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.

to the room wearing fresh dry clothes, Warren had also changed. He looked at

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

has left your immune system weak, Ciana. Climb

bed. The next thing I knew, a spoon was being

Had I fallen asleep?

me some soup and water. Then he said, “I’ll

I muttered; my mind was cloudy. “It’s not safe. You’ll

think I’ll be okay. I take my

a… good

“Unlike what?”

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

Warren’s gentle voice. “While I don’t disagree with you, I know you’re delirious

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

I turned back to say something to Warren,

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

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

it was more of

Theo had been kissing

at the hostel, I awoke with a start, much like I had when I’d snapped out of the

was streaming in through the window, and Warren was sitting in a chair across the room, reading

beauty awakens!” he

I asleep?” I stretched my arms up

a grin. “How

I remembered how he’d gone out in the rain to get

question, but he nodded. “I

you!” He was such a good man. “We should be on our way soon so that you can get back to the castle. They’re probably

now.”

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

do me any good to try to talk him out of it, so I nodded. “All right then.

idea,” he said. “There’s

back, full of bright flowers that have flourished

like I had slept for a long time, that was for sure. My hair was sticking up all over

but chuckle at

I made my way outside and quickly found the courtyard 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 first

the castle. I thought about Prince Theo and how, for a while, I’d thought perhaps he truly could

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

while

a dream to

parts seemed like

then there was Warren. My long-lost

had wanted to ask him so many times if he had any

young, but I hadn’t had the courage to bring