Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 261

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.

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

Sand. Golden, coarse sand. The beach was at low tide, seaweed lining the shoreline where the tide had risen and then fell away again.

Leaving me behind.

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

I was still in the oversized white shirt, the soaked fabric clinging to my skin. It clung to the thermals as I tried to stand again, this time successfully, and I looked out over the water.

It was calm, a bright turquoise where the beach met the gentle waves.

Troy. Where was he?

“Oh, no!” I cried, but the words came out as a cracking, strained whisper. Where was everyone? Where was the skiff he had thrown me on before before

I remembered the wave that had snapped the masts. I remembered his face as he pulled the knife from his coat pocket, the gleam of metal as he aborted his mission of tying me to the skiff and sliced through the cables holding to skiff to the Persephone instead. He had said something, desperation clouding his eyes as I fell away, down and down and down into the storm as the wave broke over the Persephone and swallowed it whole.

And then I remembered nothing.

I had dreamed of my parents. I knew that for certain. I had seen them clear as day. Mom with her 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 about. Was that even possible? To remember your dreams within a dream. And my parents had been young in my dream. So young.

How far away they were now. They probably thought I was dead.

I looked around, my gaze settling on the sparse palms and knotted, low hanging trees I couldn’t recognize or name. I walked along the sand, my mind jumbled as I tried to piece together the fragmented memories of the storm.

“Oh, Myla,” I whispered as I 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 one. First Gemma, then Ernest. Now Myla and Cleo.

And Troy.

I walked into the palms, sitting down on the shaded sand and cried. Oh, how I wished 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 him. That I needed him.

That I loved him.

My throat ached as I swallowed against the lump in my throat, my sobs of despair and heartbreak dry and choked as I tried to regain my composure. I needed water.

But the only water around was the salty, undrinkable water rolling against the sand. The same water already filling my belly and making me even more dehydrated. I looked around, seeing nothing but an endless beach.

If I was alive… if I had survived, surely someone else had. Surely the other three skiffs had made it off the boat to safety.

The 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 to thick, almost lightless jungle.

I moved into the jungle, walking for what felt like hours. The sun was low in the sky now, casting an orange glow through the trees and thick, wide-leaf vines. Birdsong erupted around me as I walked and startled the creatures lurking on the forest floor around me. Lizards scurried up the trees as I passed, their forked tongues flicking in warning.

Night fell. My feet were bare and aching, the skin blistered and raw from sliding over wet tree roots. A chill swept through the jungle, making me shiver and hug my arms around my chest to try to warm myself. I had been walking all day, never once coming across a bubbling stream or freshwater pool. Even the large leaves of the vines held no water. The only water was in the air, a suffocating humidity that during the day had caused me to sweat profusely and now stuck coldly to my skin.