004

VIVIENNE POV.

No. No. Fucking no. Out of every nightmare that could walk through those doors, it had to be them. The Shadowcrest brothers. I could practically feel the universe laughing at me.

This wasn’t how the night was supposed to go. The plan was simple, Alpha Kai. I could break him, twist him, use him, walk free before he even realized who’d played him. But now every muscle in my body went tense, every instinct screamed, and that pathetic tug somewhere deep inside made me want to claw my own skin off.

Kane followed, six-foot-seven of scarred muscle and scar tissue, knuckles already cracked and bleeding like he’d killed something on the way here.

Ryker sauntered next, golden eyes laughing, tongue dragging slow across his lower lip like he could already taste me.

And Asher, quiet, angelic, the one who would smile while he peeled your soul out of your skin.

And as the four of them took their seats in the front row, the auctioneer’s smile twitched, nervous, and sweating. Even the other Alphas, men who would pay a city’s ransom to own me, shifted in their chairs, avoiding the Shadowcrest gaze. The power in the room was theirs now.

I swallowed, my jaw tight, fury and confusion tangling in my chest. This feeling, this magnetic pull, this heat crawling under my skin... no. Not for them. Never for them.

But my wolf whimpered, starved, pathetic, and I felt it anyway.

I forced myself to breathe, to focus, and plot. I am Vivienne Moreau, the Viper, the bitch who rules or burns every room I walk into. I am not anyone’s fucking conquest. And I will not be claimed, not tonight, not by these men who look at me like a problem, a threat, a puzzle, or a prize.

The auctioneer cleared his throat, voice trembling, desperate to get the night back under control.

“W-we resume at three million...”

“Ten million,” Dante said, calm, bored, and already done with the second he sat down.

He didn’t even raise his paddle. Just lifted one finger.

The whole room went dead silent. The kind of silence that prickles your skin and tells you it’s already over before the game even starts. Not a single Alpha, not even the most desperate or depraved, dared to challenge the Shadowcrest Pack. The auctioneer looked like he might faint from relief and terror at the same time. His gavel slammed the podium so hard it sounded like a death sentence.

“Sold! Lot 17, Vivienne Moreau to the Shadowcrest Pack. Ten million.”

The guards swarmed me fast, rough hands on my arms, chains jangling, yanking me toward the backstage. I locked eyes with each brother as I was dragged away, forcing myself to meet their gazes and promise violence with every glance. The moment stretched, snapped tight and in my head, I cussed, every language I knew, every vicious insult I could think of. Ivy surged up, weak and howling, not in fear but in warning. What I felt wasn’t a mate bond, it was worse, it was raw, wild, and unnameable. The sense that these four weren’t just trouble. They were doom, wrapped in flesh.

And my traitor body, fucking hell, it responded anyway, heat sliding low in my belly, wolf clawing for something that made me want to gag. Their scents still hung in the air, that dangerous cocktail, all power and threat, making my blood boil in ways I didn’t want, couldn’t control.

The guards shoved me through a filthy curtain and tossed a pile of scratchy, half-torn clothes at my feet.

“Put them on, bitch. You’re property now.” one sneered.

I laughed, low and ugly. “Ten million and you dress me like a concentration-camp doll? Your mothers must be so proud.”

One of them backhanded me and I tasted copper but I smiled wider. “What’s next, want me to thank you for not putting me on a fucking leash?”

They just laughed, heavy boots thudding away, not caring if I froze or bled or cursed them dead.

I yanked the rest of the clothes on, spitting venom under my breath. Pathetic. For that price, I should be carried out in diamonds, not prison rags. My mind snapped back into motion, escape routes and body counts, every trick I’d learned in twelve years running the underworld flickering through my skull. I would not bend quietly. I would not be theirs.

Those monsters would ruin me if I let them and I couldn’t have that, not for any fucking price.

I barely managed to yank the prison rags on before the sting hit me, looking I saw a dart, sharp and burning, thudding right into my side. I snapped my head around, eyes flashing pure murder, but all I saw were those four monsters, Kane lowering the dart shooter like he was bored.

“Cowards…” I hissed, legs buckling as the poison sank its claws deeper. “Couldn’t take me any other way?” I spat, knees hitting the floor but Ryker caught me before I cracked my skull.

One arm banded around my waist, the other fisted in my hair, wrenching my head back so hard my spine screamed.

“Easy, little viper,” he crooned against my ear, tongue flicking the shell. “We paid for the whole ride. No scratching the paint before we get you home.”

I tried to claw his face off but he laughed as he caught my hand, dragged my palm down his chest, over carved abs, and pressed it to the steel-hard cock straining his slacks.

“Feel that?” he growled. “That’s ten million dollars of pure fucking need. And it’s going to live inside you for the rest of your life.”

I tried to bite his throat. He shoved three fingers into my mouth instead, gagging me, pumping them like a promise while the drug dragged me under.

Last thing I heard was Kane’s dark chuckle.“Sleep tight, whore. When you wake up, the real fun starts.”