Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 131 The One We’ve Been Waiting For
**Rosalie’s POV**
I hadn’t been in the cabin long at all when I got the feeling I was being watched. I felt like I needed to move on, and I had just gathered my baby up into my arms, preparing to leave, when suddenly, that sensation went away.
It was dusk. I went to the window to look out to see if anyone was standing out there. My fingers trembled slightly as I went to pull the curtains back to peer outside. Studying the long shadows cast by the trees, I attempted to see if anyone was standing there. My concentration was fully on the scene before me when a noise behind me had me jumping, spinning around, ready to protect myself.
“Seraphine!” I shouted, collapsing onto the couch I had been leaning over. “Goddess! You scared me to death!”
“Sorry, Rosalie,” she said. “I had it on good authority that you were here. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I knocked lightly before I came in, but I didn’t hear you say anything, and I thought you might be sleeping.”
“It’s okay,” I said, patting my boy’s little head. He was still asleep. “I thought someone was out front.”
She frowned. “I didn’t see anyone…”
“It doesn’t matter now. That feeling is gone. It could be just some random travelers passing here. I was probably being over sensitive.” I a*s*sured her.
“No, let’s not risk it. We should get going.”
I understood that she was right, but this cabin had two comfortable beds, and I had been looking forward to sleeping fora few hours.
Still, if she thought it was best to keep going now, then that’s what we should do.
As we were about to leave, In the distance, we heard loud howling and growls. My eyes went to Seraphine’s face. “What is that?”
She c****d an ear and listened for a few moments. “It sounds like the rogues may have been intercepted…”
“Are we that close to your pack—our pack?” I asked. It was taking some getting used to, thinking of this place we were traveling to as being my home as well.
Seraphine shrugged. “We are about six hours’ distance from there, but if they came further south, it is possible that they are near enough for us to hear them.”
“Are you certain it wouldn’t be best for us to travel during the daytime?” It wasn’t just that I was tired, I didn’t want to go out at night with a bunch of wolves in the shadows when I couldn’t shift.
Seraphine considered my words before she slowly nodded. “All right. We’ll go at first light.”
***
The next morning, after a few hours of restless sleep, we got up to travel north. Almost from the beginning of our trip, it was clear that whatever battle had gone on the night before had been fairly large and destructive. Blood coated the gra*s*s and sides of trees. Tufts of fur littered the ground, and debris was scattered everywhere.
Every once in a while, we’d come across a dead body. Despite the frostiness of the morning, the dawn’s first rays of light had already begun to decay the corpses, and the odor was pungent enough that we could smell them well before we reached the place where they fell.
In death, it was impossible to tell whether they were from the east, the west, or the north. They were simply dead wolves—someone’s sons or daughters, husbands or wives, brothers or sisters. Someone who wouldn’t be returning home. They laid out there with a sheen of frost covering their fur, their eyes open to the sky as the sun began to climb across the horizon.
The thought made me sick to my stomach.
We moved on past the battle scene and further north where it grew colder, and I had to wrap my baby up tighter. By the time it was early afternoon, we were on the outskirts of a village, and it was clear that something was going on here, something that had everyone in an uproar, and it wasn’t my arrival.
“What’s going on?” I asked Seraphine.
“I’m not sure,” she said, “but I think it might have something to do with that battle.”
“But it was so far south,” I said as she rushed off in the direction that many of the others were headed to.
“Perhaps another one, then. Normally, when people are hurrying this quickly, it’s because others are hurt.” Seraphine picked up speed, and I followed, holding my son close against my chest.
We entered a great hall where several fallen soldiers were lying on cots, all of them in their human forms, and none of them looking very good. I quickly counted seven of them, with twice as many women tending to them. Their medical supplies seemed to be depleted from what I could tell. Carts of bandages with very few rolls of white left on them sat in the middle of the aisle, and shelves of medicine across the way were also nearly empty.
“What’s going on?” Seraphine asked a woman with long hair the same color as hers.
“Our warriors are dying,” the woman said, “and we’re out of medicine to save them. The rogues attacked our village again last night, for the fifth time in two weeks. We haven’t been able to get supplies for months because of the war between the east and west. We are doing everything we can, but without the proper medication and supplies….” She slowly shook her head.
“Seraphine?” a woman from across the room said. “Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me, Daphne.” The older woman came across the room to hug Seraphine. It was clear that everyone here recognized Seraphine as one of their own, but this woman actually knew her.
“It’s good to have a skilled medicine woman here when we need her, but… I don’t know what else to do,” Daphne said, once she let Seraphine go. “They’re in so much pain, and we don’t even have any medication for them.”
“Seraphine, I want to help…” I said gently.
They were suffering, and they needed help.
On the way here, Seraphine had already told me about the specialty healing power of my blood. If that was the case, I wished I could do something.
“But Rosalie,” Seraphine frowned. As she moved away, Daphne finally realized my existence.
It was then that the others looked up at me, and a hush fell across the room—except for one bowl of water that someone dropped that clattered to the floor.
As soon as they were over their shock, the women dropped to the floor in the same manner that Seraphine had. Even some of the injured warriors tried to do that. I could only stand there, my hands pressed to my mouth, shaking my head, willing them to stop.
Daphne looked up at me. “It’s you… the princess!”
“Please,” I finally said, “please… don’t. It’s really not necessary.”
Another woman shouted, “Luna Willa’s daughter is here!”
My eyes widened. “Yes, I am Willa’s daughter, but… I’m nothing special.”
Seraphine turned to me. “Princess Rosalie, you are special. These people recognize you. They see you for who you are. You are not only powerful here, you are the ruler.”
I slowly shook my head. I wasn’t used to that sort of attention. I wasn’t sure how to process it. All of my life, I’d helped others, not relied on other people to serve me. I wouldn’t even know where to begin….
“Seraphine, what do I need to do to help these warriors?” I tried to switch their attention from me to the wounded. I looked at their faces. Many of them were gritting their teeth in pain while others were near passing out.
“Are you sure? You…” Seraphine hesitated.
I looked at her seriously and nodded my head in confirmation. “Yes, I’m sure. Please, let me help. You told me my blood has healing qualities.”
“Your kindness would forever be appreciated, Princess!” Seraphine bowed to me again and said, “If we can draw some blood, we can give it to these warriors, and it will heal them. It will only take a few drops for each of them to be feeling much better in no time at all.”
“That’s it?” I felt like perhaps I hadn’t heard her correctly. It seemed too easy. “Really?”
Seraphine nodded. “That’s right. I know it sounds strange, but it’s true.”
“All right,” I told her, right away. “Please do it.”
Daphne took me to an empty bed right away, and within moments, they had me hooked up and were taking blood from my arm. I held my sleeping baby the whole time. It only took a few moments, and then other ladies came to distribute my blood to the warriors.
“Now, just lay back and rest,” Daphne said. Seraphine was off helping the others. “I’ll get you something to eat to help your blood sugar.” She patted my hand, and I thought I was going to like this woman. She seemed sweet, like a grandmother.
She came back a few moments later with a chocolate chip cookie and a small glass of milk. “We are so happy you’re here,” Daphne told me. “I remember your mother when she was a little girl. You have her eyes.”
I took a bit of the cookie and swallowed it down, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I had only vague memories of my mother.
“We thought… you were all gone,” I told her.
Daphne nodded. “It hasn’t been easy, living up here, hidden from the world. But we’ve been waiting for your return. All of the evil that took over when your mother passed, well, it had no place in our lands. Now that you’re here, all of that will be over, and our land will flourish again.”
I felt an awful lot of responsibility on my shoulders. What if I wasn’t the magical person they thought I was? What if my blood did nothing?”
Daphne patted my son on the back and smiled. “He’s precious.”
“Thank you,” I said, hoping she didn’t ask about his father.
She didn’t. But she did ask me something else. “You have a friend named Georgia, yes?”
My eyes widened. “How did you… how did you know that?”
She grinned at me. “Communication between our villages is important to make sure that we are safe. She is near, and she has been instrumental in fighting the rogues. You will see her soon.”
“How did you know that she is my friend?” I asked her, excitement building at the chance of seeing Georgia, even though it made me nervous that Ethan might find us.
“She was carrying a book, one that contains our legends.” Daphne patted my arm lovingly. “We will thank the Moon Goddess tonight that you are here with a grand celebration and let the others know that they should rejoice as well.”
“But what if—” I began, but before I could finish asking her what she would do if they were wrong, and I had no magical qualities, she interrupted me.
“Look!” she said, gesturing at the room.
All around me, I saw the warriors getting up off of their beds, fully healed, ready to go back out onto the battlefields and fight again as if they’d never been hurt at all.
I couldn’t believe it. They were all perfectly fine now.
“Your blood did that,” Daphne said. “You are the princess.” She smiled at me. “You are the one we have been waiting for.