Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 386

Chapter 44: Chased

My first thought was that we needed to start walking, that we needed to get out of there and see if we could make our way back to the castle. I had no idea what might happen. down there in that cave. We moved to the mouth of the cave, but that was all of the movement I could get from Warren with his injuries, so we stopped and sat down so I could figure out what to do next.

In one direction, it was nearly pitch black, and the edge of the cave seemed to be surrounded by forest. On the other side, I could see the night sky and thought that might be the way to go. While there were still trees in that direction, at least it wasn’t as thick as the path to my right.

For now, we were cold and wet. A fire would be nice for us to sit next to and dry off. I would reassess the situation after that.

With the woods nearby, I was able to gather some wood and kindling. My hands were trembling slightly, so it wasn’t easy to get the fire going, but eventually, I managed to get a spark.

“That’s impressive,” Warren said. “Not many people can start a fire that way, by rubbing two sticks together. How did you learn to do that?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’ve spent a lot of time outside.”

“You have?” he looked puzzled, like that didn’t fit with the woman I was pretending to be.

“We should get our clothes dry,” I reminded him.

“Right. Don’t worry. You’re safe to undress. I promise not to look at you.”

I certainly appreciated it. As the king’s mistress, I was sure that they had seen each other naked before, but that wasn‘ t the real me. I’d already had quite an embarrassing incident with Theo; I really didn’t need another one with his brother.

I created a way to hang our clothes closer to the fire. It was difficult for Warren to undress with his injury, so I helped him. Then I stripped down to my underwear. We sat with our backs to one another in an attempt to give each other some privacy.

“Thank you for staying with me,” he said in a quiet voice. I tried not to groan aloud because I didn’t want to talk about it right then. But it seemed he was insistent. “I know it might be hard to believe, but I really have loved all of the time we’ve spent together. I appreciate you so much.”

“But now you’ve chosen another,” I reminded him, unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.

“Yes, it’s true. It’s not because I don’t love you. It’s just… I made her a promise long ago. When I first saw her, I fell in love with her. I promised her then that if we ever meet again, I would marry her. How can I deny what’s in my heart?”

“Easily,” I mumbled, but I was so quiet, he didn’t even hear me.

He continued, “Now, here she is, not only did she come back, she also… brought our son.”

My eyes widened. I hadn’t known that! But either way, the news didn’t matter to us, nor would it change our plan.

He sounded sincere. I couldn’t help but think about how pathetic he would be when Theo and I kidnapped Sophia and forced him to marry me so that she wouldn’t die.

“I can’t bear the thought of disappointing her again. I hope that you can understand, dear.” He truly did sound upset. “I am very sorry that you and I were not able to make it work. You will always have a place in my-”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted him. “You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”

“You… you’re not angry with me anymore?” I could hear the surprise in his tone that I had given up on him–the king–so easily.

“Nah, I hear you. You love her and all of that. I understand and it’s in the past now. I’m sure you two will be very happy together. Really, there’s no need for you to apologize or even bring it up again.” I picked up a stick and poked at our clothes where they hung over the fire. They were beginning to dry but weren’t quite there yet.

“I mean… I thought you’d be a little more upset than that.”

All I could think to say was, “Meh.”

I heard him gasp and almost laughed. “Did you say… meh?”

“Do you think it’s going to rain?” I asked, looking off in the distance. “It would be really bad if we dry our clothes only to get rained on.”

“Uhm, I don’t know. You… you’re different now.”

Perhaps I had hit a nerve with him? Most likely, he was just offended that someone wasn’t dying to be with him.

“What do you want me to say, Your Majesty?” I suddenly felt bad for whoever this woman was, and felt I needed to say something to the king. “To beg you? I’ve already done that. To tell you that I love you for more than anything in the world? I’ve done that too. You told me over and over again you’ve made up your mind, Your Majesty. So why do you care whether I’m upset or not?”

He couldn’t answer me.

Ignoring him, I poked our clothes again and decided that they were dry. “We should get dressed.” That odd feeling I’d had earlier, before we’d left the water, was back. I thought perhaps we were not alone.

I put my clothes on rather quickly and was stepping into my shoes when I thought I heard a whisper carried to us in the wind. It sounded like people, in the distance, having a conversation.

And then the howling began.

Only it wasn’t the sound of regular wolves, like the wolf shifters that we were. No, it sounded much more savage, like perhaps they were some sort of wild beasts.

“What the hell is that?” Warren whispered. I could tell he was nervous.

“I don’t know.”

We were both facing back toward the darkness in the back of the cave, where the noise was coming from. Whatever the beasts were, they were somewhere deep inside of that inky blackness.

But with every howl, they sounded a lot closer….

“Don’t panic,” Warren said, like a real king would during a crisis. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll be fine.” He said it as if he was trying to persuade me as well as himself.

I closed my eyes to try to concentrate on my hearing. “I wonder whether those are-”

“Those sound like savage beasts that are hell bent on tearing us both apart.” Warren frowned.

Another howl split through the night sky, and I could hear snarling as well.

“True,” I told him. “But… I think it will be alright. Please wait here.”

It was obvious that I’d surprised him again, but I couldn’t explain because I was too busy trying to reach out to the beasts the way that I had always done to calm wild animals. I’d never failed to make a friend out of a beast before.

But it wasn’t working. No matter how hard I tried to use my special abilities, the snarls, growls, and howls were getting louder and meaner.

“It isn’t working!” I muttered under my breath as I realized what the problem was.

Ciana could tame the wild beasts, but this person that I was now probably couldn’t!

“We need to get out of here!” Warren said. “We’re wasting time! You should shift and run away. I know your wolf is small. You won’t be able to carry me, but you can save yourself.” He had a desperate look in his eyes, and I could see that he was genuinely hoping to save me.

Perhaps, deep down, he was still that kind and gentle Prince.

“No!” I exclaimed, forgetting for a moment all about the roles we were playing. This wasn’t the king–this was Warren–and I cared about him. “I’m not going to leave you behind! Now, come on!”

As tempting as it was to shift, since I couldn’t yet in my real life, I didn’t want to take the chance right then when Warren needed me.

“I wish I could shift to protect you, but I can’t. I’m too weak and injured.” Even standing there, Warren wasn’t putting any weight on his injured leg.

“Oh, don’t be such a martyr,” I said to him. I grabbed him by the waist and jerked him around so that we were facing toward the woods, the opposite of the way I had wanted to go. “Come on, let’s go! Hobble as fast as you can.”

“You do know the definition of the word ‘hobble,‘ don’t you?” he asked.

Under normal circumstances, I would have laughed. But I didn’t. I just dragged him as quickly as I could toward the woods, hoping we could either get lost in there or maybe even climb a tree.

The noises were growing louder, and I could even feel the ground beginning to tremble beneath our feet. I could tell these beasts were large, and they were coming up on us fast. I couldn’t imagine the pain we would experience, and it was beginning to terrify me.

Who would’ve thought that I would be killed by wild animals when normally all beasts love me?

I also couldn’t help but wonder… if we died here, would we just snap out of this reality, or would we be dead dead??

“Really, you should let me go so you can run away,” Warren said. “I’m just slowing you down.”

“I’m not leaving you. Now, shut up and come on!” I ordered him, and his eyes enlarged as if he couldn’t believe I was bossing him around.

We had made it into the forest, but that actually made our path more treacherous. Lots of tree branches and bushes with sharp thorns reached out to poke us, so we had to slow down a little bit.

This was a mistake…. I should’ve gone the other way.

We continued on, going as quickly as we could, trying to dodge around trees and low branches. I had no idea how long we had run, but it seemed like a lot of time had passed. In the woods, the canopy above us was so thick, I couldn’t see the sky.

“If somehow we survive, I’ll make sure to treat you well….” Warren muttered, and he sounded almost delusional. I wondered if he was bleeding again and the loss of blood was making him delirious.

We continued to meander through the woods as fast as we could, but I could feel the beasts bearing down on us. As much as I thought it would slow me down to look over my shoulder, I was compelled to do so.

All I saw were dozens of pairs of glowing eyes in between the trees right behind us.

These animals were working together, in a pack. That it was unusual for them.

The only reason they would be doing that is if someone had summoned them, if someone was commanding them. No wonder they didn’t listen to me earlier.

Theo!

It had to be Theo!

As if I had somehow summoned him by thinking his name, when I turned back around, I saw the man in question standing in front of us.

!

Both Warren and I came to a full stop in front of Theo, and it was obvious that he was seething. Why, I didn’t know.

But then he told us. “I’ve sent these creatures out looking for you, but all you do is run from me?”

My mouth dropped open. They hadn’t been chasing us- they’d been searching for us??