They Took His Inheritance, He Claimed Three Alpha Mates novel · Chapter 6 of 40

Chapter 6: The Ledger Room

The Registry of Hollowbrook was a stone hall with a long oak counter, forty people waiting on benches, and a smell of ink and wet wool.

Max walked in at ten the next morning with James at his shoulder and his heart going hard.

He had slept badly.

Joel had come to dinner, sat at the far end of the table, said nothing, and eaten everything.

Now Max had a paper in his pocket and a plan that depended on a stranger being honest.

"You're sure about this?" James said under his breath.

"No."

"Good. I like it better when we're both pretending."

The clerk behind the counter was the same pale young man who had sat on the stool outside Max's window.

In daylight he had thin hair, a wet lip and ink on his cuffs, and when he saw Max his pen stopped.

"Good morning," Max said. "I'd like to enter a bond."

A murmur went along the benches.

"A bond," the clerk repeated.

"Between myself and the prime of Helix, here present. The mark is on his shoulder. He can show it."

James, bless him, began unbuttoning his collar in front of forty people.

"Please do not," said the clerk, and went red. "That's not necessary."

"Then you'll enter it."

"I'm afraid I can't."

"Why not?"

"The Charter requires a guardian's signature on any bond entered for an unwed heir under the age of twenty-three." The clerk's voice rose, high and thin. "Your guardian has not signed."

"My guardian is my stepmother."

"Yes, sir."

"I'm asking you to enter it without her."

"I cannot do that, sir. I would lose my post."

"What if I say you'd lose it anyway?"

The clerk blinked. It was clear he had not prepared for that.

Behind Max, the benches had gone very quiet.

Max had hoped for exactly this, a crowd and a flat refusal in front of them, so that forty citizens of Hollowbrook would remember an heir asking to bond and being turned away.

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