Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 96 : Submitting to the King

*Lena*

Black double doors made of iron opened wide as the vampire guard pushed me into the dining hall.

My toes curled as the smell of blood hit me, and I closed my eyes, hanging my head to stop myself from gazing upon whatever bloody sight lay before me.

I heard the doors close behind me, locking shut. Heat rippled over my skin, and the roaring of a massive fire thundered in my ears.

“Open your eyes," came a rich male voice that echoed through the hall.

My lashes fluttered as I opened my eyes and stared down at my feet, trying to get a sense of the room and the ageless vampire who was seated yards away, commanding me.

When I finally had the courage to look forward, I wasn't overcome with shock like I had been when I first gazed upon Narcissa. There was no metallic taste and feel of ancient magic, and no intense, unearthly pull like the one that made it hard for me to tear my eyes away from her translucent skin and silver hair.

Like Narcissa, Nikolas was incredibly tall and lean, graceful in every moment he made. But his hair was an icy platinum, similar to my own, and his skin had a creaminess to it that hers hadn't possessed.

He looked shockingly human, compared to his sister.

Violet eyes flaked with crimson looked me up and down, but I didn't flinch or cower beneath his gaze.

He wasn't what I'd been expecting. He didn't ooze power. He didn't scare me.

I straightened my back, squaring my shoulders as I took a shallow breath and looked around the room. Long, narrow, endless stone–there wasn't a single decoration save for the dozens of thick, tallow candles that burned along the center of the table and along the mantel over the hearth that stretched the entire width of the room.

He was seated directly in front of the hearth, and some of the peachy color of his skin could probably be attributed to the red and amber flames that danced behind him. He didn't rise to his feet as I took a single step in his direction.

“Beautiful," he cooed, his eyes flashing with an emotion I couldn't quite read. Hunger was there, obviously, for more reasons than one. But he looked… impressed.

I fought the urge to bow, to kneel before him as I tucked my hand behind my back and held his gaze. A man was slumped in a chair next to him, his neck bloodied and oozing. King Nikolas followed my gaze and chuckled low in his throat.

an almost seductive whisper as he ran a long, pale finger across

“and food… water that doesn't freeze solid

and yet you haven't even bowed

to say as much, but I bit down on my tongue. I wondered if he could read my mind like Narcissa had been able to, and possibly Kiern as well. But as I watched him settle back against a high-backed chair, his eyes taking in every line and curve of my

didn't share the same ones as his sister. He was immortal, yes, but not

life and plan for his death

but on the inside I was crumbling. The warmth of the room was seeping

two gray, molted vampires stepped forward. I studied them, wondering what the difference was between them and the man who the king had been feeding on moments before I was brought to the dining

The table was at least twelve feet long.

captivatingly strange than anything. He looked no older than myself, but his eyes gave away his

of me. I looked down at it, then up

said sharply. I hadn't been given a fork or

of my feeders eat only fruit," he said casually, leaning back in his chair with a goblet of blood, or

popping it into my mouth. I did everything I could to stop myself from moaning with relief as the taste of it hit my tongue, and I stopped myself from scooping fistfuls of the

once you prove to me what you can do. That is the rule." He snapped his fingers, and a door opened along the side of the room. The same man he'd been feeding on earlier was dragged into the room again as though they'd just stored

said he

it," he

of the fruit, then another, and another. I watched him as I chewed, trying

were all females who may have been from a White Queen bloodline. It wasn't far-fetched, given the family tree my Uncle Troy had found in the library in Winter Forest. There were dozens upon dozens of spindly branches hanging off the main

bowl of fruit that many a woman had gone through his ice trial and had sat in this same chair. They'd watched the guards drag a body across the floor,

doubt in those eyes of

didn't break eye contact with Nikolas as I held out

but a sly

knife," he growled.

as I obeyed, but my skin crawled as I came within touching distance of the Vampire King–the god. He took my outstretched hand in his, his touch like ice. He bent his head, running a single blade-like fang across the meat of my palm at the base of

a moment, his breath ragged as he lifted his head to

between me and the other woman he'd tortured in this way? My powers were weak if they were even there at all. I was also the youngest of the women who he'd taken, at least from what