SOLD TO THE ALPHA KING- NOW HE IS OBSESSED WITH ME

SERAPHINE They came for me at dawn. I was curled in the corner of the omega quarters....a cramped basement room that reeked of mildew and unwashed bodies....when I heard the boots. Heavy. Purposeful. Echoing down the concrete stairs like a death march. I knew what it meant. My hands started shaking before the door even burst open. "Seraphine Ashford." The guard's voice was flat, bored. Like he'd done this a hundred times before. Maybe he had. I pressed myself harder into the corner, my threadbare blanket clutched to my chest. "Please..." "Alpha's orders. You're done here." The second guard....bigger, meaner....crossed the room in three strides. His hand clamped around my upper arm like a vice, yanking me to my feet so hard my shoulder screamed in protest. "No....wait..." I tried to pull away, my bare feet scrabbling for purchase on the cold floor. His grip tightened until I felt bone grinding against bone. "Don't make this harder than it has to be, defect." Defect. The word they'd all used since my eighteenth birthday three months ago. Since my wolf never came. He dragged me toward the door. I grabbed the doorframe with my free hand, desperate, pathetic. "Please, I'll work harder, I'll...." The first guard pried my fingers loose one by one. "You're not worth the food you eat. Alpha's cutting his losses." My knees hit the floor as they hauled me into the hallway. The concrete scraped skin from my shins, leaving burning trails of pain. I could feel the blood...warm and wet....but they didn't slow down. They dragged me like I was cargo. Like I wasn't even a person. The pack house hallways blurred past...familiar walls I'd cleaned a thousand times, floors I'd scrubbed on my hands and knees. We passed the dining hall, and I heard the clatter of breakfast. Heard conversations stop mid-sentence. I forced my head up. Twenty wolves sat at long tables, forks frozen halfway to their mouths. Watching. Some looked away quickly, ashamed or uncomfortable. Others stared with cold curiosity, like I was an animal being led to slaughter. A few smiled. "Finally," someone muttered. "About time." Hot shame burned through me, worse than the pain in my knees. An omega....Sarah, one of the few who'd been kind to me....stood near the doorway. Our eyes met. Hers filled with tears. "I'm sorry," she mouthed. Then we were past her, past all of them. Alpha Ashford stood at the front entrance, arms crossed, his face carved from stone. He didn't look at me. Didn't acknowledge me. Just nodded once to the guards. "Make sure she arrives intact. I already have a buyer interested." The words hit me like a physical blow. A buyer. They were selling me. "Alpha, please..." My voice broke. "I'll do anything, I'll..." "You've done enough." His cold eyes finally met mine. "You're a stain on this pack's reputation. Be grateful someone's willing to pay for damaged goods." The guards hauled me through the front door into the grey morning light. It was cold. October air bit at my exposed skin...I was wearing nothing but a thin nightdress, barely covering my thighs. My bare feet hit gravel, and I cried out as sharp stones cut into my soles. Behind us, I heard windows opening. Pack members leaning out to watch. The van sat in the driveway....old, white, windowless. The kind used for transporting cargo, not people. The back doors swung open, revealing a dark, empty space. Metal floor. No seats. The smell hit me immediately....rust, old blood, and underneath it all, the lingering scent of fear. Other omegas had been in here. Recently. "In." The big guard shoved me forward. I stumbled, tried to catch myself, failed. My hands hit the metal floor first, then my knees, then my face. The impact made my teeth clack together, sent stars exploding across my vision. Before I could move, the doors slammed shut. Darkness swallowed me whole. The engine started with a roar that rattled the metal walls. I pushed myself up slowly, every part of my body aching. My lip was bleeding. My knees were torn open. My shoulder throbbed where the guard had grabbed me. But none of it compared to the hollow feeling in my chest. This was it. The end. I crawled to the corner and pulled my knees to my chest, making myself as small as possible. The van lurched forward, and I had to brace against the wall to keep from falling. There were no windows. No way to see where we were going. No way to know how much time had passed. Just darkness and the smell of rust and fear. I'd heard stories about the auctions. Whispered conversations between omegas late at night. How unwanted wolves were sold to the highest bidder....sometimes to decent packs looking for workers, but usually to alphas who wanted something they could break. I was going to be sold. Like furniture. Like livestock. You're a stain on this pack's reputation. Alpha Ashford's words echoed in my head. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was worthless. Maybe being defective meant I deserved this. I'd stopped crying somewhere around the ten-minute mark. There was no point. No one could hear me. No one was coming to save me. So I sat in the dark and let myself go numb. Time lost meaning. Minutes. Hours. The van rattled over potholes, took sharp turns that sent me sliding across the floor. My body collected bruises like badges of shame. Eventually, the engine's rhythm changed. We were slowing down. My heart started hammering again....terror replacing numbness. The van stopped. Voices outside. Muffled. Male. Rough. The doors swung open, and I flinched away from the sudden brightness....not sunlight, but harsh artificial light from overhead lamps. "Out," a new voice commanded. Not the pack guards. Someone else. I couldn't move. My legs wouldn't work. Hands grabbed me....different hands, but just as rough....and dragged me out of the van. My feet hit pavement, and I looked up. The warehouse. It loomed above me like a nightmare made concrete...massive, grey, windowless except for a few grimy panes near the roof. The smell hit me immediately: wolfsbane, cheap alcohol, concrete, and underneath it all, the unmistakable scent of desperation. This was where hope came to die. "Move." The man....thick-necked, scarred, dead-eyed....shoved me toward a side entrance. I stumbled forward on numb feet, my nightdress catching on rough concrete. Other omegas were already here....I could see them through an open doorway. Young women huddled in cramped holding cells, some crying, some staring blankly at nothing. We'd all ended up in the same place. They processed me like I was livestock. Strip. Put on the white shift....thin, barely covering anything. Shackles around my wrists. A number written on my arm in black marker: 17. Lot seventeen. "Wait here," someone barked, shoving me into one of the cells. I sank to the floor, pulling my knees to my chest again. Around me, other omegas waited. None of us spoke. What was there to say? Hours passed. Or maybe minutes. Time didn't work right in this place. One by one, girls were pulled from the cells. I heard the auctioneer's voice echoing from the main room—loud, theatrical, selling flesh like it was merchandise. Then it was my turn. "Seventeen!" Hands grabbed me, hauled me up. My legs barely held me as they dragged me through a narrow corridor toward a raised platform. The main auction room opened before me....cavernous, filled with wolves. The crowd was sparse but attentive. Mid-level alphas. A few betas. The kind of wolves who frequented places like this. The platform—worn smooth by decades of desperate feet...rose three feet above the floor. They pushed me onto it, and my bare feet found the cold wood. The shackles around my wrists were attached to a chain that forced my arms slightly raised. I kept my eyes down. Let my silver-white hair fall forward like a curtain. "Lot seventeen!" The auctioneer's voice boomed. "Eighteen-year-old omega. Unmated. Untouched." Murmurs from the crowd. I didn't look up. "She hasn't shifted," someone called out. Snickers. Cruel laughter. "A unique circumstance," the auctioneer said smoothly. "But omega bloodlines. Strong breeding potential..." "She's defective." The word again. Following me everywhere. "Starting bid: five thousand." Silence. My chest tightened. "Four thousand?" Someone finally raised a hand. "Fifteen hundred." Like I was garbage on sale. The bids climbed slowly...painfully. Three thousand. Five. Seven. Then I felt it. A presence so overwhelming it stole the air from my lungs. The entire warehouse went silent. I lifted my head slowly, following everyone else's gaze. Nine figures stood in the shadows near the back exit. Massive. Silent. Radiating power that made every wolf in the room want to submit. Kings. My heart stopped. Eight of them looked mildly curious, scanning the room with detached interest. But the ninth... He stood at the center.....taller than the others, broader, radiating danger like others breathed air. Dark hair fell to his shoulders. And his eyes....silver-grey, burning like molten metal...locked onto mine. I forgot how to breathe. His jaw clenched. His hands curled into fists. His entire body vibrated with barely-restrained violence. Then his lips moved. "Mine." The word was a whisper...deadly, cold, absolute. Only the blonde king beside him and a brown-haired man seemed to hear it. But I heard it. And something inside me—something that had been silent my entire life....stirred.