Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 22: Mothers Like Ours

Rowan

She was wet. Water dripped from her hair onto the dry, cracked earth at her feet. Her nightgown was clinging to her skin, showing off her shapely curves in their entirety. I fought the urge to reach out and touch her, to cover her, but Kacidra grabbed my arm and yanked me backward.

“Rowan, don’t,” kacidra said firmly, her face pale and flushed with concern.

Hanna was looking at me, her deep brown eyes wide and flaked with gold. A wave of unease washed over me as I looked at her, the feeling cutting through the intensity of the bond we had yet to act on.

“Hanna?” Kacidra said in a tone I had never heard from her before. She looked almost motherly as she gazed at her sister, her eyes cloudy with despair. Hanna didn’t answer. She kept her eyes on me, reaching out her hand with her palm up toward the sky. “Don’t touch her Rowan,” Kacindra warned, sucking in her breath as she stepped between us, taking Hanna lightly by the shoulders and turning her around, the two of them walking slowly out of the field of solar panels and into the woods. “Come find me later, Rowan. We need to talk!” Kacidra’s voice echoed as she disappeared from view. –

***

Maeve

Gemma moved out from behind the desk in her office, flipping through the pages of a thick, paperback book.

“Are you.. nauseous?”

“Nope.”

“Are you… having back pain?”

“No.”

“What about food avessions?”

“Not at all.”

“Hmm…” She leaned against desk, her eyes scanning the book’s contents. It had been a week since Aaron and I slept together in the library. I was still reeling from it, processing it. Thankfully things were good between Aaron and me. He was attentive and playful like usual. There wasn’t a sheet of awkwardness between us.

And, I hadn’t given Gemma the details about our night. For some reason, I was desperate to keep it to myself, to cherish it. My heart squeezed as I sat down and looked up at the massive book she was holding. It was about pregnancy, I realized as my eyes flitted over the cover and title that was broken up by Gemma’s splayed fingers.

If I was pregnant, Aaron would be leaving soon. I didn’t want to even think about it. “Does your mouth taste like metal?”

“What?”

Gemma shrugged, closing the book and setting it on her desk. “It’s obviously too early to know, right?”

“It’s only been a week since…. Well, I think I have to go in for another blood sample next week.”

“Ah, yeah. It’s too early. And they’ll probably need to send the sample to the labs at the University. I guess we just… wait and see.” She turned toward the window, the sun reflecting off the dainty necklace she was wearing around her neck. I tilted my head to the side to get a better look at it.

“Where did that come from?”

She reached up to touch the delicate chain, sliding her touch down to finger the oval-shaped moonstone that was fixed in an intricate gold setting. “It was my mother’s,” she said with a soft, airy smile.

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22: Mothers Like

I always snapped the chains of bracelets and necklaces and lost them, and my hands were too busy for rings. Gemma’s necklace highlighted her slender neck, the color of the moonstone vibrant against the

part of her collection. It kinda… I don’t know, called to me this morning, if

suddenly. I did like to see Gemma dressing up more, though. She had traded her simple button-down shirts and jeans for skirts and dresses, rouge on her cheeks and lips and her hair now tied back in a neat bun at the nape of her neck.

see it. I wished Ernest would get over the insane notion that

rounded her desk and sat back down, reaching into

the tight shorts. Had these actually fit

to the village for lunch.

early morning, waking me at the crack of dawn by throwing the curtains open and being as loud as possible. I never woke early, but Aaron was obviously a

to talk to you about something,” he had said into my ear, leaning over me to kiss me on the cheek before I could swat him away. “Meet me at Johnny’s for lunch at

***

Rowan

holding it up and examining the flame before bringing it back down onto the ground, drawing a long black line in the

“Like, sleepwalking?”

thing sometimes. More so before she died. She didn’t call it sleepwalking, though. She always said it was more complicated than that. She

“Hers?”

our mother. Mom made… she made decisions about our lives based on what she

she

was always so proud of it, too. They were truly bonded. Hanna only really ever spoke to her. The rest of us were just. I don’t know. We didn’t understand them. Even Dad didn’t understand; he was scared of it.

get out to the solar field?

out over the riverbed toward the dim, yellow lights in the trees beyond,

confused. Hanna had looked like she was awake. She had moved like she was awake. She was standing, blinking, and breathing with effort

My mother.. my mother did. She told me.” Kacidra was

tell me

could, and it was so long ago now. I just remember a word she

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Mothers

was dreaming, Leto. I don’t know what

me expectantly, waiting for an explanation as to where I had

“Yeah, those.”

my mother said it, though. Why would

her dreams, or something,” I

only by the sound of the fire and the river’s roaring current behind

Hanna dreams about?” I finally

defeated look. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But today was the first time in my life I’ve heard her say anything during one of her

“Really?”

your name. Rowan. She said

she’s obviously dreaming of me, then.” Again I tried to tease, but my chest tightened around

she just dropped onto her knees one morning and never stood back up. She was stuck in her dream. I know she was. It was shortly after we returned from