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.

the sun. It was blinding, reflecting off the space around me. I sat up, shielding my eyes from the bright orb as I looked

sand. The beach was at low tide, seaweed lining the shoreline where the tide had risen and then fell

Leaving me behind.

to stand, but my legs wobbled and gave way, and I fell back onto my knees into the sand, the small particles biting into

to the thermals as I

turquoise where the beach met the

Troy. Where was he?

as a cracking, strained whisper. Where was everyone? Where

pocket, the gleam of metal as he aborted his mission of tying me to the skiff and sliced through the cables holding

I

glossy, white hair falling around her face as she scooped me into her arms, Dad with his piercing blue gaze. But I couldn’t remember what exactly I had dreamt

far away they were now.

palms and knotted, low hanging trees I couldn’t recognize or name. I walked along the sand, my mind jumbled as I tried

gazed 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

And Troy.

I could take it all back. I would have been nicer to him. I would have told him how I really felt. That I wanted

That I loved him.

I swallowed against the lump in my throat, my sobs of despair and

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

had. Surely the other three skiffs had made it

thought was enough encouragement to make me rise to my feet and turn towards the trees, where the sparseness of the brush eventually gave way

vines. Birdsong erupted around

my arms around my chest to try to warm myself. I had been walking all day, never

I leaned against it, sinking onto my bottom with

as my breathing slowed. The chirping of frogs, the scurrying of

heard something else, something bigger, moving through the dense foliage. I opened my eyes 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 paled, pressing my back against the rock and holding my breath as the creature stepped into the

slightly longer than the front legs. A long neck and narrow face with a long, skinny snout and small ears. It

Mirage. This was not a

came a voice within my mind. I blinked, shaking my head at the intrusion. I could only mind-link with my family since I wasn’t twenty-one yet, but this creature was

It was trembling, its small, round eyes fixated on

ADV

9.

Chapter 41: Friend?

aloud, my voice dry from lack of use and

I said over the mind-link, an odd feeling tightening

its tail wagging

you a

its head rapidly. I held my hands out,

its snout to sniff the ground around

it said, baring its

I answered, shaking

my foot and then the tips of my fingers before taking

your name?’ I