Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 164 Ethan’s Rage
**Rosalie’s POV**
The way that Ethan was growling at us, I had assumed he was still in his wolf form, but when I turned to look at him, it was the human Ethan’s eyes I was looking into.
Shirtless with only a small pair of tattered shorts covering him, he glared at me, his hands in fists.
At the moment, it was difficult to tell the difference between the man and his beast
“What the f’ck are you doing, Rosalie?” he shouted at me, coming at me slowly, which was surprising. I didn’t know why he didn’t shoot right past me and go after Rowan. Wouldn’t it be the baby he was really after?
“I’m doing whatever the h*ll I want to,” I shot back immediately and tried my best to keep his attention on me. “Who do you think you are to tell me what I can and cannot do, Ethan?”
He had narrowed the distance between us so that he was only a few feet away.
I needed to make sure Seraphine and Soren had time to get out of here so that Ethan couldn’t get my baby.
I listened to the sound of them running through the woods behind me, the thunk of their wolf paws getting quieter and quieter as they got further away. Even though I realized I was sacrificing my freedom, I needed Rowan to be safe, and that meant he needed to be in the north, with our pack, not here, locked in a heavily guarded tent in the middle of a battlefield.
“You promised me!” Ethan growled, his teeth locked together in a grimace. “I trusted you, Rosalie! You said you wouldn’t leave without telling me goodbye!”
“And I haven’t!” I argued, even though the only reason I was still there was because he had caught me. “Goodbye, Ethan!” I said and turned to go, as if that was the only reason I hadn’t left with the others.
I wasn’t surprised at all when his fingers wrapped around my arm and tugged me back. It didn’t hurt, but it was forceful.
“You’re not f*cking going anywhere, Rosalie!” he said. “You f*cking lied to me! You were planning to sneak out from me again, and you know it!”
I wrenched my arm out of his grip. “You have the audacity to stand there and yell at me for lying to you, Ethan? Seriously? After all of the lies you’ve said to me? You don’t get to talk to me about breaking promises! I would’ve said whatever was necessary to get you to leave me the hell alone!”
His crimson eyes were so red that it almost seemed like they would start to drip blood. He further narrowed them until they were only slits. He was seething, his nostrils flaring as he drew in deep breaths.
“Just wake the f*uc*k up, Rosalie!” he said. “You think that you’re the queen now so you can do what you want, but you will always belong to me, do you understand?!”
“I don’t belong to you, Ethan! I don’t belong to anyone!” I yelled at him. Anger was beginning to boil up in me, too, now. Who the heck did he think he was? What did I have to do to prove to him that I was an individual, a person, who wasn’t owned or controlled or the property of anyone?
“You will always belong to me!” he said again. “And now, you’ve let my f*uc*king a*shole half-brother take our baby? Are you insane? Have you f*uc*king lost your mind?!”
“Your brother will take care of my son!” I emphasized the word “my” as I yelled back. “Unlike you, he actually cares about people! AU you ever do for Rowan is come in and stare at him for a few minutes a day. He doesn’t even know who you are! You only wanted him as an heir, but have you ever thought of what he wants?”
I could tell his fists were clenched tightly, I could hear the cracking of his knuckles. Would he hit me? However, I didn’t care at that moment so I continued, “You care as little about his life as you do mine, and he will know that, Ethan. He will grow up knowing that his absent father was just a tyrant who only cares about himself!”
“Shut up, Rosalie!” Ethan scowled at me. “You don’t know what the f*uc*k you’re talking about! I love my son!”
“Love?” I sneered, “He was simply a product of you following King James’s orders, and nothing more. No one who actually loves their child would ever hurt their other parent, and you were going to curse him to a life with no mother because I wasn’t convenient to you! You were going to let my son be raised by Madalynn! Who the hell would ever do that to their child?!”
All of the mistreatment I’d suffered at Ethan’s hands came back to me, flashing before my eyes, and more than anything, I just wanted to hit him.
But he was so much bigger than me, so much stronger, raising a hand to hit him would be suicidal. One blow from his fist could end me. Yet, I continued to dance the tine line between baiting him with my words and sending him spiraling into a rage where he couldn’t control his own emotions or actions. His scarlet eyes were glowing now, as he continued to measure me up as his fists clenched and unclenched. “You’re going to pay for this, Rosalie,’’ he said. “If you think the conditions before were unfair, you just f*eking wait. You’ve betrayed the wrong Alpha.”
“You’re no Alpha!” I shouted. “You’re just a rogue! And not even a good one at that. You tried to kill your own followers! You have even killed your own soldiers in battle because you care so little about others. These people have given up everything for you, Ethan! Vicky, Talon, Paul… Georgia, so many others! You aren’t worth it, and yet here you are bossing everyone around like you’re some sort of a freaking god when you’re really not even a man!”
I knew what I said wasn’t totally true. I heard from Vicky that Ethan mistakenly hurt some of his guys, but none of them were originally from Drogomor. Maybe deep down, his pack bond prevented him from hurting his own pack.
However, I didn’t care to clarify it with him. I saw him hesitate for a moment, seemingly shocked by what I’d said.
“Watch your mouth, Rosalie!” he shouted, and I could see him getting even closer to that breaking point. But I was there, too. Anger shot through my veins as I thought about my friends and everything they had left behind so that Ethan would live. And how did he repay them? By becoming some sort of a monster. He didn’t care about any of them anymore, not even Talon who had stood by his side for so long.
“What’s the matter, Ethan?” I taunted. “Are you afraid that what I’m saying is true? Are you afraid that you’ve actually lost all of your morals? That your scruples have gone out the window because of this soulless creature you’ve become? Are you afraid that James has taken more than just your citizenship away but that he’s actually stolen your essence? Do you even have a human side anymore?”
He was breathing so hard now, I could almost see the steam coming out of his ears with every exhale. His mouth was open, his teeth elongated as if he was about to shift, and with every breath he took, his chest heaved. He couldn’t even formulate a response to me now, he was so enraged.
Behind me, I no longer heard the sound of Seraphine and Soren as their wolves took my baby to safety. The further away from me Rowan got, the more I felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest.
It was Ethan who had made me give my baby away—it was Ethan who had caused this chasm between my son and me—one I had no idea when I’d be able to cross. When would I see his sweet little face again? When would I hold him in my arms?
My own anger flared again at the thought of my child out there in the world without me, crying, missing me. All because his father had lost all sense when he’d given his soul away.
“All you want is power. All you want is to control me and everyone else, Ethan. Well, you may take my body back to your freaking camp and lock me up again, but I will tell you right now, you will never have me! It I live a thousand years, I will never, ever forgive you for making my baby leave!”
“Shut up, Rosalie!” he said, but it seemed more like a plea this time than an order, like he knew that if I didn’t stop taunting him with my angry words, he was going to lose all self-control, and he simply wouldn’t be able to keep from doing something drastic, something he couldn’t take back.
“I don’t have to shut up!” I told him. “My son is gone, thanks to you! He’s out there in the woods, crying, missing his mother, because of you! If you’re going to be so selfish as to make me stay here, in your camp away from my baby, then I want you to know that you can consider him no longer your son!”
I could see his veins raised on his forehead, I could hear his teeth chattering due to anger, and I was ready to bear his rage, because I was desperate.
I was angry, at him, at myself, at the situation. I didn’t care what I said any more. If he was going to punish me, then so be it! How much worse would it get?
All of the negative emotions that I had tried to press down erupted like a volcano, and I did not care whether I said what I meant any more. I just needed to get it out.
“From this day forward, when I write his name, I will spell it with an E-R-O-W-E-N because even if he is your own flesh and blood, Ethan Gray, it’s clear to me that you don’t love him. But Soren does! And he will take care of him! He can call Soren his father from now on while I spend the rest of my days rotting with you!”
A horrific growl emitted from the depths of Ethan’s soul. The rest happened in slow motion as I saw his right fist come around, his fingers wrapped so tightly into a ball, his knuckles were white. Sweat dripped off of his bicep as his muscular limb came flying directly at my face.
Rather than dodging out of the way or trying to avoid the punch, I stood there firmly, with my feet planted, ready to receive the devastating blow.
Whatever would happen no longer concerned me. I was used to being beaten, so how much worse could it really get?
If it made him hate me enough to kill me, then that would be on his head.
Without my baby, I didn’t care to live anymore anyway.
Ethan’s fist came around, and my eyes closed of their own accord, preparing for the world to go black.