Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Chapter 91: 0091

Lorelei POV

For a long moment, Kaelen said nothing.

He just stood there, staring down at me with that same hardened expression, making me wonder if I should immediately take back what I’d just said.

I seriously considered it.

Maybe I had crossed a line this time.

Then he let out a slow, heavy sigh.

"You really want to know what I did to him?" he asked, his voice dropping into a tone that made my heart skip a fearful beat.

"Yes," I whispered, the word barely making it past my lips.

"Okay," he said coldly, giving a single nod. "Come with me."

With that, he turned on his heel and started walking away.

I exchanged a worried glance with Skye, who could only stare helplessly back at me, looking just as uncertain about what was happening.

With no other choice, I followed after him alone, keeping a slow, careful pace behind his broad frame. I tried not to put too much weight on my still-healing foot, especially since I wasn’t using my crutch.

We walked in silence for what felt like forever, making our way deeper into the estate.

Eventually, Kaelen led me down a long flight of concrete stairs that descended into a quieter, much darker part of the building.

The guards stationed below immediately stepped aside the moment they saw him approaching.

But as I passed them, every single one of them looked at me with the same strange, unsettling expression.

It was the kind of look that silently screamed I wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near this place.

The farther we walked, the faster my heart began to pound.

The elegant luxury of the upper floors disappeared completely, replaced by cold reinforced concrete walls, thick steel doors, and dim lighting.

The deeper we went, the more it resembled a maximum-security underground prison.

If anything, it felt even more terrifying than the dungeon back at my old pack.

Then a man’s agonized scream suddenly echoed through the corridor, and my steps came to an abrupt halt.

"Alpha..." I called out, panic surging through my chest as I stared at his back.

I’d made a terrible mistake.

Following a ruthless man like the Alpha King into some hidden underground torture chamber had to be one of the worst decisions I’d ever made.

Kaelen stopped walking, then slowly turned to face me, his features partially hidden by the shadows.

"Changed your mind already?" he asked flatly, his amber eyes carefully studying my expression.

I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat scraping painfully.

"What... what did you do to him?" I asked, goosebumps erupting across my skin as another agonized scream echoed through the corridor.

"Come and see for yourself," he replied before turning around and continuing on.

I stood frozen for a brief second, one hand clutching my racing heart as every instinct screamed at me to turn around and run back to my bedroom.

But against my better judgment, my feet kept moving.

I followed him deeper into the darkness until we stopped in front of a massive reinforced iron door.

Kaelen glanced back at me once.

Then he pushed it open.

The sound of raw, agonizing screams exploded from inside, nearly making my knees give out beneath me.

Inside the room, chained securely to a bloodstained concrete wall, was Paul.

His face was swollen and covered in blood. His shirt had been torn to shreds, exposing deep, brutal lacerations carved across his body.

But as horrifying as it was to see my former guard in that condition, it wasn’t him who made my eyes widen in absolute terror.

It was the man standing beside him.

Darius.

He stood shirtless beneath the harsh fluorescent lights, a thick leather whip slick with fresh blood hanging from one hand while an assortment of terrifying silver-tipped instruments rested neatly on a metal tray beside him.

His body was splattered with another man’s blood.

Dark crimson stained his chest and arms. His jaw was clenched so tightly it looked ready to crack, and his dark gray eyes were completely empty.

There wasn’t a trace of warmth left in them.

He looked like an entirely different person.

A cold, emotionless executioner.

I had always known Darius was capable of this.

He was the Beta of the Lunar Empire. Violence came with the title.

But never, not even in my worst nightmares, had I imagined the kind, gentle man I knew could look even more terrifying than Kaelen.

That was when I realized I had simply become spoiled by the side of Darius he had always chosen to show me.

A soft, horrified gasp escaped my lips.

At the sound, Darius’s dark gray eyes snapped away from Paul and toward the doorway.

The second they landed on me, his pupils widened in unmistakable surprise.

But it lasted only a fraction of a second.

His gaze immediately shifted to Kaelen, and his expression darkened into one of pure, unrestrained fury.

"What is she doing here?" Darius demanded, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper that somehow echoed through the concrete room.

"Don’t look at me like that," Kaelen replied flatly, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "She insisted on knowing what happened to him."

So this had been Darius’s doing.

Somehow, that made everything so much worse.

The realization alone made my hands tremble uncontrollably at my sides.

"Why... why are you doing this to him?" I choked out, unable to tear my horrified gaze away from Paul.

He hung limply from the chains, barely conscious, his head resting against his bloodied chest as weak, pained groans escaped his lips.

Darius’s jaw tightened so hard that a vein pulsed visibly in his temple, and he had to look away from me, his eyes settling on the blood-slicked whip still clenched in his hand.

"He failed his job," he said, his voice rough and strained, almost as if he were forcing himself to remain composed in front of me. "He let you get hurt while you were under his protection. This is the standard punishment for dereliction of duty."

"No," I whispered, shaking my head desperately as fresh tears flooded my eyes.

Seeing Paul in such a horrific state, knowing it had happened because of me, made guilt crush the air from my lungs.

"No... please stop," I begged, my voice breaking. "It’s my fault. I was the one who ran off. Why should he be punished for that? Please... don’t do this."

Darius’s grip tightened around the handle of the whip until his knuckles turned white.

"Ella..."

"I ran off because I was frustrated!" I continued, my voice trembling as I took another step into the room, forcing myself to ignore the thick metallic smell of blood. "I just wanted to get away from everyone. I wasn’t thinking. Paul tried to stop me. He really did, but I didn’t listen to him. None of this is his fault. It’s mine!"

Darius finally turned to look at me.

The cold, emotionless mask he’d been wearing cracked for the briefest moment, revealing the conflict raging beneath the surface.

Until...

"Don’t tell me you’re crying over a mere guard."