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

expect… you,” he said slowly, and for a moment looked almost angry, but his expression was blurred by curiosity as

river was to my back, so I had nowhere to go as

didn’t feel his touch. I looked up at him, seeing that same

I screamed.

forest trembling and sending a blanket of

branches being ripped from the trees as something large moved in my direction. I turned my head to the sound of splashing water, and then Brandt was at my side, his dark brown fur sodden and pooling water all around

looked back into the forest. The trees

of his mouth as he fought to catch his breath. He’d just crossed the river with

person who gave Jared the Cryptex,” I said, my voice sounding so distant, distorted by the thrumming of the blood rushing in

bright against the deep color of his fur. I slowly met his gaze, holding it there for a moment before I let myself slump to the ground and closed

***

as he met my eyes. “But then we

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 have

you think Jared got out?” I asked, my mouth going dry

his eyes set on the fire. “He wouldn’t have let Aeris take him back to the castle. I just don’t know… I don’t know what he offered in return for his freedom, or if Carmen…” He tapered off, shaking his

closing my eyes for

poked the embers with a stick. “That’s a very

meant telling Brandt 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

him about the child I’d seen, my voice trembling over his ghostlike appearance. Maybe I hadn’t seen

dawn of our realm is… up for debate, even within the Church. Draven was said to be a son of Lycaon,

did see a ghost,” I

tricks on you. But it is interesting that you’d just know the name Draven. I didn’t

Lycaon has been pushing back against the Church of the Moon Goddess,” I said, knitting my fingers over my knees. “Even with your Alpha King’s permission for the Churches to share their artifacts and texts for research purposes. Lycaon and Morrighan were enemies, you know.

deep breath.

head, meeting

was wary of twins, being

smile. I was looking forward to the story, honestly.

was said to have taken up residence in one of the northernmost territories of our realm, an old city once called… Myrel, I believe. No one has ever

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

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 marked the

Lycaon’s court was Lycaon’s youngest son, who wasn’t born until after he fled. Jonis–he was the first Dark Lord, the first Alpha King of Egoren. That’s supposedly where