After Luke arrived, they hurried back to Morrigan Villa so she can change. When she entered the Scarlet Palace, where the auction was, all eyes fell on them, escorted by the five men with Luke going with her as her plus one. They stole the spotlight from the art presented.
Because he confirmed his attendance, Hades had to attend the auction as well. When he saw her entering the Scarlet Palace, his heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he couldn't think of anything while he watched her descending the stairs. Her sole presence left him feeling mesmerized. All he wanted was to sweep her off her feet and be with her. However, seeing the other men around her made his blood boil with rage. So Hades just stood there watching her interact with other people at the auction and admiring the art for a while. Then, when he saw her captivated by a painting he also liked from the auction, he thought it will be a suitable time to approach her.
"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" Hades asked in his deep voice from behind Freyja.
"I think it's actually sad," Freyja said, captivated by the art.
"Why do you think it's sad?" Hades asked curiously.
"The way the artist captured all his feelings into this, it lets you feel the turmoil and sadness he was in," Freyja said, turning to face Hades.
The moment she turned to him, Hades saw her eyes were watery with tears. That made his whole body tense. He didn't know why, but seeing her sad made his heart split into a thousand pieces. Not knowing what to say, he took a step towards her. While placing a finger under her chin, he leaned over and kissed her passionately. Compared to his previous kisses, this one was warm and gentle, almost like he wanted to reassure her everything will be alright. Freyja lost herself in the kiss. For the first time in the past two days, her mind was calm. After what felt like a very long time, they broke the kiss, gasping for air, but they remained rooted to that spot, embracing each other. When Freyja looked into Hades's eyes, she could feel his feelings were sincere, and for a moment, she considered telling him the truth. The sudden cough behind them brought her to reality, though.
"Frey, the auction is about to start," Luke said, glaring at the man she was kissing. Luke remembered him from the club and couldn't understand why Freyja was hostile and enamoured with him.
Freyja pulled herself from Hades's embrace and straightened herself. The sweetness of their kiss was still lingering on her lips when she took her seat at the table, waiting for the auction to start.
The disturbance annoyed Hades, who was at the table across from her, his eyes never leaving her figure for a second. He cared little about the auction anyway, but now all he wanted was to take her away and cheer her up. After the bid started, Freyja was hell-bent on buying that painting, and she bid against everyone for it. Charles, one of the other rich men at the auction, kept on counter-bidding her, and she was fiercely battling with him.
"One million dollars," Charles said.
"Five million dollars," Freyja countered
Five million is this woman nuts, Hades thought, hearing her bid.
"Ten million," Charles said
"Fifty million dollars," Freyja said, smirking at Charles
When Charles heard fifty million, he wanted to drop out as it was too much for a painting, but he felt challenged seeing Freyja's smirk. He tried to raise the bid, but before he could, he felt two hands resting on his shoulders. When he looked up, Blade's murderous look and Axel's subtle display of his gun met his eyes.
"Look, man, our boss there really wants this painting, and she can outbid whatever you have in mind, but why don't we just drop it now?" Blade said, gritting his teeth.
The man was too scared to say anything, so he stood quiet, allowing Freyja to win the bid. After she won, Freyja was in such high spirits that she didn't even notice how the guys pressured Charles into letting her win. When the auction ended, she was happily walking towards the exit when Charles blocked her path.
"I see you're sending bullies to get your way now," Charles said, scoffing in displeasure.
"I don't know what you mean by that," Freyja said casually, not bothered by the man's displeased look.
"You sent your men to make me drop the bid," Charles said, explaining what he meant.
"I did no such thing," Freyja said she was getting annoyed at his assumption.
"Still denying, I see. Why don't we just settle this outside," Charles said, now holding a gun to her side.
"Hah, gladly!" Freyja said and started walking towards the exit.
Because he saw the gun Charles was holding, Hades quickly followed the two outside.
Now, outside of the Scarlet Palace, Charles was holding the gun straight at Freyja's head.
"What are you going to do? Shoot me? Go ahead," Freyja said in an amused tone.
The tone she had only pissed Charles off more. Without thinking, he pulled the trigger, but the bullet never touched her and was now floating in the air, to his surprise. With pitch-black eyes, surrounded by a black cloud of smoke and smiling brightly, Freyja looked devilish.
"You think your little toy can touch me?" Freyja said in her demon voice.
With a quick move of her hand, she made the bullet drop to the ground and sent a thousand magic blades flying towards Charles. Unfortunately, because of the pain and blood loss, Charles died right away. After that, she returned to her standard form, deciding what to do with the body.
"You're Persephone's descendant, aren't you?" Hades asked, his deep voice making her blood freeze.
When she turned around to face him, she was at a loss for words. Unable to process what happened and why he was here, she panicked, knocking him out with a sleeping spell. After that, she quickly called the boys to help her. When the others arrived, they didn't understand what happened, but they mobilized to help. While Blade got rid of Charles's body, the rest took the sleeping Hades to Morrigan Villa. Because Luke couldn't be present for the conversations that followed, Freyja told him to just go home for the night, and she will deal with everything. Luke hated leaving her like that, but he felt she didn't want him there, and while that bothered him, he knew Freyja and the boys always kept something from him. Hence, Luke just left without asking too many questions. He thought they would tell him whatever it was they struggle so hard to keep a secret one day.
After Luke left, Freyja got rid of her staff, and now it was only her, the five men, and Hades.
"What now?" Ace asked.
"I don't know," Freyja said while scratching the back of her head.
"This spell won't keep him asleep forever, Frey," Aris said, pointing out her sleeping spell would fade out in a couple of hours.
"Can't we just erase his memory, like before?" Axel asked, recalling the events in the club.
"It'll be hard if he's asleep and we don't know how much he saw," Ace said.
When wiping someone's memory or altering with, it was imperative to know when that memory began. Otherwise, small fragments of it may remain intact and trigger the recollection of the genuine memory.
"Well, we could wake him up and ask," Blade said, grinning at the thought he may get to torture Hades.
"What if we just tell him everything," Freyja said, her voice barely audible while hugging herself.
"Have you lost your damn' mind?" Blade said, throwing his arms in the air furiously.
"She might have a point, though," Aris said, rubbing his chin.
"Don't encourage her madness, doofus," Blade said, annoyed by Aris's comment.
"I'm not. I'm just saying eventually the world will discover who Freyja is, so maybe we can just strike a deal with him for now," Aris said, explaining his logic.
"And what will be our bargaining chip?" Axel asked, entertaining his idea.
Aris said nothing but lifted his finger and pointed at Freyja while smiling coyly.
"No, no, no!" Blade said, shaking his head. "We're not using her as a bargaining chip, and we don't make any deals with him," he added firmly.
"I know it's not the best option, but can you consider it for a second?" Freyja asked in a pleading tone.
"No," Blade said sternly.
"Oh, come on, bro, we all want to protect her but, Aris has a point. Although eventually, everyone will know who she is, it's better if we control the narrative," Ace said while patting Blade's back.
For a couple of minutes, they stood in silence while waiting for Blade's reply.
"Fine, do whatever you want, just don't come crying at me afterwards," Blade said in hanging his head in defeat.
With Blade now on board, they concocted their plan to strike a deal with Hades. After they felt satisfied with their ideas and plotting, they woke him up. When Hades woke up, he noticed the restraints on his arms and wondered how he got there. The moment he looked up and saw the six familiar figures, he understood they may have knocked him out and carried him there. While he analyzed all the faces in front of him, he couldn't help but notice the heavy atmosphere between them. Because he recalled what he saw outside of the Scarlet Castle, he had a hundred questions swarming through his head, but in the blink of an eye, all of them seemed unimportant. When her scent hit him, it was the same scent he felt before, but now it felt more vigorous, so strong he felt overwhelmed by it, and it made him dizzy. In addition, this time, he could feel the pungent wolf's scent from it, and he recalled the first time when he felt it in her house. So, it was her, he thought. Similarly, Seth became restless, and he was fighting Hades for control as he wanted to surface to life.
"MATE! She is our mate," Seth shouted in his head.