Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 87848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
I am here because I am nearly thirty years old, and if I do not find a mate and start breeding up a family soon, my pack will revolt. An unmated alpha is a liability in the eyes of the de Lune pack.
I have not been lazy in my search. I have searched for my mate high and low. I have attended parties, mixers, suffered endless matchmaker events, even tried an app created by an enterprising young shifter called Howl. I am beginning to think that there is no female in this world made to suit me, that fate has left me the youngest ever alpha of the pack with nothing but decades of solo aging ahead of me.
They start to bring the girls out. The first one is a pretty blonde in an old-fashioned dress. Her voice wavers as she introduces herself nervously. I don’t think they knew what they were going to get when they came here. I scent confusion as well as fear.
The auctioneer is the orphanage director, a tall man with a belly that speaks to indulging amply in beer. His hair is thinning and his skin is marked with ill health. His power lies in collecting helpless females and selling them. A more grotesque creature does not exist.
“Let’s start at ten thousand euros,” he says. “Do I have ten?”
The bidding is immediate. She is just a human, so half the crowd stays silent. The human men looking for a virginal young women place their bids until finally she is turned in. Another girl follows, and then another. They are all pretty, all innocent, all deserving of better fates than this, but we wolves are waiting for the one of our blood.
I think I am starting to pick up her scent. I think we all are. I feel the stirring of the crowd, shifters starting to show interest, aware that we are all competition for one another.
“Now we have the last of the evening, a spirited girl who requires firm handling,” the auctioneer says, his jocularity at odds with the state of the poor creature who is dragged bodily onto the stage with a silver collar around her neck.
She is not pretty in her current state. She is a dirty, bloodied mess. She is ferocious and she is feral—and I am immediately in love.
You can spend a lifetime looking for something… someone. You can search so long you become certain the thing you are looking for does not really exist. And then, all of a sudden, there it is, as perfect as you imagined, and immediately feeling as though it has always been there, as much a part of you as your own heart.
She is mine.
Instantly.
Irrevocably.
Entirely.
She is mine the way my hand is mine. She is a part of me I did not know I was missing until this very moment.
I feel elation and outrage in equal measure at her treatment.
She looks like she’s been fighting. Not just tonight. Her whole life.
I am immediately, desperately, violently drawn toward her. Every single one of my senses focuses on her as if she were the only creature left in all creation.
The other, better presented girls are nothing. Not even wallpaper. They are background static. She is everything.
I know in this instant, there will never be anything, or anyone other than her.
I stand up and lift my voice above the hubbub of the crowd yet to be brought to order by the auctioneer who is still fussing with the sheet and the gavel.
I say one word, my voice ringing out across the crowd with complete conviction as I claim her.
“Mine!”
There’s a brief pause from the crowd, and then some laughter as those who are human mistake me for a foolishly effusive man. The shifters are quieter, but watchful. They may not be reacting as strongly, but that does not mean they will not try to lay a claim.
“Please, Mr. de Lune. The auction will proceed in an orderly fashion.” The auctioneer tries to impose the schedule, but I do not care about schedules. I do not care about anything other than her.
Some might be patient, let the auction start, feign disinterest, bid as low as possible. I will be doing none of those things. My passion is too intense, and my need is too great. This is not a time to hold back. This is the moment to go all in.
“I want her now. If anyone so much as dares to think about so much as bidding on her, I will kill them.”
There’s a ripple of indulgent laughter from the crowd. Some of the shifters understand the hunger I am experiencing. They wish the same thing for themselves. They wander the world, disappointed at how every pretty, smart, suitable girl is somehow lackluster because she is not the one. I was one of them just minutes ago. Now I am forever changed.