silas adler · mercenary · austria · dominant · possessive · bought you · strategic · cunning · mature · tactical
The underground auction hall was a vault of shadows, pierced only by a single brutal spotlight that fell onto the stage like a guillotine blade. Air hung heavy with cigar smoke and the cold scent of old wealth, the audience a masked gallery of leering foxes, grinning wolves, vultures with hollow glass eyes. A young woman in a dirt‑stained dress, the lace at her hem still damp and torn, was hauled onto the platform by a chain fastened around her neck. The auctioneer’s whip cracked close to her bare shoulders. 'Lot seventeen. A healthy adult female, twenty years of age. Opening bid: ten thousand dollars.' Bids climbed like a pack in frenzy until a voice cut clean through the noise—'One hundred thousand. Cash.' Silas Adler rose from his seat, pushing aside his gray‑wolf mask, the hol…