Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 1110 - 21 : Nighttime Ruminations

Chapter 1110: Chapter 21 : Nighttime Ruminations

*Daphne*

After a little bit of awkwardness, we climbed into the bed together. I wasn’t sure why he was so reluctant about the whole thing. The previous nights, he had been just fine sleeping right next to me.

It was really odd how normal it had all become, sleeping with someone who was a stranger not two weeks ago, or however long I had been gone.

The bed felt like such a relief from sleeping on the ground for what seemed so long. It was not the bed I had at home, but it was still better than sleeping in a sleeping bag on an uneven, oftentimes rocky surface.

We climbed into bed and I felt his front rest up against my back. It was warm and pleasant. His breathing was a steady, rhythmic undulation at my back that left me drowsy.

The window was left open, and I gazed at the square of silver moonlight streaming in from the window.

Soft rain pelted down onto the window pane, spattering gently. A clock ticked and a fire crackled in another room. It all seemed so quiet, but not the apprehensive silence of the outdoors that we had traversed through the past couple of days.

It was a peaceful silence, and I invited it with every fiber of my being. It had been so long since I had felt a smidgen of this kind of peace, and I was going to relish every second of it. I had been living like a wild cat for so long.

As I drifted to sleep, I relaxed as I had resigned myself to being handed over to Hestia’s people. It was by no means an easy choice, but the memory visions I’d witnessed of Rion’s past led me to believe that it was my duty now.

I was destined to help him. How or why, I was unsure of yet. That would come in time, but I knew I had to do everything in my power to help him and his sister.

I didn’t much like it, but that was how it was going to be. Besides, after seeing Rion’s past, I could accept my fate. I drifted off to sleep from the comfort of the bed and the warmth of Rion’s body resting against mine.

The next day, I found the bed empty. The gray light from outside gave me no indication of what time it was, but the rain at least was a comfort. I heard noises coming from the other rooms, so I assumed I was the last one to wake up.

I found my cargo pants and T-shirt washed, dried, and folded on the dresser across the room. I grabbed them and took a shower. When I came out, I smelled a home-cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

The men of the crew were seated at a table, eating their breakfast and chatting. I glimpsed Rion at the head of the table, eating silently.

“Good morning.” Diane’s voice came from the kitchen to my side.

I smiled. “Morning.”

“There’s plenty to go around, so don’t worry if you want seconds,” she said, handing me a plate.

I looked at the food and thanked her again before serving myself a plate and sitting at the empty spot near Rion.

“Hi,” I said as I sat my food and a glass of orange juice down.

“Hey,” he said, glancing up at me. “We’re going to be here a while, several days, just to make sure you recover.”

I dug into my pancakes, but looked at him. “Thank you.”

He shrugged and went back to scraping up eggs with his fork. “I can’t have you getting sicker during the trip. It wouldn’t help either of us.”

I nodded. “That’s reasonable.”

The crew around me kept talking. I watched them as they were engrossed in conversation, but they didn’t seem to notice me. They were boisterous and fierce, that much I saw. The more I watched them, the less they felt like my captors.

They seemed like a normal bunch of ragtag young adults. I didn’t exactly find them relatable, but I had a newfound appreciation for them at that moment. I figured it was the dreams and visions that kept me feeling this way about them.

We finished breakfast, and Diane told me firmly but gently to sleep it off.

“You’re in recovery. Make sure you get your rest,” she told me.

I took some cold medicine, which made me drowsy, then went back to the room and slept.

When I woke up, it was dark again, and I smelled dinner. I went back to the living room, where I found everyone else had already finished their food and they were sitting on the couches. I looked around for Rion, but I couldn’t find him.

Instead, I found the one named Jasper sitting by himself, reading and occasionally watching the rest of the crew chat with each other.

I decided to go up to him and talk to him.

“Hi,” I said. It made me nervous. He was a stoic type, reserved, but he also looked very strong, like he could take me and hold me up over his head like a sack.

He looked up at me from a book.

“Hey,” he said.

“Where’s Rion?”

He closed the book. “He went out for a walk. He was getting restless, I think.”

“I can understand that,” I said. “Mind if I sit next to you?”

“Oh, no,” he said. He scooted over so that I could pull up a chair near him. He was sitting near the armchair near the fireplace, and the two of us sat across from each other.

“How long have you known Rion?” I asked.

The vision memories had shown me a vague time when the two had met, but I was asking with a double pronged intent. On one side, I wanted to verify that what I had seen was real. On the other hand, I wanted to get to know him better.

He seemed like Rion’s right hand man, someone who was also important to Rion as a friend. Jasper put the book down near a pile by the fireplace. Maybe he had been reading all of those since he got there, but I couldn’t be sure.

“We’ve known each other since we were kids, like early teens I think. It’s been so long that I forgot.”

I nodded.

“It did seem like you two had known each other a long time. How did you meet?” I asked. I didn’t want to prod him, but I was curious.

I was relieved when a nostalgic smile slid across his face.

“We were in the park one day. I think a lot of the kids in the neighborhood back in the day would always come to this park. There was a drug deal going down.” His smile faded and he glanced at me as though I might judge.

“What happened?” I said, not fussing over the seediness of it and letting him express himself fully.

His smile returned. “I’m at the park and I’m doing one of my runs when I see my client. I see him, but I see Rion coming from a different end of the park. He had built a reputation already at the time as dealing pretty extensively in that part of town. I had unknowingly stepped onto his territory.”

He paused to laugh and I laughed with him, even though I had no idea what the implications of that was other than potential strife, but I let him continue his story.

“So we both walk from opposite ends of the park, and he’s looking at me, and I’m looking at him until we meet at the guy. The guy’s just standing there and we all sort of stare at each other. So I said, ‘We got our wires crossed somewhere,’ but the guy reveals he’s a cop and says, ‘You’re both under arrest for...’ for something, blah, blah blah. Rion and I look at each other and then we just start booking it. We get to the place where there’s a baseball triangle and hide under the bleachers. We’re able to escape through a hole in the fence. The cop was yelling at us, but Rion took us to a hideaway apartment. And that’s basically how we met.”

He laughed, and I joined him again. I was glad to have that part of Rion’s life verified for me. The vision dreams were true, it seemed.

Rion had had such a rough upbringing, and I felt even more resigned to help him after that.

After his story ended, the door swung open. A cool breeze wafted in, and in the doorway stood Rion. He was covered in a silvery layer of light rain that gave him a radiant, sparkling glow before he patted himself down.

He glanced at me as he hung his coat on the rack near the door, then to Jasper.

“There’s plenty of soup left,” Diane told him.

“Thank you,” he said, and he went over to the kitchen to serve himself up some soup.

“He gets restless sometimes.” Jasper leaned in and told me in a low voice, “Sometimes he just has to go out for a run. He can’t be still for too long.”

Rion approached us with a bowl of soup and bread and sat on the armchair near us.

“How are you feeling?” he asked me as he pulled a table toward himself to set his food on.

“I’m doing better. I think I should be able to go tomorrow.”

He nodded. “Good. We’re running behind schedule. It’ll be good to get back on the road again.”

I nodded. “The hospitality has helped me significantly.”

We ate and talked some more, and soon it was time for bed again. We got into bed and quietly fell asleep.

The next morning, the crew waited out in the living room. I was the last one to get up, again, but it didn’t bother me. There would be enough time to walk, but there I didn’t know when there would be another bed to sleep in, so I relished it as much as I could.

Diane suited me up with some more medicine in a small medic bag before giving me a hug and sending me off with Rion and his crew.

I was grateful for the rest. I was feeling refreshed as we all walked out of the house and back onto the trail not too far from it, which brought us to the entrance of the dark forest.

“We’ve got a long way to go still,” Rion said as we walked into the entrance.

***

*Rion*

The journey ahead would be long and arduous, a feat I was not looking forward to. We were already behind schedule, but the princess was only just getting over a cold that could have been much worse.

I hoped and prayed she would not fall sick again. I questioned myself, though, and to whether it was me worrying about the state of the mission or if it was a concern for the princess that made me feel this way.

I tried not to think about it too much.

After the princess agreed to come along willingly, I couldn’t help but feel a nagging thought at the back of my mind about it. I knew she was sincere, and her gratitude for me saving her life was showing through.

It wasn’t a ruse to get me to give her back to her parents, and maybe that was why it made me so conflicted. Handing her over to Hestia’s followers, after she had changed like that, just didn’t feel right.

All the same, I couldn’t help but feel drawn to the princess. I didn’t like whatever was growing between us, but every time I tried to stamp it out, it would only get bigger.

It became more apparent that kidnapping the princess had not been the right choice. But, what could I do about it now with Eva’s life still in danger?

We stopped for the night.

“I hate sleeping on the ground,” the princess grumbled as she slipped into her sleeping bag.

I pretended not to notice her say it and slipped in my own. I was not far from her, but I missed the nearness of her warm body next to mine. I could still keep an eye on her, though I didn’t feel as compelled to keep her from running away as I had before.

As she slept, memories poured in. They had been kept dormant, but the thought of seeing Eva again brought everything to the surface once more.

The seedy underworld of the capital flashed in front of my mind’s eye, and I remembered the struggle like it was yesterday. Going through the forest on survival mode reminded me how hard it had been for me on the streets.

My thoughts wandered into unwanted territory. The end game of the trip reminded me of its purpose. It all came back to when my sister Eva was taken from me.

Willing or not, I knew I could no longer sacrifice Daphne, but I still had to save Eva.