Sould As The Alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 77 She Sold The Necklace
As I looked through other colors of yarn, Seraphine leaned in toward my ear and whispered, “Elliott is kind of cute, isn‘t he?”
I wanted to make sure I had enough yellow yarn to finish the baby blanket I’d
started crocheting without having to come back to the store, so I grabbed several skeins and put the guards who Soren had insis
ted come with me to use.
Their names were Elliott and Duke-
I’d asked. They‘d looked surprised that I‘d wanted to know, but I wasn‘t about to walk around town with
two men and not even know their names.
Raising an eyebrow, I looked back over my shoulder. He was tall with dark, curly hair that sort of did its own thing. Duke
was shorter with blond hair. Both of them were muscular, as one would expect bodyguards to be.
I was honest. “I hadn‘t noticed. Frankly, I‘m surprised you did.” Seraphine was much older than me, definitely not the type of wom
an one would expect to be giggling over young cute boys.
“I‘m not looking for me,” she gently tapped the tip of my nose. “It‘s just... you need to start thinking about your future. You‘re a be
autiful single woman. Just because you‘re about to have a baby, that doesn‘t mean that your life is over. You and Mr. Soren
insist that you‘re just friends, so you may as well look for another man that you‘re interested in romantically.”
I didn‘t know what Seraphine was getting at exactly, but I wasn‘t interested in dating any of the
guards, or anyone. “Thank you, Seraphine,” I smiled, “But I think I‘ll wait until after the baby is born to think
about potentially dating.”
Seraphine didn‘t say anything else, and I grabbed several more skeins of yarn, this
time in a dark blue color, before leading the way up to the counter to pay for everything.
Once I‘d made my purchase here, I headed over to the dress shop.
But I stopped short of going in.
Another store caught my eye.
A pawnshop.

I remembered Soren mentioning it that morning over breakfast, but it wasn‘t until right that
moment that I realized that I needed to enter the store. “Seraphine,” I said, tugging on her arm. “I need to go in here.”
“Into the pawnshop?” she questioned. “Why?”
I didn‘t answer her. Instead, I walked inside and headed up to the counter, my fingers
going to the back of my neck with determination, I needed to do this.
I unhooked my necklace and set it down on the counter. “How much would you give me for this?” I asked the man.
1 glanced up at him. He was older, with scrutinizing green eyes and white hair. “Is it real?” he asked me.
“It is,” I said, figuring he had ways of telling whether or not the jewels were real.
He made a noise in the back of his throat that made me think he didn‘t believe me.
Seraphine looked at the man‘s shifty eyes, she cleared her throat, seemingly talking only to me, but I was sure the man could he
ar it. “Miss, don‘t worry, they will give us a fair price. You know, good thing that we
had our guards with us today.” And then she looked outside and glanced over at the two guards, implying to the
man that if he wasn‘t honest, he might get himself in trouble.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at me, Seraphine and the guards, then pulled out a tool from beneath his counter, he examine
d the gemstones. His tune changed. “I‘ll be,” he mumbled. “They are real.”
“Yes, they are,” I confirmed.
The amount of money he offered me for the necklace was so much, I almost fell backward onto the linoleum floor. I understand t
hat it was probably worth even more than that because pawnshops never give a person what their item is actually worth. They h
ave to make a profit, too. I didn‘t care. I took the money.
And I didn‘t wait around for him to fill out a form so that I could get it back in a few months if I paid him back the money.
I wouldn‘t be doing that.
After I had the money, I went to the dress shop and picked out a beautiful red dress to wear to dinner with
Soren. I noticed he liked it when I wore red. He was always complimentary, no matter what I wore, but when I wore red, he told
me I was beautiful even more than when I wore other colors.

As we were getting ready to pay, Seraphine said, “Oh, Ro! Look at this necklace!”
It was a simple diamond pendant in the shape of an infinity loop, but it was
very pretty, and I needed something else to wear now that my neck was bare. I liked how the infinity figure–
eight symbolized that life went on, no matter how our circumstances changed.
I thought of my baby and how we had made it this far, against the odds. The necklace seemed perfect.
I added the necklace to my purchases and paid before heading home.
Once we got there, I started crocheting, but I wasn‘t working on the baby‘s blanket at the moment. I had another project in mind.
About six o‘clock, I got a text from Soren.
“I‘ll be there in about an hour to pick you up. Will you have enough time to get ready?”
He was always so polite. No ordering me around or demanding that I drop everything.
“Yes, that‘s plenty of time,” I told him. Then I added, “How was your day?”
He sent an emoji that told me his day had been a bit irritating, but then said, “It‘s about to get a whole lot better as soon as I see
you.” He was always so sweet.
I got dressed in the red gown I‘d bought. I also put on some strappy silver sandals
I‘d gotten. They were flats. I didn‘t want to take any chances of falling. I put on some diamond earrings, one of Soren‘s
gifts, and the necklace. It seemed a little strange having it on, but I was glad to have something back around my neck, and it did l
ook nice.
When I was all ready to go, I dropped Soren‘s finished gift into a bag, one of the many I had collected from the presents he‘d giv
en me, and headed to the living room to wait for him.
It was only a few minutes before he knocked on the door. When I opened
it, he was standing there with a bright smile and a bouquet of red tulips, his
tie the same shade of red as my gown. “How did you know?” | asked.
“Oh, come on!” he said. “My guards are good at something.”

I laughed and he leaned
in to kiss my cheek. His lips were warm and his breath was minty, but I felt safe and respected as any friend should.
I put the flowers away and then extended the bag to him. “And for once, I have a gift for you!”
“A gift for me?” He seemed shocked. “Really?”
“Yeah,” I said, suddenly feeling shy. What if he didn‘t like it? “I mean... you might not get to use it much around here.” I suddenly
felt really silly for making it, actually. It wasn‘t the kind of gift a person who lived on an island needed.
Soren pulled out
the scarf I had crocheted for him. I expected him to be polite and say how thoughtful I was, how nice it was for me to think of him.
and we lived on a tropical island. What was I thinking even making it for him?
“Is this a scarf?” Soren asked, his eyes widening. “Did you make this?” He didn‘t wait for me to answer. “Oh, wow! Ro, this is ama
this is perfect! You know, I do so much traveling, and I go to cold places sometimes, and I never have one of these because I live
this. You are so amazing, Ro!” He leaned in and hugged me so tightly, I could tell he really meant it.
I couldn‘t believe it–he was really excited and happy that I had made him a scarf, despite the climate here.
“You‘re welcome,” I hugged him back–politely.
Soren let go of me but offered his hand. “Shall we?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said, taking it.
“I hope you don‘t mind, but I thought we‘d drive
into town and go to a restaurant for dinner tonight. When I heard that you‘d bought a beautiful dress, I
didn‘t want to keep you at home. I wanted to show you off to everyone.”
I couldn‘t help but smile at him. “Sure. That sounds fun.” I‘d never had anyone want to show me off before–
at least, not that they would admit.
“Great.” We walked along together beneath a sky transitioning from pinks and oranges to a field of dark
blue full of stars, and I felt like I was truly appreciated in every way.

Ilifted my hand to finger my necklace, like I did a thousand times a day. It felt different between my fingers–
it was a different necklace, and the
symbol meant something different. But it also meant Ethan wasn‘t the only one who had moved on.