Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 53

Chapter 53: 0053

Lorelei POV

I stared at him for a long moment, feeling my entire body turn to ice.

Could he really do that?

Well, of course he could.

He was the Alpha’s right-hand man. I had already witnessed the Alpha King kill a maid who drugged him without even blinking. Darius would be no different.

This was their world.

A life, especially a maid’s life, meant nothing to them.

"Well..." I started slowly, trying to find my voice through the sudden wave of fear. "She can be annoying, but so far... I think I can handle her."

I had been handling her fine up to this point.

I think.

At that exact moment, Darius’s gaze finally shifted to meet mine.

"Can you really?" he asked, leaning in a little closer.

I practically held my breath as I slowly nodded, but he simply shook his head at my naivety.

"Do you really think throwing a few words and a few fists can stop someone like that? Or are you forgetting what she did to you?" His voice dropped, turning dangerously low. "She almost got you killed, Ella, and she felt absolutely no remorse for it. Do you really think you can handle that?"

He had completely invaded my personal space now, his towering frame cutting off the morning sun. His face was only inches from mine as he hooked a single finger beneath my chin, tilting my head up until I had no choice but to look directly into those cold gray eyes.

"I have seen this play out countless times around here," he murmured, his breath fanning lightly against my skin. "There is only one way to truly solve a problem like her, and that’s..."

"Death," I finished for him, the word tasting like lead in my mouth.

The corners of his lips curled into a sharp, almost lethal smile that made my skin crawl.

"Just give me the word," he whispered, his eyes never leaving mine. "And I will have it done."

My legs suddenly felt weak as a heavy wave of horror washed over me.

I knew I should have pulled away from his touch. I should have told him an absolute, resounding no. I should have insisted that there had to be another way to handle this.

But my mind drifted back to everything that had happened since I arrived here.

There was a terrifyingly high chance I would have been executed by Kaelen the night I mistakenly entered his chamber.

There was an even higher chance I would have been brutally whipped or worked to death by Hawke after being falsely accused of stealing.

Chelsea knew exactly what the consequences of her actions would have been. She knew those accusations could have led to my death or torture, and she had gone to such horrific lengths anyway.

For what?

Simply because I had publicly challenged her for bullying someone else.

In a completely messed-up way, I had only survived this long through pure luck.

Despite our physical fight and the public humiliation I had just handed her in the corridor, Chelsea still refused to back down. If she wasn’t stopped now, how far would she go the next time? Wouldn’t it be better to end it before she actually succeeded in getting me killed?

My hands twitched nervously at my sides as I weighed the terrifying options.

Maybe it was because I had never killed anyone before, but this was an incredibly difficult decision for me to make.

"There is no rush," Darius murmured.

His voice softened slightly, as if he could somehow sense how uneasy I was.

"I know this is hard for you. There can always be a next time."

At his words, my tense shoulders finally relaxed, and I let out a long breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

"Why are you still wearing this uniform?" he asked suddenly.

I blinked, completely caught off guard by the abrupt change in topic.

"What?"

"Your maid uniform," he clarified, his gray eyes flicking down toward the dress I was wearing. "You’re not a maid anymore. Didn’t the Alpha provide you with new clothes?"

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