Sold to my stepbrother Alpha

Chapter 3; The slave auction

Kael POV

The number of rogue wolves had been rising at an alarming rate over the past few years…far too fast to make any sense.

At first, we thought it was a fluke.caused by trauma or Isolation. Wolves driven mad from exile or grief. But that theory fell apart when the numbers kept climbing, even in peaceful territories.

After countless tests, it was discovered that it wasn’t just madness. It was something more calculated. A sickness,an infection.

It spread slowly at first, hiding in the blood. Subtle. Almost undetectable until it was too late. By the time the symptoms showed…paranoia, aggression, a complete break from their pack instincts…it was already embedded deep.

Treatment existed, but it only worked if caught early. And who knew to look for a disease when they thought they were just losing control?

Still, the speed and scale didn’t add up.

Even with a virus, even with fear, it shouldn’t have spread this far, this fast.

It felt deliberate, Like someone was manufacturing rogues.

I’d raised the alarm. The Elders brushed it off. Called me paranoid, said it was nature’s way of balancing power. But I’d seen enough. Territory after territory falling into chaos. Packs weakened. Leaders killed. Whole bloodlines erased.

This wasn’t balance.

This was war.

And someone out there was pulling the strings.

I intended to cut those strings…one by one…until I found the hand behind them.

And when I did, I’d rip it off at the wrist.

I’ve managed to save quite a few rogues. Maybe because, in some ways, I saw a little of myself in them…lost and broken, drifting without purpose. After being framed for my mother’s murder, I thought my life was over. I had nothing left to fight for… until I found them.

Now, I’m known as the ruthless Rogue King, feared by some, respected by others.

Today was one of those days I went out on patrol. That’s when I came across a large group of people..with their faces twisted with greed, eyes scanning like predators. They were gathered for a slave auction, my beta called it.

I walked up to the gathering, taking a seat near the back. No one noticed me…not yet.

One by one, young girls were paraded across the stage like livestock, their eyes hollow, their bodies barely clothed, their dignity stripped away. The crowd leered and shouted prices like it was some twisted game.

I said nothing. I only watched. My rage boiled beneath the surface, but I kept still, calculating.

“I’ve seen enough,” I muttered under my breath, my voice a growl only Rivin could hear beside me.

He didn’t even blink. “You want them all dead?”

I nodded once. “No one here walks out alive tonight.”

He bared his teeth in a silent grin. “Finally.”

We waited. I always wait until the worst moment…to see just how dark a soul can get before I crush it.

Just when I had decided I’d seen enough, a name was called that made me freeze. My heart pounded violently in my chest as I hoped, prayed, it wasn’t who I feared.

Then she was brought out onto the stage.

Fifteen years had passed since I last saw her, but I would know my sister anywhere…her wild, curly hair tangled and dusty, her eyes still fierce, still sharp, even beneath layers of pain and hunger.

Why was she here?

She looked fragile, malnourished, broken.

My blood boiled at the thought of my father.

How could he have let this happen to her?

I was still shaken in my thoughts when the bidding began…voices clamoring, numbers rising as if she were nothing more than an object. My beta, Rivin, nodded beside me, steadily raising the price with each call.

Though my heart hammered, I kept bidding, determined she wouldn’t fall into anyone else’s hands.

Though no one would survive here today, I refused to give them the satisfaction of owning her for even a moment. She was mine…my sister…and I had already failed her by abandoning her all those years ago. I wouldn’t let go of her now. Anyone who dared to hurt her would have to go through me first.

Finally, I won the bid. She was dragged off the stage with the other girls, their faces hollow and defeated. The crowd’s murmur dimmed as the last of them disappeared behind the curtains.

I nodded sharply to my beta. Without hesitation, he drew his sword, the steel gleaming cold under the auction hall’s dim light.

“It ends here,” I said, voice low and fierce.

Without hesitation, he unsheathed his sword. The first slaver to meet my eyes didn’t even get the chance to scream.

I unsheathed my blade in one smooth motion and drove it straight through his stomach. He gasped, blood foaming at his lips, and dropped dead.

Everything went still for a heartbeat.

Then the chaos began.

Screams erupted as panic surged through the hall. Rivin was already moving in a graceful but deadly dance . He cut down four guards before I even blinked. Blood sprayed across the stage as he moved like a storm, each stroke of his blade deliberate and lethal.

The slavers scrambled for weapons. Some tried to run.

I didn’t let them.

One lunged at me with a dagger. I twisted out of the way, grabbed his wrist, and snapped it with a sickening crunch. He screamed. I silenced him with a clawed hand to the throat.

They never stood a chance.

A man tried to slip past me to the back. I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his skull into the iron stage rail. He dropped like a stone.

Rivin leapt from the platform and landed in the middle of a group of fleeing guards. Three died before they could draw breath. One dropped to his knees and begged.

Rivin didn’t even pause.

Swords clashed. Blood sprayed across the sand. The scent of iron filled the air, thick and pungent.

My wolf roared inside me,furious at what we withnessed.

I let him come.

My claws extended, my eyes burned gold, and I tore through them, one by one.

They had hurt her.

They had touched my sister. Sold her. Chained her. Broken her.

They all deserved to die.

By the time the last guard dropped, choking on his own blood, the auction square was a graveyard. Bodies littered the ground. Tent flaps fluttered in the wind, torn and soaked red.

And still..i didn’t have her back.

I turned to Rivin, breath ragged.

“She’s not here.”

“She must be in the private quarters,” he said. “The high-value girls are sometimes…”

I was already running.

I checked several rooms…busting through doors, searching each with growing desperation…but she was in none of them.

Until I heard a muffled cry.

It was Faint, almost swallowed by the blood and ruin outside, but I heard it. My wolf stilled. Every part of me went silent, listening.

Then I moved.

I stepped back and slammed into it with my shoulder. Once. Twice. The third hit cracked the frame and the door burst open.

And what I saw nearly blacked out my vision with rage.

Ariana.

Pinned on a table, her thin shift torn, her body trembling.

And him.

The slave master who runs this establishment …was leaning over her,with his trousers down.

He looked up, startled, just as I crossed the threshold.

“You—”

I didn’t let him finish.

I was on him before he could blink. One swing of my sword and his body slammed into the far wall with a crunch that split bone. He crumpled like discarded meat.

Blood roared in my ears. But I didn’t look at him again.

My eyes were on her.

She was curled against the table , shielding herself, shaking so hard it broke something in me.

“Ariana…” I breathed.

She looked up, her eyes wide, vacant and afraid.

She didn’t recognize me.

I dropped my sword and knelt. “You’re safe. I’ve got you now.”

She blinked, her lips parting as if to speak.

But then her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed into my arms.

Unconscious.