Page 55 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

It neighs and launches forward, galloping through the woods. I hear chuckling at the back as she clings tightly to me. The wind whips against my face, sending my hair into a frenzy as we ride along a narrow unwinding path.

I take her to the waterfall my own grandfather used to bring me to as a boy, the one place in this territory that still manages to make me feel young and stupid and full of wonder every single time.

I hop off the horse and help her down.

Her reaction doesn’t disappoint. She stands at the edge of the pool, watching the water crash down from the ridge above. In that moment, something in her face opens up, unguarded in a way I haven’t seen in a while.

“This belongs to you?” she asks.

“Belongs to all of us in the pack, technically. Now that includes you.”

She looks at me smiling, and I feel the shift happen in my own chest without meaning for it to. Something that started as wanting her, plain and simple, cracking open into something bigger and messier and far less easy to name.

I show her the village next. The market stalls, the children who run up to greet me without a trace of fear, climbing over each other to see the stranger I’ve brought with me.

She kneels to talk to one of them, laughing at something the kid says, and the sound of that laugh does something to my chest that no amount of wine or noise could ever do.

By the time we ride back, the sun’s low and orange over the treeline, and she’s quieter again, though it’s a different quiet than the restless one I found her in this morning.

“Thank you,” she says as we near the palace gates. “For today.”

“Anytime, cutie.”

She almost smiles at the nickname instead of scowling at it, which feels like its own small victory.

Sinth and Chris find out before dinner, because apparently nothing in this palace stays quiet for long.

“You took her to your territory,” Chris says like an accusation, arms crossed, though there’s less bite in it than usual. “Without telling either of us.”

“It wasn’t a secret. It just happened fast.” I shrug, unbothered. “She hasn’t seen anything outside these walls since she got here. Seemed wrong to keep her locked up in a palace when half an island technically belongs to her now.”

Sinth considers that for a moment, something thoughtful crossing his face. “Well, he’s not wrong.”

Chris’s jaw tightens, though I catch the moment his irritation gives way to something more reluctant. “Fine. If she’s ours to protect, she should see what she’s protecting too. All three territories, not just yours.”

“Careful, Chris. Almost sounded like you agreed with me on purpose this time.” I munch on an apple.

“Don’t get used to it,” he mutters, and for once I let him have the last word.

For the first time in longer than I can remember, all three of us are pulling in the same direction instead of tearing at each other over who gets credit for it.

In my book, that’s progress.

Chapter 15 - Sinth

She came back from Wayne’s territory looking different. Lighter and happier. And ever since, she doesn’t push us away anymore. I’m not sure what happened to her in Wayne’s Pack, but whatever it was, it sure moved her out of her shell.

I like it. I really do. Although I can’t help feeling bad that I let her be all by herself for days. Wayne has even bragged about the one who saved our asses. If he hadn’t taken her out, she’d still be mad at us by now.

No lies detected. It doesn’t stop it from stinging, though.

Within the next few days, they get closer, and their bond grows stronger. Sometimes I hear her belly laughs echoing off the palace walls, a testament that her bubbly personality is back.

I’m not sure how he does it, but Wayne knows exactly how to make her smile. The man knows what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. He’s always been smooth with words anyway. Not just him—his whole Pack is a bunch of free-spirited shifters who love to have fun all the time.

His pack, Forestguard, has never been a territory that stands on ceremony, and it shows in how quickly they folded her into their noise without asking her to prove herself first.

Today, I’m walking the gardens with her in the cool evening. I’d decided to stop watching her and Wayne from afar and feeling a certain type of way that’s not healthy for me.