Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 396

Chapter 54 Not a Monster

I wondered what in the world I was going to do next. After all, Prince Theo had just given up his best chance at breaking free of the Moonlit Crystal. It seemed like he had made a hasty decision.

Why was he turned down Lady Nita’s offer? Because of my blood? That’s what he said, and that’s what I thought, too, but it seemed like an awful lot for him to be willing to risk cer- tain death over. After all, the dreamberry wouldn’t do him any good if he was unconscious for the rest of his life.

I sat back on the bed next to him. I wanted to ask him a lot of questions, but all I could do was sit and stare at him.

It was clear he wasn’t feeling well. His eyes were begin- ning to close, and he could hardly sit up. Nevertheless, when he spoke, his voice was harsh. “Go ahead and say it. I know what you want to tell me, so just spit it out.”

Taken aback, I asked him, “What are you talking about?” How could he possibly know what I wanted to say to him when I didn’t even know.

“You agree with her. I can see it in your eyes. You think I’m a monster, just like my mother does.” With that, he let his eyes go closed, and I thought he was falling back to sleep.

I couldn’t let that happen, though. Not on this note, any- way.

I placed my hand on his leg. “That’s not true.”

He smirked, “You can be honest. I’m not going to hurt you for telling the truth.”

“Theo,” I didn’t know where I’d gotten the guts to call him. by his name, but I felt strongly that I needed to get this straight. I was dead serious. “I do not think that you are a monster.”

He opened his eyes just a bit. Dark slits looked out at me, his eyebrows arching slightly as he was trying to scrutinize what I’d said.

“When you first got here…” he tried to justify his state- ment, “I killed right in front of you, seven young girls, just like you. That didn’t make you think I was a cold-blooded murder- er?”

Flashes of memories danced before my eyes as I thought about what had happened when I had entered Prince Theo’s office with those other girls. They were assassins, and they had come there to kill him. All that Theo and Jake had done was defend themselves.

“I didn’t know the details of what happened with those packs, and I couldn’t judge you based on what seemed to be going on just on the surface.” I shook my head. “It did scare me a little bit because I wasn’t sure if you were going to be- lieve me when I said I didn’t have anything to do with them. But you took my word and didn’t harm me.”

“I didn’t take your word. You’re too weak to be an assas- sin.”

I rolled my eyes. What was wrong with this guy? Why couldn’t he just accept my honest feedback?

“And yet, you could have killed me anyway just to be safe rather than allowing me, a potential threat, to remain near you. You chose to let me live.”

He blinked several times in reaction to my response.

“Let me ask you this,” I continued, “when you sent me to your zoo, did you mean to have the animals hurt me?”

“…No.”

“I thought so. Knowing the animals, they would behave differently had they been instructed to be aggressive. So, like I said, I’ve never thought that you would do things just for the sake of being vicious.”

I hoped my explanation sank in.

“Granted, there have been times when you’ve driven me a little crazy.” I squeezed his arm a little, and he opened his eyes further. “I didn’t really appreciate my time in your dungeon, but I do get that you thought I was working with Luther. For the most part, you’ve gone out of your way to protect me. I re- member what happened with that terrible Hawke in my own pack. You saved me then. More than once. So no, I don’t think you’re a monster. Sorry to disappoint you, Prince Theo, but you’re going to have to try a lot harder to drive me away.”

I had meant that last part as a joke, but as soon as it came out of my mouth, I saw his face crumble, and for a moment, I thought I even caught a glimmer in his eyes.

Were his eyes moist? I wasn’t sure, but at that moment, my heart was soft for him.

He was so tired and sick, he probably couldn’t do much to keep his emotions under the circumstances, but he fought it.

“You wouldn’t be the first to run away from me,” he croaked, his voice just above a whisper.

It hurt me to hear him say that. I wanted to comfort him.

“I was six or seven when it started,” he began, and I real- ized then he was letting me in, telling me something he’d probably never told anyone before.

“With your mother?” I asked him, my volume matching his.

He nodded slightly. “She never loved my father. She’d been forced to marry him after he wiped out her pack. Who could blame her for hating him?”

A chill went down my spine. Even though this wasn’t the first time I was hearing this information, having him put it so bluntly made me feel sorry for his mother. For the moment. As he continued speaking, that would change.

“When I was a little boy, she didn’t want to have anything to do with me because she said I reminded her of him. She shunned me, made me stay away from her. I was too little to understand.”

His words tugged at my heartstrings. I felt one tear slip down my cheek and I quickly wiped it away and sniffled to try and keep my composure, but he wasn’t making it easy.

“She would shout at me and call me a monster. I said I’d do whatever I could to change, so that she could love me. But she said that was impossible, that the same venom that flowed through my father’s veins flowed through mine. She was probably right.”

I shook my head. “No, she’s wrong.”

“When I was younger, I used to do… everything I could to try and please her, to attempt to get her attention… but I… failed at every turn.” He was beginning to sweat a bit, fine beads of perspiration pegging his forehead. It was getting

harder for him to resume the conversation.

I brushed his hair back off of his damp skin.

“None of that worked though?” I asked him. Clearly not, based on the way she’d just acted now.

He shook his head. “I tried everything I could. I knew that she loved to read, so I thought I might be able to do some- thing to catch her attention, to show her how much I loved her.”

The prince stopped speaking for a moment. I let him gather his thoughts before I gently nudged him to keep speaking. “What did you do for her?”

Taking a deep breath, he said, “I went out into the gar- dens behind the house and picked some flowers. But I didn’t just choose the ones that I knew she had planted there, the ones that the maids clipped and brought in to fill her vases every day. No, I wanted her to have something special, so I went beyond the gardens to the grasslands, and I searched high and low to find wildflowers in a variety of colors.”

“Oh, that’s so nice,” I said, once I thought he’d finished his story. “You made her a special bouquet.”

“Actually, no.” His eyes were open a bit more now, and he seemed more lucid than before. “I took them back to my room and pressed them for several days, and then, I used the flow-ers to fashion a bookmark. You see, I knew that my mother loved to read. It was one of her favorite ways to spend her free time. I thought, if she had a special bookmark from me, she would think of me whenever she reached for her book.”

I could see a young boy, sitting in his room, pressing those flowers, making that bookmark, trying to give a pleas- ant surprise for his mother. That young boy was just so pre- cious in my mind’s eye.

His story wasn’t over, though. I could tell by the bitterness on his face.

“What happened when you gave her the bookmark?”

He took a deep breath and replied, “She took one look at it, dropped it on the ground, and turned around and walked away, leaving it behind. Leaving me behind.”

I gasped. I should’ve known it would be something awful, but I was shocked that she could be so cold and callous. “I’m so very sorry,” I whispered.

He didn’t respond, only lay back with his eyes closed. I needed to say something to reassure him.

“You’re not like your father,” I told him, hearing the con- viction in my own voice. “I don’t care what your mother says. She’s wrong. Maybe if she took a moment to get to know you, she would see that. But no, you’re not like King Sebastian. I’ve seen your kindness, Prince Theo. I’ve seen that you are a good man.”

His eyes were just slits as he looked at me, and for a mo- ment, I thought he might just tell me I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Instead, he shocked the heck out of me when he said, “Ciana… can I have a hug?”

I was taken aback at first, but I quickly said, “Y-yes, of course.”

He sat up a bit, and I wrapped my arms around him, care- ful not to squeeze him too tightly because I didn’t want to cause him further harm. The two of us melted into one anoth- er, and we stayed like that for several moments. I hoped he could feel my strength and some of it would transfer to him.

When I finally released him, he rested back on his pillow, closing his eyes, and falling asleep.

Seeing him lying there in such a troubled state twisted and untwisted emotions deep inside of me. I couldn’t just let him suffer. I had to find a way to help him.

I took a deep breath, and made up my mind.

I knew what I needed to do.