Page 13 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

The woman’s scared half to death already. Her breathing is ragged, her chest rising and falling as she avoids Chris’s intense gaze.

She knows she’s been made. She knows Chris can tell she’s not an Omega. And she’s terrified. As she should be.

“Do you like what you see, my lord?” The foolish trader just can’t read the energy in the room.

Even the woman knows they’re in trouble, but somehow this idiot is still clueless.

“Is this some kind of joke?” Chris meets his gaze, and the trader’s throat bobbles.

Fear crosses his eyes and his breath hitches. His jaw drops, but for the next few seconds, no sound is produced.

“You mean to deceive us.” Chris’s voice doesn’t rise. It never does, which is somehow worse than if it did. “Do you take us for fools?”

The others instinctively take two steps backward, heads lowered in terror.

The lead trader’s face goes through about four different expressions in the span of a heartbeat. Confusion first, genuine, the kind you can’t really fake.

He clears his throat. “We would never try to deceive you, my lords.” By the time he glances back, his fear doubles when he realizes that his companions had already withdrawn from his side.

“Then why did you bring us a shiftless wolf disguised as an Omega?” His voice is low but venomous.

“What?” The trader’s eyes widen, his chest heaving rapidly. “M—My lord, I—she’s exactly as sold to us. In heat, sweet-scented, we paid good coin—”

“You dare to lie to me?” Chris’s jaw is tight enough to cut glass.

I push up out of my own seat and step down beside him. “Are we sure he’s lying? Look at his face. The fool genuinely thinks he’s holding an Omega.”

“Do you think I’m wrong, Wayne?” Chris spits out.

“Didn’t say you’re wrong. Just that he seems to think he’s right.” I glance at the girl, who’s still on her knees, eyes glassy.

She looks too weak to even stand or keep her head up.

“Whatever’s wrong with her, I don’t think she’s in on it.”

“Since he’s so adamant he’s correct,” Chris’s eyes haven’t left the trader. “Let’s confirm.”

Sinth, who’s been quiet through most of this, finally speaks up from his throne. “Wash her. If the scent’s artificial—which it is—water and soap will strip it.”

Chris nods once, sharp, already turning to bark the order at a guard. “Take her away.”

The girl is hauled off in a heartbeat, her red hair disappearing through a side door with two soldiers flanking her.

“My lords.” The trader trembled. “I swear, I brought the girl as bought; I did not try to—”

“Silence.”

He goes still at the sound of Chris’s voice, his lips quivering.

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear,” he says, shifting his gaze across the traders. “After she’s washed, the truth will be revealed that she’s not an Omega and that you all tried to deceive your Kings.” A pause. “When that happens, rest assured that you will all pay with your lives.”

One of them wets himself instantly, his legs trembling beneath him.

I lean in and ask softly. “What’re you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he replies with the same tone.

“It looks like you’re threatening to execute these men on the spot because their merchandise smelled funny.”