3

I threw up in the car.

It was just bile because there was nothing left in my stomach, but I couldn’t stop my body from trying to reject everything that had just happened.

A man had bought me. Actually bought me with money like I was a car or a piece of furniture.

“Here.” The stranger…my owner, handed me a bottle of water without saying anything about the mess I’d just made on his expensive car floor.

I took it with shaking hands, not because I wanted to accept anything from him, but because I was so dehydrated I felt like I might pass out.

“Thank you,” I whispered, then immediately hated myself for being polite to the man who’d just purchased me at a human trafficking auction.

“What’s your name?”

I looked up at him for the first time since getting in the car. Even in the dim lighting, he was devastatingly handsome. He had the kind of bone structure that belonged on magazine covers, and the most beautiful striking green eyes I have ever seen.

“Why do you care?” I blurted out.

“Because I asked.” His voice was calm, but there was something underneath his tone that suggested I really didn’t want to find out what happened when he had to ask twice.

“Anna.” I replied.

“Anna.” He repeated it like he was testing how it sounded. “I’m Ace Lantslov.”

My blood turned to ice. Everyone knew that name. Every werewolf pack in existence knew that name.

Because the Lantslovs weren’t just lycans, they were THE lycans. The royal family that had ruled over lycans and werewolves for centuries, and owned almost every pack here.

Of course he would spend that much on me when he was practically a billionaire.

“Oh…” I whispered, suddenly cowering in fear as I thought of what the hell I had gotten into.

I was quiet for the entire ride, hoping that Ace Lantslov didn't decide that he wanted to stop and rip me apart in shreds halfway. I was so terrified because I had never been this close to a lycan without protection.

Lycans were dangerous, and they hurt werewolves a lot. Especially the darn bikers from the biggest biker gang in the world, which was unfortunately owned by the lycans.

A few moments later, and the car was pulling up to what looked like something out of a fairy tale. Not the type that I was expecting. It was large stone architecture with a lot of pillars that held the building together.

I could see people moving around the grounds even though it had to be past midnight. It made fear crawl up my body and I felt like I wanted to puke once again.

“Come on.” Ace got out of the car and walked around to my side to open my door.

“I can’t.” The words just bursted out, my voice shaking. “I can’t do this. Whatever you paid for me, whatever you think you bought, I can’t do it.”

Ace crouched down so we were eye level, and I got my first good look at his face. He was beautiful, but it was a cold kind of beautiful.

“Anna, look at me.” He whispered, his hot breath fanning my face.

I didn’t want to, but something in his voice made me obey.

“You have two choices. You can come with me willingly, or I can carry you. But either way, you’re coming inside. The only difference is how much dignity you have left when we get there.”

Jaw dropped, I knew that I only had one choice. I climbed out of the car on unsteady legs and followed right behind him into his home.

The front doors were massive, probably fifteen feet tall and carved with designs that hurt to look at directly. They opened before we reached them, and I found myself in an entrance hall that looked like it belonged in a museum.

But I barely noticed all of that. All I could focus on were the two men waiting at the bottom of the stairs.They looked almost exactly like Ace, but different enough that I could tell them apart.

One had longer hair that fell into his eyes and a scar cutting through his left eyebrow. The other was slightly taller with tattoos covering his arms.

And the moment I saw them, something impossible happened. Nyra went absolutely insane.

‘Mate’, she howled in the back of my mind. ‘Mate, mate, MATE.’

But that was impossible. My jaw was almost dropped once again as I tried to silence her, hoping that she was just being mischievous and did not actually mean it.

“Hello, little wolf,” the one with the scar smirked, his voice rougher than Ace’s. “I’m Cade. The quiet one is Rhett.”

“You are as pale as a ghost,” Rhett studied me, his eyes squinted. I noticed that his voice was gentler than his brothers’. “When’s the last time you ate?”

I couldn’t remember. Before the wedding? Had I eaten anything yesterday morning?

“I don’t know.” I mumbled, still in shock.

“Ace,” Cade said, not taking his eyes off me. “She looks like she’s about to pass out.”

“I’m fine,” I said automatically, even though I very much wasn’t fine. Nothing about this was fine.

“You’re not fine,” Rhett said softly again, and Nyra swooned annoyingly. “You’re exhausted and traumatized and probably in shock.”

The kindness in his voice shocked me. I’d been expecting cruelty here after being bought in a place like that, but what I was not expecting was to be treated with concern.

“What do you want from me?” I whispered.

The three of them exchanged a look that confused me for a moment.

“You are ours, little wolf. Our mate,” Cade muttered, his eyes studying my face. I shook under his gaze because he looked like he was about to slice my eyes out of their sockets. “All three of us.”

My eye brows shot up in surprise, “What? That’s impossible. People don’t have three mates.”

“Rare, but not impossible,” Cade muttered as he walked over to me, his presence looming over me.

My wolf was telling me to run. But she was also telling me something else, something that made my skin burn and my heart race. They really were all my mates. It felt different from what I thought a mate bond would feel like.

It was soft, like I could trust it. And I hated that I felt that way about people that just bought me from a human trafficking ring.

“I can’t handle this. I can’t handle three of you.” I shook my head as I backed away, but Rhett moved to block my path, not threateningly.

“You’re right,” Ace replied, “But let’s not worry about that already. Let us take care of you now, then we can fill you in tomorrow.”

“Take care of me?” I raised a brow.

“Yes. You’re tired, exhausted and scared,” Ace groaned as he hovered all around my neck, sniffing me like I was a flower. “And your scent, it’s addictive. It’s ours.”

Maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was shock, maybe it was just the mate bond flowing in my blood, but I nodded. They led me up the staircase to a large room. It had a massive bed, fireplace, and large windows that had beautiful views of the landscape outside.

“This is your room,” Ace welcomed me, wrapping a hand around my waist.

I felt my stomach hollow out at the feeling, and blood rushed up my cheeks.

“Mine?”

“Ours,” Cade corrected with that dangerous smile. “But you would sleep here. Except when we want to fuck you, if you can handle it at all.”

My cheeks burned as I looked down at the bed, imagining what it would feel like to be with them. “I don’t… I mean, I’ve never…”

“Never what?” Rhett asked gently.

“Been with three people at once.” The words came out in a rush. “I don’t know how this works.”

“You don’t have to know,” Ace said, moving closer. “You just have to trust us.”

“The last people I trusted helped to raise me and then they sold me at an auction.” I almost rolled my eyes at the word trust. I did not have that in me anymore.

“And we bought you at that auction,” Cade pointed out. “Spent a fortune to make sure no one else could have you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re ours,” Rhett answered simply. “You always have been. We just had to find you first.”

He reached up to cup my face, and I didn’t pull away as he kissed me. His kiss was gentle and soft, like he was afraid I was going to disappear. He wrapped his hands around my waist as he pushed me to the bed, hands hovering all over me, sending heat down to my core.

My heart throbbed as I felt his hands hanging low around my waist, pulling the band down. He let me go, and before I could catch my breath, Ace was kissing me. It felt electric and overwhelming, like I was being struck by lightning.

The mate bond snapped into place, and suddenly I could feel his emotions as clearly as my own. I could feel the protectiveness and possessiveness, something I had never felt with Adrian before.

It felt new and consuming. Cade started from my legs, trialing kisses up my leg until he got to my core, and he peppered kisses around the crotch, purposefully teasing my sensitive areas. I squeezed my legs as my back arched, pleasure ripping through me.

“Fuck, you smell so good.” Cade whispered as he rose up and right when Ace was done, he kissed me too. Dangerously so, his hands fisting my hair as he claimed me like I was the only one in the world.

Ace’s hands were on my breasts and kissed them through the fabric. He leaned forward, and I felt his thick length press against my leg. I moaned as he grinds his length against me, raising my hips up in a desperate attempt for him.

I could feel how wet I was, soaking through my underwear while their lips hovered all over me, turning me on.

“Please,” I groaned, shutting my eyes close tightly. “Please…”

“Please what?” Rhett asked, his soft tone whispering against my ear, sending goosebumps scattering all over my skin.

‘Fuck me.’ Nyra moaned in my head, but I pushed it to the back of my head.

I might be painfully horny, but I was not stupid.

“I…”

“You will be begging for it soon, little wolf. But we will not give it to you. Not until you pass.” Cade finally rolled off me and Nyra groaned from the lack of contact. I already missed him touching me, which made me want to smack myself in the head.

I felt like I was in heat as my core throbbed hard and fast, aching for them.

“Pass what?” I asked, breathing hard as I sat up on the bed, looking up at these three men that were my mates. It felt wrong, but it also felt like the most right thing to ever happen to me.

They shared that look of knowing between themselves again before Ace sighed, “You will be filled in. For now, just clean yourself up before you soak the bed, little wolf. You’re dripping.” He smirked down at my shorts, and heat raised to my cheeks once I realised how aroused I was.

After that, they left and I laid back on the bed, thinking of the deep mess I had just found myself into. Getting betrayed by Adrian and wanting to get fucked by the men that bought me like a damn jewellery was not in my bucket list, and yet it happened.

I did not know what to feel about it yet.

VERA’S POV

I was coming back from my morning run when I saw her through the window of her room.

A new girl, standing and wearing nothing but a silk robe and looking like she owned the place. My blood froze from anger.

“Who the hell is that?” I asked Marcus, one of the guards who’d been here for a very long time.

“New arrival,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “Ace brought her back last night.”

“Brought her back from where?”

Marcus shifted uncomfortably. “Some kind of auction, I heard.”

An auction. They’d bought another woman at an auction. Another one of the girls that they will break and kill because she will not have what it takes to be the luna of the lycan pack.

But that wasn’t what made my hands shake with rage. It was the way she was standing, looking confident and glowing. She really thought she could waltz in here and take spot as the future luna of this pack.

“She’s just some random werewolf. She can’t be…” I started to speak, then I stopped myself.

I reckoned she would be here for less than a week before she is taken to an early grave. In the three years I’d been here, I’d watched a dozen women try and fail to handle even one of the Lantslov brothers.

They’d all died screaming, their bodies unable to process that much power that comes with mating with alphas that were lycans. I did not have any bone to pick with her, but I only felt bad as I watched the innocent little thing look around her room.

If only she knew what was coming next for her.