Page 60 of Dark Auctioned Mate

“Exactly.” Rael grabbed her hand. “I want you to use your experience from the Caldwell pack to try to find out where they are. So, we can make sure they will never be able to hurt another human being.”

Alanis stared at him for a beat and noticed something she had been too stubborn to acknowledge.

This wasn’t the man who’d bought her at an auction. This wasn’t the Alpha who had forced a bond on her. This was a person who was concerned with justice, who felt her pain and wanted to make her feel better. This was someone who wanted to save other women. This was someone she could fall in love with. Although she had a feeling that she was already halfway there.

“You would do this for me?” Her voice cracked. “You would find those who hurt me years ago, even though it may make your mission more difficult?”

“It does not make the mission more difficult when they are included in what we are already hunting.” He smiled ruefully. “And yes, I would do it. I would do a lot of things for you, Alanis. More than you know.”

Alanis thought about Deva. About Lumen, waiting for her to finally come back. Deva said the door would always be open to her.

She imagined what kind of life she could live there—it would be good work, people who knew about her trauma and her skills. People who gave her the opportunity to save other women.

And then she thought about what Rael was offering—the possibility of sharing her demons with a person standing by her side, rather than having to fight alone.

The conflict she felt about these two different warred within her.

“Tell me everything you know about Caldwell Pack,” Rael said, grabbing his phone from the nightstand. “All the details you can recall. Places, names of some pack members, anything that would help us trace them.”

Alanis took in a deep breath and started talking. She told him about the pack’s original territory in northern Montana, the dense forest where they’d hidden their operations. She described the Alpha—Gavin Caldwell as cruel and pragmatic, who’d built the selling operation from a desperate measure into a profitable business.

She also told him about the pack’s beta—a woman by the name Dominique, who was in control of training the shiftless girls. Then about the hunters who’d served as guards and enforcers, and the purchasers who would visit the auctions, down in the woods where nobody would ever discover them.

Rael was an active listener. He asked lots of clarifying questions, jotting stuff down on his phone. And, as she spoke, she watched his face grow darker, his jaw hardening with each word.

“Every quarter, auctions were conducted,” Alanis continued. “Spring, summer, fall, winter—always on the full moon, because Gavin thought he needed the ‘blessing’ of the moon goddess.”

“These timelines are similar to the smaller networks we’ve traced.”

Alanis felt her stomach sink. “You’re sure?”

“All the auctions we have found have been on or around a full moon. We figured it was only superstition or custom, though, if the Caldwell Pack began it, and they are carrying it on…”

“Then the full moon time was Gavin’s idea,” Alanis concluded. Meaning Caldwell Pack wasn’t just a part of the network. They started it. They were behind it all.

All this time, she thought they had broken up and disappeared ever since she ran away. But they’d grown and expanded. They transformed their small, pack-based operation into one that spanned across several states, destroying the lives of myriads. If only she’d connected the dots earlier. All these years, she could have…

“This is not your fault,” Rael grabbed her hand. “I know what you must be thinking, but you had no idea they were going to grow this way. You were trying to survive. Make a new life. You did nothing wrong.”

“But if I had looked more and urged the Lumen to continue searching rather than believing that the trail went cold and—”

“You were sixteen years old and traumatized. And even then, it is not you who committed the crimes your old pack committed. It was them, and we will see they are made to pay.”

He showed her a map on his phone, zooming in on the north of Montana. “Show me where the territory was, precisely.”

Alanis traced the map with her finger, recognizing features she knew—a certain mountain summit, a turn of a river, a ghost mining town that had been at the eastern edge.

Rael pulled up property records, saying, “This is one that has been bought by a private corporation in the past five years or so. The company is incorporated in Delaware. It is known to provide privacy to shell companies.”

“Can you trace who owns it?”

“August can. He is better at this than I am.” Rael shot him a quick text and glanced at Alanis. “If this is them, and Caldwell Pack now works under corporate cover, then that is why they have managed to remain so secret. They are not registered as a pack anymore, but a business.”

“A business dealing in human beings,” Alanis said bitterly.

“Which we’re going to shut down,” Rael said firmly. “We will locate them, collect evidence, and bring them to justice. Gavin Caldwell and all those who were involved in his operation will be punished. I promise you that.”

Alanis looked at Rael, the determination in his eyes almost knocking the wind out of her. The Lumen had taught her how to fight her own battle and never to rely on anybody. And she’s been doing that for eight long years.