Page 2 of Draco

“I’ll start the bidding at a hundred grand.” The announcer spoke, and the crowd went quiet. I scanned around, and the man holding me leaned in and whispered, “Highest starting bid ever.”

I didn’t even act like I’d heard him. He’d warned me that if I gave him away we’d both die or, in my case, suffer a fate worse than death. I had to trust him.

“I.” Someone in the back shouted the word, indicating he’d kick off the bidding and gasps filled the air. And it hit me. I was being sold right back to the same people I was running from. The rich normal people didn’t have a hundred grand to throw down on a piece of meat. Maybe I hadn’t escaped my fate after all.

I had to focus. I had to keep my head. Losing my cool would spell disaster.

“Two hundred.” Another voice spoke up, and suddenly, the crowd was in an uproar.

“Two fifty!”

“Three hundred.” The collective gasp of the crowd didn’t dissuade the battle between the three different voices.

“Three fifty.”

“Five.”

I continued staring over the heads of the crowd, my chin held high and proud even though static charges skittered up and down my arms. Someone was willing to pay half a million to buy me based on sight alone. The traffickers didn’t give any info other than that I was free of diseases after they’d run blood tests and had a doctor check me over.

The roar of the crowd grew louder, and I continued to ignore everything but the shadows in the far back of the room. The hand on my arm yanked me back, and I struggled to keep my footing. I’d get through this. I’d make it out on the other side and be free. I stumbled as he yanked on me again, and I nearly fell to my knees.

Under the guise of ‘catching’ me, the man whispered in my ear. “That’s not my guy.”

My blood ran cold. The whole plan hinged on his contact bidding the highest. That’s why he’d sounded so surprised that the bid started so high. They weren’t prepared for this massive amount on me.

“Hey, hands off.” Another burly bastard ripped my contact off me and shoved him aside before taking my arm.

Frozen with fear, I let him drag me away from the contact as he watched me go, a helpless look on his face. He couldn’t help me now.

All the careful planning, all the hopes, and dreams I had for finally being free slipped between my fingertips as I was dragged out to the man who’d bought me.

I went with the brute guiding me. I’d been warned not to fight no matter what, or I’d be executed. So I marched along, saying a silent goodbye to this world. I’d rather die than be under yet another rich sonofabitch’s thumb. I didn’t escape my father only to be owned by someone else.

Tears stung in my eyes as my chance to start over dissolved before me. I’d never get to live on my own terms. I’d never get to make my own mistakes.

“Enjoy.” The guy holding me thrust me at the man who’d bought me.

It was the man with the stunning blue eyes who’d been staring me down at the back of the club. Closer now, I could see his eyes were almost iridescent and so bright they almost had a light of their own in the darkness.

He took my arm and led me out through a backdoor as another man ushered us through.

2

Draco

Iled her out to the car and put a hand on her head, pushing her gently inside where Stryker waited. Slipping in behind her, I noticed how she tensed up as she threw an elbow right at my face.

“I’m on your side.” Swiftly catching her arm, I hauled her wrist behind her back and held her while Stryker grabbed the sedative.

“Liar.” She spat the word at me like a curse and struggled against me as Leif slammed the car into gear and took off away from the curb.

Stryker jabbed the needle into her arm and plunged it home. Carefully holding her, I gathered her form into my arms and held her as she struggled. It wouldn’t take long for the drug to take hold, and she’d lose strength, then drift off to sleep.

Leif’s golden eyes met mine in the rearview. He didn’t need to say a damn word. I knew that look.

I nodded. He had things of his own to do. I’d just asked him for help with this specific part of the plan. The second Kat drew the symbol on Luna’s hand, I’d known exactly who had her and what would happen to her.

I’d lined things up perfectly like dominoes, starting with letting slip my opening bid of a hundred grand. My ‘slip’ had lit the fire of greed in the club owner’s eyes, and he’d called the opening bid at a hundred grand. Starting out the bidding that high had been a ploy to trim the fat from the meat and show me who my true competition would be in the bidding.

---