Mated to the Alpha: Sold to the King novel Chapter 164

Chapter 164: 0164

Lorelei POV

I just sat there, frozen, letting her confession linger between us, hanging heavily in the cool night air.

I didn’t know what to say.

The truth was, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

After she kissed me that day, the thought had crossed my mind.

But with the nightmare of being kidnapped, dragged into this estate, forced to fight for my survival, and somewhere along the way, falling for Kaelen, trying to figure out what Raven’s kiss had meant had become the last thing on my mind.

What was I supposed to say?

How was I supposed to respond without hurting her?

"You’re an incredible person, Raven," I said quietly after what felt like an eternity. "You risked everything to find me. You never gave up on me. You literally saved my life, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that. I’ll always be grateful to you."

I took a slow, unsteady breath before meeting her eyes again.

"But... I don’t feel the same way."

The very next second, Raven slowly leaned back against the bench and tipped her head toward the night sky as she let out a long, shaky breath, blinking rapidly as tears gathered in her eyes.

"Fuck..." she muttered with a weak, pained laugh. "That... really stung."

The sight of her sitting there, so heartbroken and vulnerable, made my chest ache.

Every part of me wanted to take that pain away.

But I couldn’t.

Giving her false hope would only hurt her even more in the end.

I reached out slowly and gently cupped her face, brushing away the tear that had slipped down her cheek with my thumb.

"You still mean so much to me," I whispered, looking into her tear-filled blue eyes. "Nala was right earlier. Calling you just a friend doesn’t feel like enough anymore. You’re so much more than that to me, Raven. You’ll always have a place in my heart."

Raven let out a quiet, broken laugh, and her hands came up to gently wrap around my wrists, holding them there as she searched my face.

"But I can’t have all of you..." she whispered.

It wasn’t really a question.

The words made me lower my eyes for a moment before I slowly shook my head.

"No."

Another tear rolled down her cheek, but this time she didn’t wipe it away.

Instead, her gaze drifted to my lips before slowly lifting to meet my eyes again.

"Can I..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "Just... one last time?"

Before I could fully understand what she meant, Raven leaned toward me.

My body instantly stiffened as the realization hit me a heartbeat later, every instinct screaming at me to pull away.

I should have.

But when I looked into her tear-filled eyes and thought about the months she’d spent searching for me, everything she’d sacrificed just to bring me home, I couldn’t bring myself to reject her in that moment.

Guilt rooted me to the bench.

She closed the last inch of distance between us, tilted her head, and crashed her lips against mine.

The kiss wasn’t passionate.

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