Sold As The Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 303
Chapter 83 : Common Ground
Troy
Well, I was still alive.
I hadn’t been sure what to expect when we finally reached Maeve’s homnd, but I thought Maeve
would have been more at peace.
Instead, I watched her crumble at the edge of her parents’ bed, the moonstones in her hands, realizing
the act of bringing them together hadn’t worked.
That had been the first time I met her mother, the famous White Queen Rosalie… my future mother-in-
law, if Ethan didn’t kill me before a wedding could take ce.
We had been in Winter Forest for a full day at that point, and my conversations with Ethan had been
short and to the point. I had turned over Opaline to him. I had returned his daughter to her pack. I had
given him aplete report on everything that had happened from the moment I first stepped foot in
Valoria to the day our boat pulled into the inlet that hugged the shore of Winters Forest’s main vige.
Outside of that, he didn’t even look in my direction.
I was only slightly embarrassed that I fell off the dock in front of him, but Rowan made me look slightly
better than himself when he jumped in a second time to help me get the moonstone before it was
carried away by the tide.
The icy, cial water had been a baptism of some kind, something that cemented an unlikely friendship
between Maeve‘s brother and
me.
So, I wasn’t entirely surprised when I woke up the next morning to Rowan in the doorway of Maeve’s
bedroom, peering down at me.
“Why are you sleeping on the floor?” he asked in a whisper, arching his brow.
I ran my fingers through my hair and then over my face, rubbing my eyes. “More room down here,” I
tilted my head toward the bed where Maeve was still sleeping like a rock with basically all of the pillows
in the house tucked around her body. “What time is it?”
“A little after seven,” he replied, leaning against the doorway and crossing his arms over his chest. I
looked out the window behind the bed, seeing nothing. It was pitch ck. “The sun doesn’te up
until, like, eleven this time of year. You’ll get used to it.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” I blinked a few times, my body and mind not yet limated to the strangeness of
this ce. The sun had set the day before at just after 3:00 p.m., and all my body wanted to do was
sleep even though I wasn’t particrly tired.
“It’s hard on everyone for a while,” Rowan continued as I stood and folded up the nket I had been
sleeping on. Iid it over Maeve’s feet, which were peeking out of the thick quilt that she had tucked up
around her ears. “How’s she doing?”
I could hear the guilt in his voice as his gaze shifted from me to the bed.
In truth, Maeve wasn’t well. She had cried until she fell asleep the night before, spilling her feelings
about her homing to me while I held her, whispering reassurances against her neck. Maeve was a
wreck, and I couldn’t me her. It was mostly my fault.
me.
So, I wasn’t entirely surprised when I woke up the next morning to Rowan in the doorway of Maeve’s
bedroom, peering down at me.
“Why are you sleeping on the floor?” he asked in a whisper, arching his brow.
I ran my fingers through my hair and then over my face, rubbing my eyes. “More room down here,” I
tilted my head toward the bed where Maeve was still sleeping like a rock with basically all of the pillows
in the house tucked around her body. “What time is it?”
“A little after seven,” he replied, leaning against the doorway and crossing his arms over his chest. I
looked out the window behind the bed, seeing nothing. It was pitch ck. “The sun doesn’te up
until, like, eleven this time of year. You’ll get used to it.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” I blinked a few times, my body and mind not yet limated to the strangeness of
this ce. The sun had set the day before at just after 3:00 p.m., and all my body wanted to do was
sleep even though I wasn’t particrly tired.
“It’s hard on everyone for a while,” Rowan continued as I stood and folded up the nket I had been
sleeping on. Iid it over Maeve’s feet, which were peeking out of the thick quilt that she had tucked up
around her ears. “How’s she doing?”
I could hear the guilt in his voice as his gaze shifted from me to the bed.
In truth, Maeve wasn’t well. She had cried until she fell asleep the night before, spilling her feelings
about her homing to me while I held her, whispering reassurances against her neck. Maeve was a
wreck, and I couldn’t me her. It was mostly my fault.
“She’s fine. Tired,” I answered shortly, pulling one of the thick knit sweaters Gretchen hadid out for
me over my shoulders. Rowan watched me closely. His eyes were so much like Maeve’s, the same
color and shape, in fact. But Rowan looked more like Rosalie in the face, at least in my opinion. He had
his father’s jaw, though, which tightened and flexed whenever they held back their words.
“I was hoping she’d be awake, so I could… talk to her. Say hi, I guess.”
“She sleeps until noon most days. It’s a lot… the pregnancy, you know.”
“Uh, yeah,” he said awkwardly, pursing his lips and tilting his head from side to side, considering.
“Do you want me to wake her up?”
“No, no-I actually came for you. I wanted to, uh, talk to you for a minute before Talon and Ernest get
back from Mirage today.” Rowan shifted ufortably, then tilted his head toward the hallway. I
nodded firmly, my chest tightening with anxiety as followed him down the hallway and through the
darkened house.
Gretchen was in the kitchen, surrounded by the smell of breakfast sausage and coffee as she chopped
potatoes. She looked up from the butcher block, her eyes creasing as her mouth stretched into a
beaming smile. “Good morning!” she eximed, setting the knife down and turning to pull two mugs out
of a cab.
She filled both of them with coffee and added a liberal amount of fresh cream, which made my stomach
tighten with anticipation. We had been eating nothing but dried food and grains for weeks, and no one
aboard Damian’s cruiser could cook worth a damn. Yesterday, we‘d been too busy to eat a proper
meal, so I was hoping whatever n Rowan had for me could wait until after
breakfast.
Thankfully, Rowan settled himself on a stool next to the kitchen ind, and I followed suit, sipping my
coffee and watching as Gretchen began to pour pancake batter into arge cast iron skillet slicked with
bacon grease.
“You’re just as handsome and patient as I imagined you, Troy dear,” Gretchen said sweetly as she
flipped the pancakes. “It certainly takes a specific type of man to peak Maeve’s interests,”
“Handle her, you mean,” Rowan said over the rim of his coffee mug, smirking at Gretchen as she cast
him a dirty look. She was a friendly older woman who exuded what I could only describe as “grandma
energy,” and she looked the part as well, dressed in an apron decorated with embroidered tea pots and
apples. She clicked her tongue at Rowan, pointing her finger usingly.
“You’d best watch your tongue, young man. You and Maeve should’ve been twins, I always say. So
alike. It’s no wonder your mates are such quiet, humble people. Is Hannaing up to the house
today? I want to send her home with some blueberry jam my granddaughter made this fall.”
“I can swing by her ceter, if not,” Rowan said, watching as Gretchen grabbed two tes from the
dishrack. “Could we get breakfast to go? Would that be too much trouble?”
“Not at all, darling.” Gretchen rummaged around in the cabs for two stic containers as we
continued to drink our coffee. I felt a little shy to the point of being ufortable. This was Rowan’s
domain. Maeve’s childhood home. I was, to be blunt, an unwanted guest. Surely, Gretchen knew about
the situation, having worked so closely with the family over the years. Maeve called her Grannie, in
fact.
Rowan got up with the stic containers in his hands, thanking Gretchen as she filled two thermoses
with coffee, which she handed to me to carry.
“You’d better be nning on wearing your helmet, Rowan. You know how your mother feels about
those deathtraps,”
“I know, I know,” Rowan said over his shoulder. “Thanks for breakfast, Gretchen!”
“Helmets?” I asked as we reached the stairwell that led down to the garage. I had slept there the night
we arrived in Winter Forest, but it had been very dark. I could only make out the immediate area
around me, which was a tool bench and a few bikes.
“Snowmobiles,” Rowan said simply, shrugging as I followed him down the stairs. “Ever been on one?”
“I’m from the Isles,”
“Then imagine a jetski, but for snow. It’s very simr.” He flipped on a light switch as we reached the
bottom of the stairs, and the garage erupted into light. I took a moment to be shocked, thenposed
myself and swallowed the many, many questions swirling through my mind.
The garage was asrge, if notrger, than the house itself. Four snowmobiles sat near the garage
door, primed and ready for use. An assortment of other outdoor equipment leaned against the walls,
bikes and several sets of skis and snowboards. Arge pickup truck sat idle in the far corner of the
garage next to what looked like a tractor, both covered in tarps. I hadn’t been around cars in my life, but
I could tell the truck was old… Vintage, some might say. Rowan caught me looking at it and gave me a
crooked smile. “It’s Dad’s. He’s been working on it for years.”
“Where did he find it? I’ve never seen a vehicle that old before.” | ran my tongue along the inside of my
lower lip, wondering if Rowan would protest if I poked around the garage for a moment.
“I don’t know. It just showed up one day. He had to have it towed up here from the port, and it’s been
sitting in the garage for fifteen years or so now. Mom says it takes up too much space.”
“I mean,” I said, unable to hide my shock, “I don’t think that matters that much. This ce is huge.”
Rowan set the food containers on one of the snowmobiles and started to grab gear off the shelves on
the far wall, pulling down an assortment of gloves and padded jackets. I walked around, ncing at the
tool bench before letting my gaze wander further into the recesses of the garage, which was double the
length of the house, built like a basement beneath the backyard.
There was a set of rooms in the back, a bathroom and what looked like a small office or storage room. I
could see an icon bouncing around on what looked like a screen and couldn’t hold back my questions
any longer.
“Is that aputer?” I asked, turning to face Rowan.
He set down the helmet he was holding and inhaled deeply, his cheeks turning a little red.
“Yeah, it is.”
“How? I’ve never seen one-”
“1-I built it.” I could hear the apprehension in his voice, and I quickly realized why his cheeks had
colored. He was embarrassed.
“Are you serious? I‘ve only ever read about them. I didn’t think any
were left outside of… of the dashboards on boats and nes.” The war had destroyed most of the
technology to use them, so there was no reason for anyone to have one.
He stared nkly at me for a moment, his shoulders losing some of their tension as he picked up on
my excitement. “I’m building more radio towers. I needed a way to test the frequency needed to
connect the packs of Valoria and keep track of the data. It doesn’t do much besides that but… I’m
proud of it.”
“You should be,” I said earnestly, wanting nothing more than for him to show me exactly what he could
do with it.
Rowan smiled broadly, blushing a little more as he bnced the helmet on his hip. “Maybe when we
get back I can show you, if Dad
-” he paused, pursing his lips and shaking his head. “I’m not supposed to like you, you know.”
“Yeah, I get it.” I couldn’t help butugh. Rowan motioned me over to him and we spent the next fifteen
minutes suiting up to take the snowmobiles out. It was arduous work, and I was sweating by the time
we had packed the food and coffee into two backpacks and backed the snowmobiles out into the
driveway.
“I don’t think I need to tell you how to ride one of these!” Rowan shouted through his helmet.
“I’ll figure it out!” I replied, not sure if he could hear me. “You’re not nning on leading me away from
the vige and stranding me somewhere, are you?”
That he had heard, and he threw his head back,ughing. “You’re not who I was expecting you to be,
Troy. I think that would be a waste. Plus, Dad would kill me if anything happened to that snowmobile.”
***
The mountains were nketed in snow so fine it didn’t make a sound as we parked the snowmobiles
and stepped off of them. I looked out over the vige, which seemed to be miles below us, the lights of
the cabins just visible in the deep purple morning sky.
The stars shining above us were like something I had never seen before, so close I felt like I could
touch them. A green band of light danced over the mountains on the other side of the inlet, like a
ribbon, casting a strange glow over the far mountains.
“I see why we couldn’t have just shifted,” I said as I set my helmet down on the snowmobile and lifted
the thermos of coffee to my lips.
“Well, you can. But nothing is worse than getting snowballs stuck between the pads of your paws.”
“Ah, yeah. I can imagine.”
Rowan handed me one of the food containers and we sat on our snowmobiles to eat in rtive quiet,
watching the aurora continue its spirited dance.
“I’m not going to apologize for punching you,” Rowan said after a few minutes of silence.
“I wasn’t expecting an apology,” I replied, closing up the empty container and putting it in my backpack.
He did the same, but kept his eyes on me.
“What was your reasoning for everything that happened in Mirage? What exactly did you gain from
pretending to be Aaron of Red Lakes?”
I had seen this conversationing. I’d had it already with Ethan, although he hadn’t asked me a
single question the entire time. I had rattled off everything in quick session, and he had simply
walked away when I was done. Rowan was interrogating me. He brought me up here to do it in private.
.
“Damian offered us money to break Romero out of the castle. I thought that was it. I didn’t realize there
was something else going on until it was toote.”
“And that something had to do with Maeve?”
I nodded, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees. “Damian knew my parents. Or, at least,
he said he did. Romero was my grandfather, but I never knew him before I saw him in the tower for the
first time. It was… not what I was expecting.”
“You didn’t know your parents?”
I looked over at him, shaking my head. “Not my mom. I have no memories of her. I assume she’s
dead.”
Rowan looked away. “Maddalyn, right? Ernest brought back your sketchbook from Mirage… We saw
the portrait. I didn’t know who it was, but my parents were sure–“|
“Yeah. I didn’t even know her name until recently.”
That caught him off guard. He looked at me, his expression twisted in confusion.
“What do you mean you didn’t know her name?”
I inhaled, shaking my head, and then told him about my childhood. I watched his face go through
several transformations as I told him what I thought was information his family would need to paint
me in a clear picture. How I had been a thief, a pirate… an orphan.
“Are you here to kill my Dad?” he asked once I had finished speaking. His words were said so casually
for how much weight they bore. I looked up at him, steeling my expression. “Is that why you stayed with
Maeve-”
“No,” I said firmly, looking him squarely in the eyes. “She’s my mate, Rowan. I knew it the second I saw
her. We met before | knew she was… the princess. I should’ve left Valoria that very second, but I
couldn’t give her up-”
“I understand,” he said quickly, interrupting me. “I couldn’t do that either. Hanna, my mate. You haven’t
met her yet, but… you will. Today, probably. There’s going to be a family meeting after Dad talks to you
about…” he trailed off, looking out over the inlet and then back to me again. “You do know that you’re
the Alpha of Poldesse, right?”
I let out my breath in a long whoosh, the warm air turning to mist. “If I have to be,” I said honestly,
giving him a wry smile.
He arched his brow, thenughed, shaking his head. “I knew we had a few things inmon.”
“You don’t want to take your Dad’s title someday?”
He shrugged, taking a sip of coffee. “Someone’s gotta do it.”
“Is that why you were embarrassed about theputer? Because you’re-”
“Going to be the Alpha of all Alpha’s one day?” he said, adding a dramatic ir to the words that made
me smile. He exhaled, looking up at the fading stars.
“I wanted to go to college in Mirage and study engineering. Literally any kind of engineering, I didn’t
care. It goes against the type of man my dad needs me to be, you know. Someone fierce. Someone
who canmand not just a pack but EVERY pack. I’m not the type of person. I just want to make
things. I want to know how things work, how they used to work.”
The sun was just starting to peak over the mountains, casting the pink glow over the inlet that Maeve
had told me so much about. We watched a ne circle the inlet twice, thennd gracefully on the
water. “That’ll be Talon and Ernest. We should go,” he said, clearing his throat.
“You shouldn’t have to choose between the two. If anything, the packnds could use your skills.”
“I don’t know if my dad sees it that way.” Rowan slung his backpack over his shoulder and put his
helmet on, and I realized I might have struck a chord with him.
Maybe I had been lucky to have not known my parents or my lineage. I grew up making my own
decisions, deciding my own
fate.
“What’s going to happen now? Damian is dead, you know. And Tasia,”
Rowan gave me a weary look before he closed the visor on his
helmet.
Text ? by N0ve/lDrama.Org.
“I don’t know. But I do know Dad is going to send you back to the Isles. I just don’t know if he’ll allow
Maeve to go with you.”