Auction

As his hand meets my ass, I curse him. I curse him with every word I have, and some I don't. Some I don't know the meaning of, but they sound bad and that's all that I care about.

"You fucking asshole microchip! I hope you fester in customer service forever!"

"What are you saying, girl?" The spanking stops for a moment.

"I am saying I hate you."

"Indeed, but customer service microchip?"

Now he is swearing at me! How dare he!

"Customer service microchip your mother!"

Across the room, Elias snorts.

"What do you think you are saying, girl?"

"I... I am telling you what I think of you!"

"And who taught you this language?"

"My father. He taught me all the words. And I read some."

"I see." Mattias' palm is no longer whacking my ass. It is splayed across it, rubbing gently.

"Tell me," Elias chimes in, his handsome face holding an expression I can't quite fathom. "What is the worst insult you could come up with?"

"The very worst?"

"The very, very worst."

It's strange, how I can't quite manage to say the words at full volume. Even now, after all these years, they slip out in a whisper, as if I'm afraid my father will hear me say them.

"Parking warden."

Mattias and Elias both burst into laughter. I feel Mattias' arms curl around me and squeeze me tight in something like a hug.

"You are too precious for this place," he says with something like regret in his voice.

"Then let me go!"

"I can't. And it wouldn't make you any safer," he says. "Men will seek you out. One day, sooner or later, you will be taken. It is better to find an owner now than remain wild."

Says him.

"I liked being wild."

I squirm and he lets me up. I could push away from him, but instead I find myself nestling into his lap. Maybe I have missed human contact. Maybe it is nice just to have another body beside mine. Even if it is a mean captor who laughs at the way I speak and punishes me for perfectly reasonable attempts at escape.

"I saw the auction," I say. "There were so many men."

"You're rare," Mattias says. "You're in high demand."

"But..." I bite my lower lip. "What if I don't like the man who buys me? What if he's not nice? What if he hurts me? What if..." My questions speed up and run into one another as I start to panic.

"You will not be harmed. You have no idea how precious you are. You will be taken very well care of. You will have the best food. You will sleep in the finest beds. And you will bear the next generation."

"I never thought of having a man before..."

"You're a sweet little thing," Elias says, speaking from his seat across the room. "I know whoever purchases you will take care of you."

I am encouraged—slightly—by their words. There is something about these two that makes me trust them. Mattias has already given me pleasure to go along with the pain, and they have fed me.

They are not like the wild men in the market who would have torn me apart just to fuck a piece of me. They are different. I find myself nestled in Mattias' lap, wondering why they are so different.

Mattias holds me, lets me sit and think, gives me a chance to take in my new situation, perhaps even consider, maybe being open to it.

A heavy knock at the door gives me a small fright.

Elias goes to answer it. I hear voices outside. And then I hear Elias replying. I can't hear precisely what is being said, but there's a note of concern in Elias' voice even at a distance, and when he returns, he doesn't look at me.

"Mattias. We need you."

Mattias eases me off his lap. "Wait here," he says. "Don't go anywhere, I don't want to have to punish you again."

I sit down in the warm chair he vacated, and I wait. This has something to do with me, I am sure of it. The auction. Have I been sold? Who have I been sold to?

It seems like forever until Mattias and Elias return. I can tell from the expression on Mattias' face that things are not going to work out as rosy as he said they would.

"Trissa," he says. "Come here."

I get up and walk toward him. He crouches down in front of me, which puts his head a little lower than mine. His big hands wrap around my upper arms as he gives me the bad news.

"The auction is complete."

"Okay." Something about the way he is speaking makes my stomach churn with nerves.

"There was more than one winner."

"You mean I've been sold to two men?"

He shakes his head. "More than two."

"Three?"

He makes an upward jerking motion with his head.

"Four?"

He draws in a deep breath. "When the auction finished, there were seven joint buyers. The sheriff has decided not to sell you outright, but to sell breeding rights instead."

"Breeding rights." I repeat the words, my jaw dropping. This is not what they said would happen. This is not what I was promised. This is not okay. And I am not going to stay here for it.

"Relax," Mattias says, soothing me by rubbing his hands up and down my arms. "You're still going to be taken care of."

"I'm going to be bred!" I gasp the words at him. "I'm going to be taken care of like an animal!"

"You can only conceive once per year or so," Mattias says. "So your life may be easier than you imagine. Once you are impregnated, you will not be taken again until your fertility returns."

I glower down at him. "Why do you keep saying these things as if they are good things? What will happen to my babies?"

"If they are male, they will be taken as soldiers. If they are female..."

"Stop," I say. I know what is coming and it will not happen. I will not allow it.

"Elias and I will remain your guardians," Mattias says. "We will take care of you on a day-to-day basis. We will make sure that you are looked after."

He doesn't seem to even understand what is so wrong with this entire situation. He thinks it is fine for me to be used like an animal, my offspring taken from me and sold. This is everything my mother and my father fought to stop from happening to me. And it's happening anyway. I want to be sick.

"When will they start coming to me?"

"Tonight."

Tonight. Tonight I will be taken. Tonight some man I do not know will steal my virginity from me and fill me with his seed. Tonight...

"Trissa, you look pale. You should sit down."

Tonight, I become the prisoner I was never meant to be. Tonight I become a biological thing, a vessel for men. Tonight...

"Trissa..."

Mattias' voice sounds very strange and far away. The world is all weird and wobbly.

"Triss..."