Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 77

Chapter 77: 0077

Lorelei POV

A love letter?

I stared at her, completely stunned.

This girl looked barely sixteen, and from what I had gathered, Kaelen was thirty-one. The age gap between him and me was already a lot, but this? This was simply too much.

Then again, there was nothing wrong with having an innocent crush. She probably just admired him from afar, like most people in the empire did. So I decided to keep my tone gentle when I addressed her.

"While your feelings are completely understandable," I said carefully, trying not to sound preachy, "I don’t think this is entirely appropriate to give him directly. Maybe you could..."

"What do you know about what’s appropriate or not?" the girl cut me off sharply, her eyes flashing with sudden, ugly venom.

I blinked, thoroughly caught off guard by her aggression.

"I’m just trying to say that—"

"I know you sleep with the Alpha King."

The words left her mouth so casually that my blood instantly turned to ice. My heart nearly stopped in my chest.

"What did you say?" I whispered, my voice barely audible over the distant shouts from the field.

The girl scoffed and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

"Did you really think you could hide it? You slept with the Alpha, and now you’re going after the Beta. Don’t you have any shame?" She stepped a little closer. "You’re just a slut, but you think you have a special place in his heart, so now you want to trample on younger competition."

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Were these cruel, disgusting words really coming from this young girl’s mouth?

A wave of nausea hit me, followed quickly by a chilling realization.

If she knew about this, then it meant her peers probably knew too. The other volunteers might know as well.

So really, how much did they actually know?

My fists clenched so tightly at my sides that my nails bit into my palms. But just as I opened my mouth to speak, ready to defend myself—

"Ella!"

Darius’s voice rang out from the center of the field as he waved an arm to get my attention.

"We’re about to start! What are you waiting for?"

Oh, right. The game.

I was on his team.

As much as I had a million things to say to this little girl, I realized there was absolutely no point in arguing with someone so young and clearly immature.

I forced a deep breath into my lungs, let out a tight sigh, and turned my back on her without another word.

"Hey!" the girl called after me. "Make sure you give that to the Alpha! And don’t you dare open it!"

I said nothing. I didn’t even look back. But my grip around the white envelope tightened so much that the paper nearly crumpled in my hand.

By the time I reached Darius, I had forced a bright smile onto my face, trying to bury the humiliation deep down.

"Am I late?"

"Just in time," Darius replied with a warm grin. He stepped forward and carefully placed a red fabric band around my head. "You’re on the red team."

I blinked as I adjusted the fabric. "Red team?"

"The Alpha is leading the blue team," he said casually.

Instantly, my eyes widened in surprise, and my gaze instinctively shifted across the field to where Kaelen was standing with his own group.

He had a blue band tied around his muscular bicep and was currently talking to one of the older teenage boys, wearing a relaxed, almost playful expression.

As if sensing the exact moment my eyes landed on him, his amber eyes shifted directly toward me.

The second they did, my breath hitched.

This time, maybe it was because of the girl’s cruel words or his frustrating hot-and-cold behavior, but I immediately forced my attention right back to Darius.

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