Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 959

*Lucas*

Everything was a bit hazy as I peeled one eye open to see the first fingers of the dawn clawing up over the horizon out my window… out my bedroom window.

With a start, I sat up. How much wine did we drink? Moon Goddess, did I sleep with Sasha?!

My eyes darted to the bed beside me, but it was pristine and not slept in. I sighed with relief and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, trying to orient myself.

Brady rapped his knuckles on the doorframe. “Hey, you'd better get up. You're going to be late for your meeting with the king."

I frowned. “What meeting with the king?"

“The one about wrapping up the library project," Brady said.

“But… I had one with him yesterday about that," I replied, confused.

Brady shrugged. “Guess he wanted another one, then."

I rubbed the back of my neck, looking around again. She wasn't on the bedroom sofa, either. “Did Sasha get home okay last night?"

“Who?" Brady asked.

“Sasha, Sasha Wentley. For Goddess's sake, Brady, don't look at me like that. I'm in no mood for games," I warned him.

“Lucas, you can't expect me to keep track of every girl you sleep with," Brady snorted.

I was on him like a shot, before I even realized I'd moved at all. “You don't say things like that about Sasha."

Brady stared at me, a strange expression on his face. “Okay, okay, whatever. Keep your pants on." He looked down. “Or, rather, put them on."

I followed his gaze to my boxers, then let him go. “When's my meeting with the king?" I sighed.

“Two hours," Brady said. “It's not like you to forget."

Forget? But we'd just had a meeting yesterday. When had he called for another meeting? I wracked my brain, but had no success.

“Thanks for getting me up," I told Brady. I patted his shoulder. “And sorry about going ballistic on you."

Brady chuckled and headed out the door. “This Sasha girl must really be something else...."

I rushed around my suite, taking a shower, finding another set of clothes that looked presentable. By the time I hopped in the sedan with Ian, I still had a good half hour to go a fifteen-minute distance.

“Did Sasha get home alright last night?" I asked him as I clicked my seatbelt into place.

“Who, sir?" Ian inquired, looking at me through the rear view mirror.

I put my face in my hand. “Ian. Whatever joke you and Brady have agreed on, it really needs to stop."

Ian looked puzzled, but nodded politely. “Yes, sir."

I leaned back in the leather seats, trying to figure out what more the king could possibly want.

At the palace, I took the stairs two at a time, the guards simply stepping aside to let me in. I was ten minutes early.

But then again, so was Stone Hamline, loitering around King Alexander's door.

“What, here again?" I grunted, tired of seeing Stone at my meetings. He wasn't the project manager, after all. I was. And even if my project was being scrapped, I didn't want Stone there with his smarmy smile eating up the fact that I'd failed… again.

“I do have my own projects to discuss with the king," Stone said, his smile of delight setting my teeth on edge. He did have to emphasize the fact that he was responsible for more than one project, where I had managed to f**k up my one and only.

“Come!" the king said before I descended into name-calling like a child who'd had his lolly taken away.

Stone swept into the king's receiving room ahead of me, deliberately cutting me off.

I had to consciously not stomp in after him.

“Your Majesty," Stone said with a deep bow.

I figured I ought to follow suit, White Queen's cousin or no.

“Stone. Lucas," King Xander acknowledged us. “Good to see you both. Now, I want that update on shutting down the northern library project. Have you completed your tasks?"

I blinked at King Xander. “Yes… as I told you yesterday, Your Majesty, we have gotten things completely shut down. The workers have been paid and sent to other projects.... What?"

King Xander and Stone were both eyeing me. “Who's Sasha? And I don't recall us speaking yesterday," the king said.

“My intern," I replied, a sinking suspicion beginning to form in my gut.

Stone let out a great big guffaw. “Can't even remember the name of your own intern! Her name is Rachel, not Sasha."

Color rose to my cheeks, but it wasn't nearly as disturbing as the realization that they wouldn't be kidding around like Ian and Brady. They really had no idea who Sasha was.

“You really should be more polite, Lucas. I know you didn't particularly want an intern, but forgetting her name is very rude, especially given the hard work she's been putting in," King Xander admonished.

I looked back and forth between them. “You don't know Sasha Wentley," I wheezed. “She had the queen's...."

Both of them looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. “Who?" King Xander asked impatiently.

My world spun. I was going to throw up. Moon Goddess save us all.

What happened last night?

Memories slammed back into me like a train. I'd gone to kiss Sasha… and....

That wasn't a dream. She had really disappeared.

Disappeared completely, it seemed, from existence.

“I need to go," I said, trying to keep it together even as my world became unglued at the seams.

“I think you may be under too much stress," King Xander observed with concern. “Go home and lay down. We can continue this another time."

I bowed, my heart galloping in my chest. “Thank you, Your Majesty." I took long strides getting out of the king's receiving room. Once the doors closed behind me, I broke into a run.

The guards eyed me curiously, but jumped out of my way as I pelted past them. “The university, Ian. NOW!"

Ian must have taken an inch of tread off the sedan's tires peeling away from the palace.

***

Professor Augustine was just entering the engineering building when I caught up with her. She whirled around when I grabbed her shoulder, almost smiled, then took in the state of me. “Lucas Black, what in…?"

I was doubled over with my hands on my knees, sweat pouring down my forehead.

“P-Professor…" I gasped, heaving in lungfuls of air. “Sasha… Sasha Wentley...."

Her confused reply was predictable, and shattering. “Who?"

I gripped her upper arms and gave her a shake, desperately trying not to accept. To reorient the world."Sasha Wentley, your student!"

Professor Augustine's eyes grew wide and frightened. “Lucas! Get a hold of yourself! I have not one Sasha in my class." She patted my cheek as I lowered my arms. “Did this person steal something from you?"

Oh yes. Sasha had stolen something from me. I knew it by the hollow feeling in my chest.

“I–" I shook my head. “I'm sorry, Professor Augustine. I thought… I don't know what I thought...."

“You go get some rest, love," Professor Augustine suggested kindly. “I think you've overworked yourself to a frazzle."

On any other day, that would be true. But today was a day like no other. I managed a tight smile. “You're right," I said, stepping away from the professor. “You're right. My mistake."

Professor Augustine nodded and puttered her way into the engineering building.

I walked onto the quad and leaned back against a tree. There was only one place left to go, one person who could possibly remember Sasha as I did.

With a heavy heart, I made my way to Sasha's dorm, going straight to the room she shared with Amanda.

I raised my hand to knock, but the door flew open, revealing Amanda and a girl I didn't recognize. The dorm room behind Amanda had changed. Sasha's beautiful designs no longer marched along the walls in perfect rows. That was how I knew–I knew she was really gone.

Amanda looked surprised. She leaned in the doorframe and her eyes traveled my body up and down. “Well, hey, handsome, what can I do for you?"

“Nothing," I whispered, moving away from her. “Nothing… wrong room."

“Could be the right room, depending on your perspective," Amanda replied in a flirty tone.

I fled, down the hall, out of the dorm, across the quad, and to where Ian was parked.

“Sir?" Ian asked as I slid glumly into the back seat of the sedan.

“Home," I said. I pinched my eyelids, refusing to cry in front of Ian.

“Right away, sir," Ian replied, much less sassy than usual.

Maybe he could sense something was wrong. Or maybe he also thought I was crazy. It didn't matter, really. What could possibly matter now?

I sat up suddenly.

The orb....

Ian didn't need to be told. He put his foot down on the gas and we practically flew the rest of the way to my house.

I jumped out of the sedan before it came to a complete stop.

“Sir!" Ian called after me as I scrambled over the pea rock driveway and into the house, bounding up the stairs to my office.

That damn orb....

I wrenched the door in my desk open to reveal the safe, taking it right off its hinges and splintering the wood. As for the safe itself, it took me three finger-trembling tries to finally get it open.

When I saw what was inside, my knees gave out beneath me and I buckled to the floor.

It was empty. The safe was empty. The orb was gone, just like Sasha.

“How do I unfuck this?"

***

I was on my… I'd lost count… scotch when I ran out of the supply in my office. It was late, past two in the morning. It was tomorrow again, the day I'd shown the orb to Sasha and it had taken her from me. Twenty-four hours now without her, living in a world without her.

Without her.

I weaved my way down the stairs, an ice cube clanking in my glass. Brady had given up on me hours ago when I'd thrown my other tumbler at his head and told him to get lost. He was with his Phoebe now… his Phoebe.

Where was my Sasha?

I made my way to the liquor cabinet, wondering if I should just drink straight from the bottle. But my refined, courtly manners just wouldn't let me. Still, there was nothing saying I couldn't get a bigger glass.

The floor was uneven beneath my feet, or at least it felt that way, rolling like ocean waves as I wobbled to the kitchen. I took the largest drinking cup I could find–a hot pink gallon mug with palm trees on it that Brady had gotten as a joke on vacation–and dumped the contents of the bottle into it. As an added nod to refinement, I also dropped a single ice cube into the cup.

I was just taking my first swig when the air began to shimmer. Damn, had I been crying? I rubbed my eyes, but they were bone dry.

Suddenly, Sasha, pale as a ghost, was standing before me.

I choked on a lump in my throat and raised my hot pink cup to her image. “Here's to you, princess," I slurred.

“L-Lucas?" the image spoke and held the orb up before dropping it like a hot potato.

I felt it bump against my toe. I looked down at it and it took my inebriated mind a few extra moments to register that the orb was back and it was real.

My gaze snapped back up. Sasha was still there, still wearing the sweater she'd worn when she disappeared. The vacation mug slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a loud thunk, splashing very expensive scotch all over the kitchen floor.

“Sasha?" I whispered.

Sasha hugged herself as though frightened and nodded at me. “Lucas, am I home?"

Ignoring my scotch-covered clothes and the very orb I wanted to drop kick into the sun, I ran to Sasha and wrapped her in my arms, a tidal wave of relief flowing through me.

“Sasha," I murmured into her hair. “Sasha. My beautiful, brave princess."

Sasha burst into the very tears I was holding back and clung to me, gripping my shirt as though I could anchor her to this world.

I hoped I could.

“You were gone," I whispered. “You were gone a whole day."

“A whole day?" Sasha responded, her voice shaking.

I shook my head, her soft hair catching in my stubble I hadn't bothered to shave. “I talked to everyone–everyone–and no one knew who you were. No one remembered you. You didn't exist for a whole day."

“I… didn't exist?" Sasha gasped.

“Moon Goddess… I was so scared," I said, stroking her hair, holding her tight.

We were so close I could feel Sasha swallow.

“Where did you go?" I asked.