The Sale pt 2

“Fifteen percent for six.”

“Ten percent.”

“Fine. Assuming that I find six that I like, that is,” he stated, flipping through the photos on the tablet.

“Simply mark the ones you want as you’re going through. I can send one that you like to your cottage for a preview while you’re here, but I will warn you, Crescent Moon is here,” I sighed at that. “The Royal Pack complained that we’ve been too stingy with our guest list for the past several balls. We had to add several packs that we would not normally invite. Honestly, I expected them to decline as they’ve declined every invitation to every mating ball in the area for the last two years, but for some reason they chose this event to change their minds.”

“You don’t think that’s suspicious?” he asked.

“Annoying, yes; suspicious, not really. I questioned Alpha Duncan, and he indicated his parents are pushing him to find his mate so that they can fully retire. He’s young, and so is the group they brought with him. I don’t anticipate any real problems from them, but we do need to be a bit more…discreet…at this ball. I don’t want anything getting back to the Royal Pack, and you know those two packs are close.” Alpha Duncan was still a young pup compared to us, and I’ve been selling omegas for years now. As long as we’re quiet about things, I’m sure he won’t pick up on anything. Besides, Amelia has already let slip that she plans to occupy his time while he’s here.

“They’ve been allies for centuries. I think that’s a little more than ‘close,’” he snorted. “Ah well, in that case, I’ll skip the sampling this time around. No need to chance it when they’ll be going home with my pack, anyhow. Here, I want these six,” he said, passing the tablet back to me. As he did, his finger slipped and opened up an image. Grabbing the tablet back, he asked, “Who is that?”

I looked over and saw the photo. “That, my friend, is Seren. She turns eighteen today, actually. She’s an orphan who has been in our pack since she was an infant. She can take a beating, cook, clean, and all the rest. Are you interested?” He could not stop staring at the girl. The photo was a candid, taken while she was working on something in the kitchen. Many of our photos were like that, as I couldn’t exactly line the girls up and tell them to pose for a picture so that I could sell them to the highest bidder. That would get out, back to the Royal Pack, and then I’d be royally screwed. Pun intended.

“She’s precisely what I’ve been looking for without realizing it,” he said under his breath, then collected himself. “Her too, then.”

“For the first six, we’ll call it one million even with your discount. Their normal rate would be $200,000 per girl, so that’s actually a little more than the ten percent you negotiated, but I’m in a good mood. As for Seren…I’m afraid she’s a little more difficult to price. You see, I have two complications with her. The first, the witch that brought her to me as an infant may eventually come back. I doubt it, as she hasn’t checked in for several years, but she initially indicated she’d come back after the girl turned eighteen. I’m actually less worried about that than I am about the second. Tobias has had his eye on her for a while. Obviously, if he’s going to lose a preferred toy, I’ll need to compensate him as well. Unfortunately, she’s currently injured in the dungeon after her latest…interaction with him. Because of her injuries and to satisfy him for the loss, let’s say…$750,000 for her addition?”

He looked at me, obviously calculating how much he’s willing to pay for this simple omega. “A witch brought her?”

“Yes, almost eighteen years ago precisely.”

Something flashed in his eyes. Some suspicion, or some knowledge, I couldn’t tell which. “I see. And you have no idea where she came from? Who named her?” he asked.

Odd questions, but it’s a high price tag, so I’ll play along. “None. The witch was a friend of my former mate and simply asked us to take the girl while she dealt with some things. We took her to our orphanage, and that was that. She came with a baby blanket with the name on it, and I didn’t see a need to change it.”

“All right. Sold,” he said, a glint in his eye. That made me nervous. He agreed too quickly. I looked him in the eye, trying to get a gauge on what he was thinking, but even after our long years together, I couldn’t read him. Either way, though, I’d just made almost two million dollars. I wasn’t going to look too closely.

“Wonderful! We’ll take care of getting the arrangements made for their transfer. If you time your departure after Crescent Moon leaves, there shouldn’t be any hiccups. We can even arrange one of our panel vans to assist you with the transport of the seven. I assume you already have the wire transfer information?”

“Of course.” He opened his phone, tapped a few times. My laptop chimed with a notification that a new deposit had been made.

I stood reaching out to shake his hand. “It was great doing business with you.”