Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 23 Sharing A Room with Him

Lightning illuminated the sky above us, and I wrapped the raincoat Warren had packed for me tighter, but it wasn’t doing me a whole lot of good.

To avoid being tracked down by the city security, who reported directly to Theo, we intentionally avoided public transportation until we got outside of the greater capital city

area.

It had been raining for hours, and I was beginning to feel drowsy from trudging through the mud in such foul weather. I sneezed, again, this time barely getting my arm up to cover my face, and I willed myself to keep walking.

Warren was concerned about me, and he had been for the last few hours since I’d begun to cough and sneeze. He wanted to shift and let me climb on his back, but I’d refused. We would save that for if we were in danger. Right now, I was miserable, but I wasn’t going to die.

“I see city lights off in the distance, Ciana,” he told me. “We’re almost to a town.”

His words entered my mind, but I was having trouble processing them. Unless it was a town with a giant bubble over the top of it that would protect me from the rain, I didn’t

care.

Trudging on, I began to lose most of my conscious thought. I just continued to lift one foot and then the other. Eventually, I

noticed that Warren was guiding me, his arm around me, and then, the mud of the forest changed to open green grass, to pavement, to a sidewalk… to steps.

“Where are we going?” I muttered.

“A hotel,” he explained. “You need to rest and recover.”

“Let’s find a small one,” I mumbled my explanation. “Fewer security cameras around.”

“Good point!” He chuckled under his breath and commented, “You surprise me all the time, you know that?”

“Goodness gracious!” a loud female voice proclaimed. “You poor dears look half drowned.”

“Yes, we need a couple of rooms, please,” Warren explained to her as I leaned against his side to keep from falling over.

“I’m afraid I only have one,” the woman said. “But it’s got a big bed in it.”

“That will do.” Warren held on to me as he fished out payment for the room from beneath his raincoat, and I wrapped my arm around his middle to steady myself, my eyes locked on the floor where a puddle was forming from all the water dripping off of me.

I wanted to apologize to the custodial staff for making such a

mess.

Halfway up the stairs, I lost my footing and almost tumbled back down, despite Warren’s grip on me.

“All right, that’s it,” he proclaimed, and the next thing I knew, I was being lifted off of the steps into his arms. I didn’t protest. Even if I’d wanted to, the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth.

Once we were in the room, he helped me out of my raincoat, and then I insisted that I could change into dry clothes myself. I went into the bathroom and took a shower with very warm water, which I enjoyed.

fresh dry clothes, Warren had also changed. He looked at me very concerned. “I think

a hand at him, but even that seemed to be moving in slow motion. “I’m

that time has left your immune system weak, Ciana. Climb into bed, and I’ll

problem crawling into the nice warm bed. The next thing I knew,

Had I fallen asleep?

soup and water. Then he said,

establishment. “No…” I muttered; my mind was cloudy. “It’s not safe. You’ll catch a fever…

his breath. “I think I’ll be okay. I take

good

“Unlike what?”

and I felt I couldn’t think straight, but it didn’t prevent me from concluding my

heard a low chuckle, followed by Warren’s gentle voice. “While I don’t disagree with you, I

away. My head lolled to the side, and I noticed the print on the wallpaper. It was

turned back to say something to Warren, he was

I had vague recollections of someone helping me with liquids and medicines, but for the most part, I had

of strange dreams, and although I couldn’t remember the details, I knew they were about my

for one. Maybe it was more

dreamt that Theo

with a start, much like I had

was sitting in a chair across the

he

stretched my arms up over

said with a grin. “How do

remembered how he’d gone out in the rain to get me medicine and fed me soup.

he nodded. “I

you!” He was such a good man. “We should be

now.”

and I felt my heart skip a beat. “I seriously doubt they are. Besides, it’s getting kind of late. It’s been a bright, sunny day, but it’ll be dark in just a

it wouldn’t do me any good to try to talk him out of it, so I nodded.

a good idea,” he said. “There’s a

around back, full of bright flowers that have flourished

suggestion and headed into the restroom to make myself somewhat presentable. I looked like I had slept for a long time, that was for sure. My hair was sticking up all over the

help but chuckle

of. It was lovely. Sitting down on a quaint bench beneath a tree full of fuchsia blooms, next to several rose bushes in a variety of

thoughts, but my mind kept going back over everything that had happened in the castle. I thought about Prince Theo and how, for a while, I’d thought perhaps he truly could be kind when he wanted

for doing nothing wrong. No, I was certain now that

had unfolded while I was

dream

parts seemed like a

there was Warren. My

had any memory whatsoever of

the courage to