Page 88 of Outfoxed

I stilled, my ears twisting back before I could control myself. The reality of my situation didn’t surprise me.

My parents would do just that if they thought they could get ahead in the world.

“Mother,” Sandro snapped.

“Perhaps I should have been a little less callous about saying that. I’m sorry, Jade. They make me so damned angry!”

“I’m not surprised,” I said, careful when I shrugged to minimize how much it hurt. “I figured the first bounty was set by my parents, because I could see them doing something like that to at least make my existence worth their while. I don’t know what this is about buying out the bounty, but I appreciate that, especially if it mitigated how much they earned off me from this sale.”

“They earned nothing off you from this sale,” Sandro’s mother replied. “I paid them forty thousand to revoke all claims and rights to you, which was what they asked when I approached them about taking over the bounty. I made sure they would never be able to make another penny from you. There were a few other bounty contenders, but I made it clear I had legal rights to you, courtesy of your parents. Honestly, acquiring you has been quite the legal battle. And to fully gain legal rights to your person, I needed to do the auction, which temporarily released your rights to the auction house. But I had the family’s attorneys go over your paperwork. It’s unassailable now. You’re a Moretti, and you get to claim the family name immediately despite the boy not having fully earned you yet. And if he doesn’t, well, I get a daughter, and you can lure a man you do like into your lair. Personally, I think the boy is a good catch, but I’m biased. If you don’t like him, get one you do like, just don’t follow my example. My example is expensive.”

According to her example, I’d become a Sandro-hunting fiend who wanted to help repopulate the Alley. While my fox thought this was a brilliant idea we should begin implementing immediately, I ignored her. Mostly. The Moretti family, including the subject of her desire, regarded me with open interest. Of the lot of them, only Sandro seemed perplexed by the discussion, not that I blamed him. I’d be perplexed, too, if I showed up to discover my mother had hoodwinked me—and paid me over a million dollars in the process. “That’s not how uncontested courtesans work, is it?”

Sandro’s father laughed. “It is how it works in this family, Jade. I made Stephani beg for years before we had Sandro. And since we enjoyed having the first one, we had a few more before I made her beg some more. And anyway, once Stephani saw what those assholes who dare to call themselves your parents were up to, she was determined to have you, so you’re stuck with us. If given her way, she’d rescue everybody. The system doesn’t really allow us to do that. But vixens are in demand and at high risk of being trafficked, and the way the assholes were setting up your bounty? They were planning on trafficking you, earning a percentage from every sale, separating you from your newborn, and selling you again. And because you’re a fox, you’d be ready for sale every winter. And since you’d be sold into the system by your parents, you’d have little to no recourse. We’re planning on locking the boy in the attic during the winter unless you’re genuinely interested in children. And we’ll be strongly recommending he invest in birth control and condoms.”

As nobody seemed embarrassed by the discussion, including Sandro, who limited his reaction to a patience-worn sigh, I said, “I’m pretty careful with birth control in the winter. As far as I know, it works. Or I’ve never had any children. And if you’re hoping I’m some pure maiden, well…”

Sandro walked to me and sat on the arm of my chair. “That’s really none of our business and makes no difference to me whatsoever. You can tell them no at any time, Jade. I had no idea what they were up to. Now, that said, I’m not going to say I can complain about their motivations. That’s exactly what people have been doing with vixens. They’re being trafficked because they’re currently being perceived as valuable for breeding purposes. And there isn’t even another way to phrase that. It’s purely to improve bloodlines to acquire more magic. The fox men have had it even worse. They’re passed around multiple times a winter, and they’re as wired to help raise their children as vixens. I’ve been researching fox hybrids, as I needed to know more about how to catch you—and keep you out of the trafficking rings once I realized that’s why your parents established a bounty for you. But then the bounty holder changed and went anonymous, which complicated matters.”

With a smirk, Sandro’s mother came over and patted her son’s cheek. “Of course you were. You wanted to know how to take care of your little vixen. You’ve been hunting her for years.”

“I was going to stand the bounty up because of that research, and I only pushed the uncontested courtesan contract to make certain nobody could force her into becoming a victim of a trafficking ring.” Sandro clacked his teeth together. “I won’t force a woman.”

In turn, Sandro’s mother pointed at her sons. “If you don’t charm your vixen sufficiently to have children, you have brothers. One of them will produce a child, and once you’re tired of running the family with your little vixen, you can hand the reins over to the most sensible of their kids. That part I’m not negotiating, as your father would kill me. View it as an investment for the family. Also, I don’t care what the default uncontested courtesan paperwork says. If you don’t want children, don’t have them. If you want them, I would very much like at least three little fox grandchildren to spoil.”

“You’ve lost your mind, Mother,” Sandro muttered.

“I have not. I’m just solving a somewhat complicated problem in a simple fashion.”

I forced myself to breathe until the urge to make a run for the door faded.

Sandro’s father chuckled. “It was the same way with me and your mother, Sandro. You’ll get over it. Charm her or not, have kids or not. We didn’t buy her to fulfill some fantasy of yours. We bought her because if we didn’t, someone else would. It took your mother years to tame me. If you want your fox other than as a partner to help you run the family once we step down, well, I don’t know if wine and roses will work on vixens, so you’re on your own for that. Good luck. I didn’t look into what is attractive for her. What the family needs is for you to have a woman at your side when you take over the family.”

“I had been doing just fine without help,” Sandro replied.

Sandro’s mother snickered. “I did better.”

“Mother!”

Poor Sandro. I could understand, after having met his family, why he might want to run to the Alley and chase me around. “Are you saying you’ve adopted me for a ridiculous fee in the hopes I might find your eldest son attractive?”

Adoption by crazy rich people went down a whole lot easier than the alternatives, although I couldn’t deny I found her eldest son attractive. In any other circumstances, I might’ve attempted to seduce my way into his life.

I needed to make better decisions in my life.

My question captured everyone’s attention, and Sandro’s mother nodded. “Basically. You have the basic skills a Moretti woman needs to survive, and you have a reputation for being protective. Those are traits we want in the Moretti family. Marco is those things, as I’m a Moretti by birth, which means I’m stubborn on a good day. Sandro’s good at a lot of things, but he needs someone who is capable of fighting him when he decides to be stubborn. You’ve been dodging him for years, so I’m confident you can handle him.”

“Well, more like a week, but that’s close enough. I mean, I did move around aware there was a small bounty on my head, but I hadn’t known how large it had grown until recently.”

Sandro stared down at me, raising a brow. “You just hadn’t known you were dodging me, which makes this even more frustrating. You were just dodging a generalized bounty, but you were doing so well it took me this long to corner you.”

My fox wanted me to claim Sandro as our territory. Yet again, I ignored her. “Well, my good luck ended, that’s for sure.”

“Well, you didn’t get killed during that swarm, nor were you killed when you were shot, although I played a part in that. I may have given the shooter a reason to run. As you’re very lucky to be alive, I’d say your good luck has held just fine.”

“You did? Did you see him?”

“I didn’t see him. Let’s just say I offered him some motivation to stop shooting and start running. I didn’t get a visual on the bastard. If I had, he’d be dead right now. I did the equivalent of light fireworks in his face to encourage him to leave rather than finish the job.”