Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

He seemed to be pretty loyal to her from what I could tell. He was also the one who accompanied her

last night.

Once we were back in Theo’s bedroom, I stayed back out of the way and let her do what she needed to

do. Once again, the blue light glowed from her hands, and she directed it at him. Theo illuminated, and

after a few seconds, he began to stir, actually lifting up off of the bed slightly before he came to a rest

again.

The blue light dissipated, and Theo sat up in a start, star- ing at his mother. “What happened?” he

blurted out

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better,” she remarked, sar- castically. “There. You’re awake. For now.”

“For now?” he asked. Then, his eyes fell on me.

“What did you do?” he asked me, and I immediately stepped back.

“What did you do?” he demanded again.

I couldn’t answer him, so he turned back to his mother. “Whatever she promised you, I will not agree to

it. I asked you not to meddle!”

26 1x

With those words, he doubled over, his face crinkling with pain, and it was clear that whatever was

happening, it was hurting him severely.

“What’s happening?” I asked. “Are you doing that to him?”

Lady Nita shook her head. Then, back to Theo, she said, “You can and you will obey me. I’ve already

told her, this is how it must be!”

“I do not need you!” Prince Theo shouted through his pain.

“Your Highness, Prince Theo! You mustn’t speak to her that way!”

Cedrick’s voice caught me off-guard. I wasn’t expecting. the servant to say anything at all.

Neither was Theo as he turned to look at him. “What was that?”

Even Lady Nita was shocked. “Cedrick, shut your mouth! Ciana, leave us.”

“Ciana, you stay!” Theo ordered.

Lady Nita gave me a sharp look. “If you want me to help him, leave now.”

I looked at Theo and back to his mother, then lowered my head to both of them and walked out of the

room.

*Theo

“What do you want?” I asked my mother, “I’ve made it

clear. You cannot force me. Now, I’ll say this one last time. Leave me alone!”

Credrick dropped on his knees. “Your Highness! You’ve misunderstood your mother!”

“Oh really? What have I misunderstood? That she despises me? That she spewed her hatred

everywhere and she never wanted me to be happy?”

Cedrick wanted to say something but my mother raised her hand to stop it. “Cedrick, be quiet.”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I cannot. Prince Theo needs to understand….” The servant was

pleading, his hands folded together in front of him.

“He doesn’t need to understand anything!” she command- ed. “Just leave it be.”

But her most trusted servant wasn’t listening to her. He turned back to face me. “Your Highness. Your

mother cares about you. You might not know, but she was watching you from far away, she was looking

forward to your visit every time you were outside of the door, and you had no idea how precious she

treated the bookmark-”

“Cedrick!” My mother interrupted her servant one more time and I saw panic on her face.

“Yeah right, so precious that she threw it on the ground!”

“She kept it. She still has it! After all of these years, it’s tucked inside of her favorite book!”

I didn’t know what to say. I was shocked. How was it pos-sible?

If what he said was true, why had Mother been acting this way?

“The bookmark,” Cedrick whispered. “She didn’t toss it aside like you think she did. She kept it because

she does love you, she really does!”

“Cedrick, if you say one more word, I swear to the God- dess above I will lock you up in the dungeon!”

my mother warned him.

He must not have taken her threats seriously because the servant didn’t back down. “I’m sorry, my

lady, but you have to know that letting this continue to go on isn’t what’s best for either one of you.”

My mother tried to deny it. “I do not love him!”

But this time, I could hear the emotion in her voice crum- bling. She was saying the same sort of

horrible things she’d always said to me, but did she mean them?

“Cedrick, tell me the truth!” I demanded.

“Prince Theo,” Cedrick lowered his head, “you know what it is that makes your powers soar out of

control. It isn’t just fear and hate-it’s also love. I’m sure you’d figure that out.”

I mulled over what the servant was shouting to me and slowly began to nod.

“She was trying to protect you!”

“Protect me how? Letting me face those hideous murder- ers by myself?”

“If she showed her love to you, you would lose control! Your power can only be controlled when you are

able to con- trol your emotions. Your Highness! Love is the most powerful emotion of all, and if you

allow yourself to succumb to it, it will make everything within you boil over in an explosion of power!

Think about how you would feel if she showed you love, and you end up hurting her, or worse killing

her! How would you feel then?”

“I…”

“You would hate yourself even more! And the trauma that you would go through would turn you into a

true monster! Therefore, Lady Nita did what she thought was best for you, which was to keep the

distance!”

“Cedrick how dare you…” my mother whispered, however, everything that could be said had been said.

“But I have the dreamberry,” I argued. “The dreamberry al- ways helps me to control my power. As long

as I have those and wear my gloves, I will be able to control it!”

“No, that’s not true,” Cedrick said.

Mother was looking at the floor now, as if she had decid- ed to just let the conversation go on around

her. “The dream- berry helps when your emotions are fairly even. If your emo- tions begin to ebb out of

control, then even the dreamberry will not be able to stop the ramifications from your outbursts of

emotion, regardless if it is a positive emotion like love or negative emotions like hatred. it is still the

darkness within your blood that will bubble to the surface and lash out at those around you!”

I shook my head in disbelief. “This all seems like a great excuse to me…”

“I watched her suffer!” Cedrick blurted out. “I watched her ry herself to sleep at night because she

wanted to be with ‘ou so badly! But she couldn’t. By teaching you what it was ike to be all alone, to go

without her love, she was preparing ‘ou for what it would be like for the rest of your life.”

“For the rest of my life?” I let out a bitter laugh and took a deep breath in.

I’d always known my fate was cursed. I’d be okay staying away from people most of my life, but I

thought one day, I’d ind a solution for the damn power that made me this freak. The dreamberry gave

me hope, but it turned out to be a minor elief at most, not a real solution.

I was destined to be alone, whether I liked it or not, and :hat was it.

I looked at the woman in front of me, and all of a sudden, the emotions I had for her all mingled

together and then fad- ed away. I wasn’t sad or angry, neither did I feel love or care. Everything just

seemed… so flat, as if I lost my ability to com- prehend my feelings.

And this was exactly what she wanted anyway, because it was the best for me and everyone else

around me, according to her.

“As you wished, Mother, I’m used to being alone now. I’m used to treating everyone cold and

everything indifferently and I’d accepted that.”

“Good, Theodore.” She finally looked at me. Her expres- sion hadn’t changed much but I heard the

approval in her tone. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, just like most peo- ple had no idea what was

in my mind. I was truly a product of my upbringing.

“But tell me, how am I going to control my emotions when I find my mate?”