Chapter 19: You Bad. Alpha Mad. Say It.

Runes that lined the walls flashed blue and an elder’s voice filled the room.

"The elimination round is closed. By authority of the Helix Repopulation Mandate, all draftees are ordered to the arena floor for Moonfire Rite invitation rulings."

There was zero question that Nova’s name was not on any invitation. There were four categories: intelligence, endurance, wolf, and fertility. Nova didn’t have a wolf, so that category was automatic fail, intelligence and endurance be damned. Fertility? Silver slashed that down.

Slaves were never invited. Only the top 20% of draftees were, actually, which was ironic, considering the whole damn point of this was to repopulate the continent of Helix.

Three centuries ago when this started, there was no elimination. Now it was something else entirely, and nobody was pretending otherwise.

Most wolves already have arranged marriages on standby. But slaves? Slaves go to the Underground auction. Illegal. You wouldn’t know, based on how open everyone talks about it. Subtle as a billboard.

The sellers have twenty-four hours to move inventory.

No buyers?

Lottery. The kiss of death with a clipboard. You either get shipped to a breeding farm where you are assigned a mate at random or you are stamped "unfit" and sterilized.

Starborne ignored the announcement like it was weather. Nova wouldn’t have cared, except the law required her to show up, and failure to appear was an instant Lottery stamp.

He didn’t move. Neither did Kai. Neither did anyone in this room, which meant the law was decorative up here.

A man to her left stood from his chair. He grabbed Nova’s chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting her face into the amber light the way you’d angle a stone to check for flaws.

A second man appeared at her right. He took her wrist without asking, turning it over to inspect the skin above the cuff. His thumb traced the rope burns. Then he spread her fingers and examined each one, turning her palm over, then back.

"Well manicured for a slave. Nails are short and clean," he commented. "Lucian’s been keeping the merchandise fuckable."

A third man ran his fingers through her hair from the opposite side, slower, like he wanted her to feel the duration. His cigar smoke clung to his knuckles and the smell crawled into her sinuses and stayed.

She stared straight ahead at nothing. There was a trick to this. Pick a spot on the wall. Stare until the room goes soft and you are no longer in it. You are somewhere behind your own eyes. She had done this enough times to be very good at it.

That was working up until one of them knelt in front of her, hands on her thighs, and sniffed. Her stomach dropped. She had to look down to confirm what she already knew. Fabric. Heat. His mouth too close.

Her eyes went wide in absolute horror.

"There she is," he said satisfied, like he needed her to watch him do it.

She took a step back from him, instinct taking over. He gripped her waist and stood before she could take another. Then he sniffed the crook of her neck.

"Take another step away from me. I dare you."

She trembled against him and the worst part was knowing he liked it because his grip tightened when it started.

The man let go and looked at Alpha Starborne. "She responds like she is untouched."

"That is because she is untouched."

"Name a price that insults me, Lucian. I want to see how serious you are."

"Five million."

The number hit her ears and her brain sent it back for verification.

"How many bids?" another man asked from the corner.

"Enough."

"I want a private inspection that she is a virgin. My own healer to confirm it. If I am paying for premium, Lucian."

"Private inspection? Absolutely. I’m not unreasonable. Half down and she’s yours for thirty minutes," Alpha Starborne said. "Until then, you’re working off my documentation, which has never been wrong, and my word, which has never been cheap."

The elder’s voice came through the runes again.

"Attention all Moonfire draftees. This is your second and final call. Failure to report will be processed as noncompliant."

Nobody in the room reacted, still looking at her.

Another man turned her face towards him slowly, and pressed his gloved finger to the center of her lips until they parted. He pressed until she gagged then withdrew and smiled with half his mouth.

He let go, wiping his glove on his trousers. "Smart only works if they are timid too. She fits. First lesson’s already in her throat."

The room laughed. Glasses clinked. Someone repeated the line to the man next to him who had missed it.

Nova’s eyes stayed on the floor. The taste of leather sat on her tongue like a stain she couldn’t swallow away.

"Six million," a third man said from his chair, swirling his drink like the number was a conversation starter and nothing more.

A fourth voice cut through from the far side of the room, amused. Bored almost.

"Come now, Lucian. Let’s have her get rejected first before we do a sale. It will be a paperwork nightmare for whoever buys her if she is assigned to the Lottery for missing the ruling."

Starborne’s mouth curved. He tipped his chin at Kai.

Kai grabbed her arm and pulled her through the room, past the masked men who were creepy as fuck, into the elevator.

The doors shut behind them.

Tears started falling again. She didn’t know where they came from because she thought she had turned off her emotions. But apparently not.

"Disgusting," Kai snapped as he looked through his holo-band. "Father said fetch the slave. ME. I could be in my seat, drinking triples like everyone else but instead I’m stuck in a box with the most emotionally unstable slave in Helix. How is this my life?"

Nova wiped her eyes with fingers that wouldn’t stop shaking and held her breath until the sob that wanted out went back behind her ribs where it belonged.

"Men upstairs want to buy you. Buy means money. Money means Alpha is happy. Happy Alpha means I get to go back to my seat. You following? Good. Now stop crying because crying means ugly and ugly means cheap and cheap means I’m back in this elevator."

The second the elevator doors opened, Kai was dragging her by the arm to the slave tunnel. "Cloak on. Shut the fuck up. I have the clicker in my pocket. Turned all the way up. You know what maxed means, right?"

Nova gave a nod.

"You bad. Alpha mad. Say it."

"If I’m bad, the Alpha is mad."

When they got to the slave tunnel door, before Nova could type in her code, Kai opened it and shoved her inside. She caught herself on the wall.

The door shut behind her with a metallic bang that rang through the tunnel. She held her breath. No footsteps. No handle turning. He was done with her. She had never been more grateful to be discarded.

Thirty minutes ago, a man had kissed her hand. Now she was on the floor of a slave tunnel with a door still ringing behind her. Both things were true. Both things had happened to the same girl. She didn’t know which version of today to believe.