Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 64

Chapter 64: 0064

Kaelen POV

"What if Seraphina returns?" Darius asked. "What happens then, huh?"

The mention of her name felt like a physical blow.

My fists clenched tighter, the skin over my knuckles stretching white with rage.

"She won’t," I replied through gritted teeth.

But Darius just shook his head.

"You don’t know that," he shot back. "You let her go, Kaelen. You had the perfect chance to get rid of a traitor, but you didn’t do it because you still have feelings for her."

The walls seemed to shake.

Darius almost never raised his voice, which only made the raw fury behind his words cut even deeper.

"She is still out there somewhere, living her life," he continued, his chest heaving with every breath. "And the second she comes back, your heart is going to waver. So what then? You just throw your little sex puppet away?"

My expression hardened further until it became a mask of pure, unadulterated steel.

If he wanted to drag the monsters we kept buried into the light, then I was more than willing to oblige.

"Then we’re no different from each other," I said, my voice dropping into a deadly calm. "We’re both just using her."

Darius let out a long, heavy exhale, his shoulders lowering slightly as the anger in his eyes gave way to something much colder.

Pure disgust.

"You’re right about that," he whispered. "We are using her. But there’s a massive difference between us, Kaelen. At least I have a bit of decency. At least I’m not the one who threw her into a cage with a beast, fully knowing there was a very high chance she might die. At least I didn’t stand there and watch her get bullied by the other maids while doing absolutely nothing simply because she has a criminal record."

He took one final step back, looking at me as though I were something wretched.

"At least I actually treat her right," Darius spat, the final words driving straight into my chest. "That alone makes me better than you. And it makes you absolute shit."

With that, he shot me one last glare before turning on his heel and storming out of the office.

The heavy door slammed shut behind him, leaving me standing there alone with nothing but the echo of his words ringing inside my head.

****

That night, I was like a restless beast.

I couldn’t sit still.

I wandered aimlessly through the quiet corridors, my footsteps echoing against the stone floors as the guards stiffened the moment I passed them.

My feet seemed to move on their own, guided by an instinct I could no longer control, until I found myself standing directly in front of Ella’s room.

I hesitated for a long moment before finally pushing the door open and quietly slipping inside.

The room was bathed in soft moonlight, casting a gentle glow over the bed.

I walked over in silence and stopped beside her, looking down at her sleeping form.

For more than ten minutes, I did nothing but stand there, staring at her unconscious face while listening to her agonizingly shallow breathing.

She looked so incredibly fragile.

After seeing that her condition was stable, I finally decided to let her rest.

But just as I turned to leave, my steps faltered when a tiny, choked sniffle broke the silence.

At first, I thought she had woken up, and my heart leaped into my throat.

When I turned back, however, her eyes were still tightly shut.

She was clearly still unconscious.

Yet a single tear slowly slipped from the corner of her eye, tracing a wet path down her pale cheek.

The sight made my fingers twitch.

There were no words that could truly explain the sharp ache that suddenly settled in my chest, but one thing had become painfully clear.

I absolutely hated seeing her cry.

It stirred emotions I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Leaning forward, I slowly brushed my thumb across her damp cheek, gently wiping away the tear before another could follow.

"How much have you really suffered that you cry even in your sleep?" I whispered.

As though she had heard my voice, another silent sob escaped her lips.

Her delicate features twisted with pain as her unconscious mind undoubtedly replayed whatever horrors had driven her to collapse.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify