Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1701 - 143 : Love-laced Energy

*Briella*

My veins felt like they were freezing over as the two guards burst into the room. Before I could even react, Kryzen grabbed me and pulled me behind him. I grabbed onto his arm, my heart feeling like it was going into overdrive.

The two men in the doorway, much like the maid who was just there, had large empty eyes. They didn’t seem to be seeing anything in front of them. Aside from the fact that they had to be twice Kryzen’s size and had gleaming blades attached to their thick belts, they didn’t look all that threatening.

I sensed that Kryzen was thinking the same thing. How far could we get if we beat these two up and started running? I would have liked to think pretty far, but it was likely that there were more guards stationed around. Besides, Malphas probably expected an attempted escape at this point.

Kryzen’s hesitation was still palpable as he reached back and gripped my wrist. The gesture was protective.

“We have been sent to retrieve the bride and bring her to the temple where the ceremony is to take place,” the two said in unison, their low voices toneless.

It caused me to shudder and press myself a little closer against Kryzen’s side. He reached down and slid his hand along my arm before linking his fingers with mine. He pressed our palms together firmly. The small but meaningful gesture was a comforting one. He met my gaze wordlessly, his stormy gray eyes locked with mine.

There was so much that was said in that single second. Kryzen sent some energy through his fingers so that it seeped into my palm. I felt some of his concern but much stronger than that was his love for me and his confidence in us, in our plan, and in our relationship.

It was as if he was telling me that we were going to be alright. The wordless statement was so powerful that it actually caused me to relax.

I squeezed his hand tightly, needing to send something back to him. My energy might not have been as powerful as his, but I needed him to know how much I appreciated him and loved him in case this was our final hour together.

I shut my eyes and thought of our best memories together—the day I told him I loved him for the first time, our first kiss, our wedding day, finding out we were going to be parents. I focused on the undeniable happiness and love I felt during each of these moments and sent them through our linked fingers.

I was worried that the love-laced energy wouldn’t go through, but then I heard Kryzen gasp quietly. It was clear by the way his eyes seemed to melt that he received my feelings.

“We must leave immediately if we are to make it to the temple in time,” the guards said, once again in unison.

Kryzen’s jaw clenched as he glared hatefully at the two, but I put a hand over his wrist to quietly caution him before I stepped out from behind him and faced the two men. “I just need to put on my shoes and then I’ll be ready.”

“Make haste,” they said together. “Lord Malphas doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

I barely held back a scowl as I went over to the bed and sat down, pulling a box onto my feet and lifting the lid to reveal two crystal-embedded heels. They were beautiful, but I winced at the tall heel. I was never good at walking in them, usually opting for flats during these kinds of formal events.

I lifted the shoes out of the box and bent to put them on. Kryzen beat me to it, gently taking them from me. “Here, allow me,” he said.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

I poked one of my bare feet out from under the layers of skirts around my legs. Kryzen eyed the two guards for a moment before turning his back to them to shield me as best as he could from their view.

Kryzen was quick but gentle as he slipped the heels onto my feet. I savored even that little moment between us as we prepared to face whatever awaited us downstairs.

Once the heels were on, Kryzen helped me up, keeping his hands gripped onto my arms so I wouldn’t fall.

I straightened, keeping my chin tilted slightly up in defiance. I was determined to be brave. “Okay,” I told the two guards. “I’m ready.”

I stepped up to the guards and squeaked when they each grabbed one of my upper arms. Their hands were hard and calloused, and they were squeezing firmly.

“Unhand her at once!” Kryzen roared, stepping between us all.

The guards let me go but only to place their hands on the hilts of their blades. Kryzen wasn’t the least bit intimidated and even snarled viciously as he put his arms around me.

“Stop,” I said to the guards, stepping forward and putting my hands up and out toward them. I gestured to Kryzen. “He was only protecting me, not so much different than what the two of you have been ordered to do I imagine.”

The guards almost looked puzzled, but they dropped their hands away from their weapons, causing me to breathe out a sigh of relief.

Kryzen grabbed me and pulled me to him. He brushed his fingers gently over where the guards had grabbed me roughly. The skin was a bit red in the shape of their calloused fingers, but it didn’t look like they had grabbed me hard enough to cause bruising.

That didn’t soothe Kryzen at all though. His eyes flashed angrily. I could feel the energy sizzling beneath his skin as he held me. I gripped his arm and forced him to look me in the eye.

“I’m fine,” I told him. I squeezed his hand, wordlessly warning him to stick to the plan.

He took a deep breath and nodded, but he still glared hatefully at the two guards. “Don’t touch her,” he snapped. “She is perfectly capable of walking on her own.”

The guards didn’t react to Kryzen’s threats, even though his stormy gray eyes had darkened and he looked ready to skin the two alive. I wondered briefly where they were from and what their backgrounds were. They were huge guys. Malphas had to have abducted them from some other pack’s military or something.

The guards stepped apart, allowing me to walk out of the room. I felt Kryzen move to follow us, but the guards each put up a hand. “It is too early for guests to enter the temple. You will be collected closer to the ceremony.”

Before Kryzen could protest, the door was slammed right in his face. I immediately felt much colder now that Kryzen and I were apart, but I forced myself to keep my eyes forward, both literally and metaphorically. This would be over soon. We weren’t going to fail, and soon we would be home with Emberly again.

I just had to get through this part.

I had a guard on either side of me during the whole long walk to the temple. We silently made our way down the spiral staircase and stepped out into the city.

It didn’t look like the setting of a wedding. Naturally, since the city was underground, it was quite dark. There were some lights from the crystals embedded into the rocky walls, but they were nothing compared to natural sunlight.

There was also no one in sight, which made the entire situation even more eerie. I expected to at least see more guards stationed around, but it felt like the city was even more abandoned than it had been when I first got kidnapped.

I winced slightly. My feet were already starting to bother me, which wasn’t too surprising given the size of these heels. I was going to need a healer after this was all over just for the forming blisters.

Both fear and relief struck me when the foreboding dark temple came into view. The architecture was similar to the one back at Celestial Valley, but the colors were all wrong. The walls were a dark gray like storm clouds, the trim as black as midnight. There was something strangely beautiful in the statues of twisted creatures that hung their heads over the sides of the roof.

My feet felt heavy as we ascended the steps leading up to the temple doors. The guards opened them with a foreboding creaking sound.

It was hard to believe this was the same temple where we found Tian and the dark army the year before. It had the same dark walls and strange paintings of demons and other monsters, but it had been transformed into something resembling a wedding venue.

Deep purple flower petals had been sprinkled along the center aisle, which also had blood-red bouquets attached to the ends of each dark wooden pew. Malphas and Tian were nowhere to be seen, but there was an arch set up at the front of the temple woven with thorny vines covered in black roses.

My head snapped up when I saw Kryzen enter from another door. He was dressed in a black suit. Even his shirt underneath and the tie were an obsidian color. He didn’t look at me as he sat in the front row of the empty pews as if nothing was wrong. I held my breath as a few guards appeared, standing around Kryzen, who again showed no reaction.

“Keep your eyes forward,” one guard barked quietly at me. I swallowed but obeyed, shifting my eyes to the front and keeping them focused on the thorny arch.

The guards stopped walking about halfway down the aisle, so I assumed I was supposed to as well. I tried not to shift awkwardly as the echoey silence stretched on.

A few moments later, a door to the left of the altar creaked open and Malphas appeared. He was dressed in a suit the color of blood. A thick, black cloak covered in glimmering red gems was draped over his shoulders. He held a thick book under one arm it took me a moment to realize that the demon lord himself would be the one officiating this wedding.

My heart started to pound with very real fear as soon as Malphas entered. I had been trying to play this out in my mind as make-believe. I couldn’t be married again when Kryzen was still my husband. This wasn’t real. I was only going through the motions.

Even with the dark walls and the thorny arch, there was enough happening that felt like we were having an actual wedding. There were pews, and we were in a temple, albeit a dark one, but it still served its purpose in my mind.

Malphas looked out over the empty pews. He ignored Kryzen completely, his eyes not even focusing on him for a second as if my husband wasn’t there at all. It made my stomach churn nervously, but that was nothing compared to the bone-chilling feeling I got when Malphas’ deep, soulless eyes settled on me.

He didn’t have to say anything. The dark anticipation was clear in the way he grinned cruelly at me.

I jumped when the guards spoke. I had somehow forgotten that they were beside me this entire time. “The groom is arriving,” they said in a flat tone.

I completely stopped breathing as the door next to the altar creaked open again.