A Twisted Anthology: A Twisted Design Book

The Rogue’s Initiation Part 6

Once the last couple women were finished, I looked to Alpha Lucien again. He nodded to me. It was time. I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair.

“Friends, this is our last auction of the night. Thanks to your generous bids, we’ve raised over seven hundred thousand dollars for the orphanages in the collective. With our auctions in the rogue fairs in the other main cities around the collective, we have a good chance of getting up to a million. We won’t have people who are as valuable, but we will have people who are generous.” Queen Bellamy smiled.

There were cheers from the audience. Talia bid a hundred thousand for the woman who had gone last. It was impressive. I knew I wasn’t going to get a whole lot, but every little bit helped. Especially if a million was their goal.

“Come on out.” She said to me.

I headed onto the stage. The room was light enough that I could see how many people were there. It was still pretty full, even though I was the last one.

As the most shabbily dressed person to come out, I got a lot of curious stares. I regretted not shaving or getting my hair cut before coming. I definitely would’ve gotten more attention if I were better groomed.

“Tonight, you’ve bid on several special guests. Alphas, Gammas, fae, and vampire masters. This our final special guests up for bid. He’s a brand new member of the collective, which means Evan hasn’t even tried him out, yet.”

The audience chuckled at that. I could see them becoming more interested in what I could possibly have that was special. I wondered it myself. For all anyone knew, I was a normal rogue born wolf.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering what this rugged wolf could be hiding that makes him special.” Queen Bellamy grinned.

“Is it a huge d**k?” Someone called out.

I tried not to laugh. I mean, I wasn’t exactly small, but I wouldn’t say huge.

“Can he tie a knot in a cherry stem in someone else’s mouth?” A woman asked.

“I can’t say that’s something I’ve ever tried.” I laughed.

“Does he have no gag reflex and throat game for days?” A man yelled.

There was the sound of an impact that followed and a pained yelp from the direction of the voice. Queen Bellamy fell into a fit of laughter. I shook my head.

“What?! I wanted to guess!” He said.

“Don’t flirt, Dillon.” Another man growled.

“It was just a guess! Yours is the only throat I want, mon nournours.”

Some whistles and catcalls went through the crowd. I wondered what their story was. One day I was going to find the story that struck my muse and inspired me to write my first romance novel. Then I could put all of this romantic brainpower to good use. For now, my little mystery books would have to do.

“Alright, enough guessing. Allow me to introduce our final auction for the night. New York Times Bestselling Author, V.S. Casey. He’s the author of the Bookmark Mysteries, which has quite a following.” Queen Bellamy announced.

I turned to look at her. How did she know that? It wasn’t any of the information her wolf would’ve gotten from mine when I joined the collective and I didn’t tell anyone about it.

“I have a very diligent assistant.” She winked before holding the microphone closer to her face. “According to his website, Mr. Casey likes hiking, reading, and watching movies. He lives in the forests of Oregon and enjoys nature and the small town life.”

“Bellamy! How could you!? You told me I could only bid on one and you didn’t even tell me who he was!!” Talia shouted from the audience.

“I wasn’t fully aware until Evan brought me the information. All I knew was that he wrote novels. I didn’t know they were popular ones. I didn’t realize you read his books.” She shrugged.

A few women pushed forward in the crowd. It seemed I had a few fans in the collective. Maybe I would pull in bigger numbers.

“As long as he’s in the collective, I can find him. I’ll be seeing you soon, Mr. Casey. I’m a big fan of your work.” Talia said to me.

“I look forward to it.” I smiled, feeling a little nervous, but not frightened.

One of the oldest vampires in the world was a fan of my books! I couldn’t wait to tell my brother. I’d dedicate the next book to her, maybe more vampires would buy my books because she liked them.

“Let’s start at five hundred. I’d start higher, but I think this will get us moving along better. Do I have five hundred?” Queen Bellamy asked.

A dozen paddles went up. She started counting up and they stayed raised or raised higher. They didn’t get turned off as we passed one thousand, then two, then three.

I didn’t know how high they would go, but it gave me a kick to know fans wanted to have a meal with me, or take me to their cousin’s wedding. Or whatever. They wanted me.

These weren’t just any fans, either. They were supernatural women. Shapeshifters, vampires, witches. People who could match my strength. Maybe this was my love story.

The bidding slowed down as it reached the six thousand mark. I didn’t really care how much I brought in. This was actually a thrilling experience for me.

“Seven thousand, four hundred, fifty-six dollars and thirty-four cents!” A woman near the back called out.

“Anyone want to go up to seven thousand, five hundred?” Queen Bellamy asked.

She looked around, but the women stopped bidding. They looked upset. Maybe I could set up a book signing and Q&A thing soon. It would give them a chance to talk to me, at least.

“Sold to number 269. See the gentlemen at the table in the back to pay and collect your information.” She told the woman who won me.

I waved and walked off the stage. Queen Bellamy ended the auction with a final tally of the amount we earned for the orphanages and instructions on how to set up the dates. Some people would talk to the ones they bought and set something up tonight, others would call or email the people they bought.

When she came off stage, she patted my back. I was still stunned. Some part of me thought I’d sell for what Evan did.

“You should go out and meet the woman who bought you. A bid like that means she used every penny she had to get you.” Queen Bellamy said.

“That’s a good idea. Did you need me for anything else?” I asked.

“Just write down your phone number for me and you can go. I’ll call you tomorrow. How long are you in town for?”

“I planned for six or seven days.” I replied.

“Good. Once I’ve talked to you and you’ve done your date thing or gotten it hammered out, you can go home or visit longer if you like. Make sure you log into the collective’s website and fill out the application. This just gives me a better idea of who’s in my collective and what they can contribute or may need.” She smiled.

Alpha Lucien handed me a little notepad and a pen. I wrote my cell number and my personal email, the one I didn’t give out to anyone but close friends and family. I handed it back to him and took my leave. Queen Bellamy gave me directions to get out to the main area without having to jump off the stage.

I went down the little hallway and exited into the area where people had been standing during the auction. I looked around. Most of them had cleared out. People who had been up for auction milled around, talking to the ones who’d bought them and arranging things.

“You look a little lost.” A woman said from beside me, making me jump a little.

“Sorry, you spooked me.” I chuckled.

“I’m Sunny, your owner.” She giggled.

“Vaughn. It’s nice to meet you, Sunny.”

Sunny was about 5’6” with golden blonde hair and green eyes. She was a contrast to me with my dark brown hair and gray-blue eyes. I was just over half a foot taller than her at 6’2”. I liked it, though.

She was wearing glasses, which I found amusing, because I could tell she was a werewolf, we didn’t have to wear glasses and her frames didn’t even have lenses. Her hair was in twin braids and she was wearing black overall shorts with a hot pink crop top, not red like most of the other people in the room.

“You want to go walk around the fair while we figure things out?” Sunny asked.

“Sure.” I smiled.

Sunny led the way out to the fairgrounds. It had grown dark, but there was a ton of light from the rides, games, and food stalls. Sunny wrapped her arms around one of mine and leaned against me as we walked.

“Are you hungry?” I asked. “I’ll buy you something.”

“No. I figured we could get out of that place and get some fresh air while we plan our date.” She replied.

“If that’s what you want. You are my owner after all.” I chuckled.

“How did it feel to get auctioned off like an animal?”

“About like you’d expect. Maybe I could work it into a book or something. I could see a bachelor auction being a good place for a murder.”

“Yeah? Sounds cool.” Sunny said.

It was strange how natural this felt. My wolf, Ezra, loved it. He was like me, a little laidback, and not really as high-strung as most werewolves. Wandering the fairgrounds was our speed.

“What would you like to do on our date?” I asked.

“Well, there’s this restaurant I really like, but I haven’t been able to go there since my last relationship ended. I’m friendly with a lot of the people who work there and I don’t like them treating me differently. I figured I could take you there and we could have a meal. They would know I’m dating again and I could start going back to my favorite place.” She replied.

“So, your ex-boyfriend broke up with you and you can’t stand the shame of going to this restaurant alone. Why don’t you just take another date there? You spent over seven thousand dollars to go to this restaurant.”

“I don’t date. Most of the time, it’s because of work, a lot of the time it’s because I got burned by a bad relationship.” Sunny admitted. “And how did you know he dumped me? I might have dumped him, you know!”

I sighed. Goddess, she was cute as hell. The little pout in her lips when she said she could have dumped him was giving me feelings I hadn’t felt before. I wanted to kiss that pout away.

“If you’d dumped him, then people wouldn’t pity you. I can imagine, if they were mad, they wouldn’t suddenly be nicer just because you got a new boyfriend. Most people like being treated like someone special, so, if they were proud of you for dumping him, then I doubt you would dislike their treatment. The only thing left was a mutual break-up or him dumping you. What happened?” I asked.

She looked away for a moment, then back up at me. There was something vulnerable there. I wondered if she was actually going to tell me. Everything I knew would make this date more of what she was wanting.

“He was an ex-pack. I guess I have a type, because the guy who burned me was an ex-pack, too. Chris, my ex, found his mate. He told me he loved me, but he loved her more. I was actually really happy for him. We dated since second semester. It was a year and a half. We’d gone to that restaurant regularly. Then, he was gone and I came in alone. When they heard we broke up, they started treating me like I was fragile or a victim or something.” She said quietly. “I couldn’t stand it. Chris wasn’t the bad guy. They just didn’t seem to want to listen.”

“People feel protective of you because of how innocent you look.” I told her.

“I suppose. Anyway, he moved to the pack where his mate lived. I met her, she was a really nice girl and a perfect match for him.”

We walked along in silence for a while. There was some sadness in her voice when she talked about it. I didn’t know if she was just fooling herself about the nature of her relationship with her ex, or if she was just sad to lose a friend. If she was like me, seeing someone find their fated mate would be pretty bad, too.