They Stole Her for a Breeding Den, She Chose the Alpha Who Let Her Leave novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Tide Gate

Eli came to my room on the sixth morning with a tray of coffee and a loaf of seeded bread.

It was my bread.

He had picked it up from the bakery, or someone had, and the crust was still the exact color I pulled it at.

"Get out," I said.

"I will in a minute." He set the tray on the table. "I know you hate me. That's fair."

"You sat at my counter for two months."

"I did."

"You asked about my mother's knee."

His face did something painful.

"I did that because I wanted to know," he said. "That part was real. I'm sorry that it was also the job."

I should have thrown the coffee at him.

Instead I looked at the bandage on his hand, where my teeth had gone through the skin, and something in my chest turned over.

I did not forgive him.

I only noticed that he had not hidden the bandage from me.

"What do you want?"

"To make a trade." He pulled a folded paper out of his jacket and spread it on the bed. "Nico told you about the east stair."

It was a drawing in pencil.

There was a staircase going down, a door at the bottom, a landing, and a dotted line out over water.

"There's a gate at the bottom," Eli said. "It's iron. It hasn't been opened in thirty years. The key hangs in Darius's study on a hook behind the desk."

I stared at the dotted line.

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Because I'm the one who can get you past the east stair on the night before the Claiming, when the courtyard men change shift." He kept his voice very low. "It's the last night you'd have a chance."

← Chapter 6 · All chapters · Chapter 8 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend