Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23: 0023

Lorelei POV

Should I say it was a relief?

I mean, yeah, I was back to being a maid. But that was all I had known my entire life. So standing in front of what was supposed to be the servant quarters, I felt the tightness in my chest loosen a little.

There were about twenty rooms on this floor alone.

A middle-aged woman who had joined us and led the way stopped in front of one of the rooms. "This is where you will be staying," she said, her attention fixed on me while the guards began to retreat down the hallway.

Her voice was as cold and lifeless as the gray concrete walls around us. She was dressed in a pristine dark navy housekeeper’s uniform, her keys jingling sharply against her hip.

"Breakfast is strictly at 5:30 AM in the lower hall," she stated like I was somehow supposed to know where that was. "If you are even a minute late, you do not eat. Your uniform is on the bed. Put it on immediately."

I swallowed against the dryness in my throat, keeping my eyes glued to the floor, not wanting to give her any reason to dislike me already. After all, I had just gotten here. The last thing I needed was unnecessary attention drawn to myself.

"Yes, ma’am."

"The communal bathroom is at the very end of the corridor," she added, pointing a stiff finger down the long narrow hallway. "Showers are restricted to thirty minutes before your shift and thirty minutes after. Do not wander into the main palace wings unless your chore sheet explicitly demands it. If you are caught somewhere you should not be, the guards will not bother bringing you back here. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I whispered.

With one final disapproving glance at my dirt-streaked skin, she turned and marched away.

Left alone, I slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

The room was not too big, barely big enough to fit the two narrow twin beds pushed against opposite walls.

But hey, I actually had a bed. Between them were two metal lockers and a single small window placed so high up that I would have to stand on my toes just to see the sky.

But my breath hitched when I realized I wasn’t alone.

Sitting on the edge of the mattress closest to the window was a young girl. She couldn’t have been older than nineteen, with wide anxious brown eyes and a fragile frame. She was already wearing the same gray uniform, and the moment her eyes landed on my bruised arm and swollen wrist, she gasped softly.

"Are you... are you okay?" she whispered, her voice trembling as she cast a fearful glance toward the locked door like she expected the guards to burst back in at any second.

"I’m fine..." I replied casually, stepping further into the room and shutting the door behind me. "Where are we?"

"Uhm..." she started softly, no longer trembling as she inched a little closer. "The Lunar Empire."

"What?!"

The second those words left her lips, my eyes widened and all the color instantly drained from my face.

The Lunar Empire.

It couldn’t be.

The Handler’s van had driven for days, but I never imagined he would dare cross into this territory.

Every wolf since we were pups grew up hearing terrifying legends about the Lunar Empire.

It was the largest and most ruthless kingdom in the entire werewolf world, currently ruled by the Alpha King, an absolute tyrant rumored to have butchered his own family just to take the throne.

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