Outfoxed (The Fox Witch #1) - R.J. Blain Page 0,11

you. It’s rare, but you would have your choice of owner. That is, of course, assuming the other filers do everything correctly. It’s very difficult to beat the circumstances you’re in. It can be done, but just about every loophole in the law books has to be used.”

Life made no sense, but I wasn’t going to argue with Noah on it. If he thought it was good for me, he probably wasn’t lying to me. Probably. The reality that there might be a contest for me in two different quadrants made me wonder even more about Sandro and his motivations. “I’m really worth a hundred thousand to a bounty hunter?”

“You’re really worth a hundred thousand. And that’s just to get you to the auction. I understand enslavement is not ideal, but someone values you a great deal. Vixens are in demand right now, and people don’t even care if you’re a standard hybrid. Hybrids are known to produce shifting children. Your owner and future husband won’t care if you can’t shift. There are worse situations.”

“They could want my dead head, I suppose.” I scratched my scalp, sighing at the muck in my hair. To get a better idea of what was going on and why, I needed to find out the whole story, which meant peeling the information out of Noah one painful question at a time. “When was the bounty issued?”

“Three years ago.”

I frowned. I hadn’t been in the Alley for much longer than three years. “That long? And I’ve been worth a hundred thousand the entire time?”

“No. You were initially registered as a standard courtesan with a twenty thousand dollar bounty. A year ago, your status was upgraded, but the bounty was initially for in the East; it wasn’t until three months ago that it was opened to the entirety of the United States. I presume someone realized you were not in the East.”

I blamed my parents. My parents would’ve started looking for a buyer the instant I’d walked out the door. While they would never admit it, I’d been smart about it. Even from an early age, I’d understood they would betray me. Going to the Alley had been my one true secret, something I’d never even whispered about to another soul.

Had I been wiser, I would’ve believed the truth about the Alley and its lethal storms.

I inhaled, counted to ten, and released my breath in a sigh. “What does this bounty really mean for me, Noah?”

“Were you my daughter, I would breathe a little easier at night. You would be in the East, safe from the storms. You would be treated well. It’s not freedom, not like you might prefer, but you truly will be treated well, you will be cherished, and your husband will be attentive to your needs. He would do his best to make you happy, because one day, you will lead his family at his side. To abuse an uncontested courtesan is to lose the family’s right to ever take another uncontested courtesan. Yes, the entire family would be barred from owning such a prize again. Of course, you’re not my daughter, and I enjoy watching you fight against the world. It’s one of my joys. You would challenge a tornado if you thought you might win—and sometimes, I think you might. Challenge a tornado that is. I give it even odds if you’d win. You’re that stubborn.”

I figured Noah didn’t mind slavery—as long as the enslaved were treated well. We had a different sense of morality, something we’d learned to keep to ourselves as a general rule.

Most men didn’t mind slavery, as it was the women typically enslaved. I considered everything Noah had said, at a loss of what I could do to remain free. Then I remembered an important detail: men could be uncontested courtesans, too.

Somehow, that helped a little, knowing men and women were equally trapped, based only on the gender of a family’s heir.

I had no idea what to do. By default, I avoided the East, the quadrant of my birth. I tried to lay low, although it hadn’t done me any good. I could venture to somewhere deeper in the Alley, but the bounty would haunt me.

“You said men can be uncontested courtesans, too?”

“It is not uncommon. There are strong women set to inherit their family’s fortune and power, and she wants only the best. If anything, men are as equally desired as women. When a man is chosen as an uncontested courtesan, the competition is typically