Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

"And?" His voice was tight and tense.

"And he may have tried to harass me, a little bit," I blurted out. "But he was drunk and he had two

broken arms so he wasn't really that much of a threat."

His eyes darkened. "I need to have a word with him."

I couldn't help but compare Warren and Theo in my mind. In a situation like this, if it was Theo, he

probably would just beat Hawke up....like Tallis had done.

I reached my hand out and grabbed his arm. "No need to. And besides, Tallis took care of him."

"Tallis?"

I nodded. "But we aren't talking about Hawke. We are talking about you and fake me. What did she

say?"

A somber look overtook Warren's face. My heart immediately dropped and I felt all the hope drain from

my body.

"She agreed to elope with me."

The joy returned to my body and I bounced on the balls of my feet. "This is great news! You are the

best! But... I could tell you're upset. Sorry again for putting you through all this."

"Don't get me wrong, I am happy for the progress. But it's just...I feel like I'm going against my moral

code."

The smile slipped from my face. "I know..."

"This girl, fake you, loves me. She actually loves me for real and I just lied to her. I told her I loved her

too and told her I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. What kind of man does that make me?"

I stepped up toward him and placed my hand on his chest right above his heart. I could feel the strong

thumping on my palm. It was racing and I didn't know whether it was from guilt or nerves. But whatever

it was, I wanted it to calm down.

He had no business feeling guilty for this. If anything, all of this was my burden to bear.

"You are a good man, Warren. A great man in fact. I told you this many times before and now I will tell

you again. What you are doing for me is a service that I will never be able to repay you for. However,

please don't feel guilty for what you're doing with her either."

He locked his gaze on me, waiting for me to continue.

"First of all, this girl is not fully innocent. She has taken my identity and is trying to take over my home.

This is wrong, and I will claim my name back."

"And I want that for you."

I nodded. "That being said, she can't keep my identity forever. The most important thing is that she

didn't want this life. I could tell. No one would want to be someone else for the rest of their lives. So

you're helping her. You're helping her to get out of here and get away from people that she is afraid of,

like Raymond, like Hawke."

I could tell Warren's expression was softer.

"So remove the guilt from your heart. You're helping me and her. She might feel bad once she finds out

you don't really love her, but by then, at least she would have the freedom to carry on her own life, and

that's way more important than her being stuck here."

He leaned his forehead against mine and let out one long breath that fanned my face. His scent of pine

and morning grass surrounded me.

When he pulled away he offered me a small smile. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Know exactly what to say and when to say it." He tucked away a stray piece of hair that had come out

from under my hood.

I cleared my throat trying to make light of the situation. "I'm just stating the fact."

Then I stepped away from him. "Shall we?"

He nodded and we walked away from the garden.

The alliance ceremony would be in two days. That was when we would have the elopement

announcement.

In order for the alliance to go through, both Luther and Ciana would need to present. If Ciana suddenly

went missing due to her recent nuptials, then no alliance would be formed. Raymond would be

powerless without her backing.

That was stage one of the plan. The other stage was a little trickier.

I needed to steal the sacred artifact. Well, was it really stealing if it belonged to my parents? Depends

on which angle you looked at it from.

Warren sat opposite me. We had been going over everything for the past two hours. We made sure

there were no cracks in our plans.

"Will you still meet her tonight?" I asked him.

He nodded. "I need to keep up appearances, right?"

"Agreed." I stood from my seat at the table. "We can convene again tomorrow. Go have fun with your

fake fiancée."

I meant it to come out a little light hearted but he didn't take it lightly.

"Not funny. I don't have to go, you know that right? I can tell her something came up."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have joked about it," I apologized sincerely.

"You're forgiven," he smiled.

"She needs to believe you two are madly in love, though. Unfortunately, for the sake of our plan, it

would be better for you to go tonight."

He sighed, "Okay."

We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Having Warren on board really did take a lot of the pressure off my back. He made this serious

situation more bearable.

I decided to take a walk.

Not too long ago, my world had flipped upside down when I was sent to the royal palace, and now

returning home my world had flipped yet again. But like my father had always taught me, I would brave

the storm. Because that was exactly what us Blacks did. We moved with tides and rolled with punches.

I didn't know how long I had been wandering until I found myself at Nelson's cabin that was embedded

deep within the forest.

that there were people milling around and carrying boxes and loading them onto a large truck.

I saw Nelson walk out the cabin with a large box in his hands. When he noticed me he smiled and

headed over my way.

"Look what the cat dragged in. You look like shit there my friend."

I cleared my throat, deepening my voice a tad. "Rough night."

"I get that. I was up all night trying to get sequins out of my places that sequins should never be." He let

out a light hearted laugh but I could tell from the pain in his eyes it had not been funny at the time.

"Where are you guys going?"

"Oh, it's almost time for us to head out as soon as the ceremony is done. We don't want to overstay our

welcome here in the pack." He dropped the box down at his feet. "We made a few people laugh and

put smiles on some grouchy people's faces. I would say that this was a resounding success."

"That's a short stay..."

"We need to move on to other packs. We have to keep spreading the joy, you feel me? And staying in

one place for too long gets boring. We are nomads, kid. We roam the land and see where the Goddess

takes us."

I nodded. "I get that. It's just I'll miss you guys around here. You added joy here."

"And now we get to spread joy elsewhere." Nelson patted my back and then picked up the box. "Maybe

we will see you around."

"Yeah, that would be nice." I managed to smile. "Do you know where Tallis is by chance?"

"Oh yeah," Nelson nodded to the cabin. "He's out back. Probably still trying to find the pins I lost last

night."

"Thanks Nelson. I'll see you around." I walked into the house dodging people carrying large boxes. The

fact they had to lug so much stuff around from pack to pack was impressive. But I didn't know if I would

ever be able to live such a lifestyle.

I walked out the back door and saw Tallis sitting on the porch looking out to the forest.

"What do you want?" He didn't even turn to see if it was me.

"How did you-never mind." I walked up to the steps where he was sitting and sat beside him.

Tallis tensed up a little when I sat down.

We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. The words were all jumbled in my mind. I didn't

know exactly what I wanted or even should say.

"Are you going to speak or are you just going to sit there?"

I shifted little in my seat. "Well, firstly I just wanted to say thank you for what you did for me yesterday

with Hawke. You didn't need to step in but you did it anyway. For that, I'm grateful."

"I didn't do much."

I shook my head and moved a little closer. "Enough to save me from him."

I stared at him for a moment, trying to catch his gaze but he kept his eyes locked on the ground.

He then shot up from his seat and turned to face me. "Look, I didn't even mean to save you, I just didn't

like that guy, so stop looking at me like I'm your superman, it's kind of creepy."

"..."

"And also, I don't swing your way. I like women, not men."

It took me a few seconds to grasp what he was saying, and then I realized something important-I had

been pretending to be a dude!

"I don't know if you had any hopes of something happening between us, but let me just clarify. There is

no hope. Please just do both of us a favor and leave me alone."

Tallis walked back into the house leaving me on the porch.

Heat rose to my cheeks completely and I was utterly mortified.