Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 614

Chapter 114 : Stronger Together

*Lena*

“We’re going home,” Mom said as she riffled through the dresser in her bedroom at the castle in Winter Forest, her eyes wide, and a distant expression etched into her brow. I turned to the doorway as Maeve ran past in a blur of copper blonde hair, her footsteps retreating down the hallway.

It had been a few hours since we’d received word about what had happened in Breles. I should have felt stunned by the knowledge, but only a feeling of dread had settled in my stomach. I’d known this was coming. We all had. We’d all prepared for the worst, but it hadn’t made the news any easier to swallow.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked, my throat tightening around the words. Mom shook her head, her eyes misting with tears for a moment before she cleared her throat.

“I don’t know,” she said, and that was all she could manage to say. She cleared her throat, sniffing as she folded a sweater and tucked it into her suitcase. “We need to go back and rule, and prepare for… prepare for whatever is coming next.”

This morning I’d been at my ultrasound appointment. By nightfall, we were in a full state of panic as news began to pour in from the west about what had happened in Breles. Now, we were preparing to go home… home–to Mirage, back to the Castle Drogomor where I’d been born and raised. I hadn’t been home since the middle of summer at least.

It wouldn’t be a happy homecoming. I sucked in my breath at the thought of walking through those halls while Dad was away at war, unreachable, if he was even… Goddess, I couldn’t even say it.

Breles was gone. Just gone. Nothing left but rubble and ash. Those allied forces that had been able to escape when the vampire army pushed into the city had fled to the port.

The port was all that was left. Boats full of warriors were headed east to defend the Isles and Valoria in the event the vampires were able to cross the sea.

“Xander,” I whispered under my breath, my heart tying into a knot as I turned from where my mother was packing her suitcase to the doorway. I began to walk out of the room, moving like a ghost as my mind reeled. I had to get to him. I had to find him. I couldn’t just go home, not now. I had to close that portal.

This was my fault. That portal I’d opened and failed to close was allowing these creatures to enter our realm in unending droves and leave nothing but death and destruction in their wake.

“Where are you going?” Mom asked, and I turned around, tearfully looking toward her as I opened my mouth to tell her that I was sorry, that I’d see her again, hopefully soon. “No,” she said firmly as if reading my mind. “Lena, no–”

“I have to finish this. I should have ended this long ago. I didn’t know how, but I do now–”

“Stop,” she commanded, and I felt my body go rigid at her tone.

“I have to do this–”

“You were given that book for a reason, Lena,” she said as she pressed her weight into the suitcase, zipping it up. “We’re meeting with Mara in Mirage–you, me, Clare, and Maeve. Your grandma too, if she can spare the time with everything else going on. We’re going to figure this out!”

magic we were supposed to use,

straightened up slowly, her eyes holding my gaze with an intensity that almost brought me to

know I can. I have to at

“No–”

“I never wanted this. I tried to hide from what and who I was, and look at what I’ve done, Mom. Look at

“You didn’t do this–”

shattering into pieces as I pleaded for her to understand. “I made it to their realm. I had a chance to kill the Vampire King. I failed because I didn’t know how to use my powers. I didn’t train them like I should have. I didn’t let any of you help me figure

at me,

the reason I was born. I’m meant to be the protector of our realm. I need to be that person now.” I

in the old temple, back to Andromeda’s lands. From there, I could access the realm of the vampires. It was risky, and I didn’t know for sure if the portal to Andromeda’s coven even worked that way, or if it

more difficult, but was the

the doorway. She straightened up, staring wide eyed at

she whispered with

go to the garden realm I’d created as a child, the same one I’d inadvertently trapped Xander in several months ago now. He’d told me about the… infection, in my garden realm. Blood root had seeped through the barriers of the realms like the Vampire King had been looking for me there. The injuries Jen had given me during the attack that left me fevered and forever scarred had linked me and my powers to the vampire realm, maybe

He’d find Winter Forest, and my family. It was only a matter of

How long would it be until

to the

annihilate his armies. I’d

something. We were just looking at each other now, neither of

anguish. Mom rushed out into the hallway as I turned my head in the direction the voices

through the air, frantic and pleading as

past me down the corridor and out onto the landing, leaning over the

prickling with adrenaline as I caught up to her. Maeve

pulled back in a snarl. “I am the Luna of

ground out. “And I’m not allowing you to

outside, not bothering to put a coat on. Mom hurried down the stairs, looking toward my grandparents for an explanation for Maeve’s outburst.

as I

map from your uncle Troy and

going. Gooseflesh prickled over my arms as I looked toward the front door. If Maeve was going to Breles… maybe I wouldn’t need to jump through endless hoops to get back

steps after Maeve. I screamed her name, and she came to a halt along the trail

“Go back inside, Lena.”