Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 43 : I’ll Ask Him Tomorrow

*Lena*

I hadn't seen or heard from Xander in a week.

I'd spent most of that time in bed. sweating beneath three thick quilts and even thicker flannel pajamas while Heather fussed over me, making sure I was taking the antibiotics the doctor had prescribed for what he said was a severe viral infection of some kind.

All of it felt odd. The days passed in a blur, day fading into night over, and over. I didn't seem to get better, however. My body was numb and frequently chilled despite how warm Heather tried to keep me.

The worst of it was having to come clean to both of my roommates about what had actually happened in Crimson Creek one feverish night when I'd spilled hot soup on my shirt, and Heather helped me remove it.

They saw the long, jagged scars across my belly, and had screamed, then were frantic and shocked beyond belief as I told them the incredible and unbelievable story.

I'm not sure if they believed it. They probably thought it was some tall tale my fevered mind had concocted.

But something changed the night before graduation.

Viv came into my room, balancing a large, hot mug of tea in her hands. Her face was drawn in a grimace, and in a split second, I knew why. I sat straight up.

“Where did you get that?" I cried, and Viv looked at me in shock. She set the mug of murky black liquid on the beside table that seperated my bed from Heather's bed.

“Xander dropped it off. He said you liked this tea and he could only get it in Crimson Creek."

I paled, looking down into the mug and watching the sheen that had developed on top of it. Blood root. I hadn't seen him because he went back to Crimson Creek.

“Is he here?" I asked, but Viv shook her head, looking a little sheepish.

“No. He left in a hurry. He told me how to brew it and I... do you really like it? The smell is just awful. I was going to try it but-" she held her stomach, looking a little green.

“How did he know I was sick?"

“Viv went to him the night Slate assaulted you," Heather said from the doorway, unwinding her scarf from around her neck and tossing it on her bed. I hied to swallow but found it impossible.

“I told him what we thought happened. And then when you got sick I... I know his roommate Adrian; we have classes together. I told him you were sick and then didn't see him again for several days."

I brought the tea to my lips and drank deeply, watching the disgusted looks on my roommates' faces as I tilted it back and drained it.

she took

I said, then watched as she began to put the pieces

everything you told us

back down on the pillow and

and didn't say anything to me. He'd gone all the way to Crimson Creek and back just to get the blood root. Wiry?

late into the night. I woke from the deepest sleep I'd ever experienced. Heather was snoring in her bed, and pale moonlight was drifting through tire frosted windows as I stood. There was no

I was healed, entirely.

blinked into tire moonlight as a weight

a fever. Blood

What did this mean?

only one person who I could ask. And I'd

At graduation.

***

ceremony for those students graduating in December had been moved from the shabby conference room in the library to the small auditorium used almost exclusively by the theater club. I'd never been inside,

as Heather and Viv mingled with a group of students in tire aisle near the row we'd chosen to sit in. I'd promised my parents that if they'd just let me get this small formality

true identity from

chaotic now to say anything.

woken up to the hallway outside of our apartment filled with floral arrangements from “Mom and Dad," and my roommates and I had our coffee with the rich smell of lilies and roses permeating

how excited she was to accept Abigail's diploma for her-

my head away from the entrance of the theater. Xander had just walked in, and I felt his

expression and pretended to be reading the pamphlet in my lap,

sit nearby. Not in front of me, at least. He wasn't in my line of sight when Heather and Viv finally sat down and the lights

onto the stage, her dark hair shimmering in the lights above her head. She looked around, smiling

murmurings in the crowd, all whispers about who she was, and what she was doing here. It was likely no

names of every graduate. Heather went up to the

The lights were blinding enough that they cast a glare on the audience, and I could see nothing but

Mara smiled, handing me my

gripped it, giving her a

back to my seat, I began to wonder what people would think about tliat. Would they accept that I had earned my grades, or would they think my status as a royal had bought my way to the

not to think about it as I sat back down, Heather and Viv squeezing my aims in silent congratulations as

and I watched as he walked across the

he narrowed his eyes at Mara, the way he leaned in to whisper

how level she kept her expression despite the sharp look on