Chapter 3

Point of View of Anaïs :

Brutally pushed on stage, I didn't know what to do. There was a crowd of people... The lights were converging on me but... There was no piano and I wasn't giving a concert.

The feeling was strange... I instantly tried to remember all the encouraging words I armed myself with a few hours earlier as I pulled on the thin dress that barely hid my body...

With all these eyes on me, I felt exposed and the feeling was horrible...

"She's Mayor Montgomery's daughter... Beautiful and... virgin."

At these last words, I could hear their cries of satisfaction rising like the cry of wild beasts, ready to do anything to devour me.

My heart was racing, I was afraid and I was on the verge of collapsing or even crying. However, I must not show them that I am afraid of them. I already knew I was in trouble...

In less than an hour after my sale... I was going to become a sexual... slave. Whoever buys me will do what he wanted with my body but my dignity...

There was no question of it getting dirty. I knew it was likely to happen so the best thing is to keep a cool head and try to stay lucid while hoping to quickly find a way to escape...

“So gentlemen, place your bets. Bidding starts from 3 million.”

3 million. It was my price. It was the price of my life.

Well... Even though the situation was critical, I found that it wasn't so bad... I was a virgin, beautiful and I was the daughter of the enemy. It was surely all these things that earned me such a high price...

“3.5 million…” A voice shouted from the back of the room.

“4 million…” shouted another.

“6 million…” shouted a third voice.

“6 million dollars. Who says better?”

“7 million.”

“I’m offering 9 million…”

"9 million. What a generous sum... Who could say better?"

“9.5 million…”

I couldn't see their faces. The light reflecting on me was far too blinding to allow me to see them, especially with the astonishing speed at which they were discussing my price...

Who would have thought I would be in such a position?

It was like I was in a bad dream. As the seconds passed, I lost a little more of my confidence...

10 million... 10.5 million... 11 million. The numbers were climbing little by little. The room was in turmoil it was like it was a real struggle to buy me. I looked around here and there with my heart racing... I was as if on alert. I was hoping that whoever gets the final prize isn't a psycopath, a schizophrenic or a sex offender...

The more I thought about it, the more I sank. I couldn't see that anymore. My knees weakened and my feet began to wobble. I was about to faint. I wanted it to stop...

I was not my father. How to make them understand it? Why were they holding me responsible for a crime I didn't commit?

" 15 million..."

“15 million... Who says better?”

A silence was heard and reality dawned before my eyes. 15 million would be my final price.

“15 million... Once.”

My heart picked up speed as I saw the man who was my potential buyer.

“15 million... Twice.”

Big and disgusting. The perverse and enigmatic look that never meant anything good...

He was surely a maniac, a sadist, a sociopath. My fear increased even more and I swallowed helplessly...

For what...? Why me...? I asked myself, looking down, completely devastated.

I was already imagining my martyrdom...

"15 million... Three..."

" 20 millions." A new man's voice sounded.

This voice...

I was instantly frozen as silence fell around me. Total silence settles in the room.

20 millions...?

It wasn't just the price that amazed me but also the sound of his voice. I didn't know why but it felt strangely familiar...

With fear in my stomach, my eyes swollen with tears, my legs trembling, I looked up at the new man.

When I met his gaze, I felt something strange go through my spine. It was neither pleasant nor even unpleasant. It was just instantaneous, abrupt and unexpected...

Red eyes. The feeling that his gaze was going to consume me. This big scar on his face. There was nothing perverse about his look...

“Well, 20 million for her Majesty.”

Majesty? I swallowed hard as I realized that things were taking a completely different turn.

"I don't think... anyone will say better so... 20 million once."

The feeling of knowing him becomes even more intense in my head and compresses my brain... Was it fear? Anxiety? No I knew him, I knew him that was for sure.

“20 million twice.”

The lights converged on him and the next moment I fainted.

Of course I knew him. I even knew him too well.

Denver. Slave #345.

How could I not recognize him at first glance?

“20 million three times.”

No.

" No, not that." I whispered as my tears fell.

Not him.

“Adjudicated.”

With that last word my world collapsed and I recoiled in terror. He had bought me and if he had done it it was not to save me.

He wanted revenge... For my father, for what I did to him...

No. I would rather die than suffer his reprisals.

I backed away again, intending to run, but two large arms grabbed me...

“LET ME GO…LET ME GO.” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I was panicked and the crowd was laughing at me.

I didn't care... It wasn't more important than the threat hanging over my head. I would rather be bought by a sex offender than by him a thousand times over.

He was going to kill me.

I was in trouble... I would rather live a nightmare than live hell. A sharp pain gripped my body as I struggled... The throbbing pain forces me to comply.

Anyway, did I have a choice? He bought me.

I was already entering the nightmare. He won't even give me the chance to explain myself, to clear my name......

I could see them laughing at me but I couldn't hear them very well. My heart was pounding in my eardrums... There, in the middle of all these people who didn't care about my certain death, there was him. Him, my tormentor. My persecutor who had not moved his gaze from me...

His hard, mocking look...  I could see it in his eyes. He was going to make me experience the worst.

Never... I could get rid of him.

I was pulled off stage surely they were going to take me to him.

I tried as best I could to walk but the two men holding me back were too strong and literally broke my arm, adding to the pain of my injuries.

I let them drag me because their steps were much too big than my small, weakened steps.

I was crying...I had already given up.

I was no longer courageous. It was assured death with him.

"Stop whining, little whore and move on. We don't have all night." One of the two men said sharply, pulling me roughly, making me wince.

“Let me go...I beg you.” Did I start begging...

I was overcome by despair. I couldn't go there. He was going to kill me. He was going to kill me in excruciating pain. No... But the reality was brutal. These two men didn't care about my situation.

They were probably werewolves and anyway, they probably thought that I deserved what happened to me but they didn't know... They didn't know that I wasn't guilty.

I felt exhausted... Tired. Every second brought me closer to death. A death that was inevitable...

It was better for me to resign myself...

Resign myself? My tears increased and they continued to drag me again and again. They were talking among themselves, saying things that I preferred not to pay attention to...

After a detour, through my vision blurred by pain I saw before my eyes a man...

Him. Denver.

I looked up to meet his gaze...

He hadn't changed. Cold and hard. Like he wanted to kill me. I ended up looking down as I realized that he had made my blood run cold and increased my fear...

“Where should we put this, Alpha?”

“In the trunk...Wait.”

I closed my eyes realizing that they really took me for an object. Then I opened them to look at him out of the corner of my eye.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, then he approached me with feline steps and held the handkerchief under my nose.

I realized too late that I shouldn't breathe in... The chloroform had quickly taken effect. The two men let go of me and the only things I was aware of before closing my eyes were the strong arms that caught me as I fell and the two red eyes that stared at me with a cold stare.

Then nothing.

Black hole.