Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 564

Chapter 64 : Shadow of Darkness

*Lena*®

My chest squeezed as I watched Xander and my mom speaking in low tones on the terrace. I'd beentrying to make my way toward them for the better part of five minutes but found myself stuck inmeaningless conversations with practically everyone in the room.

He'd motioned me over, but I was stuck in place, chewing on a dry waffle I hadn't had the chance todress with butter or syrup because of my cousin Kat's extensive questions about the reception.She was the youngest daughter of my great-aunt Vicky and was heavily pregnant with her thirdbaby. She'd fallen asleep during the wedding ceremony and hadn't felt well enough to attend thereception, but was begging everyone for any tidbits of drama or gossip they might have seen orheard.

Thankfully, Oliver and Charlie stumbled into the kitchen, both of them looking worse for wear andreeking of seaweed. Maeve cried out, pointing to the sand they dragged in behind them, andsuddenly the entire room erupted in noisy exclamations as several different conversationsconverged into one.

I exhaled through my nose and sidestepped around a few people toward the coffee bar, pouringmyself a mug while balancing my plate in my free hand. The wedding guests outside of the family,those who stayed in the guest houses and cabanas that dotted the palace grounds, would beattending a formal breakfast laid out in the ballroom.

Will and Hollis, I realized with a sigh of relief, weren't here at all. They'd most likely left for theirhoneymoon a few hours earlier, catching a private yacht to wherever the hell they were going.

I had just turned to head out onto the terrace when someone small tugged on the sleeve of myshirt. I looked down, seeing a sly-looking Luke peering back up at me with his steel gray eyes."What do you want?"

“I know something you don't know!" he teased, batting his eyelashes at me.

I narrowed my eyes at him, shifting my weight and looking down at him expectantly. “Oh? Are yougoing to tell me?"

“My information comes at a cost," he drawled, sticking out his lower lip. “I want to play hide andseek."

"With me? I'm too old. There are plenty of other kids around to play with."

“I don't like them,” he retorted, crossing his skinny arms over his chest. “I want to play with you!""How about you tell me first, and then we can play"

“No! I want to play right now!"

I set my unfinished breakfast down on the coffee bar and glared at him, flaring my nostrils as Irelented to his request.

"One round, and then you tell me what you know. And it better be good."

“It's about your boyfriend," he said with a sly smile, then made little smooching sounds at me.

I ground my teeth, glancing over at Xander, who was staring right at me. “The adults need me, Luke.One round, in the back foyer. That's it."

He beamed and called out to the rest of the children, who were using the commotion Oliver andCharlie had started to scream and run between the legs of the adults without being corrected. Myears were ringing by the time Luke and I reached the foyer, which was less extravagant than themain foyer at the front entrance of the palace, but still had plenty of places to hide behind thickvelvet curtains and several cabinets, tables, and plush couches near the open doors to the backgarden.

Nine children belonging to a variety of my extended family members looked up at me.

“You have to be it, Lena," one of Keaton and Myla's youngest children said, clapping her handsexcitedly.

“I don't want to be it!" I cried, playfully sticking out my lower lip.

“But you're the biggest, and the super oldest!" said one of my second or third cousins, a little boywith curly blonde hair.

I thought he was one of Sarah's, Aunt Vicky's middle child, but I wasn't sure. There were so manylittle ones in that branch of the family.

"Super oldest?" I said, pretending to cry.

Several of the children squealed in delight at my expense.

“Lena and I will both be it," came Xander's voice. I stiffened, surprised, but then relaxed as he cameup behind me. All the children looked up at him with a stroke of fear lingering behind their eyes.“You have twenty seconds, starting... now!"

No one moved, all of the kids stunned into stillness. He leaned over me, baring his teeth andgrowling loud enough to make me jump.

All of the kids screamed and began running around in a panic, but their initial surprise dissolved infrantic giggles as Xander took me by the shoulders and turned me around.

“You're supposed to close your eyes,” he said, nudging me softly in the ribs.

I closed my eyes, chuckling low in my throat as the sound of childlike chatter mingled with thecurtains straining under the weight of children ripping them along the rod and cabinets openingand closing.

"How many are there?" he whispered.

“Fifteen, sixteen—" 1 counted loudly, then grinned, shrugging my shoulders. “Nine kids, I think.Maybe more."

“Damn, this is going to take all afternoon.”

“We can pretend to not replace any of them at all and give their parents some peace for the rest of theday,” I suggested, and Xander laughed, but then a small voice burst out, “That's more than twentyseconds!"

“You can't even count, Amanda!” someone replied, and Xander and I both sputtered with laughteras we called out, “Twenty!” and turned around.

“Luke is the one I want,” I whispered before we broke apart and began following the gigglesthroughout the room. It wasn't hard to replace the kids. They were all really, really bad at hide-n-seek.But after ten minutes, none of us could replace Luke.

"Where is he?" Xander demanded, dangling a piece of chocolate in a gold wrapper he'd found in hispocket in front of the eight children looking up at us.

“Luke is a cheater. He hid outside!"

Xander tossed the chocolate to the little boy who'd snitched on Luke, and the rest of the kidswhined for candy, to which Xander directed them to a bowl along the hallway leading to the foyer.“Everyone is going to turn on you for telling the kids where the candy is," I teased as we watchedthem run toward the bowl in question.

“They can't reach it-" but Xander was silenced as one of the boys got on his hands and knees whileKeaton and Myla's youngest daughter used him as a stool. She grabbed the entire bowl off thehigh-wall table and dumped the contents onto the floor.

"Oh, Goddess, we gotta get out of here,” Xander said, looking a little pale.

“Let's replace Luke," I said, taking him by the hand and leading him out of the foyer.

Luke was the family spy, and his skills in the art were practiced and polished to a fine edge. Wespent nearly half an hour combing the garden for him without a hint of his whereabouts

“Do you think he's even out here?" I hissed, growing impatient.

Xander sniffed dramatically, then screwed up his face in a scowl. “I can smell him!" he soundedloudly, and a bush rustled about ten feet away from us, a little giggle filtering through the foliage.Xander arched his brow at me, then pounced into the bush. A scuffle ensued, and after two entireminutes, Xander rose from the bush, sticks and leaves sticking in his hair while holding Luke up bythe collar of his shirt. Luke's feet were dangling in the air as Xander stepped out of the bush, dustinghimself off before lowering Luke to the ground.

“You guys suck at this game," he laughed, shaking himself off like a wet dog before turning to skipinto the house.

“Not so fast!" I snapped.

Luke looked over his shoulder at me, a boyish gleam in his eyes. “Fair is fair,” he snickered, thenturned around with a finger outstretching and pointing at Xander. “He has something in his pocket.”“I have lots of things in my pockets," Xander said with a shrug. “That's not really a secret.”

“You have something for Lena in your pocket!"

Xander ran his tongue along the inside of his lower lip, watching Luke with a sudden gleam ofmarked disapproval behind his eyes. He c****d his head, a silent challenge.

“I'm going to say what it is!"

“No, you're not-" Xander said sternly, but Luke stuck his tongue out at him.

“Luke, stop—"

“It's a little bag with a ring in it! A big, ugly ring!"

"What?" I asked, but Xander scoffed, his cheeks reddening.

“It's not ugly, you little monster. Get out of here before I toss you over the railing!"

Luke rolled his eyes and started to skip away, but he looked over his shoulder again at Xander, eyesnarrowed.

“My brothers have dangled me over the railing dozens of times. I'm not scared of you!"

Xander's eyes blazed a fiery amber, his teeth bared. I swear I saw a shadow of darkness envelop him,something I'd never seen before. I was thrown off by it, a chill of unease rippling over my skin as Itook a single step away from him, and towards Luke.

Luke looked him up and down, then rolled his eyes once more before walking away, whistling.Xander calmed, his eyes losing their glow. He looked at me, blinking a few times before the tensionleft his shoulders.

“What the hell was that?" I exclaimed, but Xander only shrugged and dusted a few rogue leavesfrom his shirt.

“That kid is a problem,” he said sternly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I've never seen you do that."

“Do what?"

“The, uh, whatever you just did.”

He pursed his lips, his eyes leaving mine to glance back at the palace once more before he turnedand looked at me fully.

“I have powers like you, but I don't use them often. I can suck the joy right out of someone if Iwanted to."

“You're joking"

“Not at all. I can overwhelm most people with my powers. Some members of your family are theexception.”

"What do you mean?”

“White Queen blood."

I stared at him. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

“I did say I'd tell you everything, I figured that was a good place to start, given the situation. Icouldn't have hurt the kid much, and obviously I would never. But I could scare him a bit if I wantedto. He's immune in a few different ways, it seems.”

"He has three older brothers,” I said, my voice wavering. I was shocked, but not totally surprised. I'dcaught glimpses of his powers but thought it was some illusion, some trick of my own mind.

“I do have a ring in my pocket," he said suddenly.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words didn't appear on the tip of my mouth before he couldcontinue.

“Follow me."

He turned on his heel and began walking toward the stairs that led down to the beach.

“What the hell?" I whispered, and followed.