Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 21: The Golden Generation

Rowan

I could’ve kissed the ground at the rocky, wind-swept beach when our boat finally reached the small port of Red Lakes. The journey had been the most difficult thing I had ever done, and I was sure I was going to die at least twice before we finally saw the rolling hills and snow-capped mountains of Red Lake’s territory in the distance.

The precious cargo, our solar panels, had made the journey unscathed. We hadn’t lost a single crewman, and our boat was in one piece. The forty-foot swells had tossed us mercilessly, but we had survived. The journey across the Ghilhanda Sea was doable. We had been successful.

And my success was met with a prize. My mate.

I felt her the second I set foot on the beach. I could smell her, her scent warm and comforting like honey and freshly baked bread. She smelled like home somehow, but a home I’d never known. A home, I realized shortly after Eugene introduced me to his daughters, that I would likely never know.

Because the beautiful Hanna, with her dark, lustrous hair and warm brown eyes, was betrothed to another man.

And I was meant to marry her older sister, Kacidra.

Red Lakes was everything I expected it to be. It was densely wooded and mountainous, the water of the vast, seemingly endless lake the village bordered was just that, red, its rocky beach dappled with strangled colored burnt orange and green rocks.

The trees here were the real prize, thick evergreens and redwoods with trunks so thick your hands wouldn’t touch if you wrapped your arms around them. These trees were older than the earth itself it seemed, ancient giants towering over man’s creation with their thick branches outstretched and full to create a never-ending canopy over the small, sleepy village the Alpha of Red Lakes and his family called home.

Eugene was a small man, standing nearly a foot shorter than myself but with a loud, outgoing personality to make up for it. He was vibrant and domineering, demanding and receiving respect from the three hundred or so pack members who accepted him as their leader. Eugene had forged a path for these people. He had accomplished what was seemingly impossible when he broke away from the packs of Finadli and traveled north with his flock, knowing full well the separation would be a dangerous endeavor. But they had survived, and thrived, in a place once thought inhospitable.

My parents respected him for it. I could see why my father trusted the man and why he considered him a friend.

And I was to marry his daughter.

There was no point in protesting. Kacidra had done that enough to cover the length of my stay during the first few hours on land. Kacidra was the eldest by two minutes, Aaron’s twin sister in fact, fair of skin and hair like her father but with an attitude to make even the most stoic man surrender.

Oh, Kacidra would have been a true match for Maeve, no doubt. They would’ve hated each other, at least until they realized how powerful they could be as allies. Kacidra and Maeve could rule the world together if given the chance.

And so, I spent two weeks in the torment of Kacidra and agony over her sister, who hadn’t said a single word to me and wouldn’t meet my eye, no matter how much I tried to accidentally find myself in her path. No, Hanna wouldn’t even look at me. She was

going to reject me. It was likely she had no choice.

I could already feel the pain of it.

I kept busy, however, setting up the rows upon rows of solar panels in a large open space on the outskirts of the village where the trees were sparse and the ground was dry and flat from constant, unrelenting sun. Sulfur springs bubbled incessantly in the background as I worked, my head always bent to my task.

But the third week, things changed. Kacidra had given up on making my life as miserable as possible, growing bored of pestering me. We found ourselves, surprisingly, enjoying each other’s company as we set up the panels and tested the lines, Kacidra pouring over the blueprints for the underground lines that would eventually bring power into the village.

budding between us taking the edge of my pain

temporarily

Kacidra was leaning against one of the solar panels, her blond hair tied back in a long braid over one shoulder as she watched me struggling with a shorted-out battery pack. I wiped the sweat from my brow, running my fingers through my hair that had grown too long for my liking

little green light that indicated it was absorbing power from the

to do

seeing as you’re coming back to

absolutely not

on the back of the panel

moving on to the

nothing really. Just thinking of some gossip I heard in the village this summer.” She twirled the end of her braid between

peering over the top of the panel when she remained silent. “Are you going to

you really

to you talk or enjoy the

a rock back and forth along the pad of her foot as she pondered whether I was worthy of whatever she had to say. This was the game we had

matter-of-factly, tilting her head for

“Who?”

it over the scandal of a baby born outside of a marriage. Nevertheless, the news sent a ripple of excitement through my core as

really. Someone from a neighboring pack to

“Does that mean…”

shrugging casually as she nodded her head. “Well,

I exclaimed, pumping my fist in the air before I could stop myself. Kacidra only rolled her eyes, crossing

somehow. Seeing me struggle with the pain of Hanna’s rejection had been the turning point in my

too excited yet, cowboy.” She picked at a hole in her jacket, watching me through narrowed eyes. “You

“Yeah, so,”

drama spin for a while before we can even

your dad seriously have Hanna marry that guy? After-after this?”

The

arrival, and Kacidra was

“Uh, yeah. It’s possible.”

“But why?”

with that

throat as she took a few steps forward, stopping to

divide? Your family was one of the lucky ones, you know, able to hang on to their lands and birthrights after the war and all. My father will go down in history as the Alpha who brought the packs to the northwest to settle land once deemed uninhabitable. They even named that road after him. We’re the golden generation. We give

Finaldi. Eugene had cut through the dense forest himself, with the help of his pack of course, chopping down trees to clear their path to where they would eventually put down a claim on the land. Other smaller packs from Finaldi had followed, settling here and there along the four hundred mile

do anything to keep it alive, including selling his