Auctioned to the Cruel King - Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Kayla’s POV
I hesitated at the door.
The corridor behind me stretched quiet and dim, cloaked in the hush of midnight. A golden thread of moonlight filtered through the high windows, but it did nothing to steady my heart.
I raised my hand.
Knocked once. Then again.
No answer.
Still, I opened the door.
The King's chambers were dimly lit and faintly scented of cedar and wine. The fireplace at the far end glowed with embers, casting flickers of amber over the room’s dark wood and marble. He sat in a chair by the hearth, bare-chested beneath his open sleeping robe, a document in hand, eyes unmoving from the page.
He didn’t acknowledge me. Not with a glance. Not even a shift of posture.
Fine. I stepped inside.
“I…” My voice felt like it didn’t belong to me. “May I sit?”
The silence stretched too long.
I cleared my throat. “Aren’t you go—”
“You may sit,” he cut in, still not looking up.
I lowered into a velvet chair across from him, every muscle tight, every thought louder than it should be. He didn’t speak. Just reached for the half-filled glass on the table beside him and took a slow sip of wine. Then another.
That could be better. At least he wasn't roaring at me.
Only then did he fold the document and set it down, those storm-gray eyes lifting to mine. Bored in one way and unbothered in another if there was a word to describe it.
“What do you want, Kayla?” he asked, voice low. Controlled.
He had sent for me, and now he asked that? Or maybe the lady from earlier had informed him I was looking for him. Yes, that…
I held his gaze. “To talk to you. To tell you everything I should’ve said sooner. About me. My past. The things I know you don’t understand… yet.”
His eyes didn’t waver, though I saw the faintest flicker—annoyance, maybe. Or curiosity. “What exactly do you think I don’t know?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, biting back the instinct to retreat. My walls had saved me once, but tonight, they wouldn’t serve me. Not here.
I inhaled slowly. “That pride of yours—I know it well. Worn it myself often enough. But if you truly knew everything, you wouldn’t have looked at me with disgust after you heard about my condition.”
He gave a dry laugh—just a twitch of his lips, no humor in it. “Condition,” he echoed. “That’s a rather polite term for something you didn’t trust me to know. Something that important. Something that defines your future—and mine. The whole damn contract at the beginning was held solemnly around that and you didn't think to tell me?”
“And when exactly was I supposed to tell you?” I shot back, my voice rising before I could stop it. “When you first dragged me into your palace? When I was nothing but a pawn to ease your council’s demands? You made my place clear from the beginning. Did you expect me to fall at your feet and pour out my soul? And then be dragged to gods know where?”
His jaw tensed.
“And let’s not pretend your treatment of me was all trust and warmth,” I continued, heat rising under my skin. “Should I have told you after the first time you gave me conditions to stay here? Or after the time you made it clear I was only but your breeding figure?”
Something dark passed through his eyes. Not shame. Something heavier, that if this was before, he’d dragged me across the room to a wall and yelled the many reasons why I was beneath him.
He shifted in his seat. “During Alpha Landon’s visit, I saw the way he looked at you. Ravenous. It pissed me off enough I nearly carved his eyes out right there.”
“Wait—what?”
Well, I didn't see that coming.
He nodded slowly. “You couldn’t even meet his eyes. The way you looked away… like his gaze burned. I wanted to ask you why. But it wasn’t my secret to demand.”
I stared at him. “And yet you said nothing.”
“I figured… when the time comes, you’d tell me.”
I exhaled shakily. The silence between us felt too full. Too loud.
“Let’s not pretend,” I said after a beat. “You’ve done your digging. Tell me—what do you know?”
He didn’t answer right away. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t. Then, quietly, Lance said, “I know about your mother. How she died. I know you disappeared after her funeral, how you lived alone in that cabin near the border woods. How you returned to the pack house as a maid, needing money to survive. I know you were made mate to Landon and treated like filth. And I know you ended up in chains… sold.”
His voice hardened at the end.
My lungs felt hollow.
“So you know.”
“There’s your answer.”
My thoughts spiraled. He knew. That much. But did he know the full story? Did he know what I’d lost that day?
My hand clenched on my lap. “When did you find all this out?”
He arched a brow. “Does it matter?”
“No,” I murmured. “Stupid question. But I’m… surprised.” Surprised he’d dig that much.
He looked down into his glass. “It’s not what I know that matters right now. It’s what I don’t.”
Yes…of course, that was the reason I came.
His eyes pinned me. “Tell me. Did Landon break the bond?”
I blinked. “What?”
He leaned forward. “Did he break it?”
“I—well… yes. He did.”
A long breath left him, almost like relief.
The way he’d gone for that question first…was it just an Alpha’s possessiveness? Or something deeper? Maybe he needed to be certain he wasn’t stepping into something forbidden. Maybe… maybe part of him needed to know I was his alone now.
His next question came colder.
“How did you end up at the auction? Let me rephrase—why were you sold?”
The words knifed through me, but I didn’t flinch. I was going to tell him, yes I was, but for now…“Why did you buy me?”
He blinked. I saw the question take him off guard. He hadn’t expected the turn.
“I mean it,” I said, sitting straighter. “What was your reason? Surely not love at first sight. Was it a whim? A political move? What?”
He took a measured sip of wine. “At first, it was to shut the council up. They’d been circling like vultures—demanding I choose a Luna. Or…” He didn't finish that part, which I could tell would be something along the lines of 'or have one to bear you an heir.'
“I barely held a council meeting without it coming up. And the law’s clear, if I didn’t find a mate within the allotted time, they’d pick someone. Someone I couldn’t refuse.”
He said it like it tasted bitter.
“I wasn’t about to let them plant their spies in my bed. So I decided to take the matter into my own hands.”
“So you went shopping,” I said flatly.
He smirked, but there was no joy in it. “Something like that.”
I tilted my head. “Why me?”
He looked me straight in the eye. “Your scent.”
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
“It didn’t disgust me.”
That stunned me into silence. Moira had mentioned it too. Seems there was no lie in it after all.
He shrugged. “Others did. You didn’t. That was enough at the time.”
I stared.
“I said at the time,” he said, almost gently. “I used it to my advantage. Perhaps it was fate.”
“Don’t tell me you actually believe in that.”
His smile lingered for a moment—then faded. “So. Why were you there? You were Landon’s Luna. That should’ve protected you. Why didn’t it?”
Fuck, that question again. Although I'd made up my mind to tell him everything, the words stuck in my throat. I felt the truth clawing its way up my throat. It hurt. Gods, it hurt.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Then—
“I had lost my child.”
The words hung in the room like smoke. Heavy. Inescapable.
He didn’t speak.
“I was pregnant,” I said quietly. “And I lost the baby. Landon… he wasn’t pleased. He blamed me. Said I’d failed him as a mate. As a Luna. Said if I was useless to him, I might as well be sold.”