Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 232: This is Really Happening

Maeve

Horace stood in the shelter of the darkened corridor, a candle in his hand. He was dressed for bed, a silly cotton nightcap and long nightshirt covering his withered body. .

Oh, Horace was a grumpy old bat. He didn’t care that people thought that of him, either. Gemma and I had playfully tried to guess his age, once, and I don’t think my guess of one-hundred was far from the truth.

Usually he ignored me, only giving me a very stern passing glance, but something in his beady black eyes made a shiver run up my spine as he watched me move away from the door.

“I heard something, Horace,”

“Rats, probably. Nothing you need to pay any mind. Go to bed, mistress. You shouldn’t be wandering the halls at this hour.” He motioned his hand to shoo me away, narrowing his eyes as I passed by and walked back toward the stairs.

Horace acted as an advisor to Ernest and his Beta, Lance. I never saw Lance; apparently he lived in the village with his family just off the castle’s ground, but Horace and Ernest were constantly in each other’s company. In the rare event that Horace wasn’t lurking behind Ernest like a shadow, he was bothering Gemma, giving her some remedial task or lecture.

I looked over my shoulder, noticing Horace staring after me. I looked down at my short evening dress, quickly crossing my hands over my chest as I stepped down the stairs, a faint blush rising on my cheeks.

I woke at noon, the hot sun beating down through the windows and warming my sheets to an uncomfortable temperature. I rose, slowly, stretching my legs before stepping out of bed and cranking the window open to let in the air.

I could feel my hair shrinking into tight ringlets the second the stifling humidity touched me, and started to crank the window closed again when a knock sounded on my door and a maid stepped in, carrying a tray of food.

“Impeccable timing,” I said with a smile, nodding my thanks as she set the tray down on top of the dresser and turned to take her leave. “Wait! Did the post come today?”

“Yes, Mistress,” she said, bobbing her head in farewell,

That’s odd. I hadn’t had a single letter from home in the past three weeks. The post arrived weekly, and usually I would receive a few letters at a time from my parents and Rowan. I wrote to them every night, after all.

I pursed my lips, looking at myself in the mirror before pulling the oversized T-shirt I slept in over the top of my head. Mom always wrote me back with long, beautiful letters filled with pressed flowers and recipes for my favorite foods to give to the kitchen. Dad usually added a line or two, mostly just to tell me to behave myself. Rowan was my spy, however, and I looked forward to his letters the most. I counted on him feeding me the most up to date gossip from back home.

But three weeks with nothing?

pulled on one of the new dresses Gemma had bought for me and headed out the door, not bothering to put shoes on as padded across the carpeted floor toward the stairs. Ernest always lunched in his office; he would know what was happening with the mail.

I walked into his office on the first floor without knocking, sitting down in one of the large leather chairs in front of his desk. He looked at me, surprised, and shut the ledger he was pouring over. “Maeve…?”

the post? I haven’t received

said, tapping his pen

And my brother.

“If something were amiss in Winter Forest I would know, alright? There’s no need to be

not by post. It was faster to

to the post office

you, I

wide, generous smile. I guess he wasn’t

my eye; a baby blue cardigan with fake pearls instead of buttons. It was laid out over the sofa along the far wall of his office, nestled

in the hallway,” he said abruptly, the blood draining from his face. I gave

I said playfully. Should I

hands to his face. He obviously hadn’t meant to say

laugh as I left the room and shut the door behind me. Gemma

office and pry every detail out of him, but based on the look on his face, Ernest wasn’t going to say a word,

room and changed into a cozy set of leggings and matching crew-neck sweater, walking back downstairs and into the large gymnasium that connected to the backside of the castle, a relatively new addition. There were a few other people in the gym, a handful of warriors playing basketball and lifting weights, but no one seemed to mind when I went to my usual

girls from the village join us for lessons. One summer, for my birthday, the cast of an opera had visited the Winter Forest pack. All of the villagers crowded into the school gym to watch the performance. I hadn’t cared for the music but had been in total

had dreams of being a dancer, of traveling the world and dancing in front of crowds of hundreds or even thousands of people. I kept

“Can I join you?”

looked over my shoulder, letting go of the bar as Aaron approached, his eyes dancing with mischief.

to, anyway,” he shrugged, tilting his head in the direction of the warriors playing basketball.

“Basketball?”

know, I’d never even heard of it before coming here-” he paused,

I guess it’s not that popular

you tonight. You can watch, if

I thought, feeling slightly stupid. But he gave me a quizzical look,

one

“Tell me what?”

glanced over his shoulder at the men playing basketball and then stepped toward me, closing the distance between us. “Maybe you should

She’s still in the village, I

the eyes. It was quite intimidating, honestly, and I fought the urge to take

Why are