Eyes Behind the Mask

"Never! I will not put on this costume," I shouted, struggling against the guards’ tight grip as they held me firmly.

"Put it on now, or face the consequences," the Rouge King’s mistress barked, tossing the outfit at my face with a sneer.

She is Nora, a notorious slut.

She is known for targeting young she-wolves like me, and makes them ready for Rouge king's auction house.

Nora grinned, enjoying how angry I was. I looked at her thick makeup and the short, tight dress she wore, then at the tiny lace outfit she threw at me. My throat tightened. The thought of putting it on made my skin crawl. I turned my head away, refusing to touch it.

My hands curled into fists, and my jaw tightened. Every time I thought about the Rouge King, anger rose in my chest. He captured and auctioned abandoned and helpless she-wolves to satisfy a beast’s sadistic lust, as if we had no feelings at all.

I had seen many prisoners being taken away by guards every day.

Last evening, a fellow prisoner, slightly older than the others, told me that these unfortunate souls were abused daily by sadistic men to break their spirits and prepare them to serve their future masters. So far, I had been spared from that fate.

Today, I had no luck. Guards had said Nora was brought in specifically for me. She had a reputation for achieving her goals by any means, and as a captive, I had no advantage against her.

I won’t give in…" The words came out shaky, barely more than a whisper after hours of struggling.

Nora’s lips tightened with irritation. She gave a brief nod, and the guard’s whip cracked across my back.

Ah!” I couldn’t hold back the sound as pain shot through my back. Nora’s smirk widened when she saw me flinch.

"Natalie Myers, you’d do well to be obedient. Nobody will care about these bruises if you keep fighting," Nora said, pressing her heel into the back of my hand.

Pain shot through my back, but I refused to bow. I had survived worse in the Blue Moon Pack. I had decided long ago to fight for my dignity, and I would not give up now.

That’s even better…” I forced the words out between clenched teeth as another lash hit my back.

Growing frustrated with my resistance, Nora took the whip herself. Each strike cut deeper, and before I knew it, darkness took over.

"Nora, stop! She might not survive!" one guard warned.

"Then let her die. I’ve had enough of her disobedience," Nora snapped.

“Then be ready to face the consequences from my lord. He arranged her auction today for a reason. Some big shots are on their way,” the guard said.

As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I heard bits of Nora and the guard’s conversation.

“Ouch…” Cold water hit my face, making me jolt awake. Nora had thrown it to wake me up as the noise from the auction grew louder, signaling it had started.

Here’s a simpler, more showing version without metaphors or extra adjectives:

I blinked and looked around. The room was small, and the rough metal dug into my wrists and ankles. The outfit was already on me.

I glared at Nora, but she only smiled cruelly and lifted her eyebrows. “How does it feel?” she mocked, pulling something in her hand.

“Ahh, ouch…” The collar around my neck tightened. A leash hung from Nora’s hand. I knew this collar stopped werewolves from using their instincts.

“What’s the point of this collar, Natalie, when you can’t even shift?” I whispered to myself. I never had any luck. Even now, I was trapped here, and it felt like life was laughing at me. Bitterness grew inside me, no matter how hard I tried to stop it.

I grew up in the Blue Moon Pack. The former Alpha and Luna took me in when I was a child with no family.

I thought they cared about me, but I was wrong.

From the start, the pack made me feel unwanted. The pups teased me, the women gossiped, and the elders looked down on me. Every day, I cleaned the pack house, cooked, and did all the chores. My hands were always sore, but no one ever thanked me.

They said I was lucky to be Asher’s mate. That was the only reason they adopted me. Andrew and Sofie Wood, the former Alpha and Luna, often told me that once I found my wolf, Asher would mark me, and I would become the Luna. I believed them and waited for that day.

But my wolf never came, even after my twentieth birthday. After that, Asher changed. He gave up on me like I didn’t matter. He started hurting me in every way he could. I tried to move on from the pain of his rejection, but what he did next was even worse.

He sold me to the Rouge King’s auction house like I was an object he wanted to get rid of. I still remember the way he looked at me when he did it. Cold and uncaring. That moment broke something inside me.

Now I was chained and beaten, just another captive waiting to be sold. My life had always been hard, but this was worse. Even then, a small part of me refused to give up.

“Asher, I’ll never forgive you,” I whispered as tears filled my eyes. I didn’t have time to think about my pain for long.

"Now, it’s time to present the most exquisite gem of the Rouge King’s collection," the auctioneer’s voice boomed. I forced myself to stand, swallowing hard to summon whatever courage I had left.

The whip hit my back again, and I gasped as the sharp pain spread through me. A guard yanked the leash, forcing me to crawl onto the stage. It was the Rouge King’s rule that every she-wolf be shown to her buyer like this. I wanted to fight, but my body obeyed even when my heart refused.

The lights on the stage were too bright, burning against my skin. I could feel every eye on me. Their stares moved over me, and my body tensed. I tried to pull the scraps of the outfit tighter, but it made no difference. The heat from their gazes made my stomach twist, shame flooding through me until my hands started to shake.

I kept my head down, unable to look at them.

Then I noticed one face in the crowd. A pair of sea-green eyes behind a black mask met mine. He didn’t look away. There was no hunger in his gaze, only calm. His mouth curved slightly, and something about him felt different from the rest.