Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 384

Chapter 42: That's Not Helping

“Forty-seven,” I said, doing my best to avoid the thorns on this long-stemmed rose as I clipped thestem with a pair of shears.

I had gotten them from the garden shed. I'd actually found several pairs and was trying each ofthem out to see which worked best. So far, that one was my favorite pair. It cut fairly cleanly, but itwas still taking forever to harvest all of these roses. The stems were covered with thorns.

And I hadn't found any gardening gloves.

Theo was standing off to the side, and I had to assume he was looking around, trying to figure out ifthere were any tunnels or secret doorways out there, but I was a little. annoyed that he wasn'thelping me. He was standing in the shade of a large flowering tree, while I was sweating beneaththe hot sun.

"We heard from other servants that you're forced to work. What's going on, my lady?” Brook askedworriedly. I turned to see her approaching along with Jake. It was clear from the way that sheaddressed me that she still hadn't remembered who we really were or what we were doing here.Jake looked the same as before as well, so he also didn’t know.

“I am picking roses for the king's wedding,” I replied, snipping another stem and removing thethorns before I nestled this one on top of the others-number forty-eight.

"How many do you have to pick?” Jake asked, eyeing the basket that was already very full. I hadseen a couple more in the shed, so I had a feeling I'd make them all fit, but it would be close."Uhm, four hundred,” I said, rounding up.

"Get out of town!” Brook said, and I almost laughed. She was too sweet to swear.

“That's right,” I told her. “I'm about an eighth of the way there.”

“This is not your job, my lady!” Brook grabbed the shears from my hand. “I'll call our guards andwe'll take care of this for you.”

Jake also agreed, “Brook is right, my lady.”

I shook my head and sighed. “She... I mean, the king's fiancée, wants to humiliate me; that's why shegave me this task. So if she replaces out that I'm not working, I might be in more trouble.”

And I needed her to lower her guard with me, thinking I wouldn't fight back, so that it would beeasier for us to execute our plan.

"But you'll be out here forever, working by yourself,” Brook noted. She turned and gave Theo a hardlook, but he wasn't even paying any attention to us from what I could tell. “Do you have any extrashears? Please, at least let us help you then.”

"Okay, thank you!” I nodded at the shears sitting on the ground. “You don't have to, but it would benice.”

"Of course!” Brook said, practically skipping over to me to pick up the shears off of the ground."What about gloves?”

“Sadly, no. I can't replace any. Just be careful. Some of these thorns are very long,” I warned them.

“I see that,” Brook noted.

The two of them went down to the next rose bush and began to cut the roses, making a pile on theground.

They were working so hard. Brook continuously wiped her brow with the back of her hand becauseshe was beginning to perspire. Jake looked like he might melt, too.

I looked over at Theo and noted that he was still standing in the shade, looking bored. “I haveanother pair of shears, you know,” I called to him, stretching my back.

"So?" he asked. “In case you break those?”

I practically growled at him. “You know, you could help, right?”

He shook his head. “No. I don't do such things. Never have.”

Irritated, I tried to remind myself that eventually we would get out of here, and he'd be the princeagain. I needed to be nice to him. “What sort of things is it that you don’t do?

Manual labor or helping your friends?”

"Picking flowers.”

I didnt feel like letting him get away with being a prima donna at the moment. “I'm sorry, remindme again. Who is it that wants this to work? Who wants his precious berry? Is it me? No, I don'tthink so.”

He grunted, but at least he came over and picked up the shears. Dropping to a knee, he began tocut through the stems, and I had to turn my face away to keep him from seeing my satisfied smile.“Ouch!” Brook cried, shaking her hand. Tears formed in her eyes, and I could see that her hand wasbleeding

Before I could say anything, Jake was attending to her.

"You okay? Let me look at it for you.” He gently took her hand and began to examine the wound,and I saw Brook's cheeks turning pink as she glanced up at him through her eyelashes.

Were they flirting with one another?

I couldn't help but smile at how cute they were. Jake pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, gentlycleaned the wound, and then wrapped it up. It was so adorable. For a moment, I was jealous of howthe sparks flew between them.

“That's so sweet,” I muttered, but Theo didn't even acknowledge that I was speaking. But knowinghow observant he was, I was sure he had to have seen it-even though he pretended not to.

A few moments later, a large thorn pierced my skin, biting through my thumb and cutting it deeply.“Ouch!” I shouted, shaking my hand and immediately shoving the wound into my mouth. I pulled itout to look at it. “Dang, that hurt!”

I looked over at Theo, and he hadn't even turned his head.

“I cut myself pretty deep on a thorn!” I explained to him.

"Sounds painful.” He went about his work, not even lifting his gaze.

“It's bleeding profusely!” I told him.

“Try not to get any on your clothes. It'll stain.” He snapped through another stem.

“Seriously?” I mumbled to myself as I wrapped my hand in the hem of my dress. I didn't haveanything else. I squeezed it tightly until it stopped bleeding, and then went back to work.

“It's about time you got back to it,” Theo said, shaking his head at me, like I had been slackingbecause I didn’t want to work.

The nerve of this man! Had I actually had sex with him? I must not have fully arrived here mentallywhen that had happened.

“You know,” I said, as I moved to another row of roses, “if you let me borrow your gloves, maybe I'dbe less likely to poke myself again.” I looked at the pair of thick black gloves. he had on and thenmet his dark gaze.

“Not on your life,” he said, shaking his head. “Don’t even think about it.”

My eyebrows arched. I didn't understand why he was so protective of those gloves. He'd gotten somad at me before, when I'd simply picked them up while we were in his room that night when I'dfirst become his personal attendant.

The only time he hadn't worn them was when we first arrived in this world and we were bothnaked...

"Why not?” I asked, pushing it a little. I knew better, but I was so frustrated that he hadn't helped forso long, and then he hadn't even cared when I'd ripped my thumb open. “Why can't I borrow them?Lend them to me, Theo!”

“No!” His tone was sharp. “Now, knock it off!”

Now, I was growing angry. “Fine-if you don’t want to lend them to me, I guess I'll just have to takethem.” I knew there was no way in the world I was going to be strong enough to overpower himand take those gloves off of his hands, but at that moment, I was impulsive and I didnt care.Without thinking, I reached for his hand.

Immediately, Theo yanked away from me, and I saw anger rise up in him like nothing I'd ever seenbefore, not even when he had killed those would-be assassins.

His eyes began to glow and then, suddenly, he shifted, his uniform tearing into a thousand pieces asa giant black wolf with red streaks stood next to me, towering over me. The gloves in question wereshredded and on the ground beside me.

I fell backward onto my bottom, staring up at him, my heart racing as I wondered if I'd truly pushedhim too far that time. Did I really make him this upset?

Maybe I shouldn't have been so forceful. I should have let it go. Recently, Theo had been a lot moreapproachable and I almost forgotten that... he was the ruthless Dark Prince after all.

He hovered over me for a moment before growling and lifting his front paw. I closed my eyes,waiting for the blow to land, anticipating that he would rip my face off.

Instead, he leaped over me, and when I opened my eyes again, I felt a whoosh of wind and lookedup to see the tip of his tail clearing my head. He went to the first rose bush and began to tear itapart, ripping it out of the ground, red blooms flying up into the air and snowing down all over theplace, many of them landing on me as I stared at him in shock.

After that rose bush was destroyed, he quickly moved to the next and the next. I caught Jake's eyesas he yanked Brook out of the way, staring after the giant wolf in shock. I could tell he wasconsidering whether or not he should shift and take him on, but Theo had nearly worked his waythrough all of the rose bushes by then, and all around us there was nothing but destruction.

When the eruption was over, Theo disappeared behind what was left of a bush that no longer hadroses on it, and I had to think that he had shifted back into his human form and was on his knees.Part of me wanted to go to him, to apologize, to see if he'd cut himself at all with all of that, but Icouldn't move. I knew that I was in shock. I hadn't been expecting any of that, and here he was,destroying the entire garden.

Just as the ramifications of what had happened registered in my mind, I heard a booming, angryvoice behind me.

"What the hell has happened here?” Sophia demanded. “What have you done, you vulgar woman?”I turned to look at her, and it seemed that her eyes were about to bulge from her head, she was soangry. She looked even more upset than Theo had right before he shifted.

“I-I'm so sorry,” I began, noting she had a half dozen guards with her. “I didn't mean-"

“Shut up!” she demanded. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You tore up my roses so I couldn'tuse them in the wedding! You don't even want us to get married! You're trying to sabotage mebecause the king chose me instead of you!”

“No, that's not true,” I told her, but there was no use. She didn't believe me. Honestly, if I were her, Iwouldn't either.

“That's it!" she snarled. “Guards, take her to the dungeon!”

The guards moved toward me, and I couldn't help but sink a bit. Why was I always getting thrown inthe damn. dungeon?

“Not”

I heard Theo's voice and turned to look in the direction where he'd disappeared. The bushes hidmost of him, but he was naked from the waist up at least as he said, “I did it, not her. If you want tothrow someone in the dungeon, take me.”