All Chapters of The Alpha King's Breeder: Chapter 771 - Chapter 780

951 Chapters

Word From a Friend

KalebThe night sky melts into shades of orange and red as the first pyres are lit. Small crowds gather to throw flowers, coins, and other personal tokens into the crackling flames and smoke, which paint the sky a deep, rolling black, swallowing the stars. I stand in the shadow of the space between two buildings, my arms crossed, my skin already prickling with the heat fanning off the funeral fires. The flames will burn all night. It’ll take a massive amount of energy to burn through four-hundred bodies, but by morning, only ashes and flickering embers will remain, and the souls of those we lost to the fae and their twisted games will have been released into the world that waits for all mortals. I’m not sure I’m going there, to be honest. I’ll meet every fae king, their lords, and their warriors who allow this to happen at the gates of hell, and that’s a promise. A smooth, graceful shadow melds with mine as robes carrying the perfumed scent of roses and camphor swish to a stop besi

Brother of Mine

LexaThe pack house of the Glade is remarkably similar to the ones in Silverhide and Endova. It’s a single wide, airy room with multiple entrances to the outside world but no windows. Long tables stretch in its center, but smaller tables and wobbly stools meant for moving around are scattered throughout the space. There’s a kitchen in the back–crude, however, with not much more than a few work tables and a wood-fired stove for cooking. But it’s the storeroom off the kitchen that takes my breath away, and not for the reason it should have. It’s nearly empty. Bags of flour, oats, and rice are depleted to near critical levels–barely enough to feed a single family. Dried, smoked meat hangs from hooks on the ceiling, scrapped down to the bone. I step out of the way as another set of fae–servants, I believe–step past me carrying bags of what smells like grain. They keep stacking and stacking but barely make a dent in what’s needed, and some of the ice guarding my heart melts at the sight o

The Champion

LexaDays pass in a blur of pain, hunger, and little sleep. From the moment the stars begin to fade in the sky to the second the moon rises over the Glade, I’m in the sparring ring. Kaleb is always there, always watching, always discerning every movement in a cutting silence that I believe made it possible for me to dissociate my feelings, worries, and outright concern over my situation and the welfare of my friends and the task at hand. I can’t get out of this. There is nothing I can do to change my circumstances. “Again,” Kaleb says with no emotion, his tone dry and heavy as it bounces through the ring, off every curve of rusted metal. I throw the spear. Again and again, until my shoulder aches, and I have to switch sides. I’m right handed, but he has me practicing on the left side as well, just as often, in the event I… lose my arm. “Again,” he bellows. I send the spear tearing through the hot, sticky air. It pierces through the abdomen of the practice dummy in the center of t

Fork You

Lexa“Stay close,” Kaleb whispers sternly over the top of my head as we follow a set of fae guards through the bowels of the castle. “It’s not like I can go anywhere,” I reply under my breath, trying to wrench my arm free of his iron-like grip. He hasn’t let go of me since the moment Lis and I stepped out of his house and met him in the courtyard, where, unfortunately, the man had effectively stolen my breath away. His hair is loose, falling just shoulder-length and brushed back. Instead of grubby, coarse fabrics, he’s wearing a finely made suit that fits his body like a glove and makes him look like a man I’d find in Maeve’s castle–royalty. It sent a jolt through my system, to say the least, and after the slightly open moment we’d shared in the sparring ring today, I can only assume that the look on his face when he’d seen me had him feeling the exact same way. Shock.The thin, almost satin-like fabric of my dress ripples over my body, every curve and muscled angle on display. Tw

Scheming

KalebSilas’s manor center rests high above the sprawling, gold-washed city. In the distance, through the glare of evening lights, I can see the castle and the shadow of the wall around the Glade behind it. I had no reason to come here tonight other than Silas insisted, and Chessie and Lexa backed him up. I have no idea where the women are as it stands, but they’re safe here, even in the latest hours of the night. Lexa not being tucked at my side still makes me uneasy, however.Silas shrugs out of his cloak and drapes it lazily over an armchair bedecked with red and white embroidery. Everything about his manor screams luxury–the born kind. Our mother was a wealthy heiress of one of the king’s advisors. His father was a lord from one of the ancient high fae families with ties to the royal family in some way, shape, or form. I’ve ignored the details for as long as I can. Silas is as good as a prince with coffers to show for it.“Drink?”“Yeah,” I murmur, turning from the window to face

There's Been a Change of Plans

LexaNo one wakes me up. Hot midday sunlight spills through the window, barely muffled by the curtain. It’s definitely past noon when I roll myself out of bed, out of the coarse, woven sheets and onto the hard but freshly swept floor. Something inside me shifted yesterday. Something cold and gnawing I’ve been struggling with since I was young. It’s easy to forget that I’m still a person beyond the weapons and my skills in battle, but when I look in the rusted mirror hanging on the wall by the bed, tugging the strings that pull my shifting dress into shape, I see her. Me. Just Lexa. Lexa, who watched her mother prime and fire that arrow that didn’t make it in time. Lexa, who watched a man she cared about–maybe even a man she could have grown to love–grovel for her affection before seeing him get cut down in cold blood. Lexa, who worries about her friends more than anything else. A daughter, a sister, a friend. A fucking princess. I untangle the strands of my hair with my fingers be

Pure of Heart

Lexa“Look at me.” Kaleb clutches my face between his hands. I can’t see past him. I can’t hear past the echo of Chessie’s scream piercing me from all angles. My chest contorts as I try to fill my lungs with air, but it’s useless. “Lexa, open your eyes.”I shake my head, blubbering as raised voices erupt all around us. Silas is screaming at the top of his lungs in the language of the fae, but I can’t make out a word he’s saying. It doesn’t matter. I imagine Meg bringing down that sword over and over, and the way Chessie closed her eyes at the last moment before her life was torn from her body. “NO!” I screech, but Kaleb shakes me violently, trying to drag me out of an anguish induced stupor. He presses his forehead to mine, panting, as the lifted voices reach a peak. There’s activity all around us, but he shields me from what I assume are the bodies–her body–being dragged from the arena. “Listen to me,” he breathes against my cheek. “You will go out there and take what’s thrown at

My Why

KalebI rush through the chaotic swell of guards scrambling to access the arena, pushing and shoving my way through the fray. Silas shouts my name, but I ignore him as the dragon breaks free of its chains and soars into the sky, bellowing a roar that shakes the entire city. I catch a glimpse of Lexa. She falls to her knees, and blaring bright lights fill the arena. Guards with swords and spears race for her as the gates to the arena open, allowing them access, but I run faster, breathless, skirting around the open pit and over puddles of blood until I reach her side. She moans, curling into herself as she succumbs to what I know is shock. Shock from the games, from the dragon, from the physical and mental agony of entertaining the crowd above, which is now being hastily dispersed. Shock from watching her friend get executed by someone she loved and trusted.Her cheek is ice cold against my palm.But the guards are closing in. I scoop her into my arms and back against the wall as w

A Lock of Gold

LexaThe sun doesn’t rise on the Glade the morning after Chessie’s death. Clouds block the sunlight completely, and it pours. I take the heavy basket covered in towels from Lis’s hand as we hurry through the city, ducking under awnings to shield ourselves from the spray of the rain. It’s warm. It feels rich and wet, and everywhere we look, children race through puddles, singing and dancing in the face of thunder and lightning that splits the sky into pieces. “It hasn’t rained like this here in decades,” she says over the pounding rain as the pack house comes into view. “I honestly can’t remember the last time it even sprinkled. It was probably your doing.”“What?” I whisper, my voice cracking from lack of use. I fell asleep last night curled over Kaleb’s legs, I think. He was my last memory before the world went dark, and my grief swept me into nothingness–a numb, hollow kind of darkness. His hand lay on my hip as he told me about his sister, and… his why.“You freed the dragon.” Li

Wrapped Up Together

LexaI’ve been to funerals like this before but always in Endova. There haven’t been many deaths in Silverhide. Our pack is young, with hardly any elders, and we’ve been relatively safe. I find myself clutching Kaleb’s forearm while we walk through the city under a cloak of wet, humid darkness, my mind racing over the battle on the beach. How many pyres were lit in the days that followed? Dozens? I missed them all. Kaleb doesn’t flinch away from my touch. His progress to the pit, the massive gate to the outside world, is slow, steady, letting me set the pace. My legs feel like lead despite the healing draft still working through my system. My elbow is fine now that it’s set back in place, and the drafts have done their job knitting my tendons back together, but the ache in my heart remains.A crowd has gathered along the wall. Shadowed figures of men, women, and children look up at us as we approach. I see familiar faces. Familiar curious glances. But tonight, people bow their heads

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