Page 56 of Rejected and Pregnant By the Alpha King

“My breeder” is putting it lightly. If either of us were being honest, this female,Raine, won’t just be someone who will carry a child to term for me. That would be simplifying her importance far too much.

After all of this is said and done, she’ll be known as our pack’s savior.

24

Raine

“So,” Rose says while toweling off her wet hair and hopping back onto her bed. “How long have you known you were going to be a breeder?”

My body stiffens at the question, mostly because I have no idea what to say for a lie. I’m not all that familiar with breeders and the culture surrounding them, only having heard about them in passing or through old legends told to us as pups when we were still young.

On the other hand, she could also be testing me—seeing if I’m actually who I say I am and not just some fraud sent by my pack in order to learn trade secrets or whatever else spies do.

“Oh, um.” I clear my throat. “Since I was young.”

“Really?” Her long dark hair is tossed over her shoulder as she straightens up, her towel tossed carelessly across the back of thesingle desk chair. “So…what, your parents just came up to you one day and told you that you were going to be a breeder?”

I stare at her, not sure what to say to that.

Is that how it worked? Or would it be more appropriate to breach the subject when older?

Honestly, I have no clue which would be better. On the one hand, telling a child young would help them prepare themselves for the future but also confuse them, while on the other, telling a teenager something like that would fundamentally rock their world, but they would have a greater understanding of what it meant.

Plus, I guess this all hinges on if the culture of breeders is even accepted within the pack in the first place.

“Sorry, am I being annoying?” she asks. “I’m not trying to be. I’ve just never met a breeder before.”

That has me blinking in surprise. “Really?”

Then why would her alpha need one in the first place if they aren’t a practicing pack? Is this their way of dipping their toes into the water?

“Yeah. I swear I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable. I’m just interested. What was your life like growing up?”

“Hard,” I say slowly. It is the truth, even if she doesn’t exactly know what I’m referring to. “It’s a…a big responsibility.”

She nods sagely. “Yeah, I bet. Are you nervous? I mean, I would be leaving my family behind like that. But I guess they prepare you for that, right?”

I play with the idea of lying to her and telling her that I had a huge going away party or whatever. To pretend like I meant anything at all to that pack, aside from Delilah, would have me feeling sick to my stomach. Even if it could make me look better, I just can’t do it.

“No. I didn’t have a family.”

Her mouth drops open. “Oh…shit.I’m sorry. Shit. I should’ve kept my mouth shut. Wren’s always yelling at me for it.”

I smile a little. “He doesn’t quite strike me as the yelling type.”

Rose rolls her eyes. “He does, it’s just silently. He’ll stare you down until you crack. He gets it from our mom.”

Oh. “He’s your brother?”

“Unfortunately.”

I’m really beginning to like Rose.

I hope this isn’t all a ploy to get close to me and then rip the rug right out from under me. If any of this is genuine, she has no idea how much her company, even if only because she’s been forced into it, means to me.

If this is real, then hopefully that spells good things for my future in Soleus. Nyx sticking me with someone like Rose has to mean he isn’t interested in hurting me, right?

“You have any siblings?” she asks.

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