Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 329

Chapter 109: At the Cost of Her Own Life

Troy

Hayden was sitting on a rock, chewing loudly as he snacked on what looked like a piece of jerky. I grimaced at the sound, shifting my weight to sit more comfortably on the cold dirt floor of the tunnel.

“You’re welcome for the clothes,” Hayden quipped, “I fig ured I could offer you one last kindness by not having your balls dragging in the dirt while we wait for, uh, whatever hap pens.”

“And what exactly is going to happen?” I asked tersely. Hayden shrugged. “Why are you here, exactly?” | asked, gen uinely confused. Hayden was a dumbass, as thick as they come. I found it highly unlikely he had much, if anything, to offer Tasia.

“Carl took a liking to me, I think. I’m not so bad once you get to know me.”

“You’re a rapist and murderer-” | bit out. Hayden chuck led.

“Yeah, well. Whatever world Tasia and Carl are gonna make once they have the stones… it won’t matter. Everyone l’

ve wronged will be dead. A clean slate.”

“You’re the worst,” | mumbled, biting the inside of my cheek as I tried to come up with a plan.

0001 “I had been working with Damian, you know. I knew every

thing he was planning on doing with that map everyone was Tooking for. Damian sent me to Valoria to meet with Carl after you and the princess took off on that pirate ship. I figured Carl and Tasia had more to offer me than Damian did. They said I’d be an Alpha, that I could live in the castle. Stuff like that.”

“In exchange for what?”

“Betraying Damian. Killing him when he returned to Valo ria with whatever the God’s name is… Lyon, whatever-”

“Lycaon,” I corrected.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Anyway, Damian never came back, and then we got word that the princess had returned to Winter Forest, so… I just hung out with them. Like I said be fore, I did have sex with Tasia-”

“Cool,” I replied dryly. “You realize these people are going to kill you, right? You’re not like them. You’ll be useless to them when this is all over.”

He ignored me, biting into another piece of jerky he had fished out of his jacket pocket.

“I bet they’ || spare Maeve, you know? They’ll need her blood, or whatever.”

| swallowed against the fury, willing myself to keep my mouth shut.

“I bet if I asked, they’d give her to me, you know, as a prize for helping them,”

I bucked against my restraints, the rope binding my hands

behind my back going taunt and biting into my skin.

19. 19. Vouchert

“Oh, calm down, Troy. I’ll be gentle=”

A bang rang out through the tunnel, then the sound of falling rock. I turned my head toward the broken door that was leaned against the entrance to the room, then I heard voices raised in alarm, then snarling.

Several screams echoed through the tunnel, and I slowly turned my head to Hayden, who had gone pale.

“Our guys, or yours?” | asked, running my tongue along my lower lip.

Hayden’s jaw flexed, concern glossing over his eyes as an other scream ripped through the tunnel, and then the space was swallowed by silence.

A wolf burst through the door, sending splinters of wood flying. He was lean and a soft golden brown in the dim light of the handful of oil lanterns that hung on nails along the walls. Blood dripped from his teeth as he looked at me, recog nition flashing behind his eyes as he slowly turned his gaze to Hayden.

“Get em’,” I breathed, then winced as Hayden screamed and scrambled from his perch on the rock. Keaton lunged for ward, tackling Hayden to the ground.

Robbie ran though the entrance of the room, panting as he frantically looked around. He looked absolutely wild, robbed of his “gentle but somewhat violent giant” look. He hadn’t shifted, but had definitely been fighting by the look of his tattered clothing and bloodied knuckles.

“He’s gonna make this slow,” Robbie huffed as he cut through my restraints. “I don’t wanna be around for it.”

“We’ll give them some privacy,” | swallowed, closing his eyes as Hayden began to beg for mercy. “Is it just you and Keaton?” | asked, rubbing my wrists where the skin had been rubbed raw from the rope.

“Aye, no. Ethan is up above, battling with Rogues. Ever seen a Rogue before, Troy? Creepy looking creatures. The Drogomor warriors are takin’ care of ’em, though. Rosalie ran in here alone, before we could stop her. This is a big tunnel system, left over from the war from what Ethan said. He thought they had all been filled in.”

“We have to find Maeve and Hanna. They’re likely with Ta sia. Are… is everyone safe? The kids?”

Robbie nodded, clapping me on the shoulder as he led me away from the grisly scene taking place between Keaton and Hayden behind us.

“They’re fine. Safe.”

I took a strained breath.

We hadn’t gotten far in the tunnel before running into more of Tasia’s warriors. With no time to shift, we fought them off one by one. I took the brunt of the beating, my face black and blue with bruises by the time we took down the last man, but finally, we made it into the main part of the tunnel system, which was a large circular area lit by more lanterns and littered with supplies.

“Maybe we should shift, it might be faster.”

“I dunno if that’s true. It took Keaton a long time, and it was painful?

“What? How so?

A scream rang out through the tunnel. All of the hair on my body stood on end as I recognized the scream as Maeve’s, and I turned hurriedly toward the sound.

“Going somewhere, so soon?” Carl said as he stepped for ward into the lantern light. He was panting, sweat prickling on his brow as though he had been chasing someone. I spun around to face him, adrenaline pulsing through my veins.

“Where is she?” I demanded, my hands clenched into fists.

Carl didn’t have a second to answer before Keaton, still in his wolf form and finished with Hayden, leapt on Carl, knock ing him to the ground.

Keaton had him pinned to the ground, his teeth inches away from his neck.

“Stop! We need him alive!” Ethan was barreling down the tunnel toward us, covered in all kinds of things; blood and dirt and a few sticks stuck in his hair. He stopped short of us, look ing frantically around the tight space. “Where is everyone? Maeve, Rowan? Rosalie?”

“Carl took Maeve somewhere, Hanna… I’m not sure. And I haven’t seen Rosalie-”

“Where’s Rowan?” Ethan was panicked. He looked down at Carl, who was grimacing under Keaton’s weight, Keaton paw pressed into his neck.

“It’s too late, your precious boy is dead.”

“Dad!” Maeve screeched, running up behind us from the depths of the tunnel. She was just as dirty as the rest of us, but her face was lined with terror. “Oh, Goddess, Dad, we have to-we have to-Mom is-”

“Maeve, hang on-” I tried to go to her but Ethan held out his hand, stopping me.

A strange rumbling sound echoed through the tunnel. The lanterns on the walls began to vibrate, their oil-lit flames trembling as the shaking began to grow severe.

“Get her out!” Ethan bellowed, pushing Maeve toward me. I looked down at Keaton, who bared his teeth, waiting for the green light to bite into Carl’s neck.

“You’re too late! It’s over!” Carl laughed, grinning like an idiot.

I grabbed Maeve and pulled her to my chest, holding her tight.

“They have people watching the safe house. The boys, Troy-”

“Go to them. You and Robbie. I need to help your dad-”

Maeve put something in my hand, a knife, and gave me the most loving, knowing look I’d ever seen.

“I love you,” I whispered, wondering if it would be the last time I’d have a chance to say it.

“Troy!” she said in protest, but Robbie had already closed the short distance between us, gently taking Maeve by the

waist and hurrying her away as dust and dirt began to fall from the ceiling of the tunnel.

Ethan was gone, swallowed by the tunnel’s depths as he ran through the darkness.

“Shift back, Keaton!” | commanded, but Keaton hesitated, an unreadable look flashing in his eyes. He looked down at Carl, who was wide-eyed.

How it happened, I wasn’t entirely sure, but Keaton lunged and slammed his whole weight into Carl. Carl’s head bounced against the floor on impact, and he was knocked out cold. It was impressive, but I didn’t have a chance to say so. Keaton was trying in vain to shift back to his human form.

An entire minute went by before Keaton was able to shift, and it was pure agony. He was red and panting by the end of it, shaking as he wobbled and using the wall to support him self. He pointed to the lantern, and for the first time, I noticed the red stones hanging from each of them, the same stone found beneath Dianny, and what their city had been carved out of.

“Oh, shit. Are you okay?”

“Get this motherf*cker out of his clothes,” Keaton hissed, trembling as we reached down and began to undress Carl.

Another scream ripped through the tunnel, followed by a rush of chilled wind. Whatever was happening in the endless darkness wasn’t good, not at all.

“Just leave him,” I said to Keaton, who was tying the laces on the boots he had taken from Carl. “If he tries to escape, he’ II run right into the Drogomor warriors. If he chases after us,

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well, he’ll be barefoot. We have an advantage.”

Keaton said nothing in reply as we made our way through the darkness. I took a lantern from the wall, holding it out in front of me as I jogged. We came to a fork, and waited.

It felt like time stood still as we waited for any clue of which direction to go.

But then another gust of wind came through the tunnel from one end of the fork, and I knew in my bones that it would lead us to Tasia.

“Is it a trap?” Keaton asked quietly. I shrugged.

“Maeve got out. That has to mean something. Let’s go.”

We moved on and soon found ourselves walking out of the tunnel and along a narrow path that cut through the cen ter of a tall, wide cavern lined with stalactites and crystals of which I didn’t know the names. I gasped, unable to hide my surprise. It was beautiful.

But the air was electric.

We walked on, further down into what turned out to be a massive cave with several levels, each bigger than the first. Fi nally, we saw a faint light in the distance, a fire of some kind.

“Oh, no-” I said, but Keaton ran ahead of me, stopping me from saying anything further.

There was a wide, circular area in front us with a fire in the center. I could see Rowan lying on his side, a pool of blood surrounding him. Rosalie was draped over him, and I couldn’t tell if she was protecting him, or dead herself.

But then I saw Hanna move into view, her hair flying áround her face as she held her hands out to someone hidden by a wall of stalactites shaped like columns. She looked up at us, her eyes wide.

“Get them out of here!” she screamed, and Keaton and I ran to her in time to see Tasia toss her backward with a gust of wind.

We reached Rosalie and Rowan, not stopping to see if they were okay before I tossed Rowan over my shoulder and Keaton lifted Rosalie in his arms.

“He’s hurt, but he-he has my blood-” she said weakly.

“Where the f*ck is Ethan?” Keaton hissed as we backed out of the clearing, carrying our burdens. Tasia hadn’t even looked in our direction. She looked totally changed, almost unrecognizable.

Another gust of wind knocked Hanna to her knees.

“Hanna! Get up!” | bellowed.

Hanna turned her head, her eyes full of tears as she mouthed, “Go.”

“I got jumped by some of those bastard Rogues!” Ethan said hoarsely, his face reddened as he skidded to a stop be hind where Keaton and were standing. They must have dragged him down the other path. “Give-Give her to me!” He grabbed Rosalie out of Keaton’s arms.

The cavern began to tremble. I looked around, my breath catching in my throat as my gaze settled on a stalactite hang ing from the ceiling of the cavern. They had been dripping

water on us the whole way down here, but now it had stopped. The water droplets were suspended in thin air. 1 slowly turned my gaze back to Hanna, locking eyes with her. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She glanced at Rowan, her mouth twitching into a desperate smile before she looked back at me.

“Go,” she mouthed again, choking back a sob.

Oh, Goddess. She was going to bring this entire cave down on top of Tasia at the cost of her own life.

I took the knife Maeve had given me, and tossed it in Han na’s direction, the metal clanging against the stone floor of the clearing.