Luna of the Alphas

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I felt heat rising in my belly. I had to blink through the fog to see the bright lights that came and went. I saw faces that looked good, bare skin, and s****l muscles. Three animals twisted around me.

Their fingers went all the way down my naked body, giving me rough chills.

"Evelyn, how are you?One of them put my hand to his mouth and kissed my fingers. I had something to say. But all I could do was moan.

The person behind me laughed. He laughed softly and felt warm as he said, "She's in heat." "Let me help you," he said softly. He pulled my head up and gave the corner of my mouth a very light kiss. "Do you want to play rough or soft?""Do you want to kiss me?" he asked with a smile.

Someone else said, "Don't be so selfish with her, Lucas." He was very tall. His fingers made marks on my skin. He bent down and kissed my thigh with his lips as he pulled my leg up.

I backed away. But he grabbed my ankle and bit my skin to scare me.

Evelyn, there's no way you can run." His eyes met mine, and they were burning with desire and hunger.

"You are ours."

***

As soon as the sun went over the mountains, we were let out of our cages.

I moved my head and feet back and forth as I followed the other girls. It was hard to keep up with each other because our hands were tied together and our legs were chained.

We were used to this, though.

It was cold and damp in the hallway we went down. The sounds and smells of this place helped me remember it better than my name.

It was where we lived.

Aunt Mason pushed me when I was only on the fourth step.

"Get up!"

I turned my frown towards the dark and sped up, trying not to look at my mean aunt.

It was clear that Aunt Mason wasn't happy today. No one was shocked by this; all of the aunts had been very grumpy for a few days.

It wasn't a very busy time of year for slave trade. During the werewolf's breeding season, this happened all the time, but it made the shop feel bad.

In two weeks, the aunts hadn't sold a single slave.

That's why they were so angry.

They were not our real aunts. By their names, we called them because they were the most like guardians we had. A small group of old she-wolves who made money by making sure we were trained well and sold as slaves.

By all rights, they owned us until they sold us to other people. Then those masters could treat us however they thought fit.

We quickly got together in the hallway and formed a half-circle around Aunt Harper. She took out a piece of paper and a pen and started her regular roll call.

"114."

"Make present."

"115."

"Make present."

"118."

For each number that was called, a small voice answer.

We didn't have names here. Our only gift was a number. It was too hard for the wolves to remember names. Also, why remember the name of someone who would be sold soon and never be seen or heard from again?

"120," Aunt Harper said next.

We kept our heads down and our eyes down. We looked at the floor cracks and listened to our sisters whisper "Present."

Every day, this was done to make sure that everyone was okay, but I thought it was more than that.

It helped us remember who we were and where we fit in the world.

We were held as slaves. At the bottom of this hell world, we were. The beasts took over our world and our lives.

As soon as roll call was over, the aunts got together to plan the rest of the day. Who would go in the galleries and who would be "shelved" in the back? The key to getting a desperate buyer was to draw attention to certain slaves on the right day.

It was all business, which wolves were not good at. During slow times, they should have put out the more attractive slaves if they really wanted to sell some. However, the aunts did the opposite and saved the best slaves for when things were really busy.

People used to say that werewolves were only strong and not smart. I agreed with them more and more as I learned more about werewolves.

In spite of that, they were still winners when the war was over.

I thought that strength was just as important.

"127," who called Aunt Harper. I shook my head. "Today you will be shown off."

When I cleared my throat, it hurt, and I nodded.

The show cases were awful. Being surrounded by so many possible masters every day made me feel trapped, and it didn't help that I could feel their hungry eyes on me.

They weren't really interested, of course. Not in a person like me.

I was always disliked because I was weird.

We were given light makeup—a soft powder and a tint that turned our lips the colour of cherry juice—by another girl who was called up to the display case.

They dressed us too, though not as much. We were taken down to our pants and a long white cloth was wrapped three times around our hips and once around our chests. It was important that people who might buy our forms could see them.

After that, we were put on chairs in front of big windows. We smiled at everyone who walked by, but no one seemed really interested in stopping by.

In fact, today the streets were empty. The market as a whole looked pretty dull.

Then I felt a small push, and I turned to look at the girl next to me. "Want to talk?""Why?" she asked. "I feel really dull."

She didn't look at me and spoke under her breath. We all knew how to talk without making a lot of noise. If the aunts heard us talking, they would be mad.

Before I turned my attention back to the streets, I stole another look at her.

I didn't answer.

I had already talked to this girl once. She was new; she had only been sent in a week before. Her name was Ashley. That made sense of why she was always so happy and upbeat.

Dull.

I was interested in what Ashley meant by "dull." Was she sick of this place?

That state wouldn't last long. Soon there will be a holiday for mating, and when it does, all the single wolves on the strip will rush into every slave shop to find a poor girl to mate with. Soon after, the vampires would wake up from their yearly sleep and begin their search for new blood.

However, Ashley was new to this place, so she didn't know how bad things were.

She pushed me again. "Hey, did you hear what happened yesterday?" Some of the girls heard the Aunts talking, and they said that a wolf went crazy in the market and killed a lot of slaves. Also hurt a lot of masters. They told me that the Alpha is mad about it and is going to come fix the harm.

I was interested, and it looked like Ashley's aunts weren't hearing her, so I asked, "Why did he do it?""

"No one knows," Ashley answered. Aunt Mason said he was drunk at the festival party, but Aunt Harper didn't believe her and said he must have been possessed by bad spirits.