Auctioned to the Cruel King - Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Kayla's POV
Fear seized me for a moment, but curiosity won out. I rounded the corner cautiously, keeping to the shadows, drawn like a moth to open flame.
I puffed out icy air.
The air was definitely colder tonight. It didn't matter whether I do worn a sweater or had ran miles.
And then I saw her.
Vivian.
Alone, or so it seemed at first, tucked into the shadows of an alcove lit faintly by torchlight. I paused, concealed behind the curve of the wall, heart hammering as I listened.
On the normal, I wouldn't be able to hear even that first sound. Now staring, I couldn't make out what that sound had been, a slap? A clap? Shit, forget that. I dragged my focus to her, though even with the distance, being a werewolf has its merit. However, Vivian's normally confident voice sounded strained this time—
"Please," she pleaded to someone concealed behind a column. "I just need more time."
I strained to hear their response. I couldn’t make out their face, but the voice that followed told me all I needed.
"What do you mean by 'more time'?" a deep voice replied, unmistakably male. "Theo is getting antsy, and when he does... well, you know what happens."
My blood chilled. Theo?
"Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying," Vivian hissed. "Help me tell him. Just a few more weeks, that's all I'm asking."
The man shifted his weight, and though I couldn't see his face, the dismissiveness in his tone was clear. "Not my problem. But he did ask me to deliver this message to you, in case this is the report I have to give him…”
The man extended his hand, passing her something I couldn't quite make out, except for the dull shimmer of what might’ve been a deep purple envelope in his other hand.
Vivian reached for it. “What… is it?”
"Don’t ask me. Just take it.”
A sliver of silence followed. I leaned forward slightly, straining to hear more, when my foot dislodged a small stone. It wasn't much, but in the quiet night, it might as well have been a gunshot.
Vivian's head snapped in my direction. I ducked back, pressing myself against the wall, heart hammering wildly in my chest. “Shit, shit, shit.” Had she seen me?
Had they?
I pressed my back against the rough bark, holding my breath.
After what felt like eternity, I dared to peek again. They were gone.
"Fuck," I whispered to myself, exhaling slowly. What the hell was that about?
I made my way back to my window, relief washing over me when I saw the rope still dangling. Thank the gods. I climbed as quickly as my trembling limbs would allow, hauling myself over the sill and collapsing onto the floor of my chamber.
I hurriedly started pulling up the makeshift rope. A beam of light suddenly swept across the grounds below. A guard's flashlight. I yanked the last of the bedsheets inside and ducked behind the curtain, staying still until the light passed.
Two hours. I'd been gone for two hours based on the guard rotation patterns I'd memorized. I quickly stashed it, and changed into my nightdress.
The moment my head hit the pillow, I vowed to find money soon—steal it, beg for it, hell, let the King give it to me if he was kind enough. I’d survive tonight and plan my escape once I hold enough.
But that was before I felt the shift in the room.
Before my eyes opened to the awareness of another presence.
At first, I thought I was dreaming.
But the heat rolling from them, the weight shifting the mattress, and the scent, that primal, overwhelming scent of dominance and pine and heat—made my eyes snap open.
I'd barely fallen asleep.
"Alpha—Lance?" I whispered— this was too heavy to be a dream. My lips parted to speak, to ask what the hell he thought he was doing, but then I saw his eyes.
Glowing. Gold as a dying sun.
His breathing was shallow, almost ragged. His skin, where it brushed mine through the sheet, was burning hot. Fevered.
"Alpha, what are you—" My words died as he shoved me back to the bed and came on top.
This?
“Get off,” I rasped, trying to shift away. But he was already over me, caging me with his arms. My hands flew up to press against his chest, but it was like trying to shove a mountain. My wolf stirred—woke—at the touch of him. At the press of him, hard and thick against my thigh, even through the thin linen of his pants.
“You’re burning—you should—”
A growl rumbled through him. Deep. Animal. And his head dipped low, nose brushing the bare skin of my shoulder. I flinched as his lips grazed the spot where he’d bitten me days ago.
A fire licked down my spine.
Not now. Not this. I do known such was my duty but I hadn’t prepared myself for it tonight.
“Stop—don’t—” My voice cracked, but even I could hear the lie in it. The way my breath hitched. The way my body trembled—
Ngh…
He moved lower, mouth grazing my collarbone, tongue flicking out to taste me. My hands pushed again, weak and useless now.
“Hhh…Alpha… Nghh—”
He growled again, this one harsher, rawer. One of his hands slid beneath my nightgown and wrapped around my thigh, dragging it up around his waist. And I—
I let him.
Gods forgive me, I let him.
“Please,” I whispered. I didn’t even know if I was asking him to stop anymore.
Because every inch of his bare skin against mine was molten. Every touch was lightning, shattering all logic.
His mouth crashed onto mine. Starved. Dominant. My head spun and I hated the way I moaned into it—hated how wet I was becoming, how my wolf arched to meet him, how the place he’d bitten me throbbed.
He rolled us over, pulling me astride him in one swift, impossible movement. His hands dug into my hips, grinding me against him. I felt him—hard, hot, massive—and my eyes flew wide.
I tried to steady myself, but his grip was bruising. His chest rose and fell like a beast caged beneath the surface.
When I moved, friction struck where I needed it most.
I gasped.
His eyes narrowed, lips parting with a growl of approval.
“Fuck! You feel that?” he murmured, voice hoarse. “That’s what happens when you lie to yourself, slut.”
I should’ve slapped him. Bitten him.
“You—ahh—”
His only response was to tear my nightgown down the middle, the fabric giving way with a ripping sound that seemed to echo in the quiet room. Shit! His fingers slipped inside me, finding me embarrassingly ready for him.
“Alpha!” I cried out, my back arching into him. His groan was almost pained.
“Yes…” he cooed, humming to himself in satisfaction.
He pulled his hand away, brought it to his mouth, and tasted me.
I tried to turn away, humiliated, but he grabbed my chin and held me still. “You smell like you want to be fucked,” he growled. “Say it.”
“I don’t—”
Before I could react, he'd shed his pants and positioned himself between my thighs, and then he thrust forward in one powerful push—
I screamed.
My body clenched around him and he cursed.
He didn’t give me time to think, just pulled back and thrust again, harder. My hands fisted the sheets, and I cursed him through my teeth.
“Stop—damn you—”
But my hips lifted. My body betrayed me with every snap of his.
He fucked me like he wanted to breed me. Like he needed to. One massive hand gripped my thigh, hiking it up to his hip, spreading me wider, and the new angle made me sob.
“You feel that?” he rasped against my ear. “That’s your body begging for mine. Your cunt’s gripping me like she’s starved.”
I whimpered, hating the truth in it.
“I hate you,” I gasped.
The glowing eyes were gone now, at least for the moment when he said, “Then hate me harder.”
Another thrust.
And another.
The bed slammed against the wall, and his name, his actual name, tumbled from my lips before I could stop it. His lips curled into something cruel and almost smug.
“Fuck.” He grind his hips in deep, rolling, dragging the head of his cock against the place inside me that made stars burst behind my eyes. My fingers clawed into his back as his pace quickened. When did I hold him?
He was too hot. Burning up. A furnace wrapped in male fury and dominance, and yet the deeper he drove, the more I wanted it. My climax built. Rising fast. I bit my lip hard.
Every part of me burned. Every part screamed yes.
“Stop…” I lied.
His hand snatched my wrists above my head. His mouth trailed to my neck. To that place.
“No,” I begged. “Not there—”
His tongue dragged over the mark.
I screamed.
Climax tore through me like wildfire, and I barely recognized the sound of my own voice. My legs locked around him, my body tightening—and that’s when he did it.
He bit me.
Again.