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

you being in that hideous dungeon for all of that time has left your immune system weak,

knew, a spoon was

Had I fallen asleep?

and water. Then he said, “I’ll go see if I can

my mind was cloudy. “It’s

think I’ll be okay. I take my vitamins every

a… good prince…

“Unlike what?”

heavy and I felt I couldn’t think straight,

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

words trailed away. My head lolled to the side, and I noticed the

back to say something to Warren, he was

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

remember the details, I knew they were about my parents

for one. Maybe it was more of

dreamt that Theo had been kissing

with a start, much like

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

sleeping beauty awakens!” he teased, causing me to

asleep?” I stretched my arms up

he said with a grin.

in the rain to

wasn’t a question, but he nodded. “I wanted you to get

“We should be on our way soon so that you

now.”

he said, smiling. The soft afternoon sunshine gave him a golden glow 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 couple of hours. It would be better if we

him out of it, so I nodded. “All right then. I’m going to

idea,” he said. “There’s a beautiful

around back, full of bright flowers that have flourished after the

make myself somewhat presentable. I looked like I had slept for a long time, that was for sure. My hair was sticking

but

the courtyard he’d been speaking of. It was lovely. Sitting down on a quaint bench beneath a tree full of

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

wrong. No,

what had unfolded while I was at the

dream

seemed like a

was Warren. My

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

the courage to bring