Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 623

Chapter 123 : The Night God

*Lena*

“Easy now, not too fast. That’s it–”

The Night God patted my back as I gulped for breath, shivering in the stunning cold that was embracing me like a wet blanket. I opened my eyes, sucking in a shallow breath as I looked around.

“What’s going on?” I cried, rising to my knees.

The withered old man pursed his lips, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his khaki trousers as he looked down at me with a fatherly look of disapproval.

“You offered yourself to the sunstone in exchange for Xander’s life, remember?” he quipped, shrugging his shoulders.

I blinked up at him, then looked around once more, taking in the familiar space.

I was in the ancient temple of the White Queens, the one tucked inside an ice-covered cove only accessible in the dead of winter, the same temple we’d passed through to journey between Andromeda’s realm and my own.

“Why am I here?” I looked toward where the doors should be, one on either end, but found none. The walls were cold and empty, covered in cobwebs.

The Night God plopped down in one of the dusty pews, stretching out his legs in front of him as he sighed audibly. He didn’t move like an old man at all, I realized.

“Because I didn’t think it was very fair to give up your entire mortal existence to save someone’s life when he shouldn’t have been in that position anyway,” he answered calmly, almost casually.

“So this isn’t the realm of the gods?”

“Of course not. This is just another pocket between the realms the gods created to play house, Lena. You can access the realm of the gods all you want without a sunstone, you know. So can your mother, and every… what do you call them? Dream Dancer? Ha, such an odd name for what it really is.”

I was genuinely stunned into speechlessness. I stared up at the man, the god, who looked more like someone I’d run into at the grocery store than a being with unlimited power.

“Xander is one of the good ones, Lena. His powers of shadow are not weak like he thinks; he just has a better grip on them than his relatives and ancestors. He could have saved himself. He could have killed my good-for-nothing son without so much as touching him. Do you know why he didn’t?”

shook my head as he leaned

of but refuses to accept that he’s dark at heart. Does that make

“Barely–”

wasn’t a bad person, not totally, not until paranoia and greed took hold of him and twisted him into what he became toward the end of his life. That was the curse he passed down through his line, you know. It was fear–fear of his family, fear of his own powers, fear of what was to come when he passed across to the spirit realm. Xander was the first person ever born of Lycaon’s line to never fear or doubt his powers. He was the only person to ever rein those powers in and render them obsolete with only the power of his will. He didn’t let his powers consume him, heart and soul, like his relatives. He never needed you to save him from himself, like

you telling me

incredibly stupid of

only chuckled

The gods

have a use for you, not in their realm. Not yet. You would have just been another soul drifting through space and time waiting for a home. You were meant for your own realm, Lena. One day, when you’re old and withered and wise, you will return to the gods and sit atop your throne in

“Gossip?”

all children do, but I couldn’t give that to them, not all of them. I would have bent the world to Narcissa and Andromeda’s whims. I would have done the same for my son Typhon but–” he heaved an uneasy breath, shaking his head. “Nikolas wasn’t as powerful as the rest of the children of the night realm. When I created the lower vampires, he saw an opportunity to rule them like he believed I was ruling him. Then, Andromeda

knees onto

much to

created the Moon Goddess, who created

your realm,”

to be banished

you all

I said, raising

through his nose, shaking

other than pagan instincts to worship things that gave them life, like food and water. They followed the wolves because the wolves led them to food, you see. They began to worship the wolves like gods. Leto was one of those early people, but she was different from the rest. She had a… natural talent for healing. She was never afraid. I watched her stare death in the face many times, and she never once backed down. A blight swept through

“You loved her?”

came to her village in the form of a black wolf. Everyone assumed I was death itself, coming to take the rest of them. But I knew Leto wouldn’t fear me. I lured her out of her village into the barren, snow-covered tundra. I gave her a moon stone, a sacred gem tied to me as the God of Night in particular. She took the stone, and through it I gifted her the powers of healing so she could save the remaining villagers. She would live, and

“And…”

course of her young life. I came to her often as a wolf. I came to her more than I should have. Once, I changed from that wolf to man, and she was… obsessed with that

moon

quickly, his eyes

is

breed and grow families, which meant the villages prospered. She found her mate, and it nearly killed me. She had her twins and I felt like ripping the world in two. Her mate grew old, her children grew… but she didn’t age with them. I’d selfishly kept her as she was when I first gave her the moonstone, because I wanted her. I loved her. And I loved her so much that my last gift to her was something I knew would have me cast out of

her and

it. Lycaon was the realm builder, the only one to tap into that power. Like me, that was his last gift to his people before he met his mortal end. The powers of