Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 126: Escaped Again
**Rosalie’s POV**
The revelations that Seraphine had shared with me were unsettling, to say the least. I had no idea what to do now.
It would be one thing for me to try to confront Soren if I was by myself. If I only had myself to think of, perhaps one of the nights that he came to visit shortly after my son was born, I could’ve asked him why he did all of the things that he did.
I could’ve told him that I knew he’d arranged for me to be brought to him, for me to be beaten, and for all of the other incidents that had happened to me that he’d described as kismet to have taken place all along.
But I had this precious bundle to worry about now, and Soren was the most powerful person on the island. It wasn’t smart to make him mad. I had to be careful.
A few days after my baby was born, I sat in the nursery, rocking him, right after he’d finished eating. Being able to provide everything that my son needed was so satisfying. I knew that, as his mother, I could do something no one else in the world could do for my child, at least not as well as I could.
I loved to stroke his precious little head. He had dark hair like his father, and even though it was thin and still coming in, it was one of the things about him that reminded me of Ethan.
His blue eyes reminded me of his father, too.
So did his nose and the way he grunted when he was upset.
I knew that as long as I was with my child, there would be no escaping the memory of his father, and since I never, ever wanted to be without my son, I was going to have to get used to embracing the painful memories that went along with all of the joyful ones Ethan had brought me.
Like this beautiful boy.
But I hadn’t decided what to name him. I wanted something meaningful, something that would unite both of our names the way that our child had united us. However, I hadn’t thought of a perfect name yet. Maybe deep down, I didn’t want to name him by myself.
I sighed, perhaps no matter what had happened between us, I had loved his father and wanted him to have a say in his child’s name.
As I sat there, gazing at his adorable face, Seraphine came into the nursery, a serious expression on her face.
I looked up at her, my eyebrows raised. “What’s the matter?” I asked her.
“We need to go.”
Four words. That’s all she said, and I could tell by her tone that she was in a rush. “Excuse me?” I asked her. “Now. He’s off the island and will be for the next day or so. I have it all arranged. It wasn’t easy, but now is the perfect time. I can get you off of the island and safely to the north if we leave right now, but if we wait much longer, our window of opportunity will close, and we won’t be able to get out.”
All I could do was stare at her. I wasn’t prepared to go, even though I understood what she was saying and why she was saying it.
I knew that Soren had lied to me, that I couldn’t trust him, and that he had no idea that I was aware of his deceit, which was difficult for me because I had so much trouble not letting my true feelings show. He hadn’t been here too much since I found out, so it hadn’t been much of an issue, but it would be.
And now that I had my baby here, I had to be even more diligent because I couldn’t let anything happen to my baby.
“I don’t know, Seraphine,” I began, looking down at the baby. “Maybe we should wait until the baby is a little older….”
“Princess Rosalie,” Seraphine said, her voice strict, like she was my mother, trying to talk some sense into me. “The last time Soren was here, he told you he was going to the frontline to fight, didn’t he?”
“Rosalie please. I’m not a princess.” I corrected her, and then I nodded. Soren had mentioned that when he was there just a few days ago. He had told me he was going off to fight this time and wouldn’t be back fora while.
He’d said he would be fighting against Ethan…
I hadn’t dwelt on it because it was too much for me to think about Ethan or Soren being in danger, even after what they had done to me.
“Well, Rosalie, that’s a great distance from here,” Seraphine continued. “I have it on good authority that Soren has left for the front, so we have time. I have everything ready to go, dear. Everything is packed. All you need to do is get up out of that chair and embrace the fact that you are doing what is best for you—and what is best for your child.”
All I could do was stare at her. “You’ve already packed?” I asked her.
She nodded. “We’ll have to travel light. It won’t be easy, I’ll tell you that, but when we get there, it will be worth it.
You’ll see. You’ll have an entire pack of people who will be so excited to see you, the child of their long-lost leaders.”
I couldn’t help but shake my head before she even finished speaking. “Seraphine—I don’t know how to be a leader,” I told her. “I’m not—I’m not a Luna. I might be the daughter of an Alpha, but that doesn’t make me leadership material.”
Seraphine chuckled. “Rosalie, darling, all you have to do is be yourself. The way you care about other people, that’s how a true Luna leads. Now, please, let’s not spend one more minute debating. You know what you must do for your little one. Let’s get him to safety.”
“But won’t it be dangerous?” I asked her.
“I won’t lie to you,” she said. “It won’t be easy. There will be obstacles in our way. But I know we will make it. We are strong women who are fighting for what’s right, and we will make it there. I can feel it in my soul, Rosalie.”
I glanced down at my baby and then looked around the room. I had once envisioned raising my child here in this home, with Ethan, and then by myself. While I wasn’t planning to be here forever, I hadn’t planned to leave so quickly. But now… everything changed, with Ethan, with Soren, with myself.
I couldn’t stay here. It might be dangerous to leave the island, but it wasn’t safe for us to stay here, either. At any moment, Soren could decide that my child was a bargaining chip, or I was too much of a threat to keep around.
“All right,” I told her. “I’ll go. But there are a few things I want to take.”
Seraphine nodded, and I went to my room to make sure I had a few keepsakes she might have missed, including the baby blanket that I made and the necklace that Ethan had given me.
The only jewelry from Soren I took was the necklace saying “Mommy.” Regardless of his intent, he’d done enough for me. I had some money left, and that should last me until I was well enough to start working again.
This time, I was careful to hide all of my valuables in case I was robbed again.
Within a few minutes, I was ready to go.
I was surprised I didn’t see any guards around. I figured Seraphine probably figured out a way to distract them. The guards fully trusted her anyway.
We weren’t headed to the port, though. Seraphine took me to a secluded area of the island on foot. I carried my baby in a wrap on my chest. He slept the entire way, my walking soothing to him.
When we got to the shore, I saw a small boat. “Is this safe?” I asked her.
“The waves are manageable right now,” she told me. “We aren’t going far. Just one of the other islands where we’ll get on a bigger boat.”
I trusted Seraphine, even though she had also deceived me. With a backpack on my back with all of my belongings in it and my child strapped to my chest, I followed the midwife into the little boat and held onto the sides as she began to row.
The current drew us out into the water, and in the distance, I saw larger vessels. They were war vessels. I couldn’t tell if they were Soren’s or Ethan’s, but they made me nervous.
“We’re a little dot to them,” Seraphine a*s*sured me as she noticed that I was worried.
About an hour after we left the island, we pulled ashore on another island, and I helped Seraphine get the boat up on the sand. My baby had woken up only for a few moments to nurse and then gone back to sleep.
“Let’s go this way,” she said, and I followed her through a wooded area. We came to a small port where there was another boat. While this one was bigger, it wasn’t nearly the size of the boat that had originally brought us to the island.
“Seraphine,” an older man with a white beard who looked like a sea captain said from the end of a dock.
She smiled at him. “Sylas.” Seraphine slipped him some cash, and he nodded. The two of us walked up the ramp, and Seraphine led me inside the boat where there were rows of seats.
“It won’t be that comfortable,” she said, “but we’ll be here for a while, so get as cozy as you can.”
“How long is a while?” I asked, finding a bench where I could sit with my back against the wall. I took my backpack off and looped it around my leg so no one could take it Only about ten other people were on the boat, and most of them looked like they were running away from something.
“A while.” That’s all that Seraphine would tell me. “This boat will get us to the mainland, and from there… we’ll make our way across land to the north.”
I nodded. If this boat was going to the mainland, she was right. We would be on it fora while. I looked down at my boy. He was still asleep. I kissed him gently on the head and knew that he was worth every bit of trouble and danger—if it meant we got him to safety.
And we would.
We had to.