Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 24

Chapter 24: 0024

Lorelei POV

My heart truly ached for her.

Knowing she had gone through all of that only to end up stuck here without even knowing whether her brother was still alive was heartbreaking.

"I’m sorry," I whispered.

She sniffled and shook her head.

"It’s fine. I’ve learned to live with it," she said softly. "What about you? What was your crime?"

"Crime?" I repeated, confused.

"Yeah. Why are you here?" she asked.

Oh.

So that was what she meant.

"Well, I..." I started, wanting to tell her the truth. That I had been kidnapped by rogues and sold here against my will.

But then I remembered what the handler had told me.

I didn’t know her well enough yet.

I couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t report me if I said the wrong thing.

"I’m an orphan from a small village," I said instead, repeating the story I had been given.

Her brows pulled together.

"That’s it?" she asked.

I hesitated.

Yeah, what else was I supposed to say?

For a moment, she looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but instead, she simply shrugged and held out her hand.

"I’m Skye, by the way."

I glanced down at her small, calloused hand before slowly reaching out and wrapping my bruised fingers around hers.

"Ella," I murmured.

The name felt strange coming out of my mouth.

But I supposed I had better start getting used to it.

*****

That night, I slept in my ruined clothes.

Or at least, I tried to.

After everything that had happened, I could barely call it sleep.

My body was exhausted, but my mind refused to stop replaying the crash, the rogues, Cole’s desperate howl, and even Raven’s kiss.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw yellow fangs.

Every time I started drifting off, I heard Jaxen’s voice.

The memories chased me through the night until I was suddenly jolted awake by Skye gently shaking my shoulder.

"Hey," she whispered, her face hovering above mine in the dim light. "It’s 4:40. We need to get ready for the morning shift."

I groaned as every muscle in my body screamed in protest.

I felt like I had only closed my eyes five minutes ago.

Unfortunately, I didn’t exactly have a choice.

Reluctantly, I let Skye drag me out of our shared room and down the corridor toward the bathroom at the end of the hall.

The bathroom consisted of a long row of shower stalls separated by thin plastic curtains, along with several sinks lined beneath cracked mirrors that looked like they had been there for decades.

Inside, there were three other women with towels wrapped around them.

"Hello," I greeted with a small wave.

But they only stared at me for a moment with cold, unreadable expressions before turning back to what they were doing, leaving my hand to awkwardly fall back to my side.

"Don’t bother," Skye whispered as she nudged me toward an empty sink. "Nobody makes friends here."

"Huh."

That was... new.

Back at home, the maids were actually friendly with one another. It was only me they excluded, which I understood was because of the curse.

I had honestly thought I might be lucky enough to have some kind of social life here now that I was Ella.

Apparently not.

With a quiet sigh, I stepped into one of the empty stalls and washed myself clean.

A few minutes later, I was dressed just like everyone else in a plain gray uniform that hung loosely on my frame.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify