Chapter 52: One Hundred Million Reasons Why

The head elder raised his hand and the clearing quieted, though the quiet was the quiet of people who were listening because they wanted to hear what came next, and the quiet of compliance was a memory.

"The slave designated Registration 7709 did not draw a ceremonial flame color during the blood offering. By the laws of this ceremony, she has already been eliminated."

The crowd booed so loudly that three elders covered their ears.

The elder raised his hand higher. "She is to be returned to Alpha Starborne to manage as he sees fit. If she is not rehomed within twenty-four hours, she will be sent to the Lottery per protocol. That is how this works."

Rehomed. The word was doing the heavy lifting of a much uglier verb and everyone in the clearing knew it, including the elder who had chosen it specifically because sacred ground required sacred vocabulary even when the transaction was profane.

Maverick Emberclaw looked at Nova in Derek’s arms, then across the clearing at Alpha Starborne. "Forty million. I will wire it to you before I leave with her. Your daughter can go to Thunderfang. Everyone wins."

Derek Thunderfang looked at the Emberclaw Alpha for a long second, then at his brother, then back at Emberclaw.

"Nailed the pitch, Emberclaw. The confidence is staggering. The self-awareness is nonexistent. The delivery was meh. Could use some work."

The elder raised his hand again. "The Underground auction is conducted off sacred ground. We are not negotiating the sale of property at the Moonfire Rite. This is consecrated earth." He looked at Derek. "Put 7709 down. All draftees are to remain on their feet per mandate protocol."

"Problem with that," Derek cut in. "How many people just heard the elders say that 7709 was eliminated from the Moonfire. Show of hands?"

Hands went up across the draftees with the exact energy of a classroom that just watched the class clown fact-check Mr. Satan into a coma.

"Not a draftee. No rules. If Alpha Starborne has a problem with me holding her then that’s a different story. But I’m about to buy her so I think it’s only fair that I test-drive the merchandise."

"All Alphas are to remain at their packs at all times. All three of you return to your packs," the elder continued, ignoring Derek’s point. "We have one more draftee who has yet to receive her chosen match."

"I’m not an Alpha, Elder. But I agree with you. These two should go back to their packs."

Alpha Starborne was frozen solid, the posture of a man whose plans got torched by what looked like dollar-store bombs, triples that wrecked his pack, a slave being treated like she came with a trust fund, a son scrolling his holo-feed like this was intermission, and a daughter who’d officially run out of Alphas.

"Interesting night. My property has apparently appreciated in value. That’s my business, not yours. What’s everyone’s business is that my daughter, a silver-flame princess, is still standing in the rain without a mate. Celeste gets paired. Then I’ll entertain offers for the asset."

The queue behind Celeste dissolved before it formed.

"Forty-five million. And a thirty-year exclusive trade corridor on the eastern hovergrid lanes. Your pack has been trying to get access to those routes for a decade. I’m handing them to you tonight," the Thunderfang currently not holding her called. The one who’d helped her earlier in the day and kissed her hand and iced her bruised cheek.

The pain that had been racking Nova’s body finally had eased enough that her eyes opened. It was raining hard. What the Alphas were offering for her was something she didn’t quite understand. Or her brain refused it because it didn’t feel real. It was happening to another glowing girl. She pulled out of Derek Thunderfang’s arms, so quickly, he hadn’t realized she had done it.

She stepped away from him on legs that were wobbling but vertical-ish.

Derek looked down at his hands, then back up at her. The expression on his face communicated this arrangement was not going to work for him.

He reached out to hook her around the waist again at the exact same moment Landon and Maverick Emberclaw did.

Emberclaw got there first, pulling her back against his chest then locking both arms around her like she was gravity, and letting go meant floating into nothing.

She looked down at Maverick’s arms around her and blinked a few times. Her shoes had left the ground. An Alpha was holding her against his chest. Maverick Emberclaw. What was this.

"Fifty million," Maverick called to Starborne. "She is out of your hair tonight. Your pack gets liquidity you haven’t had in three fiscal cycles, your daughter gets matched without the distraction, and the girl who has been causing you public relations nightmares since the elimination round disappears into Emberclaw territory. Clean break. No headlines."

"Seventy-five million," Derek called without looking away from Nova.

Nova closed her eyes for a second, the pain making a second trip through her body as every muscle contracted. If Maverick wasn’t holding her, there was zero question she would be hunched over.

The number registered somewhere in her mind. But it was too big. She had zero things she could offer these Alphas and didn’t understand why they wanted her. She was a slave in silver cuffs with no wolf, no bloodline, no political value, and a face that currently featured a bruise. The bidding made no sense. The only explanation was that the fire had broken something.

"THIS IS SACRED GROUND. NOT A TRADING FLOOR. WE ALREADY SAID THIS."

"ALPHAS, YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF CEREMONY PROTOCOL. RETURN TO YOUR PACKS."

"One hundred million," Maverick Emberclaw said.

The clearing gasped as a collective organism, the sound punching through the elder’s yelling like a fist through wet paper.

Nova grunted softly, her muscles contracting again. But she heard the number. She couldn’t look up at his face because he was holding her against his chest and her visual field was limited to his collarbone and the Emberclaw insignia on his shoulder.

"HAS EVERYONE LOST THEIR MINDS?" An elder was on his feet, tablet abandoned. "She is a SLAVE. A silver-cuffed, wolfless, unranked slave. Why would an Alpha of the second-largest pack in Helix pay one hundred million for livestock?"

Maverick Emberclaw turned towards the elder panel and the crowd and every wolf watching from every section, and when he spoke, his voice carried the weight of a man who had made his decision long before right now and was done pretending otherwise.

"She is my fated mate. I knew before the ritual even started."