Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 803

Chapter 14 : Get Rid of It

Jared led me through the village away from the party going on in the background. I stopped walking when we reached the kitchen garden, then had to hustle to keep up with him as he walked right past the house and toward the sparse woods beyond.

The “good” woods, I noted, not the scary forest to the north, void of light and filled with beasts, according to the man himself.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we started down a slow descent, the lights of the village fading until we were blanketed in pale violet light, the sun all but set.

“It’s a full moon tonight,” Jared said, not looking back at me.

“Oh,” I said with a hint of annoyance. His answer had given me absolutely nothing. “Are you going to shift and eat me, then?”

He glanced at me over his shoulder, looking me up and down.

“You wouldn’t be much of a meal.”

I pursed my lips and followed him further into the woods for several minutes. Was this another one of his punishments?

“Jared?” I panted, trying my best to keep in step with him. He didn’t answer, so I reached out and grabbed his shirt sleeve.

He whirled on me so swiftly that I had to dig in my heels to stop myself from running right into his chest. “What?”

“Archer and Scarlett. I didn’t say or do anything–”

“I know,” he breathed, giving me a sympathetic look. “He’s defensive of her.”

“Because they’re mates,” I added, and he nodded, but his face was cast in shadow. “And after her baby was taken from her–”

“He fought in the war in the Realm of Light, yes.”

I found it a little hard to breathe. Archer? He fought… he would have fought alongside my cousins and uncles. Had Jared as well?

“I didn’t,” he said as if reading my mind. I was sure the question was clear on my face. “But I heard it was brutal.” He turned and began walking again, but he’d slowed his pace so I could keep up. “I had responsibilities that kept me home,” he added after a moment.

“I did too,” I said softly, my heart stuck in my throat.

Jared glanced back at me, and to my surprise he gave me the softest, most knowing smile. It caught me off guard, and I hastily looked away from him as we continued along a well-beaten trail leading away from the village.

He got ahead of me again after a while. Night was falling, and he carried no lantern. We were blanketed in nothing but moonlight now. I fell even further behind when I eventually looked up, letting the light of the full moon dust my cheeks.

Tommy was a lucky man to have his twenty-first birthday fall on a full moon.

“Keep up,” Jared said several yards ahead of me.

I pursed my lips and took a few quick steps to catch up to him so we were walking side by side again. He was very tall, and keeping up with his long stride had me panting with effort by the time we walked out of the woods and onto a bluff. I gasped, looking out onto a wide, sweeping plain broken only by a distant river.

aback by the view. I hadn’t realized something like

he

as well. He took my hand and led me down a step trail that wove down the bluff. Water dripped on our heads as we ducked into the trees at the bottom of the

though, where are

to help me over a large rock

out a clearing in the distance, moonlight

began, but then

standing stones lay before us. I almost

what I wanted to

turned me to face him, and I hastily wiped away the tears from

“Are you crying?”

choked, then glared at him, my vision

matter

and walked to the circle, but I stopped at the edge, examining

the full moon. But that was only based on the story my aunt Maeve had told me about her experience with a circle

its kind in my realm. Dianny was long gone now, buried under miles of stone. I

can’t believe it,” I said to

it?” Jared asked, coming up beside me. He reached out to lean

not with a full moon. Do

at some point

to him, somewhat surprised he knew anything about these places

in my study, you know,” he continued,

etchings that had softened with time. I felt no jolt of mystical electricity.

into his pocket, leaning into me so the top of my head briefly brushed against his shoulder. He held out his fist, and I instinctively opened my palm to

to be a clock?” he asked in

somewhat crude craftsmanship. It was very, very old. That was obvious. At first, I thought it

dread wash over me. I nearly dropped the artifact out of shock, but instead, I closed my fingers around it as I fought for breath. Jared made no moves to take it from me when he sensed my body going rigid. He was looking right at me, watching a torrent

“You feel it too?”

this thing? Why does

of happiness right out of

the pieces do when

I

said levelly. “But

as it was timing me, seeing how long I could hold it, how long I

ancient artifacts such as this one, I ran my finger over the face of it, then along the smooth edge. I pressed into

a fine point and sliced through my finger, but I barely noticed the pain. “It’s meant to fit into the other pieces like a puzzle. Together–” I turned it over, then held it up to

“Eliza–”

to myself. “Then

“Eliza!”

inside–” I closed my eyes as I ran a finger over the face of the artifact, feeling the tiny, square-shaped ridges that I knew were meant to open up to reveal something, but I didn’t know what the something was. A code, maybe… a secret message… whatever it was, I knew it was bad. It was a Cipher Wheel, a Cryptex, a puzzle… something meant to carry a secret message

ripped through me.

What was happening?