Romance: Sold To The Alpha Dragon: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (BBW Romance, Paranormal, BBW Shifter Romance) Read online

  Sold To The Alpha Dragon

  Ashley Hunter

   Copyright 2015 by Ashley Hunter

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced

  in any way whatsoever, without written permission

  from the author, except in case of brief

  quotations embodied in critical reviews

  and articles.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any

  person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  First edition, 2015

  Chapter 1

  All Maria heard from her corner of the bar was the incomprehensible screaming and laughing of men. Her eye throbbed. She wanted to reach up and touch it to make sure it wasn’t bleeding but the handcuffs around her wrists weighed down her arms.

  Though she felt very weak, she was still able to sit up on the little stool she was perched on. Maria looked up slowly and saw various drunk, bearded old men waving various amounts of money in the air.

  She looked outside of the Scottish Highlands where the green grass appeared blue from the dimming sun. She figured it must’ve been seven or eight in the evening. Her stomach grumbled from intense hunger.

  All she remembered from the day was arguing about money with Desmond in the alley between the pharmacy and clothing stores. He wanted her to give up her wages for the month but she refused.

  Next thing she knew, she was being hit and pushed up against the brick walls somewhere.

  “No, Eliott, no!” Desmond yelled in a jolly manner.

  He stroked his gray beard and undid a few buttons on his bulging vest. He pointed at another man who stood up.

  “Hal is the only one who’s put down enough money!”

  “But she’s not even scrawny!” Eliott argued, pointing at Maria.

  “That’s a good thing, ain’t it?” Desmond responded. A few men in the back chuckled.

  The fattest man in the dank basement bar waddled towards and towered over Desmond.

  “This is how you’re going to pay me back?” the man scoffed.

  “Joel, I know I gambled a lot away-“

  “Not only that, Desmond, but you owe me money for rent. For five months!” Joel walked over to Maria as he finished his sentence.

  Maria looked up at him with one eye. Joel patted her knee. Even with her thick skirt and sweater tights, his hand hurt the bruises on her leg.

  She glanced back down at her arms and saw the bruises from Desmond forcing her onto the stool and into the shackles.

  Desmond placed himself between Joel and Maria, patting Joel on the chest. Joel moved back and gave Desmond and Maria a look of curiosity. Maria watched Joel study her from top to bottom.

  “Is she just for the night?” Joel asked.

  “Ha! Or forever depending on how much you bid.” Desmond howled.

  Joel backed up and blended into the crowd. “I like the curvy ones, so I’ll put down what your three months rent are worth and then free drinks on me at this here bar… for the rest of the year!”

  A few men laughed. Hal raised some money in his hand, waved it around and called out, “That’s free drinks for only a month, Joel! I’ll put down one thousand pounds for her!”

  Maria looked up and shook in place out of such fear that she’d be beaten up more and pass out. She didn’t think she could handle any more pain. She was angry at Desmond for putting her up for auction, for men to have ownership over her but deep down; Maria always expected the worst from him.

  She had fought him a lot in the past while working at his new pharmacy. They argued about which drugs were more important to refill for the next month.

  She remembered being pushed and hit by him almost every single day for talking back but he usually never let other men touch her. Let alone look at her. She couldn’t believe that she was still in a modern world where men still acted like pigs.

  As she looked at her possible future abusers, she tried to decide which man she could wish to win the auction. All of them were at least thirty years older than her twenty-four-year-old self. But she caught a glance of a young man standing close to the door.

  He stared at her silently. She watched him glance at the other men too. His dark hair hung around his chin where he stroked his scruffy short beard. Maria didn’t want him to bid either but he definitely looked better than all others in the room.

  She could tell that he had muscular arms under his dark green plaid shirt. Bits of chest hair stuck out from collar. His jeans weren’t tight enough for Maria to get a sense of how thick his leg muscles were, but she tried to peak through the audience of men to see.

  “What if I gave you two thousand pounds for her to spend the month at my place?” yelled another man.

  Maria looked around to find who spoke and saw a man with rotting teeth and long gray hair smiling and nodding at her.

  His eyes were wildly scary and she looked to Desmond in desperation.

  She shook her head and began to reach out for Desmond who was too far away to touch.

  “Please,” Maria whimpered.

  “Uncle-“

  Desmond turned around and bent down to her level and said, “Don’t remind me you’re my niece. Making me feel guilty for no reason. Family helps family, right? You’ll take the best offer that comes to you for all the trouble you’ve given me since ye were little.”

  Maria thought in the moment that there was no use begging for mercy, so she lowered her head again.

  A handsome voice from the back called out, “If she stays with me for the month, I’ll give you three thousand pounds!”

  Though Maria didn’t have the energy to look up again, the sound of the man’s voice made her pray that he would be the highest bidder.

  Another booming voice to her left yelled back.

  “Four thousand!”

  “Five thousand!” the handsome voice said again.

  “Six thousand pounds and I’ll pay for Desmond’s five months rent he owes,” the booming voice said.

  An uncomfortable pause silenced the basement’s bustling and howling.

  The handsome voice replied even louder, “I’m willing to give nine thousand pounds to keep her out of Desmond’s place for the month and drinks for everyone in this bar for the whole month too.”

  Men cheered at the offer and clapped.

  “Want to beat his offer, Max?” Desmond asked the man.

  “I can’t beat that for how much you alone drink in a month, Desmond! Ha!” the man replied with a laugh.

  The fact that no one could even match the handsome voice’s bid was comforting to Maria. And the happy vibe from the men also calmed Maria a little bit. The last thing she could handle was a chaotic bar fight.

  “Come up and take her then! Keep her forever! Haha I have no use for her anymore.” Desmond hailed.

  He bent down to Maria’s ear and whispered, “Don’t be trouble for this one.”

  Some men booed in disappointment as they didn’t know they could keep Maria for as long as they wanted. Other men laughed at Desmond’s cruel attitude towards his niece.

  Chapter 2

  Maria saw the brown boots of the man appear in front of her. His hand lifted her chin to meet his face. Her brown eyes met his bright green ones. They were swirled with a darker color green and brown like a mosaic design in the church’s window.

  He was the man that leaned against the wall in the front of the bar. He stared at he
r in a gentle way that didn’t startle Maria. It wasn’t creepy. She could almost feel his concern as he furrowed his eyebrows.

  “Are you okay?” He asked.

  Maria nodded.

  “Can you walk?”

  Maria placed a step on the stone floor and tried to stable her balance. When she slowly put the other leg down and hopped off the stool, she nodded without a word.

  The man wrapped his arm around Maria’s waist and let her lean her weight on him. She looked around as her bidder led her towards the back door of the bar.

  He stopped to speak to the barkeeper, Reggie, who was very young for a barkeeper.

  “Reggie, put everything on my tab. I should be back in three to four weeks, maybe sooner depending on how things go.”

  Maria didn’t know what he meant by ‘depending on how things go,’ and it worried her a little.

  “Okay, Will. Take care, my friend,” Reggie said as he patted the man on the shoulder.

  Will took Maria out the back door. She flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she walked out and saw her uncle stare at her disappointedly. A few men who handed him pints of beer distracted him.

  Maria immediately felt the cool breeze outside and felt like she could breathe for the first time in a long time. The feeling only lasted a minute until she realized she belonged to a stranger.

  She touched the bruises on her knee and looked down. Blood seeped from her thigh and through her tights.

  Maria caught a glimpse of Will looking down at her lifted skirt, so she pulled it back down quickly to cover her wound. It made sense that she felt so weak, for she knew she must’ve lost more blood than she originally thought.

  Will lifted his hands in defense and said, “Hey, now, I wasn’t trying to look at anything. You’re hurt. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  “Okay, like a clinic?” Maria asked.

  “I know a-“

  “We don’t know it’s that bad. Let’s go to my car,” Will said, pointing at a lonely beat-up and rusty Sudan parked on the grass away from the bar.

  Maria’s good sense of the man faded since she hoped he would want to help her. But her fear returned when she realized he only wanted one thing from her.

  She had no choice but to follow him to the car.

  “You’re Maria, yeah?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I’m Will, by the way.”

  “I know,” Maria shot back. “I heard you and Reggie.”

  They reached the car and Maria started to open the door. Will came up behind her and opened the door for her.

  She jumped a little, frightened by how quickly and close he appeared next to her.

  “Ha, I didn’t mean to scare ye,” he said with a chuckle.

  They drove for a little while before Maria got the courage to ask, “How do you know Reggie?”

  Will sighed and said, “I haven’t seen him in a while and he’s the only one in that little village that I know. We met as kids once playing in the woods and became childhood friends.”

  “Oh.”

  “He’s a good person. And we knew each other’s families. Guess you could call him a family friend,” Will explained.

  Maria didn’t ask any more questions and let her mind rush with horrible possible situations Will could put her in. She didn’t know what he would want to do with her or to her.

  Every once in a while, she would glance him as he stared into the dark and drove on the rocky road. Will gave her no vibe. Good or bad. So Maria had a hard time figuring him out.

  Staring out the window, watching the stars and trees go by, Maria tried to find some semblance of civilization in case she had the chance or needed to run away. But they only drove deeper into the woods.

  “I’m just up the hill,” Will said matter-of-factly.

  Maria looked in the distance to see a mansion built on a tall brick platform. He parked in the long driveway lined with hedges on both sides. Will raised his palm to make Maria stay in her seat as he got out of the car.

  She nervously watched him walk around the car. He opened the door for her and held out his hand. Maria looked up at him and paused, partly confused by his polite gesture.

  “Don’t be taking my whole night, now,” Will said in a light-hearted manner.

  “We both need food and sleep.”

  Maria took his hand, wary about whether or not he meant ‘sleep’ or torture. His warm grip wasn’t tight but gentler than she expected.

  Maria forgot she had her small leather cross-body bag wrapped across her chest. Will straightened the strap that twisted on her shoulder and gave her a soft smile. She smiled back as they shared an unnaturally long look into each other’s eyes.

  She quickly looked away, uncomfortable by her immediate attraction to him.

  Maria thought to herself that she shouldn’t like him. He was a monster who wanted the same thing as they all did. Her naked body on a bed. But his reassuring squeeze of her hand made her feel safe.

  Chapter 3

  “I guess…” Maria said.

  As she walked up the white stone staircase, she grazed her hand along the soft tulips that were in the prime of their lives. Most were white and yellow. She caught Will smirking at her and she stopped admiring the flowers and topiaries that lined the entire house.

  She examined the mansion instead, thinking she could find a possible escape route or secret side door or window in case she needed to safely get out of Will’s grip.

  She didn’t truly believe Will would hurt her but she reminded herself that even her own uncle had the ability to appear gentle.

  Will opened one side of the wooden double doors and released Maria’s hand. She looked inside and then back at Will, realizing that she could run away and take a chance on running to the next village, possibly starting over, finding a welcoming Christian family to take her in, to find a job.

  But something in the house was so warm and calling for her to enter. She peered inside the foyer and took a step into the large ancient-looking home with its decorative wooden columns lining the spiral staircase.

  She stared down the hall. A long wooden table and chairs. A black chandelier hung over a large statue of a dragon perched on a stone. Maria was surprised that it wasn’t scary to her. It just stared at the ground, like she had done for most of her life. She guessed that it was brass.

  Will followed Maria inside and flipped the switch to reveal how bright the dark home was. The wood was shiny and the marble floors were so white, Maria was afraid to walk on them.

  “It’s nice,” Maria half-whispered, still staring at the dragon.

  “The house or the statue?” Will asked.

  “Both. Is it from your clan?” Maria assumed Will inherited the statue.

  “Um… yes.” Will quickly looked away with a sigh and rubbed his hands together.

  “You stay here, and I’ll grab some bread, cheese, grapes? Or do you want a meal? Of course, we’d have to wait for Mrs. Hogan-“

  “You have a cook?” Maria asked.

  “I have a maid too.” Will smiled.

  In the light, Maria could finally see how white his teeth were. And How perfectly shaped his lips were.

  “Bread is fine,” Maria replied. “I’m more tired than anything.”

  “Then go on upstairs,” Will said.

  “You can sleep in the bedroom. Fourth door down the right wing.”

  Maria was excited to walk up the stairs and explore for a little while. When Will turned his back, Maria watched him walk with confidence past the dining room to a hallway she couldn’t see.

  When he was out of sight, she ran up the stairs and reveled in the green drapes hanging down from ceiling high windows. She only looked down the left wing and saw endless doors on both ends.

  She headed down the right wing, being used to obeying most orders. But she didn’t go into the fourth room.

  There was a black door, different from the other gold ones, to her left. Since it was ajar, Maria only lightly
pushed it open to reveal a king sized bed with gold bedding. The room had the same green drapes and tall windows throughout the room.

  Maria flipped the switch to see the room glow with gold-rimmed lampshades and a gold door that she assumed was the closet. She opened it to find a huge walk-in room with rows and rows of designer shoes and women’s skirts, sweaters, and blouses.

  A few gowns hung in the back. One, a light blue gown, caught Maria’s eye with its beaded bodice and taffeta skirt.