I stand in line, naked.

I watch as the first box is raised from beneath the stage, the small dark-haired woman tied to a wooden cross, her nudity on full display for the Alphas here to bid.

I fight every instinct to cross my arms over my breasts and hide myself. It won’t do me any good. I’m up next and already an older woman is helping me into a box of my own and tying me to a similar wooden cross.

Biting my lip, I fight back the tears already burning in my eyes. I have never been this mortified in my entire life. If I had known this was part of the auction, I would have rethought my position before signing that damn contract.

It was easy enough to give my bodyguard the slip, all I had to do was fake a female hygiene emergency and he went sprinting to the nearest pharmacy. I tipped the saleswoman and slipped out through the back door and into a waiting cab. Jenna never showed up because she wasn’t aware of our shopping trip.

I left my handbag, cell phone, and most of my jewelry in the changing room. I know my father has a way to track me, I just don’t know what it is. Hopefully, I have discarded the tracker and it will be hours before he knows I’m missing.

“Sold,” I hear the man say through the overhead speakers, his voice echoing around the large room and drawing me out of my thoughts.

“Lot number two,” he announces as my box slowly lifts onto the stage. “This is the only verified virgin in tonight’s auction. Bidding will open at one hundred thousand dollars.”

Heat burns through me as a blush covers my face. I’ve never been discussed like this and knowing that these men, these Alphas, can see everything has shame flooding my system. I struggle against my bonds, trying to close my legs, but it’s no use. I hear a few Alphas chuckle before the bidding starts.

“One hundred,” a voice calls from the back.

“One ten,” another calls.

“One twenty.”

And so on until the gavel slams down on the podium. “Sold for one hundred and ninety thousand to the gentleman with the red tie,” the auctioneer announces.

I must have been lost in thought because I missed everything. The glass box descends below the stage once more and I am untied. A different woman leads me down a well-lit corridor to a room where she leaves me alone.

“Don’t fight the Alpha,” she says flatly. “He has paid for the right to use your body as he sees fit. If you fight him, it will be so much worse.”

I don’t get the opportunity to ask her any questions before she is gone, the door closed and locked behind her.

Taking a deep breath, I try my best to calm my nerves before I assume the position we were taught at the finishing school I attended. Standing naked, at the foot of the bed, eyes downcast.

And then I wait for the Alpha that has paid to fuck me but has also unknowingly paid for my freedom.