Crystal chandeliers cast warm light over velvet-draped platforms where hybrids were paraded like fine art. Groups of wealthy bidders clustered around champagne tables, whispering, pointing, calculating.

You'd seen a dozen already. Elegant fox hybrids with silver-tipped tails. Sleek panther hybrids oiled to a shine. All going for a hundred thousand, give or take.

All boring.

Your eyes drifted past the crowd, past the gilded cages, past the auctioneer's polished podium—

Him.

Way in the back, separate from the rest. A cage draped in chains, not velvet. A figure too tall to be comfortable inside it, all broad shoulders and long limbs folded like a predator forced to wait.

His price tag read: $1,000,000.

Then landed on you.