the whole cave system fails-”

“Ethan went back for her!” Rosalie cried out behind us, running forward and damn near collapsing into Keaton’s arms.

“Great, this is just great. We’re ten feet from safety and the king of idiots decides to be a f*cking hero-” Keaton was going to get himself killed by Ethan one day, and he would likely deserve it.

“He’s going back for my mate, you piece of shit!” Rowan growled as he came to, continuing to fight against me as I tried to pick him up again. He staggered to his feet, leaning on me for support. “I’m going back too-”

“MAEVE!” roared Robbie from outside the entrance of the tunnel. I turned to the entrance, seeing a figure appear. It was Maeve, and she was climbing down into the tunnel, her eyes wide with panic.

“I couldn’t leave you behind!” she cried, tears falling down her cheeks. She looked frantic.

But just as she breached the entrance of the tunnel, a deep tremor shook us all so violently that I almost lost my footing. Maeve braced herself on the wall, looking at me with terror in her eyes.

I heard barking behind me, and then Keaton cursing something about Duck, the half-brained dog, finding his way back to us before Ethan did.

“Maeve, get out!” I cried, but my words were washed away by the sound of the tunnel beginning to cave in behind me.

I pushed Rowan toward her, and she grabbed him but fell backward onto her bottom. Robbie appeared at the entrance and reached down to grab them both, pulling them up through the entrance before the ceiling of the tunnel gave way and bathed the entrance in a tangle of rocks and tree branches.

It was totally, and completely, dark.

I coughed, finding it hard to breathe in the dirt-filled air.

Silence was all around me.

“Hello?” I said, unable to register what had just happened.

Duck licked my hand, and I grimaced, but reached down into the darkness and found the top of his head, scratching him behind the ears.

“Troy?” Rosalie’s voice sounded behind me, and I fumbled towards it in the dark, stepping on Keaton’s boot.

“Ah! Watch it!” Keaton hissed, grabbing my arm.

Me, Rosalie, Keaton, and the dog were trapped, but we were okay.

A crash rang out behind us, followed by sharp curses and a choked sputtering cough.

“F*cking broken door-” Ethan. I almost fell to my knees.

“Ethan?” Rosalie squeaked, and I could hear her beside me stumbling in the pitch blackness, turning toward his voice. “Do you have Hanna?”