Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 1115 - 26 : The Confession

Chapter 1115: Chapter 26 : The Confession

*Rion*

As much as I tried to push it out of my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about when I was with the princess as she showered. It had been so jarring to me that she pulled aside the curtain and instead of coming off as timid or scared, she seemed bold.

Her boldness entranced me and took me by surprise. I had never seen her in that way before. It truly was a special moment that I was unprepared for. She didn’t scurry away or try to cover her arms over her towel.

She simply stood there and let me drink her in.

When I caught her eye as she pushed the curtain aside, it was electric. She had become something more altogether, a stronger version of herself that wanted to invite me in.

There was surprise in her expression when she had drawn back the curtain, but there was also something else, something stronger. A tingling sensation kept us tethered, and when we touched, it was a gentle explosion that rippled between the two of us.

Her wet hair and the smell of freshly scrubbed skin lingered, weaving into her own irresistible scent, even though we had long since left the comforts of the bedroom.

She smelled like a soft array of floral notes, not too heavy, but also not too faint. It was just enough to keep me invited into her bubble. It lingered in my mind whenever I conjured up the memory of seeing her in the shower.

She wore the dress elegantly, in a way Katheryn never could. Daphne was beautiful, and she was regal as well.

I wanted the memory of the kiss to remain in my head forever. Her elegance and beauty distracted me from the world of the dark forest around me. I played the scene over again in my head, trying to relive it.

But the more I thought about her, the more I felt the guilt compounding in me. At first it was mild, barely discernible in the backdrop of my mind. But over time, it grew and reared its ugly head when I could no longer outrun it.

I knew the truth deep down. I couldn’t deny what the real relationship between us was. I could paint the situation any color I wanted, but at the end of the day, she was still my captive. I had taken her from her family against her will.

I thought back to the night we met. I’d been wearing a mask to conceal my real identity. I’d felt lucky when I learned that everyone would wear a mask at the party. If anyone had seen me with her that night, I would have been done for.

It was the perfect night for me to enact the first phase of my plan, but I had done it with a cold and bitter heart. I had not known her then. She was a stranger to me.

Part of me wished we would have remained strangers.

I felt her walking behind me in the forest, but I could tell she’d put more distance between us than I’d intended. It was for the best, I thought, as we trudged down the trail. My crew around me kept looking up at the sky, and I knew they were feeling the urgency to get this over with.

I tried to fight it, but I couldn’t chase the guilty thoughts from my mind, though nothing I could do could change the fact that I’d taken Daphne from her family and her home.

Worst of all, I had taken her from her brother in a coma. She hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye to him. It made me feel even worse.

I knew what that felt like, after all, being ripped away from family. I had done the exact same thing to her.

I looked up at the sky again, just to get out of my head. I followed a swarm of birds flying from one side of the clearing in the canopy above to the other side. It didn’t really help. It only made me go back inside my head as my thoughts became gloomier.

My thoughts dawned brighter. I realized that I had not just done it to get Eva back, but the motivations of the kidnapping went just a little deeper.

It wounded me more as I realized that was what her parents had done to me as a kid. It made me feel embarrassed when I realized I was just taking out my revenge on them through their daughter.

I hated myself for the bitterness that led to all of those bad decisions. The course of the past could have changed. Her words came back into my mind. She herself had given me a way out, but I had suspected that she was only tricking me.

Maybe I should have taken her advice from that night. I could have just asked her parents for help. The worst thing they could have done was say no, but given that Hestia’s followers were a threat to them, I seriously doubted they would refuse.

Anything would have been better at that point than to go through with it until the end. Her family may have been more than willing to help me. They were certainly capable.

But I had refused.

And this late in the game, I doubted they would ever trust me.

The guilt became almost unbearable after I realized how simple the solution had been all along had I not let my personal feelings for her parents get in the way. If I hadn’t been so caught up in my past, maybe it would have gone a little differently. I would have had Eva in my hands already.

I inhaled deeply to focus on the present moment. It was all getting too much for me and I still needed to focus on what was happening. There were still dangers in the dark forest that demanded my attention. .

The sky dimmed. In the distance, through the trees, I saw the thin red line on the horizon announcing the end of a sunset. By then, silvery streaks across the sky told me the clouds had been pushed away, leaving the chances of rain to nill. We had been spared a downpour, and I was both grateful and relieved.

The fact that it was already evening and I had barely noticed made my shoulders sink. I had been so wrapped up in my head that I hadn’t noticed the passage of time.

I called for everyone to make camp. A collective sigh of relief escaped my men. I felt guilty about making them walk longer too. I unhooked my backpack and set up camp. My thoughts swarmed again despite my best efforts to ignore them.

As I pulled supplies from my backpack, I tried to force my feelings down and refocus, but my thoughts were becoming more and more like a ball of yarn. The more I tried to roll them up, the more they fell away from me in a chaotic twirl.

As I unrolled my bed roll, I heard the princess speak. Her voice interrupted my thoughts and startled me. I had gotten so twisted up in my own head that I had forgotten my surroundings.

“Hey, can we be alone for a minute?” she asked me.

I was stunned, but of course, I agreed. “Sure.”

We broke away from the rest of the crew. They all seemed more tired than usual, but below the exhaustion, I felt a collective restlessness flowing through all of them as they unpacked their supplies.

Daphne seemed tense, but I didn’t want to pry. Her fingers twisted inside of each other. Her eyes were shifting from the rocks to the trees, like they couldn’t focus. She seemed really nervous.

“What’s up?” I prompted when we were out of earshot from the rest of the crew.

She didn’t look at me. She looked at the rocks, the grass, the trees, anywhere but me.

“This is going to sound weird, but will you listen?” she finally said after an uncomfortable pause.

“I’ll listen.”

“Ever since the temple, whenever we sleep together, or if we touch, I see visions of your life. So far, it’s always been the past, but I’ve seen a lot of things about you in these visions.”

She glanced near my feet, still not looking at me. I kept quiet since it seemed like she had more to say.

“I know how you and your sister were separated.”

She looked up at me. Her eyes were full of compassion and understanding. I could tell she was telling the truth. I let her continue.

“I’m so sorry, Rion. I’m sorry you had to suffer like that. No one should have gone through what you did. And I know you hate my parents for what they did, but if they had known how you ended up, they would have never agreed to it.”

The way she told me made it feel like daggers were piercing my heart. She spoke sincerely and compassionately, in a way that no one had ever spoken to me before. It was dead silent between us for a long time before I spoke again.

“Why did you want to be alone?” I asked.

“You know why.”

My chest tightened. We seemed to both know that tomorrow would be unpredictable. Both of us knew that it was possible that Hestia’s followers would discover her and the whole operation could collapse.

She could very well get killed.

When i looked in her eyes, she seemed to be fully aware of that possibility. And she seemed equally prepared to face it.

In the light of the moon, she didn’t look like a helpless princess anymore. She looked like a regal queen ready to take on whatever fate may come her way.

It made my feelings for her grow so intense that I didn’t know how to contain them.

She spoke again.

“If these are the last days of my life, I don’t want to spend them fighting my feelings for you.”

My heart skipped several beats as I took in the full implications of her words. The air around us suddenly felt heavy, charged with unspoken emotions. I looked at her, and her eyes locked onto mine.

At that moment, I felt like time had stopped. I knew I shouldn’t give in to my desires, that it was a dangerous fantasy that could only end badly.

But I didn’t want to fight my feelings either.

Would admitting them be another mistake?