Auctioned Mates Revenge
Chapter 48

I followed Mordecai through the crowd, careful to keep up with him as it was obvious, he didn't intend to escort me. Mordecai was a large man, but he didn't slow his gait or check on me. He was the same sort of jerk as Justin.

But where Justin just seemed selfish, possessive, and cruel, Mordecai had different darkness to him. He looked crazed. I wanted to escape from him, but I couldn't. I glanced around and found Matt and Grace still at the blackjack table. She was still seated in his lap, leaning close to him as he played and sipped his whiskey.

It had been a good plan before we left the hotel. If our places had been switched, Mordecai might have tried to carry Grace off, but because it was me, he simply coerced me to go along.

Would Chloe have passed a note to Grace? Would Sean have slipped his card into my dress?"

I couldn't know, but I bet not.

Alyssa whimpered, It's not safe. He's dangerous.

I know, but we needed whatever information he was going to give us. I needed to make sure he thought that Matt was using Grace to get more information and instill doubts about if that was all he was doing.

Instead of the blackback table, he settled on a nearby couch. I sank into a seat nearby and he eyed me pointedly before looking at the woman standing beside Caleb's chair. She looked like she'd been standing there for hours, but I didn't move. Matt wouldn't have made me stand. He might have just put me in his lap, but I wouldn't have been standing, and neither would Grace.

Caleb lifted his glass, "Matt's changed out his Lady Luck tonight for Grace I saw."

I gave him a pleasant smile, "I wanted to float around a little, and Matt figured it would be better to have someone who knew how to play the game."

Caleb laughed, "I imagine Grace knows how to play all sorts of games at this point!"

He looked at Mordecai who seemed a bit preoccupied with scanning the blackjack area. I wished I didn't have to be sitting with Caleb either as he leered at me occasionally.

"I'm sure you know how to play them all too, Cherry." He licked his lips.

I didn't remember him from when I was in Midnight, but I hoped that if he had been one of my johns that I would never remember him. The way he looked at me made my skin crawl.

"What have you heard?" Mordecai asked. His voice was barely above a whisper. "About the stockpile?"

I swallowed questions and continued listening. Mordecai brought me over here for a reason, and it had something to do with this conversation. There was nothing subtle about the set-up.

For someone who had both hands and feet in the underground, he had no finesse. Maybe he just felt too comfortable around other men with soiled hands and a whore who he probably planned to use as a messenger.

I didn't mind being the messenger if it gave me a chance to learn more of what I needed to make him suffer.

He let out a hissed, "Another ton of river flowers went up for auction. Whoever's controlling what's left of Fluorite's stores is being a tight bastard about it."

My heart lurched as I looked between them in mock confusion, but I didn't say anything. River flowers was a colloquial name. We called them aquaria flora. They were good for a lot of things on their own, chief among them was painkilling. When mixed with other flower extracts and crushed the right way, they made powerful hallucinogens typically used as recreational drugs.

"Did you get into the auction?"

"No. It moved too quickly. Would have been good though. White blooms were on sale, though. They should be arriving next week."

A few other men joined the little circle, casting lecherous and curious looks at me.

"Don't mind her," Mordecai said, "I'm just keeping an eye on little Matt's plaything. Any other news?"

"Devereaux Botanicals got the last bit of dark bloom roses and hemp that was on the market," one of them said with a snarl. "That son of a bitch, Felix swooped in like he knew when it would go on sale. I guess those Warhammer contacts are treating him well." Dark bloom roses were used almost exclusively for relaxation mixes and hemp was used as a carrier since werewolves tended to like it better than a mix with tobacco. Devereaux Botanicals had to be a new werewolf brand.

Mordecai chuckled, "Felix has connections to Matt, but we all know that Matt and Ben don't see eye to eye."

Was Felix one of Matt's friends like Armand was, or was he just a business acquaintance. I'd have to ask as soon as I got the chance. If he was over the brand that was replacing Blooming Vibes as the main supplier of herbal relaxation mixes, it was likely he would suffer as soon as the stockpile was gone.

"Yeah," one of them glanced at me, "I noticed he's been making a mess of his image lately. What's he thinking?"

"I try not to get involved in father-son squabbles when I don't have to. Is that the last of the dark blooms and hemp, you think?"

The man nodded, "I'd guess so. It's been three years. Devereaux bought a shit ton of it in the beginning, but their production has been going full steam. If Warhammer can't get the shit to grow anymore and no one emerges to replace the supply, Devereaux Botanicals is going to tank."

"Warhammer will absorb it, probably as a favor and it will all be swept under the rug anyway. Perfect Face has already announced that they're shutting down. Apparently, their supply has run out."

"What about the mines?" Mordecai asked, seeming a bit tense. "How hard could digging out some rock be?"

"Well, with untrained workers? Hard as hell. I hear the mines have collapsed several times by now. They keep f*****g it up or someone is doing it intentionally. Either way, trying to clear the paths again has only led to more collapses."

Mordecai hummed as a little flurry of happiness went through me. The mine traps were being set off. It was an old thing that the old pack leaders of Fluorite set up to defend the wealth of our pack lands even if we were taken over. Dad used to call them old booby traps, but everyone who worked in the mines was taught how to circumvent them, how to get out in case a mine did collapse, and everything else needed to work there.

I was glad that they were still active and Warhammer's forces were suffering for their greed.

They talked at length about other gem and flower sources, but it came down to it that every premier company that had relied on Fluorite exports was shutting down, on the edge of shutting down, or had already shut down. I didn't recognize all of them, but I knew enough of them to get an idea of what the stockpile they were mentioning referred to.

I knew that Fluorite's production was, at minimum, three years in advance. We'd always worked that way because we were so small and any abrupt change in working capacity would be detrimental to the pack's well-being. I was a little fuzzy on the details of how much of what resources had been in our storage when we fell, but I knew enough to be happy about the stress the thought of running out was causing Warhammer and its lackeys. It served them right.

Soon, Mordecai stood, excusing us from the area before all but hauling me to my feet and pulling me away. His grip was tight but not painful as he pulled me away from the area.

"Next time, you stand," Mordecai said. "I don't know what Matt's been teaching you, but that is not how we do it Midnight. It hasn't been so long that you should have forgotten. It seems like these pretty scars on you are just for show."

I swallowed thickly and sincerely hoped this would be the last time I would ever be left alone with him.

He grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him, "Or maybe you're just harder to break than you look."

My heart was hammering against my chest as I stared up at him. His nostrils flared. He took a deep breath and he grinned down at me.

"I'm sure I could convince little Matt to let me train you before he leaves." Mordecai leaned in close, looking down at me, "You be sure to tell Matt everything you heard. Understand?" "O-Of course, Alpha Mordecai."

He released me as I felt Matt's gaze on me. I turned to him and smiled brilliantly, gliding over to him with Mordecai just behind me.

"There you are," Mordecai said, "Your little tag-along was lost."