Free Web NovelChapter 122: Chapter 122
Nathan’s POV
The bidding started.
Numbers flew.
“One million.”
“Two million.”
“Two point five—”
“Ten million!”
Rowland’s voice filled the air, steady, proud and loud.
The room went silent. Everyone was stunned. My face snapped toward Aria.
My blood surged painfully.
that
That was until the auctioneer’s voice filled the air, “This is a rare relic from the renowned kate Oslon.
Sophia murmured, dazed, “Nathan... necklace... it’s Aria’s grandma’s relic.”
Her words were white noise against the roar in my head.
Because now, every instinct in me screamed the truth I had been trying so damn hard to ignore:
Rowland wasn’t just protecting her.
He was courting her. Showing the entire hall she meant something to him.
And my wolf, with all his dominance, all his rage, all his possessiveness, wanted to rip the paddle from Rowland’s hand and challenge him right here.
Because Aria...
Aria was mine.
Sophia grabbed my arm, causing me to snap out of the haze I’d been drowning in.
Sophia’s fingers trembled against my sleeve.
“Nathan,” she whispered, her voice thin and desperate, “can you bid on it for me? She was technically my grandma... I don’t want her relic ending up just anywhere.”
I blinked down at her, momentarily thrown.
Her expression was earnest.
But what really hit me wasn’t Sophia.
It was Aria.
Across the hall, she was leaning forward in her seat, fingers curled tight against her palm, her knuckles white. Her wolf was anxiously bleeding through her expression.
It speared straight through me.
My own wolf surged upward, claws scraping just beneath my skin.
Protect her! Help her! She’s ours.
Sophia tugged again, her voice quivering. “Please, Nathan...”
The plea overlapped with the image of Aria biting her lower lip, fighting to hold herself together.
Damn it.
My chest tightened. My hand lifted on its own, muscles moving with the instinct I kept failing to kill.
The bidding paddle rose.
“Twenty million dollars,” I said.
My own voice sounded foreign, rough, deep, edged with alpha authority I usually kept tightly leashed.
A collective gasp rippled through the room.
Heads snapped in my direction, eyes wide like prey sensing an approaching predator.
I didn’t look at them.
I only looked at her.
Aria.
Her head shot up, eyes widening, shimmering with confusion... and something else. Something that hit me like a punch to the ribs.
My wolf pressed hard against my mind.
For her. We are doing this for her.
Even if she was sitting beside another male. Even if jealousy had been ripping through me just minutes ago.
It needed to be me, I needed to be the one to do this for her, not Rowland.
Across the auction hall, the tension crackled like static.
Everyone could feel it—It wasn’t just an auction anymore.
It was a battlefield.
And I’d just drawn my blade.
Aria’s POV
The moment that deep, familiar voice rolled across the auction hall, it slammed into me like a physical blow.
Nathan.
My wolf froze so fast I swear my bones turned to stone.
What is he doing here?
Goddess, no. Not now, not like this.
A tremor rippled through me as I followed the sound, and there he was, Nathan Hemsworth. His eyes cold.
His face was carved from ice, hard and unreadable, but the tension rolling off him was unmistakable. His gaze was fixed on me.
Panic clawed up my throat.
Nathan didn’t care about pearls. He didn’t care about auctions.
So why bid?
It had to be because he wants to win, because he wants to remind me he can, because he always plays power games.
My gaze drifted to Sophia, who sat beside him. That infuriating little smirk on her lips wasn’t even subtle. The damsel act she’d pulled before was gone...now she looked like she’d just won the mate bond lottery.
Rowland tensed beside me, his brow furrowing in confusion.
He locked eyes with Nathan, it was intense, almost as though they knew each other. He should know Nathan, everyone in Asterfell did since he was the richest Alpha in the country.
“What’s his deal with this necklace?” Rowland muttered.
Before I could answer, not that I had one, he lifted his paddle.
“Fifty million!”
A gasp rippled around us.
I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood. freewebnøvel.com
Fifty million? My stomach twisted.
Even if it ruined me for a year, even if it meant never buying another damn latte again, I would get Grandma’s necklace back, I had to. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Whispers spread like wildfire through the hall. A necklace no one wanted minutes ago had become the centerpiece of a financial bloodbath.
But it wasn’t about money, not with Nathan here.
All eyes turned as Nathan rose a single finger in a lazy, effortless manner.
“Seventy million dollars.”
My breath stopped.
His voice was so calm, like seventy million was pocket change, like he wanted me to watch.
My wolf whimpered inside me, confusion and old instinct warring with anger.
Why? Why would he do this?
He knew this necklace was from my grandmother. The auctioneer mentioned her name moments ago. He knew.
Was this really just to make Sophia happy?
Or was he deliberately ripping it out of my hands to punish me for being here with another man?
My heart twisted sharply, pain lancing through my chest.
Rowland exhaled, his shoulders tightening.
Even he was starting to sweat under the pressure. He probably didn’t have that kind of liquidity.
He flicked a questioning look at Nathan, as if to say: Come on man, Let me have this.
But Nathan didn’t even blink.
He barely acknowledged Rowland at all.
His eyes, those dark, stormy eyes, shifted back to me. They lingered on my face, drinking in every flicker of emotion like it was air.
My throat tightened.
I hated the way my wolf reacted. I hated how confused and hurt she was.
Then something changed in Nathan’s expression.
A flicker of jealousy, dark and sharp.
He was probably wondering why I rejected to come to this auction with him only to come with another man.
I could see every thought written in the tightening of his jaw, the flick of his gaze between us, the storm brewing under his skin.
Rowland was about to raise his hand and bid again, “Seventy five....”
Nathan didn’t even give Rowland time to finish before he spoke again, his voice
cold, sharp and final.
“One hundred million dollars.”
The words cracked through the air like a lightning strike.
