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

belong to?” I asked, pulling the jeans on and tucking in the sweater I had pulled over my head. Dad was

and dead tired, having spent nearly

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

a flag. A familiar flag. Waving in the stiff,

a narrow cave opening and inside we had found

inspected the bodies, still fully dressed under layers of rotting fabric. He counted them, one by one, and after we found their backpacks, we shifted and changed

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54: What

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

explorers. They’ve been here for roughly fifteen years,

at the bones at my feet, my stomach tightening as the memory of

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

They never came back.

dressed in a similar fashion for the journey. It was

out of the cave opening.

“Dad!”

Look through the packs for anything like flashlights or matches. They had a

and at least half full, and a lighter that was dry, useless. I also found a compass and popped it

had his hands tucked into the pockets of the jacket he had found as he scanned the ground once more,

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 river that she believed linked up with the river that runs through Valoria, through Mirage. She believed she could find it, it would be faster than

strange woman. Not in a bad way, but in a way that made me wonder if she knew and saw things most people couldn’t.

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

for the expedition. I wanted to

Dad said with a sober smile, “You fought us for

the 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, the small bubble we had been living

them?” I asked, moving towards the entrance

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

and ground squirrels for a

“Should we bury them,”

I’ll do my best to identify them so I can give their families closure when we return to Winter Forest, but that’s all. I

quarter mile away over the boulders until 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 have one burning at the entrance for light, at

out to find kindling, careful of the uneven ground as I

strange landscape

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

had failed to save his daughter,

handfuls of 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,

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

“What,”