Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 87848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Did the orphanage teach you that you were special, or different from other young women?” The director mentioned her Siberian heritage. I wonder if she knows what that means. I wonder if she knows why she had a silver collar around her neck to stop her from shifting. The director clearly knew, though I don’t think his use of it was appropriate or necessary.
She frowns. “No. It did not. They made it clear we are inconveniences fortunate to be fed.”
I have to assume she doesn’t know what she is. She doesn’t know where she came from. She doesn’t know what makes her special. She doesn’t know why she and I are so deeply connected. I will have to explain all of this to her at the right time. Now is not the moment to reveal something so monumental to a clearly traumatized young woman who wanted to flee.
“What did you want me for?”
I hesitate for a moment. I could say I liked the look of her, but that is not the half of it. I could tell her I was drawn to her, but likewise… My hesitation gives her the opportunity to fill the silence with her own theory.
“You look rich enough and handsome enough to get a girl the usual way. So I guess you’re going to eat me.”
“Eat you?”
“Eat me,” she repeats. “Or hunt me for sport.”
I narrow my eyes, confused. “What makes you think…”
She shakes her head and shrugs at the same time. “I don’t know. I know nothing good is going to happen to any of us. I don’t want to think about…”
“I did not pay ten million dollars to hurt you,” I tell her. “Even if you do not trust me, trust that nobody burns that much money for fun.”
“Is ten million even a lot of money for you?”
She’s smart and perceptive. I threw that money out there like it was nothing because it really is very little compared to what comes and goes through the businesses I own. The de Lune pack has been fortunate over the centuries, and under my care, our wealth has only increased.
“It’s more than I want to throw away.”
She gives a little shrug, almost as if she doesn’t care if she believes me or not.
Her long, dark hair falls over her face as she hides from me, but when she does risk a glance or a full stare at me, she is quite exquisite, with strong features, big brown eyes, a prominent nose, wide mouth. Her teeth flash when she speaks, the upper edges of her mouth curling up over canines she doesn’t yet understand the significance of.
She makes me feel alive inside, my beast surging for her. I remember how she felt over my lap, her body pressed against mine, taut with desire and resistance in equal measure.
“What is your name?”
She looks at me with an expression of mistrust. “It will be on the paperwork, I guess, assuming you get any when you buy a person. Do you get a license? There’s got to at least be a receipt, no?”
This young lady is not going to be forthcoming with personal information. I can already tell this is going to be a struggle in many ways. I did not come to this auction to take an unwilling mate. My expectation was always that when the bond was felt, both parties would be equally affected.
I never banked on having my mate be a young woman straight from what seems to be to be one of the most traumatizing situations one can be raised in, not to mention buying her against her will, being seen as a part of the ongoing horror, not a release from it.
I will be patient with her.
It does not come naturally to me, but I can be patient, sometimes.
I will be everything I am not used to being—for her.
“I will not harm you,” I tell her. “Your life is going to be very different now.”
She looks at me skeptically. “You already hit me.”
“I spanked you because you made a scene in front of dozens of people who I have to keep up appearances in front of. An alpha who cannot…”
“Alpha.” She rolls her eyes and makes a small, but unmistakable jerking off motion with her hand. I almost smile at her rudeness. She thinks I am someone who listens to too many podcasts and believes in a pack of wankers who define themselves by abusing women.
“You’ll understand why I use that term in due course,” I tell her. “But I don’t mean it the way you think I do.”
Beatrix
My captor is very handsome. Charming. Rich. Contained. That last word comes to my mind, flashing through it in neon. I don’t know what he has inside, but I know he is accustomed to hiding it.
He’s very, very attractive. Dark curling hair, expressive silver-gray eyes just light enough to reflect the light. He has elegant bone structure, a long, lithe body with plenty of power behind it. He looks like he was bred by royalty. Given he was just in a modern slave auction, I suppose there’s some chance he is royalty of one kind or another.