Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 3: That’s Why He Ran Away

Gemma placed the salve down on the vanity in front of me, wiping the greasy sheen off her fingers on the fabric of her skirt. This stuff is so messy”

“I don’t think I need it.”

Gemma grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward the mirror of my vanity, her face hovering above mine in the reflection. She was a normal color, her cheeks rosy from the heat still seeping from the open windows.

Me, well, I was more than a little pink. I reached up to touch the tip of my nose, the skin burnt to a vibrant red that

envied the color of the evening gown I had worn to my usual dinner with Ernest only an hour ago.

“Thank Goddess that man got you into the shade!” she said, shaking her head as she reached for the greasy can of salve again, struggling to pry it open. “What were you thinking wearing that jacket out on a day like this? It’s still almost ninety degrees outside, and the sun is setting!”

“It’s spring! How was supposed to know it was going to get this hot?”

“How many times do I have to remind you that we’re not in Winter Forest anymore? There are real seasons in Valoria, Maeve. Not just Winter and Break-up.”

grunted, pulling away from her as she reached for my face with a glob of yellowish salve on her fingers. Gemma was right, though. Our springs and summers back home were brief and often chilly, Break-up signified the breaking up of the ice over our rivers and lakes, basically another word for spring. But the snow still hung on the mountains even in late summer, most of it never melting at all.

“I just wanted to wear Rowan’s jacket, that’s all. It’s not even that thick, you know. It’s a flannel.”

“How many people do you see wearing any type of flannel here?” Gemma attempted to smother my face in the salve a second time, but I dodged her touch. She leaned back, giving me a steely look. “Stop moving!”

1 surrendered, grimacing at the smell. “What the hill is that?”

She shrugged. “One of the kitchen maids gave it to me. The servants have been talking about your sunburn all evening. You looked a right mess at dinner, from what I heard.”

“It smells awful!”

“Well, you wouldn’t have needed it if you used your brain and stayed out of the sun.”

“I was a little busy”

“Hanging out with your lunatic, I almost forgot!” she laughed, shaking her head as she screwed the lid back on the salve and tossed it unceremoniously into the top drawer of the vanity. “Put it on in the morning, too.”

Gemma turned around, disappearing through the bathroom door. I heard water running, then her voice as she murmured curses while she tried to scrub the thick salve off of her hands.

She was my closest and dearest friend. Gemma and I had been thick as thieves when I was a kid, even though she was ten years older than me. She was often tasked with looking after me and Rowan, but eventually our relationship grew into something more than that. She was family, truthfully.

Gemma was the daughter of Seraphine, who had been a close friend of my mother, Rosalie. Gemma had also seen much of the world in her short life, which had given her an air of worldliness that I had found intoxicating as a child. During the war, she’d lived on the island where our mothers had first met. Our games of make-believe went beyond the scope of my limited imagination if she was in control, and when it was decided that I would relocate to Valoria, well, there was no way I was going without her.

I was to be Luna, after all. Maybe one day the White Queen of the north. I would eventually require my own staff. There was no one I trusted more than Gemma, and no one who would even come close to being experienced enough to be my advisor. Her position put her in the upper echelons of Pack Drogomor, granting her unlimited access to the castle and

antations to the ten parties and gatherings Emest held within the castle’s walls

Ontertunately, it also meant she had to work closely with Horace, the decrepit old man who served as Emosi’s advisor

bed, crossing one leg over the other and vipina bet damp hands on her skirt “He has me running about all day right now, readying

day,

it is?” I asked, turning in my stool to face her. I leaned forward

Hopefully someone handsome

“It’s Aaron Cressner!”

Aaron of Red

“Yes!”

hands. We were both resisting the urge to laugh, and I knew that the second we made eye contact we would dissolve into uncontrollable girlish giggles. “I thought he hated

loathes me.” I laughed into my hands.

you only

a little.”

out of a tree and had a branch coming through his

only called him a baby, twice, when he protested

rocked back and

either.” I had the sudden flashback of the day his family departed, Aaron

rocky beach, watching the plane move gracefully through the surf, when I saw Aaron looking at me through the plane’s window, his blonde hair standing straight on end as he slowly raised his

said, smoothing her hair away from her face as her laughter subsided. I nodded, knowing that must be the truth. Aaron’s mother had blamed me for the fall, calling me a little devil. She even had the audacity to call my mother a witch as she pleaded with the woman to let her heal Aaron as the boy lay sprawled out on the ground, the meat of his right

finger a mere inch from my face.

course. I was only ten years old, and Aaron had been nearing fourteen, old enough to know

they said. But something in my mother’s eyes as she tried

home whenever you reach your second

my hands a second time. My sunburnt skin burned from my touch. “I’m supposed to see the doctor soon, aren’t

doubt he knows what the word ovulation means. I’ll know more

I said soberly, looking through my fingers at her. She nodded,

me more about this man from the

him after he disappeared in

was just… funny. I understood his humor. I liked it and he picked up on that immediately, almost like he knew

go to the

“No, absolutely not.”

a single ball since we’ve been here, and I’ve gone to five!” She paused, her face drawn

able to sense my mate before then. It would be a waste

if he’s there?

cursed? Or worse, what if he already

gave me one of her famous half smiles, her green eyes creasing

about it if I did, anyway. I’m about to be… to be pregnant. By Aaron. To give my own cousin an heir.” I paused, looking up at her. “Wow, that sounds horrible when you

to my side, gripping my shoulder in reassurance. “But It’s

my face and noticed a spot that had

a gesture of surrender. “It’s

standing up from the stool and falling face-first into the bed. “Why couldn’t they’ve just sent Rowan here?

would have been very, very bad, actually,” she sighed, patting my back. “I do miss Rowan, though.” Her voice was dreamy as she said it, and I rolled

just adore

**I don’t know why-”

is rather