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

and dead tired, having spent nearly a week

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 the stiff, unrelenting breeze. The flag of Winter

the entrance to a narrow cave opening and inside we had

stood at the cave’s entrance for a long time, peering into its depths. We didn’t speak as we inspected the bodies, still fully dressed under layers of

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54: What Happened to

nothing by bone by now, and must have been here for a long, long time.

missing explorers. They’ve been here for roughly fifteen

a kid? Really? This is them?” I looked down at the bones at my feet, my stomach tightening as the memory

had tears in her eyes as she watched her

They never came back.

dressed in a similar fashion for

said briskly, tossing an empty backpack out of the cave opening. He turned back, walking deeper

“Dad!”

to go far. Look through the packs for anything like flashlights or matches. They had a fire in

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

I asked as Dad came out of the darkness. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of the jacket

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, and Seraphine, she well. She said halfway through the mountains was a

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

warriors that wanted to go, begged in fact. So,

expedition. I

said with a sober smile, “You fought

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, the small bubble we

killed them?” I asked, moving towards

I’m not sure. I’d need to inspect them closer, but for now, we

shook my head. We had been eating rabbits and ground squirrels

“Should we bury them,”

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

agreed with that; the cave felt somewhat electric and overwhelming. I was thankful to leave, walking a quarter mile away over the boulders until we reached another short cliff

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 fire inside, but we can

uneven ground as I moved through

the strange

head disappear as he made his way back to the final resting place of the expedition. I felt a

felt he had failed to save his daughter, who lost his hold on the castle of Drogomor. Whose nephew, the Alpha of Drogomor, was

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

to maintain my balance. I could taste blood, feel

“What,”