“I take it you know who I am?” he said.
Lewis shook his head. “Nope,” he said.
“My name is Bastian. I am the alpha bear of District 212,” he said.
Lewis’ eyes widened slightly and then he smiled and stood aside, gesturing for Bastian to enter. Bastian nodded to him and stepped into the hallway. When he had found out what his father was doing and his father’s old beta had come to him and told him about the girl Lewis had for his father, he had also told Bastian that his father had never dealt directly with Lewis. It had only ever been through him. Bastian had hoped that this was true, because if it was, it would make this much easier. Lewis would assume he was an old returning customer and he would let his guard down much quicker. It seemed now that the old beta had spoken the truth.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Lewis asked as he closed the door.
Bastian turned to face him.
“I thought it was time we met face to face,” Bastian said. “As I have a new proposal for you.”
“I’m listening,” Lewis said.
“I’ve decided it’s time to take a mate,” Bastian said. “You have always served me well in the past, and if you’re open to it, I would like to discuss the terms of you being the one to find me my mate.”
“Of course. It would be an honor,” Lewis smiled.
He stepped toward Bastian and Bastian tensed up, but Lewis made no move except to pass him in the hallway.
“Come this way,” Lewis said. “I have a photo album in the ballroom with some possibilities you might be interested in.”
“Possibilities?” Bastian asked, following Lewis along the hallway. “You mean girls you’ve already turned into bears?”
“No, no,” Lewis said. “These are girls I have sourced with the Sanmere protein in their blood. I have yet to acquire them, so the pleasure of turning them would be yours and yours alone. Unless, of course, you would rather I do the honors?”
Bastian’s stomach turned at the casual way Lewis spoke about the girls, but he bit his tongue. He had to wait for the right moment, make sure he caught Lewis completely off guard when he turned and took him down.
“I would do that part myself,” he said.
“I thought as much. It’s very different taking a mate with our old arrangement, wouldn’t you agree?” Lewis said.
“Oh, it’s worlds apart,” Bastian agreed.
Lewis paused at the end of the hallway and reached out for the handle of a closed door. He turned to Bastian and smiled.
“Now, Bastian, I must warn you not to set your sights on either of the girls already in here. Their buyers are already arranged. They really are beauties, though, and a good example of the caliber of mate you can expect from me,” Lewis said with a smile.
Bastian felt his stomach turn over again. Lewis had girls in there? He told himself to stay cool. That didn’t matter. Once he had taken Lewis out, he could free the girls. If they had buyers arranged, that meant they likely hadn’t been turned yet. They could go back to living their normal lives and if they went to the police and somehow got the police to believe them and come out here, they’d find no evidence of Bastian ever having been here.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.
Lewis nodded and opened the door to the ballroom. He stepped inside and Bastian followed him. The room was large and bare except for four large cages made up entirely of metal bars. In two of the cages, Bastian saw women. One cowered away as they came into the room, but the other one ran to the bars and started screaming obscenities at them.
“Now, now, Sophia,” Lewis said, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Is that any way to greet a guest? Luckily for you, our guest isn’t here for you, because hearing that foul mouth, I think he would likely feel the need to punish you if he was. We’re really going to have to work on that mouth of yours before your buyer gets here, aren’t we?”
Lewis turned to Bastian, ignoring Sophia, who continued to yell. He rolled his eyes.
“Honestly, some of these girls are barely civilized when they come to me. Don’t worry, though. By the time you take your mate, I’ll have made sure she knows how to behave,” he said.
Bastian flashed him what he hoped looked like a normal smile. He didn’t trust himself to speak at that moment in case he told Lewis what he really thought of him. Lewis turned away from him and the smile fell away from Bastian’s face as he followed Lewis across the empty room to a small desk he hadn’t noticed before.
“The album is right here,” Lewis said.
He bent down to reach into the bottom drawer, and Bastian knew this was his chance. He stepped closer to Lewis and brought on the shift. He felt fur exploding through his skin, his bones lengthening and changing, and within seconds, he was in his bear form. He roared and threw himself at Lewis. Lewis glanced back over his shoulder as Bastian roared, his eyes widening in fear. Bastian hadn’t given him a chance to shift himself, and when Bastian collided with Lewis, he was in his human form and fell to the floor easily. Bastian roared again, pinning Lewis to the ground with his front paws on Lewis’ shoulders.
He leaned down, his sharp teeth ready to tear Lewis’ throat out. The girls in the cages were screaming but Bastian barely heard them, focusing only on Lewis. He leaned closer, moving slowly, enjoying Lewis’ fear. He wanted him to feel that fear, really feel it, so that he knew how the girls he had taken over the years had felt when they found themselves in cages and being sold off to the highest bidder.
Bastian’s teeth were almost on Lewis’ throat when he
