Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 631

Chapter 131: The Ambassador

*Lena*®

Xander planted a rough, hungry kiss on my lips and any shyness or apprehension vanished in aninstant.

“I missed you," he said into my neck as I continued to clutch him against me, my fingers curling intothe fabric of his shirt.

"How long have you been in Mirage?" I asked when I finally pulled away to look up at him. He wasclean-shaven and dressed in casual trousers and a button-down shirt, with a white undershirtbeneath. He looked more like a random resident of Mirage than an Alpha King, but I was more thanokay with that. I reached up involuntarily and ran my fingers through his black curls, which werebrushed back away from his face. He'd gotten a haircut since the last time I saw him. He looked...Well, he looked so much healthier, and happier, since we'd parted ways after the war.

"Only a few hours,” he replied, leaning down to press a kiss to my forehead. “I'm on my way to meetwith someone, actually"

"Meet with someone?" I laughed, pushing away from him. “Was that someone not me?"

“Well, I had to meet with them first, and they're on my way to the castle,” he smiled with a shrug. “Ididn't expect to run into you, but I'm glad I did. I think you should go with me.”

He took my hand and began to lead me away, drinking deeply from the lemonade I'd bought forMom.

"Who is it?" I asked.

“The ambassador for the vampires who are settling in the east," he replied. I halted, an uneasyfeeling settling in my stomach.

"What?"

He turned to face me again, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he totally understood myhesitation.

“There are a lot of them," he began, “and some, especially the families with children, have expressedthe desire to spread out. There were four kingdoms of lower vampires, and they don't all get along,as well as those who had been enslaved by the king for... centuries. There's just not enough room inCrimson Creek for all of them, and your dad is planning on relocating some of the families toMirage."

“My dad? You saw him?"

“I did," he said, blowing out his breath. “He doesn't like me very much, but I told him I'd check in onthe ambassador. The vampires will start arriving at the end of the summer, from what I've been told.Winter Forest has also offered to accept at least three dozen families...”

He continued to talk as we started walking again. How hadn't I known this was happening? Momknew, surely. She had to have known.

It wasn't that I was unaccepting of the idea that vampires would be living close by. The lowervampires were a totally different type of people compared to the Death Walkers who had battledagainst the allied forces for weeks. They were... good, at least the ones I'd met and grown to love.But something was nagging at me as we walked through Old Town.

We stopped in front of an unassuming stone cottage along a cobblestone road. It had white-washed window frames and baskets of flowers hanging near the doorframe. A bistro table andchairs sat outside, basking in the shade that was filtering through the shade of several magnoliatrees.

But thick curtains were drawn behind the windows, to keep the light out.

My heart was in my throat when Xander knocked on the door. It opened a crack, and whoever wasbehind it paused for a moment before opening the door wide enough for us to see who was behindit.

My mouth popped open, and I closed it immediately, raising my eyebrows at the tall vampire malewho stood in the doorway.

“Lincoln,” I said, and he nodded at me, a ghost of a smile touching his lips.

I could hear Xander and Lincoln speaking in low tones around the corner. They were sitting in thesnug kitchen at a breakfast table, and every once in a while I heard the sound of paper rustling.Carly stretched her arms over her head then snuggled deeper into the floral couch were sitting on. Ilooked down at the baby she'd placed in my arms, his cheek resting against the curve of mystomach as he made little suckling motions with his mouth in his sleep. He was beautiful, fat andhealthy with a healthy head of dark hair. Carly sighed as she looked down at him, a soft smiletouching her lips.

“Caleb was my father's name,” she smiled weakly, meeting my eyes. “My mom says he looks just likeme when I was a baby."

Carly had recently been reunited with her mother, who was living with them in the cottage but wasout running errands. I could see the sadness behind Carly's eyes when she mentioned her father,and my heart squeezed with regret. If we'd found her sooner...

"You want to know what happened, right?" she said, meeting my eye.

I nodded, unable to form a vocal reply. I adjusted little Caleb's weight in my arms and settled into acomfortable position on the couch. I had a feeling this was going to be a long story.

“Oliver said you were also a Morhan student,” she began, a soft sigh leaving her lips. “So I assumeyou know why I was in Crimson Creek in the first place.”

I nodded, wondering if she could read the conflicting emotions playing across my face.

“I was rooming with three other Morhan students in the village. We went out to the bar one night,and a man approached us, telling us about a party at one of the estates. They wanted to go, and Iwas too afraid to stay in our apartment alone at night"

"Why?"

“Just that... well, strange things had been happening since I arrived. I felt like I was being watched.We were testing the soil in the village one day and had traveled out past the village to the hills, andfound, uhm-"

“Blood root,” I said, and her eyes shot to mine as she nodded.

"Yes... but I didn't know it then. I thought it was a moss of some kind, so during one of my breaks Iwent back to Morhan and tried to research it, but I couldn't replace anything about it in the textsavailable in the library. But I found one mention of something matching its description in thearchives, but the book itself wasn't available to check out from the library. I had to get approvalfrom the administration.”

“I tried to check it out as well,” I added, “but it was gone. We found it with your things in MaxwellRadcliffe’s attic."

Her eyes darkened at the mention of his name.

"Did you read the book?" she asked. I sighed and nodded, a look of understanding passing betweenus. “Useless, right? That's why I began to ask questions. Our soil samples and the samples of bloodroot we'd sent back to Morhan for testing were lost, and when my partners and I asked about it, theuniversity had no idea what we were talking about.”

Caleb let out a long, drawn-out sigh as he snuggled deeper into my chest. Carly smiled weakly athim, her eyes glistening for a moment as she continued, “My roommates went to that party. I wentback to our apartment and gathered my books in my backpack to go study in the foyer of the hotel,which felt like a safer place than where we were staying. But when I stepped out onto the street Ifelt this... pull. I can't explain it. I remember turning to hills and hearing... voices. It sounded like myparents, and then like my boyfriend back at Morhan, like they were calling out to me, growing moreand more frantic."

Tears welled in her eyes as she sucked in her breath. I could sense Lincoln staring at us, and I turnedmy head to look through the doorway to the sitting room and across the hall into the kitchen.Lincoln's face was grave, but he turned back to Xander.

“I went out into the hills. And I... I don't remember what happened. I remember getting disoriented,and then feeling like I couldn't breathe. I used to get panic attacks, and I think that's whathappened. I passed out, and woke up... I woke up in the attic.” She paused before continuing, “Iwasn't the only person there. There were two others, two other women. One of the women wasdragged away shortly after I woke up. I can still hear her-hear her screaming. She didn't come back,but the other... she had more freedom.”

"What do you mean?”

“Maxwell liked her-a lot. She did whatever he wanted as long as she had access to the rest of thehouse. I think she was doing it to keep him from... he, uh... he was interested in me. He liked that Iwas afraid of him. I couldn't help it. I didn't understand what he was doing to the woman he kept atthat house but when I finally did, it was too late for me. The woman came back to the attic onemorning with a bite mark on her shoulder. It was gruesome, worse than I'd ever seen. I knewMaxwell was biting her, feeding from her, but this was different. She got really sick, fast. Maxwelltold me to heal her, but I didn't know how. I asked him for bandages and he grabbed my arm andcut open my hand. He made her... he made her drink my blood. He was so angry when... when shedidn't get better. I didn't understand what he was wanting from me. She started to get aggressivewith me and Maxwell removed her from the attic, and I never saw her again. He brought anotherwoman a day later. Her name was Jen, but she was different. She was... looking forward to whateverMaxwell was planning for her. She wanted it."

“Jen?” I breathed, shock coursing through my veins. I hadn't noticed Xander in the doorway until heshifted his weight, and the floorboards creaked beneath him. I looked over my shoulder to where hewas standing next to Lincoln, who nodded at Carly to continue, pain lingering behind his eyes.

“I don't know what happened to her"

“We do," Xander said flatly. “We can talk about that later.”

Carly swallowed and nodded her head, tears trailing down her cheeks.

"Maxwell came to get me one night and took me out into the hills. He was angry. I thought he wasletting me go, but we came to this old temple in the hills and I remember him pulling a red stonefrom his pocket and mumbling something before he tossed it towards the temple. I felt the groundtremble and suddenly I was... someone appeared, dressed in a black cloak. I couldn't see their face.Maxwell said I wasn't the one, but he had no more use for me. The cloaked person grabbed me inan instant and the world just went dark-" Carly began to cry.

I heard Lincoln whisper something to Xander as I rose from the couch and gently placed Caleb inCarly's arms. She calmed down almost immediately, hiccuping as she wrapped her arms around thesleeping baby.

“I live nearby,” I whispered. “We can talk again some other time."

Carly looked up at me and nodded, but I could still see the fear in her eyes. She'd been through anightmare.

But she was here. She was safe.

I walked out of the cottage with Xander. He took my hand as we walked back toward the trailleading to the castle. Neither of us spoke until we reached the sprawling front garden whereeverything was a rich green dampled with flowers in full bloom. He squeezed my hand as we nearedthe castle.

“That was terrible,” I said, my voice cracking around the words.

“I know. She's safe now," he replied, but his voice wavered. “We all have scars from this war, somedeeper than others.”

I caught a flash of red in the garden and turned, my eyes going wide.

“What are you doing here?" I asked.