Alpha's Regret, Begging My Convict Luna Back novel Chapter 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.

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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.

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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.

Fifty million? My stomach twisted.

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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.

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?

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