Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 41: Friend?

Maeve

“Mama?” i crept into the room, my feet silent on the wide plank floorboards bathed in violet twilight, “Daddy?”

Dad stirred, rolling over and leaning on his elbow as he watched me enter the room, his hair ruffled from sleep. He motioned for me to come to the bed, pulling down the covers as I climbed in between them and laid my head against the mattress, snuggled tightly between their two pillows.

“What’s the matter?” Mom asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she rolled over, tucking her body around mine.

“I had a bad dream,” I sniffled, resting my cheek against her arm. Dad reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear before he laid his head back, facing me.

“What did you dream about?” he asked, his blue eyes dark and focused in the dim light.

“I was swallowed up by water. Lots of it.”

“Well, did you swim?” he replied.

“No, the water was too big. I tried, but I was too little, and the waves were too high over my head.” I stretched one arm upwards towards the vaulted ceiling.

“Hmm…” Mom said dreamily, on the edge of sleep. “But you learned how to swim this summer, darling. In the lake”

“It wasn’t a lake, Mama. It was BIG water.”

Dad snorted, his mouth touched with a wry smile, “It was just a dream, kiddo.”

“There was someone else with me.”

“Who?” Mom asked, stroking my back with her fingers. Her touch relaxed me, making my eyes flutter.

“Was it Rowan?” Dad smiled, closing his eyes.

“No. But he was probably the one who threw me in,”

Dad laughed shortly, rolling over onto his back.

“It was a woman. She was a ghost, like she wasn’t really there.” I yawned hugely, sleep settling back into my bones.

“She was there to protect you, sweetie,” Mom said quietly, tucking me closer to her chest.I sniffled, closing my eyes, trying not to think of the dream where I had been struggling in empty, bleak darkness miles below the surface of an unforgiving sea.

“I’ll take you to the beach tomorrow, okay? Just me and you. We can put our toes in the water. You’ll feel better,” Dad was barely awake, his voice far away and dream-like.

“Do not sleep, my starling. Sleep, my doe…” Mom sang softly, her voice calming me and making my body submit to the slumber I had been rudely awoken from.

I closed my eyes.

***

I rolled onto my side, water sputtering from my mouth as my lungs contracted, desperate for air. I inhaled through my mouth, deeply, my throat burning and my mouth tasting strongly of salt.

blinked into the sun. It was blinding, reflecting off the space around me. I sat up, shielding my

beach was at low tide, seaweed lining the shoreline where the tide

Leaving me behind.

to stand, but my legs wobbled and gave way, and I fell back onto my knees

white shirt, the soaked fabric clinging to my skin. It clung to the thermals as I tried to stand again, this time successfully, and

bright turquoise where the beach met

Troy. Where was he?

a cracking, strained whisper.

from his coat pocket, the gleam of metal as he aborted his mission of tying me to the skiff and sliced through the cables holding to skiff to the Persephone instead. He had said something, desperation clouding his eyes as I fell away, down and down and down into the storm as the wave broke over the

then I remembered

her face as she scooped me into her arms, Dad with his piercing blue

away they were now. They probably

trees I couldn’t recognize or name. I walked along

back over the water, seeing nothing but sparkling blue water and softly capped waves. This tangled web | found myself in, by no fault of my own, was destroying everyone I loved one by one. First Gemma, then Ernest. Now Myla

And Troy.

sitting down on the shaded sand and cried. Oh, how I wished I could take it all back. I would have been nicer to him. I would have told

That I loved him.

my throat, my sobs of despair and heartbreak dry and choked as I tried to regain my composure. I

the salty, undrinkable water rolling against the sand. The same water already filling my

alive… if I had survived, surely someone else had. Surely the other three skiffs

and turn towards the trees, where the

now, casting an orange glow through the trees and thick, wide-leaf vines. Birdsong erupted around me as I walked and

me shiver and hug my arms around my chest to try to warm myself. I had been walking all day, never once coming across a bubbling stream or freshwater pool. Even the

against it,

of the jungle erupted around me as my breathing slowed. The chirping of frogs, the

wide, adrenaline prickling my fingertips and making the hair rise along my arms as the thing grew closer, and closer. Then it quieted. A sniffing sound. I

long, skinny snout and small ears. It was a strange-looking

before, but nothing like this. They were always small, fluffy creatures tied to leashes and paraded around the more affluent neighborhoods in Mirage. This was not a small creature, or a fluffy one. It was tall and

my head at the intrusion. I could only

lowering its head. It was trembling, its small, round eyes fixated

ADV

9.

Chapter 41: Friend?

dry from lack of use and severe dehydration. It straightened its neck, fear evident behind its eyes as

me?’ I said over the mind-link, an odd feeling tightening my chest. Was

dog just stared, its tail wagging once

a shifter?”

head rapidly. I held my hands out, slowly reaching

lowering its snout to sniff the ground around me.

said, baring its

not yet,’ I answered,

then the tips of my fingers before taking a step backward

name?’