Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 1456 - 55 : First Love

*Saoirse*

"Rhys!" the socialite yelled back in response, a look of surprise on her face as she rushed over to us.

I wanted to roll my eyes at the woman who already seemed fake to me. I balked at the fact she could act surprised to see Rhys when the event she just crashed was his engagement party to me.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself down. I wasn’t the kind to hate a woman just because she was pretty and my man was looking at her like a long-lost best friend. But when she proceeded to throw her arms around him in an intimate embrace, I found my normal temperament gone.

I did not like this woman.

And I didn’t even know who she was.

"Oh, how rude of me," the object of my ire said, releasing Rhys from her hug and turning to the rest of us. "Hello, Your Majesties. It’s so great to see you again. I hope you’ve been well."

"And you, Alexa," the queen replied. "It has been a long time."

Alexa completely looked over my mother before turning her focus to me. "And I’m afraid I have no idea who you are."

I clenched my teeth together, trying to control the heat that seared through my body. My mother must have sensed my spiraling emotions because I felt her hand stroke my back as it had when I was a kid and she was trying to comfort me.

"Allow me to introduce my fiancee," Rhys said, beaming down at me and wrapping his arm around my hip. "This is Saoirse."

My rage ebbed just a little as I stared into his eyes, bringing me back to reality. However, it came back just as quickly because Alexa grabbed his hand and tugged, pulling Rhys away from me.

"Oh my Goddess, you are engaged!" she spouted, jumping up and down excitedly, holding him all the while. "I never would have imagined that!"

"And who are you?" I asked. When I heard the tone of my voice, I tried to force a polite smile on my face. As much as I wanted to blow up, we were still at a public event.

"Oh, me and Rhys go way back," Alexa said, hugging the arm she was holding. "I was his first love."

I felt myself still as this revelation hit me, and I looked at her even harder. She wasn’t looking at me though, just Rhys.

"That was a long time ago," Rhys said with a laugh.

"Yet I still remember it like it was yesterday," Alexa said. "We had quite the wild adventures, didn’t we?"

My eyes were locked in on her familiar grasp on Rhys. She touched him as if it was nothing out of the norm, and he didn’t stop it.

Heat burned under my skin.

I looked away from the familiar duo and tried to look anywhere else. Keeping my face blank proved difficult as I tried to cool down, but somehow I managed it. My mother’s gaze caught my attention. She smiled at me, trying to keep me relaxed as well.

The queen seemed to notice my distress.

"Alexa, I believe I saw your mother here," the queen cut into her ramble about some memory with Rhys. "Could you do me a favor and escort me to see her? I would love to catch up with both of you. Then we could leave these love birds alone for a moment."

I smiled with gratitude at the queen, understanding what she was doing. She gave me a returning smile as she took the woman’s hand off Rhys and led her away.

"I need to use the restroom," my mother said when it was just the three of us left.

I thought about offering to go with her, but I understood what she was doing as well. With a nod from me, she turned and walked off. It was quiet, and I couldn’t bring myself to face Rhys again as I spoke.

"So Alexa, huh," I said, trying and failing to keep my tone even.

Rhys surprised me by laughing, earning a glare in return. He wasn’t even nervous. He was actually smiling. When my glare met his eyes, he hooked one hand around my hip and pulled me against him. I braced my hands around his chest and glanced around us nervously.

"Are you jealous?" Rhys asked, bringing my eyes back up to his face instead of worrying who was watching us.

"No," I lied automatically, causing Rhys to laugh again.

He pulled me tighter to him and brought one of his hands up to cup my face. I tried to look away, but he brought my face back around to him.

"You have nothing to be jealous of," he said in a low voice.

"But she said that she was your first love," I said, hating how whiny my voice sounded.

"And you’ll be my last."

My breath caught in my throat at his words. I felt a heat of a different kind spread through my body. He leaned down to kiss me. I stood on my tiptoes, bringing my lips closer to his.

But just as his lips brushed mine, the voice that would haunt my dreams came again.

"Rhys! Oh, there you are!"

Rhys pulled his lips away from mine and turned toward our unwelcome guest, or at least unwelcome by me. As if she hadn’t been annoying enough already, and now she interrupted our kiss.

At least his hand was still on my hip.

"Hello, Alexa," Rhys said, with a smile still on his face. "Back already?"

"I missed you, silly," Alexa said, lightly smacking him on the chest. "Plus, I know you weren’t done talking to me."

She looked at me for the first time and noticed the scowl that I was sure was on my face. A pouty lip appeared on hers, and my dislike for her grew. Everything she did seemed for show and so dramatic.

"I apologize. Was I interrupting something?" she asked. She looked at Rhys again instead of me.

"No, you are alright," Rhys said.

"Nothing we haven’t done before, right?" Alexa asked with another laugh. "In fact, I remember doing much worse in our day."

I stiffened next to Rhys, but he didn’t seem to notice as he laughed in response. The worst part was I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be politically correct, or if he was actually remembering the events with this girl in the past.

The thought made me nauseous.

Alexa suddenly cleared her throat, clutching her neck dramatically. "I apologize, but is there any way you could go get me something to drink? I seem to have swallowed funny."

"I can do it," Rhys said quickly, sensing my growing irritation at this woman, who seemed to be treating me like I was beneath her. He gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. "I’ll be right back."

My feeling of irritation grew at the situation I was in now. I might not have been getting her the drink, but now I was stuck alone with her. Unlike Rhys, I was not good at political jargon. How was I going to stand here with her and not let her know I disliked her?

Luckily, I didn’t have to pretend.

As soon as Rhys was out of hearing distance, Alexa’s bubbly voice dropped as she sneered at me. "Listen, you uncultured, country peasant."

I looked at her cattiness in surprise, shock keeping me silent.

"Rhys is a prince. You will never be good enough for him," Alexa continued. "You might be fun in the short term, but he will soon realize that you aren’t marriage material. You can’t satisfy his true needs."

With every word she said, my fury spiked higher and higher until I couldn’t keep it in any longer.

"And you can?" I asked, not backing down.

"As a matter of fact, I can." Alexa smiled. "Thanks for offering."

"That was not an offer," I said, my voice escalating with my anger level. "Not like I’m worried. You obviously couldn’t keep him satisfied for long if he ditched you."

Alexa’s face reddened in anger this time, making me feel a little proud. "He didn’t ditch me. And trust me, I could keep him much happier than some girl that doesn’t even understand the concept of royalty."

"Whatever you say," I told her, trying to calm myself back down. "Just know that I am not some meek girl. I have no problem fighting for Rhys, especially if it’s to protect him from some viper."

Alexa laughed, but there was no humor in her voice. She stepped closer to me. I noticed that she was taller than me, though most people were.

"Fight all you want, but you won’t win," Alexa said with a twisted smile. "I’m not afraid of some bumpkin from the wild. Do they even have schooling where you are from?"

My irritation grew as she insulted my home, and partly because she was right. "Oh, I’m sure I know what you were busy doing in school."

Alexa scowled at me. I was sure I had hit the nail on the head as well. "At least I’m not a hillbilly whore."

I stepped toward her as I saw red, no longer caring about who was in the room and what they saw. I was going to knock this girl out. There was nothing that could stop me.

Well, nothing except one person...

"What’s going on here?" Rhys’ voice came from beside me.

I wouldn’t take my eyes off Alexa, so I watched as the fury and condemnation fell off her face and was replaced with the same fake bubbly smile. She easily turned away from me and to Rhys.

"Oh nothing, just a mild disagreement," Alexa said cheerily, placing her hand against his chest again. "Thank you for the drink, Rhys."

"A mild disagreement?" Rhys pushed, glancing at me as Alexa took one of the cups out of his hand. He held another cup in his other hand. I wondered if he had gotten me one as well.

"Yes, I was just trying to give Miss Saoirse some pointers on city fashions to help her fit in better among the court," Alexa continued, still somehow keeping a cheery face as the lies easily fell out of her mouth.

Perhaps I had underestimated her.

"Is that truly all that happened?" Rhys asked as he looked at me.

The tension in my chest relaxed slightly at his need to verify with me instead of taking Alexa’s word for it. He had always been able to read me well, and I was sure he could tell there was something else going on.

However, we were still in the middle of our wedding rehearsal, and now that Rhys was back, my head had cleared slightly. As annoying as this girl was, I didn’t want to cause drama on the eve of our wedding.

I forced a tense smile onto my face as I stepped closer to Rhys. "Yes, Alexa was just trying to be helpful about acclimating to royal life."

Alexa beamed as if she knew I would do what she wanted. It made me almost second-guess my decision.

"Would you like to dance?" Rhys asked.

I looked up to see him offering his hand to me, and my smile became more genuine. "Yes, please."

I smiled at Alexa as I grabbed Rhys’ extended hand, and he dragged me over to the dance floor. He spun me before pulling me closer to him and swaying to the faint music that was playing in the hall.

As we moved slowly, I leaned my head against his chest, taking in a deep breath. His presence was calming me down much more than I had managed to do on my own. Alexa kept popping into my head, and her words spun their web.

“You will never be good enough for him.”

"Are you having second thoughts about becoming my wife and taking on the pressures of royalty?" Rhys asked quietly from above me.

I looked up in shock at his words. The man above me looked genuinely worried, making my heart squeeze uncomfortably. My arms reached up and wrapped around his neck.

"I have never been more sure of anything than I am about you," I replied, pulling him down until our lips met to finish the kiss that was interrupted before.

Rhys happily kissed me back, spinning me to the sound of the music.

As we continued to dance, Alexa’s words still wormed their way through my brain, bringing doubt with them. Could I ever measure up in Rhys’ world, the world of royalty and politics?

Her venomous warnings had done their trick.