Read Savage Chains: Captured (#1) for Free Online Page A

only her, the shape of her brown eyes, her straight nose, her full lips. She was an incredibly beautiful woman and carried herself like none of the others. He’d been right about her: even now her spirit showed.
    Suddenly he wanted to be back at the Ocean Club, but instead of warning her away, he wanted her in his arms, wanted to take her home, to make her his. He could have protected her then, if only he’d known what was in store for her.
    His gaze drifted down her body, to full breasts peaked in the cold room, her narrow waist, and the elegant line of her hips and legs. She had a narrow landing patch.
    Unlike all the others, she at first refused to move, which caused the tension and interest in the audience to rise. But two doms with whips nudged her, and she finally moved forward.
    Time resumed when the auctioneer started running through a list of assets, including her womanly dimensions and how many sex partners she’d had.
    She moved slowly, glancing around the tables. No other slave had done that. Her expression slowly filled with disdain, her upper lip curled, her cheeks drawn back.
    He wanted to warn her that these outward displays would only enflame the audience, but there was nothing he could do. He could only stare, like everyone else.
    Her hair had been piled high on her head, revealing her long tapering neck, while a very long, leopard-patterned scarf, just a few inches wide, trailed from a feathered headdress over her right shoulder, partially covering one breast. She held the scarf in place by wrapping it around her arm as though she kept this one part of her body sacred.
    She had no idea that an attempt at modesty and the look of defiant disgust in her eyes would have the opposite effect, making her more and not less desirable.
    He felt the interest of the vampires around him like a wave through the room as the tension level ratcheted up.
    She paused halfway down the runway and threw her arms wide. “You’re all a bunch of fucking perverts. What’s wrong with you people? Can’t you see that what you’re doing is vile? That it goes against every honorable code of humanity?”
    The crowd erupted, not in disapproval, but rather in a sudden flood of bids. She looked confused now, not understanding what was happening.
    But Reyes did. She’d just set herself up as a sadist’s dream, an innocent, worthy woman ready to fight.
    The auctioneer shouted above the din, “I have two hundred thousand, do I have three? Three, do I have four?” The number kept escalating, and quickly.
    He saw her mouth move and extended his hearing. Her voice had dropped to a confused whisper. “What’s happening? I don’t understand.”
    He glanced at Engles, who was now on his feet, his face red as he called out a bid that launched the number to two million.
    Two million. So fast.
    Slowly, Angelica lowered her arms. She searched the crowd, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She pivoted, looking perhaps for one person who would stand with her against this terrible crime.
    Reyes rose to his feet and moved next to the runway as so many others had, needing to see her defiance close up. He now stood no more than three yards away from her.
    When she met his gaze, her lips parted. She shook her head several times. “No,” she murmured. She looked at him with a question in her eyes; then the answer seemed to dawn on her and her gaze grew cold. “So you’re one of them.”
    He nodded slowly, still staring at her as the bids kept climbing toward four million, Engles leading the way. She searched his eyes and he saw profound disappointment, but she couldn’t possibly know what it would cost him to support her right now.
    He had a role to play and lives to save. He had his cover to protect.
    But even as he made up his mind, a different kind of drive rose up in him, one that involved getting her off the stage so that all these other men would stop looking at her.
    In a strong voice, and against every ounce of reason, he