Page 25 of Party Girl: How a Naughty Omega Finds Love
“We’ll start the bidding at four hundred dollars.”
Those words sucker punch the air from my lungs. Four hundred dollars? My eyes burn with indignation, but the alphas don’t notice. They toss out bids, not even bothering to meet my eyes.
“Seven hundred.”
“Eight,” another alpha tosses in his bet.
“Two thousand,” a sharp, feminine voice cuts over the next bid.
Eduardo makes a funny noise. “That’s not how it works,” he growls, holding the microphone away from his mouth.
I stare at the omega who came in last. Her chin lifts in defiance, and her nostrils flare.
“There are no rules except the highest bidder wins, right?”
Eduardo doesn’t answer.
“Two thousand then,” she says. “It’s all the money I have, but she’s worth way more than that.”
I swore I wouldn’t cry anymore, but this chick. Tears burn and I blink rapidly, staring at her with watery eyes.
She shakes her head, and I can almost hear her saying: Don’t let them break you.
Whoever this woman is, she’s so fierce I swallow my emotions and stand a little taller. Just because they’re auctioning us off doesn’t mean we have to be docile. Omegas are more than mates for alphas. If it weren’t for us, our society would be nothing. The hard truth is, our world is built on the fact that omegas give birth to alphas. They treat us like cattle when we should be the ones in charge.
“Ten thousand,” an alpha shouts, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Eleven.”
“Twelve.”
I don’t bother looking at any of them until the bidding stops at fifteen thousand. The alpha who bid on me has greasy blonde hair and yellowing teeth. His black suit is faded, but he’s wearing a gold ring around one of his fingers. He’s low pack… but he has fifteen thousand to drop on me. There’s no time to assess whether he’ll be nice or not because I’m pulled back into line and they begin the process all over again with Mila.
“Two thousand,” the same omega calls after a few bids.
Eduardo huffs and glares at her.
I bite my cheek to keep from laughing.
The one good thing about this auction? The woman pisses Eduardo off so much that his face turns beet red and a vein on his forehead pops out. She bids on every omega, including herself, until the auction is over.
Eduardo dismisses everyone, and the alphas rise from their seats, chatting each other up. The alpha who purchased me climbs on the stage and pays for me. His beady eyes are the color of pitch and his fingers twitch at his side. I’ve never been around hardcore drug users, but this guy is the type. He snatches his card back from Eduardo and prowls toward me.
Everything else falls away when he stops in front of me and takes a long, freakish inhale.
“Nova will love you.”
I want to ask who that is, but I don’t. I’m still not sure what to think of this man.
“I’m Curtis.” He checks me out. “I like your dress.”
My stomach tightens with unease.
He grabs my arm and walks me out of the warehouse. A lone lamp lights the parking lot. Curtis’ SUV is near the door. He manhandles me in that direction. A strong urge to stomp on his feet overcomes me, and I’m halfway to doing it when the pads of his fingers dig into my skin and he yanks me close.
“I’ll break you if I have to,” he hisses, leaning his face toward mine. His eyes are void of emotion, cold and dead. Unease skates up my spine, and I see my death in his nearly black eyes. Everything he wants to do is painfully clear in his irises. He’ll finish what he started, he won’t leave me broken like my mom… he’ll destroy me. He’ll kill me. This man is dangerous. He squeezes my shoulder a little harder. “Do I need to?”
I recoil and shake my head. That spine I’d started to grow shrivels under the weight of his stare.
