Destined Mate

CHAPTER NINE

Chapter Nine

Emily's POV

"Attention, gentlemen!" Mother shouted while grabbing my arm. Her tall stature made me sink like a malnourished beggar beside her.

All the men who were there turned their heads towards us, even some of them who were making out without shame.

“Where’s our money Lucia,” one man scoffed.

But mother smiled seductively at him but said nothing.

“This time I brought a very special item.” She grabbed my arm again and knocked me off balance. "She is Emily, my darling daughter ." Her words reeked of sarcasm and fake happiness.

Suddenly, all the men were excited but like they had never seen a woman before. Their eyes looked lustfully at me.

I couldn't pretend I no longer had an idea about what was going on, I just couldn't believe it. It seemed unreal, like I was in a dream.

I had to be dreaming, right? There was no way they could possibly do this to me, they couldn't be that mean.

“Since my handsome husband has a small debt, we are being generous to offer our step-daughter in exchange for a small amount of your money.”

The words rolled off her tongue with ease and when I dared to look at her, she was smiling as if none of this mattered, as if I didn't matter and I knew I didn't.

But maybe just maybe I had gaslighted my mind into thinking this was different, into believing that maybe they didn't hate me that much. No alien had taken over mother's body, they had this all planned and it just had to take me that long to know.

One of the men here raised his hand. "What's special about her? We do not want to buy goods that are not of good quality.” One by one they laughed, showing brown teeth and looked at me as the object of questioning.

Tears fell from my eyes as I could feel their eyes rake my body as if they were sampling a product and I cringed at how much I had been subjected.

Mother raised one of her eyebrows. “Well, she is still a virgin. And I'm sure you guys will really like her. Look at her very beautiful face!”

I avoided her fingers caressing my cheek.But she held on tightly to my face, her fingers digging deep into the side of my cheeks, burning and hurting me.

"She has fair soft skin, beautiful and juicy lips, alluring light hair, and super curvy hips and chest." She grinned after the guests agreed with her opinion.

My hands hugged my body tightly like they were supposed to shield me from their predatory eyes. I was not comfortable with the thirsty stares of the men. I could feel their eyes r****g me over and over again.

“So, who will bid on her? I can open the offer now!”

One of the men raised his hand again. “Let us spend some time with her first! It seems she is inexperienced and we don't want to pay a price for her and then she turns out to be inexperienced” His crooked teeth sent shivers down my spine and I wanted to run, hide and never come out again.

“Well, which virgin girls are experienced, gentlemen? If you don’t want to bid on her, you can pass up this opportunity.”

I saw my father grunt at the bartender's counter. He must be annoyed because the possibility of him getting the money faster was now gone.

When I looked again, I suddenly saw Avery appear casually from the door. She stood leaning against her back grinning as she looked at me.

My hands clenched, so did my jaw, but I couldn't do anything.

She knew about this too? Of course she would, she was their daughter, their perfect little Princess! f**k them all.

"100 pieces of gold!" the man bid.

My stepmother grinned. “100 gold pieces. Not bad. Who else wants to bid?”

“200 gold pieces.”

"300."

“400.”

The offers were getting intense. Some of them even started to get emotional because they failed to get me.

“1500 gold pieces!”

My father widened his eyes in satisfaction. My mother grinned and nodded. “Yeah, highest bid tonight. Does anyone want to bid again?”

My father was in trouble there because he owed Master Hugo 10,000 gold pieces. I didn't understand my mother's plan but I hoped someone would thwart the offer.

Someone suddenly appeared and shouted from the doorway, "30,000 gold pieces!"

“YES!” Father screamed excitedly, jumping up from his chair like an excited little boy and I wanted to kill him- I wish I could kill him.

In my presence, the pieces of gold were handed over to Mother, who pushed me towards the big-bellied man, ignoring my puny protest and whimpers.

“Take it easy on her, don't break too many of her bones' ' With that, father assisted in leading me into the man’s room and I cried throughout the dragging session.

Once, I was locked in the room with a huge man who was grinning from ear to ear. I cried like I was being flogged.

“You need to stop crying, I am going to be gentle with you” he tried to coax, but the mischief in his eyes gave him away, he looked like the kind of man that would pounce on unsuspecting innocent girls.

“Come here my dear”, he tried again, but I ran to a different direction of the room.

“Seems you like the chase then” and he ran after me with a speed that didn't fit his size and when he got hold of me, he had me against the walls, and brought his lips to kiss me and involuntarily my hands flew against his face, hitting him fair and square.

I shouldn’t have done that, the look on his face told me that I had just made a grieving mistake.

“You b***h!” He spat, his face was red from anger and his hands roamed my body in the most disorganizing way as we both struggled with my dress.

He had hit me so hard against my neck that I thought I was going to pass out, but I still struggled.

The last thing I remembered were my claws sprouting out of my nails, the smell of fresh blood, a loud scream and darkness.