Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King

Kaelen POV

"Miss Ella and Beta Darius just left the estate, Alpha," Isaac reported, lowering his head in a deep bow before my desk.

At his words, the fountain pen gliding across the document came to an abrupt stop.

My grip slowly tightened around the barrel until the metal groaned beneath the pressure, but my expression remained perfectly composed.

"Is that so?" I asked quietly, my voice calm and even despite the beast clawing beneath the surface. "You may leave."

"Thank you, Alpha."

Isaac bowed once more before turning and leaving the office.

The moment the heavy door clicked shut behind him, I forced my hand to move again, signing my name across the stack of documents waiting for my approval.

I buried myself in the paperwork, hoping the endless reports and signatures would drown out the noise in my head.

It didn’t.

The more my pen moved across the page, the clearer that one image became.

Her.

Wrapped in Darius’s arms.

When she refused to join us for breakfast this morning, an inexplicable wave of agitation had crashed over me so violently that I abandoned the dining hall altogether. I retreated to my chambers under the pathetic excuse that I wasn’t feeling well.

The lie hadn’t lasted long.

I couldn’t stay inside those walls.

It was as though something beyond my control had pulled me toward the private gardens where the ritual was taking place. I stopped at the edge of the tree line, hidden beneath the shadows, with no intention of revealing myself.

That was when I saw her.

That was when I saw her completely fall apart.

Her shoulders trembled with every quiet sob as she buried herself against Darius’s chest, clinging to him as though he were the only thing keeping her from breaking.

The sight sent a sharp ache through my chest, far worse than the one that had haunted me all morning.

Something dark and possessive reared its head inside me, urging me to march into that pavilion, tear her out of his arms, and remind Darius exactly who he was standing too close to.

Violence had always come naturally to me.

It would’ve been easy.

But then I looked at her face.

The tears streaming down her cheeks extinguished every ounce of anger inside me.

All I could see was her pain.

And when I watched the way she clung to Darius, seeking comfort that she had never once sought from me, my shoulders slowly slumped in quiet defeat.

So, like the fool I was, I turned around, returned to my office, and buried myself in work.

For hours, I sat behind this desk signing documents like a machine on autopilot, convincing myself that if I kept my hands busy enough, my mind would eventually follow.

It hadn’t.

Now that I was finally forced to sit alone with my thoughts, knowing the woman who had been tormenting my mind despite us sharing no mate bond was somewhere outside this estate with my Beta, I could finally admit the truth to myself.

Claiming I wasn’t feeling well this morning hadn’t been an excuse.

I genuinely wasn’t.

My chest felt hollow, yet somehow unbearably tight at the same time. An endless restless energy burned beneath my skin, and no matter how hard I tried to suppress it, it refused to disappear.

I couldn’t understand how we had gone from sharing one unforgettable night to her suddenly treating me as though I were the plague.

Was the sex really that bad?

She had looked me in the eyes and told me I was terrible in bed.

Was this just another consequence of that?

"Ah, fuck," I growled.

My fist crashed onto the desk with enough force to make the entire thing shudder.

I shoved my chair back and rose to my feet, immediately beginning to pace the length of my office. My claws slowly extended, digging into my palms until sharp stings of pain spread through my hands, but even that wasn’t enough to quiet the frustration clawing at my mind.

What was it?

Was Darius really that much better of a man than me?

What could he possibly give her that I couldn’t?

Money?

Power?

Protection?

I was the Alpha King, for fuck’s sake.

Everything Darius possessed ultimately belonged to me.

It couldn’t even be sex because I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that they hadn’t slept together.

So what the hell did he have?

Why did he get her smiles?

Why did she cry in his arms instead of mine?

Why did she trust him enough to seek comfort from him while every time she looked at me, all I saw was fear and walls she refused to let me cross?

It took every ounce of self-control I had left not to storm out of this office, chase after them, pull her back into this estate by the waist, and lock her up inside my chambers where she would never leave my sight again.

Especially not with another man.

Those were the kinds of dark, unstable thoughts consuming my mind.

This was what she was turning me into.

She had reduced me to a man who was slowly losing his sanity over a woman who wasn’t even my mate. Every instinct inside me screamed for her attention, demanded that every smile, every tear, every piece of her belonged to me alone.

At this point, my self-control was hanging by a single frayed thread.

I stopped in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, staring out at the estate gates with my jaw clenched so tightly it ached. Beneath my skin, the beast paced restlessly, clawing against the invisible cage I had spent years building around it.

I could only hope she became pregnant with my pup soon.

Maybe then all of this would stop before these thoughts became actions.

She needed to get pregnant.

The thought settled in my mind with alarming certainty.

How could I make it happen faster?

Should I have fertility supplements mixed into her meals every day?

Would it be worth speaking to the pack healer in secret and having him prepare something stronger?

If I did that... and found a way to get her back into my bed more often...

A slow breath escaped me.

There was no way she wouldn’t be carrying my pup by next month.

Yes.

That was exactly what I needed to do.

The sharp ringing of my phone shattered the silence filling the office.

The sound ripped me out of my thoughts.

A low growl escaped my throat as I stalked back to my desk, snatched the phone off its surface, and answered without bothering to check the caller.

"What is it?" I demanded, unable to keep the simmering fury from bleeding into my voice.

On the other end of the line, the guard audibly sucked in a sharp breath.

The poor man sounded absolutely terrified, as though he already knew he had called at the worst possible time.

"Uhm... Alpha King, I sincerely apologize for disturbing you," he stammered, his voice shaking. "But... it’s that woman again."

I nearly rolled my eyes.

Whatever patience I had left had long since run out.

"Tell her I have no intention of meeting her," I said sharply, already moving to end the call.

"We tried, Alpha," the guard blurted out before I could hang up. "But she refuses to leave. She insists she’ll only say what she came to say directly to your face. She also warned us that if you continue refusing to see her, she’ll keep causing a scene."

My grip around the phone tightened until my knuckles turned white.

Did this woman have an actual death wish?

But then, if she was so determined to force her way into my presence, perhaps I could put that determination to good use.

The fury festering inside my chest had been building all day.

I needed an outlet.

And she was practically volunteering to become one.

"Alright," I said, my voice dropping into an eerily calm tone. "Set up a meeting with her."

I paused for a second before adding,

"In my office. Two days from today."