Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce! novel Chapter 75

Chapter 75: Chapter 75

Kael’s POV

The Pit was the only place that made sense anymore.

Blood. Sweat. The crack of bones under my fists. Something real. Something I could control when everything else in my miserable life was spinning out of control.

I walked straight into the cage without waiting for announcements. The crowd went wild. They loved it when I showed up unscheduled. Meant someone was about to get destroyed.

Tonight, that someone was anyone stupid enough to face me.

The first challenger lasted forty-five seconds. I broke his nose with my opening hit and his shoulder with my second. He was screaming on the ground before the crowd finished their first cheer.

Good. More.

The second one was bigger. Thought his size would save him. It didn’t. I felt his ribs give way under my fist, that satisfying crunch of bone, and he crumpled like wet paper.

Still not enough.

The third tried to be clever. Kept his distance. Danced around me like we were playing some kind of game.

I wasn’t playing.

I closed the gap in two strides and put him down with a single hit to the jaw. His eyes rolled back. His body dropped. The referee was calling the match before he even hit the ground.

But the rage was still there. Burning. Clawing at my insides like a caged animal trying to tear its way out.

Because the real fight wasn’t in this cage.

The real fight was waiting for me at home.

My father’s face flashed through my mind. That cold satisfaction in his eyes when he’d hit my mother. The way he’d smiled when I finally fought back, like he’d been waiting for it, like it was all part of some sick game he was playing.

*"You want to challenge me, boy? Do it properly."*

His words echoed in my skull. Taunting me. Daring me.

I slammed my fist into the cage wall so hard the metal screamed. My knuckles split open. Blood ran down my fingers and dripped onto the floor.

The crowd had gone quiet. Even they could sense something was different tonight. Something dangerous.

I didn’t care.

All I could see was my mother’s face. Swollen. Bleeding. Cowering on the floor like a beaten dog while the man who was supposed to protect her stood over her with his fist raised.

Twenty-five years.

Twenty-five years I’d watched him destroy her piece by piece. Watched him break her spirit with his fists and his words and his endless cruelty. Watched him turn our home into a prison where love was weakness and fear was the only currency that mattered.

And I’d done nothing.

I’d been too scared. Too weak. Too fucking conditioned to believe that this was normal, that this was how Alphas treated their mates, that challenging him would only make things worse.

But things couldn’t get worse.

Things were already as bad as they could possibly be.

I climbed out of the cage, my whole body shaking with rage and self-loathing. The crowd parted for me like I was carrying a plague. Good. I needed to be alone. Needed to think. Needed to figure out what the hell I was going to do next.

The back room was dark and quiet. I collapsed onto a bench and buried my head in my hands.

Six weeks since Aria disappeared. Six weeks of searching every corner of Meridian Territory. Six weeks of calling in favors and bribing informants and threatening anyone who might have information.

Nothing.

She’d vanished like smoke. Like she’d never existed at all.

And meanwhile, my father was still sitting in that mansion like a king on his throne. Still hurting my mother. Still controlling every aspect of my life. Still expecting me to fall in line and marry Rebecca and produce heirs and continue his legacy of violence and abuse.

I couldn’t do it anymore.

I couldn’t keep pretending that any of this was okay.

"Kael?"

That voice made my skin crawl.

I didn’t look up. "Go away, Rebecca."

The click of heels on concrete. Getting closer. Always getting closer, no matter how many times I pushed her away.

"I heard you were here again." Her voice was soft, dripping with fake concern. "Fighting every night. Drinking yourself stupid. People are worried about you, baby."

"Don’t call me that."

"Kael." She sat beside me. Too close. Her perfume was suffocating, all roses and poison. "Look at me. Please."

I kept my head down. "What do you want?"

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