Sold to Alaric (3)

Liora

The next day, I woke with a throbbing headache and a body that didn’t feel like mine.

Every muscle ached, and every breath cost something. I lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling, relearning the simple fact that I was still here. Still alive. After last night, I hadn’t been entirely sure I would be.

I tried to roll onto my side.

I let out a sharp, involuntary cry before I could stop it. Pain surged through me, raw and intimate, marking my body like a map of everything that had happened. The marks were visible, impossible to hide or ignore.

I lay back and stared at the ceiling again.

He was gone. The other side of the bed was cold, the sheets barely disturbed on his side, as though he had risen and left without a single moment of hesitation.

A knock broke the silence.

“Who is it?” My voice came out hoarse.

“Kelly,” a man replied through the door. “Housekeeping.”

I pulled the blanket up to my chin just as the door swung open. A young man in a uniform stepped inside, his eyes doing a quick sweep of the room. They landed on me for a second longer than necessary before he looked away.

“Miss,” he said politely. “I need to service the room.”

“Where is he?” I asked, unable to stop myself.

“You mean the gentleman?” Kelly shrugged. “He left.”

He left. Of course he did. I almost laughed. What had I expected, breakfast? A conversation? Some acknowledgment that what had happened between us was anything more than a transaction he had already settled and walked away from?

“Can you give me a few minutes?” I asked quietly.

“Of course. Please don’t be long,” he stated, stepping back out and pulling the door shut behind him.

The moment I was alone, I forced myself upright, gritted my teeth against the pain, and made it to the bathroom.

I wish I hadn’t looked in the mirror. The girl staring back at me looked nothing like the one who had walked into that auction hall.

My lips were swollen. Faint bruises bloomed across my skin. Bite marks trailed down my neck and collarbone. My mascara had dried in dark streaks beneath my eyes.

I looked… ruined. And Alaric was the reason.

I stared at her for a long moment. Then I stepped back, because I couldn’t keep looking.

This isn’t me, I thought. But even as I thought it, some quieter, more honest part of me whispered back, you chose this. You walked onto that stage. You made the deal.

I knew. I had known what I was agreeing to. That was the part I couldn’t be angry about, even if I wanted to be.

This wasn’t the time for all this. I showered quickly, letting the hot water erase the scent of him from my skin, though it did nothing to erase the memory.

When I returned to the bedroom, I found my dress on the floor, torn beyond repair. My chest tightened.

Then I noticed it—a new dress folded neatly on the sofa. He had arranged it before he left. He hadn’t said goodbye, hadn’t left a note, hadn’t offered even the basic decency of being there when I woke up, but he had made sure I wouldn’t walk out of this place in pieces.

I quickly dressed before the cleaner returned, I gathered my things, and left.

*

“Mom, you’re going to be fine.” I held both her hands in mine, careful not to squeeze too hard. “I have the money,” I told her, keeping my voice steady so she wouldn’t hear the tremor underneath it. “The surgery is paid for. Everything is arranged.”

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “You’ve done well, Liora,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

My throat tightened.

I wanted to tell her she had nothing to thank me for. I wanted to tell her that there was nothing I wouldn’t have done, nothing I wouldn’t have sold or surrendered or endured, if it meant she got to stay. But the words piled up behind my sternum and wouldn’t move.

“It’s time,” the nurse said gently, entering the ward.

“Mother,” I murmured, brushing her hair back. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

They wheeled her through the double doors, and then she was gone, and I was alone in the hallway.

I don’t know how long I paced. Time does something strange when someone you love is behind a door you can’t open. Minutes feel like hours, and hours feel like nothing. I prayed in fragments, just repeated, desperate offerings. Please. Please. Please.

When the doors finally opened, I rushed forward.

“How is she?” I grabbed the doctor’s hand without thinking. “Was it successful?”

“Yes,” he said calmly. “The surgery went very well. She’ll need rest, but she’s going to be fine.”

The relief was so sudden and so enormous that it nearly knocked me off my feet. I bowed my head and just breathed for a moment, eyes closed, holding onto that one word, fine, like it was something I could keep.

“Thank you,” I managed. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s my job,” he responded. And then his hand moved. His fingers found my chin and lifted it, tilting my face upward.

I took a step back instinctively, my eyes snapping up to meet his—

And the air left my body entirely.

I knew those eyes.

Dark. Steady. Possessive in a way that had nothing to do with medicine or professionalism or the sterile white coat he was wearing. I knew the exact quality of that gaze because I had spent an entire night under it.

“Hello, little bird.”

The world tilted.

“Alaric,” I breathed, and just saying his name out loud brought everything rushing back—his hands, his voice in the dark, the weight of him, all of it crashing over me like a wave I wasn’t braced for. Heat flooded my face before I could stop it.

“Doctor Alaric,” he corrected, his mouth curving slightly at the corner as he stepped forward. Unhurried. Certain. Like a man who had never once been surprised by how a situation turned out. “In this building, at least.”

I pressed my back against the wall behind me without meaning to.

He looked impossibly different and exactly the same. The silk tie was gone, replaced by a stethoscope. The dark suit was gone, replaced by a lab coat.

But those eyes hadn’t changed at all. They held the same thing they had held last night, a calm, absolute certainty that he would get exactly what he came for.

“You’re the surgeon,” I buzzed, and it came out barely above a whisper. My mind was pulling at threads, following them backward. “You knew. Before the auction, you already knew who I was.”

“I’m the best in the state,” he said simply, closing the distance between us until I could smell him beneath the hospital antiseptic, warm, clean, and devastating. “When I heard a woman was willing to sell herself to save her mother’s life, I was curious. When I found out who you were—” his voice dropped lower, meant only for me, “—I was more than curious.”

The pieces fell into place one by one. He hadn’t stumbled into that auction hall. He hadn’t chosen me by accident. He had seen me before I ever set foot on that stage. He had already decided to ruin me.

“You hunted me,” I said. “You planned this.”

“I knew exactly who you were,” he murmured, leaning down so his lips were inches from my ear.

He reached out, his long surgeon’s fingers—the same fingers that had been inside me hours ago—tracing the line of my jaw. “And now I know exactly how you taste. I’d say it was a fair trade, wouldn’t you? Your mother’s heart is beating perfectly… and your body belongs to me.”

I looked around frantically, terrified that the nurses or other families would hear him. “Stop it. People are watching.”

“Let them watch,” he countered, his eyes locking onto mine with possessive heat. “They see a doctor talking to a grateful family member. Only you and I know that under that pretty little dress, you’re covered in my marks.”

I tried to pull away, but he caught my waist, pinning me gently but firmly against the wall. The power dynamic hadn’t changed at all—if anything, he had more leverage now.

“The deal is done,” I snapped. “Last night was the agreement. It’s finished.”

Alaric let out a low, dark chuckle that vibrated through my bones. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, laminated badge. He clipped it onto my dress, his knuckles brushing against my chest.

“The deal is just beginning, little bird,” he mumbled. “You’re my new private assistant. You start tonight.”

“You—”

“Don’t worry about the salary,” he added calmly. “You’re worth every cent.”

And the way he said it made it perfectly clear he wasn’t talking about filing paperwork or answering phones.