Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 54 He Had A Knife
**Rosalie’s POV**
The rain picked back up as Damian and I ran around the exterior of the capital. It was pouring so hard, I could hardly see where we were going, but I kept my eyes on him and forced my feet to keep moving forward.
Faltering at this point wasn’t an option. I had to keep moving for my baby’s sake and for my own. According to the plan, we would need to get out of Mirage first.
“This way,” Damian said, and I realized he was ushering me through a small door in the ground that reminded me of the cellar we had back home. I wouldn’t have even known it was there if he hadn’t tugged it open.
The door led down a flight of stairs to a narrow tunnel. Damian pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and illuminated the stone surface. At least it wasn’t raining down here.
“Where are we going?” I asked him as we ran along.
“The tunnel ends right before the wall,” he said. “We’ll have to climb over it.”
“And then what?” I asked, my heart pounding in my ears.
“Then… we’ll have to run for a couple of hours through the woods to a cabin. I hope your wolf is fast.”
I almost stopped running. “Wolf?” I said. “I can’t shift, Damian. I’m not twenty-one yet.”
He turned and looked at me, coming to a stop. “Sh*t,” he muttered. Shaking his head, he quickly adjusted his plan based on the news. “It’s fine. I’ll carry you.” Then he turned to face down the tunnel again.
Damian was running again, and I was struggling to keep up. “What about after we get to the cottage?” I asked him.
It took Damian a few moments to respond, as if he wasn’t quite sure what the plan was after that. But he had to know, didn’t he?
“After that,” he said, “we’ll head for the shore. There’s a boat leaving tomorrow morning for Suntra. It leaves from the east port at 10-00, and we’ll be on it.”
Suntra. I’d never been there before, but I’d heard it was a lovely place- a place where there were all kinds of people and it was easy to get lost.
“Do we have… money?” I asked.
Damian nodded. “Yes, I have money,” he replied. “You don’t need to worry about anything, Rosalie. I’ll take care of you.”
He turned and looked at me, slowing his pace slightly.
I met his eyes, and I wanted to believe him. But what if this was all a ruse, and Madalynn was just trying to get rid of me—and my baby?
So far, Damian had proven himself to be on my side. If I was sincere and thankful to him, perhaps he’d see how much I wanted to live—how much I wanted my baby to live.
“Thank you, Damian,” I told him.
He didn’t say anything, only kept running. I felt compelled to continue to reach out for him, to plead my case for my life and my child’s.
I continued, “I can’t express to you just how much this means to me. You’ve given me a hope I never expected to have. Not only will my baby be a*s*sured of a life with a mother that will love him or her no matter what, but I will also have a chance to live now, to spend time with my child.”
Tears filled my eyes just thinking about it. I might’ve been intending to persuade him to spare me, but I meant what I was saying.
“You’re a kind, brave soul, Damian. And I hope that, one day, I can repay your kindness.”
He sighed and turned to look at me for a moment again before he said, “I promise to keep you safe, Rosalie, and to never hurt you.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly, brushing my wet hair back from my eyes.
We ran on for a few more minutes before the light from the flashlight landed on another flight of stairs. “Come on,” Damian shouted between ripples of thunder. “We’re almost to the wall.”
I knew that we couldn’t possibly have more than a few minutes’ head start on the guards. I followed Damian up a flight of stairs and through another door, back out into the pouring rain. By the time the wall came into view, my lungs were burning.
Damian reached the wall before me. It was made of uneven stone and should’ve been difficult for anyone to scale, but he pulled something out of his backpack and tossed it up and over the top of the wall.
It was a cargo net ladder. Damian went first, easily climbed the twenty-foot wall, then waited for me. With a deep breath, I grabbed hold of it and began to pull myself up as well.
When I was near the top, Damian reached down. “Give me your hand, Rosalie!” he insisted. “I’ve got you!”
I reached up and took hold of his wrist, and he yanked me up so that I could reach the top of the wall. The rain continued to pummel me as I sucked in air, so glad to be this close to freedom.
“Great job, Rosalie,” Damian said behind me. “Great job.”
My lungs were still burning, and we weren’t anywhere near done with our journey.
Damian pulled the ladder up and flipped it down over the other side. I watched him as he neared the ground, and his hands slipped about halfway down. His feet hit the ground, jarring him, but he was okay.
Something fell from his pocket.
I couldn’t quite make out what it was because it was so dark, and the rain was coming down in torrents, but as the lightning lit up the sky behind him, the light caught a glint of metal.
The object at his feet appeared to be a knife—
A sharp one.
I turned my head away as Damian looked up at me, instinct telling me it was better if he didn’t know that I had seen the weapon.
Why he had it, I couldn’t say, but it made a cold chill pass down my spine.
I knew I was safe as long as we were inside of the capital walls. If I started crying for help, we would be surrounded by royal guards within seconds. There would be too much evidence pointing to Madalynn, and the investigation would delay their wedding.
But once we were far enough away from the capital…
“Rosalie, come on!” Damian shouted, and I realized I made a perfect target sitting on top of the wall, especially with the lightning illuminating my position.
I put the knife out of my mind for the moment—after all, it made sense that he might need a knife if we were planning on running through the woods. I grabbed hold of the rope ladder and moved my way down.
Worst-case scenario… he wasn’t the only one who had a knife.
When I was more than halfway down, I felt Damian’s strong hands on my sides, lowering me. My feet hit the soft, muddy ground, and I took a deep breath.
I was on the other side of the wall.
We were out of the capital.
Which probably meant I was in more danger than ever.
I needed to come up with a plan to protect myself against the man who’d just promised to keep me safe. Damian pulled the rope down and said, “Let’s go!”
He shifted into his wolf form, which would help us to go a lot faster than we could on foot. I gathered up his clothes and put them in my bag so he’d have them later.
Once he had changed into a large, dark-colored wolf, he gestured for me to climb onto his back. I nodded and did as he instructed. I had no other choice.
Glancing at my watch, I saw that it was 8-27. We’d be at the cabin in the woods by about 10-30.
As he ran through the rain, entering the forest, I reminded myself that I was doing this for my baby. I needed my child to be safe, and I needed to know that I would be there to take care of this precious life.
“Oooowhooo-”
A desperate howl pierced through the stormy night. It was so painful that I felt like I was being stabbed through the heart.
I had a feeling that those in the capital city had already found out I was missing, but I couldn’t bring myself to speculate whose howl that was. It didn’t matter. Vicky, Talon, or.. .Ethan. It didn’t matter.
“They found out!” I exclaimed to Damian. He didn’t respond, but I felt him speed up.
I rode on Damian’s back as he flew between the trees. He was athletic, but in the storm, he occasionally tripped over an exposed root, and I found myself catching my hand on rough bark or grabbing hold of a branch to keep from falling. Mud splashed up to cover my pant legs, but at least the canopy of the trees gave us some shelter from the rain.
He ran for about an hour and a half before I finally insisted that he stop. “Damian,” I said. “You need to take a break. I have some water.” It was in my hand and had been for the last several minutes.
It didn’t take much to persuade him. He stopped, and I slid off.
“Don’t bother to shift,” I told him. “I’ll pour it into your mouth.”
He looked thankful as I opened the bottle, careful not to reveal the seal had already been broken, and emptied all of the contents into his mouth.
Once he’d caught his breath, I climbed back on, and we continued our run towards the cabin.