The Alpha's Claim on the Border Ledger novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Border Ledger

He stayed.

I woke at first light with my hand still around his wrist, and he was sitting on the floor against the bed with his head tipped back and his eyes shut.

He had not moved all night.

My headache had dropped from a hot wire to a dull ache, and the shaking was only in my fingers.

I looked at him for a long minute.

Then I took my hand back, slid out of the blankets, and went to find the vault.

Torvi found me on the stairs.

"You're meant to be in bed," she said.

"I'm meant to be an accountant."

"Take me to your treasury," I said. "Please."

She looked at me for a long moment, then sighed.

"Fine. But you eat first."

I ate a heel of bread and a boiled egg standing up, and then she led me down a spiral stair into the cold.

Hawkscar's vault was a long stone room lined with iron-bound chests and shelves of ledgers, and it smelled of wax and old paper.

"Where do you keep the border records?" I asked. "Tolls, seized goods, anything that crosses the river."

"Third shelf. Why?"

"Because six years of Mirefold's gold didn't evaporate."

She pulled a stack of bound sheets from the shelf and dropped them on a table.

"Bills of sale, mostly. My scouts took them off a smuggler last month at the pass. Crossbows, iron-shod staves, silver bolts." She wiped her hands. "Somebody down south is selling arms to wolves with no pack. We thought it was just bandits."

I took the top sheet.

It was written in a cramped southern hand, with a buyer's mark at the foot, a tiny stamped crescent.

I knew that mark.

It was on the receipts for every tonic flask I had ever signed for.

I sat down very slowly.

← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend