Sold to the Cursed Alpha King

POV: Elara

The words hit me like silver bullets.

"You leave for the King's Palace tonight."

I stare at my father across the mahogany table, my brain refusing to process what he just said. Alpha Theron's face is carved from stone, his grey eyes cold as winter. My mother sits beside him, her spine rigid, her lips pressed into a thin line of distaste. And Lillia my sister leans against the doorframe with her arms crossed, a smile playing at the corners of her perfect mouth.

"What?" The word scrapes out of my throat.

"You heard me." My father's voice is flat. "You're going to the King. He requires... tribute. And you will fulfill your duty to this pack."

My hands grip the edge of the table. "You're sending me to die."

"Don't be dramatic, Elara." My mother's voice drips with contempt. She won't even look at me. "You should be grateful we're giving you purpose."

Grateful. The word detonates in my chest.

"Grateful?" I push back from the table, my chair screeching against the floor. "You're sending me to a king who kills every woman he touches, and I should be grateful?"

Lillia laughs. Actually laughs. The sound is light and cruel. "Oh, Elara. Always so theatrical. Maybe if you'd tried harder to be useful, we wouldn't have to get rid of you this way."

I whip toward her. "Get rid of me?"

"Did you think we'd keep you here forever?" Lillia pushes off the doorframe, stalking closer. She's beautiful golden hair, ice-blue eyes, a body that screams Alpha power. Everything I'm not. "You're twenty-two. No wolf. No mate. No future. You're deadweight."

Each word is a knife.

"You're my family." My voice cracks. I hate that it cracks.

"Family?" My father's fist slams onto the table. The sound cracks through the room. "You are a stain on this family's name. Look at you."

His eyes rake over me with pure disgust. My body. My soft stomach. My thick thighs. The curves that should belong to a fertile Omega but instead just make me look weak in a world that worships strength.

"You have no wolf, Elara. Nothing." His voice is rising now. "For twenty-two years, I've waited for your wolf to emerge. For some sign that you're worth the food you eat, the space you take up. And what do I get? A pathetic, wolfless girl who can't even shift."

The shame burns through my veins like acid.

"I didn't choose this." My hands are shaking. "I didn't choose to be born without "

"No. But you are what you are. Useless." He stands, towering over the table. "The King requires an offering from every major pack. The other Alphas are sending their criminals, their rogues. I'm sending you."

"You're sending me to die," I repeat. My throat is closing. "He kills them. Everyone knows he kills them."

"Then you'll die serving your pack." No emotion. Nothing. "At least in death, you'll finally have value."

Something inside me snaps.

"I've given you everything!" The words tear out of me. "Twenty-two years of trying to be enough for you. Twenty-two years of your hatred, your disgust, your "

The slap comes so fast I don't see it.

Pain explodes across my cheek. My head snaps to the side. I taste copper. The world tilts.

"You have given me nothing." My father's voice is a whip. "You are a disappointment. An embarrassment. And after tonight, you will no longer be my problem."

I touch my cheek. My fingers come away wet blood from where his ring cut the skin. The pain is sharp and bright, but something else is sharper.

Clarity.

I look up at him. At my mother, who hasn't moved. At Lillia, whose smile has widened.

And I don't cry.

I won't give them that.

"You know what?" My voice is steady now. Cold. "You're right."

My father's eyes narrow.

"I am nothing to you. I've always been nothing to you." I straighten my spine. "But you're wrong about one thing."

"Oh?" Lillia's tone is mocking. "And what's that, little sister?"

I look at each of them in turn. "I won't die."

Silence.

Then my mother laughs. It's a horrible sound. "The King has killed every woman sent to him for a hundred years. What makes you think you'll be different?"

"Because I have to be." My nails dig into my palms so hard I feel skin break. Blood wells hot and sticky. "I will survive this. And when I do " I meet my father's eyes. " you're all going to regret this."

Lillia snorts. "Big words from a wolfless nobody."

"We'll see." I turn toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" My father's voice stops me.

"To pack." I don't look back. "You said I leave tonight."

"Yes." My mother's voice follows me. "You have two hours. Don't take anything valuable. You won't need it where you're going."

I pause in the doorway. One last look at this room. This family.

"You're going to die, Elara." Lillia's voice is sweet as poison. "Screaming and bleeding in that monster's bed. Just like all the others."

I smile. It feels wrong on my face. Foreign.

"Maybe," I say. "But if I don't if I survive I'm coming back. And when I do, I'll make sure you understand exactly what you threw away."

I leave before they can respond.

My room is exactly what you'd expect for the family disgrace more storage closet than bedroom. A narrow bed. A cracked mirror. Bare walls. I've lived here my whole life and left no mark.

I pull out the small bag they allow me and start throwing in clothes. Not much. They wouldn't let me keep much anyway.

My hands are still bleeding from where my nails broke skin. I wipe them on my pants and catch my reflection in the cracked mirror.

I look like hell. My cheek is already swelling, the cut from father's ring an angry red line. My dark hair is a mess. My hazel eyes are too bright, pupils blown wide with adrenaline and fear.

'You're going to die,' a voice in my head whispers. It sounds like Lillia.

"No." I say it out loud. Press my bloody finger to the mirror, leaving a mark. "I'm not."

I don't know if I believe it.

But I have to.

Because the alternative dying in some monster king's bed, alone and unmissed is worse than anything I can imagine.

'You'll survive,' I tell my reflection. 'You have to.'

The girl in the mirror stares back at me with desperate eyes.

I hope to God she's stronger than she looks.

Two hours later, I'm standing in the front hall with my pathetic bag, waiting for the transport that will take me to the King's Palace.

My family doesn't come to see me off.

Of course they don't.

The door opens. A guard from another pack not one of ours nods at me. "Time to go."

I follow him out into the night.

I don't look back.

There's nothing behind me worth seeing.

Only ahead. Only survival.

Only revenge.

'I won't die,' I promise myself as the door closes behind me forever. 'I will survive. And they will regret this.'

The night swallows me whole.

And somewhere in the darkness, a king waits.