They Took His Inheritance, He Claimed Three Alpha Mates novel · Chapter 5 of 40

Chapter 5: Tyros

Joel found him in the library an hour later, which was where Max had gone to hide.

The room was long and quiet, with tall shelves and a ladder on a brass rail and dust floating in the window light.

Max had a ledger open on the reading table, the one the host's memories said held the mill accounts.

The door shut behind him.

"You're the omega," said Joel.

He stood just inside, in his black-and-pine coat, with his hands behind his back.

He was twenty-five, broad, and composed, with cropped black hair and grey eyes, and a pale scar ran through his right brow.

He smelled of cold iron and pine needles.

"I'm Max."

"I know your name. I've known it for four years." Joel crossed the room in slow, even steps. "You hold the Greywater fortune in your fist and refuse to share a single copper with the woman who pulled me out of the Black River."

"I haven't been asked to share it."

"You've been asked every year."

Max did not know that. He kept his face blank and let the host's memory supply what it could.

A summer assembly. The Tyros benches. Joel on his feet, loud and sure, saying a cruel thing to a boy of eighteen who stood alone in the middle of the floor.

I would rather take a dead dog for a mate than a thief who starves a hero.

Max had said nothing.

The host had said nothing, and the whole Tyros Pack had laughed.

Joel did not seem to remember it.

Or he remembered it very well, and it weighed on him.

"I'll tell you plainly," Joel said, stopping on the other side of the table. "If you stand between Linda and what's hers, I will break you. I will not enjoy it, and I will not hesitate."

"That's very clear."

"Good."

Joel's hand came out from behind his back and braced on the table.

It was shaking.

Max saw it a second before Joel did.

The big hand trembled over the ledger, the knuckles white, and a sheen of sweat stood out at Joel's hairline.

His scent had changed.

The cold iron was turning hot, thick and sharp, and the pine had gone bitter.

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