Breeder To The Brutal Alpha King

Rebecca’s POV

​”REBECCA!”

​Kaden’s panicked voice thundered behind me.

​I barely had time to turn my head toward his roaring voice before Midnight telescoped into a bolt, completely out of her mind. She didn’t stay on the track. She charged straight toward the thick, dangerous forest bordering the grounds.

​The heavy leather reins burned violently against my palms as I pulled back with all my strength. ”Midnight! Stop! Please!”

​She wouldn’t. She couldn’t hear me over her own terror. Thick tree branches whipped viciously against my face and arms as we tore through the dense woods at a fast speed.

​Behind me, over the sound of my own crashing breath, I heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of another horse. It was fast. Terrifyingly fast. And it was getting closer by the second.

​”REBECCA!” Kaden’s voice thundered through the trees, vibrating with a raw power that made the leaves shake.

​I forced myself to look back. He was chasing me. He had thrown himself onto another stallion, leaning incredibly low over its muscular neck as he pushed the animal harder and faster than humanly possible.

​”Kaden!” I screamed, tears blinding my vision.

​”Hold on!” he roared, cutting through the brush.

​”I can’t stop her! The saddle is going!”

​”Don’t you dare jump!”

​The ruined saddle slipped again, shifting completely underneath Midnight’s belly. My body tilted dangerously to the side, my fingers slipping from the leather. ”Kaden!”

​As his horse drew closer, I caught sight of his face. My breath hitched. Pure, unadulterated terror was written across his features. It was the first time in my entire life that I had ever seen Alpha King Kaden truly afraid. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t furious. He was absolutely terrified—for me.

​”REBECCA, LOOK AT ME!” he commanded, his stallion drawing parallel to mine.

​I snapped my eyes to his.

​”Let go of the reins,” he ordered.

​”What?!”

​”Trust me, Rebecca! Let go!”

​Was he completely insane? ”No! I’ll fall!”

​”Rebecca!”

​Suddenly, the thick trees ahead disappeared, opening up to a bright, terrifying void. My blood completely turned to ice. A massive, rocky cliff was looming just ahead. Midnight was running blindly, directly toward the edge.

​”Oh, Goddess,” I whimpered. I pulled desperately on the reins one last time. Nothing. The horse was unstoppable. ”Kaden!”

​”I’m coming!”

​The edge of the cliff rushed closer. Fifty feet. Thirty. Twenty.

​”KADEN!” I screamed his name, completely giving up.

​”JUMP!” he thundered.

​I froze.

​”Jump to me, Rebecca!”

​His stallion was now racing dangerously close, their flanks nearly brushing in the dirt. Kaden completely let go of his reins, stretching his long, muscular arm out toward me, exposing his entire body to the fall. The cliff edge was ten feet away. There was no more time to think.

​I let go of Midnight. And I jumped.

​For one horrifying, weightless second, I was flying through the empty air. Then, powerful, solid iron arms caught me mid-flight. Kaden pulled me violently against his broad chest, his grip crushing the breath right out of my lungs.

​The violent impact of my weight knocked both of us completely off his speeding horse. We crashed hard onto the rocky earth. In midair, Kaden violently twisted his massive body, forcing his back to hit the rugged ground first, using his body to shield me from the brutal impact.

​I landed heavily on top of him. We rolled violently over the dirt—once, twice, three times—before finally slamming to a violent stop near the brush.

​Silence fell over the forest.

​My ears were ringing loudly, and my entire body was shaking with residual adrenaline. I gasped for air, my head spinning. ”Kaden?”

​Nothing. He didn’t move. My heart completely stopped in my chest.

​”Kaden!”

​I quickly pushed myself up on my hands, looking down at him. His green eyes were tightly closed, his face completely pale. A thick line of dark red blood was running down from the side of his head, staining his black shirt.

​”No,” I whispered. Something deep inside my chest completely shattered. ”Kaden!”

​I grabbed his face with both of my trembling hands, my palms pressing against his warm cheeks. ”Wake up! Please, wake up!”

​Nothing. He remained completely still.

​Hot, heavy tears instantly filled my eyes and spilled over, dripping onto his chest. ”No, no, no. You can’t do this.” I pressed my hands against his heart, feeling it beating weakly.

​In that moment, I forgot everything he had ever done to me. I forgot the collar. The cruelty. The hatred. All I could see was Kaden lying motionless beneath me. I leaned over his broken body, completely terrified of the silence.

​”You stupid bastard!” I sobbed, my voice breaking in the quiet woods. ”Why did you do that?! Why did you risk your life for a slave?!”

​Suddenly, a large hand moved on the dirt.

​His long fingers wrapped weakly but securely around my wrist. I completely froze, my breath catching in my throat.

​Kaden’s piercing green eyes slowly blinked open, looking up at me through the pain. ”You... you talk too much,” he groaned, his voice gravelly and weak.

​A broken, breathless laugh escaped my lips. Before I could even think, before I could stop my traitorous heart, I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder, sobbing out of pure relief.

​Kaden went completely still beneath me. So did I.

​The reality of what I had just done hit me like a physical blow. I had just thrown myself into the arms of the very man I had sworn to hate. Panic flaring, I immediately tried to pull my body away and stand up. But before I could move an inch, his powerful arms wrapped tightly around my waist, locking me against his chest.

​”Don’t,” he muttered against my hair.

​My heart hammered violently against my ribs. ”Kaden—”

​”Just...” His voice cracked, sounding incredibly vulnerable. ”Just stay here for a second.”

​I stopped fighting. I let my head rest against his shoulder, listening to the steady, heavy beat of his heart beneath my ear. And for those few stolen seconds, wrapped in his arms in the middle of nowhere, I felt something I had no right to feel with him.

​Safe.

​Then, Kaden’s expression suddenly changed. His body went rigid as steel beneath mine. His green eyes drifted over my shoulder, landing on something lying in the dirt a few feet away. The softness in his face instantly vanished, replaced by a cold, scary darkness.

​Kaden reached his long arm out toward the ground and picked up a piece of dark material. It was a heavy piece of leather—the broken under-strap from Midnight’s saddle.

​”What is it?” I asked, sitting up slowly as he released his grip.

​He turned the thick leather over in his large hands. My stomach completely dropped into a pit of ice. The leather strap hadn’t snapped under pressure. It hadn’t worn out. It had been cleanly, deliberately sliced halfway through with a sharp blade, hidden beneath the buckle so it would fail the moment the horse reached top speed.

​Kaden’s green eyes slowly turned into molten gold. His wolf was right at the surface, radiating an aura of pure, murderous fury.

​”This wasn’t an accident,” Kaden hissed, his fingers crushing the severed leather into his palm until his knuckles turned white.

​A heavy, suffocating chill ran straight through my veins.

​He looked up at me, his golden eyes filled with a terrifying realization. ”This wasn’t meant for you,” Kaden said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

​I stared at him.

​His golden eyes lifted to mine.

​”Midnight was supposed to be my horse.”

​My blood ran cold.

​Kaden’s fist closed around the severed strap.

​”Someone just tried to assassinate me.”