Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 27 : Plans in Ruin

* Xander*

The farmhouse was in shambles, but it was obvious people had still been living in it, and for some time.

The hearth was blazing, and an unfamiliar woman was standing next to it, bending at the waist to stir a

large pot of stew. She didn't look up at us as we came into the room. Bethany was trailing behind me,

and the man who had introduced himself as Gideon stopped for a moment to whisper into the woman's

ear.

She glanced at me only briefly before laying the spoon across the pot and quickly leaving the living

room. I heard the front door open and shut as we began to walk up a flight of stairs.

‘‘My sister. Alma." he said, motioning his hand dismissively. “She doesn't talk much."

I followed him through an incredibly narrow and ill-lit hallway until finally he stopped walking, and pulled

out a heavy set of keys. Fuiy rippled through me as he unlocked the door.

“You locked her in?" I sneered, but Gideon only shrugged.

“I locked everyone else out," he said calmly, glancing at me before stepping out of the way to let me

and Bethany cross into the bedroom.

It was a dark room, the only light coming from a single window with faded lace curtains. It was stuffy in

the room, and cramped, with little room to walk around with three grown adults now taking up most of

the free space.

Lena was lying on the bed on top of the bedspread, her arms limp at her sides. She had been

redressed in a pair of sweatpants that were too large for her frame, and the button-down shirt she was

wearing was open to expose her abdomen. I sucked in my breath as my gaze traveled from her face to

her stomach, where four long, deep gashes stretched from beneath her breasts all the way to her hip

bones.

The injury had been cleaned and was no longer bleeding, but the entire area was coated in the black

muck I immediately recognized as blood root, the same substance Henry had used to treat the wound

on my chest-the wound Jen had given me.

“Who are you?" I breathed, directing my inquiry at Gideon without looking over at him.

"That doesn't matter right now. My brothers are dealing with the hybrid, and Alma will see to Lena's

care-"

“Hybrid?" I asked, and this time I did look at Gideon.

He was not a very tall man, standing only a few inches taller than Bethany. His dark hair was swept

back, his eyes a soft, pale green. But his skin was so pale I could see the fine, blue veins in his face

and neck, and his fingers were long and narrow as he motioned to Lena's wound.

“She should have been dead," Gideon said calmly, shrugging one shoulder. "All of you, actually. No

one has survived these creatures-"

"There's more than one?" I ground out, a dozen questions blurring my thoughts. “What the hell is a

hybrid?"

“It's the thing that did this to you. A wolf, a shifter, but changed. They're feral. Rabid... and when that

new part of them takes hold they become increasingly out of control. We'll kill the creature, I hope you

know. Whoever it once was, is already long gone."

"What is the new part of it? What is it mixed with?" I asked, clenching my hands into fists. “What does it

want, exactly?"

Gideon glanced at Bethany, and it sent a jolt of suspicion through my body.

"What," I began, looking at them both, "are you not telling me?"

"Later," Gideon murmured, motioning to Bethany to follow him. "I assume you want to stay with her, or

do you want the opportunity to interrogate whatever fraction of humanity is left in the hybrid?"

I looked down at Lena, my heart squeezing painfully. I didn't want to leave her. I didn't know if I could

trust these people.

"She's safe." Gideon assured, his voice suddenly rich with empathy.

I looked over at him. flexing my jaw as I sized him up one more time. “You're going to tell me

everything," I stated with conviction, to which Gideon only nodded, a look of surrender flashing behind

his eyes.

Gideon's brothers happened to be the same group of men he'd been standing with at the bonfire at the

lake. It was obvious they were related, all of them short of stature with their odd. translucent skin and

pale emerald eyes. We were standing in a bam, which was caved in on one side, the other side just tall

enough for us to stand at a comfortable distance from each other, surrounding the "hybrid."

Jen was looking right at me, her eyes reddened and her pupils dilated so extremely I wondered if she

could see us. Saliva covered her chin and neck, and her long teeth were cutting painfully into her lower

lip as she snarled and snapped at us.

They'd chained her to a fallen and rusted beam with her amts crossed behind her back. She wasn't

going anywhere, that was for sure.

Gideon had been standing with his amis crossed over his chest, just watching. After several minutes of

silence from the group, he nodded toward one of his brothers, who stepped forward and swiftly

removed my knife from Jen’s side. She howled, the sound so shrill it sent a ripple of gooseflesh across

my skin and made my ears ring.

“Where are the others? Elaine, and Henry?" Gideon asked in a business-like fashion.

Jen laughed in a delirious maimer, tilting her head back and looking at us down the bridge of her nose.

"Maxwell will come for me-"

"You'll be dead by then," Gideon replied flatly as he accepted the knife from his brother. He wiped it on

his jeans, then handed it to me.

I gripped the knife by the hilt, turning it over and over in my hands as I looked down at Jen.

“What are you?" I asked.

She smiled. It was the ugliest, most terrifying smile I'd ever seen.

"Death," she said simply, her voice nothing short of a choked whisper as her lips curved at the comers.

“What happened... to Jen?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

There was a flash of understanding behind her eyes, but then they darkened again, her pupils now7

two different sizes. She didn't answ'er, instead baring her teeth and screeching so loudly we all covered

our ears.

"Kill it before it calls the rest of them here," exclaimed one of Gideon's brothers.

"How7 many more of them are there?" Bethany croaked, her face draining of color.

"Not many. Not any others this close to a settlement in this r—" Gideon began, but broke off. his eyes

locking on mine.

My chest tightened. I knew exactly what he was about to say. I knew he knew the truth about me at that

moment. How he knew-I wrould need to find that out, and fast.

"We need to bring her to the Alpha," I said hurriedly, but Gideon shook his head slowly, his gaze

leaving mine and settling on Jen.

"We can't," he said.

"Why the f*ck not?"

"I'll explain when the time is right. When Lena is awake. Until then. w7e let this hybrid w7eaken. She'll

be easier to kill if she's gone without sustenance for a few7 days. She's the only one of her kind for

miles, from w'hat we know7. I'd rather take the slight risk that she is heard by the others than try to kill

her while she's strong." Gideon turned on his heel, leaning into one of his brothers to whisper into his

ear. then he turned to look at me. motioning for me to follow7.

“What sustenance?" I hissed as I caught up to him.

Bethany was following close behind, her footsteps crunching in the dead grass as w7e walked back to

the farmhouse.

"Blood, of course."

Bethany took the truck and returned to the estate. I stayed behind. I had absolutely no reason to go

back to the estate, and I didn't w7ant to. I w7as sitting upstairs in the bedroom, my head resting against

the wall as I leaned back in a rocking chair. I'd tried to close my eyes, but found myself staring out the

window7, watching the sky darken as the worst day of my life faded into dusk.

Lena hadn't moved at all. She was breathing, but her breaths were shallow7 and pained. Her wounds

w7ere still open and exposed, and I found myself on the verge of breaking down every time I looked in

her direction.

This was not how things were supposed to go. If I'd known... If I'd know7 this path would have put her

in danger....

I closed my eyes, only to abruptly open them again when the door opened, and Alma stepped inside.

She was carrying a tray and quickly handed me a huge pewter bowl of stew7, which I accepted

gratefully. I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten, but just as I picked up the spoon, her hand came

toward me. and she opened her palm, a dusting of black pow'der falling into my soup.

I blanched, meeting her eyes. “Why?"

"You w7ere bitten," was all she said.

The blood root was pungent, and I knew7 it had given the stew a somewhat acrid taste as I lifted my

spoon to my mouth and tested it. Bethany told me it was poisonous. Maybe it would put me out of my

misery.

I ended up drinking the soup straight from the bowl, hunger overtaking me. I hadn't even looked at the

scratch marks on my back and chest from our battle with Jen, but I could feel them as I finally rose from

the chair and set my empty bowl on the dresser near the door.

Alma was cleaning Lena's wounds. She glanced at me as I gingerly began to remove my shirt, hoping

to catch a glimpse of myself in the filthy, dust covered mirror above the dresser.

"I need to treat them," Alma said as she reached into her apron and pulled out ajar of blood root

powder. She pointed to the long, shallow7 scratches along my shoulder blades and back, which were

already causing purple streaks to fan out over my skin.

"I was told blood root is poisonous," I said. w7adding up my shirt and tossing it on the rocking chair.

A soft, knowing smile touched Alma's mouth. She wasn't a beautiful woman. She looked a lot like

Gideon, but her hair was lighter, and she was much older than the rest of the siblings. There was a

severe sadness behind her eyes, something that had been lingering there for a long time.

"It's poisonous to those who haven't been marked by a hybrid. That's wiiat she did to you. the first time,

right there-" Alma pointed to the scar on my chest, w'hich had healed nicely but was still raw and pink.

"Mark me? Like-"

"Not like the mark done by your kind," she whispered as she sat on the edge of Lena's bed with the

tray in her lap. She poured the powder into a pestle and added some kind of light, floral smelling earner

oil to it as she began to make a paste with the mortar.

"My kind? Are you not a-"

“No, I am not." Alma didn't look up at me as she spoke.

"That's impossible-"

"Haven't you realized that everything is possible? Of all people... you should know7."

I swallowed hard, adrenaline prickling my fingertips as I w7atched her reach for wiiat looked like a

paintbrush. She coated it in the blood root salve and then painted it over Lena's abdomen.

"She won't fully heal from this." Alma whispered, her voice edged with regret.

“What? Why?"

"She's not your kind, either, Xander. Not totally. She's fragile now. She shouldn't have been. There

should have been no reason she couldn't have fought that creature with nothing but a look in it's

direction. Tell me, what do you know7 of her?"

I didn't answer. My silence was enough for Alma, she was looking at me. searching my eyes for

understanding. She must have found it, because her expression softened as she turned back to her

work.

"She'll struggle to cany a pregnancy," she breathed as she laid the paintbrush on the tray and reached

for a large piece of unblemished linen to cover the wound. She laid it over Lena's stomach, her hand

resting there for just a moment before she reached for the tray again. "Does that ruin your plans for

her?"

I swallowed back the retort that was on the tip of my tongue.

"You tasked yourself with protecting her, but you didn't truly understand who, and w'hat, she is. Did

you?" Alma had risen with the pestle and reached out with her fingers coated in the salve, tilting her

head tow'ard my w'ounds. I was angry, but turned my back to her nonetheless, letting her tend to the

w'ounds. “What will you do now7? Does she still hold the same promise in which you sought?"

I closed my eyes against Alma's words. Normally, I would have lashed out, defended myself. But Alma

wasn't wrong, not at all.

In the beginning I was after Lena for one thing, and one thing only.

But now everything had changed.