Sold For Three Thousand Coins

Chapter Two

A throbbing, heavy ache pounded behind my eyes as my senses slowly crawled back to life. 

The first thing I noticed was not the pain in my broken hand, but the suffocating, heavy smell of sweat, rust, and iron chains thick in the air.

I blinked open my heavy eyelids, expecting to see the white ceiling of my mother's room

Instead, thick black iron bars framed my vision.

I was on my knees, shoved inside a narrow cage barely large enough for my body. My reddish Fox tail was crushed awkwardly beneath me, and heavy, cold metal cuffs clamped around my wrists, chaining my hands to the floor of the cage.

Panic surged through me. I rattled the heavy chains, my ears pinning flat against my head as I looked around through the dark, murky room.

I was not in the palace. I had no idea where I was. But I knew I was in a massive, underground chamber filled with hundreds of dark figures seated in shadowed tiers. Down below, a brightly lit wooden stage stood surrounded by heavy guards carrying long leather whips.

“Five hundred gold coins for the young Fox shifter,” a loud, booming voice echoed through the hall.

“Seven hundred,” a rough voice shouted from the front row.

“One thousand gold coins,” another called out from the back.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. Prices. I kept hearing prices. What was happening. Where was I.

Confused, terrified, and gasping for air, I tried to pull my mind back through the heavy fog. I remembered being in my mother’s small room, resting on her bed after three days of starving in the iron cell. My hand was wrapped, and my mother had brought me a bowl of warm, sweet vegetable soup to help me regain my strengths.

“Drink it, my sweet boy,” she had whispered softly, her eyes filled with sorrow. “Dominic brought it himself. He said it was an apology from him and Silas.”

My eyes widened in the dark as pure horror hit me with brutal clarity.

It was the soup. Dominic had personally delivered that soup.

And I had been so desperate, so starved, that I ate every last drop without a second thought.

They had not just framed me, this time 

the realisation was that my own stepbrothers had drugged me in my mother’s room and sold me away into an underground beast market.

“Two thousand gold coins,” the auctioneer roared, slamming his wooden gavel onto the pedestal. “A rare Fox shifter with soft fur and royal bloodlines. Do I hear two thousand five hundred.”

Tears of pure horror spilled down my face. I yanked wildly on the chains, the iron digging painfully into my bruised skin. Let me go. I tried to scream, but my throat was so dry and ruined that only a raw, muffled rasp escaped my lips. 

Nobody in the crowd cared. To them, I was nothing but some slave and a property.

“Three thousand gold coins,” a deep, grating voice echoed from the dark balcony above the stage.

The entire auction house fell dead silent. And the auctioneer paused, his eyes widening in shock as he looked toward the high balcony. 

“Three thousand gold coins from the honorable guest in the shadows. Going once. Going twice.”

The heavy wooden gavel slammed down.

“Sold to the noble Black Panther,” the auctioneer announced, his voice vibrating through the large room.

My heart slammed hard down to my ribs, did I just hear a black panther? Before I could process what next would happen.

The heavy lock on my cage clicked open. Two massive, heavily armored guards stepped forward, grabbing the thick iron chain attached to my neck collar and dragged me violently out of the cage onto the wooden stage. My weak legs gave out instantly, and I collapsed onto my knees, shivering under the burning glare of hundreds of greedy eyes.

Heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed across the wooden stage, vibrating through the floorboards right into my chest.

A tall, towering figure stepped out from the shadows into the bright torchlight. He was massive, built like a fortress of muscle, with rough, harsh features that made my stomach turn. Dark, jagged scars crossed his jawline, and his eyes were a piercing, unnatural gold that glowed with dangerous power. I had heard the auctioneer call him a Black Panther, but looking at his cruel, unfeeling face, I did not care who he was. I hated him instantly. He looked like an ugly, terrifying monster.

He possessed a suffocating predator aura that forced my Fox instincts into immediate submission, pushing my body to tremble no matter how hard I fought to stay still.

The huge man stopped directly in front of me, looking down at my broken, dirty form as if I were nothing more than a useless item he had just purchased on a whim.

He slowly crouched down to my level, his immense shadow completely swallowing me.

He reached out with a heavy leather-gloved hand, catching my chin in a bruising grip and forcing my tear-streaked face upward so I was forced to look directly into his terrifying golden eyes.

A dark, arrogant smirk spread across his lips, revealing sharp, menacing fangs.

“Look at what I just bought,” he purred, his deep voice scraping against my ears like gravel, laced with pure, sickening dominance. “My new little toy.”

I tried to pull my face away from his grip, but his thick fingers only tightened around my jaw, digging painfully into my skin.

“Do not pull away from me,” he warned, his tone dropping low enough to vibrate against my skin. 

“You belong to me now, Fox. Your life, your breath, your very existence is mine to control. If I tell you to look at me, you look at me.”

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stare into those awful, glowing eyes. My heart beat was so fast that I thought it might burst through my ribs, but I refused to let him see me cry. My stepbrothers had broken my body, but I would not let this ugly, terrifying beast break my spirit.

“Take him to the carriage,” the massive man ordered, finally releasing my jaw and standing up to his full, towering height. “Throw him in the back with the cargo.”

The guards yanked the chain attached to my neck, forcing me to stumble forward as they dragged me off the brightly lit stage. The cheers and murmurs of the auction crowd faded behind me as I was pulled down a long, dark corridor that smelled strongly of wet earth and fear.

They dragged me outside into the freezing night air and shoved me violently into the back of a large wooden carriage. I hit the hard wooden floor with a painful thud, pulling my bruised knees tightly against my chest as the heavy metal doors slammed shut behind me.

Total darkness swallowed me once again. Then the carriage lurched forward, carrying me to a place I did not know, far away from my broken mother, and straight into a nightmare I could not wake up from.

I wrapped my arms around my shivering legs, burying my face into my knees. The beast had paid a fortune for me, and judging by the cold, possessive look in his eyes, he was going to make sure he got exactly what he paid for.