Chapter 1 #2
"Not particularly." Callum was the head of the Cabinet that ran Rumor, which meant he knew Simon personally.
He waited.
I let out a soft breath. "He charmed Gwen into taking the title, and he ended her engagement to the man she loves after she did. He wants her because she’s beautiful, lovable, and easy to manipulate. You can see in his eyes that he’s going to hurt her."
Callum studied me, clearly waiting to hear the part where I actually made him my enemy.
"I tried to talk her into leaving before she took ahold of the pack. He walked in on the conversation and threatened my life. She told me she never wanted to see me again, and I left. The next day, she withdrew from our shared loan."
There was a long moment of silence.
It was my turn to wait.
Another bead of sweat dripped down the side of my face, and I squeezed my eyes shut as a wave of pain had me fighting the urge to bend in half and cradle my middle.
Female werewolves only went into heat two or three times a year, but it was always brutally painful.
Unless you had someone to fuck you through it, of course. Then it was a little pain mixed with a lot of fun.
"If you only need a little money, it’ll be a small bargain," Callum said.
He must’ve decided that my story was pitiful enough for him to work with me.
I nodded.
The smaller the favor I asked of him, the less he could require in return when he came to collect. If I agreed to a bigger favor, he could demand a lot more.
It wasn’t an exact science, but I didn’t know how the trading of souls could possibly be scientific.
"What are you going to do if your café fails, Kat?"
My chest squeezed.
Gwen and I had been dreaming about this café since we were kids, sneaking sips of our dad’s coffee while we ran around the fields with the rest of the kids in the pack.
If it failed, I was going to be fucked. There was no backup plan. Gwen was supposed to be in charge of the business side of things, so this was the backup plan.
"I'll figure it out if I have to," I said.
It was the only real answer.
"I could pay off the loan, and ensure the business succeeds."
"What would it cost me?" The question slipped out before I could stop it.
His lips curved slightly. There was no humor behind the expression. Only darkness. "That’s for me to decide."
"I would be selling my soul for success." The favor it would require of me in the future would be tremendous.
"You'd be surprised how many people will sell their soul for security."
No.
I wouldn’t be.
Everything in my life had just fallen apart.
My sister, who had been my best friend for my entire life, had just willingly fucked me over while abandoning her fiancé, who was head over heels in love with her. I had to make him my personal beta to keep the bastard alive, which turned me into an alpha, something I’d never wanted to be.
Every other friend, family member, and packmate I had sided with Gwen, too. Even our parents. I’d basically been disowned, which was unheard of in werewolf society. We valued loyalty above all else.
My café was all I had left over than the overbearing, heartbroken asshole who had been my almost-brother-in-law for nearly a year, and I didn't want him.
If the cafe failed, would it even matter whether or not I owned my own soul?
I let out a shaky breath. "Are there limits?"
"Everything has limits, Kitten."
"Just Kat." The nickname wasn’t original, but it made me want him far too much. Something about the word on his lips made me even hotter.
His eyes glittered wickedly, and I tensed for some kind of retaliation.
It didn’t come.
"What do you think?" I asked my wolf.
"Just fuck him." She was too transfixed by the king and his scent to really care, and heat’s effects seemed to be getting stronger by the moment.
I bit my lip for a moment before making my decision.
"Alright," I finally said. "I want the guarantee, and the loan paid off."
"Good choice." He stood back up, and held out his hand as if he wanted me to shake it.
I stood too.
There was a coffee table between us. It simultaneously felt like not enough space and far too much, at the same time.
My legs trembled just slightly as I reached for him. Our palms met, and a powerful bolt of electricity blazed over my arm and through my chest.
My eyes widened as I watched glittering, gray magic spread up my entire left arm, forming shapes and swirls as the connection between us grew and solidified.
Callum’s grip on my hand tightened, rather than releasing. "Now that we’re in business together, I’m willing to help you through your heat. If you’re interested, of course."
My gaze jerked up to his, and I found his blue irises almost black.
"Yes." My wolf’s answer was immediate.
"It’s a terrible idea," I protested, but it was a fight with myself that I was already losing.
"I thought you don’t fuck anyone whose magic hasn’t settled," I finally said.
"I don’t. I don’t have to fuck you, though."
My mind conjured up an image of him with his hands between my thighs.
His face, too.
Shit.
I’d heard that worked for unmated werewolves, but everyone I’d been with during heat in the past had wanted to spend it with our bodies locked together.
"It would take a few hours," I said.
His eyes were nearly black, his grip on my hand tightening further. "Is that supposed to dissuade me, Kitten?"
"That seems like a long time to spend with just your hands and mouth on someone." Asking him not to use the nickname had only seemed to encourage him.
"Are you questioning my stamina?"
"Of course not. Just your sanity. No one spends heat like that."
"Except you."
My face flushed at the clear assumption.
It… was a safe one for him to make.
I’d already told him I didn’t have a partner. The only person I could even possibly ask was Jonah, and he was basically my brother-in-law. I’d literally rather die than go there, and heat was far from deadly.
"Do it, or I’ll eat you," Sable growled at me.
"How would you possibly eat me? We share a body."
She huffed.
There was a stunning fae king offering to get me off for multiple hours. Regardless of his terrible morals, deadly magic, and questionable personality, I’d have to be insane to say no.
"Alright," I agreed. "Just this once."
Callum tugged me toward him.
One of the glossy heels I’d picked up from a thrift store an hour earlier landed on the coffee table.
He tugged me further, and the other foot followed.
Guess he didn't mind me using his table as a step stool.
Need burned through me like fire.
I gripped the collar of his coat as he grabbed my face, pulling me to him. Our mouths collided, our tongues meeting in a combination of his ice and the lingering taste of coffee on my tongue.
The kiss was electric—and he pulled away far too soon. He trailed his mouth down the side of my throat and to the top of my shoulder while his hands found the zipper on the back of my skirt.
He didn’t want to let things get too passionate, because he wasn’t going to actually fuck me.
I didn’t mind that one bit.
Callum tugged the zipper down, his gaze scorching as he slowly slid the skirt down my thighs, leaving me in nothing but the thin, cheeky panties I’d paired with it.
The fabric followed the skirt to the coffee table, and he lifted me easily, setting me down on the edge of the couch before sinking to his knees.
The city’s cruelest fae king was kneeling for me.
It shouldn’t have made me feel powerful, but it did.
Callum had my thighs parted and his mouth on my core in a moment, and I was completely lost to the pleasure.
It was the early hours of morning when my heat finally subsided.
Callum dragged the stubble on his chin down the inside of my thigh, pressing a light kiss to the skin that almost seemed possessive.
He sat down on his ass and stared at me. His gaze moved over me slowly, as if he was committing the image to memory.
After a few moments, he picked my panties up off the ground and slid them carefully up my thighs. The man went so far as to lift me up so he could get them back into place, as if I couldn’t do it myself.
Then did the same with my skirt.
I watched in shock as he stood up and straightened his coat.
His thick erection was impossible to hide under the straining fabric of his dark pants. The slickness of my pleasure glistened on his mouth and chin as I looked up at him, sweaty, dazed, and utterly boneless.
"Do you want me to—" I started, but he cut me off.
"No."
I blinked.
Was this actually happening?
Had any of it actually happened?
The glittering mark of our bargain that now stretched the length of my arm said it had.
Callum stepped back.
My eyes followed him to the bathroom, where he stopped for a moment. When he stepped out, his face was clean of my pleasure.
I shouldn’t have been disappointed by that, but was.
"There’s a guard at the front doors. He’ll see you to your car," Callum said, then strode out of the room.
I watched the door as it closed behind him.
I'd just sold my soul to the worst of the four fae royals in the city.
Then let him fuck me with his fingers and mouth for literal hours.
Sable was right. I was out of my mind.