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.

He looked at me very concerned. “I think this is worse than

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

think you being in that hideous dungeon for all of that time has left your immune system weak, Ciana. Climb into bed,

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

Had I fallen asleep?

Then he said, “I’ll go see

thunder shook the entire establishment. “No…” I muttered; my mind was cloudy. “It’s not safe. You’ll catch

“I think I’ll be okay.

a… good

“Unlike what?”

your brother. He’s…” Um, my head was so heavy and I felt I couldn’t think straight, but it didn’t prevent me

gentle voice. “While I don’t disagree with you, I know you’re delirious because my sweet, mild-mannered

away. My head lolled to the side, and I noticed the print on the wallpaper. It was a fleur-de-lis print, white

turned back to say something to Warren, he

and turning. I had vague recollections of someone helping me with

although I couldn’t remember the details, I

it was

dreamt that Theo had been kissing

I awoke with a start, much like I had when I’d snapped out

the window, and Warren was

he teased, causing me to

stretched my arms up

said with a grin. “How do

the rain to get me

nodded. “I wanted you to

much I appreciate it. Thank you!” He was such a good man. “We should be on our way soon so that you can get back to the castle.

now.”

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 couple of hours. It would be better if we continued our journey tomorrow when we’ll have all day to walk in the

any good to try to talk him out of it, so I nodded. “All right then. I’m going to go outside and get some

a good idea,” he said. “There’s a beautiful

full of bright flowers that have flourished after

a long

but chuckle at

he’d been speaking 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 vibrant colors made me feel at peace for the

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

had ended abruptly when he’d had me thrown in prison for doing nothing wrong. No, I was certain now that he truly was as ruthless

unfolded while I was

a dream to

parts seemed like a

then there was Warren. My long-lost

ask him so many times if he had any memory whatsoever of being in the woods in a faraway land

but I hadn’t had the courage to bring it up