Chapter 4

Troy

The girl hung hot and heavy against my back, but I could feel her bony ribs and hips sticking sharply into my chest.

I shifted my hands a little higher so I wouldn’t touch her bare skin, but it didn't help much. I was still very aware of the sparks that crackled and popped between us. It drove me absolutely bat shit crazy.

She didn’t put up a fight when I grabbed her, and even as I walked with her through the crowded club, she didn’t struggle against me, just quietly accepted her fate.

I ignored the death glares from the men around me. I was so used to it that it didn’t even register. Club Ninety-Nine was neutral ground. No one here was allowed to start a war or fight each other. Donovan, the co-owner, had a mantra: Leave your beef at the door.

If I could, if I didn’t respect the rules put in place, I would have grabbed the girl and simply took her. She was mine, and where I came from, under our laws, I had every right to take what was mine.

But this wasn’t my world. It was the humans’ world and I had to live and play by their rules and their laws.

It was bad enough that Reginald Lawson showed an interest in her. The only way I could get out of here with the girl while keeping our tenuous peace intact, was to outbid him with an amount so outrageous that even he wouldn’t dare to counter.

I threatened that sleaze ball Gary instead of Reginald simply because he kept pawing at my mate, and threatening Gary wouldn’t reignite the war that just ended.

She had several fresh bruises colouring her porcelain skin, and I had no doubt that Gary caused them.

I didn’t want her, and I didn’t want to come here tonight. I came because my brother, Sebastian, begged me to do it. He wanted to go home, and the only way I could take him home was with enough money to keep fighting my father’s war, and a mate to strengthen our kingdom.

Once I saw her though, and my beast recognised her, my instincts were nearly impossible to ignore. I had to hold on to every last bit of control I had over my animal to stop him from tearing the place apart and killing every man that had their eyes on her.

I unlocked the elevator with my pin, but before the lift arrived, Caroline Hayes called out, “Hey! Wait up.”

I turned to look at the pretty blonde coming my way, ignoring the ripple of disgust that ran down my spine at the sight of her. “What?” I snarled.

“This is hers.”

She handed me a tattered backpack. Wordlessly, I took it with my free hand, hooking the loop at the top over my index finger.

Caroline sidled up to me and put her perfectly manicured hand on my chest. “Wouldn’t you rather have me?”

Repulsed, I jerked away from her. She’d been trying to convince me to take her as my sugar baby ever since Donovan, the club owner, took her on. She belonged to him, and he put her to good use as a procurer for the auctions.

She targeted young and vulnerable women, luring them to the club with fake promises and cute lies. “I’d rather eat glass,” I replied.

The girl over my shoulder shook lightly with something I thought might be laughter. The lift doors pinged open and without another word I entered, staring into Caroline’s stunned face until the doors slid shut again. “I’m going to put you down now,” I warned the girl.

I kept my eyes on her all night, and I could see how tired she was. They had the girls standing on the podiums for hours before the auction started. As time went on, she started to move more and more of her weight to her left foot and she was clearly in pain. It was difficult to just stand there and do nothing about it.

I lowered her to the floor and gave her a moment to find her balance before I let go completely.

She was beautiful in an unconventional way. Exactly the kind of young woman the men came here to buy. She had flaming red hair and the most amazing violet eyes I had ever seen. She had a soft face and a cute, pouty little mouth, but she was way too thin for my liking.

I punched the button for the basement and asked, “What’s your name?” As the lift started to glide downward.

“Quinn,” she croaked.

“Troy,” I replied, even though she already confirmed that she knew my identity.

The ride down to the parking garage was quiet, uncomfortable and eternal.

Until tonight, I never attended the exclusive auctions Donovan held in the back reception hall. I knew about them and had been invited many times, but I wasn’t that kind of asshole. To me, the club was merely a safe place where I could eat or drink in peace. Every so often, not nearly as regularly as people liked to believe, I’d bring a date with me.

I was on my way to the club to have dinner with Sebastian when he mind linked with me without any warning. Luckily, Tony was driving while I went through the sports book, making a list of the people that owed me the most money. “Troy!” Sebastian said out of nowhere, his voice frantic.

“What is it?” I asked back, not taking my eyes off the book so as not to alert Tony that anything was amiss.

“You are not going to believe this. I just saw that Caroline Hayes woman bring your mate into the club.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “How would you even know she’s my mate?”

“She looks exactly like the painting.”

The painting. That damn painting. Sebastian put too much faith in that painting.

A witch gave it to me before I left our home, telling me that the woman in it was my fated mate. When I found her, I knew it would be time to go back and end the war. I laughed every time I thought about it. Women like that didn’t exist in real life. “I doubt it.”

Sebastian was quiet for a long time before he answered me. “She smells like a Luna,” he said at last.

“Bastian,” I sighed. “The Fates have sent me how many mates? It never works out. You have to make peace with the fact that we might never-”

“Please,” he interrupted me. “You have to do it. I want to go home.”

My brother gave up a lot, more than most, more than me. He didn’t have to come with me, but he refused to abandon me, choosing instead to stay by my side so I wouldn’t have to fight alone.

The humans in this city, especially the crowd we ran with, didn’t tolerate his lifestyle and he had to keep it a secret. He was tired of living a lie and wanted to go home where no one cared that he was gay. “Fine,” I agreed.

I did not want to go through the whole charade again. Mates only slowed me down, got in the way of my ultimate goal - going home and taking my kingdom from my megalomaniac father. I made peace with the fact that I wouldn’t find my true mate years ago, but Sebastian never did.

Our laws didn’t state that she had to be my fated mate, just that I had to have a mate if I wanted the throne. A chosen mate would have done the job just fine. ‘This is the last time,’ I said to myself as the lift doors pinged open.

I threw Quinn over my shoulder again and quickly crossed the full garage. Everyone else were still in the club, and my lonely footsteps echoed through the parking structure, creating a sense of complete isolation despite the cars surrounding us.

Sebastian fell out of the SUV when he saw me approach, a massive smile on his face. I shoved the girl into his arms. “You wanted her, you can take care of her,” I said aloud and threw her filthy pack onto the backseat.

My brother accepted the young woman into his arms without any argument, and loaded Quinn into the car while I got into the passenger seat next to Tony and leaned back, closing my eyes for a few seconds.

Five million dollars. Five. That was much more money than I could afford to spend, money that could have been used to fund the ongoing war and speed our return home.

Fuck.

It was too late now.

Sighing, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and paid Donovan his fifty percent of the five million while Tony negotiated our way out of the garage. If Donovan didn’t get his money within twenty-four hours, he’d sent someone to pick Quinn up and put her back in the auction.

It was my responsibility to pay her the other half of the money as soon as we had sex. I didn’t know if anyone told her, but if she didn’t get paid, she was entitled to walk away and turn to Donovan for recourse. He always enforced his rules, always, and the price for dishonesty was death.

The auctions worked on an honour system built up over many years, and everyone knew the consequences if they didn’t honour their end of the bargain.

The car smelled like Quinn, her fear, the whiskey I had while I was at the club, and Gary’s dirty fucking hands. I looked over my shoulder at the girl who sat on the back seat, slumped all the way over, clutching her ankles. “Give her some water,” I said to my brother using our mind link.

I didn’t ask Quinn if she had a bank account. I doubted it. She looked homeless. Caroline tarted her up a bit for the auction, but Quinn’s hands were rough, her nails chipped, and her hair was in desperate need of a trim.

“Don’t be scared of Troy,” Sebastian said softly. “His bark is worse than his bite.”

Quinn groaned just loud enough for me to hear her. Her heart fluttered so wildly that I couldn’t distinguish one beat from the next, and the scent of abject, unbridled terror flooded through the car, drowning out her natural scent and Gary’s stench.

I didn’t do anything to put her mind at ease. It would be better if she expected the worst – that way, she wouldn’t be too shocked when it inevitably happened.