Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 510

Chapter 12: A Trip to the Village

♦Lena*

It'd been three days since the attack, or murder, whatever it was being called. The Alpha of Crimson Creek had sent warriors to investigate. They'd taken away the body, swept the perimeter of the Radcliffe Estate... but that was it. No one said much about it, in fact, after a full day had passed. The only person who had given US any useful information had been Henry.

But Henry was a man of few words, and he didn't speculate. He'd told me what I already knew from Abigail-that Carly Maddox had been a Morhan student whose field study was situated in the village of Crimson Creek. According to a single witness, she had just walked out one day, leaving the shabby townhouse she shared with four other students and walked into the night, never to be seen again.

But the fact that she was, in fact, never seen again, was what was most interesting about what Henry had to say. He told Xander and me that several young women had been killed over the past five years, but they had always been found not far from where the attack happened.

"So we're dealing with a serial killer," I said, pacing in front of the makeshift lab Xander had erected in the warehouse. He was bent at the waist, peering into a microscope as he examined a slide with the sample of blackened, rotted valerian root I had harvested earlier in the morning.

"We’re not dealing with anything, Lena,' he protested gruffly, furrowing his brow in my direction as he straightened to his full height. "We're here for school. That’s it-"

"But don't you want to know, Xander? Something weird is happening here!"

"It's none of our business-"

"One of the workers was attacked and killed!"

"Lena," he breathed, taking his gloves off and tossing them in a wastebasket. "Leave it alone."

I rolled my eyes and stalked away from him, glancing over my shoulder before I left the warehouse. He was writing on a clipboard, totally uninteresting in discussing what I believed to be a huge deal.

But I knew it was bothering him. I'd gotten my original wish. We were no longer sharing a bed because he'd taken to sitting in the armchair, facing the door, with an iron skillet in his lap every night in the event he needed to protect US from whatever was lurking outside.

We hadn't said a word about what had happened between US, either, for which I was grateful.

I'd been overwhelmed and blinded by a heavy haze of lust, ready to lose my virginity to a man I neither knew well nor liked very much, only to be snapped back to reality by someone getting torn to shreds not even a mile from our cottage.

I felt awful about it. But also completely unsatisfied.

I swallowed against the lump in my throat as I walked to the bunkhouse. It was nearing lunch, and Bethany had asked me to sit with her and eat something before we went back out to tend the lower gardens. I was thankful for a respite from my conflicting feelings as I stepped through the door and removed my boots.

But I wasn't getting away from it that easily, I quickly realized. Elaine and Bethany were sitting at the dining room table when I arrived and had a plate laid out for me-and questions.

"How long have you known him?" Elaine asked as I bit into an apple.

I shrugged, chewing slowly in hopes the conversation would move past the subject of Xander. He was the only thing anyone wanted to talk about after what had happened.

"Like, a week, honestly," I said cooly, sipping my glass of root beer. Elaine rolled her eyes at Bethany, who fixed me with a knowing stare.

"Jen is in love with him," Elaine said, leaning back in her chair. 'She wants nothing more than to jump his bones after watching him take command of the, uhm, situation the other night."

"Elaine, we're not talking about that until we hear something concrete from the Alpha, after his investigation. Radcliffe's orders." Bethany looked exhausted. She'd likely been fielding questions about what had happened for the past several days.

"I know, I know," Elaine replied, waving her hand in dismissal. "Anyway, Jen is really hoping he's coming to the party tonight, at the pub. I told her not to get her hopes up-"

"What party?’ I asked, feeling incredibly territorial over Xander, even though I had no reason to feel that way. What had happened between US hadn't been more than a kiss, right?

"Some of the workers are going to the village tonight to drink at the pub. It's not really a party," Bethany shrugged, shaking her head, “unless you like warm beer and old men with missing teeth hitting on you. They go most Fridays."

"I’m going," Elaine quipped, nudging my arm. "You should come!"

"Sure," I breathed, even though inside I was on fire with jealousy.

Jen would, no doubt, seek out Xander and ask him to go with her. I found it unlikely he' d accept, but there was still a chance I'd be wrong. And despite the fact that I knew in my soul nothing further should happen between Xander and me, I hated the idea of him being with anyone else, especially Jen.

I had no reason to dislike her, though. She hadn't done anything to me. She'd just been in Xander's line of sight, and I hated it.

So, when Elaine pulled up in front of the cottage in a run-down car later that evening, its mint-colored paint covered in large splotches of rust, I decided it was time to confide in someone. I needed someone to help me unravel my intense feelings. Otherwise, they'd take over completely.

"The front doors don't open!" she hollered as I walked up. 'You have to climb in through the backdoor!"

"How'd you get in?" I laughed, yanking open the back door with an audible crunch and tossing my purse inside.

"Same as you," she giggled as I struggled to climb over the center console. I grunted with effort, nearly upside down as I tried to get my legs out from under me. I wiped my brow and adjusted my weight in my seat, reaching back for the seatbelt, which I found was not there.

"I won’t crash. Don't worry. At least not today. It's not in the cards!"

"You're wild, Elaine," I laughed, slightly panicked as the car lurched forward several times before the clutch gave way, and she was able to put it in gear. "Where's everyone else?"

"I don’t really like anyone else, besides you and Bethany. I pretended like I wasn't going so they couldn't use me for my car. They're all piled in the back of the farm truck-’

Something slammed into the back window of the car and we both screamed.

"Sorry," Xander mumbled, wrenching open the back door and sliding inside. Elaine and I looked at each other, both slightly red in the face. "I missed the truck."

"Jen will be severely disappointed," Elaine teased, fumbling with the clutch once more. "I thought I'd just ran someone over, Xander!"

"This thing would've just rolled right over the top of me," he huffed, stretching his arms out over the back of the seat. "I didn't mean to smack the window so hard."

"It's fine," she drawled, tapping her hands on the steering wheel as we bounced over the uneven dirt road toward the forest. "Happy to drive you."