Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Chapter 83: 0083

Lorelei POV

The next morning, I woke up with the worst of the agonizing soreness completely gone. The healer’s numbing paste had really worked wonders overnight.

According to a flustered Emily, a sudden announcement had just been made that absolutely everyone on the premises needed to be outside on the main field that morning.

With Emily’s help, I carefully got dressed, and she handed me a crutch so I could walk without putting a single ounce of pressure on my injured foot.

Emily remained right by my side, supporting my weight as we limped together toward the center of the field, where a massive crowd of volunteers, staff, and orphans had already started to gather.

"I’m so hungry I might actually die!" Emily complained loudly, clutching her stomach dramatically. We had been forced to skip breakfast entirely because of this sudden mandatory gathering. "What the hell is even going on? Why is everyone being called out like this?!"

She looked around, just as confused as the rest of the whispering crowd.

But I knew.

The moment my eyes landed on Kaelen, who was standing at the front of the field with an expression as cold as ice, I knew exactly what this gathering was about.

I had told him last night that I had been pushed, so he was almost certainly trying to find the culprit. Although Emily and everyone else knew I had gone missing in the woods, no one else knew that my fall hadn’t been an accident.

"Miss Ella."

That voice had become so familiar over the past few weeks that I didn’t even need to turn around to know it was Paul.

But when I did, what stared back at me was a shockingly defeated expression on his face.

"The Alpha insists I bring you forward," he said.

The usual rigid, professional tone in his voice was completely gone, replaced by a strange quietness that immediately made me suspect something was terribly wrong.

Did he feel guilty about what happened?

But it wasn’t his fault.

I didn’t get the chance to question him, though. With Paul clearing a path through the whispering crowd and Emily trailing anxiously behind me, I was led straight down the center of the field toward the front, where Kaelen and Darius stood waiting.

Now that I was closer, I could see that even Darius had a terrifyingly cold energy radiating off him. The playful, teasing Beta from yesterday was completely gone.

Still, the moment I neared, his expression softened slightly, and he offered me a reassuring smile as he extended a hand to help me.

I let go of Paul’s tense support and took Darius’s hand, carefully navigating the uneven grass with my crutch until I was standing directly between him and Kaelen.

Kaelen still hadn’t glanced down at me. His eyes remained locked on the crowd, but from this close, I could see just how tightly clenched his fists were. The muscles in his forearms bulged beneath his skin, practically vibrating with repressed rage.

"I’m sure you’re all wondering why you’ve been suddenly summoned," Kaelen said, his deep voice slicing through the morning air.

It was a tone I had never heard him use here before.

Back at the empire’s estate? Yes. All the time.

But here? Never.

This was the first time he had spoken like the tyrant the rumors always whispered about, completely unbothered by the fact that young children from the orphanage were present.

"Miss Ella fell off a cliff yesterday during the game," he stated. "Only, it wasn’t an accident."

He paused, letting his suffocatingly icy gaze sweep slowly across the sea of faces.

"One of you pushed her. And whoever it is will step forward and confess right now."

Anxious murmurs immediately exploded through the crowd. People turned to one another with wide, frightened eyes, whispering frantically among themselves. From the corner of my eye, I saw Emily’s jaw practically drop.

But despite that, no one stepped forward.

"It seems you didn’t hear me the first time," Kaelen said, his voice dropping into something that sounded dangerously close to a feral growl.

It carried a wave of pure Alpha command, an oppressive, crushing authority that made my good leg instantly feel weak. My knees buckled, but I wasn’t the only one affected. Across the field, several weaker wolves in the crowd immediately dropped to their knees, unable to withstand the weight of his power.

I might have collapsed right onto the dirt myself if it hadn’t been for Kaelen’s hand suddenly wrapping firmly around my waist.

Without even looking at me, he pulled me against his side, his massive, solid frame keeping me completely steady.

"Let me make myself entirely clear," he continued, his voice booming across the field and growing heavier with every word.

More and more people dropped to their knees beneath the suffocating pressure of his aura, unable to fight the instinct to submit. Within moments, practically the entire crowd was kneeling, leaving only Kaelen, Darius, and me standing.

"I will not leave this orphanage until the person who did this, whether they acted alone or with an accomplice, is found. Furthermore, if you know who did it and choose to stay silent, I will find out sooner or later. And when I do, you will be more than severely punished."

At those words, the terrified whispers among the kneeling crowd grew frantic, and the air itself seemed to fill with dread.

"You have until the count of three," Kaelen began. "One."

Nothing happened.

"Two."

Still nothing.

My own heart was hammering against my ribs so hard it hurt, and the anxiety was twisting my stomach into knots.

"Thr—"

"I know who did it!" a voice suddenly shouted from the crowd.

Every eye on the field instantly shifted toward the sound.

Kneeling near the middle of the crowd was a young girl whose face had gone pale as a ghost. She looked absolutely terrified.

"Step forward," Kaelen commanded coldly.

Her entire body trembled violently as she forced herself to her feet. Her knees shook so badly that she could barely walk.

"Go on," Kaelen said. "Speak."

The trembling girl swallowed hard. Her eyes darted nervously across the kneeling crowd until they finally landed on a figure several rows ahead of her.

The person she was staring at immediately buried her head in her hands as if she could somehow disappear.

"Abigail did it," the girl said, raising a shaking finger. "Abigail pushed her."

Every eye on the field instantly shifted toward a blonde teenage girl huddled on the ground.

Kaelen didn’t waste a single breath.

With a sharp flick of his wrist, he signaled to Paul. Paul immediately rose to his feet and marched into the crowd. He gripped Abigail by the arm and dragged her out into the open space at the front.

The moment I got a clear look at her face, a soft, horrified gasp escaped my lips.

I recognized her instantly.

It was the sixteen-year-old girl from yesterday. The one who had demanded that I hand over her love letter to Kaelen, and the same girl who had called me a slut.

"She’s lying!" Abigail screamed as she struggled against Paul’s iron grip. "She’s lying! I didn’t do anything!"

I stared at her, my mind reeling.

She was just a teenager. A child, really.

How could she have done something so cruel?

"I’m not lying!" the first girl cried, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I saw her follow Miss Ella into the woods. I saw her sneak up behind her near the edge. I saw her push her!"