Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 276

Chapter 56: Escape

Rowan

Shelly turned to look at me over her shoulder, the baby nestled against her chest in a sling as wewalked toward the light beaming through an opening in the cave. She narrowed her eyes, squintinginto the darkness behind me.

“It's fine,” I whispered, trying not to disturb the sleeping toddler strapped to my back. “I haven'theard them in a long time.”

Shelly swallowed, glancing back into the darkness once more before turning her head toward thelight, her long black hair fluttering against her waist.

Our group was a strange sight. Otto was in the lead with his two eldest children, both boys, one tenor so, and the other only roughly a year younger but nearly equal in height. Abel was the eldest andwas the spitting image of Otto, while Timothy was a startling mix of both of his parents, inheritinghis father's reddish hair and his mother's dark brown eyes. Dad had been in charge of theirdaughter, a little girl named Farrah who had insisted on walking, but her six-year-old legs quicklytired, and now Dad was walking with her on his hip, her head lolling on his shoulder as she slept.Shelly held their newest baby, an infant who couldn't have been more than three or four monthsold, a quiet baby named Henry.

And I was strapped to Otis, their two-year-old hellion who had spent a good part of the last fourhours plucking hairs out of the back of my head as I carried him in a sling tied to my back. He hadfinally fallen asleep, and I wanted to keep it that way.

It had been shockingly easy to leave the underground network of tunnels the Pack Lycenna lived inIt was a small pack, with a population that couldn't have been more than sixty or so people at themost. We had simply left our room and met up with Otto's family, following Otto's lead as wewalked through the impossible maze of man-made tunnels to the more challenging and narrownetwork of naturally occurring tunnels that had several openings to the forest above.

There had been a period when we were being followed. Our biggest challenge was

keeping the children quiet as we tried to navigate the uneven ground, having to stop periodically tolift the children over rocks and encourage the ones who were walking to squeeze through the tight,darkened pockets of rock that opened up into wider, more open tunnels.

Eventually, we lost the warriors who were on our tail, and now we walked into the light with acommunal feeling of ease. Even Shelly, who hadn't said a single word to any of us, had breathed asigh of relief as we finally exited the cave system, stepping out into the light of midday, sheltered byhuge spruce trees.

“How many miles was that, do you think?” I heard Dad say ahead of me, shifting the dead weight ofthe sleeping Farrah to his other hip.

“Close to forty, if my estimations are correct.” Otto patted his sons on the head as he spoke to Dadfurther.

Forty miles? That sounded almost impossible. We had been walking for at least a day, if not a dayand a half, only stopping to rest for an hour or two at a time. I felt sorry for the kids.

“Ouch!” I hissed, turning my head back to look at Otis, who was driving his knee into my back“Down!” he said, smacking me cleanly on the cheek.

Shelly turned to look at us, giving Otis a look that only a mother can give, and the little guy settleddown momentarily, murmuring to himself as he shifted his weight against my back

The party continued into the forest for several more miles until the sun began to set through thetrees. Dad and Otto finally allowed us to set up a modest camp, prohibiting a fire but allowing us tofinally sit down and rest, eating whatever dried food Shelly and Otto had managed to pack.Darkness fell over the forest as Shelly put the kids to bed, the four children nestled togetherbeneath a single blanket to keep warm. She kept the baby against her chest as she leaned againstthe tree, running her fingers through their hair as she whispered songs to them.

Otto was sitting with me and Dad, his back against one of the spruce trees, We were acutely awareof the night noises in the forest, our heads turning to any courg

at dintseomto belong those

Sonnthng fell off to me

Why did no one stop us from leaving?” I asked Otto. Otto was carving a point into a long, skinnytree branch he had lound on the forest floor as I spoke, and he rested the branch on his knee as helooked up at me to answer

“The Alpha only has so many warriors to spare. They likely know exactly where we are, anyway.”"You seem so casual about that fact,” Dad said, giving Otto a quizzical glance.

Otto shrugged, continuing to carve the branch with his pocket knife. “People have been leavingLycenna for a long time. Alpha Julien is weak, and he demands a lot from his people. Those whostay follow blindly. It's a cult, really. And they will continue to follow us until we reach Winter Foresttomorrow. Mark my words."

A strange expression crossed over Dad's face, his body stiffening. Was Otto playing both sides?“I'm not leading them to Winter Forest, if that's what you're thinking,” Otto breathed, fatigue lininghis features.

"Why didn’t you leave Lycenna before now?” Dad's voice had an air of suspicion to it, and I knew hewas feeling as uncomfortable as I was. Our escape hadn't been an escape at all. It had been easy. Fartoo easy.

“Shelly couldn't leave. She had sisters-" He paused, glancing quickly over his

shoulder to the tree where his wife and children were resting, all of them sleeping soundly. Heturned back to us, grinding his teeth. “It's awful, Alpha, what they do to women there. I don't evenwant to say it.”

“Well, you need to. I need to know what to expect from them if they ever attempt to attack WinterForest.”

Otto sighed, placing his pointed branch on the ground at his feet. “Like I said, they selectively breedin Lycenna. They believe some people carry the powers of Lycaon, and that it's inherited. There arebarely any children in Lycenna now. They... well, Shelly and I had healthy children because we'renot... related.”

“Wait a minute,” Dad said, his face twisted in shock and disgust.

“I wisdi 11 wasn't true, Alpha Butilis Intoshreeding is the sick, I wisiod norm in lycemia It has beenfor centuries They're looking for something called a Dream Lancer but there hasn't been one bomfor at least two generations. They believe it’ san inhented power, and uh, matching family memberswill produce a wolf with the powers they seck”

I looked at Dad, the forest floor seeming to fall from beneath my feet. Dad looked back at me, aknowing expression flickering across his face.

Hanna. Of course.

“My mate-“I began, but Dad held up his hand to stop me from continuing.

"You didn't leave because Shelly felt she needed to stay behind?”

"Yes, I... Shelly was given to me when I pledged my loyalty to the Alpha. I felt I didn't have a choice.Seraphine was dead. I wasn't confident I could replace my way through the caves on my own. Peopledie in there all the time. It's so easy to get lost. And then... we fell in love, I guess you could say. Wehad Abel then Tim a year later. So on, and so forth.” He motioned toward his huge family, a tightsmile touching the corner of his mouth. “Shelly had younger sisters, two of them. Women arecurrency in Lycenna. We did everything we could to hang on to them, using the need for help withour children as an excuse. Eliza died first; she had been sick since she was a girl, with some kind ofdegenerative disease, from what I could tell, but Lycenna doesn't believe in medicine and sciencelike we do. Then Marian died, but she took her own life when she was given to one of Shelly'scousins,”

“I don't need to know more,” Ethan said quickly, swallowing.

I felt bile rise in my own throat, blinking rapidly as I tried to clear the gruesome thoughts trying tosurface in my mind.

“We couldn't let Farrah... we just couldn't. There was already talk of it among the elders. She's theonly girl born in this generation. Shelly agreed when I asked if we could leave, finally. We had to. Ibelieve they let us go because they need to one, know how to get out of the caves heading north,and two-" Otto turned his attention to me, his eyes wide.

“Because they want Hanna," I said, finishing his sentence. Otto nodded gravely, shaking his head.“But why?"

“I don't know. I only know what the elders have said about it. I learned... I learned too much.” Hewinced, looking suddenly miserable. “Is Gayla still alive?”

Dad shook his head, sucking in his lower lip. “She died ten years ago. We were with her. Everyonewas with her. She didn’t go alone.”

"Good. That's... that's really comforting.” Otto swallowed hard, nodding his head as he blinked backtears

We had told Otto about Maeve and the fall of Drogomor. He had in turn told us about the visionGayla had during Maeve’'s first birthday party. It was shocking, really, how much Gayla's vision hadlined up with the events that happened shortly after Maeve turned ten. That was when the Alpha ofRed Lakes had brought his children and wife to visit Winter Forest. When Aaron had fallen from thetree. When Aaron's mother had cursed Maeve, saying she would never come into her powers.

And now look at us. Gayla had only seen black in vision. What could that possibly mean for us now?“Your mate is a Dream Dancer, isn't she?” Otto asked.

I nodded, leaning back against the tree. “She is. She doesn't know what it means to be one, though.None of us do.”

“Where was she born? Surely not Lycenna,”

“Her mother must be from there, right Rowan? It's the only plausible explanation,” Dad said, turningto me.

“No, there's another pack that can harness the powers of Lycaon, but they're far south. I don't knowwhere. Seraphine told me about it when she was sick. ... I had a hard time understanding her story,though. It didn't seem real. She called this place a utopia. But I can't remember the name. It was abrief conversation. She was more worried about something... something she had given to Gemma, anecklace,” Otto said

"A necklace?” The Gemma I knew rarely wore jewelry. I don’t think I had ever seen her wear anecklace.

Otto yawned loudly, stuttering as he tried to continue. Dad stopped him, holding out his hand andshaking his head. “We all need to rest. I'll take the first watch while you

and Rowan sleep. Rowan, I'll wake you in three hours.”

I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest. I already knew I was going to have a hard time sleepingafter everything Otto had told us

"How much farther to Winter Forest, do you think?" Otto said as he rose, meaning to go lay next tohis family.

"We'll be there by tomorrow night. I'll recognize this place. I think I know where we are from...” Hetrailed off, looking through the trees.

This was where he had battled during the last war.

I closed my eyes, pushing Otto's awful story out of my mind.

'Hanna?” said over the mind-link, wondering if were close enough to connect.