Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 43 : I’ll Ask Him Tomorrow

*Lena*

I hadn't seen or heard from Xander in a week.

I'd spent most of that time in bed. sweating beneath three thick quilts and even thicker flannel pajamas

while Heather fussed over me, making sure I was taking the antibiotics the doctor had prescribed for

what he said was a severe viral infection of some kind.

All of it felt odd. The days passed in a blur, day fading into night over, and over. I didn't seem to get

better, however. My body was numb and frequently chilled despite how warm Heather tried to keep me.

The worst of it was having to come clean to both of my roommates about what had actually happened

in Crimson Creek one feverish night when I'd spilled hot soup on my shirt, and Heather helped me

remove it.

They saw the long, jagged scars across my belly, and had screamed, then were frantic and shocked

beyond belief as I told them the incredible and unbelievable story.

I'm not sure if they believed it. They probably thought it was some tall tale my fevered mind had

concocted.

But something changed the night before graduation.

Viv came into my room, balancing a large, hot mug of tea in her hands. Her face was drawn in a

grimace, and in a split second, I knew why. I sat straight up.

“Where did you get that?" I cried, and Viv looked at me in shock. She set the mug of murky black liquid

on the beside table that seperated my bed from Heather's bed.

“Xander dropped it off. He said you liked this tea and he could only get it in Crimson Creek."

I paled, looking down into the mug and watching the sheen that had developed on top of it. Blood root. I

hadn't seen him because he went back to Crimson Creek.

“Is he here?" I asked, but Viv shook her head, looking a little sheepish.

“No. He left in a hurry. He told me how to brew it and I... do you really like it? The smell is just awful. I

was going to try it but-" she held her stomach, looking a little green.

“How did he know I was sick?"

“Viv went to him the night Slate assaulted you," Heather said from the doorway, unwinding her scarf

from around her neck and tossing it on her bed. I hied to swallow but found it impossible.

“I told him what we thought happened. And then when you got sick I... I know his roommate Adrian; we

have classes together. I told him you were sick and then didn't see him again for several days."

I brought the tea to my lips and drank deeply, watching the disgusted looks on my roommates' faces as

I tilted it back and drained it.

“What is it?" Heather asked as she took the empty mug and peered inside.

“Blood root," I said, then watched as she began to put the pieces together.

“You mean... everything you told us about Crimson Creek... it actually happened?"

“Yes," I said, laying back down on the pillow and rolling onto my side.

Xander- had been here and didn't say anything to me. He'd gone all the way to Crimson Creek and

back just to get the blood root. Wiry? Wiry bring me blood root and instruct Viv to have me drink it?

The answer was clear several hours later, late into the night. I woke from the deepest sleep I'd ever

experienced. Heather was snoring in her bed, and pale moonlight was drifting through tire frosted

windows as I stood. There was no shake, no pain my bones and joints. My skin wasn't hot to the touch

and my mind was clear.

I was healed, entirely.

I blinked into tire moonlight as a weight settled on my shoulders.

My powers, long dormant, had sent me into a fever. Blood root had made me whole again.

What did this mean?

There was only one person who I could ask. And I'd see him-tomorrow.

At graduation.

***

By the grace of the Goddess, and likely prodding by the student body, the informal graduation

ceremony for those students graduating in December had been moved from the shabby conference

room in the library to the small auditorium used almost exclusively by the theater club. I'd never been

inside, not in tire three years I'd spent on campus, but found it cozy and decorated with sparkling lights.

None of us had dressed up. I sat with my legs crossed, running my palms over my jeans as Heather

and Viv mingled with a group of students in tire aisle near the row we'd chosen to sit in. I'd promised

my parents that if they'd just let me get this small formality out of the way, I'd walk in the official

graduation ceremony in May, wearing a cap and gown and letting the announcer call my full, formal

name instead of the alias I'd been using around campus.

I figured enough time would've passed by then for my friends to get over their shock, and likely anger,

at the fact I'd hidden my true identity from them for so long. I hadn't told them, not yet. In fact, wanting

to tell Heather tire truth was the last thing I remembered before I fell ill.

It was too chaotic now to say anything. No, not yet. Now was not tire time.

I'd woken up to the hallway outside of our apartment filled with floral arrangements from “Mom and

Dad," and my roommates and I had our coffee with the rich smell of lilies and roses permeating the air

of our tiny apartment after we'd brought them inside, every surface covered with flowers.

We'd walked arm in arm to campus, Viv chattering away about how excited she was to accept Abigail's

diploma for her- since she was still overseas in the Isles.

I looked around tire auditorium and did a double take before quickly turning my head away from the

entrance of the theater. Xander had just walked in, and I felt his gaze on me instantly, little ripples of

heat prickling over my neck and shoulders.

Heather saw him and glanced at me, but I stifled my nervous expression and pretended to be reading

the pamphlet in my lap, looking over the names without actually reading them.

He didn't sit nearby. Not in front of me, at least. He wasn't in my line of sight when Heather and Viv

finally sat down and the lights began to fade.

The woman from tire dean's office stepped onto the stage, her dark hair shimmering in the lights above

her head. She looked around, smiling broadly as she tapped her finger on the microphone and then

adjusted its height.

“Welcome graduates, friends, and family-" she said, and then went through a little spiel. There were

many murmurings in the crowd, all whispers about who she was, and what she was doing here. It was

likely no one knew the Church had sent someone to oversee tilings on Morhan's campus.

After a while, and several other speeches done by professors and senior faculty, Mara began to call the

names of every graduate. Heather went up to the stage, met with applause. Viv accepted Abigail's

diploma, which caused a brief moment of confusion but was quickly sorted.

My name was called, and I walked up to the stage, my feet feeling heavy. The lights were blinding

enough that they cast a glare on the audience, and I could see nothing but darkness.

“Congratulations," Mara smiled, handing me my diploma.

I gripped it, giving her a tight smile.

And tliat was tliat. No frills, no tossing of our caps. That would come in May, and I'd heard a rumor I

was in the running for valedictorian of my graduating class as well. As I walked back to my seat, I

began to wonder what people would think about tliat. Would they accept that I had earned my grades,

or would they think my status as a royal had bought my way to the top?

I tried not to think about it as I sat back down, Heather and Viv squeezing my aims in silent

congratulations as the rest of the overachieving seniors made their way to the stage.

Xander's name was called, and I watched as he walked across the stage.

But the way he narrowed his eyes at Mara, the way he leaned in to whisper into her ear....

I straightened up a bit, noticing how level she kept her expression despite the sharp look on Xander's

face. What had he just said to her?

He was off the stage almost as quickly as he'd come, and then disappeared behind me, not even

glancing in my direction as he walked up the aisle. My stomach knotted with grief, heartbreak, and

suspicion.

Xander was up to something, and I needed to find out what.

***

“Lauren Hanover said there's a party downtown, in one of the warehouses," Viv said as she opened the

box of pizza we'd picked up on our way home from campus, her eyes looking over the pizza with

skepticism. “They didn't put pineapple on it!"

“Good, about the pineapple," Heather laughed, crossing her legs on the couch and leaning back with a

wine glass in her hands. “You're the only one who likes it on pizza."

“I don't mind it," I argued, giving her a teasing smile. “There's some canned pineapple in the pantry,

Viv."

Viv shot Heather a dirty look as she crossed the kitchen and reached into the pantry.

“I'm glad you're feeling better," Heather- said to me, a smile touching her lips.

“I am too," I replied, sinking down into the couch and closing my eyes for a moment.

We'd stopped at the medical clinic in town and picked up my blood work, which had to be sent to

Breles, so it took a while to get back to Morhan. Nothing was amiss. I wasn't anemic. My blood cell

count was near perfect. I wasn't pregnant, either.

But I'd been on my deathbed from what Heather described. That only confirmed that something else

was going on, and it likely had to do with what happened to me in Crimson Creek.

“Does everyone want to go to the party, or chill?" Heather asked Viv and me.

Viv shrugged, struggling with the can opener. “Wiry not? Could be firn. One last party before everyone

starts leaving for winter break," she said.

I nodded, tucking my knees into my chest. I needed my roommates to go to tire party because I needed

to go. The old Xander, at least before I knew him, tended to make an appearance at every single party

that was thrown on campus and the surrounding town.

I'd find him there, and if he didn't show up, I'd track him down.

But something inside of me was telling me not to bother. He'd stood me up the night Slate attacked me

and dragged me down tire alley. He was obviously avoiding me, and despite how I felt, the last thing I

wanted to do was come off as some lovesick, obsessed girl nursing a terrible crush.

It wasn't a crush. I was filled to the brim with regret. I loved him. And most of all, I needed him to tell me

everything about Crimson Creek, everything he'd hidden from me-every detail, every secret.

And in turn.... Well. I'd tell him the truth.

“Well, let's eat real quick and go, then. The warriors will likely shut the party down before it gets too

rowdy," Heather said as she rose from the couch.

I watched her begin to tease Viv as she arraigned tire pineapple on one half of tire pizza.

An hour from now, everything would be different. I just knew it.