Page 39 of Dark Auctioned Mate

The possessiveness in his voice should have irritated her and sounded all her warning bells concerning independence and not being dependent on anybody. Rather, it gave her a sense of warmth and protection that she’d never felt before.

“Rael…”

“Sleep. We’ll talk later. Now, rest. You need it.”

Sighing, her eyes fluttered closed. She was tired from the heat and the sex, and the sense of safety in his arms was too great to resist.

***

It was darker in the forest than she had thought.

Alanis ran through the trees, her bare feet on wet leaves, branches snipping at her clothing and flesh. Cruel laughter from behind filled the forest.

“Oh, come on,” they said. “We just want to play, come back.”

Alanis’s foot caught a root, which threw her forward, the shock forcing the air out of her lungs. She tried to crawl up, but too many hands held her down.

“Look at her,” someone snickered. “Sixteen years and cannot shift. Useless.”

“Not entirely useless,” another voice replied, laughing. “The defective ones are preferred by the buyers. They pay more for those who cannot shift.”

“No, no,” she pleaded, struggling with the hands that held her. “No, please…”

“Would have been a good idea to consider that before you turned out wrong and useless. If you get sold, at least you’ll serve a purpose, in a way.”

The hands pulled her further into the wood, toward the clearing where she had witnessed they had the others—the girls who had not shifted and who were waiting to be sold. She tried harder, screaming, but to no avail. She was deprived of a voice; she had been robbed of it by fear and—

“Alanis! Alanis, wake up!”

She jerked awake with a gasp, her heart racing and her body covered with sweat. She did not know where she was. The room was dark and unfamiliar, and there were hands on her shoulders.

“It’s me, Alanis, it’s Rael. You are safe. You are in my house, and you are safe.”

His voice cut through the panic, making her come to her senses. She blinked, her eyes getting accustomed to the darkness, and she saw his face above her, looking concerned and worried.

“Rael,” her voice broke into sobs.

He pulled her into his arms. “Shh, I got you. You're okay.”

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I did not mean to—”

“Stop apologizing,” he gently stroked her hair, all the way down her back. “It was just a nightmare.”

She clung to him, inhaling his scent—pine and wood. Her breath slowed, and her sobs slowly turned into hiccups.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked softly.

She nibbled on her lips. Maybe talking about it would lighten her burden.

“It was about my previous pack,” she said in a hoarse voice. “Caldwell Pack—where I grew up.”

Rael didn’t say a word. He just waited for her to continue. “I told you I was shiftless. But what I didn’t tell you was what that meant in the Caldwell pack. Being shiftless was... the worst thing you could be. Better to be an omega, better to be weak. It was like you were something that the moon goddess had forgotten.”

Rael drew in a deep breath, still holding her.

“The bullying started when I was a child, six or seven years old. I was teased by other children who would call me names. The adults never interfered. They said it would make me tougher when I left the pack.” She laughed mirthlessly. “Like there was going to be a life outside the pack.”

“What do you mean?” Rael asked tightly.