~Hailey’s POV~
I stood quietly as the chains around my wrists were unclasped and carelessly dropped to the floor. I still felt a little dizzy though from the after-effects of the drug they had injected me with earlier to prevent me from escaping but now that I felt slightly better, I struggled. “What’re you trying to do?” I asked in frustration when I felt the bulky guy replace the cuffs around my wrist with a dog leash, and instead of giving a reasonable answer to my question, he pushed me forward, out of the room, and into a dark corridor. “I am proud of you.” I heard him say to me, but I kept my mouth shut, unsure of the reason he would even be proud of me in the first place. Mistaking my silence for curiosity, he continued, “Do you know how much that young King paid to have you? He paid a whopping sum of twenty million dollars!” He said excitedly. At his statement, I turned to stare at him in shock. Why would anyone pay that unreasonable amount of money to have me? Ignoring the shocked expression on my face, he continued anyway, “…ever since the history of this auction house, no one has ever bought any of our girls for that outrageous—” I blocked out the rest of his sentence, thinking of what he had said about someone buying me for twenty million. The price was outrageous. Crazy. I wouldn’t even buy me for that sum of money! My train of thought was suddenly disrupted when he pulled at the leash around my neck painfully, making me yelp. Tears rushed into my eyes when I felt the harsh pull of the leash against my neck and I wept quietly with my jumbled-up thoughts as I allowed him to drag me away like an old rag doll. I was immediately snapped out of my reverie when I was pushed into a black sleek car with tinted windows. Looking around, I immediately came face to face with a handsome young man. He looked to be in his mid-twenties and had this intense look on his face that had me squirming in my seat. “Good afternoon,” I said awkwardly, looking around the car but avoiding his brooding gaze altogether. “Hailey…” he said softly, with that look in his eyes that was making me quite uncomfortable. “That’s my name,” I replied, tilting my head at him. He suddenly looked away from me to talk to the driver, and I sighed, happy that he had finally looked away from me. I could smell the intoxicating smell of our mate bond. I could even feel it from the way my skin tingled and from the way he acted towards me, but something felt off… Something felt different. There was this aura about him, this silent aggression that oozed off him that I couldn’t quite explain. When I turned to look at him again, I was shocked to see that he was already staring at me. I squirmed again in my seat and looked away, suddenly feeling the weird tingles of a blush creep up my cheek and ears. Damn, this is hot… +~~¥~~+ The drive to wherever it was that he was taking me was quiet and uncomfortable. I sprained my back from trying to sit up during the entire course of the ride, while the young man, the source of my discomfort, sat majestically beside me with his attention drawn to his phone. After a few hours of the silent ride, the sleek car came to a halt in the driveway of an extremely beautiful mansion. It looked exactly like something that had fallen straight out of a movie and I gasped at the obvious show of wealth. However, I immediately caught myself ogling openly at the ginormous house, and quickly, I recomposed myself. I breathed in his heady smell when suddenly, he hovered over me and slowly took out the dog leash from my neck. For a minute, it almost seemed as though he was caressing me, I closed my eyes. Just when I thought he was about to touch me, he suddenly moved away from me, so quickly that one would think I burned. And like a flash, he stepped out of the car, slamming the door in his wake. In near shock, I gingerly stepped out of the car too, trudging after my mate on wobbly legs, but he was too fast, I couldn’t possibly catch up to him. From a distance, I saw my Mate conversing with a group of people who looked like warriors from the way they were dressed. They seemed like they were involved in a heated argument, but from this distance, I still didn’t miss the obvious fear in their eyes as they bowed slightly at him. “Who was he?” I asked myself, marveling at the obvious show-off of wealth, and at him in awe. I waited for him until he was done talking to the warriors, and as soon as they had finished talking, I followed closely behind him until we arrived at the living room of his mansion. I gasped in pure awe. The interior looked Royal-like with its high ceilings and golden walls. A majestic chandelier hung from the middle of the room looking like a monstrous beauty due to its size. I gasped again, but this time in shock when I noticed a very large beautiful painting occupying most of one of his living room’s walls. In the painting was a gory war scene. There were several fallen soldiers, a flag, and a child, a beautiful young girl not more than six years old. She had glassy blue eyes and wild ginger-red hair that looked like a mop over her head. She was extremely beautiful; and in a way, I was drawn to her beauty. I slowly walked towards the painting, rubbing my hands down its length. It drew me in, mesmerized me, but something else about the painting shook me to the core. It was the fact that the child in it bore a striking resemblance to me. If I had given birth before, I would’ve sworn that she was mine. I turned to look at the young man who brought me here, only to find him already staring at me with a weird expression on his handsome face. “Who is she?” I whispered slowly, pointing at the beautiful painting hanging on the wall. He seemed taken aback by my question, and tilted his head slowly to the side, as if in confusion. “You really do not know her?” He asked. His voice sounded incredulous. It made me wonder if the child was someone I knew. “No,” I answered, looking up at his confused stare. “How do you not know that that girl is you, Hailey?” He asked softly, staring down at me like I had suddenly grown two heads. I took a step back in confusion. That couldn’t be me! “That isn’t me,” I said indignantly, staring up at the painting that seemed to draw me in even more at every glance I threw at it. I glanced at the young man to notice a look of confusion on his features. He looked like I was telling a lie, and couldn’t believe it. “That is you, Hailey.” He said again and this time, I gasped. I gasped not only because I believed him, but also because I suddenly realized that I couldn’t remember most of my childhood. My existence began at the auction house seven months ago, and that was all I could remember about myself.~Hailey’s POV~I woke up with a start. It took me a moment to realize that I had fallen asleep on the floor of the room I had been assigned to earlier and that I had been having an erotic dream there. A blush crept up my face, burning my cheeks in embarrassment as memories of the dream flooded my head.I had seen myself crying, whimpering, and writhing under Mr Hades’ huge sweat-slicked frame. His fingers had glided across my skin, lighting a wildfire across the surface of my skin, numbing me, soothing my soul, but lighting me with a special kind of flame altogether.I had closed my eyes, reveling in the wild sensations pulsating through my veins, and winced slightly when a drop of his sweat dropped onto my face.His warm mouth had circled my breast, sucking, licking, gnawing until I was dissolved in a pool of dripping wetness.I brought my fingers down slowly between my thighs and sighed in confusion when I felt a wetness down there.Was it a dream? Was it real? I really didn’t know
~Hades’ POV~I woke up with a start, to the sound of gunshots all around us. In a panic, I rolled out of my bunk bed, shook my two brothers awake, and waited impatiently for Chad who rubbed his eyes sleepily.“What is it, brother?” This time it was Trent who asked. I threw him a look of confusion but before I could reply, another gunshot rang through the night. This one was louder than the last and sounded so close to us. As if on cue, a loud painful cry was heard shortly afterwards. It tore through the silence, piercing my soul. Good enough, Chad stopped rubbing his eyes as he was now wide awake. His dark green orbs were as round as saucers as he stared at me and in a fierce whisper, he asked; “What was that? A gunshot? What do we do?!”I was scared. I had no answers to his questions and worst of all, I was just as clueless as he was. One of the things that bothered me the most was the fact that amidst all the chaos happening, our parents were nowhere to be found.I snapped; “let’
*19 Years later*~Hades’ POV~I woke up in an exceptionally good mood today.The first thing I saw when I got up was the beauty beside me in bed. Her soft auburn hair cascaded down her head, shielding her face like a veil. I watched her for a moment, reveling in the bliss that came with having her around. She was Savannah, my fiancée and she was just perfect.Almost as soon as I awoke, Savannah stirred in her sleep. She slowly fluttered her eyes open and when she caught me staring at her, she smiled. “Good morning, baby,” She drawled sleepily, and I smiled, placing a soft kiss on her lush surgically enhanced lips.She regarded me with a grin and bristled when I gently caressed her face. “Good morning, beautiful,” I greeted back before strutting off to my bathroom for a warm shower.I was halfway into my shower when I heard my phone ring. I frowned; “Who’s it?” I yelled out to Savannah. “Baby, it’s Winifred!” She replied and just like that, my mood was deflated.I was half expecting