Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 566
Chapter 66 : A Life Without Him
*Xander*
I reached back and felt along the back of my head, looking for a bump or some sort of wound large enough to knock me out.
That was the only explanation for this. I was not on the beach anymore; that was certain. Thick trees dotted with waxy white blooms rustled over my head, and the ground beneath was soft, grassy, not the powdered sugar sand of the stormy beach I'd been standing on only a moment before.
Maybe it had been more than a moment. It had to be. Someone had knocked me out and shipped me off, dumping me here, wherever this was. Likely Lena's father, I thought with a bitter taste in my mouth.
I reached down and felt along my body, finding everything intact, including the velvet bag in the front pocket of my trousers.
“What the f**k?" I groaned, sitting upright and running my hands over my face and through my hair. Sand dusted my shoulders, coming loose from my jet-black strands of hair that were now long enough to curl around my ears and the corner of my jaw.
“Lena?" I bellowed, but the only answer was the rustling of a soft breeze through the unfamiliar trees.
I stood, but then lost my balance and nearly fell back onto my knees. I braced myself on a tree, pressing my full weight against it, which caused it to rattle and spill a cascade of fragrant blooms the size of my fist all over my body. Magnolia? That's what it smelled like. I plucked one of the petals from my shoulders and pitched it between my fingers.
“Hello?" I called out.
Nothing–no sound, no answer. I tried to mind-link with someone–anyone–but there was nothing but radio silence. Even Adrien, with whom I shared the strongest bond, was absent.
I sighed, nodding my head as I looked around beneath my lashes.
Those bastards had definitely dumped me somewhere. I'd likely been out for days.
I began to walk through what happened to be a thick forest. Trees of every shape and size covered the landscape, and the forest floor was unusually bare with nothing but perfect, emerald turf that felt more like walking on carpet than grass. No roots stuck out of the ground to trip on, and no leaves scattered the ground. It was beautiful–but too beautiful. The day after the wedding was the day before Winter Solstice, and somewhere with trees like this? Their branches should have been bare, and the forest floor should have been coated in decaying leaves.
“I haven't been out for that long," I reassured myself–at least I tried. Unease washed over me as I continued forward with no clear direction. It was light out, possibly morning given the pinkish-violet color of the sky. It was warm, the perfect temperature.
“What the f**k is going on?" I growled, then stood as still as possible, holding my breath as I scanned my surroundings for any signs of life.
No birds. No small game rustling the patches of bushes dappled with pink and yellow buds–not a sound, save for a soft wind that seemed to only touch the canopy above my head.
“You must be in trouble," came a voice from behind me.
I turned, crouching in a defensive position as the voice faded, and a strange chuckling sound filtered through the trees all around me.
I waited, my blood rushing through my body as adrenaline prickled over my skin. I had no weapons. I could only shift. But the second I closed my eyes and let my wolf begin to take over, the voice, both near and far away, spoke again.
“You can't do that here," it said from wherever it was coming from, its voice both feminine and masculine as if two people were talking at the same time. I straightened my back and opened my eyes, looking around slowly to take every inch of my surroundings into account.
“Show yourself!"
“I am!" it replied, and a stiff breeze rustled the trees, bushes, and flowers around me, but didn't touch my clothes, or hair.
I froze.
I'd heard stories of haunted woods, demons, and spirits. I'd heard tales of old, from the time before the Moon Goddess walked the mortal realms, when the forgotten gods and their spirit-like familiars tormented those who wandered into the pockets where the spirit realm was open to the realms of the mortals.
But that was fantasy. I was dreaming, right? I was, most definitely, severely concussed.
“You're not injured," the voice laughed, a girlish laugh, as though it came from a child. “She put you here."
“Who?"
“The Builder, of course. Who else could do it?"
“Who are you?"
“Oh, I am nothing."
“What?"
“I said, I am nothing–"
“I heard you!" I spun in a circle trying to chase the voice, but it was all around me. “Show yourself!"
A breeze rushed past me, then the entire area stilled. I looked up as little sparks of light cascaded through the canopy of foliage, floating down around me in perfectly circular orbs of white.
I was dreaming. That's what this was.
“You're not dreaming," the voice whispered, followed by a snicker of mirth that danced through the trees above my head. I glared up at the trees.
“You're reading my mind?"
“Why did she send you here? What purpose do you serve?"
“I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied, pinching the skin on my forearm to try to wake myself up. But I felt the pain of it. I smacked myself several times, hard enough for the impact to sting. The voice laughed again.
“You must be the man."
“Who?"
“The man," it repeated.
I furrowed my brow, scowling up at the bright orbs as they danced around the tree branches above my head.
“I don't know what you're talking about–"
“Follow me," it said, and I watched as the orbs began to flutter away, creating a trail of light through the canopy.
I turned and watched them fly away.
***
*Lena*
Abigail turned around the small sitting room on the third floor of the palace, running her fingers over the windowsill as she passed it by. She sighed, tucking a lock of her red hair behind her ear as she turned to face me with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Do you think he might have just… left?"
“Of course he did," I replied, picking at the decorative pillow I was holding in my lap. Little blue seahorses fanned out over the pillow, tiny blue beads sparkling in the gray light coming through the windows. It was raining hard, and Abigail had been helping clear the flower arrangements out of the ballroom when she saw me cross the foyer.
I'd spent the better part of two hours telling her everything, and I mean everything–about me, about Xander, about Crimson Creek.
“Your parents gave him their blessing–"
“My dad didn't. He said no. But I…" I didn't have the words to explain how I felt. I was just as angry as I was heartbroken. He'd lied to me in the worst way. He'd hidden something from me that wasn't his right to keep from me.
I couldn't have children.
How could he do this to me?
“f**k him," Abigail sneered, pulling a random book off a shelf and turning it over in her hands. “You need to get out of here for a while, Lena. Take some time to yourself."
“I can't. They're sending me to Winter Forest–"
“You're a grown woman. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."