CHAPTER 002
1413 Words
CHAPTER 002
Charlotte quivered as the first guard crouched beside her, knees pressed to the floor, his shadow sliding over her quivering body. From her lips a soft, agonized whimper slipped, minimal yet brimming with pain. She attempted to lift her head, but the fiery jab in her stomach seared her concentration away.
“End her and burn the body,” the guard echoed Kael’s icy command. Her heart seized up so tightly she felt the pain. The man she had trusted—the one to whom she had given both her heart and her body—had turned into her betrayer. She now realized she had been nothing more than a pawn in his merciless bid for power.
The guard nearest her drew back his tongue slowly, his eyes alight with hunger and anticipation. "For as long as I can remember, I’ve longed to know how it feels to take the life of a highborn. "It has to be glorious." Thanks to Alpha Kael, I finally get the chance, he said, a cruel sneer distorting his face.
Charlotte shut her eyes, salty tears coursing down her cheeks as the fringe of her sight blurred into blackness. Each breath weighed down on her, and each heartbeat grew feeble. She sensed that Kael’s wound was steadily robbing her of her life. She had to act, or she would slip away altogether.
“Yet today isn’t that day,” the guard continued, and Charlotte blinked at him, bewildered, desperately trying to comprehend.
Before she had a chance to utter a word, a second guard advanced, the twisted expression on his face matching the first. You have a beautiful face. "Eyes, lips, your body… men would pay a king’s ransom for you,” he purred with a malevolent smile.
Charlotte’s heart plummeted when the truth dawned on her. They weren’t going to kill her—they were going to sell her. Opening her mouth to protest, she could scarcely hear her own voice. “No… please… don’t.”
Pain and betrayal blanketed her thoughts. Her wolf—Lily—had lapsed into hibernation, leaving her completely isolated. Left completely alone, she had no aid and no means to protect herself.
The first guard drew a small vial from his belt. “This is the antidote to the poison,” he said, dribbling it into her wound. That will stem the bleeding and render you unconscious. A wolf cannot be sold once it is dead. Charlotte hissed, the liquid sting searing her exposed wound.
They pressed yet another vial into her mouth. She took the vial against her will. In a matter of mere seconds, her sight dimmed, the very edges of reality sliding into shadow. Everything around her slipped into blackness.
Her destiny… settled.
Ladies and gentlemen… welcome to today’s exclusive…
Out of the darkness, a voice ripped through her haze as she drifted back into consciousness. A brutal throbbing pounded in her head. Her eyes opened in a painful struggle to acclimate to the harsh glare above her.
“It is my great pleasure to welcome you all out here…”
Charlotte’s sight sharpened. She perceived a circle of faces hovering above her, clad in ornate finery. All eyes were on her, and many were charged with desire.
Where am I?
Images of Kael’s treachery exploded in her mind with brutal force. Her mate—the man she had trusted and loved—had first spurned her, then ordered the guards to kill her. The betrayal seared her with a pain more acute than the wound itself.
Her eyes flared with alarm as she grasped that she barely had the strength to move. Iron chains locked her to the metal chair, slicing into her flesh. Her chest surged and subsided with unsettling rapidity, her breaths short and erratic.
A heavy hand pressed down on her shoulder. “Relax, Alpha’s daughter.” The voice was mocking, vicious. She lifted her head to find a stranger leaning close, his smirk warping his lips as he pressed his hand—condescendingly—on her shoulder.
What’s happening? Now they are going to kill me in full view of everyone?
The stranger declared, “This auction promises to be especially spectacular.” The merchant before us was Charlotte, the late Alpha Thane’s firstborn daughter.
An auction? Charlotte felt her blood turn frosty. The guards had not yet killed her. They had come to auction her as though she were nothing more than an object.
Her heart hammered within her chest, on the verge of bursting. She was meant to guide the Ravenwood pack, but instead, she stood shackled and on display before a roomful of strangers eager to take advantage of her.
This is vile… utterly vile!
Her mind shot towards Lylah. Was Lylah safe? Could Kael have plans for her, too? Panic sank its claws into the hollow of Charlotte’s chest. She needed a way to escape.
“Let me go!” she thundered, straining against the bindings. Set me free, or I’ll rend you to pieces!
The man let out a laugh, vicious and hushed. "Tear you apart? "Oh, please, he muttered, wrenching her hair viciously. Charlotte gave a yelp, every nerve on edge.
Your father is dead. Now you are worthless—an exiled wolf, a traitor,” he hissed. For your selfish choices, your pack cast you aside.
“No!” Charlotte gasped. Fear and fury knit her brows together. “I am no traitor!”
The guard ignored her pleas and swung toward the onlookers. She carries the blood of an Alpha. She is unique, with numerous uses,” he said, lending particular emphasis to those last words while a cruel smirk crept across his face.
A tide of nausea washed over Charlotte, and salty tears flooded her eyes. The notion of being auctioned off, exploited, defiled, turned her stomach into a violent knot.
Please… let me go,” she begged, her voice faltering. Each pulse pulsed agony through her, each heartbeat echoing Lily’s hibernation in the wake of Kael’s betrayal. A blaze of anger surged through her. She would endure. She would have her revenge.
“Should we pull back the veil and see what lies beneath?” someone from the audience shouted. Charlotte’s eyes bulged in terror. She froze.
The onlookers burst into cheers. Charlotte’s head whirled as panic inundated every thought. Are they out of their minds?
The host advanced, smirking, his hand sliding toward the hem of her dress. “Shush, sweetheart. Let’s have a look at what a highborn is hiding beneath.”
“No!” Charlotte screamed. The chains dug into her flesh as he wrenched the fabric, baring her. Shame and fury burst into flame inside her.
“Stop! You can’t do this!” Her cry thundered with despair. Yet he tore even harder, cruelly sweeping his hand across her chest.
“No!” she shouted a second time, straining and flinging her body about. All across the hall, the laughter echoed. Charlotte cast her eyes down, unable to bear the humiliation.
Why must the Moon Goddess be so cruel? Her fury swelled. The shame proved intolerable. The heat of her fury surged, her thoughts whirling furiously.
“Well? Do you like what you see?” the host bellowed. The audience roared with applause. Opening bid: five million.
Hands leapt skyward at once. Charlotte stared in terror as the bids mounted, men and women clamoring to claim her. She sensed the menacing stares of rogues and the slightest whispers of vampires threading through the crowd.
Six million.”
Six and a half.”
“Seven million.”
The numbers mounted, with each bid another blade to her pride. The sensation was as if she were trapped within a nightmare from which there was no escape.
“Thirty million!” a voice suddenly shouted. Her eyes widened. An old man had secured the bid.
Their eyes locked. An icy surge of fury and dread coursed through her. She had been sold; her destiny sealed; her life no longer hers.
Her pulse pounded, and a torrent of adrenaline coursed through her veins. Who was this man, and what did he mean to take from her?
Somewhere in the murky hush of the crowd, Charlotte felt the faintest stir of wolfish instinct—the smoldering spark of rebellion, the imperative to survive. Could she evade this dreadful destiny, or was her existence already forfeit, before it had even truly begun?
- Writer
