Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 215

Chapter 215: 0215

Kaelen POV

It took a few seconds for the weight of what he was saying to actually sink in, and when it finally did, I felt the blood drain from my face.

My fist clenched so tightly that my knuckles turned white, reopening the healing cuts across my palm. I barely noticed the fresh sting as blood began to seep through them again. My veins stood out along my arms, my entire body wound so tight with fury that it felt like I could barely breathe.

BANG!

My fist came down against the mahogany desk with enough force to make the wood groan beneath it, and I shoved myself to my feet.

"They can’t fucking do that!" I snarled, my voice echoing through the office. "I won’t allow that bastard on my territory!"

Darius didn’t even flinch.

"Actually, they can," he said calmly, cutting straight through my rage. "And they’ve done it plenty of times before."

"That is different!" I roared, already pacing behind my desk again, unable to stay still with the anger clawing through me. "This is my pack! I can’t just sit back and let them bring him here!"

"How exactly is this any different, Kaelen?"

Darius stepped directly into my line of sight, forcing me to stop and look at him. His expression remained frustratingly calm, especially considering the state I was in.

"Stop letting your emotions cloud your judgment," he said. "You were the one who created that damn law in the first place. Remember?"

Fuck.

He was right.

And I fucking hated that he was right.

I had created that law years ago, back when I’d only just taken the crown as Alpha King and was fighting tooth and nail to secure my position. Back then, I needed a way to keep my enemies close enough to watch without making them suspicious, and the Council had been the biggest problem of them all.

So I came up with a solution.

Under the pretense of strengthening my relationship with the Council, I had drafted a protection law that allowed Council Elders to bring any person they classified as an "honored guest" into their private estate quarters without interference from the crown.

It had been a calculated move.

And it had worked.

Because that law had eventually given me the perfect opportunity to keep tabs on the Council from the inside. Through the access it created, I uncovered a massive network of treasonous lords working behind my back and managed to neutralize them before they ever got the chance to strike.

Back then, I had considered the law one of my smartest moves.

Right now, I fucking hated it.

And this was completely fucking different.

Jaxen was no political threat. And he was also Lorelei’s former mate. The man who had traumatized her, discarded her, and broken something inside her that I was still trying to help put back together.

The last thing I wanted was that bastard anywhere near her. I didn’t want his presence anywhere around her, threatening the small sense of peace she’d finally started to build here.

But if I was being honest with myself, that wasn’t the only reason I wanted him gone.

I was fucking terrified.

I was too insecure to even entertain the possibility of Lorelei running into him again. I didn’t care that she had rejected him. I didn’t care that their bond had been severed.

They had most likely shared a bed. He had touched her. He had claimed her. Those memories didn’t simply disappear because the magic connecting them was gone.

Lorelei had told me she hated him, and I believed her. But hatred and passion had always lived on the same thin fucking line. Years of sharing a life with someone couldn’t just be erased overnight. There would always be memories, old feelings, familiar touches, things the mind remembered even when the heart wanted nothing to do with them.

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