Chapter 5

5

Tavi

T he door closed. I stood alone in a white room, my bare feet on the cold tile floor. There was a table with two chairs on either side. No windows. It looked like the police interrogation rooms I'd seen on TV.

I squeezed my hands together in front of me and walked around the room. I was too nervous to sit still.

After about five minutes, someone opened the door and walked in. He smiled and held up his left hand. In it was something blinking. It dangled from a fancy strap.

"I'm just here to administer the new identification."

"The what?"

"It's an ankle bracelet. It cannot be removed except by your owner. It tracks your every move. You're an expensive one to lose, don't you know?"

I shook my head.

"I've been working auctions for five years. I've never heard of anyone sold for the price you claimed. Congratulations."

It was like he thought it was an honor, an award I should be proudly wearing. In dragon shifter culture, monetary value was placed on everything. Every culture loved money, but for dragons it was more than luxury and spoils. If you were worth something, you were automatically considered elite. Did that include me?

"Raise your robe just a bit," the man said. "Stick your foot out, please."

I did as I was told. He gently brushed his fingers across my ankle bone as he locked the tracker onto me.

"This tracker has all the information of who you belong to. It is wired to the most sophisticated computer system. The band insert is chromium. It cannot be removed without very specialized assistance."

I wondered how many omega slaves tried to run away. I had nowhere to go. No money. And right now, I didn't even have my things, my cell phone, or the clothes on my back. I had a white robe with nothing underneath, and now a fancy chromium bracelet on my ankle. I wasn't going to get far.

Back at Papa's house, while still a part of the pack, I'd had time to contemplate my fate. There was no way out. Only through. I had to face the situation and rely on my instincts to get me through it.

"Is my owner cruel?" I asked in a small voice.

"He's very wealthy."

"Not what I asked," I whispered.

"Some fear his dragon. Wild, they say." The man shrugged. "I don't know him, so I can't say more."

I focused on my breathing, keeping it calm and cool. The only way out of this was death, and I wasn't at all ready for that. I told myself I was strong. I could endure. Wolf's blood was solid. Stubborn. I might not have a beast inside, and I might not be big, but I had the blood of the pack.

Once again, I was alone in the strange room. I paced for a while. I put my foot up on one of the chairs and touched the ankle bracelet, tracing my fingertips over the band and the shiny blinking mechanism. The light flashed pink. Whatever that meant.

Waiting was the worst. I'd rather face my fate head on than have to sit and count the minutes beforehand. Even the days leading up to my nineteenth birthday had been far too long. I had been ready to go for months, making zero plans for a future I had no control over.

While all my school friends were off to college or getting jobs and mates, I remained isolated. And waiting.

These last minutes were torment.

Finally, I heard footsteps in the hall and voices outside the room. I stood up straighter and faced the door, my hands clasped in front of me. The knob turned.

In walked the man who had been the auctioneer.

He looked directly at me and said, "All ready to go to your new home?"

I made no response.

"Got your ankle bracelet?" He bent a little. "Let me see."

I stuck my foot out from under the hem of the robe.

As he bent further to look, I saw a shadow behind him. Tall and dark. I had not looked up even one time at the audience when I was being auctioned. I had no idea what my owner looked like.

The auctioneer let out a short grunt. "Yep. He's all ready for you, Al."

The man behind him took a step inside. He made the room seem small, the way he took up space and even ducked a little at the threshold.

For a moment, I couldn't register him. It was as if I went into shock. But then my vision cleared, and I saw for the first time the face of my owner.

It was severe. Hard. The eyes like glints of gold. His jaw and chin were sharp lines; his brow held a constant furrow. He had lot of black hair that tangled wildly down and over his forehead and ears, and broad shoulders—broader than any alpha wolf I'd ever known—that tapered smoothly into a chest that stretched the material of the white shirt he wore. Over that was a tapestried waistcoat and perfectly tailored blazer. The waistcoat made the trimness of his waist and hips stand out, almost out of proportion to his huge size.

Despite his large build, he looked gaunt to me. Worn. Maybe even weary.

Already I smelled him. I hadn't noticed the scents of anyone else I'd been around since leaving home, not even the distinctly alpha auctioneer. But as soon as the giant walked into the room, I was assaulted with a burnt leaf scent and something unidentifiably sweet.

He stared at me, neither smiling nor frowning.

I couldn't hide the catch in my breath.

The auctioneer glanced between us, then said, "Alluresh, this is Tavi. Tavi, this is your new owner. Or master. You are to call him whatever he tells you to call him. But don't call him Al. Only I call him Al." He laughed like he'd made some sort of joke.

Alluresh put one hand up in a dismissive gesture. "Noah." He said nothing more, but I could hear the reprimand in his tone.

Noah spread his arms out. "Okay. Okay, but you needed an introduction, am I right?"

Alluresh pressed his lips tight, then said to me, "Come. We're leaving."

I took a step forward.

Noah grinned, putting out his hand palm up. "Wait. Where's my tip?"

Alluresh glanced at him with slicing gaze.

Noah chuckled. "Just kidding. I like to do favors for old friends. And you paid far more than he's worth. He's such a scraggly thing."

I took a step forward, wobbling, not realizing I was perhaps still in shock from all that had happened in such a short time.

Alluresh put out a hand, but I righted myself before he could touch me.

"Need a leash?" Noah asked.

"I have a car waiting out front," Alluresh said. "He can walk that far."

Before Noah could respond, I nodded. "I can walk just fine."

It was the first time I spoke. I hoped my voice sounded determined at the very least.

"Good for you," Alluresh replied. Then he turned and didn't even look back to see if I'd follow.

But I did follow. What other choice did I have? I walked past Noah and into the hallway. Alluresh was already several strides ahead of me. I had to lift my robe above my feet and take quicker steps to catch up.

I heard a door slam shut behind me, but this place had nothing to do with me anymore. I was going somewhere else with a giant dragon shifter who looked about as friendly and well attired as an expensive sharp dagger waved in my face.

We came through a set of double doors and into a gilt and shining lobby. As I followed in Alluresh's shadow, people stopped what they were doing and stared. At Alluresh. At me.

He seemed not to notice, but moved quickly, forcing me to almost jog to keep up.

Huge revolving glass doors greeted us at the end of the lobby. I barely made it into the same compartment as his, coming out the other side and nearly tripping over the door jamb and falling into his back.

He seemed to glide across the front area of the resort. To my left, a large fountain happily chattered to itself. To my right were kiosks for valet parking. But he didn't go towards them. He went straight to a long, black limo purring by the curb right in front of us.

A chauffeur got out, wearing a black coat with tails, and opened the back doors.

Alluresh turned then for the first time. He looked at me, then stood aside. "Inside. You first."

I stepped right up into a lap of luxury I'd never before known. There were two white leather benches running the length of the limo. I wasn't sure which one to sit on. I stood in the middle of the floor, crouched and waiting.

Alluresh stepped in. For a moment, I thought he wouldn't fit without having to crawl on his knees. But he easily bent and sat, then lifted his hand indicating I should sit on the bench opposite him.

I had been standing since before the auction started. It was a relief to sit as the softness of the couch seemed to absorb my weight like a cloud.

Alluresh stared just past my head, which made me almost as uncomfortable as if he'd locked eyes with me. For the time being, I decided to look at my hands in my lap and try not to think about things my mind was already pushing at me to mull over. That this man was to be my mate. Or if not quite that, the alpha who would breed me.

I couldn't not start to imagine it, his size, his dark looks. He was probably double my weight or more. Would he handle me roughly? Would he care if he hurt me? Was his dragon really wild and scary like the ankle bracelet guy had said? That might mean he'd tie me down, force me to his will. Was his dragon that frightening, that violent?

My lungs heaved. But I wasn't really scared. It was something else. Like a vast chasm opening inside me and I was falling, but instead of me screaming, it was creating a fluttery feeling in my chest that I couldn't explain. Adrenaline? Maybe my body was kindly drugging me to ready me for what was to come.

What was to come?

I had to know. I gathered up all my courage and opened my mouth.

"Where are we going?"

Alluresh leaned back, his gaze lazily shifting to me. "My estate at Karalee by the Sea."

It told me nothing except we were going to his home. Which I should have guessed. But it relaxed me a tiny bit just to know the name of the area.

"Is it far?"

"Not as the dragon flies. But yes, it will take about forty-five minutes for us to get there."

"Is it okay if I ask questions?"

"You've already asked two."

I wasn't sure that meant it was okay or not, so I pressed on. "Do you live alone?"

He raised his eyebrows. The furrow between them eased. "Yes."

"Is it a big place?"

"Yes."

"Will I be—" I stopped, clearing my throat. My voice softened. "Will I be locked up there?"

"Locked up? No. You have the ankle bracelet."

"But does that mean, well, I don't know what to expect. Do I live with you? Like in your room?"

His head tipped back suddenly as if he'd not expected that. "My house has ten extra rooms not counting the main living areas or the kitchens. You can choose whatever one you want."

Kitchens plural? Ten bedrooms? My choice? So maybe there wasn't a dungeon with chains after all, or a wild dragon in a rut to have me. At least, not immediately.

"My things never showed up from the airport. Will they be delivered?"

"What things?"

"I had luggage. And a cell phone. And things special to me."

"You will have new things."

I nodded, still worried. Would nothing from my old life follow me here? "And a phone?"

"Who do you need to call?"

"I don't know—" I gulped, realizing I didn't have a ready answer.

"Your friends from the pack that sold you? Your family that let you go?"

"My papa, maybe." A sting of tears threatened. My voice was so soft I thought he didn't hear me.

"Did they even fight for you?" he asked.

I looked down.

"Did anyone fight for you?" he asked.

"It's not our way. I had no choice as a set-omega and neither did they." I glanced up at him. He looked away.

"I understand. You can have a phone if you want it. I'll get you a brand new one, top of the line. You can call them and tell them lies, tell them that you're doing just fine in a strange new place and they need not worry about you being owned, bred and under the control of your owner. I'm sure they'd all want to know."

My bottom lip quivered. I couldn't look at him. He was right and I hated that he was right. I didn't want to talk to any of them. It would be useless anyway. And it would hurt.

But why was he saying these things to me? It was almost like he wasn't trying to make me feel worse, but better. But that couldn't be right. He had said the words "owned, bred and under the control of your owner" as if he wasn't talking about himself, but someone else. Worse, he didn't seem happy about owning me at all. Maybe that was better?

If he enjoyed owning me and took pleasure from that torment, was that worse than if he hated owning me and saw me as a burden to endure? Any way I looked at my situation, it was a tangled mess.

He huffed a little, then said, "It could be worse. Just make a list and I'll provide you with anything you want or need."

"Anything?"

I had grown up with my basic needs met, but never in luxury. It was overwhelming to think about the word "anything" in that context.

"Yes."

"Like a car?"

"Yes. But with that ankle bracelet, you wouldn't be able to drive it off my property."

Okay. So, he was going to give me stuff. I couldn't figure out if he was generous or bribing me to cooperate so the burden of me would be less.

We drove the rest of the distance in silence.

When we pulled up to his estate, I saw a huge gate, flowers, trees, rolling lawns and gardens. His house wasn't just a house. It looked like a castle complete with a tower on two sides with a steep roof in the middle. We drove past a tennis court and fountains. By the house was a huge pool beneath an ornate patio. It seemed to take forever to get up the driveway to the front.

The limo driver stopped the car, got out and came around to open the double back doors for us.

I followed Alluresh up to a huge porch, by itself bigger than the house I grew up in. I heard machinery buzzing from around the corner.

"What's that?"

"I am making repairs to that area of the house. Stay away from there for a while."

He led me inside.

The foyer had tall ceilings and spacious floors. Light came from above where the ceiling looked to be made of glass. A huge, wide staircase led up to another floor that was open so you could look down on the entryway.

Everything looked clean and fresh, but I saw no servants.

"You keep up with this place yourself?"

"I have staff that come in the very early mornings, including a cook and three housekeepers. It keeps the dust down and me fed."

I wondered what they would think when they saw me.

Sculptures lined a wall that curved away from the staircase. Marble. Wood. All dragons in various poses. Reclining, crouched, or wings out. Single lights shone on them so they would not be lost in the shadows of such spaciousness.

It felt like I had been brought into the castle of a king.

I looked at him. He looked at me.

"I am to live here?"

He nodded.

"What are the rules, please, so I don't break them."

His eyelids closed, then opened. A twitch at the corner of his mouth could have been irritation. Or the beginning of a smile?

He turned and started to walk past the sculptures, toward columns and more open space. And more sculptures. It was like a museum.

I hurried to follow.