The Family's Breeder

~Nolan~

I am going crazy. I didn’t know what I was thinking when I entered my room with the breeder in my hand. As Salvador's eldest and crown prince, I should have thought about it before joining in and stopping the execution, and now, I had a disappointed father.

‘’What are you?’’ I asked the sleeping breeder as I laid her on the bed. Except for her being the vessel we needed to carry our children, I felt a deep connection with her since she entered my room that night. Something was intriguing about her that I was trying to figure out, but I couldn’t. ‘’I want to know your name too,’’ I muttered as I stared into her face. Even though her face was covered in her blood, she still looked beautiful, and I was tempted to touch it, but the door burst open, and Harry walked into my room.

‘’Your Highness,’’ he cleared his throat, announcing his presence. ‘’The Alpha king had ordered that you come to the throne room now!’’

I nodded in response, knowing that I had wasted enough time with the breeder. ‘’send a maid to clean her up,’’ I ordered him and stared into her face for a moment before turning to leave, but then, I stopped when I remembered that I had to do something about her wounds. I looked around my room, searching for a weapon to cut myself with, and Harry followed me around without asking questions.

I suddenly stopped when I couldn’t find a weapon and turned to face him. ‘’why the hell are you following me around?’’ I frowned as I asked him.

Harry lowered his head and apologized. ‘’Sorry for that, Your Highness. I want to make sure that you are alright.’’

I frowned and wondered how I got a stupid guard. ‘’do you have a knife, please?’’ I asked as my eyes roamed around his body until they landed on the dagger secured in his belt. I yanked it from his belt and unsheathed it.

‘’what are you doing, your highness?’’ he asked, but I ignored him and moved towards the sleeping breeder.

I slashed the dagger on my palm and placed my palm close to her lips. ‘’Your Highness!’’ Harry shouted at me. ‘’The royal blood is not to be shared with any commoner, and the king will be pissed when he realizes that you….’’

‘’I should leave her while she suffers?’’I asked him but got no response. ‘’She is going to be carrying the royal babies, so I wouldn’t want her to look malnourished,’’ I told him my reasons for healing her and handed over his dagger to him when I was done. ‘’The healing will take a moment since she is a rankless wolf, and it would take time for her blood to accept mine.’’

‘’why are you doing this? You never cared about any breeder before, Your Highness. Is it because she helps you see the world clearly?’’Harry asked.

I inhaled deeply and stared at my palm as the wound healed. ''She is a mystery,'' I took a final look at the breeder before heading out of the room. ‘’send a maid to take care of her, and until I have an heir and regain my sight permanently, that woman should be protected,’’ I ordered him.

‘’yes, Your Highness,’’ he responded without asking other questions.

‘’The first prince has arrived!’’ The royal guards positioned at the entrance of the throne room announced the doors leading to the throne room were open, and I walked in. ‘’Father, mother,’’ I bowed my head as I greeted them, and when I was about to raise my head, I felt a sharp pain in my forehead.

It was starting again as my vision became blurred, and I realized that I had become partially blind again. I bite my lower lips to hide my pain and then raise my head to face my father, pretending to be delicate like I always do.

‘’Nolan!’’ My father shouted as she stood up from his chair and walked towards me. ‘’I believed that you are the responsible one of your brothers, yet you joined them into defying me!’’ he yelled at me, but I didn’t quiver and faced my father with a straight face. ‘’she is only a breeder, and yet you went through that trouble to save her brother!’’ he screamed in my face.

‘’I apologize on behalf of my brothers, but the breeder needed to be protected since she is the only one who can save us from the curse,’’ I replied, my voice devoid of any emotions. ‘’ if you kill her brother, then you wouldn’t have any leverage over her any longer,’’ I blurted out. The moment the words came out of my mouth, I regretted saying them.

‘’This is why you are the most responsible out of your brothers!’’ my father laughed and patted my back. ‘’This means that we would keep the brother alive, and then once the breeder has your children and the curse is broken, we can get rid of her and her brother,’’ he declared.

‘’That is true, my king,’’ my mother said, agreeing with my father’s decisions. ‘’I am still not glad you three went behind our backs to save the breeder’s mother. Is this weakness that I sense!’’

Jeremy spoke up first and laughed hysterically. ‘’Mother,’’ he said and pointed to me. ‘’He had already stated his reasons for saving the breeder, which is it. The full moon is upon us, and the curse will be activated again. We need her to be around us and…..’’Before he could say anything further, Ethan cut him off.

‘’is that all, father, mother?’’ he asked in a bored tone. ‘’if we are done here, then I should leave,’’ he said and turned to leave, but our father’s booming voice stopped him, and he stopped in his tracks.

‘’Ethan! You are a part of the future of this kingdom, yet you act like nothing interests you, and I find that disrespectful. Why are you acting as if you are not part of this family?’’

Ethan shrugged his shoulder as he turned to face our father. ‘’why should I care?’’ he retorted. ‘’Nolan had already told you our reasons for staying behind, yet you are forcing me to have a speech. Father, I don’t want to indulge in this conversation anymore, so please,’’ he begged. ‘’I would love to leave now as I am starting to get suffocated in this family gathering and….’’

A slap sounded, and I had thought that Ethan had gotten hit, but Ethan’s bodyguard, Percy, got slapped in the face instead.

My father pushed him to the ground and kicked him in the face. ‘’what are you doing, father?’’ Ethan asked through gritted teeth. ‘’I am the one who spoke against you, so you should punish me instead, so why the hell am I….’’ he stopped talking when Father removed the sword from Harry's belt and placed it against Percy’s neck.

‘’one more word and I shall slit his throat,’’ our father threatened him by pressing the sword against his neck, drawing blood in the process. ‘’I already warned you once that if you try to act as if you are not part of the princes, then I shall punish your servant instead.’’

Ethan laughed at our father. Even I was amazed by how strong he was in front of us, unlike me, who did everything to ensure I gained our father’s favor and became the next Alpha king. ‘’Kill Percy If you want to,’’ Ethan declared and walked towards the entrance of the throne room.

‘’fine,’’ our father said as he raised his sword to strike Percy, but I appeared before him and grabbed the sword instead. ‘’Nolan!’’ he shouted my name and scoffed before letting go of the sword, and then, he kicked Percy in the stomach, letting him fall to the ground.

‘’Have mercy, Father, ‘’ I begged on Ethan’s behalf. ‘’He didn’t mean what he had said and….’’

‘’Nolan!’’ Ethan shouted my name and laughed like a maniac. ‘’stop acting so perfect all the time because you want the throne! I meant everything that I said!’’ he stated.

‘’Ethan!’’ Jeremy whispered, trying to touch him, but he slapped his hand away.

‘’Don’t you dare touch me, Jeremy. Acting like a fool is pathetic, and I am not like you two who hide under your stupid facades just to get under Father’s good book. I hate that I am born as a cursed prince into this godforsaken family!’’

‘’Ethan!’’ our mother finally spoke. ‘’you will not speak like that in front of your father!’’ she warned him, but it only made Ethan laugh.

‘’Mother,’’ he yelled at her. ‘’if I had a choice, I would change the day I was born into this family. I hate you all!’’ he declared and left the throne room.

Jeremy ran after him while I signaled Harry and Marcus to take the wounded Percy out of the throne room. When left alone with our parents, I fell to my knees and began apologizing on Ethan’s behalf. ‘’I am sorry for what happened, Father, Mother.’’

‘’hmm,’’ my father said as he returned to his chair and sat down. ‘’you are our perfect son. It is just sad that you are partially blind now; I would have handed over the kingdom to you because you are just like me,’’ he said.

Like him? I hated that he had mentioned something like that because we had nothing in comparison except that I shared his DNA. I hated my father for his cruelty, yet I acted like a fool to gain his favor. Maybe Ethan was right when he said that I was pathetic.

‘’you don’t have to worry about my blindness, father. Once I have an heir, it will all be over,’’ I promised him, and all I got was a nod.

‘’Nolan,’’ my mother cleared her throat and smiled at me. ‘’we have found you a bride!’’she announced.

My eyes widened as I looked up to stare at my mother. Even though I could barely see her, I knew that she was grinning from ear to ear as she announced the news. ‘’A bride?’’ I asked.

‘’what? Do you have any problem with having a bride?’’ my father asked.

I shook my head and lowered my head. ‘’I have no problem, Father,’’ I replied, clenching my hands by my side. They had made that decision on their own without informing me, and I wished I had Ethan's courage, but I was a weak prince. There was nothing that I could do.

‘’if you have no problem with it, she will be arriving next week as we will announce your engagement to the world!’’

‘’yes, we have picked a fine bride for you,’’ My mother excitedly said.

I raised my head forcefully to face them. ‘’of course,’’ I agreed.

‘’find a way to impregnate that breeder so you will secure your throne,’’ my father reminded me about my duties, and I nodded in response even though I was burning with anger. I stood up from the ground and bowed before leaving the throne room.

When I got outside, I released my clenched fists, and as if everything was against me, A surge of pain radiated from my temple, pulsating through every fiber of my being. I winced, my hand instinctively rising to press against my throbbing temple, hoping to alleviate the torment. The world around me blurred as if my existence had been reduced to the agonizing sensation in my head. Each beat of my heart seemed to amplify the pain, pounding against my skull with ruthless intensity. I had lost my balance and almost fell to the ground, but a hand grabbed me before I could.

‘’your Highness! ’’ Harry shouted my name as he placed his arms around my neck. ‘’are you alright?’’

‘’Her!’’ I whispered. ‘’Take me to the breeder.’’ I needed to see the breeder because she was the only one who could ease my pains and make me see the world brighter. She was the medicine that I needed to cure my curse.

‘’yes, Your Highness.’’

No matter what it took, I would do everything to ensure I could see again.