“Oh?”
“It’s my hope that by extending this invite, we can clear the air between the two of us. Let bygones be bygones, so to speak.”
“The scar on my side where one of your men put a bullet isn’t so easily forgotten.”
“You broke our contract,” she reminded. “Claimed product that didn’t belong to you and ran off with him. I apologize if you were harmed during the Wardrobe’s retrieval process, but that was never our intent.”
“No?” Bullshit. Seems like he wasn’t the only one who’d come prepared with a carefully crafted story.
“I’m sure you’ve learned by now the omega you stole was highly dangerous. He’d been cleared for a single outing, as it was our hope and belief that he’d been broken in well enough to no longer pose a serious danger to a buyer. However, there was areason he was entered into a heat auction and not placed in one of our showrooms.”
Her showrooms were just fancy brothels, and even the notion that Fenrir would one day have ended up in one almost had Oberon’s alpha pheromones giving him away.
“You can dress it up however you like, but at the end of the day, you sold me faulty product,” Oberon stated.
“I’d hardly call him faulty.” Michelle rested a hand on his forearm. “You enjoyed him enough to claim him.”
“Ah, so you weren’t aware then?”
“Aware?”
“That the hybrid had the ability to seduce whoever he pleased?” Oberon finally turned to her, catching the flash of confusion in her eyes a second before that saccharine sweet smile returned tenfold. “Are you really going to claim ignorance?”
“I wasn’t aware.” She pursed her lips. “Are you absolutely certain?”
“You mean he’s never used his Shout energy to try and attract anyone else into biting him?” Admittedly, this wasn’t really part of the plan, but Oberon was feeling petty. How dare she think for even a single heartbeat that she could ever possess someone like Fenrir Snow.
The two of them were miles apart already, and soon, there’d be an extra six feet of solid ground between them as well.
The indignation that swept across her face when she thought Fenrir had the capability to thrall someone into biting him but had never tried it on her was priceless.
“I apologize for my confusion,” she cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably in her seat, “are you saying he used some sort of sway to force you into giving him the claiming mark?”
“Would I have bitten a sex slave otherwise?” Fenrir would be nowhere near them, but Oberon still felt guilty saying thosewords out loud. He’d make it up to him later. “Not only did he trap me with the bite, but then he had the nerve to try killing me. What would you have done if he’d been successful? If word got out that the Wardrobe soldfaultyproduct and got a client murdered in his bed—”
Her fingers tightened on his arm. “I assure you, Mr. King, he was the only hybrid we had. Really, we should be thanking you for handling this problem for us, and with such decorum.”
As in, keep his fucking mouth shut.
“How about this,” she said. “We’ll compensate you fairly for your troubles. Your time is precious, how about we skip the auction entirely. You’ve been checking out the available product. Is there something that you like? If so, it’s yours, free of charge. I can have them wrapped and delivered to your car within ten minutes.”
Was she trying to rush him out of the building? Made sense. But it was too soon.
They would both know when it was time for him to leave.
His gaze swept over the stage once more. “Are any of them a dominant omega?”
“Of course.” She stood with a flourish and moved to the balcony railing. “I carefully curated the selection myself when I sent you the invitation. The pink haired male, the third blonde female from the left, and the male at the end are all dominant omegas.”
“Tell me about that.” He made a big show of settling more comfortably in his seat.
“The auction is about to start. Should I pause it for you?”
“No need,” he waved her off. “You’ll already be losing coin tonight. I won’t interrupt business fully. We have time anyway, since the first omega you mentioned won’t be the starting product.”
“The pink haired male is called Lynx. He’s been in our care for the least amount of time. Fairly new.”
“How new?”