Chapter 3 - The Golden Cage
1409 Words
Piper’s POV
WHEN CONSCIOUSNESS returned, it didn’t come gently.
It hit me in fragments—first the smell of lavender, clean and faint, curling around my senses. Then the warmth beneath me, not the cold concrete I remembered from that godforsaken auction hall. My lashes fluttered open, and instead of flickering fluorescent bulbs, I saw a soft gold chandelier above me.
I was in… a bedroom.
My heart slammed against my ribs. My gaze darted around. Ivory curtains, sunlight pouring through tall windows, a plush carpet beneath the bed. And beside me—
“Oh my god—”
A woman in a black-and-white maid’s uniform stood there, her hands cool against my bare shoulders. She was in the middle of unbuttoning the thin, grimy dress I’d been wearing since the auction.
I scrambled back, panic clawing its way up my throat. “What the hell are you doing?!”
The sudden movement made the world tilt. My right wrist twinged, and my eyes shot down—no chains. The heavy metal cuffs that had bruised my skin were gone. In their place was a thin medical IV taped to my arm, clear fluid dripping slowly into my vein.
I tried to yank it out, but my hand shook. “Where am I? What happened?”
The maid didn’t answer. Not a single word. Her expression was polite, her eyes downcast, as if she hadn’t heard me at all.
I pushed her hands away, my voice rising. “I said, Where am I?!”
Before she could even attempt to mime an answer, the door creaked open.
A man stepped inside.
He wasn’t the one from the auction—the one with the cold, predatory smirk who’d bid for me like I was cattle. This man was younger, maybe late twenties, with dark brown hair brushed neatly back, a clean jawline, and shoulders broad enough to fill the doorway. His suit was tailored, crisp, and he carried himself with the quiet authority of someone who didn’t need to prove he was dangerous.
But it wasn’t his appearance that made my breath catch.
It was his eyes—warm, assessing, almost kind.
The maid straightened, waiting for his silent cue. When he gave a small nod, she bowed slightly and slipped out, closing the door behind her.
I pulled the blanket up to cover my chest, my pulse hammering. “Who the hell are you?”
He stopped a few feet from the bed, his voice smooth. “Kai Rylan. Beta to Julian St. Clair.”
The name hit me like a punch.
Julian St. Clair.
The man whose name had been all over that damn internet ad. The man I was supposed to meet for an interview—a tutoring job, not… whatever the hell had happened.
My hands tightened on the blanket. “You mean the guy who scammed me into this nightmare?”
Kai’s brows drew together. “You weren’t scammed, Ms. Black. That ad was real.”
A bitter laugh tore from my throat. “Real? That ad promised a legitimate job, not—” I gestured wildly at myself. “—being drugged, chained, and auctioned off to the highest bidder!”
Kai’s gaze stayed steady, calm in the face of my fury. “What happened to you wasn’t part of the arrangement. You were kidnapped by a syndicate. Our staff was supposed to pick you up from the bus terminal. But when you didn’t show, we started making calls. We learned you’d been intercepted by another van—one linked to a trafficking ring.”
My stomach turned. My breath hitched.
“Julian went to the auction himself to buy you back.”
I froze.
“Buy me… back?” The words scraped against my throat. “Like I’m a piece of furniture?”
Kai’s voice softened. “It was the fastest way to get you out. If we’d tried to storm in, they might have… harmed you before we reached you.”
My mind reeled, caught between anger, disbelief, and the image of some billionaire actually showing up at a shadowy black-market auction to place a bid for me. “Why the hell would Julian St. Clair care? He doesn’t even know me.”
Kai hesitated for the first time. “Because of his daughter.”
I blinked. “What?”
“She’s been through a lot. No one lasts more than a week as her tutor—she drives them all away. But then she saw your application photo on the website. For the first time, she insisted she wanted you.”
“That’s insane,” I said flatly. “You’re telling me this is all because some spoiled rich kid saw my picture and decided she liked me?”
Kai didn’t flinch. “It’s more complicated than that. But yes—Julian takes her requests seriously. When we realized you’d been taken, there wasn’t a second thought. He was going to get you out—no matter what it took.”
I stared at him, searching for the lie. “And the kidnapping? You’re saying that’s just… bad luck?”
“Not luck,” Kai said, his tone darkening. “They were watching you. Waiting. And when you traveled alone, they made their move.”
A shiver ran down my spine. I wrapped my arms tighter around myself. My ex and Allison’s social media postings must have something to do with my danger exposure. It’s all their fault that I was here.
“That’s impossible,” I whispered. “Why would they be watching me?”
Kai didn’t answer right away, and the weight of his silence pressed on my chest.
Before I could demand more, the door opened again.
The air in the room shifted.
He walked in like he owned the oxygen itself—tall, broad, dressed in black that clung to the cut of his shoulders and chest. His hair was a rich, dark gold, swept back in perfect disarray. The kind of man whose presence wasn’t just seen, it was felt.
Julian St. Clair.
My heart stumbled over itself, thudding hard enough I could hear it in my ears. His gaze found mine instantly, and for a long moment, he didn’t move, didn’t speak—just looked at me like I was something he’d both claimed and regretted claiming.
Heat pooled low in my stomach, tangled with the instinctive warning that this man was dangerous. Not in the way the syndicate thugs were—loud, crude, obvious—but in the way a predator doesn’t need to snarl to make its prey freeze.
Kai straightened, his posture shifting almost imperceptibly, like even he felt the gravitational pull of Julian’s presence.
“Leave us,” Julian said, his voice deep and edged with command.
Kai inclined his head. “Alpha—”
“Now.”
Reluctance flickered over Kai’s face, but he obeyed, slipping out and shutting the door.
I clutched the blanket tighter as Julian stepped closer.
Every nerve in my body screamed at me to move back, but I stayed rooted, my pulse hammering.
His eyes roamed over me—not with lust, exactly, but with an assessing intensity that made my skin prickle. Like he was memorizing every inch, cataloging it for later.
“Do you have any memory of last night. Miss Black?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Julian St. Clair was even more handsome in daylight. His features were like carved to perfection. I couldn’t even focus on what I was going to answer because of that tingling sensation in my stomach.
It felt as if something inside was trying to break free and jump to him.
“I… I don’t know…” I croaked.
And then his voice dropped, slow and deliberate.
“Chain her.”
The words hit like ice water. “What?”
Julian didn’t look away. “Kai. Bring the restraints.”
The door opened just enough for Kai to reappear, his eyes flashing confusion and—God—guilt.
Julian’s gaze never left mine. “Put her in the darkroom cage.”
For a second, I forgot how to breathe. “You can’t be serious—”
But the faintest curve touched the corner of his mouth. “You’ll find I’m always serious, Piper Black.”
The sound of metal links clinking filled the air as Kai stepped forward, and my body went cold.
- Writer
