Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 22

Chapter 22: 0022

Lorelei POV

By the second week, I had completely lost hope that anyone was coming to rescue me and instead found myself praying that whoever bought me wouldn’t be as cruel as the rogues.

It was pathetic, honestly.

But fear could make you desperate for even the smallest scraps of mercy.

Sometimes I caught myself wondering how guilty Raven must be feeling right now, even though none of this was actually her fault.

I wished I could tell her that.

Then one evening, for the first time since being brought there, I was finally led out of the room.

Drax shoved me down a narrow hallway before dragging me into another room, and the second I looked up, my stomach dropped.

A man who looked to be in his forties was sitting across from us.

Something about him immediately made my skin crawl.

"This is her?" he asked in a low, calm voice.

Drax nodded proudly. "As promised. Healthy. Unmarked. A rare beauty, wouldn’t you say?"

The man slowly rose to his feet and walked toward me, making me instinctively flinch backward.

His brown eyes scanned me carefully from head to toe in a way that made me feel less like a person and more like an object being inspected before purchase.

Then he turned back toward Drax.

"We have a deal."

Drax instantly grinned, exposing his yellowed teeth. "Pleasure doing business with you."

The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a thick envelope before tossing it carelessly onto the table.

Silas immediately snatched it up, greedily tearing it open to count the stacks of cash inside while the man’s gaze remained fixed on me the entire time.

"Stand up straight," he ordered calmly.

When I didn’t move fast enough, he suddenly grabbed my arm roughly, his fingers digging directly into the bruises left behind from the crash.

Pain shot through me so sharply that my eyes instantly watered, but I bit down hard on my lip, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing me cry out.

"She doesn’t speak much, does she?" the man murmured, brushing his thumb slowly across my cheek.

My skin crawled violently beneath his touch.

"She’s quiet," Drax chimed in from behind us as he stuffed his share of the money into his pocket. "But that shouldn’t be a problem. Nobody wants a loud bitch as a wife anyway."

"I wish that were the case," the man replied dryly.

His head tilted slightly as he studied me again before letting out a quiet sigh.

"Take her out to the van."

My entire body went cold.

Wife?

Before I could even properly process what exactly I had just been sold for, two large heavily armed guards who had been standing silently near the wall suddenly stepped forward.

One of them gripped my bound arms tightly and hauled me upright when my trembling legs refused to cooperate, while the other yanked a heavy black hood over my head, instantly swallowing me in suffocating darkness.

****

For days, I was moved around constantly.

The van barely ever stopped during that time, which only meant one thing.

I was getting farther and farther away from any place where someone could possibly find me.

By what I guessed was the fourth day, the black hood covering my face was finally ripped off.

I immediately squinted against the sudden light as cold night air hit my skin.

The moon hung high above us while I was roughly dragged out of the van. My legs wobbled painfully beneath me after being cramped inside for so long, but somehow I still managed to stay upright.

Then I looked around and froze.

Tall buildings towered around me from every direction, so massive and unfamiliar that for a second, I could only stare in stunned silence.

Where the hell was I?

The man who had bought me immediately stepped to my side before leading me through a back entrance into what looked like a sprawling estate.

And it was huge.

At least ten times larger than Silver Fang Pack.

The sheer size of it made my stomach twist uneasily.

I was eventually led deeper inside through another set of doors into what looked more like a smaller private compound separated from the main estate.

That was where I saw the other women.

Several of them.

All dressed in simple gray maid uniforms with their hair pulled tightly back. The moment they noticed me, their eyes immediately shifted toward me with expressions that made me shrink into myself even more.

Some looked curious.

Others looked pitying.

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