Page 62 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

“You were never stupid for being afraid,” I say. “I was stupid for giving you a reason to be.”

She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t pull away either. Tonight, that’s enough.

Wayne rolls his eyes. “What a lovely sight to behold. How heartwarming!”

Sinth chuckles quietly.

Chapter 17 - Charlize

As time goes by, my relationship with the three Kings deepens, and with that come a lot of complications. They’re all different in their own unique ways, but the one thing they have in common is their affection for me.

They collectively refused to let me take the mate bite, saying it’s too risky and they can’t afford to lose me. My whole life, nobody has ever stood up for me or protected me the way these Kings do.

By their actions, and with their words, they have made it perfectly clear that I’m off limits. No one is allowed to mock me for being shiftless, and it’s almost like that word is banned around the palace.

Even the elders know better than to cross my Kings. These actions of theirs have planted seeds of affection within me, and those seeds are starting to germinate.

I fall for Sinth first. I don’t decide to. It just happens, slow and quiet, the way most true things do.

He’s consistent. That’s what gets me, more than anything else. Wayne runs hot and cold depending on his mood. Chris still fights himself over every soft thing he lets slip. But Sinth never wavers. He shows up the same way every time—patient, steady, asking nothing of me I’m not ready to give.

I catch myself watching for him some mornings. Waiting for his knock instead of the other two. When he sits with me by the fire and asks about my day—really asks, as if the answer matters to him more than anything else on his schedule, something in me settles that hasn’t settled in years.

“You’re doing that thing again,” he says one evening, glancing up from the book he’s reading aloud to me.

“What thing?” I curl my lips into a smile.

“Staring at me like I’m a puzzle you’re trying to solve.”

“Maybe you are.” I mean it as teasing. It comes out more honest than I intended.

He smiles at that—doesn’t push further. That’s Sinth all over—he lets things sit exactly where they land instead of demanding more than I’ve offered.

I think I love him. I don’t say it out loud yet. But I think it, quietly, more nights than I’d admit to anyone.

Things are different with Wayne. He’s louder. Messier. We fight more than any of the other pairings—over small things, mostly, his teasing pushed too far, my temper flaring faster than it should.

Just last week, he ate the last of the honeyed bread I’d been saving, and I didn’t speak to him for an entire day.

But something about the fighting works for us. We circle back around to laughing about it every time, and the laughing feels earned.

“Cutie, don’t tell me you’re still mad about the bread,” he says, two days after the fact, grinning at me across the breakfast table like he hasn’t been apologizing on and off since it happened.

I fake a frown. “I was saving that bread for later that night, and you ate it without my permission.”

“I’m sorry, okay?” He spreads out his arms. “But how was I supposed to know you were saving it for later?”

“Uh, maybe because it was covered in a plate on the table beside my nest…in my room?” I cast a mock glare at him.

“It’s just a damn bread, what’s the big deal?” Wayne pushes back.

I place both hands on the table. “The big deal is that I spent the whole day thinking about that bread only to find out that you’ve eaten it. Do you know how heartbreaking that is?”

Sinth chuckles under his breath, and Chris has an actual grin on his face. It’s small. But it’s there.

“Fine. I’ll have the kitchens make you an entire loaf. Just for you. Guarded, if necessary.”

“Guarded from who?” Sinth asks him.