Sold to the Billionaires

Book 7 of the Mating Season series.

Taken as payment for a gambling debt, Beth vows to keep her heart closed to the ruthless casino magnates who own her.

Troy and Sebastian run their casino empire with ruthless efficiency. Even if it means they have to do bad things outside the law. When the leader of a competing wolf pack loses big at their tables, Troy and Sebastian claim his daughter as payment.

Beth thinks that she can settle her father’s debt in exchange for her freedom. But once they have her in their grasps, they are never letting her go.

They are now playing for the highest stakes of all: the heart of their fated mate.
The house NEVER loses.

Excerpt

TROY

The moment Frank Slater walked into the high roller’s room, I knew we had him hooked.

Like a ghost, old Frank haunted the floors of The Mirage casino every night for the last two months. He never left until the early twilight hours, perhaps to go home to a family that had no idea how much money he was losing every night.

Word spread fast from city to city about players who needed to be cut off. All the other casinos in Huntington Harbor had already banned Frank from playing at their tables. To a gambling addict like Frank, we were his last hope.

Only this time, he was going to reach a dead end. Betting with money that he didn’t have to lose was going to lead to his ruin. There would be no more running away from his debts.

There were twelve tables in the room, and Frank headed straight to the same one every night. Every gambler had his vice, and his was blackjack.

There were already three other players at the table. A sinewy man in a tall cowboy hat, with skin as dry and tanned as cowhide, sat in the first seat. Immediately to his left, was a voluptuous blonde in a skintight red dress and over a hundred carats of diamonds around her neck. Next to her, sat a petite Asian woman, dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans and her hair pulled back in a low ponytail.

If I was a betting man, I would put all my money on the player who looked like she was out on a trip to the grocery store. All the others were trying too hard to show off.

Frank took a spot next to the dark horse player and signaled to the dealer for a hit.

“Zoom in,” I commanded Zach. My head of security tapped at the keyboard, controlling the camera, until the image of Frank at the blackjack table filled the entire wall-to-wall screen.

The security cameras at the casino were state of the art, the best in the world. Even from a camera across the room, we could count the number of stitches on our customer’s jackets if we wanted to. I could see every twitch on Frank’s face and even the flare of his nostrils as he received his cards.

Frank’s brows furrowed as he counted his cards. He frowned, his face twisting into a disgusted expression. He tossed his cards onto the table and rubbed a hand across his face.

For being a high ranking member of the Paradise Peaks wolf pack, Frank was surprisingly impulsive, and an open book. He broadcasted his emotions plainly to everybody in the room with every play he made. I smiled as he lost a hundred thousand dollars less than ten minutes after entering the casino. He was also an awful gambler. Luck at the tables came and went as quickly as the dice rolled. Frank’s fortune, it seemed, had run out.

It didn’t take a lip-reading genius to guess the cuss words that came out of his mouth. Despite this, he placed his bets and the cards landed on the table to start another round.

Another flurry of cards across the table.

Another hundred grand lost.

Zach zoomed in on Frank, whose face was already shiny with sweat. “Do you want the team to retrieve him?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. The fish is nibbling on the bait, but it’s not the time to reel him in yet. We need to tire him out.”

By the end of the night, Frank was going to be in so deep that he would have to give up his most prized possession if he wanted to stay alive.

As the night dragged on, the dealers switched tables like rotating cogs, and cigarette smoke filled the room. Eventually, the cowboy and the blonde stepped away from the table. Despite popular beliefs about gamblers, most of our high rollers bet big, but knew when to quit, and folded when they sensed that lady luck was not on their side. The ones like Frank, who couldn’t step away from the tables, paid with everything they had.

For every winning hand that landed in front of him, he paid four back to the dealer. It was a losing proposition, but there was just enough to entice him to come back for one more chance.

My catch was getting tired, and soon it would be time to reel him in.
I salivated at what was coming next. It wouldn’t be long now before I laid my hands on the jackpot. And that time was going to be tonight.

Beth Slater, his eldest daughter, and the woman who haunted my dreams ever since I learned of her existence. How a buffoon like him raised a gorgeous and brilliant daughter like her was a mystery. The good genetics must have come from the mother’s side.

One passing glance at a charity gala and Sebastian and I knew we had to have her. She was the one destined to be our mate, to warm our bed, to bear our pups. Beth had become our obsession, and the need to possess her had consumed us.

One final round, and Frank’s total losses to the casino over the past months tipped over nine million dollars. Just a million too much for him to pay off even if he sold everything, including the shirt on his back.

“Call it in.” I said. “Take him up to my office.”

Zach nodded. “Right away boss.” He got up and gathered the rest of the security team to retrieve the target.

Sebastian was already in our office by the time I came back from the security office. He leaned back in my leather chair, stretching his arms over and behind his head. My business partner always liked to take over my desk instead of sitting at his own on the other side of the office, like an annoying pup trying to assert his dominance.

His hair, as dark as raven’s feathers, shimmered under the overhead lights. His gray eyes flashed as his gaze met mine.

“Do you think he’ll agree to the terms?”

I tugged at my tie and rolled up my sleeves. “He has no other choice. He’ll give us everything, unless he wants to swim with the fishes at the bottom of the harbor.”

The doors to the office opened. Two security goons dragged Frank in by the arms. Zach flanked behind holding a muzzled gun against Frank’s back like a cattle prod.

The guards pushed him down on his knees directly in front of me.

Sebastian walked over to the front of the desk and leaned his hip against the edge as he stared down at the pathetic heap of flesh in front of our feet. It was humbling to witness the formerly proud leader of the Paradise Peaks wolf pack reduced to his current state.

Frank’s face was flushed, red as a sun-ripened tomato, and just as ready to burst. His shirt was drenched with sweat stains at his armpits and chest. Frank’s eyes darted around the room, landing briefly at the doors that were blocked by my security team.

There would be no escape for Frank Slater tonight.

Crossing my arms, I looked down at him. “Do you know why you’re here?” I didn’t wait for his reply, there was no need, really.

I pulled up his player’s account onto the giant touch screen that lined one of the walls of the office. One by one, every play and bet he placed at the casino over the last couple of months popped up on the screen. There had to be thousands of lines of data.

“We’ve been more than generous in extending and increasing the credit limit on your account, but our patience is running out, Frank.”

I pulled up the balance on his casino marker account. The total amount he had borrowed from us to fuel his little addiction filled the screen.

I let out a low whistle. “Over nine million dollars and change, Frank. You’ve racked up quite an impressive amount of losses in a short time.”

“I–I can get you the money, I’m good for it, I promise.”

Sebastian “You don’t have enough.”

Swiping at the screen, I pulled up his bank account balances and assets. “Let’s see, you only have one million in liquid assets at the moment. Your house is paid off, but it’s worth no more than three. Your construction business should be valued around four, but rumor has it, you’ve been stiffing your suppliers. That’s another debt that you will need to repay. However, you do have a lot of valuable government contracts.”

I rubbed my chin. “Even if you signed over everything you owned to us, you would still be short by one to two million.”

“I can sell my cars, the Maserati, the Aston Martin–“

Sebastian chuckled and interrupted Frank’s frantic offer. “That shit won’t fetch more than a two hundred grand at auction.”

Zach walked over and handed his gun to Sebastian. My business partner aimed it at the center of Frank’s forehead.

“I’ll find a way, please, just give me time,” Frank blubbered, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

I shook my head. “Your time is up, Frank. If you want to walk out of this casino, you find a way to settle your account, tonight.”

“I have nothing left,” he cried.

“Are you sure?” I swiped at the screen and pulled up a recent news article. A picture of Beth in her graduation cap and gown filled the screen. It was an announcement of her acceptance to Harvard. A beautiful and smart socialite, she was the pride of local society in the Paradise Peaks and Huntington Harbor area.

The color drained from Frank’s face as realization dawned on him.

“No. Absolutely not. Not her.” Horror at my suggestion filled his voice. “I’ll go to another casino and win enough after a couple rounds to pay you back.”

“Come on, do we look like we were born yesterday? Your name is dirt in both Huntington Harbor and Paradise Peaks. No casino in the state will let you past the valet area.”

I tsked. “It’s her or your life. Which is it, Frank?”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Please! I can’t die. My daughters still need me,” he pleaded.

“You know what we want,” I stated.

“Don’t do this. Beth has her entire future in front of her. Anything but her.”

Despite his addiction, I knew he was sincere. I respected that about him. It was the only thing I respected about Frank Slater.

Sebastian pulled back the hammer of the gun. “What do you think is going to happen to Beth and Flora if you die? There are far more evil men in this world who will come after Beth for her talents and pedigree. Men who will use her for their sick thrills. Some of these men are in your own pack. Do you really want your daughter to be bred by one of them?”

He was going to cave. I knew it. All he required was a bit of reassurance.

I walked to my desk and pressed the button on the underside of my desk. Our lawyer came in with the contracts that I had him prepare. If he was shocked by what he saw in the office, he showed no sign of it. Those who chose to work for us knew we did whatever was necessary to get our way.

The lawyer laid out the contracts on top of the desk, the quit claim deed to Frank’s properties and the ownership agreement for his business. The marriage contract would have to wait until Beth and the officiant arrived.

“We will care for Beth, and Flora too. After all, we would be family. We would never keep our mate from pursuing her education if that’s what she wants. You can continue to live in the house as long as Flora is a minor and continue to run the business on a day-to-day basis.”

I pushed the papers across the desk in his direction and placed a pen on top.

“Sign over your assets, and after Beth is our wife, all your debts with us will be forgiven. You can walk out of here tonight a free man, and start your life over again.”

Sebastian nodded at the security team. They picked Frank up from the floor and dragged him over to the chair in front of our desk.

Sebastian picked up the pen and placed it in his hand. “You know it’s your best option.”

Frank’s shoulders fell. Defeat oozed off of him like bad body odor. His finger’s tightened around the pen.

He looked up and met my gaze. “You promise to take care of her?”

I nodded. “We will make sure that Beth will never want for anything.”

Frank’s jaw clenched. Then, before he could reconsider and change his mind, he scribbled his name across the bottom of the documents.

Sebastian and I added our own signatures and the lawyer signed as witness.

It was done.

The lawyer gathered the documents. “I will get this filed and the ownership transferred over by the morning.” He left the room without another glance at Frank.

I grinned. Beth was going to be ours by the end of the night. “Do you want to call her, or should we do it?”