Page 61 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

“Well, it’s not your decision to make!” she snaps, her voice echoing off the walls.

“It is when the alternative is burying you,” says Sinth.

She flinches, brows knitting together. “I’m the reason the elders are furious. I’m the reason this whole arrangement looks like a failure. If the bite fixes that, I don’t see why we’re arguing.”

“Because your life matters more than the council’s approval.” My voice rises.

“Does it?” Her cracked tone matches mine. “From where I’m standing, this sounds exactly like what happened before. I’m not good enough as I am. So I fix myself. Force something my body isn’t ready for. Just to be worth keeping.”

I go still. We all do.

“That’s not what this is,” Wayne says.

“Oh, but that’s exactly what this is!” Her breathing goes ragged. Panic creeps into her voice.

I hate seeing her like this—all riled up.

“Tell me. What happens if I get better and still can’t take the bite properly? What happens if I try and it goes wrong? Do the elders punish you for wasting resources on me? Do you—” She stops. Swallows hard.

I already see where that was heading.

“Charlize, listen…”

“Don’t ‘Charlize, listen’ me, Sinth,” she cuts him off. “I don’t want to be the reason any of you suffer.” Quieter now. The fight drains out of her. “I’ve spent my whole life being punished for existing, for being extra. For being a burden nobody asked for. If I fail this too—”

“Enough.” I close the distance. My hands find her shoulders. Gentler than I’ve touched anyone in my life. “Nobody is going to punish you. Not for this. Not for anything.”

“You don’t know that.” She fights back the tears in her eyes.

“I do. Because I would not allow it.” My voice drops low. Steady. “You are not a burden. You are not extra. If your wolf never wakes, if we never complete a bond, none of that changes what I owe you. What all three of us owe you.”

She stares at me. Her clear blue eyes are bright with unshed tears. Some old fear is still fighting what I’m telling her.

“I spent the first weeks you were here treating you exactly the way your family did.” The admission costs me. “Like a problem to assess—a liability to manage. I own that. I was wrong. If it takes you a long time to believe anything I say after that, I understand.”

She doesn’t speak, maybe because she’ll end up shedding those tears if she does.

“You will never be punished for what your body can or cannot do. Not while I have breath to stop it.” I mean every word. “I’d rather face the elders’ fury for the rest of my life than watch you risk yourself for their impatience.”

She studies my face like she’s looking for the trick in it. Some hidden conditions I haven’t mentioned yet.

There isn’t one.

Slowly, she steps into me. I wrap my arms around her. I don’t think twice about it. I hold her the way I should have from the first night, instead of standing cold while she bled for a mistake that was never hers.

She hugs me back.

It isn’t much. Arms around my waist. Her face against my chest. But it’s the first time she’s chosen to hold onto me instead of just enduring me. The weight of her against me hits harder than anything the elders said tonight.

Neither of us hurries to end it.

“Thank you,” she murmurs, muffled against my shirt.

“For what?”

“For not making me feel stupid for being afraid.”

I press my hand against the back of her head. I hold her a little closer.