Sold as the Alpha King’s Breeder

Chapter 95 : Offering to the King

*Oliver*

I watched from Gideon’s front porch as two figures approached, walking hand and hand up the driveway. Adrian looked like he was healing from several blows to the face based on the purplish hue of his eye sockets and jawline, but Abigail looked chipper and exceedingly relieved as they neared the house. I smirked, rising from the chair I’d been sitting in aimlessly for what felt like several hours.

“I take it my family knows what happened?” I said loudly, watching the scowl form on Adrian’s mouth. He’d definitely taken one for the team.

“This,” he said sharply, waving his hand around his face as he stopped short of the porch steps, “was for stealing the Persephone. That Beta of your father nearly killed me, and he said you're next.”

“He almost went after your dad, too,” Abigail teased, resting her hand on Adrian’s shoulder. “Your mom had to separate them.”

“So the whole family is in Breles, then?” I asked, guilt rippling through my stomach as they walked up the steps. I held the door open, and Adrian tossed a heavy duffle bag into my chest as he passed.

“Queen Hannah is in Winter Forest with someone named Mara, and White Queen Rosalie. Your mom is… heading this way, apparently.”

“Great,” I murmured as I shut the front door behind me and tucked my hands in the pockets of my jeans.

It had been over a month since Lena and Xander had disappeared. Adrian, Gideon, and I had spent over a week in the hills looking for any trace of them, eventually coming up with the rotting bodies of a man Gideon knew as Maxwell Radcliff and an unfamiliar guard. We’d also found a large, blackened area outside of what was once a temple, which was littered with bones. At first, I thought something had exploded there, but after a thorough investigation of the area, we realized that was where Lena had opened the portal, and she had blasted away the winged creature that had carried Xander off into the night.

It seemed far-fetched even now, but there had been no trace of them, or of the hybrid beasts that had been causing chaos in the west, for weeks now.

The only explanation was that Lena had opened the portal and closed it behind her.

I’d stayed behind in Crimson Creek when Adrian went back to Breles a little over a week ago to find Abigail, while also being the one to try to come up with an explanation as to what happened to my cousin and his Alpha. I’d expected him to show up with an army, and my parents, and Lena’s parents. But it was just him and Abigail.

He sunk down into one of the couches, groaning loudly. Abigail swatted him as she turned around the room, looking around.

“Adrian said vampires lived here,” she mused.

“They went into town,” I said, then explained the whole damn thing about the blood root to her. They could use it to stay in the sun for a while if need be. It kept them alive while not needing to suck the blood out of helpless victims. But from the stories Alma had told me about their kind at night while we sat by the fireplace and waited for news from Adrian, I found out just how closely related our kinds were, especially since the vampires who lived in this realm had been removed from their realm for a long, long time.

They were more like us now than what they used to be. Our realm had morphed them, shaped them to fit into our environment. Gideon, while always the graceful, welcoming host, had made it clear to me that the second there was conflict with the King of the Vampires, he and his family were out. They would leave because they didn’t stand a chance.

Why is no one here? I expected my

Breles. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Adrian said with a sigh, rubbing his eyes and wincing as he grazed the bruises. “Maeve wanted to come. She’s waiting for word from Hannah, from what I understand. They’re

told me to tell you to… to remember what you can

open

me suspiciously,

you

a wolf. I tried once while you were away, and I felt it for a moment, but nothing happened. Not yet, at least. But when I was trying… I can’t explain it–” I gripped the couch, leaning over it to look

but I shook my head, glancing

Lena?” she asked, and I shook my head

“Lena couldn’t do much besides make plants grow through the carpets and dream dance before she was marked by Xander. Something about that bond, well, I

was growing red in the face,

But when we found those bodies, Adrian. When we were in that place… I

really what you’re worried about? Your parents are livid,

is… it wants me to go there, to that

to f*****g kill me for it,” Adrian argued,

out there. Don’t you think? Hell, you say you felt a spark with me, huh? Maybe my

smirked, shaking his head. I also considered this a joke, but the expression on Abigail’s face

you have a

up to his mate, studying her

there one day. I woke up and looked over and her bed was empty, the window cracked open like she had left in the night

but I raised my hand, cutting him

was her name?” I asked, my tone steady

she said, tilting her head as she looked

***

*Lena*

That’s the only way to describe it. Black vines snaked up its half dozen or so towers made of obsidian, and

on the side table

so, so stupid. What the hell had I been thinking? I hadn’t even thought of Xander throwing his power over me like a net, stopping me from being able to force him through the portal. That single second of realization had been enough for me to fail. The last thing I