Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder novel Chapter 682

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 682

Chapter 29 : Blackfire

My heart fluttered and I gasped. The bracelet was beautiful, regardless of the reasons why Soren had given it to me.

As much as I wanted to fight it, I really couldn’t deny that I was feeling something for him. Something more than what I wanted to feel.

How had I let myself fall for Soren?

I kept trying to tell myself the bracelet was a bribe or a leash of some kind, but my heart kept fluttering and kept telling me that it was a romantic gesture. Was that what I wanted it to be?

Thoughts raced through my head and I wondered if I had offered my body to him to make this deal or if I’d really wanted to share that with him.

How could this have happened?

He was so cold, indifferent, and infuriating. He was controlling and distant. That didn’t exactly spell out warm and fuzzy feelings…

But the moments we’d shared and how he was always looking out for me, it had softened my heart without me even knowing it.

Swallowing, I tried to pull my hand away but Soren’s fingers tightened around my forearm. He whisked the bracelet out of my hand and deftly clasped it around my wrist. The cool metal touched my skin and it hung there, elegantly.

“It looks good on you,” he said softly.

I held my arm up in the street light. It had flickered back on after the crow flew off. The bracelet really was pretty.

I pulled it closer and looked at the charm. The petal was oddly shaped. I thought it was a curved teardrop but it was a little more intricate than that with smaller, secondary petals flaring out of the base.

It almost looked like a little campfire. But it was black.

“I thought I should at least get you a ‘thank you’,” Soren said, cutting into my thoughts.

“A thank you?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

What did he have to thank me for?

Again, my heart started to pound in my chest. I swallowed and willed with all my strength that Soren wouldn’t hear my heart.

“Yes,” he confirmed without elaborating.

Apparently, he wasn’t going to tell me what he was thanking me for.

I touched the little charm. “What kind of flower is this from?”

Soren’s eyes widened and he pursed his lips. “That is a blackfire petal.”

“Blackfire!?” I asked, gasping. I stared at the little charm again.

The poison I’d taken was called Blackfire but I didn’t know it was made from a plant or a flower. Especially not one that looked so beautiful. How could something that unique and gorgeous be so dangerous?

“This is where the poison comes from?” I asked.

“It is. The flower is very rare, so the poison is too. This charm was even harder to come by,” he said.

Soren grinned and covered the bracelet with his hand.

I smiled. “Well… thank you for the gift. It is a forever reminder of what I put myself through.”

I stuck my tongue out a little so Soren would know I was teasing him.

He smirked. “Or, a forever reminder of what you survived.”

My heart jumped into my throat and I nodded. I couldn’t do anything else.

“Soren,” Ashley called out.

She stormed through the mist, her hands on her hips. Her dark glower fixed directly on me.

It occurred to me again that Ashley might really like Soren. She always seemed to interrupt when he and I were having a moment. Either that, or she was very protective of him and she didn’t trust me.

Whatever the case, I had the sudden urge to remind her that Soren was an adult and perfectly capable of taking care of himself and making his own decisions.

I swallowed the impulse quickly and leaned toward Soren.

“Is she mad?” I asked.

It wouldn’t help our mission if Ashely was pissed off. She might try to sabotage things or get in the way. As far as I was concerned, Ashley and I were on good terms but I didn’t want her emotions to get in the way of what I had to do.

“Ashley?” Soren asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “Oh, she’s fine.”

He waved off my concerns.

“We should probably get going again. Lingering in one place in this fog isn’t wise,” I suggested to help diffuse the situation.

“Agreed.”

We continued down the path to the temple. As we got closer, the fog thinned out and cleared a little. It wasn’t much but just enough that I could see the stars overhead. They were veiled and very dim.

“Oh!” I gasped and covered my mouth as I stared at the temple.

The entire thing had crumbled since the night before. It was nothing but a pile of ruins and rubble.

My mind spun. How had that happened since last night? How had we not felt the tremors of the entire temple coming down?

It hadn’t been the stablest of structures but it was still standing. What could have caused it to collapse so quickly?

“What is this place?” Ashley asked.

“It’s not a temple, it is a pile of rubble,” Payne pointed out.

“It wasn’t like this last night,” I argued.

Payne and Soren had both seen it. They knew what it was supposed to look like.

Shaking my head, I started to move through the rubble.

Soren and his followers stuck close to me.

Ashley sighed and shifted her eyes back and forth like she was thinking. “Okay, fine, but stay close to me.”

I nodded and we headed toward the chasm.

Suddenly, the ground trembled and the shadows in the temple rubble began to move. The chasm groaned and flying, shadowy creatures like black ghosts burst from the hole.

They rushed straight at me in a torrent of wind and groans. I threw my arms up to protect my face.

“Get down!” Ashley shouted.

She tackled me and covered me with her body, keeping me safe on the ground. I landed with a heavy thud. My shoulder ached from slamming into a stone slab.

Ashley landed just as heavily on top of me, practically knocking the wind out of me. I groaned and rolled onto my back. She still covered me.

The shadows swooped around us. Even with Ashley protecting me, they reached out with spindly fingers, trying to grasp me.

Ashley swatted them away. They didn’t seem at all interested in her and if she got close, they would back off and swoop around for another attack.

It was like they only wanted to get to me and wouldn’t bother with anything else in their way.

“What are these things? What do they want from you?” she asked.

“I… have no idea…” I admitted.

Ashley growled. “Of course, not.”

“RAWWWR!”

I glanced up to see a beautiful, sleek, black wolf bursting out from the rubble.

My heart lifted.

It was Soren in wolf form. He snarled and growled, scraping his front paw on the stone as he prepared to charge. He charged right at us, snapping at the shadows. They seemed to tremble before him and started swooping back toward the chasm.

Soren’s majestic wolf battled them ruthlessly, not holding anything back. He swatted at them in the air and chomped at them with his teeth. It was hard to tell if he was hurting them or if they were anything more than moving shadows.

Whatever he was doing, he was winning.

They retreated into the chasm.

As soon as the shadows were gone, I pushed Ashley off of me. Jumping to my feet, I headed toward Soren to thank him, yet again, for his bravery and for saving me.

“Mila, get back here!” Ashley called after me.

She jumped to her feet and ran up to me. When she grabbed my arm, I pulled away and kept walking toward Soren.

Soren glanced at me with deep, glassy wolf eyes. He bowed his head and I realized he was about to do something insanely stupid.

“No…” I whispered.

I reached toward him just as Soren bolted toward the chasm. He disappeared into the darkness with the shadows.

“No! Soren!” I shouted.