That thought was accompanied by guilt. Some might say I screwed my way to greater power too.
“Have a good night, Juliet,” I muttered to her retreating form. Taking Willow by the arm, I led him away. Once out of earshot of the agents, I groaned. “Telling her was a mistake. I can feel it in my bones.”
“It might feel that way, but fear is deceptive. Trusting her again will be difficult. But it might be a risk worth taking. Give her a chance.” Willow slung an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close in a half hug.
My phone rang as I approached the car. Digging it out of my pocket, I groaned when the call display showed me Justin’s number.
“What’s going on?” I answered, knowing he only called when something was up. Could this night just chill out already? God I needed a spa day.
“There’s a wolf here that insists he needs to talk to you. Big guy. Older. Says his name is Dayne.” Justin paused to shout at someone in the background to get off the bar. “Should I toss him out?”
“No, get him a booth and anything he wants to drink, on the house. I’m on my way.” After I hung up, I turned to Willow. “That’s weird. The Doghead Alpha is waiting for me at The Wicked Kiss.”
We got in the car and headed for downtown. My mind raced as I tried to imagine what Dayne could possibly want. The real question was did I really want to know?
“This might be a good thing,” Willow mused. “You wanted an alliance with his wolves. Maybe that’s what he wants to discuss.”
The effects of the tequila had faded quickly once the drinking had stopped. It was a handy perk of being a werewolf. Intoxicants didn’t affect us the way it did humans. It took a hell of a lot of booze to put down a shifter. However, it had left me feeling tired. Or maybe that was the stress. I hoped Dayne didn’t mind the delay, but I was hitting a Starbucks drive-thru on my way.
The Wicked Kiss was at its peak when we arrived. A line of people waited to get inside. That had once concerned me. Now it was a relief. As long as the humans were lining up to be victimized, it would keep the public kill numbers down. At least, that was the plan.
Arys’s old and rarely driven Firebird was gone. I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d been afraid he would spend all night in the back with Jenner, reliving their glory days. I wondered if Shya had cursed him as well, though I knew nothing of the demon swiping any DNA from Arys.
“I’ll hang out at the bar,” Willow said as we crossed the parking lot to the front entry. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“You don’t have to hang around here if there’s something else you’d rather be doing. Trust me, I would understand.”
“No, it’s cool. I have nowhere else to be.”
It wasn’t hard to figure this one out. He wasn’t just tagging along to keep me company. He was protecting me. “Willow, is there a reason you’re sticking to me like glue tonight?”
“Someone has to,” he grinned. “It’s my job. And I’m happy to do it.”
I frowned, feeling insecure and a little worried. Willow had suffered enough. I didn’t want him becoming a target for Shya. He’d already been down that road.
“Don’t take any crazy risks for me, ok?”
“What’s that? I can’t hear you.” He shouted over the noise as we bypassed the line and crossed through the lobby. “Go deal with your visitor. I’ll catch up with you after.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. He had definitely heard me. It was easy to see why Christina had fallen in love with him. He was so caring and easily the most selfless person I knew. Why did those types always get the shit end of the stick? It was so unfair.
Justin pointed me in Dayne’s direction. I found him sitting alone in a back corner booth, his meaty hand clasped around a beer bottle. A single empty sat in the middle of the table.
He looked up at my approach. His expression never changed. It was neutral, almost forced. Wearing a leather vest over a t-shirt and worn jeans, he still had that menacing air I’d found intimidating. Ice-cold blue eyes looked me over as I slid into the booth across from him. It wasn’t the way a man appraises a woman but the way one wolf appraises another. It was unsettling.
“Sorry about the wait. I was across town when I got the call that you were here.” I extended a hand in greeting, anxious when he waited a few long, awkward seconds before taking it. His hand was warm and big, making my hand look child-like in comparison. Dayne gave my fingers a squeeze before releasing me.
“Your hand is cold,” he said, low and gruff. “Unusual for a werewolf.”
I felt uncomfortable with his spoken observance. Hiding my hands in my lap, I said, “Well, I’m not your usual werewolf. Anyway, what brings you by?”
Instead of speaking right away, Dayne leaned back against the booth and took a long swig of beer. His gaze remained on me the whole time. The guy sure knew how to intimidate people. He hadn’t really done anything, and yet I was on pins and needles.
“I’ve been thinking about that alliance you offered,” he began. “I’d like to take you up on that. I just have one question. Would you be willing to do me a favor in return? Consider it a way to prove that I can trust you.”
Conversations that started like this never ended well. I was uneasy. “What kind of favor?”
“I want you to kill someone.”
That revelation wasn’t as dramatic as it could have been, mostly because I’d been expecting it. I had known an alliance with his pack would come at a price. It wasn’t surprising that he’d use it as a way to get me to do his dirty work for him.
“Who? And why?” I met his gaze with one equal in intensity.
“One of my wolves. It doesn’t matter why.”
“It matters to me. I don’t kill without good reason.”
We stared across the table at one another as our wolves held a silent battle of wills. Finally Dayne laughed, a rough, unpleasant sound.
“Right. Sure you don’t.” He finished off the beer and slammed the bottle down with a belch. “Look, one of my guys has turned rat. He’s been talking with those FPA pricks. I can’t trust him anymore. Normally I’d use my pack enforcer for this kind of thing. But I thought it’d be a great way to find out how good your word is.”
“
And that’s enough to earn him a death sentence?” With eyebrows raised, I studied Dayne. “I don’t know how you run your pack, but that sounds pretty harsh.”
“Does it?” Dayne said with a lazy grin that was downright scary. “Are you telling me you don’t deliver your own kind of justice when these vamps step out of line? I know you’ve killed wolves before. Don’t pretend you’re too good for this.”
I swallowed hard and cleared my throat. “So what did he do? If you’re this pissed, he must’ve given the FPA something you didn’t want them to have.”
“Oh, he did. He gave them evidence from our last pack hunt. A few times every summer we grab a guy from the sexual offender list, drop him out in the middle of that corn maze outside of town, and hunt him for sport.” With a wolfish chuckle, Dayne pulled a cigar from his vest and twirled it between his fingers. “That’s the kind of thing I’d rather not have Agent Briggs and his superhero task force banging on my door about.”
I nodded when he held up the cigar, asking permission to light it. There was no smoking allowed in my nightclub, but I could make an exception this time.
Perhaps I should have been surprised by Dayne’s pack activity. Instead I found it to be kind of genius. Nobody was going to put effort into finding a missing sexual predator. And it seemed like a good way to keep the wolves from unleashing their aggression on innocents.
“Your wolf was involved in this hunt?” I regarded him with neutral expression, careful not to let him see a reaction just yet.
“He sure was. I guess Briggs offered him a deal that he thought was worth selling out his family.” Dayne’s wide shoulders heaved in a slow shrug. “I won’t stand for any of my wolves associating with the Feds. I’ll never trust them.”
I couldn’t help but smile. It seemed that Dayne and I had a very common enemy in the FPA.
“You’re speaking my language, Dayne. The FPA are bad news for all of us. They’re up to no good. I’ve seen it.”
“Yeah?” His eyes glinted with intrigue. “Like what?”
I debated on how much to tell him. Once I started talking about the things I’d seen in the basement of the FPA headquarters, it all came back to me. Dayne hung on my every word as I described the little girl that could summon demons and the insane man who spent all of his time locked up there drawing pictures of potential future events. I didn’t leave out the labs or the morgue. The things we had found there had haunted several of my dreams since.
“Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch,” Dayne swore, puffing on his cigar. “I knew they were dirty, but that’s a whole lot worse than I anticipated. Thanks to Stuart, the Feds have been sniffing around my pack. We have a few kids to protect, couple of young’uns that were accidentally turned and one that was born. I don’t want them coming to any harm. See why Stuart needs to go?”
I had fully expected an alliance with Doghead to come at a price. Hunting down one of their wolves was beyond my expectations. Still, if the guy was feeding info to the Feds, it was bad news for all wolves. My loyalties had to lie with my beast. I was wolf first and always would be.
“Yeah, I understand where you’re coming from. You definitely want to keep the kids away from them. They grabbed my sister when we were kids. Now she works for them.” I’m not sure why I told him that. I didn’t trust Dayne, not really. I knew better.
He let out a low whistle and shook his head. “Those fuckers ain’t tearing my family apart. I’ll wage war first.”
He would not win that war, but I didn’t bother to say as much. There was no telling what kind of resources the FPA had at their disposal.
“So, how many packs are you leading? You said three, right?” Changing the subject and acquiring more information seemed like a safe tactic. I didn’t need him getting all fired up about the FPA.
“Yeah, three,” he grunted. “Doghead is my pack. It’s the biggest pack in town. There are two other packs, smaller. Your regular everyday people types. They each have their own Alpha pair, but both packs answer to me and Hanna. We keep them safe, and they do the occasional odd job for us.”
“What kind of job?”
Dayne grinned. “Let’s just say not all of the pack’s income is exactly legal. Having cops and lawyers in the group makes life a whole lot easier. At least it did before Stuart ratted us out. The FPA is one sector of authority we just can’t seem to get rid of.”
I tapped my nails on the tabletop as I pondered this. “You know that killing Stuart will only encourage the FPA, don’t you?”
“Fuck ’em. If they know I’m willing to kill a rat maybe they’ll back off my pack.” With a raised brow, Dayne puffed on that stinky ass cigar and chuckled. “Make it good and bloody, will you?”
“I never said that I would do it.”
“Ok, so will you?”
I was torn. It was vital to keep the wolves and vampires from working with the FPA. They already had a handful in their arsenal. The kids sealed the deal for me. Both Juliet and I had been taken advantage of as young, naïve werewolves. And look how we turned out.
“I’ll do it. But I have just one question.”
“Shoot.”
“What does it take to get into your pack?” My heart pounded in my ears as the question passed my lips. Why was I suddenly so nervous?
“Sorry, babe. No hybrids allowed.”
I flushed, feeling it all the way to my toes. Nothing like being constantly reminded that I didn’t belong to just one species of monster anymore.
“I’m not asking for me,” I snapped. “I’m asking for the wolf I brought to Doghead the other night. He has no pack. He’s loyal and the most fierce wolf I know. He deserves a pack to call his own.”
“Is that right?” Dayne stroked a hand thoughtfully over the stubble lining his jaw. The beautiful moon tattoo on the side of his neck drew my gaze. I couldn’t picture Shaz with one. Although I’d never envisioned Arys or myself with a demon mark either. “Let’s see how it goes with Stuart. Then I’ll consider it.”
“Fair enough,” I muttered, slumping back in my seat.
Dayne rose to leave, pausing to toss a business card down in front of me. “Drop me a line when you’re ready. I’ll have an address for you.”
“Will do. Thanks for coming by.” Feeling wooden and stiff, I made myself get up and accompany him to the door.
Several vampires stopped prowling the room for a conquest to watch us. I could almost see the assumptions forming. Well, what did they expect? There was more to me than what I shared with them. I shared something with Dayne too, and I was determined to make the most of it.
Dayne gave me a fist bump and a nod before disappearing into the parking lot. I lingered in the lobby, wondering if I’d just made a terrible decision.
What choice did I have? I needed this alliance.
Chapter Twelve
“Did you get your alliance?” Willow asked when I joined him at the bar.
“Yeah, for a price. He wants me to kill one of his wolves who’s gone rat. He’s been talking to the FPA.” I ran a hand through my long hair and sighed. This was turning out to be a very long night.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said I’d do it. I didn’t know what else to say. I need those wolves to have my back. If not now, then in the not so distant future. I’m sure of it.” I met Willow’s gold-flecked gaze, seeking judgment and, as always, finding none. “Did I make a mistake?”
Willow spun an empty shot glass between his fingers. “That’s a question only you can answer.”
I groaned. “Shit. I was afraid you were going to say something like that.”
Feeling frustrated, I scrutinized the patrons. Everything was operating like it normally did. The humans were drunk and easy; the vampires were hungry and eager. Several of them still looked my way, talking among themselves.
Before I had time to reconsider, I found myself marching across the room toward the stage. When the band finished their song, I climbed the steps at the back of the stage and interrupted before they could launch into the next tune.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to the purple-haired werewolf holding the mike, noticing for the first time the Doghead pack tattoo on her neck. “Can I use that for just a second? I need to say something.”