Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 26

Chapter 26: 0026

Lorelei POV

For the first few days, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. In fact, things were so uneventful that I had started to convince myself Chelsea had simply been bluffing.

My chores weren’t much different from the ones I used to do back home, and by the fifth day, I had slowly begun adapting to this new environment.

Through Skye, I learned that Mrs. Vex was the head housekeeper and that Mr. Hawke was the handler who had brought me here. I also learned why everyone was so afraid of Chelsea.

She was close to both of them.

Because of those connections, she could manipulate situations, spread rumors, and get people into trouble with very little effort.

Still, since she never crossed paths with me again after our confrontation and hadn’t bothered Skye either, I eventually assumed I was safe.

I was deathly wrong.

One particularly busy evening, Skye was away performing her assigned chore, which involved serving in the dining hall while several higher-ranking individuals attended an important meeting.

My assignment for the night was mopping the long service corridor that connected the kitchen preparation areas to the lower levels of the main wing.

Because of the meeting upstairs, the hallways down here were unusually quiet.

I didn’t mind.

Actually, I preferred it this way.

The silence gave me a chance to think without constantly worrying about someone yelling at me.

I was wringing out my mop when another maid suddenly approached me with a deep frown.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

What does it look like I’m doing?

The response immediately popped into my head, but I bit my tongue before it could come out.

"My chores," I answered instead.

"That’s my chore."

My brows immediately pulled together.

Was she serious?

The roster had clearly listed my name for this corridor tonight.

"I was assigned the service corridor for the evening shift," I explained calmly, keeping both hands on the mop handle. "Mrs. Vex’s logbook had my name down for it before we left the lower hall."

The girl didn’t look convinced.

If anything, she looked annoyed.

"Well, there was a last-minute change two hours ago," she said, crossing her arms. "Weren’t you at the meeting?"

"No."

I hadn’t even known there was a meeting.

I had spent the entire afternoon scrubbing pots in the scullery and had come straight to this corridor the moment I finished.

"Of course you weren’t," she said with a scoff, and I rolled my eyes internally.

"Anyway, this is my chore," she said flatly, gesturing at the floor I had spent the last hour making spotless. "Yours is to clean the Alpha’s chamber."

The moment she said that, a shiver ran down my spine.

"What?" I blurted, stunned.

Since I got here, I had only been given chores in the lower ring, and now suddenly I was supposed to be cleaning the Alpha’s chamber? The very place Skye had warned me never to wander into?

"If you don’t believe me, you can go to Mrs. Vex and ask her yourself," the girl said impatiently. "Though expect to be punished for wasting her time."

I just stared at her blankly, feeling my heart pound loudly against my ribs.

"If you’re lying..."

"Why would I?" she cut me off, her expression hardening.

I blinked because, truly, why would she?

I didn’t even know this girl. We hadn’t crossed paths before tonight.

Just slip in, clean whatever mess they left behind, and slip out before the monster comes back, I chanted to myself like a mantra. You are Ella now. A ghost in a gray dress. Completely invisible.

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