Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 166 Crisis Was Brewing
**Soren’s POV**
I never in a million years thought I would receive the looks of respect from the Winter Forest pack around me, but when I stepped back into their territory again, I was welcomed like a hero.
They trusted me because I protected Rowan, bringing the heir to the kingdom back to his people.
However, I turned down the invitation to move to the palace. Instead, I insisted on returning to my cottage every night, even if I spent the day with Rowan in the palace. The cottage reminded me of my time with Rosalie back on the islands, and every time I closed my eyes, I could see her smiling face. It broke my heart when I had to escape without her, leaving her back with my half-brother, a wolf who was losing his mind. But at the end of the day, at least I was able to get Rowan away. I was able to bring him back to Rosalie’s people, as Rosalie requested. Now, I just needed to work with the pack to bring Rosalie back-if that was at all possible.
It had been two weeks since we got back, and every moment without Rosalie was agonizing.
“Soren,” Cerina greeted me upon my arrival at the door outside of the conference room, “you’re here. Let us speak with the council to see what can be done.”
As Cerina’s words ended, the double doors to the council’s chambers opened, and I stepped within to face the masses.
Eyes fell upon me, and all hushed murmurs came to an end.
I had done wrong to their queen in the past. However, now I stood by their side because I had brought the heir to the throne home.
Cerina gestured for me to take a seat. “Welcome, everyone,” she said loudly as she addressed the people. “There are a few things that need to be discussed. One of course being our queen.”
Murmurs once again erupted as angry and worried voices filled the hall.
“We’ll fight for our queen. We need her back at all costs!” one person shouted out. “We have seen with the small battles that many of our warriors are hurt. We have been able to hold them off this far with Her Majesty being gone, but we can’t continue to do so,” another person said; many others agreed.
Seraphine waited until the hall was a bit quieter and asked, “I understand that we all want to save her, however, while we were able to rescue the prince, it’ll be even more difficult to approach Her Majesty again, now that the Rogue King has lost his son.”
Someone in the crowd immediately retorted, “Are you saying we should just abandon our queen?”
“We have strong troops and warriors. We’re not afraid of the Rogue King!” another followed.
I sighed inwardly. Those who were the loudest obviously hadn’t faced Ethan directly on the battlefield before. Had they seen Ethan and his men before, they would know to never underestimate the Alpha of Drogomor- or the Rogue King.
Regardless of whether Ethan had lost his sanity or not, he was the best warrior I’d ever seen. Or rather, since he’d turned rogue, he had become a more terrifying killing machine.
Seraphine shook her head and tried to explain. “No, I’m saying we should have a solid plan.”
“But…”
“General,” Cerina interrupted, pressing down the murmuring, and turning to General Vandough, “What do you think?”
He pondered for a moment and stated honestly, “We have just gone through a big fight not long ago, and our troops need time to recover. At this moment, we are no match for the Rogue King.”
Someone immediately shouted out, “That’s the point! Our queen can help us to heal the wounded.”
“That’s right, with the queen’s blood, our army is not defeatable!”
“We want our queen back!” someone demanded with a firm tone as he smacked his hand upon the table
I frowned. What the h*ll did those people think Rosalie was? A walking medicine cabinet or a moving blood bank? Seeing the discussion going nowhere, Cerina noticed my frowning face, and she asked me, “It seems that you have some opinions. Mind to share with us, Soren?”
I pressed down my displeased emotion and tried to speak in a level tone. “I think everyone here has great points.” I glanced around the room and saw people nodding at me. “But we all know that we have great challenges to overcome if we want Her Majesty back”
“That’s why we are discussing it! Just tell us your opinion, are you willing to fight to get our queen back?” Someone was already impatient.
“No,” I answered consciously, and Seraphine looked at me puzzled, while Cerina remained silent.
One of the people advocating to fight Ethan sneered, “We saved you, our queen trusted you, and you… you are just being a coward!”
I shook my head. “If by ending myself I could bring about the return of your queen, I’d do it, but my question to you is, even if we initiate the battle against the Rogue King right now, other than jeopardizing our overall defense, what good can we do?”
Seraphine added, “We also still need to protect the prince here.”
“That’s correct,” I smiled. “We wouldn’t be able to pour all of our forces to face the Rogue King. We all have responsibilities here, in the city.” Cerina nodded at my words.
“So, we just sit here and wait while our queen suffers?”
“No,” I denied again.
“Please tell us what you are proposing then?” Seraphine asked on behalf of the rest of the room.
“Well,” I replied, tapping my fist on the table gently, “we need to launch a rescue mission to approach the Rogue King and try to get to Her Majesty.”
“But you just said you wouldn’t fight for her…”
“No, we won’t fight, at least not right away. But we’d go there to try to pressure the Rogue King.”
General Vandough finally commented, “I don’t see the point in doing so.”
I asked, “Everyone gathered here today because you are all worried about the safety of the queen, am I correct?”
They nodded. “Yes, we want her back so that we are sure we can protect her, and she can lead us.”
“Good. The point is, let’s first ensure that the Rogue King won’t hurt Her Majesty. Let’s see her with our own eyes. Let’s make sure that she’s safe!” No one objected this time. They agreed with me so far.
“With us pressuring them, we have a chance to converse with the Rogue King. But we don’t need to attack right away. When he knows we are not threatening enough, he might not even bother chasing us out of his territory. Then we can wait close by for the best time to rescue our queen.”
The room went quiet for a moment, and Commander Landon asked, “But what if he refuses to converse or let us see our queen?”
“Then at that point, let’s fight, and let’s bring our queen back at all costs!” I said loudly as my voice echoed through the hall. The rest of the council exchanged a few words, and I saw them nodding to each other. It made me smile to see many of them quickly change their minds about the situation.
“I agree.” Cerina was the first to show her support. “Let’s first ensure the safety of our queen before we go down the path of a full war with the Rogue King. We’ll demand to have him hand over our queen, and we’ll take it from there.” General Vandough asked, “How big of a team would you need?”
“A team of elites. Maybe two hundred warriors.”
“If that’s the case, we can move sooner-” General Vandough mumbled as he stood up and walked off. A group of men from the council followed him out.
“When are we leaving?” Commander Landon asked me.
I let out a long breath and shook my head.
“I won’t be going.” With all of our history, if Ethan knew I was there, everything would go south.
Commander Landon had left to go to Rosalie while I stayed back in the Winter Forest pack. Not having much else to do, I spent most of my time playing with Rowan.
The little one was adorable and growing fast, but there were times when his expression reminded me so much of Ethan, it was as if I was holding a miniature version of my brother in my arms. When he saw his mother, little Rowan would laugh and smile so widely. With me, and most others, he was a serious little gentleman with inquisitive eyes and a cautious disposition.
I always laughed when I saw him puzzling over me, like he wasn’t quite sure whether or not we could be friends.
Things here seemed to be quiet lately, but I just had a feeling this was the calmness before the storm arrived. Something just seemed wrong, but I couldn’t tell what was the cause of it.
‘Boss. Something urgent,’ Thomas’ voice rang through my mind.
‘Thomas? Where are you?’ I asked. I sent Thomas out to spend time with my group of outcast friends and gather intel since he’d recovered from his injury. He was way happier to be busy than laying in a hospital bed.
However, he didn’t answer my question. ‘I am using all my strength to send this to you, so I don’t have long. Long story short, Madalynn and Beher are mates!’
Before I had a chance to ask more questions, I lost the connection back to the mindlink with Thomas, and I couldn’t reach him anymore. I snapped back from the mindlink but my mind was trying to digest what I’d just learned. Usually, the mindlink worked best if you were near. The further away the parties were, the more exhaustion it would cause, and thus, it was harder to maintain. We would never want to put so much strain on the mind that it could knock us out immediately.
There were only two explanations why Thomas had to send a message to me this way- either it was so urgent that he needed me to take action immediately, or for some reason, he was not able to get close enough.
Either way, it was not good news.
My heart raced with worry thinking about what was to come. Hurrying to the council chamber, I managed to find Cerina and Seraphine. Their eyes turned to me with concern as they watched me quickly approach them.
“We have a very big problem,” I replied breathlessly. “I just got intel that Madalynn, the leader of the savage rogues, found her mate.” They all looked at me. From my expression, they were all concerned.
“How bad is it?” Commander Landon asked before the others could say anything.
“Her mate is King Kai’s son, Behar.”
Cerina and Seraphine gasped at my words.
I continued, “Knowing Madalynn and her desire for Rosalie’s death… it’s nothing good. Behar is just as scheming and ruthless as his father, if not more.”
We needed to get word to Rosalie and Ethan and warn them about what could be coming.
“Seraphine, send a letter to Georgia. They have to be warned.”
She quickly took off down the hall to do as I had said.
My heart raced at the notion that there was a bigger war coming than we had hoped for.
Not only would we be going against the rogues Madalynn controlled, but now we would be going against James and Kai’s forces. The battle was far bigger than the numbers we controlled.