The Dragon Queen and her mates.
Chapter 272: SOD

Chapter 272: SOD

The entire pub fell into silence as Nicholas looked at Bree with shock in his eyes. However, three seconds later, his face turned red with anger and he got to his feet. "You fucking bi—"

His curses came to an abrupt halt as Blaise stepped forward and caught the man by his collar. He lifted Nicholas off the floor and slammed him against the wall so hard that the entire pub shook with the impact. Bree was sure that the wall now had a Nicholas-shaped crease on it.

The rest of the jackals yelped in surprise as they looked at Blaise, who was holding Nicholas in one hand while holding a ball of fire in his other hand.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Nicholas struggled against Blaise’s hold as he looked at the man with anger in his eyes.

"You are not calling my mate a bitch; oh no, you won’t," Blaise stated with a voice that held a subtle note of rage but it was enough to overwhelm the entire pack of jackals inside the pub. "Now, let us see. We are not here to chat or negotiate with you. We are here to get the information that we want at all costs. I am not really happy with how your kind tried to sneak into the palace and place the safety and security of my mate in danger. So you better give us what we want or else I will burn you and every single member of your pack down."

Now Nicholas was no longer as haughty as he was before; he looked really scared and Bree didn’t find it surprising. She could hear the hissing of Blaise’s cat and it was quite clear that his anti-social cat was not really pleased with Nicholas at the moment.

Dion looked up at Nicholas and muttered, "I think he is getting a nosebleed. Should we lower the altitude?"

"No."

Bree turned to look at Nicholas and smiled with a light sniff. "It seems like you still don’t want to talk."

"I heard it from the Gaunt pack," finally Nicholas realised that there was no escaping this trouble. He closed his eyes and confessed honestly.

"Keep talking," prodded Blaise.

"Can you pull me down a little? I get nosebleeds at heights," stated the man, whose short body was shaking with fright.

"No."

Nicholas sighed in resignation as he closed his eyes and leaned his head to stop the blood from trickling down his chin.

"I don’t know much about this situation either; as you know, I walked out of life and the path that my kind walks on, which is why they treat me as a traitor. I only heard bits and pieces from the others. After all, I am blacklisted by them and the other jackals as well."

"Why is that so?" Bree asked the man.

"Why else? Because I did not want to get involved with their dirty dealings. I had enough of it and I didn’t wish to be bothered by them anymore. You have no idea what the life of most jackal shifters is like; we never get a chance to stay in one place in peace."

Blaise snorted as he said, "Isn’t it because of your kind and their actions? Your hands are never squeaky clean."

"I admit that my hands are not clean but these people —they are worse, way worse. I got tired of their evil actions and walked away. I was never an important figure in their pack, so they did not pay attention to me either."

"You sound disgusted with them," noted Bree.

"You would be too if you had seen what kind of things they used to do," snorted Nicholas.

"Since you are so disgusted with them, I guess you have no reason to hide anything from us?" Blaise stated as he shook the man in the air slightly.

Nicholas’s face turned blue due to the shaking and he groaned before saying, "I don’t know much. Like I said, I only know a little, as they never made me the key member of their pack. They said I was too weak for it."

"I only know that they had joined hands with the death riders who were on the run."

"Death riders?" Blaise’s eyes narrowed as he knew about the group that followed Semel and called itself Death Riders.

"That’s right. I knew things were going to get rough from there on; after all, joining the death riders is not a matter of joke. Once you are in, you are in. There is no such thing as holding your hands in surrender if you get too scared, right?"

"Fine, we get that you got shit scared but what happened that made you escape?"

"Well, those people started to run an organisation. They started hunting rare shifters and beings and started to put them up for auction... at first it was just auctioning off those beings but then —"

"Then?"

"Then they started to torment those beings for fun. Started putting deals like try before you buy and even started foolish games where they would use the kidnapped beings for fun. They were placed in a sanctuary and had to survive all kinds of dangerous games before they could make it out alive. The ones who came to watch the show could bet and earn money through it."

"They also put up a fight till death fighting ring and that’s when I realised that I needed to leave."

"Then do you know where they are?" Bree asked.

"No," Nicholas shook his head and stated in a calm voice. "They know what kind of things they are involved in; how dare they live in a place? They keep changing their hideouts."

"Then what else can you tell us?" Blaise asked. "Because this is not enough for me to let you go."

Nicholas pursed his lips before sighing. He closed his eyes and then stated, "SOD. You should go and take a look at this organisation. Maybe you will be able to find something."