Page 96 of Smoke and Moon

“You’re a big, bad Alpha when you have your two henchmen behind you.”Valko grimaced.

Chanin glanced over his shoulder where Boris and Bleddyn hadn’t moved, but Bleddyn smiled.He turned back to the asshole in the chair.“See, you have it wrong.They're not here for me.Those two are here for you.”

Valko frowned and spared the Beta and security leader a glance.“How?”

Taking the two steps it took him to close in on Valko, Chanin said, “They're going to ensure that I don’t kill you, motherfucker, before we get what we need.”

Before Valko uttered another word, Chanin swung.Right, left.Right, left.Right, left.Right, left.Right, left.On and on he went swiping across the rogue’s torso with his razor-sharp claws.All the rage of the day with Minsi and Morlie, the months they’d spent tracking the rogue wolves as they terrorized and stole, and placed a stain on the Omega Pack name.Chanin wanted to rip Valko’s fucking head off.

Screams and pleas spilled out of Valko’s lips as he bucked and fought against his restraints as he tried to move his body out of the way of Chanin’s blows, unsuccessfully.

“Chanin,” Bleddyn barked out his name, low but effective.

Chanin’s breath was harsh as he retracted his claws, then stepped back and surveyed the sight before him.He sucked in a big breath and tried to calm his rage.

Valko’s shirt sprinkled the dusty warehouse floor like confetti on a cake.The skin of his upper body lay flayed open, and blood ran out in vivid red streams that soaked his jeans.Valko’s head sagged as he moaned and whimpered.“I don’t know anything.”

“Bull shit!Where is Farkas hiding?”Chanin grabbed his jaw and held Valko’s head up as he shot the traitor a stern glare.

“I don’t know.Damn...Boris and those fucking m-m-mangy Fang Warriors kept sniffing us out of all the other spots.”he muttered as thick rivets of snot ran from his nose to his mouth.

“Then tell me what you do know, or I’ll rip off your limbs one by one and beat you across the face with them.”

Valko’s bloodshot eyes stretched wide.He shook his head.“If I could, I would—”

“Fine.”Chanin let him go.He walked over to the table and picked up an old saw, dull and tarnished with just as much rust as the door handle.Getting the saw to cut a twig would take a lot of strength and effort.But Chanin knew with enough determination, the tool would saw through flesh and bone—a painful endeavor for the recipient.

Holding the tool at his side in the light so Valko knew what was coming next, Chanin asked, “What was the plan for the Fae females?”

The man turned his head away from Chanin and the others, facing the shadows.“Nothing but a little fun.”Valko sucked in a snot-filled breath.“Maybe start a race of Lupine Fae to come back and beat your ass,” he cackled.

Chanin glanced at the two men with him and shrugged.There was probably more than a bit of truth in what Valko claimed.Fae, male and female, had an elegant, delicate beauty that was hard for most to resist, but weak-minded men like the rogues would spring wood and salivate to get their hands on them.

Moving close to the chair, Chanin kneeled beside the man as he held the blade over the top joint of his left knee.

“No.No.No!”Valko stared down at the set tool.“I told you.”

“Mmh.It’s not that I don’t believe your sleazy ass, Valko.”Chanin shifted his hand and made a small cut through the traitor’s jeans.“Raping Fae teens is just the sort of twisted, immoral shit you guys would think is yours.”

Chanin sniffed and smelled blood and the caustic scent of the lie.“But I don’t think that's all.”He patted the man’s thigh.“So, I’ll cut for a bit, then we’ll talk again.”

“Please don’t...”the man sniveled.

Chanin ignored him.He placed one hand on Valko’s thigh to keep him still as Chanin gripped the hard applewood handle of the saw and proceeded to shove and pull the blade back and forth, forcing the blade through Valko’s lower thigh.

The screams coming from Valko were almost inhuman.

When he struck the bone, Chanin cut a few more times and then stopped.Valko’s body shook under his hand, and the man’s tears rained down into the larger gashes on his chest, some of them beginning to heal at the ends.Because of their healing abilities, Chanin knew if he left Valko for a few days, the man would heal most of his body, and Chanin could torture him all over again.But this worthless piece of shit had taken enough of his time.

“Now.Farkas would have known that you guys couldn’t keep the young women for long before the Fae came searching.So, what was the plan?”

Valko struggled slowly to raise his droopy head and gaze at Chanin with glassy, pain-filled eyes.“Farkas wanted to arrange to sell preternatural blood to the humans.”

Fuck.This was bad.

“Oow...”Valko winced.

Chanin relaxed his grip on the other man’s thigh and then stood.He went to the table and tossed the tool down as he looked at Bleddyn and Boris’s concerned faces.

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