Chapter 11: The Bar

The lodge bar on the second night of the Gathering was loud and warm.

Every Alpha in it had been drinking since dinner.

I found the Beta at the long table by the fire, with his signet ring on one hand and a whiskey in the other.

Gianna sat at his left. Two of Nightfall's senior men sat across from them.

Blackwater's Alpha was in a corner chair behind them, a newspaper on his knee, pretending not to listen.

I stopped at the end of the table.

"Beta," I said. "May I ask you something in front of the table?"

"Ms. Whitaker." He smiled. "Please."

"Cedar Pass has paid on its patrol debt for eleven years. I'd like to see the debt book."

The senior man across from him raised his eyebrows.

"The book is the Beta's office business," the Beta said. "It is not shown to the debtor's family."

"It's shown to Alphas who stand sponsor."

"Then let an Alpha ask me." He sipped. "The seamstress's daughter has no standing."

"Cedar Pass is nineteen fighters and a good seamstress," Gianna said.

"Everyone knows what the ledger says, Lara. You'd only embarrass your mother."

One of the senior men laughed into his glass.

"Sheep," he said, not quite under his breath. "A whole pack of sheep, and one clever one who learned to count."

My hands closed on the back of an empty chair.

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