In response to the greeting, a low, ominous growl echoed through the room.
Ruger sighed inwardly. And Luka had calledhimunstable.
“Calm down.”
“I am trying.”
“Try harder.”
“So, tell me.” The male pushed upright and rubbed his hands together. “What can I do for you gentlemen?”
“You know why we’re here, Castor.”
His smile slipped briefly, a barely noticeable shift, but it was a crack in his well-crafted armor. “I haven’t heard that name in centuries.”
And Ruger wished he had never heard it, but here they were. “We want you to release Luka.”
“Why would I do that?” Oddly, he sounded genuinely curious rather than taunting.
“Because it’s kind of a dick move to own people?” Ruger suggested, playing the game. “Very unfashionable.”
“You make it sound so uncivilized.” Castor straightened the red bowtie and tugged at the lapels of his tuxedo jacket. “I neverownedhim. We are merely bound.”
“You literally bought him.”
“No money exchanged hands.”
Ruger refused to argue semantics with the conceited prick. “You cursed him for four hundred years, and clearly, you’ve done okay without him.”
“Yes, that was quite unfortunate, but it all worked out in the end.” His sapphire eyes sparkled as he glanced between them. “Tell me, Luka, did you learn your lesson?”
This time, when his mate growled, Ruger didn't issue a reprimand. He growled along with him.
“Oh, come now.” Castor huffed, seemingly put out with the entire ordeal. “You should really be thanking me. If I hadn’t cursed him, you two might never have met.”
There was more truth in that twisted logic than Ruger wanted to admit, but that didn’t make it right. He admitted to a certain degree of selfishness when it came to his mate, but he would have rather Luka had lived a full, happy life, even if that meant they never found each other.
“It was worth it.”
He glanced at Luka from the corner of his eye, careful not to be too obvious about it.“How can you say that?”
“I would suffer a thousand more curses if they led me to you.”
It was a heady feeling to be loved so deeply, so completely. From the outside, it probably sounded extreme, but he understood exactly what Luka meant because he felt the same way.
There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t suffer for his mate.
He sighed and turned back to Castor. “Let him go, or I’ll make sure the entire world knows what you did.”
The asshole smirked. “Who would believe such a fantastical story in this day and age? Where is your proof?”
In answer, he motioned toward Luka.
“A deranged fan, bent on destroying my reputation for his own gain,” he responded without missing a beat. “I can practically taste the PR spin.”
Sadly, he had a point. They had no evidence of the things that Castor had done. It would be their word against his.
“What do you want?”
