Maren's POV
The moment his skin touches mine, fire explodes in my chest.
Not real fire. Something worse.
It's like lightning and honey and burning all at once, pouring through my veins so fast I can't breathe. A golden thread snaps into place between us something ancient and wild and completely unstoppable.
I gasp. My knees buckle.
The Rogue King's hand tightens around mine, steadying me. His grey eyes go wide. Just for a second, his perfect control cracks, and I see shock written all over his face.
He feels it too.
Every wolf in the auction house jerks backward like they've been slapped. Some stumble. One actually falls. The air itself seems to vibrate with something huge and invisible and wrong.
No. Not wrong.
Impossible.
Moon Goddess, someone whispers.
The auctioneer drops his papers. They scatter across the platform like dead leaves.
But he can't finish the sentence because he knows what this is. We all know.
A mate bond.
A real one.
The kind that happens maybe once in a thousand years. The kind that can't be faked or forced or broken. The kind that marks two wolves as destined, permanent, bonded.
And it just snapped into place between me a pack less slave with nothing to her name and the most dangerous alpha in the Shattered Wilds.
The room erupts.
Voices explode from every direction, shouting, arguing, demanding answers. Chairs scrape. Bodies push forward. The entire crowd surges toward the platform like a wave about to crash.
Impossible!
She tricked him somehow
A true bond can't just
Someone stop this
The Rogue King doesn't move. Doesn't speak. He just keeps his eyes locked on mine, his hand still wrapped around my wrist, and his face goes completely blank again. Like he's shoved all that shock down into some deep hole where no one can see it.
But I felt it. I know he felt it.
And that terrifies me more than anything else tonight.
Enough. His voice cuts through the chaos like a blade through silk.
The room goes silent.
He doesn't shout. He doesn't need to. When the Rogue King speaks, people listen or they die.
The sale is complete, he says flatly. I've paid. She's mine. Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me outside.
No one moves.
No one is stupid enough to challenge him.
He turns to the auctioneer, who looks like he might faint. The papers.
The auctioneer scrambles to gather the scattered documents with shaking hands. Y-yes, of course, immediately, my lord I mean your majesty I mean
I'm not a king, the Rogue King says coldly. I'm just someone who keeps his word. He signs the transfer papers without looking at them, then releases my wrist.
The golden warmth disappears instantly, but I can still feel it humming under my skin. Waiting. Watching.
Two men step onto the platform huge, scarred wolves who move like soldiers. One of them unlocks my chains. The iron falls away from my wrists, leaving red marks behind.
I'm free.
For exactly three seconds.
Then the Rogue King says, Walk, and turns toward the exit.
I don't move.
He stops. Looks back at me. Now would be good.
Why? The word comes out sharper than I meant it to. Why did you buy me?
Something flickers in his eyes too fast to read. Does it matter?
Yes.
Why?
Because every person who's ever owned me had a reason, I say. And none of them were good.
For a long moment, he just stares at me. The crowd is still frozen, watching us like we're some kind of twisted theatre performance.
Then he says quietly, I didn't buy you to hurt you.
Then why?
Because I need something from you. And in return, I'll give you something you need. He tilts his head slightly. Freedom.
I almost laugh. I'm standing in chains in an auction house because my own father sold me. Freedom isn't something people like me get.
Then maybe, he says softly, you've been asking the wrong people.
Before I can answer, a voice cuts through the tension.
Wait!
My father.
No.
Not now.
Alpha Aldric pushes through the crowd, his face red, his eyes wild. He's sweating. Panicking. Because he just realized what happened what that golden flash of light meant and he sees his leverage slipping away.
The bond! he shouts. That bond is illegal! She's still pack property until the debt is settled completely
The debt is settled, the Rogue King says, ice dripping from every word. I paid twelve thousand silver marks. That's triple what you owed your creditors.
But the bond a true bond that changes everything! My father's voice cracks. She's my daughter! I have rights
You sold those rights. The Rogue King takes one step forward. Just one. My father stumbles backward like he's been shoved. Along with your daughter. For money. Which you gambled away. Which is why we're all here.
You can't just
I can. I did. She's mine now.
The word mine hits like a physical blow. I hate how much it makes my chest tighten.
My father's face goes purple. The Council will hear about this! They'll never let a rogue keep a bonded
Then I suppose, the Rogue King interrupts softly, the Council will have to come find me. He turns to his men. We're leaving.
One of them moves toward me. I step back instinctively.
The Rogue King raises one hand, and the man freezes. She walks on her own, he says. No one touches her without permission.
My breath catches.
He looks at me again. Are you coming?
I glance at my father. At the crowd. At this place that smells like blood and broken dreams.
Then I look at the Rogue King, who just spent twelve thousand marks on me for reasons I don't understand, and whose eyes hold secrets I can't read.
If I say no? I ask.
Then you're free to stay. He says it like he means it. But I don't think you want to.
He's right.
I don't.
I walk toward him. My legs shake, but I don't let it show. When I reach his side, he nods once some kind of approval I don't understand and starts moving toward the exit.
The crowd parts like he's made of poison.
We're almost to the door when my father screams, She'll destroy you! That bond will ruin everything you've built! The Council won't let you keep her they'll hunt you down
The Rogue King doesn't turn around.
But I do.
I meet my father's eyes one last time. And I smile.
It's not a kind smile.
Then we're through the door, into the cold night air, and everything changes.
Because the golden warmth in my chest suddenly flares brighter.
The Rogue King stumbles. Just slightly. His hand goes to his chest, right over his heart, and his face goes pale.
What he starts.
But he doesn't finish.
Because somewhere in the distance, a howl splits the darkness.
Then another.
Then ten more.
The Rogue King's men tense, hands moving to weapons I can't see.
They're tracking us, one of them mutters.
Who? I whisper.
The Rogue King looks at me, and for the first time since I met him, I see something that might actually be fear.
Everyone.