Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 796

Chapter 7 : The Great Outdoors

Ah, the great outdoors!

I hadn’t been outside of the house in days, not since I arrived. I took a huge breath as I hopped down the steps leading to the kitchen garden, letting the crisp, slightly chilly early spring air fill my lungs.

The first signs of the approaching warm weather were inching through the sodden earth around me. Piles of rotting snow bled into the garden, little tufts of green grass poking through the clumps of dirt-covered ice. I looked down at my reflection in a large puddle near the garden gate, tucking a few rogue curls behind my ears before I started forward, thankful I was wearing boots.

My boots squelched in the mud as I swung my basket. I smiled amiably at everyone I passed, although I didn’t get a smile in return. I was a newcomer, an outlander, someone who had yet to gain the trust of those who lived in the patchwork village surrounding Jared’s house.

A group of children, all boys by the looks of them, ran past me kicking a leather ball. One of them stopped to look at me, his playmates slamming into him in surprise.

“Hello,” I said cheerfully, giving them a wide, genuine smile. The boy leading the fray gaped at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “I’m Eliza,” I continued, wondering why they were staring at me like I was some rabid beast.

One of the littlest boys stepped in front of their leader, his chin jutting to the sky as he narrowed his dark brown gaze on mine.

I pursed my lips, furrowing my brow at him. “What?”

“Are you a witch?” he asked.

I scoffed, pretending to be thoroughly offended. “No,” I said slowly, taking a step toward them. They took a step back in unison. “I work in the laundry. I’m a seamstress.”

“Did a witch cast a spell on you?” asked another little boy. Some of them had relaxed a bit, losing the tension in their shoulders.

“I don’t believe so,” I replied. “Why? Is my skin turning green? Do I look like I’m about to turn into a rabbit?”

One of the boys giggled but was quickly shushed by his companions.

“Your hair looks cursed, like you’ll never be able to get a comb through it without breaking it,” said the smallest boy in the bunch, the same one who had called me a witch in the first place. “My ma says if I don’t brush my hair, the witches will turn it into a mess of tangled heather, and I’ll be ugly for the rest of my life.”

My mouth dropped open in surprise, but the response I was struggling to form was drowned out by a rush of giggles as the boys began to titter at me.

hair before, so I was used to it. It

on, you demons!” came a deep

a young, stout woman with thick blonde hair came out of her cabin, waving

screamed in faux terror, the sound broken up by frantic laughter as they scattered and disappeared into the woods. The woman huffed a breath, smoothing her apron over what looked to

said sweetly. “One of those rascals is mine,

laugh, and she smiled at me

bothering me, I swear,” I said, looking towards the woods. “It’s nice to

you now?

lot of cousins. I was the family babysitter for a long

Marriage felt like freedom from the job, but now I have small ones of my own,” she said in a laugh,

smiled, understanding her completely. The title of “Family Babysitter” had been a right of passage, one

had held the position for years whenever the family would gather every Winter Solstice. Becoming the babysitter myself meant I was finally in the upper echelons of the family, allowed to stay up late into the night with my aunts while they gossiped over glasses of wine. It was like

my brother George and his mate Joy, at least a week ago, maybe

the new maid, then?” the

nodded, forcing my face into a smile. “Eliza,” I said, extending

she smiled, shaking my hand. She had

nice to meet you,” I said, shifting my empty basket to my other hip. “Do you know

turned, pointing into the distance. “It’s outside of the village, due south. Past the sparring ring

sparring

taking off on foot again, looking at her over my shoulder. She’d gone back to sweeping

do. The number of people surprised me, and I felt a little bad for giving Jared a hard time, but only a little. He had what looked to be

myself, my mouth curving into a smile. Getting a rise out of Jared had been the most fun I’d had in months, and

to stifle it, tried not to think about the heat burning behind his own eyes as I tried to assert

trees lining the village. Red buds dappled all of the branches, a

right past the only cabin left in the

patched in several places, and the porch was nothing more than a few boards held up by

look like

the forest, which stretched on and on, growing darker as the trees thickened. The forest must be as dark as night during the height of summer, I thought, when the canopy

I heard the chiming of bells in the distance, and even…. No. I couldn’t have heard that.

the forest involuntarily. I dropped the basket, which bounced across the forest floor without making a