Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 324

Chapter 104: The White Wolf

“Look, this line, right here-” Mom and I were standing be hind Troy, leaning over his shoulders to peer down at the neat, faded scrawl just above his finger.”

“What does it say? I can barely see the ink!” I narrowed my eyes, wishing the rectory had more than archaic candles to light the dim room.

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“King Hector-his name is right here. He was the king men tioned by Charles in his journal. Look, he did in fact marry Alouette… and they had a son.”

Mom was silent as she scanned the page, her brow fur

rowed in confusion.

“That means there was a break in White Queen line at some point, right? Can that… can that happen?”

“Your family believes it can,” Mom broke in, looking con fused, like she was thinking of some long-forgotten memory or conversation. “He told me once that if Rowan had a daugh ter, she would be in line to my throne. It was a discussion we had before you were born, Maeve. Before we knew you were a

irl”

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“But would… say a female cousin of a White Queen hold the same powers as the White Queen herself? There’s no men tion of Onya, the White Queen in Charles’s journal, having any other children.” Troy turned to face Mom.

“Perhaps, but I’m not totally certain. There are no texts on this, you know. All there was… was the names of the queens etched into the temple in Winter Forest. That wall was de stroyed. We might never know who the Queen after Onya was, whether Aloutette became the Queen after her mother, or if it was someone else. There is the library in the castle in Winter Forest, but I’ve never seen any text in there that discussed this.”

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“So if I don’t have a daughter, Rowan could? And she could rule?” A strange glimmer of hope tightening around my heart. How close I had come to death for my sons… I knew in my heart I could not sacrifice myself just so the pack lands could have another White Queen.

Suddenly Troy jumped up, nearly knocking both me and Mom to the ground. He was pale, frozen in place for a moment before he turned to us, fear etched into every curve, every line of his face.

“Oh, Goddess,” he breathed, the words meant for no one but himself. He slowly looked at me, sheer pain flashing be hind his eyes.

“Troy, what is wrong? Are you hurt?” Mom had her hands on his arms, trying to get him to look her in the eyes, but he

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couldn’t.

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“Rosalie,” he said, looking past the both of us at the far wall. “Please don’t take offense to what I am about to say. But I must know. I have to know if Rowan and Hanna have been in timate. Have they-is there any way at all that Hanna could be pregnant?”

I gaped at him, then at Mom, who looked just as shocked as I was.

“I assume so, Troy. They’re mates for Goddesses sake!”

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“We need to go to them, right now. Hanna she-oh, how did I not realize this before?!”

“What the hell is wrong with you!” I shook him hard, damn near ready to smack him to get him to snap back to reality be fore his gaze finally left the far wall and settled on me.

“The tomb. There were inscriptions… carvings everywhere. I didn’t think… I could read it. I had seen it before. On the map, I was sure. But I didn’t understand what it meant until right now, this very moment.”

“What?” Mom was shaking her head, anxiety creeping into her voice.

“That crazy old woman was right, Rosalie. About Hanna. The moonstones, they weren’t-we did bring the Moon God

dess back. She just… she hasn’t been born yet. She will be the twenty-first White Queen. Rowan and Hanna’s daughter.”

“But,” I stammered, at a loss for rational thought, “what does that have to do with Onya, and Alouette?”

“Nothing. At least I thought nothing. But… the expedition the king sent out to retrieve the moonstone in order for Onya to allow Alouette to marry King Hector came back without it… which means he either married her by force, or Onya allowed it… but-”

“That would have caused a break in the White Queen line,” I mumbled, seeing the big picture.

“Exactly,” Troy breathed, running his fingers through his

hair.

“Ethan mentioned something like this to Rowan, long ago, when Maeve first arrived in Mirage to rule alongside Ernest,” Rosalie said softy, sitting down. “He said Rowan could rule over Winter Forest in the future if he had a daughter. I argued that wasn’t how it works, that the powers had to be direct… through a daughter of the queen.”

“Do you think Tasia destroyed the Temple so we couldn’t figure this out?” I asked in a soft tone, my head beginning to pound.

“Possibly. We might not ever know. I don’t plan on asking

her,” Troy said firmly, closing the book and walking away from the dusty desk, tapping his finger on his lip as he paced.

“She’s getting ready to rid the world of the White Queens. She destroyed the temple. She’s going to take the stones and kill Hanna. That’s what we know, and all we need to know. It’s time to finish this.” Mom rose from her chair and left the room.

Troy

Rowan and I were standing on the terrace outside of the atrium, overlooking the fields of long, brittle yellow grass. Hanna and Maeve were standing in the field talking to each other, too far enough from where we stood to be heard.

A heavy blanket of fog was rolling around their legs, whis pering through the grass. The sky was gray, thick with mois ture, and smelled like rain.

Inside the castle, Rosalie and Ethan, as well as the other “elders” of the family, such as Talon, Georgia, Vicky, and Paul, were holding a conference with Eugene of Red Lakes. It was likely Ethan was telling him exactly what was going on, and how his family was connected. I felt my stomach tighten, knowing how close we were to battle. But I could barely wrap my head around what the battle would possibly look like.

The castle was already heavily guarded by warriors. I could

see them walking through the fog along the perimeter of the castle’s grounds, little specks of black in the distance.

My gaze settled back on Hanna and Maeve.

“Is she pregnant?” I asked Rowan.

Rowan gave me a dirty look, then settled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know. It only happened once.”

“I know,” Rowan said hastily, pursing his lips.