Page 9 of Purchased

She shakes her head and shrugs at the same time. “I don’t know. I know nothing good is going to happen to any of us. I don’t want to think about…”

“I did not pay ten million dollars to hurt you,” I tell her. “Even if you do not trust me, trust that nobody burns that much money for fun.”

“Is ten million even a lot of money for you?”

She’s smart and perceptive. I threw that money out there like it was nothing because it really is very little compared to what comes and goes through the businesses I own. The de Lune pack has been fortunate over the centuries, and under my care, our wealth has only increased.

“It’s more than I want to throw away.”

She gives a little shrug, almost as if she doesn’t care if she believes me or not.

Her long, dark hair falls over her face as she hides from me, but when she does risk a glance or a full stare at me, she is quite exquisite, with strong features, big brown eyes, a prominent nose, wide mouth. Her teeth flash when she speaks, the upper edges of her mouth curling up over canines she doesn’t yet understand the significance of.

She makes me feel alive inside, my beast surging for her. I remember how she felt over my lap, her body pressed against mine, taut with desire and resistance in equal measure.

“What is your name?”

She looks at me with an expression of mistrust. “It will be on the paperwork, I guess, assuming you get any when you buy a person. Do you get a license? There’s got to at least be a receipt, no?”

This young lady is not going to be forthcoming with personal information. I can already tell this is going to be a struggle in many ways. I did not come to this auction to take an unwilling mate. My expectation was always that when the bond was felt, both parties would be equally affected.

I never banked on having my mate be a young woman straight from what seems to be to be one of the most traumatizing situations one can be raised in, not to mention buying her against her will, being seen as a part of the ongoing horror, not a release from it.

I will be patient with her.

It does not come naturally to me, but I can be patient, sometimes.

I will be everything I am not used to being—for her.

“I will not harm you,” I tell her. “Your life is going to be very different now.”

She looks at me skeptically. “You already hit me.”

“I spanked you because you made a scene in front of dozens of people who I have to keep up appearances in front of. An alpha who cannot…”

“Alpha.” She rolls her eyes and makes a small, but unmistakable jerking off motion with her hand. I almost smile at her rudeness. She thinks I am someone who listens to too many podcasts and believes in a pack of wankers who define themselves by abusing women.

“You’ll understand why I use that term in due course,” I tell her. “But I don’t mean it the way you think I do.”

* * *

Beatrix

My captor is very handsome. Charming. Rich.Contained.That last word comes to my mind, flashing through it in neon. I don’t know what he has inside, but I know he is accustomed to hiding it.

He’s very, very attractive. Dark curling hair, expressive silver-gray eyes just light enough to reflect the light. He has elegant bone structure, a long, lithe body with plenty of power behind it. He looks like he was bred by royalty. Given he was just in a modern slave auction, I suppose there’s some chance he is royalty of one kind or another.

I felt his power when he handled me, when he spanked me like a little girl, when he made it clear that there was no choice for me to do anything other than submit to him. My ass is still tingling from his punishment, and other unspeakable parts of me are tingling and pulsing and… I am so physically confused right now.

He is a mystery. I have to hate him, because he touched me roughly, not to mention bought me. He is the final act of the hellish play I’ve been trying to avoid since I worked out what the orphanage really is—a front for human trafficking.

He was there to buy someone.

He bought me.

He’s not a good guy. I can’t let myself think that he is just because he makes my heart race and my lower belly and inner thighs squeeze instinctively together when I look at him.

This is what men do. This is what they are like. Matron warned us plenty of times not to be caught in the company of men outside the orphanage. She told us that they are capable of terrible things, and would likely defile us, take our virginity. I didn’t really believe her, right up until I did.

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