All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE BEAST: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Caspian had known before the auction even began. The connection wasn’t new to him. It had been a distant pull for years... fractured, unstable, impossible to locate. Every lead had gone cold until my scent appeared in the system logs tied to the illegal auction network. That was the moment certainty replaced search. Iwasn’t a possibility, I was already his. The auction wasn’t where he found me. It was where he finally reached me.This much he told me in the SUV ride that lasted thirty minutes.Thirty minutes of Caspian's hand between my legs, fingers stroking through soaked fabric while I tried not to make a sound. Tried not to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much my body was betraying me."You're so wet," he murmured against my neck, his breath hot. "And you're fighting so hard not to show it. I can feel you clenching, trying not to come on my fingers. It's adorable.""Fuck you," I gasped."Soon." His thumb found my clit through the fabric and pressed hard. "Very soon. But f

Caspian's kiss was brutal and claiming, his tongue sweeping into my mouth like he was trying to devour me whole.But that wasn't what stole my breath.It was the feeling that came with it.Heat flooded through me... not just arousal, but something deeper. Primal. Like every cell in my body was waking up and screaming yes at the top of their lungs."Not here," David said urgently. "Claiming takes time you don't have. They're two minutes out."Caspian broke the kiss, both of us breathing hard. "Where?""Safe room. Basement. Steel reinforced, soundproofed, no windows. You'll have maybe an hour before they breach it.""That's enough." Caspian grabbed my hand and followed David to a section of floor that looked no different from the rest.David pressed his palm against a hidden scanner, and a section of concrete slid aside, revealing stairs descending into darkness."Go," he said to Caspian. "I'll hold them as long as I can.""You'll get yourself killed...""I'm already dead." David smiled

I should have felt trapped. That was the logical reaction. Everything about him was too fast, too absolute, too final.But the bond didn’t give me space for logic. It pressed emotion into everything... fear, relief, heat, instinct... until nothing felt clean enough to separate. I didn’t know if I was being taken or chosen. Only that my body had stopped treating those two things as different.I woke slowly, caught between sleep and something heavier, more aware. For a few seconds, I couldn’t figure out what felt different. Then it settled in.The room wasn’t mine.And I wasn’t alone.The air carried a faint warmth, the kind of heat left behind by someone else’s presence, and it pressed against my skin like a warning. My eyes opened to sunlight spilling through tall windows, streaking across the floor in gold and white. The quiet hum of the morning should have been calming, but instead, it amplified the steady, unmistakable feeling of being watched.Caspian lay beside me, propped on one

The penthouse was in one of those buildings where the lobby alone probably cost more than most houses.All marble and glass and doormen in uniforms that looked more expensive than anything I'd ever owned. David pulled up to the front like we belonged there, handed his keys to the valet, and walked in like he owned the place."Confidence sells the lie," he muttered as we crossed the lobby. "Act like you belong and nobody questions it."The doorman barely glanced at us. We made it to the elevators without incident."Penthouse is floor forty-two," David said as the doors closed. "Alexei bought the whole floor. Three bedrooms, two guards minimum. Possibly more.""So louder than the motel," I said."Definitely louder." Caspian checked his gun. "Which means faster. Get in, kill everyone, get out before building security shows up.""That's the plan?" I stared at him. "Get in, kill everyone?""You have a better one?"I didn't. W

We left for Baltimore at midnight.David drove despite Caspian's protests about his shoulder. "I've driven with worse injuries. Stop babying me.""You got shot two days ago.""And I'm fine. See? Arm works." David demonstrated by flipping Caspian off. "Now shut up and let me drive."I sat in back going through the intel we'd gathered. The Baltimore safehouse belonged to someone named Viktor Kozlov, one of the five hunters. Former Russian military, specializes in demolitions. The kind of guy who probably had the whole place rigged to blow if things went wrong."This feels wrong," I said, staring at the building schematics David had pulled up. "Five trained killers in one location, waiting for us? It's too convenient.""It's arrogant," Caspian corrected. "They think numbers make them safe. That we won't risk hitting five at once.""Maybe they're right.""They're not." He twisted in his seat to look at me. "Because we're not walking in the front door like idiots. We're going to be smart a