Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 556

Chapter 56 : The Mark of the Dark King

*Lena*

I spent the remainder of the day avoiding everyone. It was rather easy to do, given the immense size of the palace.

I even missed dinner, which was being held in the formal dining room. I knew Xander would be there. I knew without a shadow of a doubt as I went hungry in my room, telling a maid to relay a message to my parents that I wasn’t feeling, that he was schmoozing with my family and using every charismatic weapon in his arsenal to win them over.

He was likely being totally honest about who he was, too. Out of everything we’d done, and we’d done a lot, that was something he’d chosen not to do with me.

I went to bed, expecting Xander’s voice to creep into my head again, but I fell asleep to silence, nothing but the waves outside my balcony lulling me to sleep.

***

The morning of the wedding.

I wanted to throw up.

I stood on my balcony with my arms crossed as I stared down at the beach below, where people were walking along the sand in total ignorance of the chaos going on inside the castle. My view was of the public beach, which was surprisingly quiet. I longed to be free of the tight hot rollers covering every inch of my head and the constricting shapewear I was wearing under my robe.

The red dress I’d bought in Morhan had arrived before I’d even touched down in Avondale. It was quickly altered to fit my frame, but I’d chosen the dress before Xander had marked me. The mark would be on full display above the neckline that had my breast on display, even if it was modest enough for a family wedding.

It was too late to turn back now. I’d either have to deal with the questions about my choosing a different dress, or come clean. I didn’t have a choice.

Maeve had seen the dress and thought it was perfect. Mom, on the other hand, was a little vexed at the idea that I’d chosen something so vampy for my cousin’s wedding. Had Maeve not told my mom about the dress before I came up with some excuse not to wear it, this day may have gone smoother than I expected it to now.

Maybe everyone already knew. Maybe Xander had told them everything at dinner the night before. Maybe he’d even explained what happened in Crimson Creek.

But I doubted it. He’d already said he wouldn’t. I had to trust him.

But the mark on my chest… how the hell was I going to explain that?

“There you are!” Eliza said as she came into the room, closing the door behind her with a grin of pure elation on her face. Her hair had been styled in tight curls that bounced on her shoulders as she walked toward me, a tiara laced with pink jewels glinting in the soft midday light.

an honor that hadn’t gone unnoticed when she chose Eliza over me, even though I

ready with us,” Eliza pouted, noticing the hot rollers. I’d yet to put on makeup, but I had at least two hours before

don’t know any of Hollis’s friends,” I said softly, leaning on the

interesting, I guess. I don’t think all of them are her friends, really. They didn’t seem

a spot in her court, even though no such thing existed. Hollis had skyrocketed to fame in the last year after her relationship with Will became public, and it was no surprise to me that young women began vying over a position in her

fingers on the railing, wondering if Heather and Viv were going to be here today. If so, my small inner circle

Eliza grimaced. “Pure pink. Like, the worst shade of pink you can imagine. Frills, lace… I think it’s

life. I couldn’t be upset with her about choosing her mate over Oliver, but that wasn’t why

what she’d told Oliver, I

her a princess while his mate

away the wave of emotion that washed over

to go?” she

that Charlie had even tried to get out of it,

Eliza said softly, twirling a curl around her manicured finger. “I need to go get dressed. Pictures, and all–” she said with a little twist of her hand in farewell. I watched her walk out of the room and shut the

alone for long. Just as I finished my makeup, my mom walked in the door, smiling down at me as she looked

dressed,” she said with a little laugh, glancing at the clock on the

time,

the four-poster bed and ran her fingers over the fabric of the red dress I’d hung from the canopy

cheeks, catching my mom in the reflection of the mirror. She had dressed already and looked pretty in her muted gold gown with her hair loose over her shoulders. But I could feel the tension coming off

now if I was going to

said the man,

softly as she turned to

of the bed and looking at my reflection in the mirror as I opened a tube of mascara. “He said he came up to you at the party, just

as I thought of

I met the man formally at the party, of course. But he came to dinner last night.

trying to stifle the emotions threatening to bubble to the surface

nice. Well educated,

traveled, you mean from another realm?” I said with

Lena?” Her voice was still soft, but I could

before applying a shade of lipstick darker than I’d ever worn before. “I met him at Morhan,”

“At school?”

apparently. We did our field study together.” I swallowed, glancing at her face through the mirror as I willed myself to go further. “I didn’t know who he