She’s listening but refusing to give them anything they can use against her. God, there’s no one like this woman. I want to beg them to leave her alone, but I know it’ll make things worse.
Bellamy is still lying prone on the ground, not moving at all. Cassidy’s gaze shifts to him from time to time to check on him. I know she cares, despite pretending to care for nothing.
I can’t allow myself to think any differently, because Madam Clara will do her best to tear us apart. I don’t need to give her any help.
“The auction will get a live view of what their holes can do while people bid. I heard your mother used to do this and it was successful,” Madam Clara says.
“I mean, outside of the last one, it was very successful,” Avery agrees, sadness sliding through her gaze.
I refuse to feel sorry for her. Absolutely not! I bet her mother was even worse than she is. Her death was probably a wonderful event for all omegas everywhere.
“I guess we should see how much stamina she has, huh?” Avery adds cruelly, reassuring me that she is exactly as terrible as she’s previously presented herself.
“Jake, why don’t you call in whoever is around,” Madam Clara says with a grin.
“Sure, sure. I don’t have to participate, right? I’m gay,” he says.
Cassidy snorts in derision, and I get the feeling that’s a lie.
“Every asshole feels the same when you fuck it, doesn’t it?” Madam Clara sighs. “Just go. You can help get her out of the cage after and then fuck off to clean the auction room.”
Nodding curtly, Jake rushes out of the room just as Bell groans softly from the ground.
“Ah, he’s waking up. Lovely,” she murmurs.
Avery walks over and plops herself on Bell’s back, making him yell in pain. I can feel as well as see the way his body flops like a fish out of water, and I have to force myself to keep breathing, even though I want to gasp for air.
The less they know about how close our bond is, the better.
“Secure his arms behind his back, Avery,” Clara mutters, tossing a pair of zip ties to her.
There’s no please, simply an order to ensure her command is followed. My arms and wrists burn as Bellamy’s arms are yanked back, and I can feel myself begin to drift from reality.
It’s too much, the world is just too fucking awful.
Forcing a breath into my lungs, I blink my eyes and dig my nails into the palms of my hands until I ground myself. Bellamy weakly raises his head to look at me and I shake my head in sadness.
His gray eyes give me compassion I don’t feel I deserve, and I realize my eyes are wet.
I’ve begun to cry again.
A table is pulled into the room by a group of men, and Clara raises her brows as they cheer.
“What, were we supposed to fuck her on the ground?” one of the men asks. “I wonder how well she’ll be able to take a knot.”
Jake turns pale at the thought, and I think about how his discomfort is too little, too late. The table lowers as they set it up, and then a section toward the top opens with straps. It quickly becomes clear that they’re to immobilize someone’s arms, and then there’s a rod on the other side with fucking ankle cuffs.
I almost collapse in shock against the cage walls, but force myself to lean to the side as I hold my weight up. This is going to be so fucking bad.
Madam Clara has upped her game, as have her employees. I never really saw them much while I was under her “care” before. We were too valuable for that, she used to say.
Jake opens the cage door Cass is in, wincing as Cassidy fucking hisses at him.
“This’ll hurt me more than it’ll hurt you, boss lady,” he whispers, reaching in to grab her ankles. Jake yanks her out, while someone else grabs her wrists once she’s free of the cage walls.
Cassidy fights like an alley cat, screaming and contorting so they’ll drop her. Instead, Jake and the other man lift her body high into the air, before slamming her onto the table on her stomach, effectively driving the breath out of her lungs as she gasps for oxygen.
My jaw drops at the violence, and Jake quickly ties down her arms while the other man gets her ankles into the contraption on the ground. She doesn’t even have a chance at fighting them off.
