Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder
Chapter 619 - 122 : She’s Gone

Chapter 619: Chapter 122 : She’s Gone

*Xander*

Henry led me through the camp with one arm wrapped around my waist as I limped along. I wondered how long it would be until the healers found out I was missing, but I didn’t particularly care.

I was in shock at the fact that Henry was here. I know that he, without a doubt, would tell me everything he knew about what happened.

We crossed what used to be a street and walked into one of the market squares dappled around Breles. It was all rubble now, the buildings toppled, and the road split down the center. Ash covered everything in sight, and in the distance, smoke continued to rise. Utter destruction–that was the only way to describe this place, this once great city.

“The Alpha of Breles is dead,” Henry said as he eased me down onto a piece of rubble shaped like a chair. The rebar grazed my back as I shifted my weight, wincing as my skin pulled around the thick sutures covering my body. I’d be scarred from this, forever, in a lot of different ways. I wondered, as I met Henry’s eye, if I would ever be the same again... if anyone would after what we’d all witnessed.

I nodded in response to Henry’s announcement. I didn’t really care. Lots of Alphas had fought alongside their warriors. It was likely the Alpha of Breles wasn’t the only leader sharing a grave with the fallen.

“There was one final push before the portal fell,” Henry said, settling down next to me with a groan. He extended his legs in front of him, his ankles crossed and his hands folded in his lap. “The Death Walkers were pushed out of Breles shortly after Lena and Oliver crossed over, but they ripped the city to shreds in the process. It was a bloody battle... so much death, on both sides. Hope looked as though it was lost until... well, Lena’s aunt, the Luna of Poldesse? She came storming to the frontlines with a small force behind her and fought alongside her husband until dawn. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Maeve?” I said, a vision of her decked out in armor and wielding a sword and shield came to mind. I imagined her running into battle, flanked by warriors in their wolf forms as she tore through the lines of vampires trying to take back the city.

“Yes, that one. The battle took place until the early hours of the morning. Everyone able to stand or shift and fight was out on the front lines. Every vampire that had taken refuge in the rubble was out hunting, and soon the streets were filled with blood and gore and... Xander, I didn’t think our kind would win this war. Not until....” He paused, swallowing hard as he gathered his thoughts.

“The sky split in two just before dawn, a great, but silent, explosion. It sent a wave of light across Breles, illuminating even the darkest recesses of the city. The Death Walkers turned to ash, and the battle just... ended, just like that.” He snapped his fingers.

I pursed my lips, fighting against the pain throbbing through my body as I listened to his words.

“Why?”

“Why what? Why the spray of light? Why did the vampires turn to ash?”

“Both,” I said flatly.

Henry shrugged, tapping his fingers on his thigh. “There has been talk from the refugee camp in Crimson Creek about the significance of the moment. All lower vampires, you know, none of them died like the Death Walkers. They say it’s because the Death Walkers were made by the king, or his kind, other High Vampire gods, and the like. The king died; he must have, and those connected to him just... poof!” Henry waved a hand in the air.

“How did I get back here?” I asked. Henry ran his tongue over his lip, looking me up and down without answering. “How did YOU get back here?”

“I walked right out of the realm,” he breathed. “Every night I watched wave after wave of lower vampires leave their underground kingdoms. I could see it all from my perch on the mountain. I followed their trail during the daytime, and then followed a group of them through the portal one day. It was just after you and Oliver torched the clearing outside of the portal, actually. Everyone was talking about it. The king pulled his forces back after that to guard his own castle. The young King of Brune is working with the Alpha Kings about making Crimson Creek a permanent settlement for his kind–”

“King of Brune?” I asked, an uneasy feeling settling in my gut. “Costas?”

“Who?”

“The King–”

“You mean Zeke? Tall, kind of gangly–”

“Zeke is not the king of Brune,” I said with a chuckle, shaking my head.

“Rumor is he killed his father and took the throne when his father tried to sell out his kingdom to the Vampire King. He’s somewhere in the camp right now, actually. He can walk around during the day, like one of us.”

Because of the sunstone Lena had split into pieces, I remembered, giving one to Penny and one to Zeke.

My head was pounding now, the sunlight beating on my brow heating my skin and making me nauseous. I blinked, eyes watering. I could feel Henry’s gaze on the side of my face, his eyes moving along the bandages wrapped around my skull.

“You arrived after the last battle,” he said quietly. “Oliver and two other warriors were practically dragging you through the camp to get you to a healer tent. I went to the healer tent two days ago, shortly after you arrived. They wouldn’t let me in, but I overheard what was being said. You were flayed open, Xander. You barely had a drop of blood left in you. The White Queen saved your life, that’s true. But you shouldn’t have still been alive to begin with. You shouldn’t have survived the journey from Crimson Creek.”

“Lena isn’t here,” I whispered, unsure if my words were even audible.

“Yes, I heard.”

“Do you know if Prince Oliver has said anything about what happened? I need to know. I need to find her–”

“Xander,” Henry interrupted, his voice laced with sadness. “The portal is closed.”

“Oliver said he did it. He can open it again!”

“That realm is gone.”

Henry’s words hit me in the chest, tearing open any half-healed wounds as the pain ripped through my heart. I already knew that was the truth. I should have been able to feel Lena, even with her mark removed from my body. I should have been able to tug on that thread that tied us together to seek her out.

I would have felt her die.

But I felt nothing. She was just... gone. And I had no reason to believe she waa ever coming back, not this time.

“She was pregnant.” My voice cracked on the words. I felt Henry’s hand flatten on the upper back.

“I’m sorry–”

“They should have just let me die,” I seethed, sudden fury numbing the pain etched into every inch of my skin.

“I tried to stop them,” Henry whispered. “I begged them to leave you alone–”

“Xander?”

I snapped my head up at the familiar voice coming from the other side of the clearing. Curly black hair caught in the afternoon sun as a young woman carrying a basket jogged over to me, pausing to let a trio of warriors walk past her.

Bethany slowed, squinting her eyes against the sun, and then let them go wide as she spotted Henry. She dropped the basket, sucking in her breath as she choked on a sob. Henry rose to his feet and walked over to her without a word, wrapping his arms around her.

Bethany was his daughter. She’d had her memory wiped, a deal that Henry made to stop her from becoming a hybrid. It was the same deal that Henry had made that kept him bound to Crimson Creek and the king, until now.

I wondered if Bethany remembered everything now that the king, and all of his dark magic, was gone.

Based on the look on her face as Henry wiped away her tears with his thumbs, I was willing to bet she did remember.

I struggled to my feet and turned away from them, hobbling back to the medical tent on my own. I waved away a group of warriors who approached to help me, and bared my teeth when they protested my refusal of their assistance.

The healer tent was only twenty yards or so away now, but every step was more painful than the other. I had a mind to keep walking until I reached the port, and keep walking still until I walked right off the edge of a dock. I couldn’t swim like this, and I wouldn’t even have tried. A wet, suffocating death seemed like a peaceful way to go instead of living out the rest of my life shattered over the loss of my mate and our unborn daughter.

Alexis. That was her name. That was the name Lena had given her before I left to gather reinforcements in Egoren weeks ago. I felt a rush of anger toward Lena all of the sudden, the fury so blinding I almost lost my balance and had to lean against a post of a nearby tent to catch my breath.

I didn’t know what she’d done, but I felt in my soul that it had to do with the reason I was still alive. She knew... she had to have fucking known that I would have rather died than live with the losses of my mate and child.

Was this a punishment? Had this been a final, sick game of ours? I squeezed my eyes shut, unsure if my mind was spinning out of rage or I was on the verge of passing out, but then I felt someone grab my arm and pull me to my feet.

“What are you doing?” Oliver hissed as he dragged me back to the medical tent. I didn’t open my eyes until I felt myself land back on the cot, the impact sending a fresh thrum of pain through me and causing me to gasp. “You’re making your injuries worse!”

“Good,” I groaned, heaving a breath as I opened my eyes.

“Good? Good?” Oliver was pissed. I doubted it had much to do with me.

“Shut the fuck up, and let me die in peace.”

“You’re not going to die, not anymore. My grandma made sure of that. Lena–”

“Unless you’re going to tell me what she did, I don’t want to hear her name again.”

“You’ve got to be fucking joking,” Oliver sneered as he gripped the stool next to the bed. He flung it across the tent and sent it flying into the tent next to ours, where a murmur of alarm sounded from beyond. “What, you’re mad at her? For saving your fucking life?”

“She sacrificed herself and our child–”

“You don’t know shit!”

“Then tell me, for the love of the fucking Goddess, tell me what happened!”

Oliver was breathing sharply through his nose, his face reddened with fury. He’d lost all traces of the enthusiastic, somewhat aloof man I’d come to know very well, and considered a friend. His gem-like eyes were nothing like they used to be. They were dead now, black and empty.

The stool came sailing back through the backside of the tent and Oliver caught it with one hand, and promptly sat down on it, running his fingers through his hair.

“Before I tore down the portal,” he breathed, meeting my eye, “Lena used the sunstone.”