Page 70 of Dark Auctioned Mate

“Silas and Javi are on the east side,” August reported. “Elle says she can feel at least thirty women in that building.”

“Yes. They took everyone.”

“Caldwell Pack is not the only supplier,” August continued. “We have traced the representatives of at least four other trafficking businesses. This is a big event, Rael. It is perhaps the biggest we have ever encountered.”

“Security?”

“Heavy. They’re not taking any chances.” August stared at him. “Alanis is there?

“Yeah.”

“You know we can’t get her out before the sale, right? If we do that, we risk tipping them off. She might need to get sold and—” August hesitated. “You will have to watch it happen. Will you be able to cope with that?”

He bit back a sigh. “I’ll have to.”

But as time passed and the buyers started to arrive in expensive cars with armed guards—people with money and authority but no conscience—Rael began to feel on the edge.

This was not going to be the first time he had to see Alanis being sold. His decision to buy her was made under a minute of impulse—out of instinct and possessiveness. He did not know if he could see people bid over her again, like she was a piece of meat.

“Nothing will go wrong, everything will be all right,” August gripped his shoulder. “Trust our plan.”

***

The auction started at eight o’clock. Rael had set himself up in the warehouse, posing as a buyer using fake credentials that August had given him. He faded into the multitude of predators, all of which were here to buy human beings. It gave him the creeps.

The first few women were sold off easily. Rael observed, noting the faces, making mental records of customers, and the cold-blooded nature of the entire operation.

Then the voice of the auctioneer switched to a more excited one. “Our next one is especially rare. A certified virgin. Shiftless, yet tough. Twenty-four years old and untouched by anyone. Bid starts at fifty thousand.”

Alanis was pushed onto the stage. She wore white—which he supposed was to emphasize the virgin claim—and her hands were bound in front of her. But she held her head up high, looking impassively.

The bidding started to climb up to Sixty. Seventy-five.

While the crowd rallied, Rael used this distraction to make his way through the crowd, trying to find someone who appeared to be running the show, and not simply a participant. And there in the VIP section, above the main floor—he spotted them.

Five individuals dressed in three-piece suits. They weren’t bidding. They were just watching the auction like people who owned the event, rather than being there to buy someone.

He looked at the man in the middle who had a particular pin on his suit—the Blackwood Pack icon. Rael’s eyes widened in shock.

Blackwood was a pack ally. They were outspoken in their criticism of the trafficking network and their advocacy to end it.

But this was one of the high-ranking members of their pack, sitting in the VIP section of a big auction.

The forged evidence against the Weston Pack, the rumors painting them in a bad light, the way their investigations continued to reach a dead end—it all made sense to him now.

Blackwood Pack was running the very network they spoke against, framing the Weston’s pack in the process.

“Rael.”

He turned to see August standing next to him with a scowl on his face. “Judging by the look on your face, I guess you’ve seen them too.”

“I just cannot believe they were playing us the entire time. Playing both sides of the street, keeping their reputation intact, while trafficking women.”

“It’s disgusting, and I cannot wait to bash their heads in,” August growled.

“Me too. But now, we need to tread carefully.”

Rael looked at the stage, where the bidding on Alanis had reached two hundred thousand. She was maintaining her composure, but he could see the tension in her shoulders.