The Alpha's Temptation

Chapter 164 What If—

Felis pinched her chin, tipped her head up and said, "Even if I have to throw you in front of a hundred Alphas, I will. You carry the blood of the most potent breeder, best after the goddess who gave birth to me. Your kind is born for the first time because you have the blood of the strongest demon in Araniea and a princess." His lips curled up. "You and alphas will make strong Nyxers. I will have an army that is going to take over the whole of Araniea without the need to leash Eltanin's wolf."

Lerna's lips quivered. "Don't do this to me, brother... You know that I will die..."

He tilted his head. "You won't. You are immortal. You will continue to give birth to as many men as I need for the army."

"Are you insane?" she said through the anger forming her chest. "How can you use women like this? Don't you have compassion? Are you so driven by your lust to conquer Araniea that you won't even understand that you will be practically torturing me forever? You are going to make me a whore of the alphas! I am your sister, for God's sake!"

He raised an eyebrow as he stared at her. "You have the audacity to speak like that, Lerna? Even after you are shackled like this?" he said a moment later. "But then I don't expect any less dear sister," he hissed. "You and I share the same bloodline of our father."

"Release me!" she ordered him in a harsh voice. "Father won't like it."

Felis chuckled and then his chuckle converted into a throaty laughter. "Father was the one who gave me directions about you."

Lerna's eyes widened with fear as her stomach plummeted to the floor. She knew that her father was insane, but how could a father be this insane that he would actually make his daughter a breeder for so many alphas?

Felis shook his head as he continued to roar with laughter. "Don't be so shocked, Lerna," he said. "There is nothing you can do about it. You will never be able to escape your destiny and this is where you belong." He looked around her. "I hope a week in these shackles was enough to make you understand that." He got up as she watched him. "I will be sending the maids in a few hours to get you ready for the ritual."

"What ritual?" she asked, frozen with fear.

"To get you ready for all of them," he scoffed. He spun on his heels, his long cloak swirling behind him, and started walking out.

Fear sunk in. it controlled her. She was afraid to even breathe. She understood what he meant. He would ask the healers to-- she closed her eyes afraid to think as to what was going to happen to her. The women who were in the shadows crawled back. They started snickering at her. "You should get ready for it. They will break your virgin layer."

She was so scared that she didn't know whether it was fear that drove her into action. She shouted, "Brother!"

Felis stopped as he looked over his shoulder.

"I know that this is important, but after a week of being here, I-- I feel dizzy."

Felis turned back. He narrowed his gaze as he crossed his arms across his chest. _​

"You said that you need strong alpha males. In that case, won't you need a strong woman to give birth to them?" She looked at him with wide eyes. Would she be able to convince him?

"You are strong," he growled.

"But I am weak physically. Can you give me another week to heal?" He didn't reply to her as he continued to size her up. "Please..." she said slowly. "You have waited for so long for me. What is a week in front of eighteen years?"

After what seemed like eternity, Felis said, "You have four days. I will come and check you personally. I can delay the ritual for no more than four days."

"That should be more than enough," she said, agreeing to him instantly, lest he changed his mind.

"If you try to harm yourself in these four days, I won't wait for a day. I will throw you to the alphas without the ritual."

She nodded. "I won't."

Felis gave her an assessing gaze and then walked out of the crypt.

Her nannies came a few hours later and unlocked her. They took her back to her bedchamber.

---

Though Rigel had said that he was going back to Orion kingdom, he was on his way to Eslam along with his unit of soldiers. From there he planned on crossing Ivory Forest to take a short cut route to the Eridani River. When he had come to this side last time a week back while chasing the messenger, he had caught a faint smell of roses mixed with a deeper, rich, mellow smell of embers.

The smell had made him go crazy at that time. It was as if he didn't chase the source of the smell, he would regret it for life. He didn't know what drove him to this extent. He just chased the scent. He hoped that it still lingered in the air because he had started craving it over the last week. It was like an aphrodisiac that he needed to smell. Over the week without it, he had become restless. He couldn't tell Eltanin because Eltanin was too busy with his own problems. Moreover, he had just mated with Lusitania. His friend needed that space. Eltanin had been alone for so many years that he had grown to like loneliness. Lusitania made things... different. And Rigel wanted Eltanin to be with her rather than solving his restlessness.

As the evening drew closer, Rigel was forced to camp in a clearing in the Ivory Forest. It was a strange forest. White trees with white leaves and trunks dotted the entire plain, interspersed with some greenery. Sun shone brilliant upon the white trees making it impossible to see properly because of the stark reflections. In order to avoid getting into the dense forest, Rigel had stuck to the periphery.

Eridani flowed through Hydra, but it was a little further from the borders. He knew that it would be impossible to enter Hydra and go to Eridani, but there was no harm in trying. Wrong. He wanted to chase the scent that had made him sleepless.

As his guards started to erect the tents and tie horses at a nearby stream, Rigel walked all the way up to a nearby mound and climbed its peak. From there, he could get a better view of the borders of Hydra kingdom from a distance. Eridani appeared like a thin ribbon cutting across the large meadows. He knew that there was only one bridge that connected Hydra to other kingdoms over Eridani River and that bridge was manned and guarded heavily. It was nearly impossible to cross it, and he was crazy even thinking that he should cross it. But if he didn't, he was going to go madder than ever. One week was more than enough for him to wonder what was it with that scent that he wanted to go after it. A month back, when Eltanin had just smelled Lusitania, he was driven to madness in her absence.

What if...

Suddenly--