Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 355

Chapter 14 Be My Woman“I would say not,” the Beta said quickly. “It's too risky to do anything else. Besides, if what she says istrue, Miss Chambers has been misrepresenting you, Alpha.”All I could gather was that Jake thought the prince should do something with me, and the princedidn't think it was a good ideaIf it had been the other way around, I might be nervous, but from the few brief interactions I hadwith Jake, he wasn't one to suggest harming someone for no reason.“All right, you take over from here.” With that, Theo's dark eyes penetrated through mine one moretime before he turned around and strode out of the pavilion. I heard his boots echoing on the stairsbefore Jake even began to speak.From the bottom of the stairs, Theo called, “Perceval!” and the snake took off heading down thestairs, pausing at the top to look back at me. I signaled for him to go to his rightful owner.“Beta Jake,” Lasked, trying to hide my nervousness. “What is my punishment this time then?”“Well, Miss, I'm afraid I have no choice...” he paused, and my heart sank as he continued, “but to putyou in a position where we can keep you safe until the next blood moon when we can replant thedreamberry. So... you'll be returning to your previous assignment as of tonight.” He said it with asolemn face, but I just felt that he was messing with me alittle.My mouth dropped open. “Wait-I'm going back to stay with Prince Theo? Right next to him?”“That's right,” Jake confirmed for me. “And... you will be his personal attendant again. That way, wewill be able to guarantee your security. Then, you will be able to help replace the berry you took,and no harm will be done.”My eyes went to the berry plant. Although I hadn't quite worked out what it did for the prince, itwas quite clear to me that what I ate was far more important than I'd realized. I could have pickedfrom other plants, yet I chose the one that was most special.The only good news was, for that reason, I knew I would be safe for a while.“This way please,” Jake said, and he turned quickly on his heel to move toward the door.I followed along behind him, not speaking, and when we stepped out into the moonlight, I sawTheo in the distance, walking quickly back toward the castle.Perceval was slithering behind him, but as I walked behind the Beta, I couldn't help but give a lowwhistle and wait.Immediately, the snake turned around and shot back at me at full speed. I couldn't help the lightlaughter that escaped my lips as he fell into step beside me.Theo paused for a second, but then he continued without turning around. I wondered how he feltabout his pet pythonchoosing me over him.Maybe I shouldn't irritate the prince in such a manner, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.He took my first kiss, and this was the least I could do to get back at him.And it was too much fun.Jake told me he would take care of everything- and he surelydid.When I got back, the chefs had already prepared freshly cooked meals just for me and Brook, andthe palace healer was also sent to ensure that Brook was okay.I knew Brook was doing much better when I noticed that she had helped to get my bags ready."You didn't have to do the packing for me, Brook. But thank you so much!”"You're so welcome!” she beamed. For some reason, I thought I caught a hint of mischievousness inher smile. “I'll miss you! Hopefully, I still get to see you sometimes.” She gave me a hug before I leftour shared room.When I hauled my luggage back to the side chamber I'd recently left, I was in a much better moodthanks to the delicious food-until I saw Sophia stepping out of the room.She had all of her friends with her, and each of them was carrying one of her suitcases. I'd neverseen so much luggage in all of my life! The room was ample size for me with my two small bags, butI was wondering how she'd managed to get allof her clothes into the closet."Well, look who it is,” Sophia said, glaring at me. “The shameless girl who will do whatever it takes tohave her way. You tramp!”Ordinarily, I would just ignore her, but something had gotten. into me earlier, and I wasn't willing tojust let her walk away without addressing at least part of what she'd done."Why do you insist on being difficult for no reason?” I asked her. “You made that up about Brookand I not being able to eat, and now, you're trying to tell me I'm being shameful for doing whatwe're here to do-get close to the prince.”Sophia wasn't carrying any of her bags herself, so she was able to stomp her foot and fold her armsacross her chest, humphing in front of me in the hallway. “I didn't think the pair of you neededanything else to eat-with thighs like that,” she said, looking down at my legs.I rolled my eyes at her. I had shapely, toned legs from all of the walking and climbing I did in thewoods. And while Brook wasn't as sporty as me, she had a slender yet curvy figure that made herstand out even among a group of beautiful girls.“You're ridiculous!” I told her."And you-if you feel that you need to throw yourself at Princel Theo because that's why we are here,why have you kept bothering Prince Warren? Leave him alone! He has nothing to do with thiscontest, and yet you're constantly flirting with him as if you think he’s the one you're here to marryand bear a child with!"I opened my mouth to argue with her, but she had a point-we were there for Prince Theo after all.So... why was she so concerned about Prince Warren?Was it possible that she was actually...?Rather than trying to guess which prince this brat of an Alpha’ s daughter was trying to impress inthe middle of the hallway, I leaned forward and whispered, “Sophia, like you said, I'm a girl who willdo whatever it takes to have my way, so stop bothering me, or...”I didn't need to finish my sentence. She was already taken aback. She looked at me warily and herlips were pressed tightly together as if I would do something to hurt her right at that moment.Happy to see my bluff seemed to be working, I took the chance to move past her and head into theroom.The strong scent of gardenia perfume hit me right in the face, making my nose wrinkle immediately.It smelled as if Sophial had dumped an entire bottle of her favorite fragrance in the room, and notonly did it remind me of her, it made my head hurt.I quickly went about changing the bedding, thinking there. was no way I would be sleeping in thesame bed that she'd just vacated without doing so, and then gave everything a good scrub down.When I was done, the room smelled like citrus cleaner-and gardenia.Exhausted, I headed to the shower to rinse off from the long night, and while I was there, my mindwent back overeverything that had happened. No matter how hard I tried to hide from him, I continued to end upright next to PrinceTheo.And then... I thought about what had happened in the pavilion.I couldn't believe that he had actually kissed me!All of this time, I'd been dreaming of that one person I'd met in the forest all of those years ago,thinking of what it would be like to have his lips on mine. Now, the possibility of sharing my first kisswith him, whom I had all of the reason in the world to believe was actually Prince Warren, had beenruined.Most importantly, to Theo, he probably didn't even consider it as a kiss! He was after that stupidblood of mine, and that was

1.Anger and embarrassment rushed through me, and I just wanted to scream. But of course I couldn't,being next door to the prince. Closing my eyes, I tried my best to let the negative emotions fall offme along with the gentle water.Finally, I dragged my exhausted body out of the shower.I rang out my hair, twisting it up and fastening it with a clip. Then, I wrapped a large towel aroundmyself and headed out into the bedroom, intending to grab some pajamas from my yet-to-be—unpacked luggage.But when I dug them out of my bag, I noticed a few other pieces of clothing tumbling out.My eyes almost popped out when I saw what they were.There was some sexy lingerie in the pile where I'd placed my nightgowns! There was also piece ofpaper. It was Brook's writing:“Ciana, when my family got word of why we were summoned here, my sister bought these andmailed them to me. But I think you will have better use for them now. Love, Brook."I felt my own face flare up. Brook totally misunderstood the whole situation!Before I got the chance to put on anything, I heard a quick knock on my door. “No!” A bleat cameout of my mouth, but by then, it was too late. The door was opened.Theo was standing only a couple of feet away, staring at me, his eyes slightly widened, his mouthagape, as he realized he'd walked in on me in a state of undress.Quickly, I dove for my bed, pulling the comforter back and sliding in beneath the blankets, rippingthem up to my chin. “What are you doing in here?”It was then that I noticed the sexy lingerie was still on the bed, and I could only imagine what hewas thinking my intentions were.He cocked his head to the side and stared at them for a moment as my face heated up. I didn’teven bother to explain. Could I just dig a hole and bury myself in it?His startled expression faded quickly, and then it was as if it was no big deal at all to him, both thefact that I was wearing nothing but a bath towel and that I had all that embarrassing lingerie.He stood near the foot of the bed, next to one of the posts, staring at me, as if it were nothing at allto him to be here, telling me what to do at this hour.“Ciana,” he said, his tone commanding, “Be my woman.