CHAPTER 2: THE AUCTION

Five years later.

Silas Kane had never begged for anything in his life. He was an Alpha. Alphas didn't beg. Alphas commanded. Alphas took.

But standing in the cold rain outside the Crimson Auction House, staring up at the black marble facade and the blood-red letters glowing above the entrance, Silas was perilously close to begging.

"Alpha." Dante Reyes stepped up beside him, a black umbrella in one hand and a tablet in the other. "We should go in. The auction starts in ten minutes."

Silas didn't move. His eyes remained fixed on the building. The Crimson Auction House was legendary in the underworld—a place where the impossible was bought and sold. Pack relics. Old grimoires. Wolfsbane weapons forged by long-dead hands. It was operated by humans. Or so the legends said. Humans that had somehow gained enough power, enough silver to make even the strongest Alpha think twice. "I still don't understand why we're here." Silas growled. "There must be some other way.

"There is not." Dante's voice was flat. “The Blackwood Pack has closed our supply lines. “We are running out of silver weapons for our warriors.” We are broke. And the Council's debt is due in thirty days." He stopped. If we don't get hold of the Moonstone tonight we lose everything.

The Moonstone.

Silas's jaw clenched. The Moonstone was a relic, a little pale gem that used to be part of the Silvermoon Pack. It had been stolen during the chaos of the rogue wars, passed through a dozen hands on the black market, and ended up here. More than gold was it worth. More than blood. It was the symbol of the Silvermoon Alpha’s right to rule. Without it, Silas was a man with a title and a dying pack.

And he had no one to blame but himself. "We could just take it," muttered Silas.

Dante chuckled. It was a cold, humorless sound. Understand? The Crimson Auction House? Alpha, with all respect, you've clearly never dealt with them before. The last one who tried to rob this place was found in twelve dumpsters in three cities.”

Silas’s wolf growled in irritation. He didn’t appreciate having his own limits pointed out. But Dante was right. The Crimson Auction House was out of reach. They said its security was supernatural. Its owner, known only as "The Silver Queen", had never been photographed, never been identified, and in the ten years since the auction house had opened, had never lost a single item to theft. "Fine," said Silas. "Let's get this over with.

They walked up the marble stairs. Doors opened before they could reach them, pulled by unseen hands. Inside, it was dark wood and crimson velvet, chandeliers dripping with crystals, the air thick with the smell of old money and older secrets.

Hundreds of people crammed the auction hall. Alphas from packs all over the continent. Old family Mafia Dons. Even a handful of vampires, pale-faced and sparkling, their eyes tracking Silas with predatory interest. He paid no heed to them.

"We've got front row seats." Dante mumbled, leading him through the crowd. "By our host."

Silas gave a frown at that. "The Silver Queen's aware we're coming?"

She knows everything.

They took a seat. Silas looked around the room, his wolf unsettled. He hated to have so many enemies about him. Three rows behind them sat Adrian Blackwood himself, the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, blue eyes cold as steel as he watched Silas with undisguised amusement. Silas bared his teeth in a silent snarl. Adrian just smiled. “Ladies and gentlemen.

The voice was all around and nowhere. It was slick. Feminine. It sent a shiver up Silas's spine that had nothing to do with the temperature.

The lights went out. A single spotlight illuminated the stage.

And Silas held his breath.

The woman behind the podium was tall. Stylish. She was dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, her dark hair pulled back into a sleek knot, her silver eyes shining in the spotlight like twin blades. She was pretty. She was frightening. And she was looking right at him. "Welcome, to the Crimson Auction House," she said, her voice as smooth as whiskey. I’m your host. You can call me the Queen of Silver."

Murmurs swept through the room. Silas heard nothing of them. His heart was thumping. His wolf was screaming. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to run, to fight, to do something—

He knew that face.

He recognized those eyes.

He knew the tilt of her head, just a little, when she was appraising a threat.

Nah. It can't be. No. She was dead. “Tonight's auction has seventeen items of exceptional rarity,” the Silver Queen continued, her eyes on Silas. "Old relics. Bane artifacts. And one thing that I think will be of particular interest to the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack."

She grinned. A predator's grin. 'The Moonstone'.

Silas’s hands gripped the arms of his chair. His wolf was going crazy. His mind was on fire. But he could not move. I could not tell. Could do nothing but stare at the woman he had killed.

Valentina.

She survived.

She was alive. And the most powerful woman in the underworld.

"The bidding will start at one million dollars," said the Silver Queen. And she was looking at him like he was dead already. "One million?

The room went up. Hands went up. There were cries. But Silas heard nothing of it. Lost in the past, lost in the memory of a nite five years ago, lost in the smell of her tears and the sound of her voice rejecting him. “I, Valentina Cross, Beta of the Silvermoon Pack, do hereby reject you, Silas Kane, Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack, as my mate and my Alpha.

He had set her free. He would have let her walk out that door. He told himself it was for the best, that she was too strong, too dangerous, too much. He'd told himself it was for the good of his pack.

He’d been an idiot. “Two million,” someone shouted. “Three million.” “Five million.”

The figures climbed higher and higher, but Silas couldn't pay any attention to them. All he could do was to watch Valentina, the Silver Queen, as she conducted the auction with the cool precision of a conductor leading an orchestra. She had it under control. She was a hard-ass. She was all he had been afraid she would become.

And she was loving every second of it. "Ten million," called out Adrian Blackwood from behind him.

Silas spun, his wolf rushing forward. "Blackwood. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Adrian grinned. It was a cold, harsh expression. "Bidding. Kane. "Isn't that why we're all here?" "You don't need the Moonstone."

No. But you do. And I'm willing to pay a lot to make sure you never get it.”

“Silas growled. His claws shot out. The room around him tightened, hands reaching for weapons, wolves ready to shift. "Gentlemen.

Valentina’s voice sliced through the tension. Both Silas and Adrian froze. "No fighting in my auction house," she said. She had a pleasant voice. But her eyes weren't. "If you want to rip each other up, you can do it outside. After the auction.

Adrian bowed his head in a mocking gesture of respect. Silver Queen, naturally. My apologies.

Silas said nothing. He just looked at Valentina, trying to find some trace of the woman he once knew. The woman who laughed at his jokes The woman who had fought with him in battle. The woman who had cried in his arms, when she thought he was asleep.

She was out. A stranger stood in her place.

“Fifteen million, isn’t it?” “Valentina?” she said.

The room was still. Adrian had a point. No one else was willing to take him on. 'Fifteen million going once.'

Silas's heart was thumping. "Fifteen million, going once.

Nope. No, no, no--

Sold. To the Blackwood Pack.

The gavel came down. The room broke into applause. Adrian Blackwood rose from his seat with a triumphant smirk on his face, and walked to the stage to receive his prize.

Silas did not stir. He couldn't." His pack was done. His legacy was dead. And the woman he had destroyed was watching him fall with those cold silver eyes.

The auction went on. More things were sold. Still more fortunes changed hands. But Silas heard none of that. He sat frozen in his chair, the minutes ticking by like hours.

At length the auction was over, and he stood upon legs that seemed wooden. Something about the debt, about alternatives, about not giving up. But Silas didn't hear. Dante was saying something.

He was watching Valentina.

She was talking to Adrian Blackwood, a polite smile on her face, her body language at ease and confident. She seemed happy. She looked so strong. She looked as if she had never been happier.

And then for a moment she looked at Silas.

Their eyes locked.

The smile was gone.

For one endless second the mask fell. Something flickered in her gaze, something raw, wounded, something that looked almost like pain. And Silas saw it.

And then it was over.

She turned her back. Walked to a door at the back of the stage. Vanished into the shadows.

Silas stepped forward. And then another one. Then he was on the move, pushing his way through the throng, deaf to Dante's protests, making for the door through which she'd disappeared. "Alpha! Alpha, wait!

He didn't wait for them.

He kicked the door open and stepped into a long, dark corridor. Valentina was at the end of it, her back to him, one hand on the handle of another door.

"Valentyna.

She halted.

She held still for a long moment. Didn't spin. Said nothing.

Then slowly she turned her head. "Alpha Kane." Her voice was cold. The area is off-limits. I suggest you go back to the main hall before security escorts you out.” “Valentina, please—”

'Please?' She turned fully and the full weight of her gaze struck him like a physical blow. “Please what, Silas? Forgive you? Do you remember that nite when you accused me of carrying another man's baby? Please act like you haven’t broken me?”

I didn't—

"What do you mean you didn't? “You didn’t mean it?” She burst out laughing. It was a hard, bitter sound. You meant every word. You said what you meant about me being so strong. When you picked Nora, you meant it. You meant it when you looked at me like I was nothing.

I was wrong.”

The words lingered in the air between them. Valentina watched him. Then she smiled slowly. "I know.

Silas blinked. "How?"

I know you messed up. I knew all along.” She walked toward him, her heels clicking on the marble floor. "But the fact is, Silas. Knowing you’re wrong doesn’t change anything. It doesn't negate the refusal. But it doesn't get back the five years I spent rebuilding myself from nothing. That doesn't make me forgive you." "Valentina—"

I'm not the woman you left behind." She stopped a few inches from him, her silver eyes drilling into his. “I’m not the Beta who trailed you like a lovesick puppy. I’m not the mate that would have given you everything.

She stretched up. Placed a hand on his chest. Right over his heart. "I'm the woman who buried that girl," she said softly. "And I'm the woman that'll watch you burn."

She took a step back. Turned. Pulled open the door.

“Wait.” Silas’s voice broke. The infant. What happened to the baby?

Valentina halted. Her hand clenched around the doorframe.

For a long time she sat perfectly still. Did not speak. The silence stretched, thick and stifling.

Then she said without turning back:

You'll know soon enough.

And she was gone.

Silas stood in the empty corridor, his heart pounding, his mind spinning. 5 years. Five years of remorse. Five years of asking myself "what if".

And now he knew it.

Valentina Cross was still alive. She was power. She was the Queen of the Silver.

And she was going to break him.