002.

~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.