Chapter 1
I sat outside of the building waiting on my truck to be finished in the shop, listening to music and wondering what I was going to do for dinner. Did I want to grab take out or did I want to go out with my work wife and my gay work hubby? I was so tired but I also wanted the company that they provided, their inane babble kept me from my thoughts. Everything in my life was the culmination of things that were outside of my control, things that were decided for me and at one point I hated it. I hated that I had been disregarded, pushed into things that I never wanted to do, that my thoughts and feelings were disregarded when decisions were being made about my own life. By the time that I had a say so it was so screwed up that there was nothing that I could do but try to find a lifeline and pray that I could find the stability that I needed. I am currently 36 and I had no idea where I was going in life. After spending years dreaming of making it my own, I was now just letting it carry me where it wanted.
Cassie and Chad came out talking animatedly and smiling, both clearly excited for something. If I had known what it was I would have vamoosed out of there, never to return. I would have run because I was not prepared to be launched back into the bullshit from my rejected bonds, from the royal families and the people who lied and had me tortured to the edges of death, from those that turned their backs on me. I was guilty with no chance to prove my innocence and tried for treason all over a guy who ended up taking their side without even a backwards glance, never caring that he could have saved me.
“Noel! Oh my god, you should have been in there! I can’t believe we are going to be a part of history for the company. Can you believe it?” Cassie threw all of that at me with no part for me to respond. I could only stare at her in disbelief with a small, confused smile on my face and a question in my eyes.
“She wasn’t there, but you are right. Noel, did you read any of the messages? We had a chance at being the consorts of royalty. So many good looking guys and did you know that money can buy beauty? Those women were so artificially enhanced but in a decent way, I guess. Anyway back to my point…….” Chad chimed in and just continued on his long winded speech. I still wasn’t grasping any of it but that’s usually how my conversations went with these two. I loved them to death but they were a handful at the best of times. I had learned over the years that you just had to let them go, let them talk themselves out and then start asking questions. That was the only way to get them to give you enough information to even form a coherent thought, to even begin to form an opinion on the subject they were immersed in. It took an hour before they shut up and by that point I wanted to stab my ear drums hard enough to make myself deaf. I knew sign language so it was fine, at least for me.
“Okay, that was a lot of word vomit so let’s start at the beginning. What did ya’ll sign up for and what does that have to do with me?” I asked, still indulging them.
“We signed all of us up to be sold in an auction to be consorts for our new team building endeavor. Apparently it’s a high honor to be chosen by these people, but more than that we are going to be included in some games. I didn’t pay too much attention to that part because I was more concerned about how much we were getting paid. So in the initial auction, a quarter goes to the company, a quarter is held as a down payment, a quarter goes to a charity of our choice and a quarter to us. Then the people who bought us will pay for our upkeep, training and food while we participate in “The Games” and whatever they gift to us is ours to keep. At the end we receive the down payment and a sum for completion.” He gushed about other inane things but the only thing I focused on was “The Games”.
My thoughts took an interest in that phrase and I didn’t care about all the rest of it. It couldn’t be the same thing, they never involved humans. Humans were too weak, they couldn’t handle the stress of The Games, they definitely couldn’t handle the physical aspect of being a consort to them. Humans to them were no better than cattle to the humans, something to feed off of. Okay Leon, you need to focus. There was no way that they had changed the rules and decided to let themselves get involved with the very beings that they thought so poorly of. Focus, you dumb bitch, don’t ruin this for them, don’t get swept up into that spiral. Maybe some humans had decided it would be good to name their little thing the same, no wait they said something about Royals. Goddammit, Leon, focus!
“Whoa, back up. Royals? The Games? What team building, what?” I asked, feigning confusion. Though to be fair only part of it was an act, it was the only reason that there was fear filling my gut and only 2 percent was for me. The rest was for the two people standing in front of me and the rest of my co-workers who I had befriended over the years. There was no way they could withstand what was coming.
“Yes.” Cassie shoved folders at me while talking “Here is all that information, also the papers you need to sign.” She kept on talking at me while I opened the top folder to the first page and the lead filled my veins. Staring back at me were the very people who threw me away like trash.
