Alpha King Maddox nips at my ear. “Do you like that, little flower?” I moan an answer as his other hand slides my nightgown down off of my shoulder so his mouth comes down on me, his tongue lapping at my sensitive skin. ***** I''m just his breeder, traded for a debt. But can I convince King Maddox I could be more--so much more? *Isla* When my pack Alpha takes me to the castle to see the king, I have no idea he's trading me for a personal debt. Scared and alone, I contemplate what might happen to me and miss my family. But then I meet King Maddox. His reputation for being cruel is a contrast to the care I see deep in his eyes. Is it possible he could develop feelings for me? A poor girl brought to the castle to complete a task? I am just a tool to him after all. Or am I? *Maddox* After my wife died, I had no intention of falling in love again, but I need an heir. A simple solution presents itself in the form of a beautiful girl, given to me in exchange for a debt. But the more I get to know Isla, the more drawn to her I am. Is it possible she's just the one to make me forget the tragic night my wife died... a night I take full responsibility for? With pressure from other Alphas to marry one of their daughters, and rumors that Isla isn't who she seems to be, my decision will not be easy. But then, I'm the Alpha King. My decisions are never easy. I hope I make the right one. Because Isla is starting to get under my skin--I want to be on top of hers. Forever Season 5 now available!
View More*Isla*
Rain pounds my back as I follow Alpha Ernest up the wide marble steps to a home I never expect to see in real life. I look around quickly, but he is walking fast, and I don’t have much time to see the outside of the mansion. I only know it resembles a castle. The dreary sky seems fitting, considering my bleak outlook.
Likewise, this castle is fitting for an Alpha King.
Under the wide porch, there is a bit of shelter from the wind. I pull my thin cloak around my shoulders. When Alpha Ernest’s fist pounds on the door, I jumped. Everything about this day is unexpected and has me on edge.
The door opens a bit and a man with a thin, long nose gapes out at us. He is wearing a butler’s suit, and I relax only slightly.
Not that I expected the cruel king to open his own door, but I am thankful not to be faced with him right away.
“Greetings! Greetings!” Alpha Ernest says in his jovial, exceedingly loud voice. He laughs in the back of his throat, his gruff tone as raspy as the thunder in the distance. “It is I, Alpha Ernest of Willow pack! His Majesty is expecting me.”
The butler looks him over and then his eyes fall on me for a moment as if he isn’t sure whether or not the rotund, sweaty man in the white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows could possibly be an actual Alpha. The detail of Omegas that are hanging out in the car that brought us the two hours make it more convincing.
“Come in,” the butler says, pulling the heavy wooden door open.
“Thank you, thank you,” my Alpha says, and I follow him inside, absently wondering why he must say everything twice.
My happiness at being let in from the rain only lasts a moment as I follow along behind the two men who walk quickly down a long corridor. The inside of the house doesn’t resemble the castle in the sense that the floors are not made of stone—they are wood—and the walls are covered in drywall. But it is a huge building, and it is lavishly decorated with fine furnishings, all kinds of pieces of art from paintings to sculptures to ancient vases, and I try to keep up with our guide while my eyes roam over objects that are worth a hundred times more than what my parents make in a year—a thousand times more.
The sale of just one of these objects would have been plenty to pay off my parents’ debts. If I’d had just one painting to sell, I wouldn’t be here now.
I can’t think of that at the moment. My fate is sealed. I grasp my small bag in my hands and struggle to keep up. It doesn’t help that I haven’t eaten much of anything in the past week. I feel lightheaded.
We turn down a few corridors, and it’s clear to me that we are now in the part of the building that is for work instead of show. Artwork still hangs on the walls, but it’s not as elaborate. The doors we are passing seem to be offices, not libraries or parlors.
“Wait here,” the butler says, pausing outside of a closed door. He knocks, and I hear a low gravelly voice call him in.
I feel my heart begin to thump in my chest. I’m still not quite clear what Alpha Ernest has in mind for me. When I came to him for help earlier in the day, he asked me a few personal questions, a smile split his face, and then he told me to go home and pack all of my most prized possessions. He said to tell my family goodbye, if I was serious about paying off my family’s debts, and to be back in his office in one hour.
Then, we’d gotten in the car and driven here. I hadn’t asked any questions other than for him to put it in writing.
“John and Mary Moon are no longer in debt to Alpha Ernest Rock if their daughter, Isla Moon, follows through with the agreement made with said Alpha on this day….” Dated, signed by both parties, and here I am.
Still not sure what that agreement is.
Alpha Ernest goes inside of the office, and I am tempted to strain to see inside, too, but I don’t. I’ve never seen him before, the Alpha King, the head of all of the Alphas and all of the territories in our region, for thousands and thousands of miles. I’ve heard lots of stories about him, though.
Presently, I am hoping that most of them are not true.
I would like to see his face, to know if the rumors of his attractiveness are accurate.
But I’d rather not see him at all, if I had a choice. Word of his cruelty proceeds him, and it is said that he is just as brutal as he is handsome.
“You may sit,” the butler says, gesturing to a chair near the door that has closed behind Alpha Ernest.
I nod, but I am not capable of thanking him verbally right now, not when my teeth are near chattering with fear.
I sit down, still grasping my bag in my hands. I wish I had put on more than the thin cloak my mother had given me last winter. Cloaks were cheaper than coats, so that’s what I had.
I wouldn’t hide the trembling that was beginning to ravage my body, though.
Doing my best to ignore the shaking, I tried to focus in on the faint voices I could hear coming from behind the thick wooden door. I didn’t expect to be able to hear because the door looked sturdy, but Alpha Ernest is loud.
And Alpha Maddox…. Well, he just sounded agitated.
“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice,” Alpha Ernest was saying.
When Alpha Maddox replied, it was harder to hear. He wasn’t as loud. “I don’t know why you’re here unless it’s to pay me the money you owe me.” At least, that’s what I think he is saying.
“Unfortunately, sir, I don’t have the money—not exactly,” the other man replies. I hear Alpha Maddox grumble in response. “But I have something else to offer you instead. Something better.”
“Something better than the one and a half million dollars you owe me?”
My heart catches in my throat and I nearly choke. One and a half million dollars? Did I hear that correctly? What in the world could Alpha Ernest have that is worth that kind of money?
“Oh, yes!” Alpha Ernest says. “Please, sir, hear me out. I have a bargain for you. One that will allow me to settle our debt and help you with a certain… problem you have.”
Problem? What problem could Alpha Maddox possibly have—other than the fact that he might have killed all of the people that he wanted to yell at.
I sit with my feet flat on the floor, my eyes focusing on the eggshell wall across from me, listening, not believing what I am hearing.
“Ernest,” Alpha Maddox says, “you are the last person on earth I would turn to to help me solve a problem, not that I even know what you’re referring to.”
“Let me enlighten you, sir, if you don’t mind?”
Alpha Maddox growls again. If he says anything else, I don’t hear it.
Alpha Ernest continues. “You have just turned twenty-nine last month, yes?” I assume Alpha Maddox confirms this because my pack Alpha continues. “Everyone knows that the Alpha King is expected to have an heir by the age of thirty.”
“Alpha Ernest—” the king says.
“Give me only a few moments of your time, Alpha” Ernest says, and I can imagine his hands up in front of him. “You need someone who can bear you a child, someone with no complicated relationship involved, someone who is beautiful, with good, healthy genes. A strapping mother who has born many children and proven herself to be from good stock.”
With every word he speaks, my heart leaps higher into my throat, even though my brain still doesn’t want to compute what he is saying.
“What are you proposing, Ernest?” Alpha Maddox says. “I don’t have any problem picking up women. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, yes, of course!” Alpha Ernest says. “But women at court are complicated. They have expectations. I know you don’t intend to marry again. So… what you need is a willing, compliant, beautiful girl who is eager to spread her legs to earn money, bear you a child—or two or three—and then fade away. And I have just the girl for you.”
I take a deep breath and hold it. Surely, Alpha Maddox will not agree to this. Why would he agree to this?
Why have I agreed to this?
Did I agree to this?
“Let me see if I understand you correctly, Alpha Ernest,” I hear Alpha Maddox say, and I can’t tell if he’s angry, offended… or intrigued. “Are you proposing I take some girl you’ve brought with you into my home for the sole purpose of having a child?”
“That’s right, Your Majesty,” Ernest says. “I’m proposing you take on… a breeder.”
LexaBoots scrape over stone. Water drips down moss covered bricks with a smooth plop, plop, plop next to my head, where my cheek is pressed against what I can only assume is the floor. It stinks here. Like sweat, blood, and filth I refuse to describe. I haven’t moved in hours, but I’ve been awake. Yes, I’m aware. Yes, I can feel every ache in my body. Yes, I’m alive, but why? The memories of the beach are hazy. I’m not sure how much time has passed or where I am. I could actually be dead, I suppose, and currently in purgatory awaiting the Goddess’s final judgment. People have been moving in and out of wherever I am for the last several hours. I know that much. Facing the wall with my body curled in the fetal position, I haven’t so much as glanced behind me–at the darkness, at the shadows that groan and grumble, at the sound of chains grating across the wet floor. The Boots, I call them, have been coming in and out, collecting souls in silence. A key slides into a lock. A murmured
LexaAustin brushes my shoulder as he moves in front of me, the two of us towering over the beach on our perch high above the waves. Without the fires, the beach is practically invisible, but it’s the silence that’s unnerving. I look out over the water with the slightest turn of my head. It’s a clear, beautiful night… at least, it was. A strange storm funnels toward the shoreline, smoke-like tendrils of dark mist creeping over the sea in whirls and swirls that carry the unmistakable taste of… copper. The mist floods the beach. Strange orange-hued lightning crackles in the silent storm beyond without the warning of thunder.Magic. It has to be. I try to step forward, but he stops me with a hand curled around my forearm, his grip tightening in warning. Neither of us breathe. Neither of us move. I can feel the tingle of magic between us as we send our silent commands for an explanation to the screams through the mind-link. I tug out of his grasp and take a single step toward the edge o
LexaTeshka isn’t known for its pristine beaches. The water here is gray and turbulent, the waves crashing against the shore to the songs of seagulls and the roar of the water lapping up the cliff faces. I watch the sunset over the horizon–watch it slip beneath the gray water, turning the sky a vibrant crimson that fades into streaks of violet, and as I look into the stars that slowly come into full view, I send another colorful curse down the empty mind-link to my idiot cousin Blake, who is the reason I’m stuck on the Goddess forsaken beach. It took four days to travel here in our wolf forms. We stopped to camp every night, not a single fire lit, eating no more than a few oatcakes and washing them down with whatever water we could get our hands on. My girls made haste because that was my command. I’m not here to fuck around–not with so much at stake. But the shoreline in Teshka, which spans nearly twenty miles before becoming so steep it’s completely impassable, is just impossible
Book 16LexaThe packhouse in Silverhide is cast in dim, amber light that radiates from rustic candlelit chandeliers arranged in a row high above my head. Mom stands near the dormant fireplace talking in low tones to Aunt Mercy and Uncle Jacob. Even standing beside her, I can barely hear their murmured conversation over the crowd gathered along the long wooden tables that take up most of the space in the communal dining hall. Familiar faces huddle over the remains of a rather average dinner where more wine and mead was served than anything else. There’s an undercurrent of tension in the room that’s so palpable I can taste it–bitter, sour, something that sticks to the roof of my mouth and can’t be washed away by the wine. So do the others as they lower their heads, whispering, glancing at my mother, their Luna, for direction. I scan the crowd and meet Chessie’s gaze. Her dark blonde hair falls around her heart-shaped face–curly and bright against her dark green eyes. She’s seated betw
LexaSummer sunlight sweeps across the trembling fields of wheat–a wash of pure gold against the emerald face of the mountains just beyond. I lift my face to the sun and breathe in, letting the scent of what will be another prosperous harvest fill my lungs. It smells like… bread. Bread and apples. Bread and roasting meat. Bread and the ever burning fire at the center of the village, where lively chatter rises above the crackling embers, above the stretch of a laundry line being raised, above the sound of shutters opening and mothers calling out for their children to come brush their teeth before running off to play. Goddess, it’s good to be home. “Lexa! LEXA!” Chessie’s voice rips down the road, followed by her pounding booted footsteps as she races in my direction. I turn, catching her in the glare of the early morning sun, her wild blonde hair tousled from sleep–unbrushed–and her dress–the first dress I’ve seen her wear in over six months–wrinkled, like she picked it off the line
MariannaA Week Later…Some mornings, I can barely drag myself out of bed, but I do. I put on the brave face I have Dean to thank for–a face that hides the internal anguish and dread ripping me to pieces. But I’m being strong for Skye. I have to. I promised Blake I would be. Some nights when I can’t sleep, I go to the empty, quiet ballroom and fill the space with the sound of my violin, praying he can hear the music through our bond. It’s all I have to hang on to–the only thing keeping me from falling into myself, from giving up. Now, morning sunlight drifts through the curtains in Blake’s suite as I gather what belongings I’ll need for the day and stuff them in my purse, along with a few snacks and drinks for me and my daughter. She’s in the main living room when I walk out, sliding my sunglasses into my hair while double checking I brought everything we’d need for a day out of… here. Just away. The palace walls have felt like a grim reminder of who won’t be joining us today and wh
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