Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 304

Chapter 84: Fathers and Sons

Troy

Ernest threw his arms around me, embracing me in a rib cracking hug. I had been, of course, speechless when I saw Gemma on the night of our arrival in Winter Forest and at the news that they had not only both survived, but had a child in our absence. Seeing Ernest in the flesh was even better than the news, however. And I found myself rattling off about our adventure before remembering we had an audience.

Talon, Ernest’s father, and Ethan’s prior Beta, was watching Ernest and me closely.

Ethan was pacing back and forth in front of the ceiling-height windows in the library in the White Queen’s Castle, a space the family rarely used. Part of the castle was a school now, and another section had been converted into apartments for the single warriors of the pack.

Ethan’s office was too small to house all of us men, and there was absolutely no privacy in the house with the amount of family roaming about.

So, we closed ourselves into the library, the door locking in place, holding me captive.

“And Maeve, she’s due soon, then?” Ernest asked with nothing but pure joy in his eyes.

“A few weeks left to go, but the midwife that came with us to the south, Cleo, said she was likely to go early. Any day now, it seems.

Maeve is miserable!” | replied, unable to stop myself from smiling.

“Why? Is everything alright?” Ernest looked concerned, but I waved my hand in dismissal.

“Twins,”

“TWINS?” Rowan roared from the opposite end of the room, closing the book he’d been skimming through while we were waiting for Ethan to finish whatever he was doing.

Ernest looked shocked, but then laughed, clapping me on the shoulder. “No one can say you weren’t a successful breeder-” Ernest’s voice was, unfortunately, not a whisper.

Talon loudly cleared his throat, and the three of us younger men quieted immediately as we caught Ethan’s stone-cold gaze.

“Too soon?” Rowan murmured, which made Ernest flush a vivid pink.

“Are you serious about this, Ernest?” Ethan said, ignoring our remarks. He slammed his open hand on the long table we’d gathered around, his hand pressing a piece of paper against the waxed surface.

“L… I am,” Ernest said, swallowing hard and squaring his shoulders. “I am sure.”

“And you, Talon? This is not what I expected from either of you!”

I took a step away from Ernest, sensing the anger beginning to radiate off of Ethan. Rowan and I were now shoulder to shoulder, watching with interest as Talon nodded his head.

“I agree with Ernest’s decision. I think he’s making the right

choice.”

“Giving up his title?” Ethan bit out.

Rowan went totally rigid, his breath catching in his throat. I fought the urge to nudge him to encourage him to start breathing again, but that was hit with the same realization he had come to.

If Ernest was giving up his title of Alpha of Drogomor…

“Wait just a minute-” Rowan said as he stepped forward.

Ethan raised his hand, silencing Rowan, and turned his gaze back to Ernest.

“Why? You realize this will leave you without a title, a title your son would inherit?”

“That’s not important to me. I’ve discussed it in length with Gemma. We… Uncle Ethan, we don’t want to leave. We both felt it the second we finally made it here, that we were home. Gemma died in Mirage. She doesn’t want to go back. I don’t want her to go back.”

“She would be Luna-” Ethan said, cutting Ernest off.

“She doesn’t want that, Uncle Ethan. I don’t want that for her. We want George to… to grow up with parents who have time for him. We want him to have friends, and a community where he’s not ostracized for being a royal. We want what you built here with Rosalie. A home, not a castle.”

Ernest was gripping the back of one of the chairs that lined the table, his eyes focused intently on Ethan. “I became Alpha because that was the only life I knew. I never thought I’d find my mate or have children. Gemma changed that for me. Everything is different now. Besides, it was always meant to be temporary, remember?”

Ethan flexed his jaw, considering Ernest’s words but he did not respond. He glanced over at Rowan, who was standing like a statue next to me, his eyes focused on the windows and the snow falling outside.

“The title is Rowan’s birthright.” Talon pulled one of the chairs from the table and sat down, calm and collected. Ernest nodded, glancing at Rowan, who was still looking out the window.

“You have to let me go, Dad,” Rowan whispered.

I doubted anyone but me heard it.

Ethan flexed his hands, then picked up the piece of paper, folding it and tucking it into the pocket of his jacket. “We’ll talk about this another time.”

Rowan moved his gaze from the window to Ethan, and I saw a flash of disappointment behind his eyes.

I knew nothing about fathers and sons, but I knew there was an unspoken conflict between Ethan and Rowan, something that had been brewing for a long time. Ethan was, for whatever reason, holding Rowan back.

Ernest shifted uncomfortably before taking a seat next to Talon, while Rowan and I remained standing.

I felt Ethan’s eyes on me, and slowly returned his gaze.

“I’m not who you were expecting, right?” I said, unable to stop the words from falling from my lips. Talon blinked up at me, and Ernest bit the inside of his lip to stop himself from smiling. “You were expecting someone like Romero, I’m guessing. Not me.”

Ethan was motionless, expressionless. This was the big meeting, I

thought. This is when he was going to sit me down and rip me to shreds.

“Who raised you?” Ethan’s tone was cold, meaning to cut me.

“No one,” I said honestly, leaning forward as I placed my hands on the top of one of the chairs. I was sore from riding the snowmobile up and down the mountain, sore in places where I didn’t know it was possible. I worried if I sat down, I wouldn’t be able to get up again. “Behar was my father’s name-”

“We know that.” Ethan crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his chair. “Was he the one who raised you, Troy? Is he still alive? The last we heard, he had died before you were born.”

“I wouldn’t know-”

“What do you mean you wouldn’t know?” Ethan looked me up and down, his eyes slicing me open.

“I haven’t seen him since I was four years old.”

I caught Talon in my peripheral vision, shifting in his seat as he looked over at Ethan with a furrowed brow.

“I didn’t know either of my parents. I have no memories of my mother. And my father, or the man I thought was my father anyway, well, he straight up left me in Avondale and didn’t come back. I grew up with a group of orphans. You’ve likely heard of Keaton, the captain of the Persephone? He was one of them.”

Everyone was staring at me. Ernest and Rowan exchanged glances, then Ernest gave me a nod of encouragement.

“I didn’t know Romero even existed let alone was my relative until last winter, when Damian told me he needed me to go to Valoria.

He said Romero was my grandfather, and I… I wanted to know him. I wanted to at least look at him. I didn’t know what I was walking into. Damian must have known about your plans for Maeve. I was in Valoria for several weeks before I was ever introduced to her.

And—”

| straightened up to my full height, clenching my hands into fists behind my back, “the moment I saw her, I knew she was my mate. I just knew. I wasn’t able to carry out my mission from that moment forward.”

“Yet you bedded her and got her pregnant?” Ethan said bluntly, folding his hands on the table. “You fulfilled the duties of breeder

“I loved her. I did everything I could to protect her from Damian, and Horace, and Romero. I had to keep her in the dark until the last possible moment. Maeve is… incapable of being secretive. She can’t lie without it showing on her face. You know this.”

I spoke firmly, fixing my gaze on Ethan’s eyes despite the nagging fear ripping through my body. It was some way to get to know my future wife’s dad, with an audience, no less.

Ethan cleared his throat, tapping one of his fingers on the table. “We had a treaty with Damian back then. The Isles, like the east, were in shambles. I gave Damian the money he needed to reconstruct Avondale, in exchange for Poldesse dissolving. I didn’t know Poldesse was operating in secret, and that Damian was working with Romero while Romero was serving his sentence.”

“Yes, I think so, but I…. I was very young. My memories are fuzzy. I remember him always being ill. We lived in seclusion, I remember that much.”