Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 356

Chapter 15 You Don’t Have To, Kitten

“W–What are you talking about, Your Highness?” I stammered, still in shock that he was even there, let alone what he was talking about.

“You heard me,” he replied concisely.

“But, Prince Theo, Your Highness, I was of the opinion you didn’t exactly care for me–at all,” I reminded him. “Do you recall-”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence as he interrupted me. “This is an order, Ciana. I’m not here to debate with you. Beginning tomorrow, you will be by my side throughout all of the waking hours of the day, unless excused by me.”

“But you said that you didn’t want a woman–a wife–and that you weren’t interested in any of us?” I tried not to argue with him, but he was definitely confusing me. It made little sense to me that he had just said he didn’t want to marry any of us, but now he wanted me by his side at all times.

“Things changed,” he replied, his eyes narrowed. “This is what I’m saying now.”

“You said if I even thought about trying to be around you, you‘ d kill me, didn’t you? Isn’t that what you said, Your Highness?” I could hear the snideness in my voice, and it was a bit rude, but my confusion was running over my manners.

“Are you questioning my order?” The prince’s eyes narrowed even further. His patience had run out.

“Alpha.” Thank the Goddess, Jake was here. As he slipped into my room, his eyes settled on my hair for a moment, and a confused look took over his face before he suddenly turned a bit red and took on the initial, fleeting expression the prince had worn. “Sir, I believe she’s just gotten out of the shower. Perhaps we should come back another time.”

Theo turned to Jake and concluded, “She’ll do what she was told.”

“But-” I still wanted to protest when Jake cleared his throat and drew my attention to him. He averted his eyes, kept a safe distance between us, and stated in a professional tone, “Miss Black, the truth of the matter is, Alpha needs your help with the king.”

Finally, someone I could actually communicate with!

Adjusting a bit beneath the blankets, I asked, “Help with him. how?”

“Well, if I may be completely honest,” he continued, “the king wants to make sure that Prince Theo is making progress with his search for a woman that he may be interested in

marrying.”

I pondered what he was saying for a moment before I blurted, “But… why?”

Jake looked at Theo, who was staring at me, his expression still dark and unwavering. Since he wasn’t insisting that Jake stop speaking, his Beta went on. “It would be for the best if the king thinks that Prince Theo is trying to meet a girl that makes him happy, one that he could potentially marry and have an heir with. So… since you’re his personal attendant now, it may as well be you.”

“So… you want me to pretend that I am in love with the prince? And… he will pretend to be falling in love with me?” I asked, my eyes shifting from one of them to the other.

“Precisely,” Jake said. “And we would like for you to put on a believable show whenever the king is around.”

I was on the same page as them now. It was all meant to fool King Sebastian into thinking that Theo already found a woman he wanted to be with so he wouldn’t have to keep looking through the other girls.

“Why?” I asked, still thinking over the situation.

“Why what?” Jake asked me, not realizing I was just thinking out loud.

“Why would the king want so badly for His Highness to find a woman? Why doesn’t he want him to take his time and be happy with whoever he finds?” Although Theo was also there, I asked Jake, who I could carry on a normal conversation with.

The prince stared at me long and hard, and I realized then that I’d made a mistake by overstepping. “That… isn’t your concern,” he said in a low voice.

His answer was to the point, but his tone wasn’t as angry as I would’ve expected. No, when I stopped to dissect it, the emotion I picked up on was more distress or perhaps even sadness than anger.

“Very well then, Your Highness,” I said with a nod of my head. “I’ll do it.”

Theo cleared his throat. “All right then… Ciana. I shall see you

in the morning.” With that, he whirled around and left the

room.

Jake let the Alpha go first and then moved to follow him, but before he left, he said, “I’ll just… go ahead and lock this for you.” He flipped the button on the door so that when he closed it, it would be locked, and I was thankful for his thoughtfulness.

Falling backward onto the bed, I stared up at the ceiling. What in the world had I gotten myself into now?

In the next few days, rumors of Prince Theo had found his new favorite were spread in the palace. I was following him everywhere at his request, but most of the time, I tried to keep myself entertained in his office while he was working.

For example, this afternoon, he had some war journals out at his desk and was taking notes or something. I actually had no idea what he was doing, but watching him work wasn’t the most fun way to kill time.

What I wanted to do was straighten his bookshelves. It seemed to me that the books were simply stacked on the shelf, without any rhyme or reason. I wanted to put them in order from tallest to shortest or color code them. Instead, I sat in a chair across from him, staring at him, thinking this was a colossal waste of time.

I couldn’t even use the opportunity to speak to him to get to know him better because he was working, and I knew better not to interrupt….

6

Just when I was about to ask if there was anything at all I could do to help him, the door opened, and the king came in.

We both stood and bowed to him until King Sebastian waved for us to sit down. “Now, now, you two love birds, don’t mind me!” he tittered, sitting down on a couch beneath the window.

“Th… thank you,” the prince said. It must be so rare for him to thank anyone that the phrase of appreciation didn’t sound natural at all. He waited a few moments to taste his coffee, so my eyes were focused on the king. He had brought some files with him and was working in his chair.

“Is everything all right?” I asked him, wondering if he needed a pat on the back. “Do you not like it?”