Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1612 - 54 : A Sense of Connection

*Kryzen*

I held Briella’s hand tightly as we made our way through the trees. It was very chilly, so I couldn’t keep myself from wrapping an arm around Briella’s shoulder as we walked. I frowned with concern when I felt her shiver against me.

“We’re never going to reach the mountain if we walk like this,” she quipped.

“You’re cold,” I said simply, shrugging slightly and resisting the urge to roll my eyes at her dramatics. “We’re still walking plenty fast, but I doubt we’ll make it there before we have to stop and set up camp anyway. We might as well not overexert ourselves.”

I felt Briella relax slightly at my words. “I suppose that’s true enough,” she allowed. She even leaned into my side a little bit as we continued down the dirt path. “It really is beautiful here, isn’t it?”

I followed her gaze to the trees above us and the expanse of sky. It was true that Embervale was a gorgeous realm. The differences between it and the Light Realm were subtle but extremely significant. At first, it had simply felt alien to me as if everything was slightly off. It seemed like the grass was a little too green and the sky much too blue.

Now that I had spent more time in the unfamiliar realm, I was starting to see the real beauty in everything within it. The plants in Embervale were oddly shaped but in a way that made them seem more alive. The large flowers had patterns that looked like elated faces, which gave them a unique personality.

“I think I can see why you like it here so much,” I admitted to her as I studied our surroundings. “Everything here is so different but that isn’t such a bad thing, I guess.”

“It’s far from bad,” Briella agreed with a firm nod. “I think that’s really what makes it all beautiful is how unique it all is. Even the air feels different somehow, almost lighter and not as thick. I feel like I can breathe better here.” Her voice trailed off and almost took on a sad note.

I rubbed her upper arm with my hand, both to warm her but also to comfort her. It was glaringly obvious to me that Briella was growing more anxious the longer we traveled. I had hoped that the fresh air and leaving the valley would calm her somewhat, but she seemed more nervous with each step we took.

She tried to hide it, but she couldn’t fool me anymore. Maybe she was more of a puzzle when we first reunited, but things were different now.

She was my mate. I still couldn’t believe I was saying that, and they most certainly weren’t just words.

“You can’t fool me, you know,” I found myself telling her firmly.

Briella froze against me before turning to look up at me, her face a perfect, expressionless mask. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

It was amazing how she thought she could actually lie to me and get away with doing so.

Ever since choosing her as my mate, I felt so much more attuned to the young woman beside me. It shocked me immensely.

Every part of me was so aware of Briella now. The way my body moved was different as well. It was as if I was a magnet just for her. When she moved, I did as well, adjusting to fit whatever she needed me to be at any given moment.

“I think we need to take a break,” I told her firmly, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the path.

“A break?” she repeated in disbelief. She started to dig her heels into the ground to slow our movements. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at her.

She grimaced as she stared up at me, but the stubborn expression remained on her face. “No,” she said. “But I feel like your face always looks like that.”

I rolled my eyes but continued to pull her along behind me, squeezing her hand a little more tightly.

It took me a little while to find a spot that would be appropriate, but we eventually found a little clearing with a crystal-clear pond.

“Kryzen,” Briella protested when I finally dropped her hand and kneeled down to start digging through my backpack. “We can’t take a break. We’ve only been walking for a few hours. We’ll never get to the Lumina Mountain at this rate.”

“We’re going to get there,” I told her firmly, pulling out a blanket and spreading it out on the ground. Briella watched me wordlessly as I pulled out some of the food we had packed. I gestured at her and then down at the blanket. “Sit down, Briella. You need to rest.”

She just continued to glower at me. I wondered for a moment if she was going to stomp her foot. “Where is the sense of urgency you had when we left the valley?” she demanded. “We have a very real job to do, Kryzen. One where we don’t even know what we’re supposed to be doing. We can’t afford to waste time.”

I took a calming breath. “I know that,” I told her tersely. “Believe me, I know that, and it has been stressing me out, but we can’t continue like this.”

Briella just stared at me. “Like what?”

I gestured vaguely at the space between us. “Like this,” I said. I softened my voice slightly. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed how wound up you’ve been the last couple of days, Briella. I thought you were just restless because we hadn’t left the valley, but it has not improved since we left.”

Briella’s cheeks burned, obviously surprised I was paying that much attention. “So your solution is what?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she eyed the little setup I had made. “A picnic?”

“Yes,” I said simply. I held my hand out to her, beckoning her to me. “Come here.”

Briella just stared at my hand for a moment, looking like she was going to argue further, but she must have read the unyielding expression on my face and thought better of it. She took my hand and allowed me to guide her into a sitting position on the blanket.

We didn’t have much to have a proper picnic, just some dried meats and fruit, but it would do. In minutes, we were enjoying our simple meal, taking in the sounds of the Embervale birds and the wind ruffling the leaves around us.

It became apparent that this was exactly what Briella needed. She was less tense and had a bit more color to her cheeks.

She looked a little embarrassed as she nibbled on her fruit as if perfectly aware of how anxious she had been. “Maybe a break was appropriate,” she said quietly.

“I would say so,” I said lightly and smirked at her. “I was doing it for my sake actually. We’re going to be traveling together for a while, and I have to take care of your mood to preserve mine.”

She scowled at me, but the corner of her lips twitched upward. “You’re not exactly a walk in the park either, Stormfall,” she said, smirking openly at me.

I laughed and packed away the picnic once we had finished eating. Briella looked much better, but she still looked a bit rundown. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me so that her back was against my chest, my legs on either side of hers.

Briella stiffened briefly but then seemed to melt in my arms, leaning back slightly. “We’ll go pretty soon?” she asked.

“Of course,” I told her. I might have wanted to calm her down, but I was aware that we still had a lot of ground to cover. We couldn’t relax as much as I wanted to. “Can I ask you something?”

Briella was quiet for a moment. I briefly wondered if she had fallen asleep. “Sure,” she said finally, curiosity coloring her tone.

I decided to ask something I had been wondering about for a while. “I’m curious about your time here in Embervale,” I said. “I know you were sent here to train and learn your grandmother’s magic, but what else have you done?”

I wanted to ask why she loved it there so much, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to ask for some reason. I didn’t want her to think I couldn’t understand why someone would love it there.

Briella’s voice was wistful as she answered. “I might have told you, but when Kai and I first came here, we didn’t think we’d be here longer than a couple of months. We came with the intent of returning to Drogomor as soon as we could.”

She was quiet for a long moment, seeming lost in thought. “But?” I finally prompted after a while.

She sucked in a sharp breath, seeming startled back to the present. “But before I knew it, I had fallen in love with the valley and Embervale. I don’t know. There’s something about it that forced me to slow down.”

“I find that pretty hard to do myself,” I quipped, tickling her side teasingly.

She laughed briefly but then grew wistful again as she leaned back against my chest. “It’s true. I think I’ve always been a restless person, but it was easy not to be here. There’s something here that fills me with peace. Before I knew it, this place became my home, and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving it.”

I tightened my hold around her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. I again thought back to my conversation with Kai, about Briella’s connection to the realm itself.

“What I never want to lose is this sense of connection.”

I froze, wondering if I heard her right. Had she read my mind?

She continued in that same airy, far-away tone that told me she wasn’t really paying that much attention to me. “When I was a kid in Drogomor, I always felt this sense that I didn’t truly belong there. I mean... I was happy there and had a great childhood, but I think I always sensed that there was something else for me, something waiting for me far away.”

“And now you feel like you’ve found it here?” I guessed.

“Not exactly,” Briella said. “I do feel like I belong here, but something is missing. I still feel like I’m searching.” She laughed suddenly. “Sorry, I must sound kind of crazy talking in vague riddles like this.”

“Not at all,” I told her firmly, and I meant it.

I could listen to her talk this way for hours. She was so passionate and confident. It made her even more beautiful than I already thought she was, which didn’t seem possible.

It was easy to see the realm through her eyes, at least partially. It wasn’t just mysterious and otherworldly. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

I was starting to get it.