The Alpha King's Breeder

Truth and Rumors

Isla

“I’m… what?”

I need to sit down. I find a way to sit on the bed, struggling to catch my breath, the pajamas I was getting ready to put on forgotten on the bed next to me since I’ve heard Poppy’s words.

Poppy is looking at me from across the bedroom, a puzzled expression on her face.

“You… didn’t know?” she asks me. “How is it that you didn’t know? How did you get here?”

“I…” I feel my face flush as I lean back against the pillows, trying to process everything.

How is this possible?

That’s what Alpha Ernest sold me to Alpha Maddox to do?

To be his breeder?

“I’m so sorry,” Poppy says, coming over and resting her hand on my leg. “I just assumed that you either had done this before or had taken it upon yourself to make this into your career. I had no idea you had no idea, dear. And don’t think that I was judging you because of it! I mean… who wouldn’t want to be a breeder for Alpha Maddox?” She smiles at me and waggles her eyebrows, and I know that she’s trying to make me laugh, but it’s not working.

I want to bury my face in my hands and cry.

I think of my poor mother back home and how hard she’s worked for all of her children, how my dad saved when I was little to be able to afford to bring us all to a new land to start over after political insurrection made us flee his homeland.

How I’ve spent so many hours slaving away at so many jobs over the last two years trying to erase this debt that just keeps mounting because of my brother… through absolutely no fault of his own, bless his soul.

And this is where I end up.

My mom would be so disappointed in me. When my parents find out that this is what I’m doing, that this is what Alpha Ernest has traded me off to do… they will disown me.

No, they are too sweet for that, but they will be so disappointed in me, they will never be able to look me in the eye again.

Tears begin to stream down my face. I can’t help it. Poppy wraps her arm around me. “I am so sorry, sweetie. You know, Alpha King Maddox is scary on the outside, but I bet if you tell him your situation, that you didn’t know, I bet he will let you go. I’m sure, however, you got here, he’ll reverse it.”

I think about her words for about five seconds and then shake my head. “I can’t do that,” I say, sitting up and wiping my eyes on the back of my hand. Poppy grabs a tissue for me from the nightstand. “Thank you.”

I dry my face and try to get myself under control before I tell her, “My Alpha brought me here. My family owes him a lot of money. I went to him this morning to see if there was any work I could do to pay off our debt, and he brought me here. If I go back now, he will not be fulfilling his promise to Alpha Maddox, and I won’t be fulfilling my promise to him. So… my family will either still owe him money, or he’ll make me become some sort of s*x slave to him.” The thought of servicing Alpha Ernest makes my blood run cold.

“I take it that your Alpha is not as… fetching as the king?” Poppy asks, and I nearly throw up all of the food I just ate.

I make a face and shake my head, and she laughs, which makes me laugh.

“Well, of all of the jobs to have, honey, it could be worse. I mean… at least he looks like a god and not like your Alpha,” she says with a shrug.”

I want to think that that’s true, and it is, but still… the idea of Alpha Maddox on top of me, of my naked body underneath his as he enters me…. No, I can’t let my mind go there. I spit out, “I’m a virgin.”

“Oh,” she says, her eyes wide. She opens her mouth, closes it, and then says, “Oh,” again. “I guess… that’s why you’re worth so much, perhaps?”

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “My mother told me a bit. I have a lot of brothers and sisters, so I know how it all works. But… that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with it.”

“How old are you, sweetie?” Poppy asks.

“Twenty,” I tell her. “Just barely. My birthday was a few weeks ago.”

She smiles. “I’m twenty-three, and I’ve been with two different men. Neither of them was my mate. I haven’t found him yet. It’s okay, though. It can be fun. Well, it depends on the man. Anyway, I’m sure, with the king… it’ll be pretty amazing.”

I can only stare at her. “But… what about having a baby? And giving birth? And then what? I suppose he’ll hire a nanny or something, and I’ll leave here. I’ll go back to my pack, and I’ll never see my baby again?”

Poppy sits down near my feet and lets out a sigh. “Yes, I do think that’s how it normally works. I don’t have a lot of experience with breeders, but I do know of another maid who used to work at Alpha Samuel’s estate in his pack lands, and he had a few breeders. Each one had a child, and every time, he’d send them away.” She looks at me, a sad expression in her eyes. “Maybe knowing it ahead of time will help you to keep from getting too attached.”

“Maybe,” I say, but I doubt it. I don’t think I can carry a baby for nine months and not love it completely.

But then… I don’t think I can make love to a man and not love him either.

“Why doesn’t he just find another Luna?” I ask. “I know what you said about him loving his first wife and mate so much that he swears he’ll never have another wife, but I can’t imagine what could’ve possibly happened to Luna Rebecca that has made him decide he’d never fall in love again.”

Poppy makes a face, and I’m not sure what it means. “No one knows for sure what happened to her,” she says, her voice a whisper.

I look around. No one is here, so I don’t know why she is whispering. I shrug. “Well, it couldn’t be so awful that he thinks he should be forced to live the rest of his life alone. If he is a good man, as you say, then he shouldn’t have a breeder. He should find a worthy woman, an Alpha’s daughter, and marry again. He deserves a second chance at happiness.”

Poppy shrugs. “Perhaps, but not if the rumors are true…”

“Rumors?” I ask. “What rumors?”

“About what happened to Luna Rebecca,” she says, still whispering.

I am getting tired of playing guessing games. “And what, exactly, is that?” I ask her.

Poppy clears her throat and says, “That he killed her.”

***

Maddox

“This ham is delightful. I absolutely love the flavor. Did your chef prepare it especially for me, Alpha?”

The sound of the insipid girl seated across from me blathering on about ham is making me want to tear off all of my clothes and shift right here on the table. I want to let my wolf run free, to grunt and growl and howl at the moon, and if my sharp claws and long fangs should happen to make contact with her pasty white skin and make a tear or two, well, sometimes these things cannot be helped….

“Alpha King Maddox?” she repeats, as if I’m not answering her because I somehow managed to not hear her. “Did your chef make this lovely ham with me in mind?’

“Yes,” I say. “Yes, he did. He somehow knew that you would love it, even though he’s never met you before.”

Seth’s foot taps mine beneath the table. It is the closest thing to a warning my Beta will give me since I am the king, after all. It isn’t as if he feels he can get away with mashing his heel into my toes or something of that nature.

Zabrina thinks I am being silly, I guess, because she giggles behind her hand. “He is a wonderful guesser then because it’s just divine.”

I say nothing in response, and she takes a drink of her wine, draining it. Her glass isn’t empty for more than two seconds before her entire disposition changes and she angrily snaps her finger at the servant standing behind her, a woman she’s brought with her for the express purpose of waiting on her, and the woman springs into action to pour her more.

“That’s more like it, Maud,” she says, her tone showing her irritation. “The ham might be flavorful, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get thirsty.”

The servant girl says nothing, only falls back into her place, near the wall. I can’t help but look at her, standing there, her eyes downcast. She can’t be more than fourteen, maybe fifteen. She looks terrified, and I have to wonder if Zabrina is the type of woman who would strike her servant if she didn’t do what she wanted.

I believe she is.

The servant isn’t the only woman Zabrina has brought with her. She has also brought along three friends. She calls them her ladies, and they are just as annoying as she is. I have no idea what their names are. She introduced them earlier, but I wasn’t paying attention. All I know is, between the four of them, I’m bound to be irritated to no end if Alpha Jordan intends to stay in the castle more than a night or two.

He has only asked to stay here on his way through the area on business, but now that I know his true intention, I have a feeling he will have some sort of calamity befall him.

Something will be wrong with one of his vehicles. One of his drivers will fall ill. He will suddenly lose all sense of direction and have no idea where he was going….

He will be forced to stay in the castle until I say I will marry his daughter.

He will be forced to stay here until the day after never then because that simply will not happen.

Though it’s obvious that the other Alphas are growing weary of my excuse, that I simply will not marry again after what happened with Rebecca, it will have to appease them because it’s the truth.

I will not take another bride.

If I am to have an heir… it will have to come another way.

My mind returns to the girl.

The soft round mound of her breast. Her erect n****e. The way her bottom moved as she reached for her robe.

I let my mind get away from me for a moment and imagine myself following her into the bathroom, coming up behind her to cup her breasts. She leans back into me as my mouth comes down on her neck. She moans my name softly as my teeth nip at the tender flesh of her shoulder, my tongue tracing up to her ear.

My hands caress her full breasts, my thumbs working her n*****s, plucking and pulling as her groans get louder, her arousal stronger. I smell it in the air around us. Her open mouth against my cheek as she hunts for my mouth, longing to taste me, moans with desperation.

I slide a hand down her flat belly, pressing her against my erection as I spread her legs and slip a finger between her dripping wet thighs. She’s already in spasm when my finger enters her. I feel her muscles tense around me as her arm comes up to loop around my neck. She begs me to take her, to bend her over right there and press my c**k inside of her so deep that I stretch her completely and fill her fuller than she’s ever been before—

“Alpha?”

Seth’s voice has me blinking and I realize I’ve completely lost track of the conversation around me. My d**k is so hard beneath the table, it may as well have five legs. I won’t be getting up anytime soon. “Yes?” I ask.

“Are you all right, sir?” he asks me.

“I’m sorry. I have a lot on my mind,” I tell him. “With… the situation with the… attacks.”

Seth arches an eyebrow, and I know he doesn’t believe me, but Alpha Jordan says, “It is an abysmal situation that is certain. You know, I heard twenty-five civilians were killed last week alone?” He launches into a discussion of what he has heard about attacks in his own territory.

I want to ask him if he thinks that it has anything to do with his daughter rejecting her mate, but I don’t bother.

We’ve already had that discussion today, and it fell on deaf ears.

It doesn’t take too long before the talk of war had deflated my erection, and I decide it is time to leave the table before it returns. If my mind returns to the girl again before I can make it back to my room, I might be there all night.

“Well, I say,” setting my napkin aside, “I will take my leave.”

“But…” Zabrina says, a wide-eyed disappointed look on her face, “I thought we might go for a walk in the garden, Your Majesty.”

“Not tonight,” I tell her. Not any night, I want to add but don’t. “The rest of you are free to stay and enjoy the musicians in the great hall, but I have had a long day and will be retiring for the evening. Beta Seth will be happy to entertain you.”

Seth is never happy to do so, but he knows it is part of his duties. “Yes, of course,” he says. “Let’s finish our dessert first, shall we?”

I haven’t even made it through the final course, but I don’t care. I’m the king, and I shall do as I please.

My shoes echo down the hall as I head toward my room. Most of the lights are off now, and the pieces of artwork cast strange shadows. It’s times like this when I sometimes wonder, if Rebecca is still here, might I see a glimpse of her?

But I never do….

I reach the girl’s door first, and even though I intend to keep walking, I find myself stopping outside of the door. I wonder if she is still awake. I wonder if she is lying there, thinking about what her duties are supposed to be, now that she is here. Is she frightened? Is she excited?

Has she thought at all about me the way I’ve been thinking about her?

Under normal circumstances, I would think of course she has. I am the Alpha King. Any woman would be lucky to have the opportunity to be bedded by me.

But there’s something different about Isla. Something unique.

I lift my hand and rest it on the door, wanting to go in. I just want to see her, or so I tell myself.

But it’s too soon.

She is young and vulnerable, and I don’t want to scare her.

Everyone says I am ruthless and terrifying.

Perhaps that is true, but I don’t need to be that way to her.

Not yet anyway.

I make myself keep walking. I may ravish her—but tonight it will have to be in my dreams.