Chapter 2 – Nik
This was by far the most boring auction I’d ever attended—and the only reason I was still here was because I didn’t come around to be a part of it. The idea wasn’t to engage but to monitor my enemies in the business.
I slouched in my velvet chair, holding a glass of vodka with a blank expression. My eyes drifted across the dimly lit room, detached from the event as I observed each bidder's choices.
In my line of work, knowing my enemies’ strengths and weaknesses was crucial to the game. It was the only way to stay one step ahead—to always stay in control. I’d been in this business for decades, and I learned over time that what people spend money on reveals a lot about them.
The fact that the parade of these frightened women—too broken, too lifeless, too easy—bored me but excited them was proof that we weren’t the same. I’d never spend my money on anything that didn’t spark something in me.
I glanced at my watch, hoping the bidding would end soon so I could be on my way. There was absolutely nothing interesting happening here, and with each passing minute, the event was starting to feel like a waste of my time. My patience was growing thin; perhaps coming out was a mistake.
My mission had been accomplished anyway. I’d observed every bidder in the room; none of them was worth my time or attention.
I lifted the glass to my lips and finished the last of the vodka. Ready to get up and leave, I set the glass down on the side stool. But before I could stand, a commotion on the stage caught my attention.
Two hefty men were struggling to drag a young girl from behind the curtains. She resisted with all her might, squirming out of their hold. My brows furrowed when she kicked one of the men right in the nuts.
Almost every other man in the room felt the impact, and a low groan rose from the crowd of bidders.
The second the man’s grip on her hand loosened, this strange girl threw a punch in the other man’s face.
Crack!
“Fuck!” he groaned, stumbling backward with both hands over his bleeding nose.
My eyebrows rose instantly, astonished by what I’d just witnessed.
“Hold her down!” someone ordered from behind the curtains.
Two other men rushed to grab her. One wrapped his arms around her waist from behind while the other hurried toward her front. She lifted her legs in the air, slamming her feet against his feet. The impact was so powerful that the man—almost twice her size—fell off the stage.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
My interest was piqued, and I relaxed back in my chair, enjoying the snow with a crooked smirk on my lips.
While struggling with the man behind her, his grip around her waist tightened. Seeing she couldn’t get him to let go, she struck him hard in the face with the back of her head.
Before the pain could even register, she snuck her foot behind his leg. And with one tactical sweep, he fell backward like a dry log. She sprang to her feet and tried to flee, but she was restrained by four others, each one throwing punches at her as though she were a worthy opponent.
She still didn’t back down. This strange girl fought back, her moves tactical, throwing blows and kicks with practiced ease. She was a lioness, and she stood her ground against those men, proving she wasn’t easy prey.
It took five men to hold her down as if she were a wild animal on a rampage. “Cowards—you’re all cowards!” she snarled, eyes burning with rage. “Shame on you!”
Two men pinned her to the ground, her chest pressed against the floor as they bound her wrists behind her back.
“You won’t get away with this!” she added, her voice dripping with venom and echoing off the walls. “You’ll pay for this—for all your crimes. You’ll all rot in hell!”
The host tapped the microphone and forced a smile as she was pulled onto the stage. His fear of the wild girl was clear in his eyes and the way he shifted away from her.
He cleared his throat. “Gentlemen. We, uh…we have a, uh…special addiction tonight. Unlisted. Unexpected. And….” He paused, then swallowed hard. “Well, as you can see…untamed.”
She let out a low growl, restrained by two hefty men.
I leaned back in my chair, fingers stroking my jaw as I watched her in silence. The men around me were already making noises about how violent she was. But it was that particular character that made her different from the others.
I liked that unbroken spirit of hers—that wild fire burning within her. That was exactly what pulled me to her like steel to a magnet.
She glared at the host, then shifted her gaze across the room, seething in silence. She spat at the floor, earning a harsh jerk from one of her captors.
Someone laughed from the left row. “Fiery little filth!”
“She’ll learn!” another echoed from the back. “Or she’ll break!”
The audience laughed.
“We’ll start the bidding at ten thousand!” the host announced, tugging nervously at his collar.
“Fifteen!” a man in the front row barked, raising his paddle.
“Twenty-five!” someone else shot back.
“Forty!”
“Forty-five!”
While they were at it, my attention was fixed on the wild cat on the stage.
Her shirt was ripped at the collar, revealing a glimpse of her cleavage.
She stood barefoot, her toes bleeding, skin covered in dirt.
Her brown curls were yanked into a messy ponytail, her stormy green-gray eyes burning with fury.
Even in the face of danger, the defiance etched in her intense gaze was remarkable. For the first time since I arrived at this auction, something had piqued my curiosity.
The girl was boiling with rage and hate. If she got her hands on a gun, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill every last one of us in this room. That was the kind of spirit that resonated with mine. And although I had no intentions of buying anything tonight, because of her, I’d had a change of heart.
“Seventy-five thousand!” A voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
For a moment, the laughter hushed, and men began exchanging glances. The price was climbing really fast, and some were already contemplating their choices.
The girl jerked against her restraints, her fingers curling into fists as her expression darkened by the second.
“She’ll need breaking,” a man to my left whispered to his neighbor. “With all that fire, trust me, it’ll cost you more than money to tame her.”
“It’ll be worth it, though,” the neighbor replied. “I mean, look at her—beautiful and hot. She’ll fetch a hundred easily.”
He wasn’t wrong. She was beautiful—too beautiful, actually. The kind that didn’t wilt under pressure. The kind that made men reckless. I had no doubt that she would exceed a hundred without stress.
And so it went.
“Eighty-five!”
“Ninety!”
“One hundred!” someone barked from the back.
The room fell silent for a second, whispers thickening amongst the bidders.
Even the host looked baffled by how quickly the numbers had risen. He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie. “Do I hear a hundred and twenty?”
“One hundred and twenty!”
“Do I hear one-fifty?” he asked, raising the bar.
“One-fifty!”
“One-fifty going once…going twice….”
“One-seventy!” Someone else raised their paddle from the front row.
Voices fell silent, and soon murmurs turned uncertain. The bidding began to falter at this point as men leaned back, rethinking their choices.
“She’s too wild to be too expensive!” someone bellowed from behind me.
“Yeah!” another shot back. “And too much trouble, too. Why waste so much money on a wild animal?”
My jaw locked, fingers balling into fists. While they all saw a beast—a nuisance to be tamed—I saw raw potential. A spirit not yet extinguished.
The host wiped at the sweat glistening on his brow. “Gentlemen, remember she’s rare, untamed—” His voice was cut off while trying to reignite the room.
“She’s unmanageable!” said a bidder. “Not worth another dollar.”
A moment later, I decided it was time to put an end to this. So, I casually raised my hand, quiet and deliberate.
The effect was instant; conversations died mid-sentence, the host’s voice lodged in his throat, and even those who’d been laughing moments before went pale. The room went still, and all eyes were on me, tension thick in the air at the realization that I’d just entered the game.
“One million,” I said, my voice smooth and effortless, leaving no room for further debate.
A collective gasp rose from the crowd, and even the host’s brows yanked up in shock.
My eyes were pinned on my prize, the wild girl who glared at me with so much hatred in her gaze. Her scowl grew deeper, as if she’d rather stab me in the heart than stand in my shadow. That was how fierce her hatred was. I liked it.
I didn’t need her for anything, but somehow, I couldn’t resist the urge to claim her as mine. Despite the resistance in her eyes, her fate had already been decided.
She belonged to me now.