Sold to the Highest Bidder

8. The contract

"Miss?  Miss?" someone was calling.  I opened my eyes and found a young woman wearing a maid outfit standing next to the bed.

"What?" I felt disoriented for a moment, but everything came back to me in a rush.  "What's going on?"

"Hi, my name is Nela and I'm going to be your maid.  I brought some snacks for you, and I have everything prepared for you.  The young masters are hoping you join them for dinner in a couple of hours."  I knew she wanted it to sound like an invitation, but it was an order. 

"Thank you," it wasn't her fault, and I needed allies, maybe if I befriended her she would help me escape?

"I will give you some time to eat and maybe take a shower, and I will come back to help you get ready," she offered.  "There are a few dresses that would be perfect for tonight, you must be so exited!  Your first meeting with the Claw brothers!"

"No need, I can get ready by myself, don't worry about me.  At what time is dinner served?"

"At six o'clock," she said with a smile.  If you need anything, there is an intercom next to the door, you can call me with that," she said brightly, but then she walked out, and I heard the lock getting engaged, so she was part of the problem, she knew I didn't want to be there and was helping them keep me there.

I took just a bite of each thing, I wanted to give it some time to make sure it wasn't drugged.  Because of my recent experiences I knew just how awful it would be, I had just recovered from whatever they had injected to get me there, and I wasn't ready for more.  But after a while the only thing the food had done was wake my appetite, so I finished everything and then took a long shower.  I got out and went over my stuff.  I wasn't ready to wear any of the things in the closet, so I chose something from my own bag.  It was just jeans and a sweater, it was a nice one, but nothing compared to the dresses they had gotten for me.  I knew they would be angry, but I was okay with that, I wasn't their toy, no matter how much they had paid for me, I was my own person and I would do as I wanted for as long as I could get away with it.

When the time came and the door opened, the maid looked at me with horror.  "Miss, you need to change, you can't go to dinner looking like that!" 

"Why not?  I'm dressed, am I not?"

"But, dinner is a formal affair..." she weakly protested.

"I want to wear my own clothes," I replied.

"But everything in the closet is yours," I kind of felt bad for her, I didn't want to get her in trouble, I wanted her on my side, but it was a matter of pride, I wasn't sure how much of it I would be able to keep.

"No, everything in this house belongs to those men," I didn't mention that according to them, that included me, because I still refused to acknowledge that awful fact  "If they don't like it, well, too bad for them."  I knew it could go really bad for me, I had been lucky so far, but I wasn't going to bow down to them.  Maybe it wasn't the fight I should be picking, but it was the one I had chosen.

"Are you sure?  You could try changing really fast."

"No, thank you Nela, but take me to them."

I could tell she was not comfortable with the situation, but she agreed either way and walked out of the room, with me following.  As soon as we got out of the room, I noticed a couple of guards on either side of the hall.  I could tell they were ready to stop me if I tried to run.  We walked down the stairs to a big room, it wasn't the dining room, it was a comfortable looking room with a bar on the side.  Four huge men that I could immediately tell were shifters, were waiting there.  I recognized Dillan and Dan, and I guessed the other two were Demian and Dominic.  

"What are you wearing?" either Demian or Dominic asked.  "Were the dresses in your closet not to your liking?"

"Nothing in this house is of my liking.  It's bad enough you are taking over my life, I will wear what I want."

The man looked at me without comprehension, and then looked at his brother.

"This is what I wanted to talk to you about.  Things didn't go as we expected.  This is way more complicated than we first believed," Dillan said.  "Please, sit up and I will try to explain what happened, to all of you," I felt like the last part was intended for me, and I decided to play along for the moment, and see what he had to say for himself.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes," a waiter said to the group.  "Would you like something to drink while you wait?" he asked directly to me.

"No, thank you," I said politely.

"Well.  First of all, as you know we had been previously told that there was a pure blooded mountain lion female that the elders wanted to present to us, also pure blooded shifters, so we could help preserve our kind.  Our understanding was that she would choose among all available candidates.  When no further information came forward, we thought she had already chosen, and we kind of forgot about it, until a few days ago when we were contacted again.  We weren't sure about the situation, but in the end, I decided to go and see for myself, but when I arrived, the situation was different from what I originally thought," he took a contract and put it on the table in front of his brothers.

"What's this?" one of them asked, taking them, his eyes went wide when he started to read.

"When I arrived, I was given that contract, and as you can see it's not what any of us expected.  The situation is completely different from what we were told the first time."

"What does it say?" Dan asked.

"This can't be possible, is it?" the one reading it asked.  "The buyer will be completely responsible for the female and will have to present in front of the Elder the result of the breeding."

"Buyer?  Brother, what does this mean?"

"They didn't give her a choice, they were selling her as breeding stock, or as a s*x slave, whatever you prefer.  They didn't care how, they just wanted results."

"What results?"

"To keep the female, the buyer has two years to present the first born cub, and will have to present at least five by the end of ten years, from at least two different sires!?" the one reading let the papers fall in disgust. 

"If we fail to present that, she will be taken from us and given to others, and from what I heard around while I was there, some had very sick ideas of how to get her with cubs as soon as possible and with a wide variety of sires."  Dillan explained, and I felt sick, knowing what he meant.  "I pointed out that she should go through a medical examination to see if she is even capable of getting pregnant, but the Elder didn't care, he was fine with her being r***d repeatedly for two years, and willing to give her to a new group if that didn't work."

"So you bought her?" the one holding the contract asked.

"I thought better us than them," he said, and then looked at me. "I know you are angry, I get it, and I'm sorry, but I want to make this easier for you.  We are in a very difficult situation.  Our plan was to court you, I wanted to convince you to come with us and then maybe get you to marry one of us, I wasn't expecting they were going to take the decision out of your hands."

"But what if one of us does marry her?" Dan asked.  "Wouldn't that void the contract?"

"No, that's right here," the one holding the contract said, "even if she is to marry, the Elder still expects us to present the cubs to him or she will be taken away until she produces the five cubs they demands, and only then she will be returned to her husband."  It was worse than I first thought. 

"But what are we going to do then?" Dan asked his brother Dillan.

"As I told you before, we are not going to do anything you don't want, but we need to fulfill their demands. We have two years before we present the first cub, and even if I'm sure we will get some pressure from the elders and the other families that wanted her, we have time to plan how to do this. If you are willing to a relationship, I'm open to it, truth is you are a beautiful woman and I would be happy to have someone like you as my wife. I know we don’t know each other that well, but we still have time.”

“I think we haven’t been introduced properly, and I apologize for that, my name is Demian, and I’m already in a relationship.”

“And I’m Dominic,” the one with the contract said, “and I acknowledge you are in a very difficult situation and the last thing you want to think right now is this, but give me the chance to get to know you, maybe you will discover we are more compatible than you think."

"This is impossible, how can I even think of getting into a relationship with people who are keeping me prisoner?" I had to admit that they were being incredibly thoughtful and respectful so far, and it looked like they were genuinely angry at the situation, even if they were the ones in the best position.  And I had to admit that I was better with them, my situation could have been a lot worse, but that didn't change the fact that I was there against my will.

"Think of us not as the enemy, but as allies.  We want to help you.  Like I said, we have time to think about this, at least a year before we have to start thinking about babies, let's get to know each other and work together.  I can promise that no one here will force you into anything, but you have to work with us in finding a solution, because if we don't have a kid to present the elders in two years, we all will be in trouble, but you will take the worst part."

It was hard to admit, but they were right.  It was better to think of them as allies and not enemies, but should I trust them?  It was hard to do it, but I needed to believe in them, because the truth was that I had no one else.