Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder by Alice Knightsky
Chapter 178 Trapped
I turned around, my eyes almost filled with tears. He walked out of the temple at full strength. Georgia was behind him, my son strapped to her chest.
He sighed, “I owe you my life, Rosalie!”
I was about to say something, but I then my gaze met his gorgeous blue eyes. They were full of tenderness and… emotions I didn’t comprehend. It was as if I was the only one in his whole world. I lost my speech.
However, there was no time for small talk. He simply reminded me, “I’m ready!”
I nodded and turned back to face the crowd. Raising my voice, I announced, “Everyone! It’s time for us to get going! Follow me and keep your formation. You have my word that we’ll get to the palace safely!”
I turned to Ethan, who nodded in confidence. A wave of relief washed over me. It was as if as long as he was around, there was nothing I should be worried about.
“Let’s go that way,” Ethan said, pointing to the northeast “Maybe we can loop around the enemy and make it back to the palace.”
Looking at the direction where he was pointing, I saw that the path was relatively clear-for now. “All right,” I told him. “Commander Landon, organize the citizens to follow Alpha Ethan’s lead.”
Those who couldn’t shift were paired up with someone who was willing to give them a ride I was the only one who chose to stay in my human form so that Georgia and I could be the communication bridge between the two packs.
Under Ethan’s insistence, I rode on his back, while Georgia rode on Talon’s. We couldn’t run as fast as Madalynn’s rogues, but luckily, we had a head-start of at least one hour. Hopefully, by the time they caught up, Soren would have been able to get troops to us already.
The escape had gone as smoothly as it could be Talon and Paul must have done a great job setting up obstacles for our pursuers. If everything went well, we may even be able to get back to the palace without a fight.
However, I was being too optimistic. It was about halfway through our run, suddenly, I could sense danger in front of us. Ethan must have felt the same, as he slowed down his pace.
It was about that time that a group of wolves appeared in the trees in the distance. In the front of them was a large, dark wolf, and I knew instinctively that it had to be Behar.
There was no point turning back We needed to make Behar believe that we were not afraid of him. The best result would be that we deceived him enough that he let us pass. If not, as long as we could intimidate them enough that they would take the time to re-evaluate us, it would buy us time.
As long as we could avoid direct battle, we’d have hope.
I swallowed hard. Even though we had kind of prepared for the possibility, it didn’t make it any easier to really face the crisis.
Behar had shifted into his human form. He stood before us, a massive man with a scowl on his face. Thankfully, it was dark, so I didn’t have to look at his ugly n*ake*d body.
“Look what I found?” he smirked, “A little mouse…”
“I am Rosalie Thorn, the queen of the Winter Forest pack. May I ask who am I speaking to?”
He burst out in laughter. I jumped off Ethan and watched him quietly. I didn’t mind keeping the conversation going since my goal was to buy us time for my troops to arrive.
“Behar, West King Kai’s son.” Ethan kept his wolf form, ready to attack at any time. His wolf muzzle gently rubbed against my shoulder as he moved to stand next to me. It was as if he was telling me. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”
Just like that, my anxiety and fear seemed to have dissipated a great deal. However, I gestured for Ethan to hold back for the time being.
I cleared my throat and pulled up a smile. “It is too bad that we didn’t know we’d have distinguished guests arriving in our land.”
Behar laughed again and then he pulled out a sinister smile. “You’re right! Too bad, isn’t it? However, I’m a generous guest. Why don’t you come over, and we can have a chat?”
“I am afraid I have somewhere else to be.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Behar shook his head in amusement. “Where are you rushing to, Your Majesty?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Well, let me guess. I bet you’re on your way to your palace?”
I watched him move forward, but I remained silent.
He continued to say, “Where is your Rogue King, sweetheart?” His tone was filled with amusement. It struck me that he probably didn’t recognize Ethan because Ethan’s eyes were no longer red! That meant… we may have an opportunity to take him down!
As this thought flashed through my mind, Ethan had already charged at an incredible speed toward Behar along with three other wolves!
Behar obviously had not expected Ethan to attack first He cursed and immediately shifted into his wolf. The two of them collided in an eruption of power. Talon, Paul, and Richard followed Ethan and prevented the other wolves from approaching the battle between Ethan and Behar. Everything happened too fast, and Behar’s men didn’t dare to move without the order from their leader.
In a few minutes, the battle ended. Behar was pinned on the ground with Ethan’s teeth at his neck.
I’d long heard about Ethan’s reputation on the battlefield, and about how formidable he was. But up until then, I’d never fully understood how terrifying his speed and strength really were.
I’d only seen Ethan fight once, and that was against Soren. Now I realized that had he really wanted to k*ll Soren, there was no way Soren would have survived.
Ethan didn’t k*ll Behar. Because both Ethan and I knew Behar was more useful alive than dead at that moment.
We needed to hold him hostage. Only if Behar was alive, his army would have to wait for their Alpha’s order. It would be our best way to get through. Otherwise, if we k*lled him, most likely, his army would want to seek revenge and start attacking us. At that point, fifty of our warriors would have to go against a few thousand. We wouldn’t be able to win.
I walked to Behar.
“Your Highness,” I said with a sweet smile, “please allow me to introduce you to Alpha Ethan Gray, also known as the… Rogue King?”
Behar couldn’t speak, but I could see the disbelief in his eyes. He was probably expecting to see Ethan’s crimson pupils.
“Surprising, isn’t it? Not only is Alpha Ethan here, but so are his troops!” I continued, but I also knew the more I tried to make up lies, the less convincing it would sound. I decided to get to my point “Let us pass!”
He didn’t respond, so I raised my voice and shouted out again, this time toward Behar’s army. “Let us pass and we’ll spare your Alpha! Now!!” I managed to make my voice sound calm, but I could feel cold sweat moistening my palms.
After a few moments of silence, Behar’s army split from the middle and formed a path for us while Ethan still kept Behar pinned down on the ground.
I mindlinked Cerina and Landon to lead the citizens to walk past Behar’s army as soon as possible. The crowd was instructed to stay quiet, but I could feel the fear pulsating through the group.
It felt like it took forever before the first batch had finally gone through. I let out an exhale of relief inwardly and kept praying to the Moon Goddess to look after us for tonight.
However, I was happy too soon. As the second batch started to move forward, from behind us, howls and thunders of paws were heard.
I didn’t need to guess to know who had caught up.
We had underestimated Madalynn’s speed. I turned to look over my shoulders and saw another group emerging from the woods behind us. The she-wolf in the front had a menacing look on her face.
Madalynn.
She immediately saw me, and noticed Behar was pinned down by Ethan at the same time. “Rosalie, you b’tch!” She shifted back to human. Her scream pieced through the night. “Let go of my mate, or I’ll make you suffer the most horrible nightmare and make you regret every single second of the rest of your life!”
We were trapped between their forces, so I tried not to provoke her. “Madalynn, we’ll release Behar as long as you stop right there!”
At the same time, I shouted through mindlink ‘Cerina, move!’ We had to get everyone through! I saw Madalynn’s expression falter briefly. When I turned my head back to look at Behar, I saw his wolf was also conflicted.
“You will release my mate right now,” Madalynn countered. “Don’t make me come over there and strike you down, little b*tch! With Ethan holding down my lover, you’ve got no one to protect you, and you know your miserable little wolf is no match for miner.”
“I have an enormous amount of warriors between myself and you, Madalynn!” I reminded her. “You will not make it two steps closer to me before my army rips you in half!”
Madalynn began to laugh maniacally, but I did notice she wasn’t moving yet. So perhaps she was believing my ploy the same way that Behar was After all, he hadn’t used the mindlink to tell his troops to attack, so he must have thought our numbers were at least somewhat comparable to his.
“Laugh all you want to, Madalynn, but when my army chews yours up and spits it out, you will not be laughing any longer!”
Cerina was moving the people through Behar’s forces as quickly as she could go. Behind her, I could see that Madalynn’s rogues were growing restless. They wanted a fight, even though she was still hesitant.
“Let him go, now!” she shouted at me. Ethan growled in response
“Over my dead body!” I told her, praying Cerina could get the people through a little faster. “That can certainly be arranged,” Madalynn said.
“No, not today,” I said, my head still in the air. “My forces will destroy you. Now, back up fifty paces, and we will let Behar go.”
With a scowl on her face, Madalynn began to do what I asked her to do. She was retreating. And then… a child began to scream. “Mama! Big wolves!”
Horror shot through me as I realized our plan was falling apart. Behar’s face twisted into a grimace. He knew-we had been fooling them!