CHAPTER ONE

{Lyra}

The silk around my wrists was soft, but it may as well have been steel, binding me in place like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

I stood in the center of the stage, dressed in a beautiful short ivory satin gown that did very little to hide the clear white skin of my thighs.

The entire room felt suffocating, and it made my heart pound so hard that I honestly thought my ribs might crack from the intense pressure.

As I looked out into the audience seated in rows, all I could make out were the decorative masks they wore to hide their identities and the paddles they twirled in excitement.

These people were the elite 1% of the world; billionaires, politicians, aristocrats, criminals, and worst of all… a few Alphas.

As an omega that I was, there was nothing scarier than being sold to an Alpha wolf. They were akin to monsters to us omegas. Treating us like nothing but playthings for their own sick pleasure, and there was nothing even the moon goddess could do to change that.

The audience hid behind their masks, but I could feel their lingering gazes crawling over my body with their lust-clouded eyes.

My stepfather, Victor Graves, stood beside me with a disgustingly lecherous smile plastered on his face. He lifted a glass of brandy as he basked in the attention of being the auctioneer of the underground auction house I was about to be sold in.

“Gentlemen,” Victor’s voice rang out in slick satisfaction. “Tonight, the Graves Auction house offers something truly rare. A young, untouched girl for the highest bidder.”

He gestured toward me like I was some prized possession and not a living, breathing human being. It was a good thing Victor had no idea I was an omega, I couldn’t even imagine what crazy ideas he would have come up with to have me sold to some psychotic Alpha.

“She comes from a fine mage bloodline. Beauty, elegance, and obedience…all guaranteed. Bidding starts at ten million.”

“Obedience?” I scoffed, but not loud enough so he wouldn’t hear me. “More like a trained pet.”

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms, drawing a bit of blood. My mother was a witch who had managed to escape when a wolf pack that wanted to expand its territory raided her hometown.

She settled here, in Ravenshire, one of the few cities that wasn’t under the jurisdiction of any Alpha.

My mother made an honest living as a witch doctor in this town. She crafted healing tonics, charms, potions, and sometimes, she helped to guide troubled spirits to the afterlife.

She was already pregnant with me when she ran, so I never knew my father. The worst part was that I had forever lost the opportunity to ask her about him. A few months ago, she was attacked by witch hunters on the outskirts of town, and I never saw her again.

But even with her gone, her warnings rang in my head every day. “To survive in this world, you have to keep your head down, take care of your little brother, and make sure to never, ever expose the fact that you’re an omega.”

I looked down at the golden bracelets around my wrists, which, unknown to anybody, were the reason I appeared as a normal human. 

My mother had given them to me as a birthday gift on my sixteenth birthday three years ago. They were enchanted bracelets that masked my powers and hid my presence from other wolves.

But with her gone, Victor saw me as nothing more than a fucking payday.

And now here I was, standing on the very stage where he had auctioned illegal weapons, human and werewolf lives, and secrets powerful enough to start horrific wars. 

But this time… he was going to sell me.

A paddle suddenly went up.

“Fifteen million.” a short grubby old man in a gold mask called out. Even with the mask on, I could sense his incredibly perverted gaze on me.

“Twenty!” called another, and I let out an inaudible sigh.

“Thirty!” The old man yelled out, grinning from ear to ear.

“Fourty!”

“Fifty!”

I bit down hard on my bottom lip to keep from screaming. The numbers climbed higher and higher as the masked men casually raised their paddles, acting like they weren’t bidding over a person’s life.

“One hundred million.” 

I swayed on my feet. “One hundred million dollars?”

That rich old man was willing to pay a fortune to own me. I laughed at how naive I was, he was only willing to pay a fortune to do whatever he wanted with me. I could already imagine him grabbing at me with his grubby, dirty hands, and it made me want to scream even more.

The bids had reached a level even these men considered excessive, yet, the paddles continued to rise, and that old man was at the forefront of this crazy bidding war.

A bead of sweat trailed down my spine as pure disgust washed over me. I wanted to yank my arm out of Victor’s grip and run away, but his hand tightened on my arm, and his nails dug deep into my skin.

I held back a wince and tried harder to free myself, but an omega like me stood no chance against a beta wolf like Victor.

“One billion dollars.”

The entire room immediately quieted. You could hear a pin drop, and it would sound like a nuke went off. The insanity of such a number completely crushed the air from my lungs, and I blinked, quite sure I had misheard.

A platinum bidding paddle was still raised high up in the air.

I forced my gaze upward, past the sea of masked figures, until my eyes locked onto him.

The second I laid eyes on him, an enthralling scent wafted into my nostrils. It was musky and pine, with a hint of spice, yet there was a sweetness to it. It had a dominant yet homely feel to it—by far the best thing I had ever inhaled in my life.

My eyes widened, and my breath immediately caught in my throat as I felt the electricity crackle in the air between us, flooding my nerves. “Alpha.”

I could feel my wolf growling deep inside of me, begging me to close the distance. She yearned for him in a way I didn’t believe was possible. I closed my eyes to calm the raging storm brewing inside of me, but even as I opened my eyes again, nothing had changed.

He was dressed in a sharp, black suit, his cold gray eyes were very much visible even in the dark lighting of the auditorium. There wasn’t the slightest hint of emotion on his face whatsoever, and that’s when I realized that he was the only person not wearing a mask.

He didn’t even look like a man who had just acquired a new asset. Especially not one that cost him one billion fucking dollars.

A shiver crawled down my spine.

Victor’s smug voice rang out seconds later. “Sold to Mr. Bloodhound.” The gavel slammed down, and my fate was sealed.