Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Lorelei POV

I expected those words to reassure her, to make her feel less guilty. Instead, they seemed to hurt her even more.

She didn’t say anything, but out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her hands tightening in her lap until her knuckles turned white.

"You don’t look okay, though," she murmured after a long silence. "When I saw you earlier... I almost didn’t recognize you."

Her eyes slowly searched my face.

"You’ve gotten so pale. You look exhausted, and..." She hesitated, as though she wasn’t sure whether she should continue. After a moment, she quietly asked, "I heard... people saying you’re with the Alpha King."

And there it was. I had seen that coming.

The smile slowly slipped from my face as I lowered my gaze to my hands, my teeth sinking into my bottom lip while my fingers fidgeted absently in my lap.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The silence stretched between us until I finally forced the words past the lump in my throat.

"We’re... sleeping together."

The second those words left my lips, Raven sucked in a sharp breath.

I looked up just in time to see her entire body go rigid. Her hands curled into tight fists, and her blue eyes widened with a mixture of panic and fury.

"Did that bastard force himself on you?" she demanded, her voice trembling with barely restrained anger. "Did he..."

"No."

The word left my mouth before she could finish.

I shook my head quickly, meeting her panicked gaze.

"No. Not like that. We... we made an agreement."

"What kind of agreement?" Raven shot back, her voice rising despite herself. "Lorelei, you were a victim. Even if that tyrant believed you were a criminal, he had no right to use your situation against you. He had no right to..."

"Raven..."

I reached over and gently took her hand, stopping her before she could say another word.

My gaze fell to our intertwined hands as a familiar ache settled deep inside my chest.

For so long, I’d been trying to bury the truth.

Trying to outrun it.

Trying to convince myself it wasn’t real.

But I couldn’t lie anymore.

Not to Raven.

Not to myself.

"I like him," I whispered, the confession so quiet it was almost swallowed by the silence as the words finally slipped past my lips.

"What?" Raven whispered, her breath hitching in pure disbelief.

Her grip on my hand tightened so hard it was almost painful, drawing another heavy exhale from my lungs.

"I mean... I think I do," I said softly, the words hanging between us in the cool night air. Images of Kaelen flashed through my mind. Nala’s words. The visions she had shown me. The quiet moments when he’d stepped in to protect me even though he had no obligation to.

"Yes, he has a terrible temper," I admitted with a small, helpless smile. "You saw that for yourself. But aside from that... he has never hurt me. If it wasn’t for him, Raven... I don’t think I would’ve survived this place."

Raven didn’t say a word. She just stared at me as though she couldn’t make sense of what she was hearing.

I knew how unbelievable it sounded.

I probably would’ve reacted the exact same way if our positions had been reversed.

"I know this sounds insane," I continued quietly. "Especially after everything that happened with Jaxen. I honestly thought my heart would never open up to anyone again. Definitely not someone like Kaelen."

A small, bitter laugh escaped me before I continued.

"But somewhere along the way... it did." I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "And I can’t stop it."

"I spent the last few days praying he wasn’t involved in the trafficking ring. Not because I wanted to protect him..." I paused, shaking my head. "Because I wanted a reason not to hate myself for falling for him."

A weak smile touched my lips before fading almost as quickly.

"Now that I know the truth... I can finally admit it out loud." I lifted my gaze to meet hers. "I like him."

The moment our eyes met, something inside Raven seemed to shatter.

The anger that had been burning in her eyes moments ago vanished completely, replaced by a deep, aching sadness that caught me off guard.

"I knew it," she whispered, her voice trembling as a single tear slipped down her cheek. "I knew I was going to be too late."

When I finally found the courage to raise my eyes to hers, Raven’s expression crumbled. The anger was gone, replaced by a raw, suffocating look of heartbreak.

My brows knitted together.

"What do you mean?" I asked quietly. "Too late for what?"

Instead of answering, she pulled her hand away from mine and buried both hands in her hair, dragging them through it with a frustrated groan before letting out a long, ragged breath.

"For months, Lorelei. For months, I’ve been searching for you," she said, her voice trembling as she fought to keep it down. "I couldn’t accept that you were just... gone. I refused to believe it."

She swallowed hard before continuing.

"That was when I realized you weren’t the only girl who had disappeared. Every night, I’d lie awake wondering where you were. I kept imagining the worst. I thought you were being tortured... sold... or..." Her voice caught in her throat. "I had nightmare after nightmare, but I couldn’t stop looking. I just kept going until I found Cole, and together, we tracked you all the way here."

She fell silent, her chest rising and falling unevenly as she struggled to steady her breathing.

When she looked back at me, her eyes shimmered with tears.

"I didn’t do all of that because I wanted to be some kind of hero, Lorelei," she said, a bitter, heartbreaking smile tugging at her lips. "I did it because I’m in love with you."

My breath caught in my throat.

Seeing the stunned look on my face, Raven let out another frustrated sigh and threw her hands into the air.

"I mean, for fuck’s sake," she said, letting out a disbelieving laugh through her tears. "I literally kissed you before everything went to hell. Wasn’t that enough to tell you I was completely, hopelessly in love with you?"

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