Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Chapter 118: 0118

Lorelei POV

"When are we leaving?" I asked, silently praying it wasn’t tonight. My entire body was still incredibly sore, and the thought of trying to survive a crowded club in this condition made me want to melt straight into the floor.

"Not today, of course. Even I deserve proper rest after that miserable journey," Nala replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.

I found myself letting out a quiet sigh of relief.

As she turned to retrieve the dresses from the armchair, I remained where I was, my mind still tangled in confusion.

"Don’t you want to know who I really am?" I finally asked. "Or why I’m lying about my name?"

After uncovering a secret that big, it only seemed natural that she would pry. I knew I certainly would.

"No," she answered with a casual shrug, holding each dress against herself as she studied her reflection in the full length mirror. "Matters that do not benefit me do not concern me. Your truths belong to you. If they do not touch my path, they are not mine to carry."

"Oh," was all I could manage.

It was a strange kind of selfishness.

Oddly enough... it was also refreshing.

After a few moments of silently examining her reflection, Nala sighed and tossed both dresses back onto the armchair.

"Your people dress far too modestly," she declared. "To speak truth... it is rather boring."

My eyes immediately snapped to the tiny, sheer, backless pieces of fabric lying on the chair.

"Modest?" I repeated, unable to hide my disbelief.

She called those modest?

If those dresses were considered modest in her eyes, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she thought of the simple green satin dress and scarf I was currently wearing.

"Yes, modest," she said, turning to face me. "Tell me, how is a woman supposed to gather husbands when she dresses as though she hopes no one will notice her?"

"Why do you need to attract husbands?" I asked, deliberately emphasizing the fact that she had said husbands, not just a husband.

"Because I do," she answered simply, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. She leaned against the vanity, folding her arms across her chest.

"In N’zari, a woman may take as many husbands as her station allows. My mother, the Queen, took ten. Only five proved strong enough to survive her trials, and only one earned the place beside her as King. As for me... there are already four men waiting for the day I decide they are worth settling down for."

Hearing that she had four men patiently waiting for her left me utterly speechless.

Thanks to Emily, I already knew there were places where women could have multiple partners, but... gosh.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine how exhausting that would be.

Having to keep up with the emotional, physical, and sexual needs of four different men sounded like a full time job. Kaelen alone was already more than enough to leave me completely drained.

"But for now," Nala purred, a wicked glint dancing in her golden eyes, "I would not mind tasting a little werewolf blood to satisfy my curiosity. If one turns out to be especially pleasing... perhaps I shall let him earn a place among my future husbands." A teasing smile spread across her lips. "You may come with me if it pleases you. Surely between the two of us, we can find someone worth sharing."

My face immediately grew hot, and I shook my head so quickly that my curls slapped against my cheeks.

"I’ll pass."

"Why?" she asked, her golden eyes narrowing as she stepped closer. "Has someone already found a place inside your heart?"

The moment those words left her lips, my chest tightened, and my heartbeat lurched.

"No!" I blurted out far too quickly, my voice carrying far more panic than I intended.

Nala tilted her head, studying my flustered expression with a knowing smile.

"Not Alpha Kaelen?"

The instant she spoke his name, my eyes widened.

Did she know?

Did she somehow know about our strange arrangement? That we had been in bed together literally just last night?

"Why would you say..."

"I have been watching you," she whispered. "Your eyes always search for him, even when you believe they do not."

Before I could deny it, Nala murmured a low, unfamiliar word beneath her breath and flicked her slender wrist.

Instantly, the lights in the room went out.

But it wasn’t ordinary darkness.

It felt as though the walls themselves had dissolved, and in the next heartbeat, we were standing inside a cold, endless void of absolute black.

I gasped, whipping my head around in panic.

That’s when I saw it.

A glowing, translucent scene flickered to life in the darkness before us.

It was me.

More specifically, it was me from only moments ago in the dining hall.

While everyone else had been focused on their meal, my phantom self wasn’t eating at all.

She was staring at Kaelen.

The longing in her eyes was impossible to miss.

So was the hurt.

The desperate confusion etched across my own face made my chest tighten just from looking at it.

"And he has been watching you in very much the same way," Nala whispered beside me.

She flicked her wrist once more, and the glowing illusion shifted.

It was the same dining table, only now the perspective had changed.

It was Kaelen.

He had been watching me while I wasn’t looking.

His amber eyes weren’t cold or commanding as they usually were.

Instead, they were dark with a fierce, quiet intensity, filled with a possessiveness so deep and protective that it looked almost painful to bear.

"That," Nala whispered, her voice echoing throughout the endless darkness, "is how my third husband looks at me. And he is the one who loves me the most."

My heart pounded violently against my ribs as I stared at the illusion.

I noticed the subtle twitch of Kaelen’s jaw, the slight flare of his nostrils.

The way his entire expression darkened with raw, restrained emotion the moment my phantom self laughed at something Darius had said beside me.

Was he... jealous?

Of Darius?

Was that what all of this had been?

But...

"You both carry hearts that wish to walk toward one another," Nala continued, her voice seeming to come from every direction at once. "That much is easy to see. But... there is something standing across that path."

At that, my brows drew together, and I turned to ask her what she meant.

But before I could speak, the illusion shifted violently once again.

This time, there was only Kaelen and me.

We stood alone in the endless darkness, reaching for one another before pulling each other into a tight embrace.

It wasn’t a memory.

It looked more like a vision, a projection of something I didn’t understand.

"Both your hearts are wrapped too tightly in old wounds. They both wish to love..."

Within seconds, an invisible, violent force suddenly seized the illusionary versions of Kaelen and me, tearing us apart.

We struggled desperately, reaching for one another, our fingers stretching as far as they could, trying to hold on.

But the force was too strong.

It ripped us away from each other without mercy until both of our figures vanished into the endless darkness.

"But neither truly knows how to put down what came before."