Chapter 1 Sold Into Slavery
Brea's POV
Heavy chains bit into my wrists as the guards pulled me through the double doors.
The sound of the doors locking behind me rang aloud through the hall. I almost tripped when they shoved me forward. My knees hit the floor, and the jolt ran up my spine.
Bright white spotlights hung from a steel ceiling. The crowd around me sat in curved rows, watching from behind glass partitions. Men in dark suits, women in red dresses, all of them holding glasses filled with something thick and red.
Humans were there too, dealers, traffickers, rich bidders pretending they weren’t afraid. I could feel every stare long before I lifted my head.
“Lot Seventeen,” the auctioneer said into his mic. His voice rolled easily through the speakers. “Human female. Western descent. Clean, unmarked, verified.”
The guards yanked the chain at my neck and pulled me onto the stage. The lights hit me full in the face. My eyes burned.
Whispers spread through the room.
“She’s not from here.”
“Look at her hair.”
“Pretty one.”
They were right. I wasn’t. I came from a fishing town near the coast, I lived in a cramped home....Yes, you can categorise me as poor.
I remembered my father sitting at the table the night everything changed. There was a contract in front of him, and he wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Sign this, Brea,” he’d said quietly. “It’ll help us. It’s just work.”
I asked what kind of work. He didn’t answer.
“They said it’ll pay our debt. Just sign, sweetheart.” That was what he told me and didn't have the courage to look up when he said it.
Now here I was...Sold into slavery. The auctioneer smiled. “Who’ll start the bidding?”
The crowd came alive. Numbers shouted, laughter echoing.
I tried to speak, but my throat closed around the words.
“Please,” I managed to say, “I was kidnapped. I’m not—”
The guard pulled the chain hard enough to make me gasp. The audience laughed.
“She even sounds sweet,” someone said.
A man stepped closer to the edge of the stage, smirking. “Let’s test if she screams the same way.”
The crowd roared. Hands reached for me from below, touching my arm, tugging my sleeve. I twisted away.
“Don’t touch me!” They only laughed harder. The auctioneer raised a hand for silence, but the noise didn’t stop.
My heart pounded so loudly I could barely hear anything else.
Then something changed. The doors at the back of the room opened quietly.
At first, almost no one noticed, but the guards did as their posture shifted. Then a few people in the crowd turned their heads.
I could see a man walking in. He wore a black long coat with black gloves. A mask covered the upper half of his face as his face was expressionless.
He didn’t hurry and didn’t look around either. He just walked through the room like he already knew exactly where he was going.
The music stopped as one person whispered near the front row.
“Who is that?” Another voice answered quietly.
“I don’t know.” More murmurs spread through the crowd.
“Is he a buyer?”
“Never seen him before.”
The man on stage with me glanced toward the entrance, clearly irritated by the interruption.
“Hey,” he called out. “Auction’s already started”
He stopped talking when the masked man stepped into the light as the stranger looked at the stage. Not in the crowd, but his eyes were fixed on me.
For a moment the room was completely silent. Then the masked man spoke.
“Five hundred thousand....” His voice wasn’t loud, but everyone in the room could hear him loud and clear.
The auctioneer blinked. “Five hundred thousand… dollars?” he repeated slowly.
The masked man didn’t answer. He just kept looking at me. The crowd exploded into whispers.
“Half a million?”
“For a human?”
“Who the hell is this guy?” The auctioneer swallowed.
“Do I hear a higher bid?” No one replied. Even the man who had been touching me stepped back slightly.
“Going once…” The room stayed silent.
“Going twice…” Still nothing. Then the gavel came down.
“Sold.” The guards hurried to unlock the chains around my wrists and neck.
My legs felt weak when they pushed me forward. The masked man walked up to the edge of the stage.
Up close, I could see that his eyes were silver. Watching me like he was measuring something.
He reached out and lifted my chin with two fingers, but firm enough that I couldn’t look away.
For a second, neither of us spoke. Then he said quietly, “You’re coming with me.”
He turned and walked away immediately. The guards pushed me after him.
As the doors closed behind us, I realized something that made my stomach drop. The room still didn’t know who he was.
But somehow… Everyone had stopped breathing from the moment he walked in.
Finally, they pushed me outside into the cold night. A black SUV waited at the curb, engine already running.
The masked man opened the door and gestured for me to get in.
Up close, the others suddenly stepped back, like they knew better than to stand too near him..
One guard leaned toward another and whispered, “Who the hell is that?”
"No idea,” the other muttered. “But look at the security.” A line of black SUVs stretched along the street. It wasn’t just one car, they were too many for anyone ordinary.
The masked man slid into the seat beside me without a word.
As the car door shut, his sleeve shifted as I saw a silver signet ring.
I had seen that crest before. And it was no other than; Rayne Nikolai, the Vampire Prince.