Page 131 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

brYN

The warm water in the bath was filled with so many herbs, I felt like I was steeping in tea.

The aromas of rosemary and chamomile drifted through the air, thanks to the things Violet had sent with Night.

A cup of the tea my mother had mixed for me sat on the stool next to the tub.

The soothing scents and tea helped ease the aches in my body, but I still felt like a pincushion.

Some of the bubbles had disappeared in the twenty minutes since I’d gotten into the tub. I reached to add more, but a wave of nausea rocked me before I could grab the bottle. I closed my eyes, willing away the urge to vomit. Now, in the tub, would be the worst time to lose my breakfast.

Thankfully, the wave dissolved without incident. I sighed and leaned my head against the hand towel draped over the edge of the tub. “Dammit, I should be working.” I groaned.

I was here because I’d vomited my entire stomach into the toilet that morning.

Night told me I needed to rest—what else was new?

Everyone had been telling me to do that—and that he’d take over the paperwork for me.

When he offered his help, I assumed the two of us would be working together.

Not that I would be soaking in a tub while he did all the work.

Even Tavi was busy checking up on the reconstruction today, so Night was working by himself.

I loved him, I appreciated him, but it irked me to no end that I had to rely on him so completely.

I’d never felt more useless and out of the loop.

And he wouldn’t even bring me some documents to pass the time while I “relaxed.”

What a joke. How was I supposed to take it easy when my pack needed me?

Growing up, Mom was the only person I could rely on, and even then, I was always a pretty self-sufficient child. Having a mate meant I should rely on him when I needed to, but I hadn’t thought I’d have to rely on him like this so soon.

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 envelopes he held.

I sat up, wiping away the suds that clung to my chin. “Did you read my mind?” I asked, resting my arms on the rim of the tub. “I was just thinking of asking you to bring me something to look at.”

He chuckled as he bent and kissed my forehead. “Are you so bored that you want to look through these old receipts and invoices?”

“It’s not about boredom; it’s about getting things done.” I gestured for him to sit. “Sure, reading a book is nice, but we need to get this done. These old ledgers will help us understand the pack better.”

Many of the complaints I’d read involved issues with access to resources.

I’d always been under the impression that Kings lived luxurious lives, but in reality, it was just a front.

Most of that money had ended up in the pockets of either high-ranking families or the Redwolfs.

Many of the issues could have been addressed with a simple reallocation of funds.

Night moved my mug so he could sit on the stool. “You’re supposed to be relaxing.”

I scoffed. “As if I could focus on a bodice-ripping romance in the middle of all this chaos.”

He smiled and brushed the back of his hand across my cheek. “Fair enough. It’s impossible to get you to slow down. Paperwork shouldn’t put too much of a strain on you.”

“Right.”

“So, how are you feeling?” he asked.

“Like crap,” I said with a sigh. “It’s like I’ve got a bad flu with all the aches and pains and vomiting but none of the sneezing and coughing.” My body already felt like it was carrying the weight of two, but the baby wasn’t much larger than a pebble right now.

Night frowned in sympathy and peered into my mug. It was almost empty. “I’ll make you some more tea. Will that help?”

“Thanks, love. I’m still a bit queasy, so that’ll help a lot.” I glanced at the envelopes. “What did you bring me?”

“Oh, right.” He looked like he’d just remembered why he’d come up here. “A wolf dropped these off. They need your signature. He wanted to bring them to you directly, but”—he grinned and showed his sharp canines—“I told him that wasn’t necessary. I’d bring them right up to you myself.”

I snorted. “Uh-huh. And I’m sure you terrified the guy in the process.” I noticed the papers stuck out of the envelopes. “Did you trip and open the envelopes on accident?”

A mischievous glint flashed in his eyes. “Well, I admit I was a little curious about them. I might have taken a peek before coming up here.”

I raised a brow. “And how long have you been sitting on these important documents?”

He tried to look innocent, but with those sharp features, the attempt fell flat. “No more than an hour.”

I knew he was joking, but a new worry formed in my chest. Night was not the alpha of the Kings, so his seeing the documents was probably against pack law.

Allowing a once-enemy-pack’s alpha to look through these documents was likely very ill-advised.

Hopefully, the council wouldn’t find out how much Night was helping.

There hadn’t been any pushback thus far, and I hoped things stayed that way.

I dried my hands on the towel. “Alright, hand them over.”

The documents were approval requests for repairs within the pack and checks to pay the shopkeepers and workers. I signed the papers with the pen Night handed me. At least I was doing something productive.

“By the way,” he said, “I found some irregularities when I went through the ledgers.”

“The ledgers? You’re already looking through those?” I’d set those aside to look over tomorrow or the day after. He’d moved through the documents quicker than Tavi and me.

My emotions must have shown on my face because he gave me a gentle smile. “I’m used to looking through these sorts of things, and I know what to look for. Don’t be too hard on yourself, Bryn. You’re still getting the hang of all this.”

“Right, yeah, of course.” I tried not to feel like a little girl who was more out of her depth than she’d thought going into all of this. I should’ve been the one who had discovered the irregularities, not Night. “What irregularities did you find?”

“For the most part, everything was as I’d expect, but the Kings have been making slightly less of a profit than expected for a pack this size.”

“Less of a profit,” I repeated. “Is that due to the markets bringing in less money, or is it because Gregor and Troy spent more of the pack’s funds than they should have?”

“It’s hard to say for sure, but I think it’s probably a bit of both.

Starting in January, it looks like the market sales went down at a steady rate.

They were probably neglected when Gregor became sick.

Sales took a major dip a couple of months ago, and I’m sure that’s because Troy didn’t bother to keep things up and running. ”

“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, and one for emergencies.

Everything else is a surplus. It’s easier to keep it all separated because then you can see what you have in each account to take care of specific things.

It can get confusing looking at the whole sum without some organization. ”

“That makes sense.”

“The Kings work the same way, though they work with larger sums of money and have more accounts. Someone has been taking medium-sized sums from each account and citing ‘taxes’ for these withdrawals. The money that’s moved into this supposed tax account is never the same amount, and the funds are never withdrawn at the same time. ”

I was starting to feel cold even though the water was still pleasantly warm. “And how much money is in the tax account?”

“It should be close to two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars.”

“Why ‘should be?’”

“I can’t find the tax account in any of the documents, so I don’t know the exact amount.”

“Wait, what do you mean you can’t find it?”

His expression darkened. “It’s not connected to any of the main accounts.

These withdrawals go back at least five years, but the tax account is hidden.

I can see the discrepancies and the reasons given for the withdrawals, but I can’t find even one official statement that shows the tax account exists. ”

My heart started to race. “I don’t even want to imagine what someone could do with a quarter of a million dollars. But Night, you have to give it to me straight.”

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Bryn, I don’t want to stress you out any more than you already are, but that money is more than enough to start a new pack.”

“Oh, shit,” I whispered. My blood chilled thoroughly. Troy. “Do you think Troy has the account?”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of, but without knowing more about the account, I can’t say for sure.”

“Who else would have access to these accounts?” I asked.

“I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know how the Kings operate. My pack had an issue with theft under Pete, so when I took over, I made it so only the council, the elders, myself, and Dom could access our accounts. I’m hoping the Kings work similarly.”

“I guess we’ll have to ask the council if they know anything about it.”

“That’s what I want to do today, but I can’t do that without you present,” Night said. “I hate that I have to ask you to do this when you should be taking it easy, but we should get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.”

“I agree,” I said, setting aside the documents. “Let’s do this now.”

His eyebrows knitted together. “If you’re sure you’re feeling up to it, we’ll do it. I wanted to give the doc a visit and see if everything’s okay with you and the baby, but perhaps we should do that another day.”

I shook my head. “No. We’ll see Dr. Stan after we’ve seen the council. Making sure the baby is healthy is a priority, but I want to confront the council about this.”

No matter how horrible I felt, I couldn’t keep sitting on my ass when there were so many unknowns.

If Troy had access to that tax account, there was no telling what kind of evil he’d do with that kind of money.

If he had been squirreling funds away all this time, I had no doubt he’d use them to benefit his feral army.

The thought pushed me to my feet. Startled by the sudden movement, Night reached out to steady me, but I was already standing on the bath mat and reaching for my robe.

“Bryn, it could be taxing—”

“Night, I don’t care. This might explain why the ferals were so willing to risk their lives to help him escape. If they’re on Troy’s payroll, we’re probably in for more attacks.”

His lips pulled back into a snarl. “Shit. You’re right. We needed to get to the bottom of this yesterday.”

I nodded. “Let’s get going.”