Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 97

Chapter 97: 0097

Kaelen POV

I sat behind my desk, staring intently at the silver blade resting in my hand.

Beyond the floor to ceiling windows, the sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in deep shades of orange and purple.

Pity.

She just pitied him.

Darius’s words from yesterday kept replaying in my head, echoing over and over until they became impossible to ignore.

I couldn’t stop wondering...

If she wasn’t drawn to me the way my wolf was hopelessly drawn to her, then maybe I could earn just a fraction of her attention another way.

It was twisted.

I knew it was.

I wanted to bleed just enough to see if she would panic. I wanted to know if she would rush to my side and look at me with the same concern she had shown an ordinary guard.

The rational part of me, the part that carried the weight of the throne, fought against the thought with everything it had. It called me a pathetic fool for even considering something so childish.

But desperation won.

Against my better judgment, I pressed the sharpened edge of the blade against my wrist.

Just as I was about to drag the metal across my skin, the office door burst open.

A furious looking Darius strode into the room, but the instant his eyes landed on the knife pressed against my wrist, his steps faltered.

The anger on his face vanished, replaced by complete confusion, and for several long, tense seconds, neither of us moved.

We simply stared at each other in heavy silence until he finally spoke.

"What the hell are you doing with a knife?" he asked as he stepped closer.

"Nothing," I answered flatly, snapping back to my senses before casually tossing the silver blade onto the desk.

"Nothing?" Darius repeated with a disbelieving scoff. "You were literally about to slice your own wrist. What the fuck do you mean, nothing?"

When I didn’t answer, his patience seemed to snap.

In three quick strides, he crossed the office and slammed both hands onto my desk with a loud thud, leaning over it until he was directly in front of me.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," I said casually, and to be fair, it felt good seeing him lose his composure like this.

"You..." he growled, his jaw clenching. "I know exactly what you were about to do, and I know exactly why."

I met his glare with one of my own, my jaw tightening as the tension between us crackled.

"Then why the hell are you asking?"

Something flickered across Darius’s face for the briefest second before he buried it again, but that tiny shift drew my attention to his shoulder. That’s when I noticed the fresh white bandage peeking out from beneath the unbuttoned collar of his shirt.

"So I wasn’t the only one who had that brilliant idea," I said bitterly.

At that, Darius glanced down at his shoulder before looking back at me. The corner of his mouth twitched into the faintest smirk, and that tiny expression alone was enough to piss me off.

It confirmed everything.

He had let his guard down on purpose. Or worse, he had injured himself too just so she would have a reason to touch him.

"Was she the one who wrapped you up?" I demanded, barely keeping my anger under control. "Is that why you’re standing in my office right now? Just to rub it in my face? Huh?"

"That isn’t completely far off," Darius admitted smoothly.

The smirk disappeared just as quickly, replaced by an expression as cold and hard as stone. He leaned forward, his gray eyes boring straight into mine.

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