“Are you kidding? This little whore is responsible for his Heir getting executed!” the first guard growled. “He’s not changing his mind—she deserves everything she gets and then some!”
“Well, she’ll get it all right,” Curly said, giving me a narrow-eyed glance. “We got some pretty tough customers here—lot of out-of-towners. Some of ‘em even came from out of state for a chance at her!”
“That right?” the second guard asked. “Didn’t know the Royal Alpha opened it to all comers.”
“He said anyone who was strong enough to win her could have her,” Curly informed him. “And he said he doesn’t want them to go easy on her once they got her.”
Great—Marcus was practically begging someone to rape me, I thought dryly. So much for his promise to my mother than he would pick someone “gentle.”
Some of the numbness that had flowed into my veins seemed to leak away. Of course I didn’t want to live if Jake was already dead, but I didn’t want to die horribly either. Ideally I could just grab someone’s gun and shoot myself—only I didn’t see any opportunity to do that yet. I was keeping my eyes pealed though—it looked like Curly was wearing some kind of pistol on his belt. I wondered if I could get it away from him…
My wondering was cut short when Curly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me roughly to center stage.
“All right now,” he bawled, making me wince and wish I could cover my ears with my hands. “It’s time for these here festivities to start! We got a Royal here—the Second Royal Omega. She’s the last female of the Line of the First Wolf and tonight she’s up for grabs!”
The assembled crowd let out a huge, hungry, wolfish howl that made my blood run cold. Oh God, they were eager for me—I’d be lucky if they didn’t tear me apart!
“Wait now—just wait!” Curly called out, making a motion with one hand to quiet them down. “You haven’t heard what she’s accused of yet. This little gal has got herself some serious sins to pay for—if she didn’t, ya’ll wouldn’t be gettin’ a chance at a Royal—you know that!”
The crowd quieted considerably and I could feel their eyes boring into me.
“The Second Royal Omega is charged with breaking both of the Unbreakable Laws,” Curly bawled out. “First, she seduced her own brother into fucking her and second she got him to fuck her in his fur form!”
There was a low gasp from the assembled men and someone called out,
“Does that mean whoever gets her also gets to fuck her in his fur form?”
Curly shrugged.
“According to the Royal Alpha, you can do whatever you want with her! He doesn’t want whoever gets her to go too easy on her, seein’ as how she got his Heir killed.”
There was a lot of noise from the crowd—mostly boos and other unfriendly sounds. Well, so much for “Unbreakable Laws,” I thought sourly. Clearly whoever got me was going to be able to do whatever he wanted with me and that wasn’t going to be a pretty scenario. I eyed Curly’s pistol again—if I could just get my hands on it, I could shoot myself before any of them could get me.
I didn’t have any illusions about taking the pistol and somehow getting free of the clearing. There were too many men here—several hundred at least—and all of them could turn into wolves. There was no way I could outrun a wolf pack and I would much rather die from a self-inflicted gunshot than being torn apart by their sharp teeth.
“All right now,” Curly shouted to the crowd. “If you’re a single male in want of a mate and you think you have what it takes to win this little lady, step up to the front of the stage down here.”
He gestured to the ground right in front of the stage and the crowd started rippling, like a pond that someone had thrown a lot of pebbles in.
I swallowed hard when I saw what was happening. Some of the biggest, toughest, meanest looking men I had ever seen were pushing their way to the front. One of them had a handlebar mustache and was built like a bear. Another had a huge, green dragon tattoo curling around both his biceps—easy to see since he was wearing a sleeveless, wife-beater type t-shirt.
There were a lot of other contenders too, but these two caught my eye—mostly because they were bigger and looked meaner than any of the other men crowding the front of the stage.
“All right now,” Curly instructed them. “The rest of you who aren’t in the running, make a ring around the outside of the pack clearing. And I want all the contenders in the middle.”
Once again, the crowd moved to do as he said. I wondered if he was the pack leader—the Alpha of the regular Weres in these parts? I also wondered if he was ever going to take his hand off the butt of his gun. If I could just hook it out of its holster…