Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 172 Rosalie, Can I Trust You?
**Rosalie’s POV**
After my efforts to save Talon, Ethan kept his distance for a few days. Without him keeping a close eye on who was coming in and out of my tent, I was able to see Georgia and Vicky more than I had been.
While I was grateful to be able to see my friends, with every day that passed, I missed Rowan more and more. My arms ached from being so empty. “We need to think of a way to get you home,” Georgia said one afternoon when she snuck into my tent. Vicky was out helping Paul with an assignment Ethan had given him.
“I know,” I said, pulling myself from the thoughts of my baby. “But how?”
“I don’t know.” Georgia shook her head. “The only person that has the slightest possibility to persuade him is you.”
I commented bitterly, “I might be able to talk some sense into him, but not on this matter. It’s already bad enough, I didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s already difficult lives.”
She stood up and started pacing back and forth. “I think it will just continue to get worse. The more this rogue state takes over his life, the more likely he is to completely lose the part of him he has left.”
Ethan… even though we were physically close to each other, I felt he was so far away. All the days back in the Drogomor pack, in Mirage, or even on the islands seemed to happen so long ago that I started to question whether those were all just my imagination.
Did that calm, cold, graceful and sometimes even gentle Ethan really exist?
“There has to be something we can do,” Georgia said. She bit her bottom lip. “You sure with all of the magical healing abilities you have in your blood, you can’t fix him?”
I knew she wasn’t being serious and was just venting. “It doesn’t work that way, Georgia.”
“But surely there must be something that can be done to save the soul of a rogue, right? Wait, a rogue is just a wolf without a pack? What if he Joined your pack? Wouldn’t that make him no longer be a rogue? Would that do it?” She looked at me with a hopeful expression on her face.
I shook my head. “He was just banished. He chose the rogue way. Once a wolf chooses to give up their soul for power, nothing can be done….” My voice trailed off as my mind went back to the books I’d been studying when I was in the palace, the ones about the pack’s laws and rules. Some of them also mentioned ceremonies and magical abilities.
I had read something about souls, hadn’t I? As my mind went back to the passage I had read, trying to remember exactly what it said, Georgia continued to lament the changes in her brother.
Then… it all came back to me.
“Wait a minute!” I declared, standing up from the cot where I’d been sitting. “I think… there might be a way.”
Georgia hopped up as well, her eyes wide as she studied my face. “You do?”
I nodded. “Yes. Now that I think about it, I remember reading a passage in one of the books in the library back in the palace that talked about how to perform a sacred ritual related to souls.”
“Really?” Georgia asked, and for the first time, I could see hope in her expression.
“Yes… but I don’t know whether it would help in this case, nor do I know what kind of ritual would be needed.”
Georgia’s eyes were already lit up. “This is already amazing news, Rosalie! At least we have a starting point!!” She was walking faster and faster in small circles which made me a bit dizzy. I waved her to sit down next to me as I explained, “There’s a sacred altar in a temple in my lands. That’s where the ceremony has to take place. The temple is built upon the land where the first queen is buried. Her blood is said to have blessed the earth there, so they built a temple. This is where all of the sacred ceremonies take place, where all of the miracles are performed whenever someone needs something beyond what the current white queen’s blood can manage.”
“And even though the first white queen’s body was buried so long ago, her blood still manages to perform such miracles?” Georgia asked me. “All of the queens are buried there now, so perhaps it is a compounding effect that makes the miracles work, but the people truly believe that this holy place is capable of healing the worst afflictions.” It all came back to me, the more I talked about it.
I had been so preoccupied that I didn’t realize that my own mother must also be buried there as well. No wonder my father never allowed me to visit my mother’s grave- because he didn’t know where she’d been buried!
It made me a bit sad that I never thought of going there. The sacred land was only a few hours away from the city where my palace was. “We could get Ethan to go there.” Georgia stood up and started pacing again as she thought aloud. “We would have to find a way to trick him into doing it, but it’s possible, isn’t it?” She turned and looked at me with wide eyes.
I nodded. “I hope so. Maybe… I can tell him that I want to go back to visit my mother’s grave, that I’ll go with him, wherever he’s planning on going, if he’ll just come with me.”
“He has to know that, in his current state, he can’t possibly continue to battle against all of these forces that are combining against him,” Georgia said. “He’s strong physically, but his mind is growing weaker by the day. The more he slips away, the less likely his chances are that he’ll be able to keep the war effort going for the long run.”
“I understand,” I told her. “Let me see if I can convince him to go and visit my mother’s grave. Maybe he’ll agree to do something like that if he understands that it means I’ll go with him wherever he wants me to go without fighting him.”
“But… that’s not true, is it?” Georgia asked me, her forehead puckered.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be true if I can get him to the sacred altar and change him back from his rogue mindset to who he was before. I don’t think the Ethan from before would be willing to take me against my will, would he?”
I remembered how Ethan had acted on the island. He’d told me he’d go away if I wanted him to, and I believed him.
Georgia shook her head. “No, I don’t think he would.”
“So… let’s just hope that he is able to change his mind and get back to the person he was before.”
We talked through a few more things. Georgia would reach out to Seraphine and Cerina, while I needed to find the right opportunity to persuade Ethan to go with me.
With that, Georgia left the tent, and I sat back down on the cot, resting my head in my hands. When it started to get dark again, everything seemed to quiet down. I had the feeling of someone watching me again.
This time, I sighed and asked the person outside of the tent loudly. “You are already there, why don’t you come in?” The tent flap opened, and a broody frame entered my tent, making the originally large tent seem small.
It hadn’t been that long since I last saw him, but the aura around him just seemed darker, and I could almost smell blood. Whether Georgia had told him I wanted to speak to him or he was just coming to make sure I didn’t run away, I didn’t know. But he was there, and it was time for me to try to convince him to go north with me.
He stood at the entrance as if he wasn’t sure whether he should get close.
“Hi, Ethan,” I greeted him. He frowned and didn’t reply. Maybe he didn’t expect me to be the first to speak.
“You wanted to see me?” he asked tentatively. For some reason, his uncertain tone made me sad. He was always the person dominating in our relationship. Why would I feel that he was a bit… afraid of me?
I replied, “Yes, I do.”
“Are you all right?” He cleared the space between us and bent down to kneel next to me.
“I’m okay,” I said, looking up at him. “But I miss the baby.”
“I know!” He gritted his teeth, like he was angry at Soren that the baby was gone when it was really his fault.
“Ethan, hear me out. There’s something I want to ask you, and I need you to listen to all of it before you say no, okay?”
He didn’t even blink at me, but I got the impression he was going to listen because he didn’t interrupt.
So I continued. “I want to go see my mother’s grave. It’s in a temple. I didn’t get a chance to see it while I was in the palace, and I think it’s very important that I visit there, at least once, while we’re this close to her gravesite. After that, if you want to go somewhere else, to get away from these rogues and the others that are hunting us, that’s fine. But… I want to go pay my respects to my mother.”
Ethan was shaking his head. “It’s too dangerous, Rosalie.”
“Is it, though?” I asked him. “The battlefield keeps pushing us further south. You have other warriors who can stay here and hold the line while we go north. It’s not that far. If you let me visit my pack, let my people see that I’m okay, let us collect the baby, and let me visit my mother’s grave, then we can continue on our way. But Ethan, we can’t leave Rowan behind. And… with the battleline getting pushed further south every day, who knows when we might have another chance to go get him?”
“What if they won’t give him to you?”
I smiled at him. “They will give me our son,” I told him. “They trust me. I am their queen.”
“But what it they try to take you from me?”
That was his true concern. I shook my head. “I already told you, Ethan, if you let me go pay respects to my mother, I’ll come with you.”
Ethan’s tone was wary, “Why all of sudden you want to do this?”
I looked up at him. “Because I’m tired of everything that has been going on. I’m tired of the war here, and I’m tired of how our relationship has become.”
“What if you’re lying? What if you….” His voice lowered, and he was seemingly talking to himself.
“You lied to me too. We’re even.”
“It’s not the same!” he argued.
I retorted, “I don’t see any differences.”
He looked away, thinking about my words, and I gave him time.
When he finally looked back at me, he asked, “Rosalie, can I trust you?”
“That’s not a question for me.” I looked him right into his crimson eyes and asked him back, “Do you trust me or not?”
He took a deep breath, and I braced myself for his response.