Dark Sold Mate (Starville Mates for Sale #1)

Chapter 1 - Silas

Silas Weston had been watching this operation for six whole months.

And this was the night he got what he wanted.

The warehouse was based on the outskirts of the city.

It appeared quite normal on the outside.

But when you went in, there were rows and rows of folding chairs, and they all faced was a stage which had been hastily put together.

The ceiling lights reflected brightly on the concrete floor, and the warehouse reeked of foul scents, which were getting under his skin and made his wolf uneasy.

He had selected a chair close to the exit where he was in a position to watch the room, without being observed.

The device pressed against his chest, hidden underneath his chest, which was built by one of his younger brothers, Rael, hid his scent but allowed him to smell others.

To the rest of the people in the room, Silas appeared to be a human being.

This operation began several months back, when they discovered some evidence indicating that Starville pack had been involved in some illicit activities, such as raping women and selling them off.

The women were being taken out of cities across the country, and then they would reappear in areas that were operated by shifters. And the strange thing about it was, every time they looked into the issue, it happened on Silas' territory.

That was a bloody lie. He valued the reputation of his pack, and someone was intentionally trying to destroy it.

The reputation of a person was of great importance in the world of shifters.

People were now beginning to turn against one another.

They were considering not trading with the Silas' pack, and other Alphas did not trust him.

They believed that since he took over as Alpha after his father's death, he might be up to something.

Silas has no choice but to locate whoever is performing such vicious and disgusting acts and clear his pack of the accusations. He simply could not allow things to get any worse.

So he and his brothers went out hunting.

Rael, his younger brother, was an expert in tracing money and uncovering evidence on the internet.

His other brother, Javi, worked in the streets, and he befriended other individuals in other locations in the shifter world.

Silas applied the lessons that he had acquired during his black ops: watching people, sneaking into places, and collecting information.

Tonight was when it all made sense. He eventually discovered one of the auctions that he was hunting.

He looked at the crowd around him. The number of men was high, and the number of women was low, but all of them were shifters. Silas scrutinized them all. There was a bear shifter he recognized from a nearby territory, some members of a wolf pack, and a fucking fox.

His mind was like a camera. It photographed the faces of people and took note of their scents and watched how they interacted with each other. He captured every minute detail.

He listened to those who were seated together as well as those who did not even glance at one another.

The bear shifter was wearing an expensive suit.

The wolf shifter seemed very energetic. The fox continued to look at his phone repeatedly.

The bear shifter seemed to have no reservations, like a person who acquired items here regularly.

This was it. The moment he had been waiting for. He was not only going to collect information, but also seek patterns. He had to read people in the room in order to determine the predators and their desires. This was what he was best at—gathering information.

Another wolf shifter wearing a nice tailored jacket made his way onto the stage, and the entire crowd went quiet.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” his voice was fairly composed and self-assured.

“We’ve got a few good things to show you tonight.

We have five people who are uninformed about our world, which is good.

” His lips curled into a smirk. “Which means that we will not have any problems.”

A muscle ticked in Silas's jaw, though his face remained expressionless. He could not do anything now, despite how angry his wolf felt at the moment.

“Let us begin.”

A side door opened, and a frail young girl appeared. More like someone pushed her out.

Her blonde hair was messy, cuts were scattered all over her body, and her eyes were swollen and reddish. Probably from crying.

“The bid starts at five thousand dollars.”

Then it continued increasing after that. Silas watched the crowd. It simply went up and up until she was sold for twenty-two thousand dollars.

The handlers appeared on the stage and took the woman away. Silas got a glimpse of the backstage area, mentally filing away its appearance and the number of security guards.

Three more women came after that.

Whenever there was an auction, Silas learned something.

He recalled the appearance of the purchasers; he saw the manner in which the handlers moved about.

He listened to the way the auctioneer spoke.

He had been trained that traffickers tend to give away more than they want to when they believe they are safe.

They were wrong.

One of the wolves in the row bent over to speak to his mate. The companion laughed. Silas took note of the wolves' scent and what packs they belonged to. He wanted to know, so that he could trace them in case he had to.

“Now,” the auctioneer continued. “Last gem of the night.”

The side door swung open once more, and Silas's world completely tilted.

The scent hit him. Faint. Barely there. Like a voice on the other end of a wall.

Something warm and sweet among all the fright and sweat and the smell of the warehouse, something that bypassed his training and his discipline and reached some primal part of him.

His Alpha instincts were not simply aroused. They detonated.

His wolf did not just say mine as it should when it realized their mate was there.

It roared it. It tore at his chest with an urgency that caused his jaw to lock; his fingers clamped onto the chair, denting the metal frame.

His whole body stiffened, his eyes flicked amber at the edges, and he fought to maintain an expressionless look on his face and remain seated.

What was that scent? It was nothing like he had ever smelt in his decades of being an Alpha. He could not name it. He only felt like it was a key that was turning somewhere in a lock that he didn't know existed.

The girl stepped out from the side door, her head held high as she walked onto the stage.

Her head was up as she walked onto the stage. But he could see how frightened she was from where he was, across the room. Her brown hair was long and dark, and her dark brown eyes scanned the crowd, looking anxious and stern at the same time.

This was Elle Jones.

Silas's heart started to thud painfully against his chest. His previous thoughts dissipated, and he could think only of her.

His last encounter with her had been eight years ago.

Eight years ago, when his father had sent her away from the pack, she looked at him with so much hate in her eyes. He had not forgotten how she had glared at him. Those eyes that used to look at him with love. However, that was eight years ago when she was still in Starville.

Thoughts of her remained with him. Even after many years. The thoughts of her still haunted his dreams at night.

She had changed from the slim woman he knew.

Now, she was a grown-ass woman. Her dress was ripped in some places, but it was unable to conceal the fact that she now had fuller curves.

Her features were no longer as soft as they used to be.

They had become sharper. But her eyes…those eyes had once looked at him, eager for a response to the question she asked him, and he had replied to her in a terribly vile manner.

“Look at this one,” the auctioneer pointed at her. “Soft curves. A nice thing to have in any collection.”

Elle's eyes narrowed into silts. Silas noticed the rage in them, but she immediately concealed it.

He could sense that Elle was no longer the silent girl who would accept the insulting comments from his pack without replying. Something big had changed.

His wolf scratched against the surface of his skin, tearing at the restraint he was trying to hold on to. “Mine. Ours.” It wanted him to ensure that everybody knew that she was his. That she belonged to both of them.

“Bidding starts at ten thousand.”

The mission took a backseat in Silas's mind.

It was no longer a priority for him. The only thing that he could think of was the woman standing on that stage.

The woman who had asked him eight years ago whether they could really be mates. The woman he had mocked and stood up. The woman that was sent away, and he could not do anything to stop it.

His mate.

One man in the crowd spoke up. Another wolf shifter, “Twelve thousand.”

Anger coursed through Silas's veins. All the rules that he had been brought up with, all the laws that seemed so very serious to his pack, all the training on the fact that human beings were taboo—all these were forgotten in the few seconds when his wolf and primal instincts took over.

She belonged to him. No one else.

Another person countered the bid with fifteen thousand.

Silas stood up, his chair grating on the floor. The crowd stared at him with a mix of curiosity and confusion. But he couldn't care less.

Nothing mattered to him but Elle. “Fifty thousand,” he announced his bid.

His wolf was so close to the surface, demanding to be let out.

The eyebrows of the auctioneer shot up. “Fifty thousand dollars. Is there anyone who disagrees with that?”

Elle simply stood on the stage, searching the crowd with her eyes for him. When she eventually saw him, her eyes widened and her mouth slightly opened. Then her face hardened.

“Fifty-five,” the bear shifter countered.

Whispers rippled through the crowd. Fifty thousand was already too much. Now, it was up to fifty-five?

The crowd openly stared at Silas, trying to figure out who he was and what clan he belonged to. They also wondered why he had to spend that much on a single woman.

He did not care. Let them wonder about it. Let them talk about it. He did not care about any of the things they muttered amongst themselves.

“One hundred thousand,” Silas said.

Gasps filled the room, and the auctioneer smiled wildly. He looked around, “Going…” he waited a beat and repeated it, but when it was clear no one was going to pay that much money to get a woman, he struck the gavel on the table three times. “Sold to the fellow in the back of the room.”

Silas headed to the stage, and people cleared out of his way. He was a man who commanded attention, and people reacted to him accordingly.

His black ops training had been completely washed away. He no longer possessed his planning, discipline, or his control. The only thing that remained was his instinct. His wolf was telling him to do whatever it takes to protect the people he loves.

When Elle stepped off the stage, making her way to him, her scent struck him. It brought back the memories of summer rains and honey. It felt like home to him and reminded him of all that he lost eight years ago.

The handler who brought her over had a tablet in his hand. “You have to make the payment.”

Silas pulled out his phone and transferred the money without a second thought. At that moment, money did not matter to him. All that he could think about was Elle, who was standing right in front of him, staring with an expression he couldn't read.

The handler smiled in a sleazy manner and shoved Elle forward. “She's all yours.” And then he stepped back. Silas bridged the gap between them. As he moved closer, he saw the bruises on her wrists and how she was holding herself in a way that made it look like she was just barely hanging on.

“Hello, Elle.”

Her eyes gleamed with vicious anger, “You.”

The single word brought back eight years of hurt and anger. Silas felt it like a knife stabbing him in the ribs. His wolf was pleased that she remembered Silas.

He never forgot her, not for a single second.

The warehouse they were in continued on with its business. Some were getting the women they purchased, the handlers were leading some to the exits, while the auctioneer prepared to leave.

Silas needed to take Elle out of this place immediately. He needed to take her somewhere safe. He had to think about what he was going to do with the one woman he had spent eight years of his life trying to forget.

But he only stood there, drowning in her smell. The fact that she was there was virtually unbearable. He could not disregard the fact that fate had brought them back together. It was occurring at the most inappropriate time.

She was his mate. She was right in front of him, and the look in her eyes made it clear that she would rather die than forgive him for what he'd done.