“I’m here because it’s time for you to give payment, or you’re in a world of trouble, kid,” he said with a suppressed growl, huffing like when his dragon was riding him.
Claudia had the folder ready and tossed it on the table. She’d been adamant she’d wanted to be in the meeting with him this time, not only as my attorney, but as a dragon who’d lost family in his takeover.
“You will get paid once we have all the hobgoblins in your area, as promised,” she told him, her tone ice cold. “Those are the ones we already knew were in your area before Ms. Vale met with you and have not been released. The agreement also stated that all the hobgoblins were to be interviewed by a third party, and Alpha Geoff is still working on that.”
“Well he needs to move faster,” Alec snarled.
It was hard not to smile when it hit me what was going on. He was out of time on the wards that hid his or other castles in his area.
I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest, wondering how to use this new information to our advantage. “Your people should have moved faster. We had our meeting months ago. Why have they only finally started allowing the hobgoblins to leave now?”
“That doesn’t matter. The priority is now.”
“No, it is the point as we still don’t have them all, so you’re pulling shit with me, or your people aren’t following your orders, Alpha,” I snapped. “Get us everyone on that list safely, and I’ll be generous and give you one box of fifty before we do all the interrogations.” He seemed relaxed then, relieved even. I wasn’t done though. “But I want something else.”
“What?” he huffed.
“Some of the hobgoblins have said you have fae dogs in your area. There is a fae dog Tanesha Jameston has been getting familiar with and that sometimes listens to her. We want to give that dog a chance to find other fae dogs and get them to the sanctuary as well.”
His eyes went wide. “The dust collectors make huge money in our area.”
“Yeah, and they also abuse the fae dogs,” I bitched. “We know this. They shoot them and chase them out of safe places. That ends.” I shook my head when he tried to object. “None of them are dragons in Australia. What do you care? We could go in and just do it without your permission as we have people who are not dragons. You’re just taking something off my plate by giving them a safe zone to meet.”
“Unless you don’t need the crystals so soon and can wait until all the interrogations are done,” Claudia said, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. “I think fifty is a generous show of good faith, given most of the hobgoblins from your people have been abused, so the final number will be half of what you thought.”
I caught a stray thought from his security, mentally laughing that Alec kept wearing telepathy blocking charms around me, but his people didn’t. That wasn’t as helpful to them then.
Glancing over at Claudia, I sighed. “Which is why the douche in charge of Africa hasn’t tried for this deal. You were right. He knows he won’t get as many crystals, but a lot of justice against his people the hobgoblins are owed as Alec agreed. And he doesn’t want his magical slaves taken away from his elites that love having them.”
She was unconcerned. “We’ll handle it.”
Alec snorted. “If you could have done that, you would have.”
“We try for civil options when there’s a problem, before going in and slaughtering people and wasting valuable lives,” Claudia sneered. “Then again, there wasn’t a problem, but you simply killed for power, you murderer.”
“Why you—” Alec started, but I was focused on security.
“Try it, and I will kill you with a rune and risk the fallout,” I warned his people when a few looked to move on Claudia. “His slaughterfest killed one of her family. She is owed her moment to say what he deserves to get.”
They all gave me looks that they didn’t agree with that, but believed I would kill them, so they backed off.
“Take my deal, Alec, because I’m not sure you’ll get any crystals otherwise,” I pushed. “The hobgoblins have been asking to let the dragon castles fall as justice for what they suffered. The testimonies we hear are—they’re insanely cruel, and abuse doesn’t cover what they went through.
“I’m inclined to give it to them if real justice isn’t received as you promised, so you might want to start balancing priorities if you let certain families fall or your castle. If I wanted to be mean and start real trouble, I would offer crystals for the hobgoblins you got out of your area that don’t work for dragons.”
He chilled his attitude, almost looking pale at the idea. So he didn’t have the backing of other supe leaders in Australia. Interesting. Very interesting. I was learning a lot with this meeting. It almost made the hour wait worth it.
He snatched up the folder and quickly looked over the list, steam practically coming out of his ears when he saw how long it was. “I will handle this immediately. I could see a few falling through the cracks or being overlooked, but this is three fucking pages. You know where they are?”
I glanced at Claudia and nodded for her to handle that one.
“We’re not completely sure on all the locations, but we have confirmed they are in your area with more than
