Page 53 of Betrayed Auctioned Mate

“Still no movement,” she repeats when asked again, her voice slightly unsteady this time as she relays the information to Percy over the comms. It’s the fifth time the B-Team has asked in the last hour.

“We’re close now,” Percy’s voice crackles back through the speaker. “Keep us updated.”

Keira nods even though he can’t see her. I catch her glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. She turns off the receiver as if to speak to me, then pauses and gives up.

The pack is almost at the foot of the mountain now. And we haven’t helped a bit.

The clock reads 11:55 when something flickers on one of the camera feeds. A blur of motion—quick, almost too quick to notice.

I lean forward, squinting at the screen. A bird flits past one of the windows in the grainy stream, just a shadow against the night sky. It happens so fast, it’s easy to dismiss.

But something about it feels off. My instincts start screaming at me.

“Keira,” I say, my voice low. “Wind the feedback by sixty seconds.”

She frowns, confused, but does as I ask. The screen flickers back, and there it is again. The bird. The same exact motion. The same exact shadow.

My heart drops. “It’s a loop.”

Keira’s eyes widen, realization dawning on her face. “Shit.”

“They’ve gotten into our system,” I mutter, slamming my fist against the table and standing. “The cameras aren’t showing us what’s really happening. We’ve been blind this whole time.”

Keira barely has time to respond before the first gunshot shatters the night.

The sound is deafening, reverberating through the walls of the safe house. A window shatters, and glass explodes across the room.

My body moves on instinct, pulling her down to the floor and wedging my body in front of hers, already trying to assert where the shots are coming from.

North—the woods. They probably have us surrounded.

“Stay low!” I shout, my hand already reaching for the gun strapped to my side.

Keira is right beside me, her own weapon drawn, eyes wide but focused.

More shots follow, rapid and precise. They tear into the walls and furniture around us. My ears start to ring. Whoever they are, they’re not amateurs and are not afraid of anyone calling the authorities.

They know exactly where we are, and they’re not holding back.

We crawl across the floor, keeping our heads down as we scramble for our nearest cover—the heavy oak table that once held our set-up, now flipped on its side, its contents scattered across the tiled floor.

“Two shooters,” Keira shouts to me as another shot rings out and wood chunks hurtle through the air, pieces of what was once a chair leg. “North and north-northwest.”

I glance at her, seeing the fear in her eyes, but also the determination. She’s not the same girl who stood on that auction stage, trembling and lost, her fate at the mercy of men who would sooner have killed her than set her free.

“We’ll make them regret it,” I promise her, gripping my gun tighter.

And then they’re on us.

The first merc bursts through the front door, a hulking figure clad in black tactical gear. Human, I think—a gun for hire.

I don’t hesitate. I fire two shots, center mass, and he goes down before he can even raise his weapon. But more follow, flooding into the room like a tide of violence.

Keira moves with deadly precision, her shots finding their marks as she takes down two more mercs in quick succession. I’m right there beside her, our movements in sync as we fight our way through the onslaught.

The air is thick with gunfire, the acrid smell of smoke and blood filling my lungs. I don’t know how many of them there are—ten, twenty, more? It doesn’t matter. We’re outnumbered, but we’re not outmatched.

A merc lunges at me from the side, a knife flashing in his hand. I sidestep at the last second, driving my elbow into his throat and slamming him to the ground. He gasps for air, but I don’t give him a chance to recover. My boot connects with his jaw, and he goes limp.

---