Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 609

Chapter 109 : Only Death Will End the Bloodshed

*Maeve*

I bet you didn't expect to see me here.

It's not my story, after all. At least, it wasn't until the moment my son placed that heavy leather-bound book in my hands.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a young woman on a mission to save my world from destruction. I'd been told it would end with me, that my powers would be beyond reason. But then… nothing. Hanna was the one who killed Tasia, the Lycennian Dream Dancer hell-bent on destroying everything, and everyone, we knew and loved. Hanna was also the one to bring forth the conclusion of the Moonstone Prophecy, giving birth to Selene, the next White Queen–our Lena, my beloved Lena.

I was happy to fall back into the background. All I cared about in those early years after the fall of Lycenna and Dianny were my triplet sons and my mate. I threw myself into motherhood. I threw myself into mending the fractured pack of Poldesse by Troy's side. The years ticked by, quiet, uneventful.

But then I… I got pregnant again.

It had been a shock. It was a miracle, if I was being honest, that I was able to carry another pregnancy full term after the trauma of having the triplets. Our boys were almost twelve years old at the time. We had thought we were done. We had decided our triplet princes were enough.

“It's a boy," the nurse had said as she placed the infant in my arms–my fourth son, our baby, Lucas. I looked into his sweet, innocent face and… I panicked. It all came rushing back to me, overwhelming me. My time in Dianny flashed before my eyes–Una's words, telling us all that my children would be sons, all FOUR of them… all of the questions, the warnings, the lingering doubts that our troubles weren't over strangled me until I found it hard to breathe.

There was a time the visions of seers were taken with a grain of salt. Even Hanna's visions were doubted, and by herself more than anyone.

But now, as I stood deep within the forest, the ice-covered river creaking and hissing steam in my periphery, a vision from a time long past wouldn't ease its grip on me, just like I couldn't seem to ease the grip on the howling book of spells.

I saw two white wolves in a clearing, one standing protectively over the other. I'd seen it while standing in that circle of stones in Dianny; everyone had. I'd been told it was me and my mother.

I realized, as I knelt in the snow to lay the book on the ground in the light of a crescent moon, that those wolves were me and someone who had not yet been born at the time.

“I hate magic," I breathed, closing my eyes against the soft, feral whimpers of the book as I opened its pages.

I'd gone out after dinner like I said I would. I refused to let Hanna, Lena, or Clare follow me into the woods. This I could do by myself. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, and I could admit it had been a long time since I'd shifted. What-ifs had clogged my mind during what ended up being a quiet supper. Dad and Sasha ended up picking at their plates on the floor, playing with the train set. None of us women had a single word to say over our plates of broiled salmon and fingerling potatoes.

I'd dressed for the frigid night, a quilted parka covering my body and a thick wool hat shielding my ears and forehead. Stripping naked in the middle of a snow covered forest was the last thing I wanted to do.

But, I needed to shift. If the secrets of this book could only be accessed in wolf form, and for some Goddess forsaken reason, only by me… well, I didn't have much of a choice now, did I?

I undressed, hanging my clothes on a low-lying tree branch as the snow bit into my toes. Shivering and as naked as the day I was born, I stepped back into the moonlit clearing and took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.

The transformation took place, and within a second, I was shrouded in warmth as my body shifted to that lean, silvery white wolf. I pawed the ground, then stretched, shaking out my fur. I was nearly as pale as the snow covering the forest floor. I sat back on my haunches, lowering my head to gaze down at the book.

I heard a crunch to my left and snapped my head around, teeth bared. A moose peered at me with a shocked expression, its antlers trembling as it took several steps back into the brush and thundered away.

'Are you alright out there?' Hanna said through the mind-link. 'Do you want me to come to you?'

'I'm alright,' I replied, watching the dark form of the moose disappear as it crossed the ice-covered river.

Hanna wasn't one to pry, but I knew she was likely waiting by a window in the castle, pining for information. I grinned internally at the thought of Hanna wringing her hands while I pranced in the woods with the ancient spellbook.

Hanna and I were bound together in a strange way, something rare. It was almost like a mate bond, and I knew she could feel every ripple of my anxiety coursing through my veins as I lay down on my belly, weighing my options about how to approach this odd situation.

The book was no longer howling. Its pages rustled in the chilled breeze, mingling with the muted whispers lifting from within–soft, feminine voices, some whispering in hushed tones while others giggled.

My ears twitched as I listened, but I was unable to interpret any words. It was just… noise.

I let out a low, guttural growl, sliding upward into a lunge. For whatever reason, I felt as though I was supposed to approach the book without being invited to come forward. I wasn't sure why, and it didn't entirely make sense, but I just felt as though I was waiting for something.

The voices halted on the next breeze, which was more of a stiff gust of wind. The book slid across the snow in the wind's wake, its pages flapping wildly. I rose to all fours and watched as the book came to rest, a single page dropping to the side, laying open and still.

A hush spread over the clearing, and through the trees, I could see… eyes–dozens and dozens of them, pale silver and blue, looking right at me, unblinking. My ruff stood on end as the eyes stared at me in unison. Suddenly, they disappeared, and I saw what I can only describe as shadows kneeling and bowing to me, some taking a knee before they straightened up again and were swallowed up by the night, only their eyes remaining.