Page 168 of SINS & Riley
My vision tilts. Darkness creeps in, thick and suffocating.
No, no, no?—
53
ZVER
Chains bite into my wrists, metal grinding until the skin burns raw. I blink, vision swimming as reality hits me with a battering ram. I’m caged.
Not just caged. Chained, too.
Center stage.
The theater hums alive around me, a hive of whispers spilling through velvet seats.
A hundred bodies, maybe more.
Every face cloaked behind a mask. Every eye gleaming down like a vulture circling prey, salivating for the moment it finally bleeds out.
I look around as recognition slams into me. I know where I am, and it's not good.
The auction block.
My stomach hollows, a black pit opening inside me. My skin crawls, ants biting from the inside out.
When women get auctioned here, it’s to some twisted billionaire who wants a new toy to break in. A pet to chain, break, and use until she’s nothing but dust.
Believe it or not, this is worse.
When Kings are auctioned, it’s punishment. Betrayal dealt the only way our world understands—public, brutal, torture. A warning burned into flesh for anyone stupid enough to cross the wrong line.
And fuck, I crossed it.
That’s why I’m in chains. Not for show. Not for theatrics.
They know what I’d do if I got even a single breath of freedom—tear this auction block apart with my bare fucking hands.
And they know why.
Declan. Elena. Zver has crossed them all. Andre made the claim, and the Keenan’s fucking cosigned.
In their eyes, I’m the ultimate sinner.
And someone—probably the one who hates me most—will pay top dollar for the privilege of peeling me apart.
If I had to place bets? They’ll start with my eyelids.
Dr. Sterling steps in the cage and slithers up to me, face pale, eyes fever-bright.
Still wearing his filthy fucking lab coat.
As soon as he gets within range, I lunge forward, trying to get my hands around his scrawny throat—only to feel the chains snap taut.
“Well, well, well,” he croons. “Let’s see who we’ve got under the mask.”
His hand shoots up, cold fingers clawing for it. They all want to know. Because once they see who I really am? Game over—for me, for them, for everyone in this room.
The crowd roars as he yanks hard.
