"I'm a male Omega," Caspian deadpanned.
She was unfazed by that still, "You'd be shocked by what rich folks are into."
Caspian doubted that, especially as he was being paraded as a woman, he would probably be thrown right out after the person who bought him figured out his gender. That might not be all bad, at least he would get his freedom then.
"S-So who are we getting sold to?" He asked nervously, fiddling with the skirt of the dress he had on.
"Adjusting quickly to your new life, are you?" She chuckled, smoke billowing around her face.
"I ran away from my Pack to Haines and I was robbed at the train station, I don't have a lot going for me." He admitted.
"So what's your plan?" She asked curiously, using both hands to scratch her ratty dark hair.
Caspian leaned against the bars of the cage, grateful to have someone to talk to, it took his mind off the inevitable. "To get bought by someone expecting a woman and be let go of." He responded honestly, expecting her to laugh.
She didn't.
"That might work," She shrugged, "But you've got a pretty face and you look good in a dress." She listed off, her voice without judgment.
"This isn't just any auction, you know? All three Mafia Kings will be in attendance so the price of everything will be hiked to impress them. I don't think your buyer would be so eager to let go of that much money."
Caspian gulped, the mention of Mafia Kings reminded him of how dangerous the city could get…
"And running away is an option you don't want to try, or…" She intruded on his thoughts with more macabre information, making a slitting motion with her hands across her throat. "The men of the underworld don't like to be made a fool of."
"I-"
"Can you two fucking keep it down?" The third prisoner squawked at them, a head full of curls lifting up. "I'm trying to get my beauty sleep."
"Your drug-wasted body isn't bagging a Mafia king, Lana," The girl he had been speaking to clicked her tongue.
"Says the bitch that snuck in a cigarette," Lana rolled her eyes, laying back down. "Pretty boy over there is going to snag more bids than either of us."
Caspian really wished that wouldn't happen. "W-What happens to us when we're bought?" He asked.
Lana and his talking companion seemed to know each other and it was clear that they both chose to be here.
"It depends," The smoking girl replied to him, "Some want a pretty armpiece, some want a caretaker, some a companion…"
"Sex." Lana interrupted, sitting up again to stare him dead in the eyes. "Jenny here's too nice to say things as they are. They want a sex doll."
Caspian shrank back at that, "I-I didn't ask to be here though, ca-can they just sell me off?" He protested, his eyes stinging.
"Shut it." Jenny threw her shoe at Lana, pressing her face up to the bars like she would like to come over to him. "Unfortunately, they can. It's rare but it does happen if they believe you'll bring in a huge profit."
"What Jenny is sugarcoatin' is that you're here cause you've got a pretty fac- ow!" Lana complained when she got another shoe to the face."
"Quiet down or I'll make you," A fourth person joined the conversation, "You're about to go on stage," He walked forward to grab Jenny's hair through the bars of the cage, her forehead hitting the bars from the force. "No cigarettes."
Caspian flinched but Jenny laughed even as the cigarette was forcefully pried out of her teeth.
Two other men dressed in black walked up as he spoke, pushing a large cart. They effortlessly got Jenny's cage on the cart and rolled her away.
With Jenny gone, Lana went back to sleep, leaving Caspian all alone in the loud silence. He held the bars of his cage now, his fingers ice-cold and trembling.
The full weight of his predicament rested on his shoulders now that there was no witty conversation to distract him.
Shortly after the trio of men returned to place Lana's cage on the cart, she winked at him as she was pushed away but he was all alone now so that wasn't enough to reassure him.
He retreated deeper into the cage, his heart beating painfully fast. He was going to be sold off for real. This wasn't a nightmare he was going to wake up from.
Caspian couldn't tell if his panic made the time pass faster but it felt like only a few minutes ago when Lana had been winking at him and he could already hear the men returning.
He tightly held the bars when the cage was lifted onto the cart so that he didn't fall over, crystal blue eyes wide in terror. He wished he could be as optimistic as the girls but he couldn't find it in him to be.
Life must be so much easier as a female Omega. Well, his life might have been because the other male Omegas in his Pack did just fine despite their status.
He knelt in the cage because sitting down any other way in a dress wasn't exactly comfortable, and it was easier to keep his balance this way.
He had no idea what to expect, and he wished he had been given the chance to ask more questions, or to at least be taken with the others.
They seemed to be backstage because when he was driven from the place where their cages had been kept, it got busier, people hurrying from place to place. The cart stopped in front of a curtain and he could hear what was being said behind it.
It was an auctioneer speaking, introducing what sounded to be him.
"… beautiful, delicate, and useful in many ways…"
His stomach lurched, Lana's words coming back to him. He suddenly felt claustrophobic, his hold on the bars tightening until his knuckles turned white.