Page 32 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

No wonder the elders want a shared mate for them. These two would burn the region down before agreeing on anything without a third voice keeping the peace.

I don’t like any of them, and I want that clear in my own head—even now, watching Wayne’s grin and Chris’s icy stillness and Sinth’s tired patience.

I haven’t forgotten the cold way Chris looked at me the night he called me not worth the trouble. That doesn’t just wash away because someone gave me a warm bath and a soft bed.

But some stubborn thread under my ribs disagrees anyway, pulling toward all three of them at once, warm and unwanted no matter how hard I try to smother it.

Sinth looks at me, and although he doesn’t say a word, I can almost swear that that stare is an apology for what I just witnessed.

My lips curl into a small smile.

***

After breakfast, they bring me to my room, and I notice that a corner of my new room has been reworked entirely.

My bed is piled high with pillows in deep, soft colors, blankets layered until the whole space looks less like furniture and more like something meant to be climbed into and disappeared inside.

It smells faintly of cedar, and something warmer underneath that I can’t quite name.

Nobody has ever built me anything. Not once, in twenty-four years of sleeping on a cot in a converted storage room, working myself raw for people who resented having me around.

This is the first space I’ve ever stood in that felt made with me in mind rather than simply tolerated because I happened to be occupying it.

“This is your nest from here on now,” Sinth says to me.

“Those pillows belong to each of us,” Wayne adds, standing behind Sinth. “You can have them.”

Chris is by the door and doesn’t come in, nor does he speak.

I sit down before I can talk myself out of it. The pillows feel too good against my back. The blankets settle around me like they were shaped for exactly this, and I’m still half-embarrassed by how close I am to crying.

Chris is the first to disappear, then Wayne follows.

“Get some rest,” Sinth says before leaving the room.

I lay in my nest, breathing in the scents of my mates lingering around me. I wonder how long it took to convince Chris to release his belongings, considering he’s made it pretty clear that he doesn’t approve of me.

Regardless, a part of me is grateful for this gift, and that alone thaws something frozen inside me.

Later in the day, I hear a knock on my door. It’s not as gentle as Briana’s, and that sparks my curiosity. I get out of my nest and head to answer it.

When I open the door, I stand frozen at the entrance, my eyes latched on the tree of a man standing across from me.

It’s Wayne.

He leans in the frame, arms crossed, that same easy grin fixed in place. “Hey, cutie.”

My heart stops.

Chapter 9 - Wayne

“Perhaps I wouldn’t be such a ‘bore’ if I weren’t worried my head would end up on the floor for saying the wrong thing.” Her words still echo at the back of my head, a reminder that she’s not as timid as I thought.

She’s got spunk and a little bit of sass. And I want to see more of this version of her.

I’d just gifted her a nest with personal blankets and pillows from the other Kings and me. Now I can’t get the image of her face out of my head. The shock in her eyes and the gratitude etched on her gaze thawed something inside me. And even now, hours later, I still feel a certain type of way simply thinking about it.

Ever since we left her nest, I haven’t been able to think of anything else other than her. It’s like she’s living rent-free in my head. She occupies my thoughts every hour and every minute, making me almost lose my damn mind.