Page 59 of Dark Auctioned Mate

Slowly and silently, Alanis slipped out of bed and collected her clothes. She had to contact Deva and find out how those women were doing. She couldn’t stay still. She needed to do something productive before her mind drifted to something else, like what it would be like to stay with Rael forever. To choose to stay with the Weston Pack as opposed to the Lumen. To establish her life here rather than going back to the organization that rescued her.

She was about to go to the door, fully dressed, when Rael’s voice suddenly filled the room.

“Running away?”

She turned to see him resting on his elbows, looking at her with those blue-green eyes that could look right through her defenses that she had so carefully built. The sun illuminated his light blonde hair, making him look unfairly handsome in the morning.

“I just want to get in touch with Deva and see how things are going.”

“I think they have it under control, Alanis. They’ve been doing this for years. I don’t believe they need supervision.”

He wasn’t wrong, but to acknowledge this was to have acknowledged that she was seeking a reason to escape the upcoming conversation.

“Sit. Please. There’s something I need to say to you.”

Her stomach knotted with fear. This was it. When he would tell her to choose him. To stay with him. She would be lying if she said she didn’t notice the look in his eyes when she avoided his indirect question yesterday of whether she would stay with the Weston’s pack or go back to the Lumen.

So, he was probably about to give her reasons why she should stay.

And the worst of it all was, she was already half-convinced. She was already dreaming of how it would be to wake up in the arms of Rael every morning, to be a member of his pack, to build something real here.

But duty was duty. The Lumen took her in when nobody wanted to help her. They provided her with purpose, family, and a reason to continue fighting. Why would she leave them to go off and be with someone she never even wanted to be bonded with in the first place?

She took a seat at the edge of the bed and pulled herself together.

“I know what you’re going to say,” she started. “And I know you would have me stay, but—”

“I will help you find your old pack “

Alanis blinked in confusion. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Caldwell Pack. The people who hurt you and tried to sell you.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I know you said they’re nowhere to be found, but just like I said—I will find them, and it’s time we start taking action. I will make them pay for what they did to you and the other girls.”

“I don’t... why would you...”

“I told you, Alanis. You have a right to justice. What they did to you was unforgivable, and they should not be able to simply disappear and get away with it. Because every day they are out there, they might be doing the same thing to other girls.”

“But the mission,” Alanis managed. “The trafficking network we’re chasing—it needs our full attention. Looking for my former pack would be a distraction.”

“Not if they’re connected, which I think that they may be.”

“What do you mean?”

“The network that we have been monitoring—it functions in the same manner that you described your pack functioning: getting young women, keeping them in safe places, and selling them to buyers.”

“Most trafficking operations operate in similar ways,” Alanis said, her mind racing. “That doesn’t mean—”

“The time coincides as well,” Rael shook his head. “You ran eight years ago. The trafficking network we have been following first came under our radar five years ago. Just after your pack would have had enough time to move around and reorganize.”

Oh my god.

“You believe Caldwell Pack is a part of the network and not operating independently?”

Rael nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line. “Yes. They had the infrastructure, the methodology, and the lack of moral qualms. If they relocated after you escaped, they might have decided to expand their operations. Go from selling their own pack’s shiftless girls to acquiring and selling women from outside their territory.”

It was plausible. Horrifying, but plausible.

“Then, finding them is not just about my personal vendetta, Rael. It is about shutting down a big portion of the network.”