The Vampire's Love (18 page)

Malana was
standing near her, her eyes wide and her mouth a quivering “o”, as she stared
at the three men.  Reese tugged lightly on the young woman’s arm.

“What’s
going on?  Are we not being taken to the auction room?”

Malana must
have been truly desperate for comfort because she immediately wrapped her arms
around Reese’s waist and clung to her like a frightened child.  “God help
us.”

“Help us
from what?”  Reese asked.  “What’s going on?”

“It’s –
it’s a private sale.”  Malana whispered.

“Well, that
has to be better than being paraded around like a cow in front of a roomful of
men, doesn’t it?”  Reese replied.

Malana gave
her a frightened look.  “You don’t understand.  Those – those men are
not men.”

Reese
glanced at them.  They looked like men to her.  Big men, but still
just men.  “What do you mean?”

“They’re
shifters, Reese.”  Malana whispered.

“What do
you mean shifters?”  Reese frowned at the smaller woman.

Malana gave
her a look of frustration.  “Shifters!  They shift into animals.”

Reese
blinked in surprise.  “What kind of animals?”

“If I had
to guess, these ones are wolves or bears.”  Malana whispered. 
“They’re so big.”

She stared
wide-eyed at the men.  “We’re dead if they choose us.”

As the
warden stood quietly and the three men talked amongst themselves, Reese rubbed
Malana’s trembling back.  “Why would you say that?”

Malana
swallowed thickly.  “Shifters rarely have anything to do with
humans.  Many of them hunt us like – like we’re deer.”

Reese felt
a trickle of fear run down her spine.  She took a deep breath and shook it
off.  “Why would they pay money for us just to hunt us down and kill us,
Malana?  Don’t be silly.”

Malana gave
her a look of stark fear.  “If they not buying us to hunt then they’re
buying us for sex.  I would rather be hunted.”

Before
Reese could reply the warden moved to the middle of the room.  “Line up,
ladies!”

Reese and
the other women, there were more than fifteen of them crowded into the small
room, lined up obediently and the three men walked back and forth in front of
them.

Malana
squeezed Reese’s hand painfully when their gazes landed on them and Reese
winced.  She tried to free her hand but Malana refused to let go until the
men had continued past them.

After a few
moments, the men had a whispered conversation with the warden.  He nodded
and walked to the line of women.  He began to pull a few of them forward
roughly.  When he stopped in front of Reese and Malana, the young woman
began to cry. 

“Stop your
blubbering, girl.”  He said roughly.  “They have no use for you.”

He took
Reese’s shoulder and pulled her out of the line.  “Stand there.”

Reese and
four other women stood silently as the warden herded the other women from the
room.  He shut the door and stared at the women. 

“These men are
going to look you over.  Resist and you’ll be beaten.  Do you
understand?”  He snapped.

The women
nodded.  A few of them were beginning to cry as two of the men stepped
closer.  Reese, her body trembling and her breathing shallow, straightened
her back.   If these men really were some kind of half-man,
half-beast mutation, her job as a vet tech had taught her not to show fear
around animals.

She
watched, her eyes widening, as two of the men began to examine the women
standing to her right.  They had the women open their mouths so they could
examine their teeth.  The men held the women’s faces, examining their eyes
and probing at their ears like they really were cattle.

Her mouth
dropped open and she took a step back when the men slipped their hands under
the plain blue blouses that all of the women wore.  When Reese had first
arrived they had stripped her of all of her clothing except her
underwear.  She had been wearing the same blue blouse and brown skirt that
the rest of the women wore since then.  Although it was actually sort of
freeing to not be wearing a bra, she wondered exactly what her heavy breasts
would look like ten years from now.  She was young enough that they were
still perky but after years of no support, she guessed they’d be hanging around
her goddamn knees.

She shook
her head.  What the hell was she doing?  She was about to be touched
and examined like a piece of meat and she was concerned about her breast
perkiness?  She snorted and forced her attention back to the other
women.  The men were squeezing their breasts before running their hands
over their abdomens and then grabbing their asses through their long
skirts.  The smallest of the men even bent and lifted one woman’s skirt,
studying her thick calves and thighs with interest.

Reese
realized that all four women were similar to her.  Although she was the
tallest and heaviest, all of the women had large breasts and wide hips. 
As the two men worked their way down the line, she felt the hot breath of the
warden on the back of her neck.

“Behave
yourself, woman.”  He snarled softly.

Reese
tensed when she felt his hand stroke her back.  “Keep that smart mouth of
yours shut or the beatings you received before this will be nothing compared to
the one you’ll get.”  He warned quietly.

Reese arched
her back away from the despicable man’s touch.  She hated the warden,
hated him with every fibre of her being and it was all she could do not to turn
around and spit on him.  Her temper had always gotten her in trouble and
it had been no different in this world.  Even the frequent beatings she
had received had not yet been enough to curb her wayward tongue.

The
smallest of the men stopped in front of her.  He smiled at her in a
friendly way and was about to reach for her when the third man stepped forward. 
Unlike his companions, he had not bothered to examine any of the women. 
He had been standing back, staring at them with a bored expression on his face
while the women had been touched and examined.

“Move back,
Theran.”  His voice was low and hoarse, as if he didn’t use it much.

The man in
front of her stepped away immediately and Reese stared up at the man who took
his place.  She was just shy of six feet but she still had to crane her
neck to look at him.  He was the biggest of the three men, and she judged
his height to be somewhere around the seven foot mark.  His shoulders and
chest were broad and thick with muscle.  His lower body was clad in a pair
of loose cotton pants but she had no trouble seeing how thick and strong his
thighs were.  Dark scruff covered his angular jaw, and she felt a strange
twinge in her stomach when she stared at his full lips.  She forced her
gaze up to his and saw surprise in his dark eyes.  The rest of the women
had cowered and stared at the floor while they were being examined, but she
would be damned if she stood meekly by while some strange man groped her.

He stared
at her eyes and she wondered what he was thinking.  They were her most
striking feature.  Technically they were considered blue, but in most
light they looked very close to violet.

She stood
still when his large hands cupped her face and his thumbs pressed at her
mouth.  She opened her mouth and did nothing when he examined her teeth
before checking inside her ears and running his hands over her thick, dark
hair.

His breath
was warm on her face and she continued to stare at him as he ran his hands over
her neck and shoulders.  It wasn’t until he reached for her breasts, that
she jerked back and shoved him hard in the chest.  He gave a grunt of
surprise, his eyebrows drawing into a frown, but didn’t stumble back.  She
might as well have tried shoving a large boulder.

Reese cried
out when the warden’s fist punched her hard in the middle of her back. 
Not expecting it, she pitched forward into the chest of the giant standing in
front of her.  He made a low growl, she could feel it vibrating in his
chest, and his arms clamped around her hips when she started to struggle back.

“She’s a
wild one.”  The warden reached to cuff her across the head and Reese
cringed.  Before he could land the blow, the man holding her grabbed the
warden’s arm in one hard hand.

“Enough.” 
He grunted.

The warden
winced and nodded before stepping back and rubbing at his arm. 

“Hold
still, human.”  The giant rumbled.

Reese
glared at him.  It wasn’t like she had much choice.  His arm was
still clamped around her hips and it was like a band of steel.  Her back
was throbbing where the warden had punched her and she flinched when the man
ran his hand down her back.

He frowned
and moved his hand to her ass.  He squeezed it firmly.  Reese hissed
at him like an angry cat and slapped at his hand.  He scowled and took her
wrists in one large hand, holding them firmly.

“Hold
still.”  He repeated.

His free
hand reached for one full breast and Reese twisted violently in his
grasp.  “If you touch me there, I’ll kill you.”  She warned.

He stared
silently at her for a moment, his hand resting on her round abdomen, before
dropping his hand to her hip.  He rubbed it gently before slipping his
hand under her shirt and stroking the bare skin of her side.  She was
dismayed to feel a tingle of lust go through her.

Shit
, she thought frantically as a
strange look came over his face.  Big men had always been her weakness,
perhaps because she was so tall herself, and this was the biggest man she’d
ever met.  It didn’t help that he was actually kind of handsome with his
dark eyes and full lips. 

He leaned
in and buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply.  Goosebumps rose on
her flesh and she whimpered softly when he suddenly licked her throat with his
warm, wet tongue.  She wasn’t sure what was happening to her.  Lust
had roared to life within her and without realizing it, she leaned into his
warm body. 

This time
when his hand reached for her breast, she made no attempt to struggle
away.  He cupped her bare breast, his thumb rubbing over her erect nipple,
and she made another soft whimper of need.

She
stumbled and nearly fell when he pulled away from her abruptly.  She
stared mutely at him, her pulse pounding and her blood roaring through her
veins, as he snorted derisively and turned back to his companions.

“He’ll like
this one.  She’s easily aroused.”

Reese’s
face flamed with embarrassment and she bent her head and stared at the
floor.  What the fuck had just happened?

The warden
cleared his throat.  “Are you sure you want this one?  She’s not
obedient.  I know your – your kind like your women submissive.”

The man
ignored him and stared at his companions.  “Do you agree?”

The one
named Theran shrugged.  “We can’t take just her.  He wanted a choice,
remember?”

The man
snorted angrily.  “So we have to feed a bunch of humans because he could
not be bothered to make the trip himself and pick out one.”

The second
man laughed.  “They’ll be useful in other ways.  You know that as
well as I do, Kane.”

Kane
sighed.  “I never thought I would live to see the day we had humans in our
pack.”

The second
man pulled at the collar of his shirt.  “We cannot disobey our alpha’s
demands.”

“I know
that, Hanif.  Do you believe me to be simple?”  Kane growled.

“Of course
not.”  Hanif said hurriedly.  He bowed his head in a show of
submission to the bigger man.

“We will
each pick one.  He can choose from them.  If he doesn’t find any of
them pleasing, he can come back and choose his own mate.”  Kane said with
finality.

“We’ll take
her,” he pointed to Reese, “and two more that my brothers will choose.”

The warden
nodded as Kane stepped forward and took Reese’s wrist in one large hand. 
She pulled futilely and he growled at her.  “Enough or I will drag you
from this room by your hair.  Do you understand?”

She glared
at him and nodded shortly before following him towards the door.

* * *

“The Shifter’s Mate” will be available in the summer of 2015
on
www.amazon.com

Want to read more about Val and Abigail? 

Check out “Rescued by the Wolf” Book 4 in the Other World
Series.  It tells the story of Sara, but there is plenty of Val and Abby,
as well.

Please enjoy an excerpt from “Rescued by the Wolf”

RESCUED BY
THE WOLF

(Other
World Series Book 4)

Copyright Ramona Gray 2015

Sara
groaned softly and touched her head without opening her eyes.  She felt
sick to her stomach and she wasn’t surprised by the wetness on her
fingertips.  She opened her eyes and squinted at her fingers.  They
were red with blood and she groaned again before sitting up cautiously.

The world
spun crazily for a moment and she dropped her head and waited to see if she was
going to throw up or pass out.  After a moment the dizziness passed, and
she lifted her head again.  She studied her surroundings.  She was in
a forest, the thick trees rose high into the night sky, and she staggered to
her feet.