Page 7 of Purchased

I look down at her. “You are aware that you have also been purchased?”

“Yes.”

“And you want me to buy all your friends too?”

“I don’t know where they will end up.”

“You don’t know where you will end up, little one.”

I don’t care about the others. Maybe I should, but all I really care about, all I am capable of caring about at this moment, is her. My mate.

“Monsieurde Lune!”

The director of the orphanage comes down the stairs with one final interruption.

I think about killing him. I don’t know why, yet, but I am almost certain that this man should be dead. He takes girls and he sells women, and though I will not be leaving with a gaggle of unfortunates tonight, I will do something about this place.

“What is it?”

“After your most generous purchase offer, I feel the need to give you fair warning, Mr. de Lune. Don’t fuck that one until you’re in a secure location.”

I shut the car door, so she does not hear his vile comment, though it is likely too late. I have to wonder why he already has her in silver, cutting her off from her wolf nature.

“Why? She seems small and biddable enough?”

“She’s got more animal in her than any of us.”

“Not more than me.”

“More than you and then some,” he says, enjoying frustrating me. He is a fool. “Trust me, what emerges from that one when you mate her is not going to be small or biddable. You have in your possession one of the old blood.”

“Old blood?”

“Siberian original,” he says. “She looks like a mutt, but she’s…”

“If you say another word, I will rip your throat out.”

“You are from slower, warmer climes, Mr. de Lune. And yes, you have your reputation for aggression and passion, but believe me, that female you have tucked up in your vehicle is going to make you regret the moment you ever laid eyes on her.”

He pauses, as if he knows he should not say what he is about to say, but men like him always talk. It would kill them to know that there was a parting shot they could have taken and yet did not.

“Your impatience may very well prove to be your undoing. You should have waited for another auction to run. We have many sweet, pretty young orphans, mothers and fathers destroyed in various tragic ways. You have paid the most for the worst, and, sir…”

He pauses dramatically.

“There will be no returns.”

I turn and I get in the car.

My mate is cowering in the far corner, feral and terrified. I wish I could offer her some comfort, but thanks to that asshole’s crude comments, she is now very aware I could be the worst-case scenario she feared.

I can still smell her arousal, but it is mixed with anguish, and it turns my stomach.

She is my mate. She should not fear me. Ever.

She asked me to save the others, but it is not possible. None of the girls will escape what fate has in store for them tonight. None of us ever really escape our fate.

I let her have her moment. Her fear won’t be assuaged by words. It will be tempered by actions. I am not going to hurt her. I will not hurt her.

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