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

tucking in the sweater I had pulled over my head. Dad was lacing up a pair of boots, grimacing as he pulled the

his teeth as he tied the other boot. We were sore and dead tired, having spent nearly a week trudging through overgrown valleys

here, and fields and fields of boulders marked our journey between valleys. This hadn’t

Waving in the stiff, unrelenting breeze. The flag

a narrow cave opening and inside we

its depths. We didn’t speak as we inspected the bodies, still fully dressed under layers of rotting fabric. He counted them, one by one, and after we found their backpacks, we

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What Happened

asked, 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 surprisingly modern compared to how old I thought

missing explorers. They’ve been here for roughly fifteen

the bones at my feet, my stomach tightening as the memory of their departure from Winter Forest, all of us watching and cheering

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

They never came back.

remember what Seraphine might have been wearing, but they had dressed in a similar

tossing an empty backpack out of the cave opening. He turned back, walking deeper into the cave where it was dark enough to swallow his body

“Dad!”

or

the backpacks. I collected two matchbooks that were in decent shape and at least half full, and a lighter that was dry, useless. I

his hands tucked into the

be faster if 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

Seraphine, and she was always a strange woman. Not in a bad way, but in a way

plausible. There were warriors that wanted to go, begged in fact. So, your mother

the expedition. I wanted to

Dad said with a sober smile, “You fought

Winter Forest. We were the generation born after the war, confined to one place while the adults cleaned up the mess. Suddenly,

killed them?” I asked, moving towards the entrance of

sure. I’d need to inspect them closer, but for now, we need to find a place to rest and start a fire. Are you

been eating rabbits and ground squirrels for a week and had stayed well fed,

“Should we bury them,”

disturb them. I’ll do my best to identify them so I can

mile away

and sat, but we couldn’t stand. “We’ll sleep here,” Dad said, “look

kindling, careful of the uneven ground as I

the strange

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 him, wondering what

failed to save his daughter, who lost his hold on the castle

dry grass and rose, tucking them under my arm. Then I heard a whooshing sound and turned to it, right as something hit me hard,

tried to maintain my balance. I

“What,”