Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 1461 - 60 : Crushing Reality

*Rhys*

My legs were burning. I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

“Please be there, please be there,” I thought. The burning in my muscles and lungs was nothing compared to the burning in my chest.

A small wave of relief hit me as I could finally see the tree in the distance, but I didn’t let up. I was frantic as I ran all the way to the tree altar where I was supposed to marry Saoirse. This had to be a nightmare, another one of my awful visions.

My feet and heart stopped as I crested the peak of the hill and saw the scene in front of me.

It was the scene where our wedding ceremony was to take place. Instead of beauty and happiness, all that remained were abandoned remnants of decorations, which were in the process of being cleaned up by the staff. My eyes tried to process what I was seeing. They tried to comprehend what this all meant.

Still in denial, I grabbed the first staff member to walk past, holding a wadded-up ball of ribbon.

“What happened?” I demanded. “Where’s Saoirse?”

My tone came out harsher than I meant and seemed to startle the poor young lady. I was desperate. If fear made her answer my questions quicker, all the better. I needed to find Saoirse as soon as possible. We could still fix this.

“She’s gone,” the young girl said quietly, her voice shaking.

I tried not to overreact to her words. “Explain.”

“Lady Saoirse was here until midnight last night,” she quickly granted my command. “She waited in her wedding gown, under the flowering tree for hours. But when it became clear that y-y-you weren’t coming, she finally left the tree and was dragged back to her chambers in distress.”

In my shock, I let go of the staff member. She hurried away before I could ask anything else of her. But I had no more words. I was horrified. Saoirse had waited hours for me, and where was I?

I had failed her in the worst way possible on the most important day of our lives: our wedding day.

Anguish racked my mind and body as I pictured what she had gone through and what she must have felt as she stood in this very spot, waiting for me. How could I have let this happen? How could I have hurt her so badly?

Daxton had to know what happened. My faith in my friend was never-ending, but I knew it was well-placed. He had to know more details. I couldn’t face Saoirse until I had the answers she deserved.

Since I already knew that mind-link wasn’t working for whatever reason, I raced to find my best friend. The pain in my muscles was almost welcome now as I ran back. The physical pain was doing well in making me forget about the emotional pain, not that I deserved to forget about it.

My mind again returned to Saoirse and what she had to be feeling at the moment. I knew that she didn’t deserve to have to see me yet. In fact, I was surprised that she hadn’t come to find me so that she could punish me herself.

When I reached Daxton’s door, I was gasping for air, but I didn’t hesitate as I knocked on his door. When he didn’t answer the door after the first knocks, I didn’t hesitate to walk right in. There were no secrets between Alpha and Beta anyway, so I was sure it wouldn’t be anything I hadn’t seen before.

I never expected to find Daxton unconscious on the floor.

“Dax!” I yelled, rushing to him.

I rolled him over onto his back and pressed my fingers against his neck. He had a pulse, but it was very faint. Fear seized me as I stared down at my best friend. I began to yell until one of the security guards appeared to find out what was wrong.

As I saw the guard, everything else from the last day started to rush back. I hurried and sent him to get a physician while I dealt with the second onslaught of memories. It was a lot to monitor Daxton, comb through the memories, and answer the questions when the physician appeared.

“We were ambushed,” I told him as he appeared. “Early yesterday, about twenty-four hours ago.”

I wanted to hit myself for not coming to check on him sooner. It didn’t matter if my memory had been altered. I should have known something was off when he wasn’t by my side, not to mention the fact that Dax would have never let me make the mistake of falling into bed with Alexa.

My skin crawled again at the memory of this morning as the tint of my real memories put it all into perspective for me.

“I need Lady Alexa arrested immediately,” I told the guard, who was still standing observantly by the door. “Gather a few other guards and find her. She is the one responsible for this.”

The guard nodded his understanding and was off.

“What was he given?” the physician asked as he listened to Daxton’s heart and lifted his eyelids to inspect his eyes.

“I’m not sure. It was some kind of tranquilizer,” I told him, placing a hand on my throbbing head as I tried to remember. “We were ambushed in the gardens. He was shot first, and then me. I woke up early this morning but found him like this.”

“Hm,” the physician said in thought, doing a couple more tests. “And what symptoms did you experience when you awoke?”

“I’m not sure... It was hard for me to open my eyes, and my whole body felt heavy. It was like my brain and muscles weren’t communicating either,” I told him. “Oh, and I had severe memory loss. My brain was so groggy I couldn’t remember anything. But I have a feeling that might have been something else given especially to me.”

“You could be right,” he said in response, standing up. “Help me get him to the bed. I need to test his blood and see what it is. We might just have to wait for it to pass from his system. Your Alpha blood could have sped up the process, but I want to make sure.”

“Yes, I understand.”

I helped him lift Daxton up and into the bed and continued to hover as he worked over him. More and more pieces of the truth clicked in my head. I began to pace as fear and fury took over.

Alexa had somehow orchestrated this entire sabotage. She had planned the trap down to the detail of making sure that I woke up naked in her bed. Nausea hit me. I thought I might actually puke, but I swallowed it back.

If she had touched me in any way, or if something happened to Dax, I would make sure that she died.

“Sir!” The guard was back.

“Where is she?” I asked hurriedly. “Did you get her?”

“I’m afraid not, Your Highness,” the guard answered. “I’m afraid that it appears that Alexa has fled the palace.”

“Damn it!” I yelled and punched my hand through the wall.

I didn’t think this day could get any worse.

Neither of the men looked surprised by my outburst. Their calm demeanors brought me back down. I took a few steadying breaths.

I breathed in deeply and slowly let it out.

“Stay here with Daxton and the doctor,” I ordered the guard.

He nodded in understanding. I strode past him and back out into the hall. This was serious business, and I knew where I had to go next. If I had any hope of finding Alexa and making her pay for what she did, then the king and queen would have to get involved.

They looked shocked to see me when I walked into their chambers. They were even more shocked by what I had to tell them about the previous day’s events. My mother’s hand was clasped over her mouth the entire time. She was shocked by the horror almost as much as I had been.

“Is Daxton going to be alright?” my father asked as I finished.

“I am not sure,” I answered shakily. “The physician doesn’t seem to think he will die if it is a normal tranquilizer, but he didn’t seem sure of his recovery either.”

“This is serious business, indeed,” my father said in a somber voice. “I will put out a bounty on Alexa immediately and contact her family. She will not be able to hide for long, son. We will find her.”

“This is awful,” my mother cried out. I noticed the tears streaking down her face. “If only Saoirse had known... if only any of us had known. I am sorry we weren’t there for you, son. For this to happen right under our noses is unacceptable.

“I had told Nora that I didn’t understand what was going on, but when I checked your room and didn’t find you there, I thought maybe you really had gotten cold feet. I should have known better. I should have told Saoirse that and stopped her.”

My blood ran cold.

“What do you mean stopped her?” I asked in a distant voice.

My mother and father were silent. I watched as they exchanged a look.

“Stopped Saoirse from what, Mother?” I pushed.

“Shortly after Saoirse arrived back at the castle, I went to comfort her. On my way, I saw Axureon and another dragon shifter show up,” my mother said timidly. “They seemed to have the same idea. I continued to make my way to her room but hung back, not wanting to intrude.”

“And?” I asked, my throat suddenly going dry.

“And I heard her ask Axureon to take her away, to take her to the dragon sanctuary,” my mother said, looking apologetic. “She and her mother climbed on the two dragons, and they were gone within minutes. They didn’t even bother to take anything with them.”

I turned toward the door.

“Rhys, where are you going?” my father interrupted. “You can’t find her. The new dragon sanctuary’s location is strictly hidden.”

“So tell me where it is!” I shouted, my emotions getting the best of me as my world seemed to fall apart around me.

“Don’t you understand? I can’t,” my father replied, sadly. “As part of the agreement to ensure the shifter’s safety, Axureon has the right to keep the location confidential and concealed by magic. Because of the attack coming from someone of our court last time, we thought it best for not even me to know the location.”

His words seemed to take all of the strength from me. I fell to my knees under the crushing reality of the situation.

Saoirse was gone. She had been spirited away by a dragon with whom she shared an unbreakable bond. It was a bond carved by ancient magic—volatile, unpredictable forces far beyond my control or comprehension.

Saoirse was gone, and I had no way of getting her back.

My head dropped into my hands, defeated. Was it really over?