Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 297

Chapter 77 : An Act of War

Rowan

Dad had been in Mom’s room with the door closed for two days. Gretchen, Georgia, and Vicky had busied them selves with making food and tending to the house, carrying trays of tea and snacks upstairs on a regular basis, the trays untouched as they rested on the carpeted floor until they were eventually cleared away by Gretchen.

Despite the amount of people in the house, it was dead silent. Every once in a while, someone started the washing machine in the laundry room, or a tea kettle squealed in the kitchen, but otherwise, the many occupants of the house walked around in somber, quiet steps, waiting for the door of the master bedroom to open and for Ethan to come out and explain to us what we needed to do.

Mom was alive. So was Hanna. We didn’t know until we got home from Mirage that they had both survived whatev er catastrophes had happened in our absence. The plane ride home had been the longest five hours of my life.

I was sitting in the den with my hands tucked between my knees, watching Vicky and her daughters chopping vegetables in the kitchen. Talon came into the kitchen, looking grave as he bent his head to whisper in his sister’s

ear. He noticed me as he straightened up, giving me a tight nod, then motioned his head toward the back door as he stepped into the den, willing me to follow.

| stepped outside, closing the backdoor behind me as I moved with quick steps after Talon, who was walking briskly toward the gate leading to the trails that wove around the grounds of the White Queen’s castle. All plans to move the extended family into the castle, for the time being, had ceased when we returned. No one wanted to be far from Mom.

“We need to talk to Hanna.” Talon held the gate open for me as I passed through, shutting it with a soft click. “Now.”

“No,” I replied firmly, tucking my hands into the pockets of my flannel jacket against the cool breeze rustling the trees. We walked along the fence, and I knew he was mean ing to walk out onto the road leading down to the village. Kacidra and Hanna were staying in a cabin on the outskirts of the forest, not far from where we were now.

“I understand that she’s your mate, but,”

“But nothing. Hanna didn’t do this.”

“Gemma isn’t sure”

“Gemma wasn’t there!” | swallowed against the fury ris ing in my throat, struggling to catch my breath. We had heard a brief synopsis of what happened in the aftermath of the event that had momentarily killed my mother and put my mate in a coma.

coma.

Gemma had saved Mom’s life, but how she had done so was a mystery. She told us Mom made her promise not to tell anyone what happened in the bedroom where Mom’s body had been laid out. Not even Dad, which made him fu rious. He had locked himself in their bedroom after that, no doubt to get the truth out of Mom.

“Otto has already tried to talk to Shelly. She’s terrified, Rowan. She’s not saying a word.”

“Then we will talk to Kacidra, she was with them. But not Hanna.”

“Why not? Tell me,”

“Because I forbid it.”

“You’re mate killed your mother, Rowan-”

“Talon, shut the f*ck up.”

Talon stopped walking, stunned into silence. I turned to him, fighting against the embarrassment that sent a furious

Lv.1

blush up my neck. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“I’m sorry,”

To my surprise he smiled, his brows arched in surprise. Then, he laughed heartily, throwing his head back.

“What the hell is so funny?” | stammered, tightening my hands into fists in my pockets.

“I’ve never heard you talk like that before. You sound ed… so much like your dad. It caught me off guard.”

“Oh,” I murmured, looking away from him as adrenaline prickled across my skin. I was thankful we were out of earshot of the house. Even though I was a grown man, if Dad had overheard me say that to Talon … “Mom told me Aunt Georgia taught Maeve and I curse words when we were young.”

“Yeah, she did. Ernest too. Vicky wasn’t much of a help in that regard, either. I’ll never forget the time you called Ernest a ‘shithead in front of your father. You must have been seven, I think it was shortly after Maeve’s first birth day because we were all in Winter Forest for a visit. He turned-turned purple, just furious beyond belief. I was try ing so hard not to laugh and then Ernest turned to Georgia and asked her what shithead meant-”

“In front of Dad?”

“Yep. I thought he was going to kill all of us. Your moth er ended up being the one to tell Ernest what it meant.”

“Oh, no.”

“Yeah, oh, no is right.”

“I didn’t mean to cuss at you, Uncle Talon,” I said a little sheepishly as we started walking again. “I’m just… I don’t know what to do here. I just know Hanna wouldn’t hurt any one, anything… She spent her summer here combing low tide to throw stranded fish back in the water.”

–“We have to get the truth, Rowan. That’s all. Until she, and your mother, tell us what happened…”

“I’ll talk to Kacidra first. Okay? She’ll talk to us.”

“I want her to take us to the temple and show us exactly what happened. I haven’t seen it yet, but Otto said it’s in shambles. There’s not much left of it.”

“An explosion of some kind, maybe?” | suggested, but Talon shook his head.

“Gemma and Otto said the only injuries Shelly and Kacidra had were bruises and cuts from broken glass. Ros

I swallowed against his words, my skin feeling hot again despite the chilly, early fall weather. Mom should’ve healed almost immediately. Her blood had powers. It wasn’t sup posed to be this way. 

“Leera was my mother,” kacidra interrupted, her face falling at the words. She picked at her gloves, looking up at Talon. “She had powers like Hanna, just not as powerful.”

“I don’t have the powers Hanna possesses. They are very, very rare. She doesn’t understand the power she has, Talon. What … what we witnessed,” she tilted her head to ward Kacidra, “it wasn’t just Hanna’s power. Someone else was involved. Someone who can manipulate air. Hanna’s powers are with water.”