Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 54: What Happened to Seraphine?

Rowan-Valoria

Boy, did things unravel.

We hadn’t been able to sleep for long before Damian’s warriors found us again. Dad led us deeper into the forest, crossing the river and attempting to back track towards Mirage, but it was too late. The forest was full of wolves. We were two against an impossible force.

“What pack did that woman say she was from?’ Dad said, his voice cracking over the mind-link as we began to climb up the base of the mountains, our paws slipping on the uneven, fragile shale rock.

“Greenbriar, I think,’ I answered, my legs sore and hips aching from the exercise. I ran in my wolf from every single morning and had done so for years. But spending over twenty-four hours as a wolf was causing an indescribable exhaustion and something I had never experienced before.

Plus, I was watching my dad’s plans fall through, and he was pissed. Especially after we crested the top of a cliff face looking over the forest and our plane buzzed the top of our heads.

*Damnit!” he said, turning his head to watch it ascend into the clouds.

‘That was us, wasn’t it

‘Yes, obviously. Come on, we have no choice but to keep going. They’re pushing us into the mountains, and we’re outnumbered-‘

The mountains? What exactly are you planning,

‘I was wrong, Rowan. There’s too many of them. I hadn’t expected Damian to have made alliances with other packs in Valoria, especially without my knowledge. We have to get home

“By crossing the mountains? Are you insane? That’ll take us weeks!”

.

Howling drifted from the trees below as we continued to climb, and I winced, torn between two impossible paths.

How did I prefer to die? Being torn apart by wolves, or dying of exposure in the mountains between the North and Valoria?

‘We have no choice. They’re expecting us to travel through the forest until we reach the Northern Tier. Stop whining, let’s go.’

I followed him up and over another ridge, padding further and further into the clouds until I finally looked down, seeing a full view of what had once been Mirage. Fires burned in pockets across the city. I could see the destruction of the buildings from our perch. And there was the castle, standing like an untouchable fortress amongst fields of golden grass.

And ahead of us?

I looked up where Dad had stopped and stretched his legs.

Nothing but miles, and miles, and miles of stone.

***

One Week Later

Who did these belong to?” I asked, pulling the jeans on and tucking in the sweater I had pulled over my head. Dad was lacing up a pair of boots, grimacing as he

We were sore and dead tired, having spent nearly a

in now was remarkably changed, the once perfectly sculpted mountains giving way to deep craters and sharp, uneven peaks. Nothing grew here, and fields and fields of boulders marked our journey between valleys. This hadn’t been what I was expecting. The mountains were far east, lined by thick, almost impenetrable

A familiar flag. Waving in

marked the entrance to a narrow cave opening and inside

We didn’t speak as we inspected the bodies, still fully dressed under layers of rotting fabric. He counted

0.00%

12:250

54: What

running my fingers through my matted, filthy hair. The bodies were nothing by bone by now, and must have been here for a long, long time. But their clothes were

been here for

tightening as the memory of their departure from Winter Forest, all of us watching

looking back at Gemma, who had tears in her eyes as she watched her mother lead the group. Seraphine

They never came back.

remember what Seraphine might have been wearing, but they had dressed in a similar fashion for the journey. It was

empty backpack out of the cave opening. He turned back, walking

“Dad!”

going to go far. Look through the packs for anything like flashlights or matches. They

collected two matchbooks that were in decent shape and at least half full, and

for?” I asked as Dad came out of the darkness. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of the jacket he had found as he scanned the ground once more,

we found this river. It’s hundreds, if not a thousand miles of mountains and valleys between Winter Forest and Valoria on the east. This was shortly after the war when our planes and boats were in disrepair and supplies were short. We were desperate,

know there was a river?” | asked. I remembered Seraphine, and she was always a strange woman. Not in a bad way, but in a way that made me wonder if she

matter to me at the time. It sounded plausible. There were warriors that wanted to go, begged in

the expedition.

a sober smile, “You fought us

time. The expedition had opened up a whole new world for me and the other boys in Winter Forest. We were the generation born after the war, confined to one place while the adults cleaned up the mess. Suddenly,

I asked, moving

I’d need to inspect them closer, but for now, we need to find a place to rest

eating rabbits and ground

“Should we bury them,”

the packs as we exited the cave, “We shouldn’t disturb them. I’ll do my best to identify them so I can give

thankful to leave, walking a quarter mile away over the boulders until we reached another short cliff where

as he examined the shallow cave. We could fit inside if we crouched and sat, but we couldn’t stand. “We’ll sleep here,” Dad said, “look for something, anything, we can burn. We can’t have a

find kindling, careful of the uneven ground as I moved through the

strange landscape and

looked back towards the caves, seeing the top of Dad’s head disappear as he made his way back to the final resting place of the expedition. I felt a pang of regret as I watched

had failed to save his daughter, who lost his

rose, tucking them under my arm. Then I heard a whooshing sound and turned

to maintain my balance. I could taste blood, feel it streaming from

“What,”