Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 373

Chapter 31: Ciana Was in Danger

*Theo*

Ciana and I had discussed the situation, and she insisted on waiting until the scheduled wedding day, when she could get a clear sense of who was on Raymond’s side, and what his ultimate purpose was behind forcing this marriage.

I didn’t fully agree with her plan, but I wasn’t going to pick another fight now that she was willing to talk to me again. Luckily, nothing much had happened since Raymond left a couple of days ago.

The only problem was that, with Ciana’s house arrest, more guards were placed within and around the pack house and the overall security had been tightened in the Alvar pack. As a result, while Jake was able to mind–link me, he couldn’t see me as easily as before.

‘Alpha, are you able to meet in person? I have something to show you.‘

‘See you in forty minutes outside of the town border,‘ I told him via mind–link and turned to the woman sitting next to me. “Ciana, I’ll be back.”

She lifted her gaze from her book to look at me. I saw a hint of concern in her eyes, but she only asked, “What would you like for dinner? I’ll ask them to prepare it.”

Ever since Raymond’s announcement, while Ciana was putting on a calm face, I knew she felt insecure. For example, right now, I could tell she was concerned about being surrounded by Raymond’s men alone, and what she really wanted to ask me was whether I’d be back by dinner time.

“I’ll be back in no more than an hour and a half.” I got up

from the couch and continued, “By the way, if you want to know how long I’ll be gone, you can just ask it directly rather than beating around the bush.”

“I didn’t—”

“And you can make steak for dinner.”

“Why do I have to cook?” she protested. “Between you and me, who is supposed to be the servant anyway…”

I chuckled as I walked out of the room in a pretty good mood.

Raymond’s men wouldn’t allow Ciana to leave, but they didn’t seem to care about where went, which made things easier for me.

J

Glancing over my shoulder, I made my way to the back door of the kitchen, making sure that no one was following me. All of the servants and guards were elsewhere. Since Ciana had been on house arrest and Raymond had decided he was in charge, the pack house was filled with irrelevant people.

I made sure they didn’t feel comfortable staying in the same room with us so that I could enjoy some quiet moments alone with Ciana.

When I arrived at my destination in the woods, I saw a familiar figure in a warrior’s uniform standing there.

“What did you find?” I asked briefly, not having any time for my Beta to waste.

He opened his palm, and I saw a fist–sized clear crystal.

“This is… the Moonlit Crystal?”

“Yes, Alpha,” Jake explained. “I was able to locate it much faster than I thought. With its help, we won’t need to wait until the blood moon to regrow the dreamberry. It can create the illusion of the blood moon, which would trick the plant into blooming and growing fruit.”

This was indeed great news. “Well done, Jake!”

The effect of the berry I’d consumed last time had been wearing off, and I could feel I was losing control of my power.

“The best time to use the crystal is in three days, Alpha, during the Full Moon.” He had a crooked grin on his face, and I could tell he was proud of himself. “It would be for the best if this could transpire at the palace, though, Alpha. I believe it will be safer if the situation is handled there.”

“Very well,” I said. I knew his concerns were valid. “Get ready to leave. I’ll fetch Ciana.”

“Yes, Alpha.” With that, he gave the sign of respect and disappeared in the woods.

***

*Ciana*

After Theo left the house, I spent some more time reading, but the longer he was away, the more unsettled I began to feel.

I just had a knot in my stomach as if something bad was about to happen. I didn’t know why I felt this way; they probably would leave me alone until the big day.

It had been over an hour since Theo left the house. When would he be back? Thirty more minutes?

I scoffed at myself. Since when did I rely on him that much? No, I wasn’t relying on him… it was just that the situation was sticky right now. I just really didn’t want to deal with Raymond or Hawke when Theo was not around.

As if my thoughts of the devil had made the devil appear, I looked up to see Hawke standing in the parlor doorway, a smug look on his face. My stomach churned. He was the last person on earth I wanted to speak to.

“There you are, gorgeous,” he said in a smarmy tone as he came in without being invited. He sauntered over and planted himself on my couch, about two feet from me. “I bet you were excited to hear the news, weren’t you?”

“What news?” I asked, looking back at my book. I wasn’t able to concentrate on reading with him there, but I pretended to leave since that meant he’d leave me alone.

“That we’re to be married, of course. I never thought I’d be marrying an Alpha’s daughter, but then, when my father told me the depths that you’ve sunk to recently, I realized that you need me much more than I need you, in order to pull yourself up out of the gutter.”

He had my attention now. I set my book aside and brushed my hair back over my shoulders, trying to decide how to respond to that. Eventually, I said, “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on, Ciana!” he said, smirking at me. “Everyone knows that you’re having sex with your manservant. But that needs to end now. You and I are betrothed, and I will not have my wife–to–be sleeping with anyone else, let alone a lowly servant.”

“Hawke, I can assure you, I am not having any sort of romantic relations with my servant.” I swallowed down the rest of what I wanted to say. If I’d said more, I might have accidentally given Theo away.

“Please! Half the village saw the two of you having sex in the garden. My father was there.” Hawke shook his head at me.

“No, that’s not what-”

“Listen, Ciana.” He reached over and took my hand. I tried to pull it away, but his grip was strong. “You have to stop fucking him, you hear me? Now, I know you’ve got to be happy to be marrying someone like me, someone with prestige and position. So stop messing around with him and focus your attention on me.”

He tried to pull me into an embrace, but I pushed him away. “Hawke, stop. We haven’t even seen each other in a very long time. That’s not appropriate!”

His eyes narrowed slightly, and I thought he might say something else, but he only growled at me. I wished that Theo was there, but I had no idea where he had gone.

I would never admit that I wished he was present, but having the prince in the room while this wanna–be was attempting to claim me for his own might’ve been helpful.

“Where the hell is your servant boy anyway?” Hawke asked me. “I figured the slack-jawed mouth–breather would be hanging around, gawking at you. Let’s get him in here. I have some work for him to do. Boy! Boy!” he began to yell, as if that might summon my alleged servant.

“Leave him alone, Hawke,” I cautioned, but Raymond’s son was incapable of listening. “Stop shouting for him. He’s busy.”

“You call for your boy right now!” he continued. “I stepped in dog shit on my way over here.” He kicked off his loafers, and the smell of dog poop I hadn’t noticed before mingled with his awful foot odor. “Get him over here so that he can clean them off.”

I wished Theo hadn’t gone too far, but I couldn’t blame him for ignoring all of the commotion in here if he could hear it. It was clear that Hawke was imbalanced at the moment, and whether it was the possibility of marrying an Alpha’s daughter that had him all worked up or something else, I couldn’t say. I just wanted him to stop.

“Come in here, boy!” Hawke shouted. “My shitty shoes need cleaned!” He started to get up off of the couch to chase Theo down, but I put a hand on his leg to stop him.

“Hawke, please. You can’t order him around. He’s not an ordinary servant. He only responds to me,” I tried to explain to him.

“Fine. Then you tell him to come in here and clean my shoes,” he insisted.

I shook my head. “Absolutely not.”

“Then you do it!” He picked up his shoes, and the scent of dog manure hit me in the lungs.

“No! Stop! Put them down!”

Hawke glared at me and then tossed them on the floor. “Oh, so I see how you treat your husband!”

“You are not my husband!” I reminded him. I scooted away from him on the couch, preparing to get up, but his hand reached out and took hold of my wrist. “Let go of me.”

“No! Listen, you stupid bitch!” he shouted at me. “You’re so ignorant! It’s no wonder the prince didn’t want you. You’re not even that pretty!”

I got up off of the couch, twisting my wrist to get it out of his grip. My gut was telling me that this was about to be a fight or flight situation, and since Hawke was now positioned between me and the only exit, I needed to come up with a way of making sure he didn’t hurt me.

“Where the fuck are you going, bitch?” he asked me.

I had no idea why Hawke was behaving this way. His eyes were narrowed as he stalked toward me. He had turned into an animal. I’d known him a long time, and the two of us had never been friends, but the fact that he was this angry because I wouldn’t ask Theo to clean his shoes, or clean them myself, made me think something had happened to this man to make him act so irrationally.

Hawke was still about ten feet away from me when he snarled, baring his teeth, which had taken the form of wolf fangs. He came at me, and I grabbed a large crystal vase off of the shelf near me and hurled it at him.

I’d always been a pretty good shot, and this time, the vase flew free, smashing right into the side of Hawke’s head. It shattered on impact, it had hit him so hard. He screeched and held his hand up to his bloody head while he rocked on his feet, losing his balance.

I’d managed to slow him down, but I didn’t know what else I could toss at him, and when he regained his balance a moment later and came charging at me again, all I could do was dodge around the room.

He chased me, cutting me off and driving me back in the other direction, away from the door several times. Eventually, he had me cornered in the back of the room, near a window, and I contemplated diving through it.

“Guards! Get in here!” he shouted. My eyebrows furrowed. Since when did Hawke control the guards?

Something must’ve happened to make the guards think they had to answer to him because five of them came pouring in through the door. When I looked at their faces, I realized these weren’t just any ordinary guards.

These were friends of Hawke’s. It was no wonder he was able to get them to do as he commanded so easily.

But I realized all of them had evil smirks on their faces, their eyes raking over my body in a way that made every hair on my neck stand on end.

“I think it’s time I taught you a lesson, bitch.” Hawke lunged at me again. This time, his friends moved to stop me from escaping. Two of them took hold of my arms, holding them while he came at me.

His palm screamed across my cheek, whipping my head to the side as my face lit on fire. Before I could recover from the blow, he hit me again. My head shot backward, my skull cracking into the wall.

The world began to spin and grew fuzzy as I fought to keep my eyes open, but I was beginning to lose consciousness, and when I looked at Hawke again, there appeared to be two of him. I must have gotten a concussion from hitting my head on the wall.

My knees folded in, but the two men kept ahold of me, keeping me upright, and all six of the men began to laugh.

“Go ahead and lay her down, guys,” Hawke said, and I realized he was unbuttoning his slacks. “I think the best way to teach this whore a lesson is to show her how it feels to be with a real man.”

Fear bubbled up inside of me, but all five of the men were on me now, holding me down while Hawke unfastened his pants.

I couldn’t kick, I couldn’t punch, and when I tried to scream, all that came out was a hoarse whimper.

“No!” I pleaded with him. “No!”

But Hawke was coming at me, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to save myself.