Page 1 of The Bratva's Auctioned Bride

Chapter 1 - Lara

At first, there was no fighting the darkness surrounding me, closing in tight enough to suffocate.

I held on to that sliver of consciousness until more fragments came together little by little, and I regained enough of my senses to hear those faint whimpers—the quiet pleas and sniffles.

Given how warm the room was, I could tell there were multiple people around me, all sounding just as freaked out as I felt. Desperate to know where I was, I tried to look for them, but I couldn’t see anything. It was dark still.

As I blinked, feeling pressure against my lashes, I let go of a startled breath. My eyes were covered. Blindfolded.

That thought spiked my heart rate even more as I tried to maintain some semblance of sanity.

Deep breaths. Just breathe.

Even if I had no idea where I was or what was going on, I needed to stay calm. My brothers would tell me exactly that.

Heavy footsteps approached me, and without warning, the blindfold was torn away from my face.

The room wasn't bright by any means, but the sudden influx of light made my eyes ache before they adjusted. As it all came rushing in, the scene around me made my heart sink.

I was surrounded by women—different appearances and ethnicities, but the age range seemed mostly consistent. Scanning their faces, all just as alarmed as I was, I knew they couldn't have been any older than me.

Glancing down, I realized my wrists were pinched together in front of me with zip ties, but beneath that, I was stillwearing the navy-blue gown from earlier. I had no purse, phone, or anything else on me. It was just me and my dress, surrounded by other terrified women as we waited in a windowless room as a man removed more blindfolds before wordlessly standing in the doorway, not looking at anyone in particular.

Some of the women tried to ask what was going on, but they received no response. The others simply whimpered and shook with the most genuine fear I had ever seen.

Looking down at the expensive fabric still on my body, hazy, half-tangible memories swirled within my mind, triggered by the dress.

The last I could remember, I was at a gala in place of my brothers. None of them could—or wanted to—go, so they sent me in good faith to maintain our reputation as a charitable family.

The evening had been as mundane as ever, with stuffy, boring interactions with uptight, pompous elites in the city, but after I slipped away for a breather, the memories were too splintered for me to piece together again. Something must've happened in that blank period in my mind, and somehow, I ended up in this room.

At first, I wondered if I was in a holding cell after becoming blindly intoxicated at the gala, the booze was blocking out those memories. But I knew that couldn't be true. I had two glasses of champagne at most, and I could hold my liquor. Beyond that, there was no way this room belonged to any precinct.

Given how afraid everyone around me seemed, I knew it wasn't as simple as that.

I had no way of knowing how much time had gone by, but between the weeping around me and the overwhelming dread in my gut, I couldn't think straight. I was at a complete loss.

Eventually, the man pressed a finger against his earpiece, and he took a step towards one of the women. He was anything but gentle as he grabbed her arm and hoisted her to her feet.

The poor thing was too scared to fight it as she stood and was escorted out of the stuffy room with her eyes wide and her chest rising and falling frantically.

More confusion settled around the room as she disappeared into the hall, and a moment later, the man came back to retrieve another.

Despite how my heart raced and how badly I wanted to shut it all out, I made myself watch. I silently counted how long it took for the guard to leave with one woman before coming back for another.

From what I could tell, he was grabbing four women back-to-back, only to wait about ten to fifteen minutes before he came back for another set. Soon enough, the room started to dwindle, leaving me to sit in panic, wondering when it would be my turn to face whatever was outside. By then, I'd wrangled with that dread for so long that my skin was damp, and I could hardly feel anything else.

When the man eventually stood in front of me, a sharp chill moved through me, and I met his dark eyes hidden behind his sunglasses. Emotionless, he reached forward and gripped my arm, hoisting me up just like the others.

As terror rang through my body, I tried to not fall. I tried to fight to some extent as he pulled me through the door, but his grip on me was too tight, and I was still reeling from the realization that I had no upper hand to leverage.

Moving down a hall, the guard gave me no room to struggle. Despite wishing I could do more, my legs felt almostuseless beneath me, and I was far too disoriented to be of any use to myself.

Another guard waited at the end of the hall, and he faced us with a card in his hand that had a number on it in thick black print. He threw the other an irritated look.

“Watch it. This one’s not like the others. She’s worth something, so don’t mark her.”

The man guiding me scoffed but took the heavy card before pushing it into my hand, forcing me to hang on to it despite my zip ties. “Not my fault if they bruise easily.”

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