Bitten by the Rogue

The first thing Luca registered was the taste of blood. Metallic. Warm. His own. He jerked awake with a gasp, chains biting into his wrists as his body remembered pain before his mind caught up. Cold bars pressed against his bare back. The world swam into focus through a haze of drugged confusion - gilded ceilings, crystal chandeliers, the murmur of cultured voices. And the cage. Oh god, the cage. Luca's breath hitched as full awareness crashed over him. The alley. The needle. Those gloved hands. Someone had dosed him with enough suppressants to fell a horse and dragged him here - wherever here was. He tested the chains. Solid. Unpickable. His forgery-trained fingers, usually so deft, found no weakness in the cuffs. A voice purred from the shadows: "Ah, our sleeping beauty awakens." - The auctioneer's polished shoes clicked across marble as he approached Luca's cage. Up close, the man smelled like expensive cologne and rotting teeth. "Lot Number Nine," the man announced to the room, rattling the bars with a silver-tipped cane. "Unclaimed Omega. Twenty-three years old. Untouched." Luca's stomach twisted. He'd spent half his life hiding his secondary gender, layering suppressants over his natural jasmine scent until even betas couldn't detect him. Now his carefully constructed anonymity was being stripped away along with his clothes. The auctioneer's cane tapped his collarbone, trailing downward. "Prime breeding stock, as you can see. And that mouth?" A cruel chuckle. "Perfect for biting back." Luca lunged. The chains stopped him inches short, but not before he'd sunk his teeth into the man's wrist. - Chaos erupted. The auctioneer howled. Guards surged forward. Luca tasted copper and victory as they wrenched him backward, his spine slamming against the cage bars. Pain exploded behind his eyes, but he grinned through bloody teeth. "Little s**t," the auctioneer hissed, cradling his wrist. "You'll pay for that." A backhand sent Luca sprawling. His vision whited out for a terrifying second, the world reduced to the metallic tang of blood and the too-loud thud of his pulse. When his sight cleared, he found himself staring at a pair of polished Oxfords standing apart from the commotion. His gaze traveled up tailored trousers, past a lean waist, to broad shoulders straining against a bespoke suit. And then he saw the face. Scarred lips. A jaw that looked carved from granite. Eyes like smoldering amber, watching Luca with unsettling intensity. The Alpha didn't leer like the others. Didn't drool or posture. He simply... observed. As if Luca were a puzzle to solve rather than meat to purchase. Luca's skin prickled. "Two million." The Alpha's voice cut through the room like a blade through silk. - Silence fell. Even the auctioneer froze. Luca's breath caught as the Alpha stepped forward, peeling off one black glove with deliberate slowness. The crowd parted for him like waves before a ship. Bare hands. Only an Alpha who'd killed before went bare-handed in public. Only someone who didn't fear leaving traces. The auctioneer swallowed audibly. "M-Mr. Voss. We didn't expect—" "Two million," the Alpha repeated. He didn't raise his voice. Didn't need to. The auctioneer's throat worked. "S-sold to Mr. Voss." As guards hauled Luca from the cage, the Alpha - Voss - leaned down. His scent enveloped Luca: gunmetal and burnt sugar, dark and dangerous. "Run," he breathed against Luca's ear, pressing something cold and hard into his palm. A key. "Now." Then Luca was being shoved forward, naked and bleeding, toward a door marked EXIT. Toward freedom. Toward the unknown. He didn't hesitate. Luca ran. Behind him, the auction house erupted into chaos. Someone shouted. Glass shattered. And beneath it all, Luca could have sworn he heard the Alpha growl. Then the night swallowed him whole.