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Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 34
“One hundred percent.” I crossed my arms. “I’m not worried that they’ll retaliate against her personally, but they might try to replace her with someone else. If that happens, it could undo all the progress we’ve made with the Kings.”She sighed. “We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m sure the Fates have a plan for this, but I hate waiting to find out what it is.”“Same here.” I blew out a breath. “By the way, Mom, I have a favor to ask. Bryn wants to learn more about her biological parents, but she’s hit a brick wall there. Is there anything you can do to help her out?”Her eyebrows shot up. “I wasn’t expecting you to ask me that.” She scratched her chin.“I know it probably won’t be easy with how little we have to go on.”“Honey, you know I’m at my happiest when I’m needed.” She patted my hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll find out what I can, but as you said, I doubt there’s much to find.” She smiled. “I’ll reach out to our elders, the Kings’ elders, and anyone else to get more information ab
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 35
While I understood that the first few months would be the toughest on me, I’d never expected it to be like this. As much as I had already fallen in love with my baby, I wish I’d known ahead of time that it would feel like my life was being drained out of me. At least then, I could have planned for the days when I was too weak to get out of bed—or out of the tub.Night didn’t mind catching up on work for me, but that didn’t lessen my guilt about taking a bubble bath while he and Tavi combed through that mass of paperwork.I sighed and closed my eyes, sinking under the water until the suds covered my mouth. Maybe I could convince Night to bring some of the paperwork home. I could handle some light reading.As if thinking about him had summoned him, I heard his heavy footsteps headed up the stairs. Night was normally light on his feet, but because I hated when he snuck around, he didn’t mask his footsteps.Moments later, he came into the bathroom. I opened my eyes and spotted the envelop
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 36
“Okay. Could we check in with the shop owners and see what they have to say?”“Absolutely. I think we ought to ask them how well their sales have been lately.”I nodded. The commons was where packs made their money. If the shop owners weren’t bringing in the profits we needed to see, the pack as a whole would suffer. “Does the pack have enough money in savings to handle payroll?”“From what I see, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s not that the markets aren’t making any money; their sales are just lower than expected.”“You said it might be more than just the markets, so where else have we been losing money? I could totally see Gregor or Troy stealing money from the infirmary or the gardens, for example.”He snorted. “So could I, but it’s not quite that. It’s not just one account that’s missing money—it’s all of them.”I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”“It’s not unusual for a pack to have multiple accounts; the Wargs have one for payroll, one for renovations and general pack upkeep
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 37
“I know, but…” What kind of man was I to force my pregnant mate out of bed instead of handling it myself? A shitty excuse for one, that’s what. Bryn was right—this was out of our hands, and it was clear that she felt a little inadequate that she hadn’t handled the ledgers herself. I understood her wanting to feel useful through this process, but that only settled the guilt more firmly on my shoulders. Was I being the mate she most needed? How did I know I was supporting her the way she needed most?After she dressed, we left to meet the council at the usual spot. Bryn must have reached out to Tavi telepathically because she was waiting for us by the double doors.I had hoped that the next time I saw my sister would be under more casual circumstances, but given her grave face, she had been brought up to speed as to why we’d called this meeting. But to my delight, her expression lifted a bit when she saw me.“Hi, Night,” she said.“It’s good to see you, kid.”She chuckled. “Likewise.” S
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 38
“That’s not good enough. Every alpha—even interim ones—should be informed of the pack’s affairs. It’s ridiculous to keep something a secret just because you’ve gotten complacent.”Grant inclined his head to take her point.Bryn’s shoulders lost some of their stiffness. We were finally getting somewhere, and she didn’t need to keep herself as rigid.“So the account is at least seven years old,” she said. “Did you confront Gregor about this?”“We did. Alpha Gregor claimed he would handle it, but the money continued to disappear.”Encouraged by Grant’s willingness to talk, Councilman Ross said, “We waited a little while for Gregor to put a stop to the payments, but he never did. The only thing he seemed to do was lessen the amounts withdrawn from each account.”“Do you think he was the one hoarding it or someone else?” Bryn asked.“We suspected Troy was squirreling the money away,” Councilman Colby said. “We figured that was why Alpha Gregor didn’t stop the withdrawals. We tried to stop
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 39
“That is the loophole,” I said, fury making my voice little more than a growl. “But no alpha worth his salt would take advantage of it.”The council didn’t have a response to that.“We need to speak with the Kings’ banker and see what they can tell us,” Bryn said. “And we need to go through everything Troy and Gregor owned. There must be information on this account somewhere.”I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. This was turning into a much bigger nightmare than I’d thought. If Troy had used a human bank account, it would be very complicated to gain access to it.“Don’t any of you have ideas about what the Redwolfs were planning?” Tavi asked. “It’s been seven years—you must have some kind of theory?”The councilmen exchanged looks. “Well,” Colby began hesitantly, “it’s possible they were trying to expand King territory, but not from neighboring packs.”“Wait, wait.” I held my hand up. “Are you saying they were after human land?” That was a disaster waiting to happen and much m
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 40
“Do any of you know how a portal could be reopened?” she asked. “Or even where the closest portal is supposed to be?”“Of course not,” Dana snapped. “We didn’t give it any thought because we don’t believe it’s possible. There are so many myths about the ancient world that most wolves don’t know. None of them have been proven true, and there’s no reason for anyone to take them so seriously.”“If your precious Alpha Gregor was determined to find out if it was true,” Tavi began, glaring at Dana, “at least one wolf took it pretty damn seriously.”“Maybe the idea of more power and control was too appealing for them to resist,” I replied. “If this is what they were doing with the money, it’s because the chance to conquer foreign land was too good to pass up, no matter how far-fetched it sounded.”“If Troy is the only one left who believes in this story, couldn’t we just find some way to cut Troy’s access to the account?” Bryn asked. “No money, no way for him to fund his army or open a porta
Claiming The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 2 41
Jefferson took a few moments to skim through the ledgers. He set the papers down and reached into one of his desk drawers for a large black binder. “Let me double-check something.” The binder was labeled “Pack Accounting.” He opened it, flipped through the binder, then nodded to himself.“It’s just as I thought,” he said, flicking the binder closed again. “We don’t have an account with that name.”“What? How do you explain all of these transfers, then?” Night asked.“Well, I see in these ledgers that these transfers were indeed labeled for some kind of tax account. But Alpha Gregor told me to officially mark them down as ‘community expenses.’”“What is that?” I asked.“As you’ve seen, we keep multiple accounts, and one of those accounts is called ‘Community.’ It’s used for events and parties within the pack. Alpha Gregor had me mark down the withdrawals as being for the community.”“But there weren’t any events around the time of these transactions,” I said.He nodded. “I’m aware, but
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