Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 574

Chapter 74 : Visions

*Lena*

Clare paced in front of the hearth, her hands tucked behind her back. Occasionally she’d pause and face Adrian and me, but then shake her head and continue to move back and forth in deep concentration as she gathered her thoughts.

Adrian was losing his patience. It was late, damn near the middle of the night, and I could see the lines of fatigue shading his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest and waited, and waited, for Clare to speak.

“You have to tell us if you know anything about the pack Lycenna,” I said softly, trying my best to hide the urgency in my voice. Lycenna had been a secret, cult-like pack deep in the eastern mountains of Valoria and had fallen some twenty years ago, their Alpha’s death causing an internal war that splintered the pack into factions. They had been dangerous followers of Lycaon, and bred their women to create what they hoped were powerful lines of Dream Dancers. My grandmother had been from the pack Lycenna, but she had escaped with her mother as an infant.

Long ago now, a group of survivors from Lycenna’s inner war had passed through Winter Forest before going north over the endless, bleak tundra. They’d never been seen or heard from again.

“Sasha is with the servants at the castle,” Clare murmured, even though no one had asked. She seemed to be talking to herself, reassuring herself that Sasha was alright. “Hale should be there by now….”

“Clare!” I ground out, arching my brows as she turned to face me. “What is going on?”

She chewed her bottom lip, looking me up and down before taking a shallow breath and shifting her weight to one leg, her hands resting casually on her hips.

“My mother was a Lycennia refugee,” she said flatly, waving a hand in dismissal as though it wasn’t a big deal at all.

“What? How?” I pressed, gripping the top of the couch as I stood and watched a bored expression flit across her face.

“Do I really need to get into all of that?”

“Yes,” Adrian and I said in tandem.

Clare chewed the inside of her lip, shrugging as she let her shoulders slump. “I don’t know the details of the story, but somehow she ended up here and my father got her pregnant. Cedar Hollow was brand new, you know. She left us when we were kids, and I have no idea where she went.”

“Is that who you’re keeping Sasha away from?” I asked, but Clare scowled, shaking her head.

“I’m keeping Sasha away from her father, okay? He’s Lycennian as well. He was an infant when the last of the Lycennians went north over the Tundra. He showed up here one day and, well, you know–” she shrugged, trying her best to look uninterested in the conversation, but the hurt behind her eyes was undeniable. Adrian huffed a breath, but it wasn’t out of impatience. I glanced at him, seeing the sudden fury behind his eyes.

“Were you together… as a couple?” he asked sternly. Clare hesitated, then shook her head. Adrian’s cheeks burned. “He took advantage of you then?”

“Yes,” she replied without hesitation, and I felt a lump form in my throat.

“Oh, Clare–”

“I don’t need your sympathy,” she said shortly, her eyes narrowed into cat-like slits. “I need you to help me locate him so he can be dealt with.”

be easy enough,” Adrian began, but Clare

with a ragged breath, “a Dream Dancer… not a strong one from what he said. He knew I was Lycennian. I don’t know how, but he did. I turned down his advances but he overpowered me. He… he ensured what he’d done would result in a pregnancy, you

Adrian said

finding it hard to

a few times, clearing the glassy moisture from

face. This was just awful, unforgivable.

rather than a question. Clare nodded shortly, then shrugged, her eyes downcast on the floor. “So,

I

have the power

words short. “Enough to know darkness is coming. I can’t will the future

up his hand to cut me

him with suspicion. I swallowed hard, tilting my head as I looked

asked. “So I know who to look out

be out in public in the first place,”

not her fault, you prick. She’s just a kid, and I won’t deny her being

Clare’s harsh tone, but he said nothing further as Clare’s

tall, with blond hair

looks Lycennian?” I said, almost to

what I knew about that pack and their strange, interbred genetics. Blond hair and black eyes had been common for the ruling house of Lycenna, but some had darker hair and skin, with pale gray eyes not unlike

he know about

knows about her, yes. Hale ran him out of town when it happened, but he came back exactly nine months later and found out about the baby who’d been born at the castle, a girl child… the bastard child of the teenage princess of Cedar Hollow.” Clare swallowed back what sounded like shame, and my heart began to shatter as I looked into her eyes. Sasha was five, and Clare, as Hale’s twin, would have just turned twenty-one. “I was sixteen when she was born,” she continued, as though

light and power surged forward, threatening to spill over as I thought about what Clare had been through, and what she was going through

He glanced at me long enough to

and his teachings….” He began to explain the Dark

kept talking, and before I knew it, he had spilled everything to Clare. He talked about Xander, and about me, and gave her the real reason I was here, as well as his reasons for finding me despite my not wanting to be found. I couldn’t

clock along the far wall, and Clare turned her head to it,

seriously lost your Alpha?” she said shortly, snorting

tucked his hands into

to

mine, understanding flashing across her features. “Do you want

said quickly, but

her jaw, her gaze leaving mine to eye Adrian with

If the bond is still intact, I may

want a full

get visions like that,” she snapped,

Adrian grunted, shaking his head.