Eliana POV
My voice was unsteady, my eyes fixed on the whip which was coiled and secured to her belt.A slow smile spread across her lips and she bent down to take my face in her hands, looking deeply into my eyes."The auction, of course. And you, my pretty little one, will fetch quite a nice price."Her cackling laugh echoed in the empty room, a sadistic gleam in her eyes.Fuck. I was in for it now.Swallowing the panic attack which threatened to return, I sniffed the bread and smelled something slightly off about it, throwing it into the corner of the room instead of eating it. It was clearly doped with something, and I didn't want to take a chance with it. I could deal with my rumbling stomach for now.About ten minutes later, the rogue with the face tattoo came in and snapped an iron collar around my neck, pulling me to stand by the short chain he held tightly in his fist."You're just like the little human girls tonight. Wolfsbane has made sure of that, no wolf is going to ruin this party" he grinned at me. "Ah, baby. If I had the money to pay Mrs. G, you'd be mine," he growled, running a finger over my breast. "Unfortunately I don't…"I suppressed a shudder and stared blankly at the door. With a loud sigh, the rogue tugged on my collar and led me through dimly lit passages, past closed doors which moans and screams filtered under. We descended stairs into a cigar smoke filled basement and the rogue secured the chain of my collar onto an iron ring embedded in the stone wall.There were three other girls next to me, all seemingly drugged as they struggled to stay on their feet, their eyes glazed over. The room was filled with men in various states of formal wear, all smoking cigars and sipping drinks while they socialised with each other - as if attending a slave auction was just something they did every Saturday night. What the fuck was wrong with these people?Men came up to us, inspecting the "merchandise" and making comments, all of which were insulting, sexual and downright gross."Well, aren't you a pretty one," a man with thinning blonde hair murmured as he trailed his fingertips over the bodice of the lingerie I had been put in. "I think I could have some fun with you."Another man joined him, elbowing him in the ribs playfully. "I might outbid her for this one. She looks like she knows how to please a man in bed."The first man laughed, pinching the exposed skin on my stomach. "I'll let you buy her from me when I'm done with her.""Awww, that's not fair. You know that you don't leave much when you're finished with a girl. I don't want a pile of bleeding body parts. At least let me have her first before you put all sorts of tools onto her orifices."I felt vomit rise in my throat, making breathing hard to do. Darn the wolfsbane! I needed Ayla right now, she would know how to make it better.The two men moved on to another girl, leaving me alone for a moment before the next set of men came to prod me."This one is too skinny. She wouldn't know how to please a man if she was given a step by step instruction manual," the one laughed, dismissing me - for which I was grateful."Don't say that," the other man retorted, grabbing me by my chin and putting pressure on my jaw until I was forced to open my mouth. "I'm sure her mouth would work just as well. Might need to knock out some of those teeth to keep her from biting your dick, but I'm sure you'll manage to do that without much help."They were shoved aside by an elderly man who seemed to be respected by some of the others, his friends and bodyguards keeping some of the other creeps away."This one looks like someone I know…" a short man with a huge nose said to his companion as they stared at me. "I just can't place it."They stood back, examining me as if I were a piece in a museum."Ah, I know who! She's a female version of Butch! It's the eyes - those purple eyes would stand out anywhere," the balding companion announced loudly- loud enough to draw a small crowd around me."The Butcher never had kids though," someone commented."Not that anyone ever knew of, but he did screw half of the coast before he disappeared so anything is possible.""I'd love to get my hands on him, that bastard has a lot to answer for.""Yeah, he ruined my business!""He stabbed my brother."The conversation swirled around me and I felt my headache start to return, drowning out their words. The tip of a walking stick prodded my stomach, drawing me out from inside my mind."I asked you a question, girl." The ancient man prodded me with his stick again before he repeated himself. "Are you related to Butcher?"I shook my head. What else could I do? I didn’t know my father, with the ‘sperm donor’ - as Elijah called him - having bailed before we were born. But I was pretty sure my mom would have never been with anyone nicknamed ‘The Butcher’."I don't believe her. She knows we'd use her to draw her father out. Look! She doesn't deny it.""No! I'm not…" I shouted, only to be cut off by the ringing of a large gong."Gentlemen, please take your seat. The auction will begin."One by one, the girls beside me were led up onto a small platform while the woman who had visited me earlier stood behind a podium, gavel in hand. With each sale, the men got more and more rowdy and I swallowed hard when the woman's gavel pounded against the podium and she shouted "sold"."Time to shine," the rogue grinned and patted me on the arse as he dragged me onto the podium. I tried to fight him, pulling away as hard as I could. I didn't win though, his first slamming into my cheekbone instead. Blinding pain caused tears to well up in my eyes but I refused to cry. Instead, I stared out in the crowd, a silent dare in my eyes."Let's start the bid at ten thousand. Anyone willing to pay ten thousand for the daughter of The Butcher?"I cringed at that name. They were obviously using the fictional rumour to their advantage. My eyes darted around the room as one bid came, and then another, and another until people seemed to be shouting from all directions. I caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd, the bruises on his face now a greeny-yellow, his split lip almost completely healed.Wilson grinned and lifted his glass to me as he delighted in my humiliation. It was him - it couldn't have been anyone else. No one else hated me so much as to organise my attack and auction."Five hundred thousand!" The old man with the cane bid, scratching his crotch with his free hand.Oh no, please no!The basement door flung open, crashing against the wall and everyone turned their heads to the large man who stepped in, looking as if he hadn't a care in the world. The same guy from the restaurant! My mate!"One million. I'll pay one million for her," his voice was clear but he didn't shout - he didn't need to. The room had been plunged into silence when he'd entered."Sold!"Eliana POVAfter the auction, I'd been guided toward a black SUV with tinted windows and told to wait until my master joined me. Master! Someone fucking owned me now! It felt like forever before the door opened again and the guy who had bought me - my mate, my master - joined me, his face blank. He looked me up and down as the car began to move away from the haunted looking house before he nodded and looked away. I felt dirty, worthless, violated. All of a sudden the panic attack which had been teetering on the edge of my consciousness shattered over me and nausea washed over me. I covered my mouth as I gagged, trying to force whatever was in my stomach down so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of him."Stop the car," he instructed the driver. I gratefully clambered out of the car and into the bushes on the side of the road, emptying the contents of my stomach into the foliage. Just what I wanted my mate to witness! He handed me a bottle of water and I rinsed my mouth out be
Luca POVThe more Nina continued her rampage, the more I felt like putting my hands on her shoulders and shaking her until she shut the hell up. She was making the headache which had plagued me from the moment I had joined Eliana in the SUV infinitely worse. “Enough, Nina. I understand your concerns, but this is a business deal, not romantically linked at all,” I told her firmly, slumping down on the plush sofa at the foot of the king sized bed. “But she is your mate, you cannot tell me you won’t get your heart involved and neglect all that we have worked toward,” she threw back as she headed to the sideboard and poured a splash of brandy into a glass with ice before she handed it to me. I gratefully took a sip, savouring the oak notes before I swallowed and pressed the cool glass to my forehead. “Nina, I rejected her for that very reason. If it weren't for the fact that I spent far too much money getting her out of the hands of my enemies - and that she has a skill which we are d
Eliana POV When Enzo suggested a night on the town, I turned him down, hoping to bury my sorrows in the chocolate stashed in the hotel minibar instead. I understood that he was trying to get my head off of my brother and the lies I was going to have to tell my mom, but I didn’t really feel like partying. I knew that Elijah was alive - call it intuition or “twin-telepathy”, I could feel it in my bones that he was somewhere out there, alive. It took all I had in me not to break out of the penthouse suite and hunt him down, but the doors to the elevator were guarded by werewolves who looked like they were related to the Hulk, and abseiling to the ground from the balcony was a definite “no” from me. Enzo kept nagging though, saying it would be good for me to get out. I eventually caved, knowing that Enzo’s team were searching for Eli and that they had the man-power and skill I could never match. I had to believe that it would be alright, I had to trust him - even though it was extremely
Eliana POVThe bartender clawed at Luca’s hands, trying to pry them from his throat without success. He even tried kicking Luca, but this just made the alpha angrier and I could see the fury of his inner wolf flash through his green eyes.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a rather round man dressed in black with a gold chain strung around his neck hurry toward us, his face pale."Mr. Castello! Oh my! Could you please put my employee down so that we can talk about this?" The man practically quivered in his shoes.Luca turned to the owner of the strip club and looked down at him, not releasing the bartender as the man continued to dangle in the air. He was turning a horrible shade of purple, s
Eliana POV “So? Was that so bad?” Enzo teased me as the small private jet eased into its allocated area on the tarmac, a mischievous grin on his face. I unclenched my fingers from where they gripped the armrest of my seat, blood rushing into the appendages. “I still don’t get why we couldn’t have taken a commercial flight. There’s a much less chance of us falling out of the sky in a Boeing 737 than in this tin can.” Enzo chuckled again as the captain of the plane and the female copilot, who was his wife, exited the cockpit to hear my slur against the small plane. The pilot didn’t seem overly impressed that I had compared his ‘baby’ to a tin can, but I was exhausted having not been able to sleep a wink during the almost ten hour flight to London so he was just going to have to excuse the fact that I was just a tad bit grumpy. Enzo, on the other hand, had slept practically the whole way! Memories of that night with Luca kept replaying over and over in my head - his soft lips consu
Eliana POVWith one last look at him, taking in the sadness in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before that moment, I got out of the car and accepted my bag from the driver. I watched as the car drove off before I entered the apartment building.The foyer had a communal area set up, with an array of sofas and bean bags where the tenants could relax and use the free WiFi that was allocated to the area. It was decorated with potted plants, abstract art on the walls and a small water fountain in the centre of the room, making it seem like a high end establishment and less like the regular student accommodations. The room was empty except for three girls my age, lounging on the sofas and tapping lazily on their cellphones.In most places, there is some indication
Eliana POV “Shit! Sorry!” I burst out as her eyes met mine, heat flooding my face with embarrassment as I backed out of the room and started closing the door behind me. “Hang on a moment. Wait, you’re my new roomy, right?” the girl asked as she hopped off the counter and fixed her skirt. The guy stood up and leant back against the desk, arms crossed and glaring at me as if I had walked in on them on purpose. “I’m Cassandra - or Cassie as everyone calls me,” she smiled broadly, grabbing my hand and pulling me inside. “Sorry about that, I forgot you were meant to be arriving today else I would have put a sock on the doorknob. Oh dear, you’re wet!” “Eliana, and don’t worry. I didn’t see much,” I responded, feeling the blush return to my cheeks. “I had an accident with the fountain downstairs.” Cassie smiled warmly before she turned to the guy, fluttering her long eyelashes at him. “Mark, darling. I need to help get Eliana unpacked and we have to do some girlie bonding. I promis
Eliana POV “Oh! I’m so sorry! That was all my fault, I wasn’t looking where I was going and…” My eyes met his and I felt panic rise inside my throat. Darn, I had just walked into another werewolf a few short minutes after Luca had told me to get out of the area because it wasn’t safe - I had crossed into a territory I had no business being in according to werewolf law. “If you wanted my number you could have just asked,” the guy laughed, pulling the wet fabric of his once white shirt away from his muscular chest. “I probably would have given it to you.” I laughed in response as relief flooded me. At least I knew he wasn’t going to challenge me or call his pack for backup, or something along those lines. “Pshhht, the temptation of coffee was just too strong. It was a pity you were in the way,” I shot back with a smirk. “I do owe you a round at the laundromat though.” I looked at his coffee stained shirt and grimaced, it was probably completely ruined now. He pulled his shirt o