Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 652

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 652

CHAPTER 152 : MORE THAN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED

*Oliver*

Mirage, Five Years After Lena's Wedding

Sunlight poured through the kitchen windows. All of Elaine's flowers were in bloom. Early springroses trembled against the glass in the soft breeze. From the windows, I could see Old Town risingout of the blinding sunlight reflecting in a shimmer against the moisture from last night'sthunderstorm. The kids had slept terribly, which meant I had also slept like absolute s**t.Thankfully, Elaine was due home in a few hours. She'd spent the weekend away, enjoying some timewith her twin sister at some spa near the port of Valoria while Abigail was visiting from Egoren. I'dbeen the one pushing for my wife to spend some time away, to take a break from the kids. I told herI could handle it, that everything would be fine.

I'd just lifted my coffee to my lips when a crash rang out from upstairs. I waited for a moment, mycoffee barely touching my mouth as muffled voices drifted down the staircase. Then, a squirmish.Then, Lucy's high-pitched screech of pure fury sent a tremor through the stone walls of the house.“Isaac!” I called out, taking a quick sip of coffee as I stalked out of the kitchen and into the foyer. Inearly tripped over a pile of toys at the bottom of the stairs then gingerly made my way up thestaircase while stepping over more discarded toys, construction paper, and a variety of children’sclothing.

Lucy continued to screech, her voice a high-pitched squeal of frustration as I finally reached the topof the staircase and struggled with the baby gate while my kids battled it out just out of sight. Ibeelined it for the back bedroom that Elaine and I had turned into a playroom. The door was slightlyajar, so I pushed it open, more toys blocking the doors progress.

“Isaac, what—"

“Daddy, help!” Isaac, our four-year-old son, whimpered as Lucy tangled her tiny fingers in hisshaggy blond hair, her legs crossed around his neck.

“Lucy!” I grumbled as I knelt and untwined her fingers from his hair.

I'd have sworn she hissed at me, baring her teeth as I tried to pry her loose from her angry grasp onher brother. Lucy was almost two and so far had proven to have a mean streak if provoked. Shepointed and babbled something terse and incoherent at Isaac, who paled as he reached up to rubhis head. “What's going on up here?”

“Lucy took one of my trains, and I took it back,” he pouted, his lower lip trembling. “She bit me!” Heheld up his arm, where a red mark was puffed up against his suntanned skin. “So I pushed her, andthen she knocked over my train set-"

Lucy cut in with more incoherent words of her own, her eyes narrowed on her brother. I sighedheavily, reaching out with one hand to run my hand through Isaac's hair, Lucy perched on my otherarm. “Everybody's okay—"

“Mama!” Lucy cried, her fingers clutching my shirt.

Isaac looked up at me, his blue eyes misting with tears.

“She's coming home today, okay? We're gonna walk down to the train station to pick her up in afew hours... after lunch, and after your naps—"

“NO NAP!" Lucy screamed into my ear.

I winced, trying not to grind my teeth as I pressed her against my chest and gave Isaac asympathetic look. A nap was exactly what she needed at the moment. I was sure it was hard beingtwo, and even harder after spending a night woken repeatedly by a thunderstorm and without amother's touch to comfort her. I couldn't blame her for her attitude. I also wanted her mama back.Desperately.

“I was going to make a snack, maybe some popcorn. Do you want some?” I asked Isaac as I turnedto walk out of the playroom.

Lucy's eyes were already growing heavy as she laid her head against my shoulder, her glossy redringlets tickling my jaw as she stuck her thumb in her mouth. Isaac perked up at the mention of hisfavorite snack and nodded his head enthusiastically, following me into Lucy's bedroom. I laid her inher bed, and she surrendered, her arms splayed on the mattress and eyes open to only slits as Imotioned for Isaac to back quietly out of the room.

I gathered all of the toys off the stairs on my way down, tossing them into the toy box in the fronthallway. Isaac skipped ahead of me into the kitchen. He knew how to make popcorn. He was prettyindependent now, which was an exciting change, but it also broke my heart. He was born exactlynine months after I had met my mate at Lena's wedding.

I smiled to myself at the thought, shaking my head a bit as I poured myself a fresh cup of coffee.Elaine and I hadn't waited to get to know each first at all, really. We'd gotten married only a fewdays after Lena's wedding. We bought this house and spent over a year renovating it. Both Isaacand Lucy had been born in this house, and neither Elaine nor I had plans to move into somethinglarger or more regal. It was home-the Alpha of Drogomor’s home.

Yeah, about that. Uncle Rowan had bestowed the title of Alpha of Drogomor onto me shortly afterLena departed for Egoren. The Drogomor pack was small and laid claim to the territory called OldTown on the outskirts of Mirage.

It hadn't always been this way. I thought often of the days when my grandpa Ethan and great uncleTalon ruled as Alpha and Beta... how different things were then, for everyone. How much harderthings were for them than they were for us.

I attended pack meetings every week, conferred with the neighboring territories, and saw to thewelfare of my pack on a daily basis, Elaine by my side as my Luna through all of it. But I still had thetime to walk Isaac to school, to take the kids to the park in the evenings, and to spend my nightscuddled in bed with my wife. I hadn't had to face off with another Alpha, or wage war-at least notyet.

Maybe not ever.

I never pictured myself as an Alpha, but maybe my notion of Alphas was skewed because of myprivileged upbringing. Drogomor was humble and cozy, and the house of its Alpha had creaky pipesand a washing machine that sounded like it was trying to up and walk out the door every time I rana load of blankets. The walls weren't dripping in gold and finery, or cloaked in dismal dark andsecrets.

My pack... my home. It was peaceful. I was at peace.

Finally.

“We need to clean up the house before Mama gets home,” I said as I poured popcorn into a largesteel bowl and slid it across the kitchen island, where Isaac was waiting with open arms.

"What about the vase?” he quipped, jabbing his thumb to the counter behind him where theremnants of my desperate attempts to glue Elaine's antique vase that she put her roses in backtogether. I pursed my lips, giving Isaac a defeated look. Roughhousing with the kids had taken aturn for the worst, I was afraid.

I let out the breath I'd been holding all weekend as Elaine stepped onto the platform, her armsoutstretched to catch Isaac and Lucy as they ran to her, squealing with delight. I gave her a shortwave, meeting her eye as she looked me over as though to confirm I'd survived the weekend alonewith our little monsters in one piece.

Isaac ran back over to me, jabbering about the dead squirrel he found at the park yesterday whileLucy clung to Elaine for dear life, refusing to be put back down.

“Hey,” Elaine grinned, kissing my firmly on the lips. I felt myself melt into her touch. This was thelongest we'd been apart since, well, since the day I finally found her. “You look like hell!”

“I'm going with you next time,” I whispered into her ear as I wrapped her in an embrace, squishingLucy between us. Lucy giggled and reached up to run her fingers along the stubble along my jaw asI kissed Elaine a second time. “Hanna and Rowan will take the kids.”

"Oh, will they?” Elaine laughed. I grabbed her suitcase, and the four of us walked off the platformand headed back to the house, Isaac leading the way and waving at everyone we passed. “We'dbetter book a weekend away soon if they're going to watch the kids. They're going to have to go toEgoren soon-"

“But they were just there.” I gave Elaine a suspicious glance, and the color to her cheeks and thesmile she was trying to hide gave away the answer. Lena was pregnant-again. “What is this? Theirfourth?”

"Yep. Another girl-"

“Another girl?” Four girls in a row—I'd met Alexis of course, and Jaqueline. Their third daughtercouldn't be more than a few months old judging by the date of Lena's parents’ last trip to Egoren."Abigail said they were trying for a boy-"

"What are they going to do with four girls?” I laughed, glancing over at Lucy. I only had brothers,and Isaac coming into our lives had been a seamless transition. I knew what to expect from him.Boys were easy. But Lucy? She scared the hell out of me every day. Thinking about her future mademe nearly crippled with anxiety, and we lived in the Realm of Light, for Goddess's sake. Egorenwasn't nearly as progressive.

"Abigail is pregnant, too,” Elaine grinned, then kissed Lucy on the cheek. “You're going to haveanother cousin!”

"Abi's pregnant?” I felt a weight lift from my shoulders at the news.

Abigail and Adrian had been trying for several years now. Elaine caught the emotion in my voiceand smiled up at me, her eyes misting.

“It's still early, but I said I'd go to Egoren for the birth. We'd all go, actually. Isaac and Lucy haven'tbeen yet.”

“We'll plan on it,” I breathed, reaching down to take her hand in mine. Isaac ran ahead of us into thefront garden of the property, his golden locks gleaming against the deep greens and reds of Elaine'srose bushes.

Two hours later, the kids were fed, bathed, and tucked into their beds. A calm quiet I hadn't felt indays descended over the house, broken only by the crackling of the fire I'd started in the livingroom fireplace. I set two mugs of tea down on the coffee table as Elaine came downstairs, her hairstill damp from her shower. She looked rested and absolutely radiant.

“I missed you,” I said before I could stop myself.

She paused in the doorway, her eyes alight and shoulders slackening as she took me in. “I missedyou, too-a lot. I know it was only three days—"

“Three days was long enough,” I said with a little laugh as she sat next to me on the couch. She laidher legs over my lap, and I draped a blanket over the both of us. I could feel her gaze on me as Ireached for our tea, her eyes boring into the side of my face so intensely I felt a chill run down thelength of my spine.

“You're having nightmares again-"

"Only one,” I said softly, meeting her eyes as I handed her the tea, holding my gaze. “And I was fineafterward.”

“What did you dream about?”

I ran my tongue along the inside of my lower lip, shaking my head. I'd never been able to answerthat question. The war felt like a lifetime ago now. The scars of it were still evident if one traveledwest to Findali, but mostly they were carried in the minds of those who had fought. I'd seen things Inever imagined could happen. I'd done things I'd regretted. I'd lost everything for a time, and thenfound her, alive and well.

Something pulled me back to the pack lands shortly before Lena and Xander's wedding. I'd been inNew Dianny, preparing to travel as far south through the southern jungle as I could, exploring whatcould have possibly been the last piece of uncharted space in our realm. I'd let the idea of beingalone, mateless, consume me.

But something nagged at me every time I set out on that journey. Maybe it was guilt for ignoringthe fact that Lena was getting married. Maybe it was regret because I was essentially abandoningmy family, forever.

I looked over at Elaine, watching the light from the fire dance over her beautiful face.

Everything I'd ever done had led me here, to this moment. To this life, a life that was so much morethan anything I could have ever imagined.

A moment of silence passed between us, both relaxing further into the couch. Not a peep camefrom upstairs, both kids blissfully sleeping, hopefully through the night.

"So," Elaine said, lifting her tea to her lips and giving me a teasing grin. “Which one of our monstersbroke my vase?”