Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 296

Chapter 76: Changing Course

Troy

"Are you sure about this?” Keaton tossed a bundle of supplies taken from Damian's camp into oneof the skiffs, glancing up at me as I handed him a basket filled with what looked like a variedassortment of dried food

“I don't have time to return to Dianny. It's halfway through August already. We have until lateOctober before

“Before the ice, I understand.” Keaton wasn't happy about my decision to break from thePersephone and head north with Maeve and Pete, but it was the only option. I had spent themajority of the morning convincing Maeve that I loved her, going as far as to mark her, cementingour bond in the most permanent way possible. Maeve was royalty, however, and I had a feeling herdad was going to be pissed that I had marked his daughter without blessing our union first, but Ididn’t have much of a choice. I wasn't about to let her go. “But I'm not talking about that.”

“What, then?”

"Alpha King Ethan is going to kill you, Troy.”

"And leave his grandchildren without a father?” I retort ed, leaning against the skiff as I tried tosteady myself. The bandages around my chest were already matted with dried blood, and I wasexceedingly lightheaded. I needed rest, but we needed to get off this Goddess — forsaken islandfirst.

"Don't be a prick,” Keaton said with force. His displea sure was palpable. “I just saw you die andcome back to life. And now? I'd hoped the plan was to get Maeve back to Winter Forest and leaveher there”

“You knew I was never going to just abandon her, Keaton. Come on.”

Keaton crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head.

"What do you have against Maeve? Seriously,”

“I have nothing against her,” Keaton bit out, his voice edged with bitterness. “In fact, I quite like her.Had it not been for her, I would have never met Myla. But she is blind to your situation, Troy. Totallyoblivious. She didn’t know about the weight of your deal with Damian, did she? Not until recently.”He was talking about the fact that I was the rightful Al pha of Poldesse, something I had neverconsidered actually claiming. I had known since Damian intercepted one of our

cruisers a year ago and had the crew send word to our compound in the Isles that I needed to seehim.

Keaton and I had thought it was about business. We had been working for Damian for several yearsat the point but had never done business with him directly. We just smuggled goods to and fromthe Isles.

I didn't mention it to Maeve because it didn't matter to me, and I figured she'd drawn her ownconclusions based on the fact I was Romero's grandson, but it had gone right over the top of herhead. We had been busy, anyway, chas ing a damn gemstone to the ends of the Earth.

“I'm going to let Poldesse dissolve-"

“You can't,” Keaton said firmly, “There would be a pow er struggle, Troy. Poldesse would end up insomeone else's hands, and who knows who that would be? Damian had close ties with prominentfamilies all over the Isles, people that have no business having that much power.”

“Then I say I'm Alpha in name and let-"

“And let the people of the Isles suffer under the rule of a regent, likely one of Damian's men?”

“No, it would be you. You'd be my Beta.”

Keaton let his arms drop to his sides, flexing his fingers. “You're not thinking rationally,”

"I just been stabbed through the heart, Keaton!”

“You lose in either situation!” he shouted, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “Goddess, Troy.Poldesse IN VADED land governed by Alpha King Ethan. It doesn’t mat ter what your relationship iswith Maeve. You will be held responsible for all of it, especially with Damian dead.”

"What would you have me do, then? Run? Hide like a coward? Leave Maeve to fend for herself?Abandon my kids like my parents did to me? Absolutely not-"

- “This moment,” Keaton said as he pointed to the space between us, “decides everything. Yourpath. Your future-"

"Alpha Ethan won't kill me,” I said with conviction, the force of my words sending a rush of painthrough my chest. “I'm more worried about her brother.”

Keaton rolled his eyes and turned away from me, busy ing himself with tying up a canvas sack ofgoods we packed while taking down Damian's camp.

“This goes beyond your fear of Ethan killing me-"

“I don't think you're thinking this through-"

“The only time we“ve been separated was when I was sent to Valoria,” I began, taking a deep breath."You were angry with me about that too.”

Keaton straightened to his full height, giving me a look that instantly reminded me of the first time Ihad ever met him. He had been eight years old, the leader of a pack of orphans who varied in age,some younger, but most were older than him, young teenagers who bent the knee to a skinny,scrappy kid in cut-off jeans three sizes too big for him. His parents had died in the war, at least thatwas the story he told.

I'd never been loyal to an Alpha.

I'd only ever been loyal to Keaton. He was the only fam ily I had ever had.

“I'm afraid I won't ever see you again.” Keaton struggled with the words, tilting his head back andgroaning before making eye contact with me again, shaking his head. “It was different when youwent to Valoria for Damian. We didn’t have much of a choice. You couldn't tell him no.”

“I'm not walking into a trap, if that's what you think-"

“I don't think that. I just know... Troy I know the second you step foot on the cruiser, everything weworked for is over. Our crew... our ship. It's always been ours, not just mine.”

“I know. We have mates to think about now, Keat.”

He considered this, a soft smile touching the corner of his mouth.

“Who would've f*cking thought?”

“Not me,” I laughed shortly, reaching up to touch the fresh stitches. We stood in silence for amoment, watching as the crew pulled down the large canvas tent and folded it up.

“If 1 don't hear from you, or about you, I'll come to Win ter Forest and kill Alpha Ethan myself.”

"You should come visit anyway. None of us have ever been that far north. Myla will want to visitDuck.”

Keaton grinned, shaking his head as he met my eyes. The actual words he wanted to say seemed topass behind them, etched into his face. Instead, he said, “Do you think Maeve will let Duck stay withthe Persephone?”

"No," I said slowly, both of us knowing that wasn't a fight we wanted to take on.

Duck was running along the deck of the cruiser, his

snout gliding across the waxed floorboards as he examined his new surroundings. I could still seethe Persephone on the Horizon as it headed west, its sails at full mast.

I turned toward the windows of the control room where Pete was seated behind a large dashboardwith several dif ferent screens and navigation tools, his eyes wide as he marveled at technology hehad likely never seen before.

“This isn't a cruiser,” Maeve said from the railing as she tied her hair into a bun. “This is a yacht.”"Whatever it is, it's going to get us north much faster than the Persephone.” I swallowed the hurtlingering be hind my words as I watched the Persephone gain more dis tance. It felt like a chapter ofmy life had closed, and the fu ture felt uncertain.

Maeve rubbed at the spot where her neck met her shoulder as she walked across the deck towardthe control room, which had a door leading down into the lower level of the boat. Beneath the deckwas a large master bedroom and bathroom, a kitchen, a few storage areas, and a bunkroom.

It was much smaller than the Persephone, but its size would prove useful as we made our way backthrough the southern pass. We were lighter and faster. I had estimated our journey to Winter Forestto take a month at least, but at the rate we were already moving, we could easily shave off a week.“I need to change your bandages before you go to bed,” she said over her shoulder.

“I won't be going to be for a while,”

“Then before I go to bed. You're supposed to be rest ing!” She stopped walking and was staringright at me, dressed in one of my worn-in button-down shirts and a pair of cotton shorts she hadmade by cutting off the legs of an old pair of sweatpants I had tucked away in my room on thePersephone.

Nothing fit her anymore, that was true. Her slender, athletic figure had softened and rounded. Shecould bal ance things on her stomach now, and the buttons of her shirt were tight against thegrowing swell. I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life.

“I'll rest,” I assured her as she slipped back into the in side of the boat, stopping to talk to Pete for amoment be fore disappearing from view.

Duck had followed, of course. Maeve was his person, and he hadn't let her out of his sight since hewas brought onto the cruiser.

I turned toward the railing, catching a final glimpse of

the Persephone before it faded from view.

“Do you think we'll ever see her again?” Pete said, nod ding toward the speck on the horizon as hewalked over to me, standing at my side.

I nodded but felt an overwhelming sense of finality as the sun began to set and the calm water wasswallowed by darkness. “Keaton will come to Winter Forest when it's safe. We can get you home... atleast whenever you're ready to do that.”

“Eh, we'll see. I've seen enough of warm water and trop ical weather for a lifetime. I've never seensnow, you know.”

"Me neither,” I admitted, wincing as I adjusted my stance. My chest was killing me. My whole bodyached.

“Hey, Troy?"

“Yeah?”

"Did you... uh, see anything? When you died?" Pete said with a blush. He was shy, that was obvious.But I liked the guy.

“No... I don't think I did. Just Maeve's face, I guess. I honestly felt like when you're just on the edgeof sleep, you know, when you're still aware beyond the point of being

able to keep your eyes open?”

“Did it hurt?”

"Getting stabbed? Yeah-"

“No, I mean, when you started to... go..."

“No,” I answered honestly, glancing over at him. “I was cold, that's it. I was more... upset. I wasn'tready to die, you know. I didn’t want to leave yet. I felt guilty, more than any thing”

Pete tapped his fingers on the railing, his face falling as he flushed with sudden emotion. “It was justme and my ma when I joined the crew of the Persephone. She didn’t want me to do it, but... I had toget away, see some things, do something other than fish. I had an older brother, Nathan. Nate. Hedied when he was sixteen. I was eight.”

“Pete, I'm sorry,”

He waved his hand in dismissal, shrugging as he looked out over the water. “He nearly drowned inthe cove by our house back on Drifter's Rock. He survived that, but... I'm not sure what happened.Drifters was a small village, with no real leadership. People kept to themselves. But there was aPoldesse sheriff on the island. Nate got sick from the amount of water that got into his lungs and...well, the sher

iff wouldn't let my ma leave the island with him to get help in Avondale.”

Texhaled through my nose, nostrils flaring as I thought back to the Reconstruction period after theWar. Pete was just a little bit older than Maeve, so when he was eight, Poldesse was still operating insecrecy with Damian assign ing elite warriors to the smaller islands to keep the villages under histhumb. I didn’t even know the name of the Alpha of Poldesse in those days. I would've been elevenor twelve, and Damian had yet to cement himself as the true Alpha and was likely still workingunder the influence of Romero from afar.

“Nate said he wasn't ready when he died. He was... he was begging. It was the worst — Pete clearedhis throat, looking down at where his fingers were wrapped around the metal railing. “Thank you fortelling me how it felt, Troy. I feel better knowing that maybe... Nate wasn't in pain.”

I didn't know what to say. I reached out, wincing as the motion sent a fresh ripple of pain throughmy chest as I patted Pete gently on the back.

"Anyway —" Pete said as he cleared his throat again, shaking his head. “What's the plan now?""Head north. Skirt around the Isles, and only make land fall when we need to stop for supplies. Weneed to get to Winter Forest before the weather turns. We only have a two

— month window before the northern pass begins to freeze.”

Opaline was being held in one of the storage rooms on the boat, our captive. I wasn't exactly surewhat was going to happen to her when we reached Winter Forest, but I couldn't risk her escapingwhile the Persephone scoped out the situation in Dianny.

She was technically a prisoner of war, and I meant to hand her over to Ethan myself.

Hopefully, that would soften the punishment I was ex pecting when we arrived in Winter Forest.