Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 352

Chapter 11 My Bracelet

My eyes flew open before the sun was fully up. I remembered instantly where I was, and my interaction with Prince Theo weighed on my mind.

I took a few deep breaths, trying not to let his constantly irritated state get to me. I had slept well, had good dreams, and had a lot of energy pulsing through my veins. Why would I let his pessimism ruin my day before it had even begun?

I glanced down at my pillow and saw the flower that Prince Warren had given to me and instantly felt a rush of adrenaline.

No wonder I’d gotten a good night of sleep. The blooms were slightly faded from the vibrancy they’d had when he’d first picked it and handed it over to me, but the fragrance still filled my lungs when I inhaled, and I thought it might last another day or two.

I quickly put the flower in the top drawer of the night stand and hopped up, ready to prepare for the day. Lots of hard manual labor lay in front of me, but I was mentally prepared for all of it.

After a few hours, I had almost finished wiping down the entire wing. Almost, because the ceiling was too high for me to reach. While I was pondering what I should do to get

myself up there, I had an overwhelming feeling that someone was watching me from behind.

I looked down the hallway and saw a tall, lean form coming toward me, and immediately, my heart knew who it was.

Quickly, I sprinkled some water on the floor so I’d have an excuse to speak to him. “Be careful, Your Highness!” I called. “The floor is wet here!”

“There you are!” Prince Warren greeted me as he approached, staying back from the area I’d just dampened. “I had wondered why you weren’t outside with the animals. So… you were chosen to be my brother’s personal attendant, huh?”

Something was slightly off about his tone. He was saying kind words, but he didn’t exactly seem happy about the news.

“This is my assignment, for now,” I said, keeping my head down. “It was… an accident… sort of.” I couldn’t quite explain to him how I happened to be at the pavilion at the same time that Prince Theo was expecting his attendant there.

“Well… congratulations.” His smile looked forced for some reason that I didn’t understand.

“Thank you,” I said. “But honestly… if I had a choice….” His eyebrows raised, and he took a step closer to me, as if he knew I was hesitant to say what I was trying to get out, which was true. “I wouldn’t have chosen to be Prince Theo’s attendant.”

I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea to share my displeasure about one prince with another prince, but looking at Warren’s face, I knew I could trust him.

“Really?” His tone suddenly changed, and I thought I heard a bit of lightness to his voice. “Well, it looks like you’ve got quite

a bit of work to do, cleaning up this wing of the castle. You know, a personal attendant isn’t meant to be a maid.”

I felt my cheeks redden as I thought about how I had gone

| into Prince Theo’s room last night and ended up getting myself into this predicament. But at least I had something to do. “I don’t mind a bit of hard work,” I told him.

“Perhaps I could help you? I’ve never done much cleaning, but I can give it a try.” He flashed a kind smile to me that made my heart skip a beat, and I wondered if he could hear it.

“I couldn’t ask a prince to help me clean!” I had to turn down his offer. “That wouldn’t be appropriate at all!”

Prince Warren laughed, and the sound of it made my cheeks flare up again. “You’re not asking me, silly,” he reminded me. “I’m volunteering-as a friend.”

I was tempted to accept his offer to help, simply because I wanted to spend more time with him. I glanced around and suddenly realized exactly what I could ask him to do. “Well, I am having a bit of trouble reaching those cobwebs up there in the corners,” I said, pointing one out to him. “I’m just not tall enough to reach, even on the stepladder.”

Prince Warren looked at them for a moment, his hand in his pocket as he studied the problem. He gave me a nod and smiled again. “I think I can help with that.”

Taking hold of the ladder and a duster with a long pole, he moved over to the corner and climbed up, stretching to reach the webs in the corners along the ceiling.

When he did so, his sleeve moved back just enough, and my

breath caught in my throat as I got another, clearer look at his bracelet.

recognized it. Not only was it the same material and color as the one I’d given away as a gift all those years ago, I could see some wear on one of the beads. I remembered scraping it on a rough tree trunk when I was climbing in the woods one day.

Trying not to stare, I looked away, but I couldn’t lose this opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. It had to be him!

Clearing my throat, I said, “That’s an unique bracelet you have there, Your Highness. Where did you get it?”

It took him a moment to respond since he was working. When he finally lowered the duster down, he said. “This?” He held it up so I could see it. His gaze seemed to get even softer as he said, “It was a gift I received a long time ago.”

“Oh?” I asked, my heart thumping against my rib cage again. “From… whom?” I was fishing for information now. I needed to know what he remembered. Was there any way he recognized me?

“Someone special gave it to me.” He climbed down off of the ladder and moved it to another corner so he could reach

another web above him.

“Oh. That’s… nice. Do you have fond memories of receiving it?”

“Uhm…yes. I suppose I do. She’s a very important person to me.” He turned and looked at me, and I had to avert my eyes, grabbing the mop and sliding it across the floor as if I were focused on my work. “Why did you ask?”

“I-I was just curious.”

That was going to be all the information I got from him for today before he got suspicious. I had to pretend like I didn’t know where it had come from.

It wasn’t as if I could just blurt out to him that it had come from me, that I’d been the girl who saved him in the woods all those years ago. I wasn’t sure whether this was a good time for me to reveal that.

Before I could even say anything else, an annoying voice hit my ear, and I suddenly wished I’d mopped the entire floor with the slickest soap possible.

“Well, isn’t that pathetic! Look at her, girls. She’s supposed to be one of Prince Theo’s bride candidates, but here she is again, doing the dirty work that only maids would do! She must have embarrassed Prince Theo so much that he can’t

even stand to be near her.”

Sophia stood a few feet away, her arms folded, her friends gathered at her shoulders, all of them looking down their noses at me. Sophia bowed down to greet Prince Warren, “You Highness, please do not be deceived by her. She would bring you nothing but disgrace. She was supposed to serve Prince Theo, yet now, she is shamelessly throwing herself at you!”

Prince Warren turned to look at her and then climbed down off of the ladder. I couldn’t quite read his expression. Was he irritated or amused?

“What a whore!” Sophia added.

Prince Warren frowned. “It’s not lady-like at all for you to

speak that way. Likewise, you shouldn’t be spreading rumors and speaking unkindly about others. That’s not the job of a Luna.”

Sophia opened her mouth but then closed it again, dropping her eyes. She raised them to glare at me before she said, “Come along, ladies. Let’s get back to the clean part of the castle. Clearly, this girl is a terrible maid who doesn’t know how to keep a place swept up.”

They went off, still making snarky comments about me, and I got the distinct feeling that she didn’t like me being so close to Prince Warren. She probably saw it as a threat to her somehow.

What was more, she was going to be making more trouble for me soon. I could feel it.

Once she was gone, I turned to Prince Warren. “Thank you for sticking up for me.”

His warm hand touched me briefly on the shoulder. “You’re quite welcome, my dear…”

I felt a tingle of electricity roll through my arm.

“…friend,” he finished his sentence. When he pulled away, my skin felt cold again.

Prince Warren couldn’t stay long, but while he was there, I enjoyed his company. He was so different from his brother, so much more thoughtful and kind. I wished I had been assigned to be his personal attendant instead of Prince Theo’s.

I wished I had been assigned as his bride candidate, for that matter….

Later that evening, I headed to Prince Theo’s office to report

my progress.

I knocked on the door and waited for him to call me in, which took a long time. He didn’t exactly think about other people or try to spare them any trouble.

When he finally called me into his office, I had to wait for him to finish whatever he was working on so that he was looking at me before I could even make a statement about what I had finished.

His eyes were narrowed, and his expression was dark and sullen, even more so than usual. “Yes?” he asked me, dropping his pen and folding his arms across his chest.

Clearing my throat, I said, “Your Highness, I finished cleaning the hallways today, and I was able to start on some of the empty rooms.”

“Congratulations on doing your job. Do you want a medal or something?” ”

“No…” I took a deep breath and tried my best to maintain a professional and respectful tone. “Your Highness. I only wanted to inform you of my progress.”

My impression was that he wasn’t a man of many words, so I hadn’t expected him to be so sarcastic. Did he treat everyone around him like this or was it just me?

“Yes, well, perhaps you would’ve gotten more done if you

didn’t spend so much time chatting with whomever wandered by,” he said. His tone was flat, but I could still tell he wasn’t exactly happy.

My brows furrowed as I lifted my eyes to look at him. “Pardon me?” I had spoken to Prince Warren for a few minutes, and Sophia, which I didn’t even count as a conversation, but… that was earlier in the day. I had been working non-stop for the past several hours.

But I bit my tongue. Arguing with a royal wouldn’t do me any good.

“Everyone who works for me needs to follow one rule, Ciana.” I didn’t like the way my name sounded on his lips. “That is, to keep your mouth closed!”

Nor did I appreciate what he was saying.

He continued, “The palace isn’t as safe as you think. You’ll never know what information others want to get from you, and what you might have leaked…”

What did he mean? Was he saying that Prince Warren was trying to spy on him and somehow harm him?! How ridiculous was that?!

I had to say something. “Your Highness, the only person I spoke to was your brother! Prince Warren is a kind and gentle soul. All he did was to help me clean. There wasn’t a single word he asked about you or-”

“That’s it.” He interrupted me, and his expression was even darker. He stared at me for a couple seconds and I had no

idea what he was alluding to.

“You’re no longer my personal attendant, Ciana Black,” he said coldly. “Effective immediately, you are being replaced.”

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself, trying to figure out what he meant.

I was replaced? By whom?