Chapter 3: Auction

IVARA

No, this shouldn't be happening. Not after everything I went through just to escape.

“Father!” I yelled, struggling with the guards who were trying to rip my clothes off me. Of course, they'd obey him, the almighty Gamma.

Father stopped in his tracks, then spun around. Even the guards paused. I hadn’t called him ‘father’ in years. I was forbidden from doing so, but I shouted it anyway, because some part of me still stupidly hoped he’d listen, just once.

“What did you just call me?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“Father…”

And then his palms met my cheeks, forcing me to sprawl on the ground. My face stung, but I smiled instead… a smile that broke into laughter.

“Hit me! Isn't that all you've got?” I asked.

My hair had covered a part of my face so I couldn't see him clearly.

“I didn't ask to be born, I didn't force you to cheat on your wife, it was never my wish to be wolfless, yet I'm blamed for it. Anything that goes wrong... it's definitely Ivara's fault! My fault!” I hit my chest.

“Why? I just want to be happy. I just want to live like others despite being wolfless, but you all would never have that. Is it at the labor camp? At school? Where haven't I been abused and looked down on, Loyd? Tell me!” I yelled.

“Chain her up! I gave orders, didn’t I?” Father turned to the guards, ignoring me.

One of the guards nodded and, with just one pull, my gown was torn out of my body, leaving me in only my undies. 

The cold air hit my skin… but the shame hit harder. I wasn’t even a slave, yet I was being treated like one already.

Another brought forward chains and right there, where I lay, the iron collar and manacles were worn on me.

“I am your daughter too, I share the same blood as you.” I muttered as the guards pulled me up by the neck yoke.

“We can't take her in, stark naked. Nobody would want to buy goods viewed by everyone. She's silver-haired already,” one of the guards spoke.

Father didn't say anything again, he began leaving.

Each step he took away from me felt like another thread inside me snapping loose.

I didn’t realize I was crying until the tears hit my collar. Not from pain. From the final proof that I meant absolutely nothing to him.

“You’d regret this, Loyd!” I yelled as I got pulled, and my lips sealed with tape.

“For forty thousand dollars!” I heard a woman's voice announce the moment the double door was pushed open by the guards.

A hundred eyes dragged across my skin and I felt too small, like I could be swallowed whole just by their stares.

It was the first time I had stepped foot inside this hall, but I had heard rumors about it.

Three sections. One section for the rich, the other for the most powerful and influential, and lastly, the eerie part without light which belonged to the people of the Dark Hound Pack. 

They bought slaves for mostly other stuff apart from breeding or being sex toys, something darker.

Everyone in this hall was from different packs, and they all wanted slaves.

I glanced at the podium where slaves to be auctioned knelt, and I noticed that I was the only one in my undies, bloody and with an iron collar. Probably the only one who used the main door.

My toes kept scraping the floor as the guards pulled me along by the neck yoke. He didn't even let me walk, he just dragged me. Even when I stumbled over, he never stopped.

“Oh, here's our human slave.” The host chuckled nervously as I was brought to the podium and forced to kneel.

“Human?”

“I thought Dark Hell only sold Omegas.” 

“Why should we buy a human when we can easily get one.” 

As if being wolfless wasn’t enough, I wasn’t even worth being a wolf's slave.

Whispers hummed every part of the hall except for the dark part. I even doubted that people were there.

As I knelt under the numerous watchful gazes, I began to waver. I was really getting sold in one of the cruelest ways.

“A virgin, a silver-haired virgin for just three thousand dollars!” The host ignored the negative comments and continued her announcement.

“I want! I want her! Ten thousand dollars.” A feminine voice yelled from that dark section, confirming that people were really there.

The hall fell silent immediately, and my heart skipped beats at that lady's yell, and soon it began racing. I thought I was going to be sold to normal wolves, not people from the Dark Hound Pack. Anyone but them.

They were rumored to be the worst buyers. No one sold to any member of the Dark Hound made it past a week. 

I had the darkest of fate, which made me wonder why I was even born in the first place.

“Hundred thousand dollars!” A husky voice spoke calmly, followed by a moment of thick silence. It wasn't as enthusiastic as the first.

And then there was an outburst in the hall.

“Prince Eryndor wants a slave?”

“It's the first time I've heard him speak.”

“The royal twins over a mere human? It seems like they know something we don't.” 

My brows knotted, what exactly did they mean? Even the host and slaves seemed shocked.

I stared around. I knew nothing about the Dark Hound Pack, only the rumors I heard about it, but with all these going on, my fear heightened. 

“Hun… hundred thousand dollars?” The host stuttered.

Unplanned hot tears burned in the corner of my eyes as I heard the host tap the hammer against the wooden board.

“A hundred and fifty.” The first female voice countered just when the host was about to speak.

The lights suddenly began flickering, and the chandelier began trembling, its crystals clinking softly like warning bells.

A forced wind that swept through the hall and snuffed out candles one by one filtered in.

The doors finally slammed open.

“It can’t be… Alpha Xlynor?”

“He's the only one who makes a dramatic entrance!”

“But he's never attended an auction before!”

Dark smoke filtered into the hall. I held my breath at the sudden dark aura surrounding the hall. It was choking, and it seemed like everyone felt it.

To my surprise, the men who had stood were ripped apart… only their hearts hovered in the air.

I gasped, falling back.

“Noises. Aish! I hate those…” A voice rumbled so low it vibrated in my bones. 

Alpha Xlynor? I knew that forbidden name… a name eerie enough to instill fear without a presence. I had never seen the person behind that name, but I definitely heard rumors.

But then, why did my heart race at the sound of that voice? Why did it sound like one I had listened to countless times? Who the hell was Xlynor?

“No one announces my presence. I do.” The voice came again, the speaker hidden behind those smokes, and then I saw it... that snake tattoo on his arm, the same tattoo that haunted my dreams every night.

Shockingly, I met his eyes and my entire existence froze all together. No! It couldn't be…