Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 235

Chapter 235: 0235

Kaelen POV

"Better?" Darius asked, watching me carefully through the rearview mirror.

I nodded weakly, my chest still heaving as I struggled to catch my breath. The suppressant had done its job, but it left me feeling completely hollowed out, like something vital had been scraped raw from the inside of my bones.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. The car remained parked within the Council’s territory, the engine humming quietly beneath the heavy silence. All I could hear was my own ragged breathing and the faint sounds of guards moving somewhere outside.

Eventually, I muttered through gritted teeth, "Kill that bastard."

Darius’s eyebrow lifted as he turned slightly in his seat to look at me. "You know you can’t do that, Kaelen. You can’t just execute a sitting Alpha without solid proof. If you go after him right now, what exactly is your official reason? That he wants your woman? That he pissed you off?"

I knew exactly where Darius was coming from. He wasn’t defending Jaxen. He was trying to keep me from making a move that would hand the Council the perfect excuse to come after me.

If I killed Jaxen now, I wouldn’t just be dealing with the consequences of unlawfully executing another pack leader. I would be giving the Council a reason to question my authority and, worse, dragging Lorelei straight into the middle of it. Her entire past, her identity, everything she had spent years hiding could be exposed to the entire empire.

A part of me wanted to tell Darius that I didn’t care.

Yes, Jaxen wanting Lorelei was enough reason for me. Him putting his hands on her, lying about her, and trying to take her away from me was more than enough to deserve a death sentence. If it were up to the part of me that was still burning with rage, I would have Jaxen’s severed head mounted on a spike outside the estate gates before sunset.

But the colder, more rational part of my mind, the part that was barely keeping me from losing control again, knew Darius wasn’t wrong.

Jaxen living another day was infuriating, but I couldn’t kill him, not yet at least.

I let out a quiet breath and met Darius’s gaze.

"Not that bastard," I growled. "I meant Augustus."

Darius’s eyes widened for a second, and I could practically see his thoughts racing. Out of everyone on the High Council, Augustus was considered the least problematic. He rarely spoke, hardly ever bothered voting on minor disputes, and had never caused any trouble in public. Most of the time, he simply sat in his seat, watching everything in silence.

"Augustus?" Darius repeated, his brow pulling together in confusion. "Why the hell Augustus?"

I shifted against the leather seat, trying to ignore the deep, lingering ache near my core. "Can’t you tell?"

The scene in the chamber flashed through my mind again. Augustus’s hollow, almost lifeless eyes. That knowing, unsettling smile. The way he had looked at me as if he could see straight through my skin and into the darkness coiled beneath it.

"He knows," I said through gritted teeth when Darius remained silent. "He fucking knows about my curse."

Within seconds, Darius’s expression hardened. I watched the realization settle in as the pieces began falling into place in his mind. He was sharp, sometimes even sharper than me, so it didn’t take long for him to understand just how dangerous what I had said was.

His jaw tightened until I heard the faint click of it before he finally spoke, his voice dropping into a low, controlled tone.

"How do we kill him?"

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