Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Chapter 103: 0103

Lorelei POV

Kaelen said he had somewhere to be, yet even after we finished showering together and dried ourselves off, he still clung to me instead of getting dressed, one arm wrapped securely around my waist as though he had no intention of letting me go.

"Didn’t you say you had to leave?" I couldn’t help asking.

The situation felt unbelievably awkward, especially since I wasn’t dressed either. Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t. My clothes from last night had been completely torn to shreds.

"I can’t leave on an empty stomach," he replied, his warm breath brushing against my neck.

My brows furrowed in confusion, and I turned slightly to look at him, trying to make sense of his expression.

"How are you supposed to get breakfast if you stay in here?"

The excuse sounded so ridiculous that I couldn’t help thinking he simply wanted another reason to keep holding me, using hunger as a convenient excuse to keep me trapped against him.

Before he could answer, a firm knock echoed through his chambers, and my eyes widened in alarm.

I immediately tried to pull away, my mind racing at the thought of someone walking in and finding me like this with the Alpha King.

Kaelen, however, didn’t even react.

If anything, his arm only tightened around my waist, keeping me firmly against his bare chest as though the person standing outside the door didn’t matter in the slightest.

"Come in," Kaelen called calmly, and my heart nearly stopped.

"No, stop!" I whispered, shaking my head frantically, but he paid me absolutely no attention.

The moment the heavy door handle began to turn, I lunged in a panic, and thankfully, I managed to grab hold of the tangled sheets just in time and hurriedly pulled them up over my chest.

Since Kaelen was sitting directly behind me on the mattress, the sheets covered his lower half as well. Even so, the way he remained pressed so closely against my back left very little to the imagination for anyone who happened to walk through that door.

Anyone with a single brain cell would be able to tell exactly what had happened.

The next second, the door to his chambers swung open, and my eyes widened even further when I saw Chelsea pushing a large food cart, followed closely by two other maids.

The very moment our eyes met, every trace of color drained from Chelsea’s face.

Her steps faltered, and the cart’s wheels let out a sharp squeak as she froze in place while my own heart began pounding against my ribs.

"What are you waiting for?" Kaelen’s voice cut through the silence, dropping into a cold tone that made the entire room seem to turn several degrees colder.

Chelsea visibly flinched.

With trembling hands gripping the cart’s handle, she reluctantly forced herself to keep walking, pushing it farther into the room.

She and the other two maids, both of whom looked incredibly familiar from my days working in the lower halls, kept their heads bowed.

"Good morning, Alpha," they greeted in unison.

Then, through visibly gritted teeth and with her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles had turned white, Chelsea shifted her gaze toward me.

"Good morning... Miss Ella."

To say I was embarrassed would have been the understatement of the century.

I’d boldly bragged to these same people about being in the Alpha King’s bed, but actually being caught like this, clutching a bedsheet while sitting on the Alpha King’s bed, was an entirely different level of humiliation that I hadn’t been prepared for.

But as I looked at Chelsea, that embarrassment slowly gave way to something else.

Ever since the incident in the hallway, we had barely crossed paths. Whether that had simply been coincidence or something more, I couldn’t tell.

Now, though, seeing the way she looked as if she wanted nothing more than to tear me limb from limb while desperately forcing herself to remain respectful because of the man sitting behind me, filled me with a strange sense of satisfaction.

It was a dark, guilty kind of satisfaction.

One I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

It certainly didn’t help that Kaelen chose that exact moment to lean forward, completely ignoring the maids. He buried his face right into the crook of my neck, biting and sucking on the sensitive skin from time to time, deliberately marking me in front of them.

All the while, his arm tightened possessively around my waist as if making it unmistakably clear where I belonged.

The message was obvious enough that no one in the room could have misunderstood it.

My breath hitched as his lips nipped at my shoulder, but my gaze remained locked on the tense line of Chelsea’s shoulders as she carefully unloaded the breakfast plates onto the table.

Why did this scene feel so painfully familiar?

It was almost a perfect mirror of the past, except this time our roles had been completely reversed.

Not long ago, I had been the one standing near the door with my head lowered, swallowing my pride while watching someone else occupy a similar position.

Life really did have a strange way of tipping the scales when you least expected it.

Once the extravagant breakfast had been laid out before us, the table overflowing with all kinds of mouthwatering dishes, the maids quietly stepped back to stand in the corner.

Their heads remained respectfully lowered, but it was obvious they were paying close attention as Kaelen casually picked up a slice of fruit and held it to my lips.

"You are doing this on purpose, aren’t you?" I couldn’t help asking, my voice barely above a whisper as I finally accepted the fruit after a brief hesitation.

None of the things he had been doing since this morning made any sense to me.

At my question, the corners of his lips curled into a faint, knowing smirk.

"So what if I am?" he murmured, leaning just close enough for only me to hear. His warm breath brushed against my cheek as he spoke. "Rumors spread quickly around here."

His amber eyes flicked briefly toward the maids before settling back on mine.

"I simply want everyone to know you were seen in my bed."