36. Sunny
36
SUNNY
“G et ready—your girl is up next,” someone says. I look around and see it’s the guy wearing a microphone in his ear. He’s the MC for this weird event, I think. At any rate, I heard him introducing himself and welcoming people to the monthly “ Elite Bitch Auction ” earlier. That was before I was herded up a flight of wooden stairs into the backstage area of this vast auditorium.
It’s been a rough twenty-four hours since Real Kane kidnapped me. First of all, I was knocked out and locked in the back of the van for hours. When I finally came to, I heard a lot of scary sounds outside—howling and growling and snarling. It sounded like a pack of wolves was fighting over some hapless prey animal out there.
I was freezing cold because I was still naked. In one corner of the van, I found an old blanket. It smelled horrible and it was stiff with what I was afraid was dried blood. But I held my nose and wrapped it around me—what else could I do? It was use the blanket or get hypothermia!
When the sun finally started coming up, the van doors were thrown open and I saw Real Kane and his two goons standing there—all three of them were naked.
I was scared to death they were going to gang-rape me and then kill me. The three of them were covered in dirt and there was blood smeared on their faces and around their mouths.
But my brother only looked me over and nodded.
“Good—let’s get dressed and take her to the auction.”
“But boss, we ain’t got nothing for her to wear!” one of the others protested. “ The EBA is fucking fancy! Don’t they get all the girls dressed up for it?”
“I know someone,” was all Real Kane said. “ Don’t fucking worry—this isn’t my first rodeo.”
“Wait!” I begged when they started to close the doors on me. “ Please — I really have to pee! And I’m so thirsty .”
“Fine—but don’t think you’re getting away from us.” Real Kane dragged me out of the van and set me on my feet. He stripped away the blanket, leaving me naked again. We were in the woods, I saw—not far from my house. If I could go behind a bush and then sneak off while I was pretending to pee…
But my sadistic brother wasn’t having any of that.
“Squat,” he ordered, pointing to his feet.
“What, here?” I demanded. “ In front of all of you? That’s disgusting!”
“That’s the only way you’ll get to go,” he said flatly. “ Piss right here or you can piss yourself in the back of the van—either way, I don’t give a fuck.”
I was forced to squat there in the dirt with the three of them watching me. I nearly lost my balance twice because my arms were still handcuffed behind me. As tears of humiliation rolled down my cheeks, I somehow managed to do my business.
When I was finished, Real Kane yanked me up again and pushed me back into the van. He shoved a half-full bottle of water at me but I couldn’t take it.
“My hands!” I pleaded. “ Can’t you at least cuff them in front?”
He grumbled about how I was a mouthy bitch but at last produced a key from the pocket of his discarded jeans and uncuffed my arms only to bring them around in front of me and refasten the cuffs.
“Go easy on that water,” he growled. “ It’s all you’re getting. And don’t think we’re going to make any fucking pit stops—this is a one-way trip. You have to go again, you can pee in the fucking bottle, little sis.”
They slammed the doors to the van shut again, leaving me naked and shivering in the back with nothing but a half-full bottle of lukewarm water and the dirty, smelly blanket.
I had no idea where they were taking me, but I was hungry and thirsty and I had to pee again long before we got there. The water was long gone and I was doing my best to hold it when the van finally stopped traveling and the doors opened again.
Real Kane was standing there. Beside him was a man dressed in a navy blazer and slacks. He had carefully styled silver hair and looked kind of like a game show host, I thought. He looked me up and down and nodded at my brother.
“Well, I’ve seen worse. I’m not sure how much you’ll get for her though—she’s overweight and nothing special, though her face is pretty enough.”
“She’s a Recessive Omega and this is her first Heat Cycle ,” Real Kane shot back. “ That’s worth a Hell of a lot!”
The other man’s silver eyebrows shot up.
“Truly? If you’re right, she might fetch a pretty penny.”
“I’m right,” my brother said firmly. “ Smell her scent. She’s been living as a human all this time and just now came into her Cycle . She doesn’t know anything about the Were world.”
“All right—you have my interest,” the man said. “ I’ll style her for a cut of what you get for her. I’m thinking…fifty percent.”
“You fucking high? I’ll give you five,” my brother snarled.
They went back and forth like that, bargaining with my life like I was nothing but a possession. I thought about trying to run but the two of them were blocking the exit from the van and there was no way to get up to the front—there was a metal partition there.
At last they agreed on twenty-percent of the profits from my sale and the well-dressed man took me by the arm.
“Come along, young lady,” he said stiffly. “ And be sure you behave yourself. I don’t want to punish you, but I will if I have to.”
I didn’t have much choice— I was still naked and handcuffed. Also , I didn’t see anyone around I could ask for help. The man was leading me into what I assumed was his house—it was a big old Colonial set back in the woods. There was nothing around us but trees.
“I’ll be back for her later,” my brother said, and left in the van.
The minute the van was out of sight, I began to talk.
“Please, Mister ,” I began. “ I don’t know who you are, but please help me! That man is my brother but he kidnapped me. He? —”
“I know perfectly well who your brother is, which means I also know better than to cross him,” the man snapped. “ My name is Raymond and I’m a stylist—that’s all you need to know about me. And there’s no point in begging me to help you because I won’t.”
“But…but I have a life back home!” I protested. “ You can’t just grab me up like this.”
“I didn’t do that—your brother did,” he said. “ As for your old life, forget it—it’s gone and you’re never going back to it.”
I thought of Cookie and Annabelle and The Pie Shop and Miss Sassy , my cat and felt tears starting in my eyes.
“But what’s going to happen to me?” I asked. “ I don’t understand— I just keep hearing about some kind of auction.”
“Indeed—the Elite Bitch Auction —also known as the EBA .” He was ushering me inside his immaculately decorated house now. I would have stopped and admired it if I hadn’t been so upset. “ I’m going to clean you up as best I can…” Here he made a face, as though I was a tough project he was taking on. “ And then you’ll be sold to the highest bidder,” he finished.
“What?” I couldn’t believe it. “ But why? Why me?” I demanded. “ There’s nothing special or ‘elite’ about me! I’m just a waitress in a diner.”
“According to your brother, you’re a Recessive Omega ,” he told me. “ That’s extremely rare.”
“But what even is a Recessive Omega ?” I asked, feeling bewildered. It seemed like everyone was talking in code. “ And for that matter, what is the ‘ Were world’ that my brother was talking about?”
Raymond gave me a surprised look.
“You really are innocent, aren’t you? The ‘ Were world’ refers to the community of werewolves that resides within the larger human population.”
“The community of what?” I was so startled that I actually started laughing. “ You’re joking, right? I mean, you must be.”
“I most certainly am not,” he said stiffly. “ Being a Were myself, I wouldn’t joke about such things. Nor should you, since you are also a Were .”
“I don’t know what kind of delusion you’re under, buddy,” I said. “ But I have never in my life turned into a wolf during the full moon or any other time.”
“Of course you haven’t,” he said impatiently. “ Female Weres don’t have Wolves —only Males do.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient?” I said, raising an eyebrow at him. I would have put a hand on my hip if my wrists weren’t still cuffed in front of me. “ You could say that any woman is a ‘ Were ’ if you went by those standards! And who could prove any different, since none of them have ‘wolves’ inside?”
“You need only look at your own body to know you’re one of us.” Without warning, he whipped the filthy blanket from around my shoulder and dropped it on the floor with a grimace of distaste. “ Ugh ! I’ll have to burn that!”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded, but I was afraid I knew. He kept saying I was a ‘ Were .’ Was that why my breasts kept on leaking the strange amber liquid and my pussy was so wet that my juices were dripping down my thighs? Also , my body felt so wrong…so achy and empty and?—
No! This couldn’t be right. I couldn’t just accept that I was somehow a werewolf. That was crazy talk—right?
“I can see what you’re thinking,” Raymond , who had been watching me struggle with myself, remarked. “ Yes , the reason your breasts are leaking nectar and your…other parts are leaking honey is proof that you’re a Were . A Were who’s going into her first Heat Cycle . Which means you’re going to need to be bred very soon.”
I suddenly remembered that Fake Kane had talked about “breeding” too. Also , he’d had a knot at the base of his cock and so had Real Kane . Did that mean that both of them were “ Weres ?”
“Does all this have something to do with knotting?” I asked uncertainly.
“It does.” Raymond nodded. “ Come into the bathroom,” he added. “ You’re filthy .”
“First answer my questions,” I said stubbornly. “ What is a Recessive Omega ? And how could I possibly be one?”
“A Recessive Omega is a female Were who doesn’t come into her Heat Cycle until late—most Omegas go into heat as early as fifteen,” he remarked. “ Of course, they can’t be bred at that age—or they shouldn’t be—but a Recessive Omega might not enter her first Cycle until ten years later than that.”
“But what does it mean that I’m having this, uh Cycle thing?” I demanded.
“As I said, it means you’ll have to be bred very soon or you could go into Heat Fever ,” Raymond told me. “ That’s a nasty illness that can kill you very quickly. So my advice to you is, whoever buys you, get him to breed you at once.”
“What? I’m not going to beg some stranger to breed me!” I protested. But I couldn’t help remembering Fake Kane’s knot and how much I’d wanted to try having it in me. And that was, presumably, before my “ Heat Cycle ” even really got going. I was much further along than I had been then and I felt empty inside—almost desperate! But I wasn’t about to admit that.
“You’d better beg,” Raymond the stylist said grimly. “ Unless you’d rather end up dead. And believe me, death by Heat Fever isn’t pretty, my dear. You literally roast from the inside out. Your body temperature will go higher and higher until you die from heat exhaustion. I’ve even heard of a few neglected Omegas dying from spontaneous combustion.”
“You’re just trying to scare me!” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “ That can’t be true!”
He shrugged his narrow shoulders.
“I truly don’t care if you believe me or not. My only job is to get you ready for the EBA tonight. So come on—into the shower.”
He pushed me forcefully into the bathroom where a large marble shower with four jets—two overhead and two on the side walls of the shower—sprayed me from all angles. He made me wash my hair with expensive smelling shampoo and scrub my body all over with equally expensive body-wash.
None of this was easy with my hands still cuffed, but I managed. Honestly , I wanted to get clean as much as he wanted me clean— I hated the smell of the filthy blanket I’d been forced to use to keep warm all night. I didn’t like being naked in front of him, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t attracted to me, which made things a little easier.
Once I came out, Raymond dried me off and wrapped me in a towel. He was going to start styling me immediately, but I begged for something to eat. I hadn’t had a thing since the few handfuls of popcorn I’d eaten the night before and I was starting to feel faint.
“Oh, very well,” he sighed. “ But nothing too bulky—we want you looking fierce tonight!”
He sat me, still in a towel, at his butcher’s block kitchen table and made me one of the best Caesar salads I’ve ever eaten. I might have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t about to be sold off.
“Please,” I said, after finishing the salad. “ Can’t you help me escape? I just want to go back home.”
Raymond frowned at me coldly.
“Save your begging and pleading,” he told me. “ Nothing in this world or the next could convince me to cross your brother. Do you know I once saw him skin a man alive? Slowly .”
I felt sick and the words of Fake Kane’s text came back to me again.
“Kane is dangerous,” he’d said. And now I believed him, but it was too late.
“Look at it this way,” Raymond told me. “ You’ll be starting a whole new life as the spoiled mistress of a very wealthy man. Only the richest men in the world can afford tickets to bid at the EBA . Whoever buys you will probably keep you in opulent luxury.”
“How can you be sure of that?” I asked.
“Because, I was once in your position,” he said. “ I am one of the rare Male Omegas — I too, was auctioned off, though it was many years ago. And look at what I have now…”
He spread his arms, as though to indicate the entire house, which really was a very nice one.
“Do you think I could have gotten this on my own?” he asked. “ My family was dirt poor—they could barely afford to feed me and my brothers and sisters. The man who bought me, an Alpha by the name of Drake Malbright —may he rest in peace—kept me in style for many years until he passed. And then he left everything to me.” He sniffed and his eyes were suddenly shiny with tears. “ I still miss him.”
“Well, I’m glad your story had a happy ending, but that doesn’t mean mine will,” I pointed out. “ What if someone cruel and abusive buys me?”
Raymond shrugged.
“If they pay enough for you, they generally won’t abuse you. At least, in my experience. I mean, you wouldn’t buy a Picasso and then deface it, right? Now be quiet— I need to get you dressed and styled. The auction is an hour away from here so we need to get moving.”
He wouldn’t listen to anything else I said and eventually threatened to tape my mouth shut if I didn’t stop begging for help. Finally I shut up while he dressed and styled me because I could see that he wasn’t going to budge.
And now it’s my turn on the auction block.