Chapter 3 - The Auction

Linnea POV

"Stop it! You idiots!"

What just happened? My tense muscles suddenly relaxed.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Virgins are the top prize!" The man in the suit grumbled.

His enormous hand smacked the back of the one closest to him so hard he almost stumbled.

"Get her inside, what are you standing around for?" The man in the suit scolded. 

"Hurry up! Just be careful with her face; we don't want to affect the price I'll get at the auction later!"

Auction?

What the hell was he talking about?

"Yes, Boss." The three guys who were just acting tough moments ago suddenly became submissive. 

I woke up from my shock and tried to push past them, but one of them grabbed me by the neck and pinned me to the wall.

I gasped when the other one slipped a silver collar around my neck, effectively subduing my wolf.

They grabbed my arms and pulled me to a large iron door that I hadn’t noticed. The third opened and I was pulled into a dark hallway. 

The door slammed shut behind me and I flinched. The floor was sticky underneath my feet when I was pulled into a large room lined with several cages. Somehow they reminded me of a zoo. 

There were girls of various ages in the cages. When we passed, some girls huddled into the furthest corner of their confinements and buried their faces in their knees. Others rattled their cages and screamed profanities that made the hairs in the back of my neck stand on end.

A cage door opened and I was pushed inside. I quickly turned around to slip through the door before it closed, but they were too quick and the cage door slammed shut just an inch from my face. 

I staggered back and glared at them. 

“Let me out, you animals!” I demanded angrily. 

They just chuckled and were about to walk away when a girl to my left lunged at them and scratched one of them on the arm. 

He scrambled to get away from the cage. 

“You bitch!” He growled.

“You villains are going to hell!” The girl screamed. 

“Shut up, you blood-drinking disgusting bitch!” The other one yelled while pulling his scratched friend away from the cage.

I looked closer at her. She was a vampire with her black hair in a bob and dressed in a red halter neck rockabilly dress with black polka dots that flared out around her legs. 

She was seething, there was no doubt about that. 

The third guy smirked. 

“How about we open the windows to let you feel the sunshine? You would like that?”

“Nonono!” She screamed, but they laughed and pulled the curtains aside, revealing the last rays of sunshine.

The vampire girl howled in pain when the sun burned her skin and she pressed herself to the back wall of the cage to get away. 

“Stop!” I yelled. “You should have some conscience!”

“Looks like we have another disobedient bitch here.”

The man in the suit showed up again. 

“There there.” He said. “Don’t tell me a little bitch has got you all so riled up!”

“No sir.” They replied and scampered away out of sight. 

Suit guy stood in front of my cage. 

“I can sense that you have a wolf, so you’re not underage, but I need to ask you something.” He muttered. “Are you a virgin?” 

I stared at him. 

Noticing my hesitance, his eyes narrowed. 

“Tell me now, or we’ll get someone in there to get a thorough assessment.” 

I frowned. 

“But you can’t really see if anyone is a virg…”

I quickly shut up when the rest of his threat registered in my head. 

“Umm- I’m a virgin.” I mumbled. 

The man raised an eyebrow. 

“You’ve got quite the mouth on you.” He sneered. “Whoever buys you could have a lot of fun breaking you in.”

With that, he walked away and left me alone in the cage. 

I tried pulling on the bars, seeing if I could find a weak point where I could escape through. 

“Don’t bother, girlie-girl.” Vampire girl chirped with a dialect, sounding like she was from Stockholm. “Those bars ain’t going anywhere.”

I frowned at her. 

“I’m not gonna just quit, noll-åtta.” (Swedish for zero-eight, a phone dialing code from Stockholm, a nickname usually used for people from the area around the Swedish capital that has a distinct dialect). 

Vampire girl huffed.

“What’s your name?” She asked. 

I hesitated. 

“Cecilia.” I said. 

I didn’t dare tell my real name if anyone ever made the connection to my identity. I had to stay hidden for now. 

“Right, Cecilia, I’m Olivia.” She replied. “You don’t have to waste your energy, because you’re not going to be here for too much longer.”

“Because of the auction they talked about?” I asked. 

Olivia nodded. 

“Within a matter of days, you’ll be serving some asshole.” She muttered. 

I frowned. 

“Isn’t this illegal?” I asked. 

“It’s very illegal.” Olivia shrugged. “But hey, it’s Malmö. You could be in a new country within an hour. If there’s anywhere there are auctions like this, it’s here.”

“Oh.” I said, feeling stupid. “Who would even buy us?”

“Either it’s dirty companies looking for people to use for labor, or creeps looking for some cunt.” Olivia sighed. “Most people here aren’t even Swedish. Most are rogue werewolves from Poland or Romania. Lured here with promises of freedom and safety, never to be free or safe ever again.”

I looked around the cages at the crying girls, feeling sick. 

“There has to be a way out of here.” I whimpered.

Olivia sat down in the back corner of her cage.

“Let me know if you find a way.” She sighed. “I’ve been here for three days already and I thought that I already tried everything. 

I sat down on the floor next to her, the bars of the cages separating us. 

Even though I would never wish this upon my greatest enemy, I was happy that I wasn’t alone in this hellish place. 

I had no idea how many hours had passed when a lot of people marched in. They tossed a piece of fabric through the bars of each cage. 

Olivia and I got up, grabbing the fabric. 

“Change into that.”

I looked up and saw the blonde short haired one from earlier sneering at me. 

The fabric turned out to be a short, black, body-hugging dress with spaghetti straps. 

I heard Olivia scoff. 

“I’m not wearing this piece of crap.” She muttered. “This barely covers anything.”

“That’s the point.” He replied. “Wear it or don’t wear anything at all.”

She glared daggers at him and he turned back to me. 

“Strip.” He sneered. 

I paled. 

“Sure, if you show me to the changing room.” I muttered. 

He chuckled. 

“What makes you think there’s a changing room for you, darling?” He smirked. 

I sighed and turned my back to him before pulling my shirt off. 

“Bra off too.” He commented. 

I flipped him the bird and slipped off my bra, still with my back to him to make sure that he couldn’t see anything. 

After I pulled the dress over my head, I pulled it down as far as I could before pulling down my jeans.

“Barefoot, and no panties.” He chuckled. 

I glared at him and took everything off until I was only wearing the little black dress. 

“Jewelry too.” He demanded and reached out his hand. 

My heart sank. 

“No, please.” I pleaded. “They are the last thing that I have left of my mother.”

“Boohoo.” The man mocked. “Earrings, now!”

With tears streaming down my cheeks, I took them off and handed them over. 

That’s it. There was nothing left of me.

Bundling my clothes and shoes up, I chucked them at him, hoping that I could hit him in the head with one of my shoes. 

Unfortunately, I had no such luck. He caught the clothes and walked away laughing. 

I hugged myself and glanced at Olivia tossing her clothes out through the bars. 

“This is humiliating.” I muttered. 

“Yep.” She muttered back. “At least we all look equally stupid.”

Four girls were extracted from their cages and led in handcuffs to a door at the end of the corridor. 

Olivia and I looked at each other, her face mirroring my horrified expression. 

“Here we go.” Olivia muttered. 

It was hard keeping track of time, but after a while, they came back and got four more girls. 

My heart sank when they came back and one of them walked over to my cage. 

“Come on out, sweetie.” He sang. 

I didn’t move.

“Come on out, or you’ll be dragged out.” He growled. 

He grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the cage and pinning me with my face against the bars. 

I felt my hands being cuffed behind my back and he grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head backwards. 

A blindfold was placed over my eyes, making everything go dark.

“It was nice meeting you.” I heard Olivia call out as I was pulled away to an unknown future.