Chapter 65 The Price of Blood
Kier’s POV
The woman lounged in the chair like it was her throne. The red coat hung off one shoulder, her lipstick smudged in the way that said it wasn’t an accident. But it wasn’t the way she looked that made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
It was the scent.
Under the smoke and cheap hotel soap was the smell of rogue.
Jaxon caught it, too. His nostrils flared once before he shot me a look that said careful.
She noticed. Of course she did. “Don't worry, Alpha.” she said with a smirk. “I’m not here to pick a fight. I’m here to make a deal.”
I stayed standing. “What makes you think we will be making deals with the likes of you.”
She crossed her legs, one knee sliding over the other. “I have information you need on finding a certain she-wolf.”
I tilted my head. “Why should we believe you’re worth listening to.”
She smiled slow. “Because I know you're looking for Sam."
Jaxon stepped forward before I could. “Let’s hear her out,” he said evenly. “You came all the way here for a reason, right? You have information about Sable.”
Her gaze flicked to him, measuring. “You the reasonable one, huh,” she said. “Less bark than him, more brains..”
Jaxon gave her a polite, warning smile. “Try me.”
She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, tone turning businesslike. “So about Sam. You know him.”
I didn’t answer, but the muscle in my jaw twitched. She saw it and smiled wider.
“I met him a few weeks back. Thought he was just another sad suit with a broken heart and a wallet. You can spot those a mile away. Said he wanted company. Drinks. Conversation. Normal stuff.” She tilted her head. “So I took him to the Moon Den for a good time. That's when he started running his mouth about a girl.”
Jaxon frowned. “Sable.”
She nodded. “Didn’t say her name at first. Just ‘the one I have to have.”
The words landed like stones. My pulse kicked, slow and violent.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Same thing anyone does when a guy starts talking crazy,” she said lightly. “I listened until it got interesting. Then I introduced him to a few friends who like interesting.”
“Rogues,” Jaxon said quietly.
She shrugged, unashamed. “You call them rogues. I call them survivors. They don’t play nice with packs, but they pay for introductions.”
“And what did your ‘friends’ give him?” I asked.
“After he revealed who this girl was. They gave him Information,” she said, rolling a lock of hair around her finger. “About wolves. About your girl and how he can get what he want.”
“And how would they know who she was?” Jaxon said.
Her eyes glinted. “No wolf moves around this city without us knowing.”
I moved closer, until my shadow swallowed her whole. “You helped him take her?”
“I helped him find help.”
“Same thing.”
She arched a brow. “Not to me. I just open doors. What people do once they walk through them isn’t my problem.”
My wolf should have been snarling by now. Should have been clawing at the edges of my skin for blood. Instead—silence. The emptiness made me colder.
“So he wanted a way to control her,” Jaxon said slowly.
The rogue nodded. “He wanted her his. So he leaned on others."
Every word was a nail in the coffin of my restraint.
“Where is he?” I demanded.
Her smirk faltered. “Didn’t ask. Didn’t want to. Guys like that… they get fixated. You get too close, and you become the next fixation.”
“You’re already too close,” I said.
Jaxon’s hand shot out, touching my arm. “Easy, Kier.”
“She helped him,” I said, never looking away from her. “She armed him.”
“I gave him nothing he couldn’t have found on his own,” she said quickly, eyes narrowing. “Look, I’m not defending him. The guy scared me. That’s why I came here. Because whatever he’s tangled himself in—it’s big. And if she’s still alive, she’s may be running out of time.”
“Then you’ll tell me where to find him,” I said.
Her chin lifted. "A lady has to eat first.”
I stepped closer until I could feel her breath hitch. “You don’t seem to understand how this works. You’re in my tower, surrounded by my people. You’ll talk, or you’ll bleed.”
Her wolf scent spiked. “Try it,” she whispered. “You lay a hand on me, every rogue in this city will be here before dawn. You think you’ve got enemies now?” She leaned back, smirking again. “I don’t bluff, Alpha.”
For a second, I saw red—my fingers curling, my pulse roaring.
Then Jaxon’s voice cut through, low and steady. “Enough. We need information, not a corpse.”
I glared at him. “She’s playing us.”
“She’s stalling,” he corrected. “There’s a difference.”
He turned back to her. “You’re scared, fine. But you came here for a reason. You said you wanted money. Tell us something that proves you’re not wasting our time.”
The rogue studied him for a moment, then exhaled through her nose. “Fine.” She reached into her coat pocket, slow enough not to trigger a reaction, and pulled out a napkin—dirty, torn, smeared with old lipstick.
Across the top, in shaky handwriting, was an address.
“Last I heard,” she said, “he was holed up near the west edge of the river. Warehouse district again. But smaller. Private. He paid one of my contacts to set up surveillance there. Cameras, locks, soundproofing. Said he wanted to make sure no one interrupted him this time.”
Jaxon snatched the napkin, scanning it. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be,” she said. “I don’t follow him. He’s poison.”
“Then why come here?” I asked.
Her smile faded. “Because poison spreads. And he’s been meeting with people who don’t answer to packs. Or humans. You think I don’t notice new wolves on my block? The kind that don’t smell like any territory?” She shrugged. “I like breathing. Figured giving you a breadcrumb buys me some.”
I stared at her for a long moment, then said, “You’re not walking out until we verify this.”
“You’ll verify it faster if I’m not dead,” she shot back. “I don’t do charity, Alpha. You want the rest? Ten million.”
Jaxon blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she said, sitting up straight now, her tone sharp with sudden confidence. “Ten million. You get the names of the rogues who supplied him, and the ones who know how to find him."
I laughed once—no humor, just disbelief. “You’re out of your mind.”
She met my gaze, unflinching. “No. I just know what her life is worth to you.”
The room went quiet. The kind of quiet that hums before violence or truth.
Jaxon rubbed a hand over his jaw, thinking fast. “You’re asking for ten million dollars in cash?”
“Cash, crypto, blood diamonds,” she said, shrugging. “I don’t care what shape it comes in. Ten million, and you get everything I know.”
“And if we don’t pay?” I asked.
Her lips curved. “Then you better hope mate makes it out alive.”