"Just enough to get the cafe up and running."
"There must be someone else you can turn to. Making a bargain is rarely the best option."
"I made an enemy out of my sister’s Beta, and there is now no one in Shifter Borough willing to help me. Including my parents,and the pack I was born into. Not that any of them have this kind of money sitting around."
The king’s eyes gleamed with interest. "Care to elaborate on your issues with Simon?" Simon was the Beta’s name.
"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, sothiswas the backup plan.
"I'll figure it out if I have to," I said.
It was the only real answer.
"I couldpay off the loan, and ensurethe 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 betremendous.
"You'd be surprised how many people will sell their soul for security."
