Chapter 2

Ronan’s POV

“The auction has been moved to ten minutes from now. The guests are waiting and ready to receive the goods.” A voice said from behind calmly, making the man standing in front of me sigh deeply, like I ruined the schedule, before rising to his feet.

“Grab him,” he ordered and before I could even process what he said, two men stepped forward and clamped their hands around my arms. Their grip was brutal, with their fingers digging in hard enough to leave bruises as they dragged me forward.

“No, no, no, please, no!” The words ripped out of me as I panicked. I twisted, kicked, jerked my arms hard, trying to pull free, but they only tightened their grip.

I opened my mouth to scream again but someone shoved a disgusting sock into my mouth, choking me and cutting off my voice instantly. I gagged, thrashing wildly, but I couldn’t spit it out. Then something rough, like a dirty sack was pulled over my head and I was in darkness again.

My breathing turned desperate and loud inside the suffocating sack. I tried screaming, but nothing came out except muffled noise trapped against fabric. I fought against them until my muscles burned, my lungs screamed from lack of air and until my body gave up on me and that was when it really hit me that I wasn’t getting out of this. No matter how hard I fought and no matter how loud I screamed, there was no escape.

At some point, I just stopped moving and my body went limp, not because I accepted what they were doing, but because I had no strength left to fight. They dragged me like dead weight and I let them because I didn’t have a choice anymore.

Time stopped meaning anything as they continued to drag me forward. It felt like forever before faint classical music reached my ears. The sound didn’t fit what was happening to me, and that made my skin crawl. With every step, the music grew louder.

Suddenly, I was shoved forward and dropped hard to my knees, making pain shoot up my legs. Someone ripped the sack off my head and yanked the sock from my mouth. I sucked in air so fast I almost choked, blinking hard as my eyes adjusted to the bright lights above me.

When my vision finally cleared, I froze because I found out that I was inside a cage, not a small one, but a big metal cage big enough for animals. My head snapped left and right as I tried to understand what I was seeing because this wasn’t anything like the auction that I had imagined. The room was bright and expensive-looking. Also, tall chandeliers hung from the ceiling and every corner of the room screamed wealth. Tables were lined with glasses of wine and food and every single guest in the room was a man.

Every single one of them wore black suits and ties, like they belonged to some secret society. They looked powerful and dangerous, like the kind of men who could ruin lives and sleep peacefully afterward. Some were laughing, drinking wine while others chatted casually but most of them were staring straight at me.

Their gazes crawled over my body, slow and greedy, like they were already thinking about what they’d do with me. I felt naked even though I was fully clothed and all I could feel was fear, disgust and anger.

This didn’t look like an auction. This looked like a rich men’s dinner party and the only difference was that I was the main course. My eyes moved around and that was when I realized I wasn’t alone in the cage.

Two boys knelt beside me, their wrists chained just like mine. Their faces looked hollow and pale. Across from us, three girls sat huddled together, their heads bowed. They were breathing but barely moving.

My throat tightened as I realized that it was going to be me soon. Give it a few hours and I’d look exactly like them, empty.

I turned a little, looking at the boy closest to me. His clothes were filthy and torn, bruises covered his skin like someone used him to practice punching. He looked like he had already been to hell and back.

A quiet sigh slipped out of me before I could stop it. I didn’t know this boy and didn’t owe him anything but seeing him like that made me feel pity for him.

But pity wasn’t going to save anyone and this wasn’t the time to feel sorry for anyone. I needed to think about myself and how to escape but fear wouldn't let me think straight.

I tried to stop my mind from running wild with different thoughts but one thought kept repeating in my head. Were all these men gay? Or were they just fucking monsters?

Because nothing about this looked normal. What kind of man paid money to own another human being? What kind of man got entertained by this? The thought turned my stomach.

I swallowed hard and made the mistake of looking up straight into the eyes of a small group of men standing on the left side of the room. Their stares were the worst and filled with pure hunger. The kind of hunger that came from the darkest place inside someone, where no humanity existed. They didn’t see me as a person, they saw me as prey and I knew that if I ended up with any of them, I'd be doomed.

I tore my eyes away from them and looked straight ahead and that was when I saw him, the man sitting alone.

He sat alone at a table near the back, calm in a room full of predators. While others laughed and raised their glasses, he didn’t move much, he just swirled his wine slowly, watching me with unreadable eyes.

There was nothing lustful in his stare, and that made it worse. Every other man in the room looked like he wanted to touch, own, or destroy, but this one looked like he was studying me, like he already knew how the night would end.

Even from across the room, I could feel his control. He was handsome, but not in a way that felt safe. There was something too perfect about his stillness, too deliberate about the way his gaze held me. His sharp jaw, broad shoulders, and tanned skin made him look like he was carved out of danger.

I didn’t know who he was, but every instinct in me screamed that I should.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” a low voice muttered beside me. “There’s no way he’d buy you.”

I snapped my head toward the boy by my side. He was smirking, like he already knew something I didn’t.

“Why would you say that?” I asked sharply.

He didn’t answer and just smirked again, like he found something funny in my confusion and looked away.

I shouldn’t have cared but I did. Why did it matter if that man bought me or not? Why did a part of me feel… disappointed? What the hell was wrong with me?

I turned back to look at the mysterious man again but he was gone.

I searched the room, my eyes scanning every table and face but he had disappeared like a ghost.

Before I could make sense of anything, one of the men who brought me in walked to the cage and unlocked it. He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet.

“Where are you taking me?” I demanded, my voice shaky despite how hard I tried to sound strong.

He looked at me and smirked.

“You’ve been sold.”

My breath caught in my throat and my heart thumped painfully in my chest. The room around me blurred into meaningless shapes as the words repeated in my head again and again.

My knees nearly buckled, and for a moment I couldn’t feel my own body. It was like my mind detached from everything, refusing to accept what was happening… but the tight grip on my arm, pulling me forward, forced reality down my throat.

I wasn’t a person anymore, I was property.

And whoever owned me now… would decide whether I lived or died.