Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 592

Chapter 92 : I Have to Stay

*Lena*

We spent the remainder of the day in Brune and had dinner with Kiern, Costas, and their court once again. I sat in relative silence during dinner, picking at my food while Xander and Costas leaned into each other and spoke in low murmurs. Costas was animated, obviously trying to convince Xander to open the portal and allow all-out war between our two realms.

I didn’t have a chance to utter a single word to Xander until we were in our bedroom after dinner, preparing to leave Brune altogether.

“Costas said we have roughly two hours before daybreak above ground,” he said as he laid out a variety of different items on the bed he meant to pack in a backpack he had sitting on the floor. “You should try to sleep.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, watching as he tossed the backpack on the bed and began to pack it with dried food, water bottles, and an assortment of first aid items.

“I’m not opening the portal–”

“I know. I told him no,” Xander breathed, glancing up at me as he zipped up the backpack and reached for a leather belt he’d laid out over the bed. Four knives were sheathed and hanging on the leather. It was a gift from Costas. Xander looked down at it in regret.

“I don’t understand the hierarchy here,” I hissed, sitting on the edge of the bed as he weighed the belt in his hands. “Kiern said there are multiple underground cities like Brune–”

“None like Brune, from what I understand. Brune has farms, agriculture. They trade goods with the other cities but they all consider Kiern and Costas the king and queen of the lower vampires. He could… he could give us an army, Lena, against King Nikolas.” He met my eye, uncertainty etched on every line of his face.

“But you don’t trust him?”

“Something about him is just… off. I don’t know how to explain it. What about Kiern? How was your day with her?”

I opened my mouth to tell him about meeting Narcissa, the High Vampire, but then closed my mouth, pursing my lips. Something inside of me was telling me to keep quiet, damn near begging me not to utter a word.

“It–it was fine. We explored the kingdom.”

“Fascinating, isn’t it? All of this… magic. That’s the only way to describe it, really. Costas doesn’t even know how the lights work in this place, the lights that come through the crystals. He said it’s been like this for thousands of years.”

Thousands of years–Brune had been here for thousands of years. Narcissa was just as old, old enough to have known Morrighan somehow. And her brother? Nikolas?

I swallowed against the terror creeping up my throat as I scooted off the bed and turned away from Xander, pretending to be invested in something on the other side of the room.

Clothes for our journey had been laid out on one of the sofas near the fireplace–a simple white cotton shirt and a pair of trousers, as well as a leather vest, a belt similar to Xander’s, and a jacket made of an odd, scale-like material that was faintly silver in color. Boots and socks in my size sat near the door.

I glanced at Xander over my shoulder, feeling suddenly sick to my stomach as I gazed up at his face. He had no idea what I was about to do. He wouldn’t ever understand why I’d chosen to leave him out of it.

I laid down on one of the plush sofas and closed my eyes, drifting into a shallow slumber before I was woken by Xander an hour or so later. I got dressed, and Xander helped me put on the leather belt, which was heavy with knives that were so long they hung mid-thigh. I unsheathed one, perplexed as I turned it from side to side.

The tip and blade was made of iron, sharpened so violently it sliced through the sleeve of my shirt without an ounce of pressure as I tested it on the fabric. But the body of the knife was made of wood. I turned to Xander, who took the knife from my hands and twirled it over his fingers in an expert fashion.

jabbed, the tip of the knife fixed right over my heart. I didn’t move as his eyes locked on mine. “Don’t stab,” he said in a soft, seductive whisper and then withdrew the knife. “s***h. It’s more effective, contrary to popular belief, and easier.” He placed two fingers against my side, along my ribs. “If you need to stab someone in the chest to kill them, you’ve already lost.” His free hand ran up my side, his fingers brushing along my collarbone as he found the soft divet between my neck and collarbone where my pulse was hammering against his touch. “s***h,” he

were a

the intimacy of the brief introduction to fighting

sheathed the knife on my belt and returned to readying himself

of wood?” I asked as I shrugged

day–a man, walking alongside one of the servants as they passed me in

felt incredibly tight all of the sudden, and I found it hard to swallow as I

It was armor.

the heart is the only way to truly kill a vampire,”

as I thought of Narcissa and how terrified

his head to brush a soft kiss across my lips.

***

hills outside of the crystal palace toward a set of inconspicuous golden doors in the

I glanced at her as we made

furrowing my brows at

is suicide. You know that,

“What is?”

you really think you can defeat

Starla firmly and grabbing onto her arm, pulling her to

still

why? What does it

me at Narcissa’s house earlier in the day. All around us night was falling in the cave, the crystals high above us reflecting a vivid violet

witches.

“Witches? What–”

on their island.

“Starla, I can’t–”

arm out of my grip and turned on her heel, walking away. I gaped after her, my brow furrowed so deeply it was starting to give me

turned to him, noticing him standing with Costas in the

walking briskly to

Starla. She is

waited for

us in the forest,” Xander

flowers that only bloom in the moonlight–blood orchids, mostly, and moon mushrooms, midnight roses, and so on and so forth. She uses them for tonics

a healer?”

nightmare, truly. I don’t know what her problem is. I’ve spent the last four hundred years or so avoiding her at all

He would’ve mentioned her to Xander, surely. Costas would have

explained that while the sun had set in Brune, the sun was just coming up in the Realm

shelter after dark if you’re unable to