Page 14 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

“They attempted to defraud their Kings.”

“I know, but it seems it wasn’t on purpose,” I say through gritted teeth. “You need to chill. Not everything’s a personal insult.”

Chris turns his head slowly, ice eyes narrowing. “I do not need to ‘chill’. I need this region to stop being handed fraudulent goods and expected to smile about it.”

“Listen, I’m trying my absolute best to be civil with you, but you’re hell-bent on frustrating me.”

“Can you two not do this right now, in front of all these people?” Sinth materializes beside us, his voice flat with exhaustion.

“Don’t look at me; he’s the one being stubborn,” I say to Sinth, nodding toward Chris.

“Let’s take this elsewhere. The rest of the selection can continue in the receiving room.”

The receiving room is smaller, cooler, tucked off the main hall, with none of the throne room’s ceremony. Just a long table, a few chairs, and high windows instead of a crowd.

They bring the next round of Omegas in one at a time. I say no before most of them finish crossing the threshold.

“That’s four in a row,” Sinth says, watching me with the kind of look he gets when he’s cataloging something for later. “You didn’t even let the last one speak.”

“Didn’t need to. Nothing there.”

“Nothing there, or you’re still annoyed about the hall?”

“So what if I’m still annoyed?” I snap, keeping my voice leveled. “Why does he always have to make the final decision?”

Chris, seated with his usual poker-straight spine, doesn’t bother looking up. “Is that what this is about? You want to call the shots so badly?” There’s a hint of mockery in his tone.

“I want you to quit being a jerk all the damn time and stop acting like you’re the supreme leader and we must do as you say.”

He casts that usual cold look in my direction but says nothing.

The door opens before I can make another bold statement, and whatever I was about to say dies in my throat.

They’ve brought the redhead back.

She’s in a plain tunic now, hair still damp, and she looks smaller somehow, stripped of whatever perfume and posturing the traders dressed her in.

She’s shaking, whether from cold or fear I can’t tell, arms wrapped around herself, eyes darting between the three of us and the small cluster of traders being marched in behind her.

I scent the air without meaning to.

Nothing.

Not faint, not masked, just… nothing. It’s exactly like I felt earlier. She’s empty. No Omega, no Beta, no wolf at all that I can find.

The trader who’d been so eager to sell her goes pale as a corpse the second he sees it too, sees the shift in our faces.

“My lords, I swear on my own blood, we didn’t know—”

“You brought us a wolfless girl and dressed her up as an Omega in heat.” Chris rises from his chair, and the temperature in the room seems to drop a few degrees along with him. “Whether by ignorance or by design, you have wasted the time of three Kings.”

“Please, we were deceived the same as you; we only—”

“I told you what would happen when the truth is revealed. Guards.” Chris’s voice is low and even. “Kill them.”

It happens fast. Faster than I expect, even knowing Chris the way I do.

The traders barely have time to finish their protests before the guards move, and then it’s done, quiet, efficient, and final. Headless bodies drop to the floor, blood pooling beneath them. The only sound left in the room is the girl’s ragged breathing.