September Moon (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8)(44)

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 f*ckers 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.