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

chains of bracelets and necklaces and lost them, and my hands were

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

and lips and her hair now tied

I wished Ernest would get over the insane notion that he was

today?” Gemma asked as she rounded her desk and sat back down,

shrugged again, standing and adjusting the tight shorts. Had these actually fit Aaron better

and I are going to the village for lunch. I’ll be back before

the door behind me. Aaron had come into my room in the 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 creature of the morning, always chipper and at his most

my ear, leaning over me to kiss me on the cheek before I could swat

***

Rowan

us with a stick, holding it up and examining the flame before bringing it back down onto the ground, drawing a long

“Like, sleepwalking?”

walking toward me. She sat on one of the logs, stretching her legs out in front of her. “My mother used to do the same thing sometimes. More so before she died. She didn’t call it sleepwalking, though. She always said it was more complicated than

“Hers?”

Goddess. She controls our dreams, according to our mother. Mom made… she made decisions about

long has she

her. The rest of us were just. I don’t

the solar field? It’s

farther before.” Kacidra swallowed hard, looking out over the riverbed toward the dim, yellow lights

she remember her dreams?” I asked, curious but also totally confused. Hanna had looked like she was awake. She had moved like

she’s never told me about them. My mother.. my mother did.

tell me

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

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Mothers Like

I

where I had gotten that information. “It’s not taught in not in church and stuff. But my mom is a White Queen, She supposedly shares

“Yeah, those.”

never understood why my mother said it, though. Why

dreams, or something,” I said, trying

only by the sound of the fire and the

Hanna dreams about?” I finally

breath, giving me a defeated look. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But today was

“Really?”

and it was your name. Rowan. She said

then.” Again I tried to tease, but my chest tightened around the words. Kacidra was usually the one

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 visiting your family, ten years ago or so. Tell me, did you feel the mate bond earlier? When she came to the solar