Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 327

Chapter 107 : The White-Haired Girl

Maeve

The tunnel system snaked beneath the forest floor on the outskirts of the castle grounds. Most of it was caved in, which is likely how it had stayed hidden for so long. The forest was vast, and even with warriors lining the perimeter of the castle grounds, I felt utterly hidden from the outside world.

We‘d followed Carl through the forest for at least a mile. A rocky hill sprouted from the forest floor, strange, gnarled trees growing out of the pockets of earth between the mas sive, cracked boulders. The earth dropped down as we neared the hill, and the landscape looked as though some kind of ex plosion had happened there, long ago now. Grass and moss blanketed the area’s scars.

“The men will wake soon,” said a red-eyed man behind us.

| sucked in my breath. Rogues. Rogues with their piercing, red eyes. My mom had told me stories of them.

One of them having been my own father, at one point in time.

What were the Rogues doing mingling with the likes of Tasia?

“Find somewhere to set them down. Hayden will deal with them. Bind their hands and legs, though.” Carl motioned for Hanna and me to stop then walked forward. There was a dark ened gap between two boulders, and as he approached, an

other man came out of the darkness, holding a lantern. Carl furned to look at us, at me.

“After you,” he said, bowing his head as he motioned us forward into the remains of the tunnel below.

It was cold and damp. I could smell nothing but sulfur and wondered how long these people had been hiding in the tun nel’s depths.

Worst of all, I found it impossible to mind-link, even with my close proximity to the castle’s inhabitants, which was likely only a few miles away.

I found the reason for this almost immediately as Hanna and I followed Carl into the depths of the long-forgotten tun nels. Lanterns had been hung along the walls by long, rusted nails.

And dangling from the lanterns were raw, red stones, the same stone that lined the valley where Dianny had been nes tled.

| swallowed hard, remembering how Una ‘had told me about the significance of the stone, how it prevented the powers of the wolf from taking over. We hadn’t been able to mind-link there.

“Shit,” I mumbled, glancing at Hanna.

She was looking straight ahead, unblinking. Had Tasia brought them here? She must have. It was the only explana tion.

“Come, through here -” Carl ushered us through an old wooden door that was hanging off its hinges. Inside, dim

REAL lantern light lit a wide, circular room of sorts with a shallow ceiling. I felt a ripple of unease as Carl failed to follow us in side, instead placing the broken door over the opening, his footsteps receding as he walked away.

“Hanna,” I said softly, “are you okay?”

Before she could answer me, we heard a familiar voice ap proaching. “I’m sure your knowledge of my involvement in Damian’s plot surprised you, Princess. I’m thankful I have the opportunity to explain.” A familiar voice echoed from a shad owed section of the room. Hanna was looking at me, her eyes shining with tears.

Tasia walked toward us slowly, taking a moment to look us each up and down. I was shocked by her appearance. She was thin, her once beautiful face lined with fatigue and filth.

Her thick, curly black hair had been cut short and so close to her scalp that the curls were no longer visible.

And most shocking, the warm pride that once shown be hind her gray eyes was gone, replaced by mingled grief, de spair, and fury.

“Were you always on his side?” I asked, the words thick and heavy.

She looked down at her feet, shaking her head.

“No. Not until….” She looked me in the eye, and I saw nothing but hatred. “I’ve known Carl longer than Damian. Carl was who introduced me to him… shortly after you left Dianny for the pass. Days, it was. Carl and I share the same gift I share with Hanna. He is weak, of course. These gifts… woman are just more able to harness them, more in tune with our spiritu

ality but… as children, we found each other in the dream realm. He is older, and came into his powers first. He wanted me… wanted a child with me. I didn’t understand why until re cently.”

“Of course, he did,” Hanna said shortly, “that’s all the Lycennians care about. Breeding, passing on their powers,”

“Then you know of them well, Hanna. I didn’t expect as much from a hybrid like yourself. You have no reason to have the powers that you do, you must realize that. Your father comes from nothing, not even royal blood. His wolf is aver age, at best. Your siblings are average. Your sister doesn’t possess a single drop of Lycaon’s gifts. Why you, then? I have wondered that for a long time.” She tapered off, looking around the room for a moment before settling her gaze back on us.

“Then Carl was working with Dam-” I began, but Tasia cut me off.

“Romero had the map to the tomb the Lycennian’s have been searching for, for centuries. A defector stole it from them before traveling to Winter Forest, where he stole Mor righan’s half of the moonstone, the half belonging to the White Queen. But in his haste to free the stone from the stat ue of the Goddess, the map fell from his pocket, or so the leg end goes. The White Queen at the time found it and had no choice but to take it to the King of Valoria in hopes he could help her locate the stone before the two halves were com bined.”

Onya. It had to be.

“Casimir-” I breathed, and Tasia nodded.

“The only explorer at the time who had ventured south of the Isles and returned to the pack lands in one piece. An an cestor of Romero, and of Troy. The map was believed lost for some time. Casimir didn’t return to Valoria; he hid in the Isles, married, had children. So on, and so forth-”

Troy had told me about the night Romero died, only an hour before all hell broke loose and Damian invaded in search of the map.

“Your parents’ war and the dawn of a new era allowed Lycenna to send scouts into the pack lands to settle, to spy. The map to the tomb was their goal. They knew it was the dawn of the prophecy when Rosalie harnessed the power of the Moonlight Lily. That’s when it all began, you see. Out of the shadows they came, pretending to be a new, eastern pack to gain access to the conventional world in which you live. They spied on Winter Forest, witnessing your brother, Hanna, fall from the tree. They saw you there, watching. They saw you do it.”

| glanced at Hanna, noticing her eyes flash and cheeks flush.

“Hanna, what does she mean?”

“Do you want to tell her, Hanna, or should I?” Tasia paced, tucking her hands behind her back.

Hanna looked down at her feet.

“I didn’t know… I didn’t have control, then. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I still don’t know how I did it,”

“Oh, if I could harness water like you.” Tasia laughed, shaking her head. “You have no idea what you can do, Hanna.

That’s why-”

“Hanna, you caused Aaron to fall from the tree?” | whis pered, unable to stop myself.

She met my eyes, tears sliding down onto her dark lashes, “He was being mean to you. Teasing you. I was mad at him for it. I remember feeling… feeling,”

“Do you mind?” Tasia bellowed. I turned back to Tasia, reaching out to take Hanna’s hand in my own, squeezing gen tly.

Tasia shook her head, laughing.

“Oh, gosh. Would you look at that? At least you’ll have each other in death-”

“Is that what you mean to do? Kill us? Don’t you need my blood to use the stones? Wasn’t that the entire point?” My words were heated and biting.

“Of course. I have to or else the prophecy of the stones cannot come to fruition. I realized that when you stood in the stones, Maeve. You, and my mother, saw your mother hurt, needing your help. The stones were the only way. I saw the end of the White Queens and the pack lands returning to the rightful hands… the followers of Lycaon. He was the true Al pha, the God after his mother.”

“What did Damian have to do with any of this? Why in vade Valoria?” I asked in a trembling voice.

“Carl needed a way to get to the White Queen. Like I said before, they had spies in Winter Forest. Queen Rosalie was too strong to outright attack. But her daughter was not yet in

11 AW her powers… an easy target. Around the time you came to Valoria, Maeve, my life at home was beginning to crumble. Carl was constantly reaching out to me in my dreams. He thought we had the map. I didn’t know about Seraphine until you came to Dianny. I didn’t know we’d had the stone. All i knew was we had a sacred compass, a compass that could lead us home to the land of our origins, the ancient city Ly caon founded in the far reaches of the southern pass.

“When she gave that to you… I snapped. I found Carl in the dream realm and told him what had happened, but he was already two steps ahead of me. He had promised Damian riches beyond belief if Damian found the map to Lycaon’s tomb. How they met, I do not know for sure, only that Damian’ s hatred for your father spurred his desire to join Carl’s cause. Carl tempted him with the moonstones, lying about their power, lying about your importance, Maeve. We just needed you dead. All of the White Queens, and their descendants… SO we could start fresh.”

“You killed your own family. Your parents… your siblings. All to stop – to stop a prophecy? To usher in a new era? Of what? War? Unrest, crime, and poverty? You killed children, Tasia. You brought an entire valley down over the heads of your young brothers and sisters-” I cried, fighting against the fear washing over me.

“I begged Hanna to join me, didn’t I? I tried to reason with her the day I brought down the temple of the White Queens and killed Queen Rosalie. You could’ve been on the winning side, Hanna. Now you’ll die, you both will, and so will your chil dren, Maeve. I know where they are. I know where they were hidden. It’s over. And Hanna,” she turned her gaze on Hanna, a sinister smile touching her lips, “You’ve dreamt of her, haven’t you? The white-haired girl in the strange temple? You

do know who she is, don’t you?”

Hanna paled, her eyes going wide.

“Your daughter. Your child with Rowan. The two lines coming together that last. Her birth is the end of the prophe cy. A ruler to guide our kind into a new era of peace and pros perity. But at a major cost to you-”

“Stop,” Hanna begged, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“You feel it, don’t you? Those visions of the future, that teary eyed girl. You’re not there with her, are you? Do you want to know why, Hanna?”

“I don’t-please!”

“You won’t live to see her grow. You won’t be there to pro tect her. You die, Hanna. And the girl moves on. Rowan moves on. The world goes on without you until you are forgotten en tirely, ashes, dust. Nothing. I can offer you more,” She moved forward, clutching Hanna by the arm. Hanna tried yanking her arm away but Tasia only tightened her grasp. “Let’s go. We have much to discuss.”

She pushed Hanna toward the door, and a red – eyed rogue opened it as Tasia dragged Hanna away, leaving me alone.

| stepped toward the door, but the red-eyed man bared his teeth at me, placing the door back over the opening.

My hands weren’t bound. No attempt had been made to keep me tied up, kept in one place. I banged on the door, screaming at the top of my lungs.

The door opened again and Troy was tossed into the room, right on top of me. I fell to the ground under his weight.

He had been dressed but was barely lucid, groaning as I rolled him off of me. I looked up to see the dark haired man Troy had acted so strangely toward the night of the ball loom ing over me, his eyes creased as he smiled down at me.

“This is going to be fun,” the man said shortly as he reached down and pulled me upright by the collar of my dress, tearing the fabric.