The Alpha’s Bought Luna

Chapter4

Ava's POV

I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did. After they dragged me through the iron doors of the auction den, my world turned even darker. The air was thick with sweat, blood, and despair. There was no light, only flickering torches on damp, cracked walls. Every step echoed with pain, every breath tasted like rot. I didn’t cry, there were no more tears left.

They took my clothes first.

Ripped from my body like they meant nothing. I was forced to stand still as cold hands held me, inspected me, and whispered things I didn’t understand. They looked at me like I wasn’t even human, just an object, a product.

Then came the branding.

They didn’t warn me, didn’t explain, one of the guards gripped my arm while another pressed something hot against the skin just below my collarbone. The burn was sharp, slicing through flesh, down to my bones. I screamed. I couldn’t help it, it felt like fire eating me alive. The scent of burning flesh made my stomach twist.

“That’s the mark,” one of them muttered. “Now she belongs to the black market.”

Belong? No, I belonged to no one. But they didn’t care about that. In here, no one did.

Days passed, or maybe it was weeks, I couldn’t tell. There was no sunlight in the cages, just iron bars and the sound of chains dragging on the floor. I wasn’t alone, the room held many of us, caged like animals. All Omegas, all broken.

That’s where I met Kira.

She was in the cage next to mine. Her hair was tangled and her lips cracked, but her eyes, her eyes still had fight in them.

“You are new,” she whispered through the bars one night, her voice rough from thirst. “Don’t let them see you cry. They like that.”

I nodded slowly, too weak to speak. I had already learned that the hard way.

“They beat the ones who scream too loud,” she added. “And if you try to run…” She glanced down at her leg, a long scar stretched from her knee to her ankle. I understood.

I tried to be strong, I tried to stay awake, to plan, to hope. But my body didn’t listen. The floor was cold, the food was worse than scraps….Once, I found a dead insect in the bowl. Water came once a day, barely enough to keep me alive, my stomach twisted in hunger, my skin was covered in filth and bruises.

But what hurt most wasn’t the hunger or the pain.

It was the silence.

The silence inside me, where my wolf used to be. She was quiet, gone. Maybe she was as broken as I was.

*******

The day finally came, they called it auction preparation.”

That was their way of saying they were going to dress us up like dolls and send us to the stage to be sold like meat.

The handlers yanked me from the cage. My legs shook as I tried to stand. I stumbled, and they laughed.

One of them shoved a thin, torn dress into my hands. It was more like a rag than clothing, I changed in front of them, ashamed and shivering. The fabric clung to my skin, exposing more than it covered.

They didn’t care, that was the point. I wasn’t Ava Harlow anymore. I was just Omega 71, that was the number burned into my collar.

“Smile when you get up there,” one of the guards sneered. “The Alphas pay more for the ones who look innocent.”

I didn’t respond, I had no innocence left to give.

The auction room was massive, circular, with rows of shadowed figures seated above. The stage was bright and cruel, a spotlight hit my eyes as they shoved me forward, bare feet scraping against the wooden floor. I didn’t look at the crowd, I couldn't.

My heartbeat beat too loudly. My body was numb.

“Next up,” The auctioneer said, his voice loud and oily. “A rare find, young, untouched, fallen from grace. Omega 71.”

I didn’t flinch, not even when they mentioned my past.

I stood still, head bowed, mind far away. I imagined I was somewhere else. Back home, back when my mother still hummed lullabies and my father ruffled my hair. Back when I believed in love. In mates.

Not anymore, someone called out a price, another one shouted higher. The bidding started, and voices overlapped. Money flew like dust in the wind. Numbers I couldn’t understand, all for me. Like I was nothing more than a prize.

I closed my eyes, I told myself I would not cry. I told myself this was not the end….And then… everything stopped.

A silence spread across the room like a sudden chill, even the auctioneer paused mid-sentence.

I opened my eyes, confused, and that’s when I saw him. A man standing at the edge of the crowd, dressed in all black. Tall, still, dangerous. His eyes burned like silver fire in the dark, he didn’t speak, didn’t blink, just raised one gloved hand.

Whispers began. Murmurs filled the room like rising smoke.

“Is that…?”

“No way…”

“That’s him-”

The auctioneer’s hands trembled as he leaned into the mic.

“We… We have a new bid. An outrageous one. Ten times the last offer.”

The room gasped, I didn’t understand. Who was this man? And why did everyone fear him?

“Sold!” the auctioneer blurted before anyone else could speak. “To Alpha Kael Nightshade of Blood Haven.”

The name echoed in my ears, Alpha Kael Nightshade. Feared, ruthless, untouchable. I felt my knees buckle. My breath caught, the chains rattled as the guards stepped forward to pull me away.

My last thought before the darkness returned was simple.

What have I just been sold into?