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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It’s beautiful!” I loved dainty jewelry, but I couldn’t be trusted to wear it. I always snapped the chains of bracelets and necklaces and lost them,

never thought to wear it, honestly. It was part of her collection. It kinda… I don’t know, called to

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

I only wished she could see it. I wished Ernest would get over the insane notion that he was cursed so that they could

as she rounded her desk and sat back

shorts. Had these actually fit

village for

parting smile as I left her office, closing 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.

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

***

Rowan

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

“Like, sleepwalking?”

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 that. She called it dream dancing. She said, and it sounds crazy, that she was walking the

“Hers?”

according to our mother. Mom made… she made decisions about

long has she been

Since she could walk. Our mother 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.

out to the solar field? It’s

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

asked, curious but also totally confused. Hanna had looked like she was awake. She had moved like she was awake. She was standing, blinking, and breathing with effort from the walk and the

never told me about them. My mother.. my mother did. She

tell me what

it was so long ago

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she was dreaming, Leto. I don’t know what

an explanation as to 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 the blood of

“Yeah, those.”

understood why my mother said

basis with the Goddess in her dreams, or something,” I

between us, broken only by the sound of the fire and

think Hanna dreams about?”

deep breath, giving me a defeated look. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But today was the first time in my life I’ve heard her

“Really?”

it was your name. Rowan.

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

died while she was dreaming. I know Dad told you she… she got sick, but really 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 visiting your family, ten years ago or so. Tell me, did you feel