THE BIDDING ROOM
Evelyn Ward never imagined that a routine walk home could shatter her life. Taken from her small Oregon town, she’s thrown into a velvet prison known as The Bidding Room, an elite underground auction where innocence is rare, and the most powerful men in the world come to buy it. Dressed like a doll, paraded as prey, Evelyn is thrust into a world of wealth, cruelty, and obsession. What should have ended in despair becomes the start of something more twisted - because the man who buys her isn’t a collector or a sadist. He’s something far worse.
Lucien Moretti - The Devil of Verona - rules a vast criminal empire, built on fear and blood. He doesn’t pay for what he wants. He takes it. Yet something about Evelyn stops him. A silent challenge in her eyes, a trembling defiance that speaks louder than screams. He buys her not for pleasure - but to destroy what is pure. Except she doesn’t break. And that enrages him more than he expected.
Their lives spiral in a dangerous dance of power and obsession. Lucien's enemies circle like vultures, and his own people begin to question his judgment. Evelyn isn’t just a girl anymore - she’s a symbol of his weakness, and they want to exploit that. As Evelyn is drawn deeper into the mafia world, her morality blurs. Can she resist becoming like them? Or is the darkness already inside her?
In a story of violence, betrayal, and unnatural love, Evelyn and Lucien are caught in a storm they may not survive. And even if they do - what will be left of them?
Read
Chapter: CHAPTER NINE: KorosuEVELYNThe mansion settles into night like a creature exhaling—quiet, poised, predatory. Evelyn wakes before dawn, the hour when dreams cling to the skin and fear feels closest to truth. Her throat is dry. She needs water. That’s all. Something small. Something human.The hallway is dim, lamps set low along the walls like watchful eyes. She steps carefully, barefoot, wrapped in the oversized shirt one of the maids left for her. The fabric brushes her thighs. Her breath is loud in the silence.Then she hears it.A voice. Not Damian. Not any of the staff.Lucien.Deep, controlled and speaking in a language she doesn’t recognize — sharp syllables, clean cuts of sound. Japanese.She stops moving. Freezes.Not because he’s talking. But because her name slips out of his mouth.“....Kali.”A pause. Then another string of Japanese.She doesn’t understand the words.But she hears one. Clearly.“Korosu.”She doesn’t know Japanese, but she knows the weight of a word like that. A word shaped l
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: CHAPTER EIGHT: The Space Between Your BreathEvelyn sensed him before she heard the door. A change in the air — colder, sharper — like the room itself inhaled and held its breath. She turned, and Lucien was already closing the door behind him with that quiet, deliberate finality that made her stomach drop.He didn’t knock. He never did.“You skipped dinner,” he said, voice low and controlled. No emotion. Just a fact — as if he had personally watched her not eat.“I wasn’t hungry,” she replied, keeping her tone steady.A lie. Obviously.Lucien stepped toward her, slow enough to register as a threat. His presence filled the room like smoke, creeping into every corner, refusing to be ignored. Evelyn’s pulse kicked up despite her attempts to cage it.“You’re lying,” he murmured, stopping close enough that she had to tilt her chin up to meet his eyes. He smelled of cold night air, whiskey, and something darker — something inherently male and dangerous. “Your stomach was growling halfway down the hall.”Her lips almost twitched. Anno
Last Updated: 2025-12-29
Chapter: CHAPTER SEVEN: The Quiet RebellionShe didn’t cry when the door closed behind her.She wanted to. Her bones ached with it. The sound of that girl’s screams still echoed in her head, sharp and unreal, like something buried in a nightmare that refused to fade with morning light. But Evelyn had learned something important during that terrible hour in the soundproofed chamber:Lucien doesn’t want tears.He wants fear.He wants submission.And so, she would give him neither.She walked across the room — graceful, controlled, and stood in front of the large mirror, as her reflection stared back at her. Her hands were trembling. She forced them to be still. She stared at her reflection and counted each breath until her heartbeat slowed.He wanted to break her.Fine.But he would have to earn it.Evelyn’s rebellion wouldn’t be loud. It wouldn’t be screaming, or throwing herself at locked doors, or begging to be free. That is what he expected. That is what the others must have done.And they had disappeared.Her defiance would
Last Updated: 2025-12-27
Chapter: CHAPTER SIX: A Lesson in ObedienceThe silence after Damian left wasn’t peace — it was a warning.Evelyn stood still in the center of the room for what felt like hours. Her thoughts ran in circles, looping over his refusal, over the invisible staff that moved through the walls like ghosts. She could feel them. Watching. Measuring.When the knock came, it wasn’t loud. Just one, deliberate tap on the door.She flinched.It creaked open.A woman stood there; she emerged from the hallway in a muted grey dress, her hair tightly pulled back into a severe bun. She didn’t speak. She simply stepped aside, one hand raised, beckoning.Evelyn stared.Her throat tightened. Something about the woman’s silence was… wrong, as if her presence wasn’t voluntary, as if she had been instructed not just to escort — but to deliver.“Where are we going?” Evelyn asked cautiously.The woman didn’t answer.Of course not.Evelyn hesitated, but she knew she wouldn’t be left alone again — not truly. Staying was not safe. She stepped past the thresh
Last Updated: 2025-12-27
Chapter: CHAPTER FIVE: Shadows of the CageLucien didn’t expect Kali to simply accept her fate. She was too proud for that. Too stubborn. He had seen it in the way she held herself; the way her eyes were still too wide, too innocent, had searched the room during the auction. He had known, even before she was brought to him, that she would resist.And that, he thought with a cold smile, was what made her so much more interesting than the others.But Lucien also knew something she didn’t: resistance was futile in this place. She could fight all she wanted. In the end, the walls, the silence, the space would break her long before he needed to.Still, he couldn’t help but enjoy the little tug of war. It was a game he was prepared to play, one where every movement she made would only bring her closer to his will. He wasn’t concerned. And so, while he’d left her in the silence of her gilded cage, he didn’t worry about the cracks forming within her. The cracks, after all, were inevitable.Kali, however, wasn’t ready to bend. She had
Last Updated: 2025-11-19
Chapter: CHAPTER FOUR: The Art of UnmakingLucien Saint-Croix didn’t believe in chaos.Every empire he had built, every secret he’d buried, every soul he’d bought - it was all done with exquisite precision. His world was a symphony of control, and he was its conductor.Which made her all the more dangerous.Evelyn. No.Kali.He rolled the name across his tongue as he poured a glass of whiskey, standing alone in the study, the morning light bleeding pale through the windows.Kali.It suited her better. Softer in some ways, but sharper, too. Like beauty carved from something already burned. A phoenix without wings. A girl too pure to survive the world he lived in - and exactly the kind of delicate thing he wanted to crush beneath his thumb.He didn’t want her because she was beautiful.He wanted her because everyone else did.Because when she walked into the auction room, trembling in blue silk, with that untouched look in her eyes, the world had stilled. Grown men forgot how to breathe. The arms dealer had salivated. The media
Last Updated: 2025-11-19
LOGIN
