Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 585

*Lena*

I didn’t have to open my eyes to know who they’d laid in front of me on the other side of the bars. An electric pulse echoed through my body, lighting all my senses on fire in a single breath.

I’d been here for a week, at least, based on the number of times I’d been fed–a week spent praying Xander wouldn’t come here… that he wouldn’t be taken here.

But as I fixed my pale gray eyes on the bloodied form of the man who was facing me with his cheek pressed painfully against the stone floor, my heart sank into my stomach just as a warm, shadowed embrace wrapped itself around me, guarding me–protecting me.

All I could see were his eyes, black and flaked with amber as they reflected the dim lantern light. Blood… so much blood–it slid down his forehead in a steady stream.

I heard a hiss as something large and heavy was extended backward and then slammed into his back. But he didn’t make a sound. His eyes were fixed on mine, searching my eyes for pain, for evidence I’d been hurt.

‘Xander,’ I begged down the bond as they continued to beat him in front of me. He blinked, but his face remained guarded and expressionless.

But I could feel him tugging on that invisible thread he’d wound around my heart. Whatever this was, it was more than a mind-link. Not only could I hear his words flooding my mind, but I could feel him. I could feel every emotion gripping him. And I knew if he hadn’t laid that shadow of his power over me, I would be able to feel the pain wrecking his body, too.

‘Use it on yourself,’ I pleaded down the bond, my eyes spilling with tears. ‘Use this power to shield yourself–’

‘You’re pregnant,’ he said, his voice heard by every fiber in my body as it whispered silently across my skin. Another whack, and this time he winced but then steeled his expression.

A daughter–I sent this between us, and through the pain etched into his face, I noticed the tightness around his mouth as his lips twitched into a smile, a tear rolling off his lashes and sliding across his cheek before dripping to the ground.

How’d we end up here, separated by rusted iron bars? I felt like just yesterday he was standing in front of me on that gravel path leading to the greenhouses on campus, the embroidered “Morhan Varsity Wrestling” sweatshirt he was wearing glinting in the sun as he squinted down at me, a wry, somewhat devilish smile on his face.

He’d put himself in my path. He’d followed me to Crimson Creek. He’d gone through every trial and tribulation I’d faced.

And now? We were mates. I was carrying his child. This was everything I’d ever wanted but had refused to let myself admit.

I reached for him, my fingertips touching his through the bars as another blow landed on his shoulders.

Why us? Why this?

with pain. “Don’t do–” His words were cut short by a grunt of frustration as whoever

front of me so I’d bend

her up,” came Maxwell’s voice through

hadn’t yet taken stock of those who were standing in the tight, damp corridor leading to the cell. Xander was dragged out of the way, and the cell door swung up. Within a second, I was hoisted to

I’d been wearing the night Cedar Hollow was attacked. I felt the sodden fabric sticking to my skin as they shoved me forward through

groaned as the toe of Slate’s boot met with his mouth, and I cried out in response to the way Xander curled his body into the fetal position. He was hurt, badly. I bucked against the grip the guards had on me as they dragged me in front

to do this?” he asked casually, as though a man wasn’t being beaten to death only

through my veins. I could blast

my thoughts were showing on my face, or maybe Xander could feel that power

he growled aloud, spitting blood.

drifted through my mind and over my skin. I let the power drift away, taking

who only smiled in response and snapped his fingers before Slate could land

at Xander with

of my toes brushing the floor as the guards held me upright and walked through the corridor to a

dungeon–that’s where I was. Was I underneath the manor? Was I even in Crimson Creek? No one had told me anything since

wooden hatch that hid the stairs from the world above. I was dropped

we were now. We were in the hills outside of the Radcliffe Estate. The hills rose up around me, sheltering me as I knelt in a narrow glen speckled with gnarled, dead trees. I turned my head to look back at where we’d

toward the guards as he struggled to pull Xander up the last of the stairs and into the

yards away from the ancient temple, centering me at the base of the glen where the hills began to

darkened, empty, not a

started to tighten around

pleaded through the bond, and the mark on my chest seared with heat as his words echoed through

body hitting the ground. I turned to look over my shoulder at him, narrowing my eyes as Maxwell walked toward me, his

the cloak of night and the way his eyes

a transformation, I realized, a little too late. I knew nothing of his kind. He could hide this side of himself and blend in, pretending to be one of us, luring his prey with kindness,

attic where he’d kept Carly Maddox. I thought of

And he wanted me to unleash the rest

if you don’t comply with the king’s demands,” Maxwell

rounding on him and positioning myself on my hands and knees. He was standing between Xander and me, with the guards