Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder Chapter 825

Chapter 36 : The Lore of Egoren

He couldn’t have been more than eight. Long black hair fell in loose waves over his shoulders, totally unruffled and gleaming in the sunlight drifting through the thick canopy of branches above our heads. He peered down at me with dark gray eyes, black lashes brushing against his cheeks every time he blinked.

What was a kid doing out here? And alone?

I rolled over onto my belly, coughing and spitting up water as I got up onto my knees. I was still trying to process what he’d said to me. His Cryptex? No, definitely not.

The boy made no moves in my direction as I wrung out my shirtfront between my trembling hands and reached up to remove my backpack.

Everything inside would be drenched. I winced at the thought of the map and scroll, wondering if they were ruined and beyond repair.

“Where are your parents?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him against the glare of the sun that seemed to illuminate him from behind, casting most of his small body in shadow.

He shrugged, picking the bark off a stick with his fingernails.

“Where are you parents?” he mimicked, then gave me a smirk that could have belonged to a man three times his age. “Far from here, I assume. But you’re not a White Queen, no. That, you are not. But you know them, don’t you? Was it your mother Gemma who was resurrected from the dead by Maeve? I can feel the moonstone in you.”

He spoke like a well-educated diplomat… or an Alpha. I slowly straightened my back, a ripple of gooseflesh prickling up my arms as I met his eyes. They were the color of dark mist, like a thick fog reflecting moonlight. How did he know all of this? Why would he know? That had all happened before I was born.

“Where is your Dark Lord?” he asked, his mouth twitching into a devious smile.

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how. I reached up and rubbed my head, thinking maybe I’d smacked it on a rock or something and was losing my mind.

“Does he really think he can put my Cryptex back together again?” the boy asked, crunching a twig beneath his foot. His shoes were made of fine fabric, practically slippers, and as I slowly looked him up and down I noticed his clothes were simple, but dated, and in absolutely perfect condition.

He didn’t look like a child lost in the woods.

In fact, he didn’t look like a child at all. He was… something else.

The sunlight trickled over his skin, glimmering in a ghost-like fashion.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice strained and hoarse from nearly drowning.

“Draven,” he replied, his eyes meeting mine. “And you’re Eliza.”

do you know my

didn’t expect… you,” he said slowly, and for a moment looked almost angry, but his expression was blurred by curiosity as he scanned my

took a few steps in my direction before coming to a stop. The river was to my back,

touch. I looked up at him, seeing that same dark shadow that

I screamed.

forest trembling and sending a blanket of last

direction. I turned my head to the sound of splashing water, and then Brandt was at my side, his dark brown

gaped at him, then looked back into the forest. The trees grew thick here, the sunlight barely

front of us before sitting back on his haunches, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he

Jared the Cryptex,” I said, my voice sounding so distant, distorted by the thrumming of the blood rushing in my ears. I knew that I had. I knew it with every shred of my soul. “Draven is

met his gaze, holding

***

for another hour,” Brandt said over the fire, his knees tucked into his chest as he met my eyes. “But then we need to go.

nodded, hugging myself against the chill as rain pattered over our heads. We were still soaked. All of our clothes were wet and nothing had had a chance to dry out before the rain came. Brandt had built a fire in a small cave we’d found, but the cave wasn’t large enough for either of us to fit inside. Still, we’d been able to warm our hands and cook a rabbit over the struggling embers, which would

asked,

wouldn’t have let Aeris take him back to the castle. I just don’t know… I don’t know what he offered

closing my eyes for a

with a stick. “That’s a very old

what had happened before he’d found me. We’d spent the rest of the day putting distance between us and Aeris’s territory, and now we were deep within the Dark Forest. Brandt had said Aeris’s warriors

what he said his name was, and he knew mine.” I told him about the child I’d seen, my voice

up for debate, even within the Church. Draven was said to be a

I did see a ghost,” I said

not. Could’ve just been the forest playing tricks on you. But it is interesting that you’d just know the name

my fingers over my knees. “Even with your Alpha King’s permission for the Churches to share their artifacts and texts for research

took a deep breath.

my head,

wary of twins, being one and all. Draven was Lycaon’s first enemy in this realm.”

looking forward to the story, honestly. Brandt’s voice was

the northernmost territories of our realm, an old city once called…

I know,” I assured him, leaning forward in anticipation. “What happened

left his pregnant mate behind while he was on that quest. He was said to have been the most powerful of his siblings, more powerful than Lycaon according to some interpretations of the legend. He killed everyone in Lycaon’s court but Lycaon fled… which explains why his tomb is in your realm. But when he returned to Myrel victorious, he found his mate dying in childbirth. His powers were no help at all. He lost both his mate and unborn child, and was so shredded by grief that he took his own life to be with them. So, his death

youngest son, who wasn’t born until after he fled. Jonis–he was the first Dark Lord,