LOGINAurora’s POVFor a second, neither of us moved.The parking garage faded into nothing but noise somewhere far behind me, voices echoing faintly off concrete walls while the girls were hurried toward safety, but I couldn’t focus on any of it.Not when Damien was standing right in front of me looking like that.His shirt was stained with blood in places, some of it his and some clearly not, the sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms like he had stopped caring hours ago. There was dirt smeared near his jaw, a cut near his temple, and exhaustion buried deep beneath the sharp focus in his eyes.But he was alive.That thought hit me harder now than it had inside the auction hall.Alive.Real.And standing right in front of me.My chest tightened so painfully it almost stole my breath.And the way he was looking at me—God.It felt like he was trying to make sure I was real too.His gaze dragged over my face slowly, lingering on every bruise, every sign of what had happened to me while I was
_Aurora’s POV_The alarm kept blaring through the building, loud enough to make my head pound as the red lights flickered overhead.Everywhere around us felt unstable now.The calm, controlled atmosphere this place once had was gone completely, replaced with panic, smoke, shouting, and the distant sound of gunfire echoing through the halls.And somehow, in the middle of all that chaos, I had become responsible for over twenty terrified girls staring at me like I knew what I was doing.Shit, I didn’t.I was terrified too.But there was no time for me to fall apart.Antonio moved toward the stairwell first, gun raised carefully as he glanced downward.“Clear,” he muttered after a second.“Move,” I said immediately, waving the girls forward.They started moving again, packed tightly together as we hurried down the stairs.Some were crying openly now.Others looked too shocked to even react properly anymore.The girl beside me—the one from the auction stage—stayed close enough that our sh
_Aurora’s POV_Chairs scraped violently across the floor as people shot to their feet. Glass shattered. Someone yelled for security while another man stumbled backward so quickly he knocked into an entire row of seats.The guards reacted almost immediately.Hands reached for guns and voices started overlapping all at once.“What the hell is happening?”“Get the exits!”“Lock this place down!”My pulse slammed wildly against my ribs as panic erupted around us, but through all of it Damien stayed unnaturally calm beside me.Like this was exactly what he had been waiting for.A gunshot rang out somewhere near the entrance.The sound cracked through the room so loudly that several girls screamed.Then another shot followed.And another.People ducked instinctively as the room dissolved further into madness.The men who had been sitting comfortably moments ago now looked terrified, scrambling over themselves to escape while guards barked orders over the noise.I turned toward Damien sharp
_Aurora’s POV_My stomach twisted painfully as I stared at her. “Damien…” I whispered again, my voice shaking as I grabbed onto him, my fingers digging into his arm this time. “We can’t leave them… please…”The words rushed out of me before I could stop them, my gaze flicking between him and the stage.“I can’t—” My breath hitched. “I can’t just walk out of here and pretend this isn’t happening.”Because I had just stood there.I had just been in her place.And I knew exactly what she was feeling.The fear.The helplessness.The way it felt like no one was coming.My grip tightened. “Please…”For a second, I wasn’t even sure what I expected him to say.Damien had come for me. Not for everyone else.I knew that. I understood that.I didn’t know what he had planned, I didn’t even know how he knew I was here x But still—I couldn’t walk away.Not like this.Not after seeing it.Not after knowing what would happen to them if we did nothing.There was a brief pause.And then I felt his h
_Aurora’s POV_“Two hundred million.”The voice rang out in the room, and bery onr pausing mid motion. What? The auctioneer seemed frozen in place, his practiced smile faltering for the briefest second. Two hundred million? Someone was putting in that amount of money? I could see the look of anger on the old man’s face, the red spreading through from his neck up. His lips parted and closed, the he vein in his forehead popping. And then slowly, heads started to turn. I could hear the murmurs as everyone was wondered who was going to spend that amount of money on an another human. Initially, I didn’t want to follow. I didn’t want to see who my ‘owner’ supposedly was. I knew that if I looked, ut would break the fragile control I had of the situation and remind me that I was really unable to save myself. But my body betrayed me.My heart raced as my gaze shifted, dragging across the room past unfamiliar faces, until it settled on the source of the voice. I had already ignored ho
Aurora’s POV“They’re here,” she whispered.The words pressed down on ys, almost suffocating me. I almost stumbled, nearly loosing my balance.This was actually happening right now. For a second, no one moved. Then the door at the far end opened.“Bring them.”My heart slammed into my chest. The same woman with the clipboard didn’t even raise her voice. She didn’t need to. The guards moved immediately, stepping forward, ushering us into motion before hesitation could take root.My heart started pounding frantically, my fingers digging into my palms as my legs moved. Each beat felt deliberate, like my body was bracing for something it already understood.We were led out of the room in a line.To be honest, I almost apllauded them.. almost. They didn’t need a chain or rope. But we did exacrly ewhat they wanted. Fear was more than enough for tbis. The hallway stretched longer this time, or maybe it only felt that way because every step forward felt like stepping deeper into some







