The Wolves and the Vipers

Chapter 66 - Truth Will Out

Zoe and I had spent the morning thinking. But interpreting the dream had frustrated us so much that we'd thought it best to take a break from it altogether, doing something completely unrelated, to give our minds a rest and hopefully trigger a breakthrough when we came back to it later. That break had taken place in my bed, naturally, doing something that was renowned for being an excellent distraction.

And I'm sure we would have returned to puzzling over the dream had I not seen the time and remembered that I was supposed to be single-handedly holding the pack together. So Zoe and I had dressed ourselves, fetched Ashley from the porch and headed over to the pack house.

All I did there was seat myself in one of the big lounges and start a board game with a collection of random pack members and Kara, who had finished her counselling session. It wasn't about making a big statement, but rather just being seen. A Luna wouldn't sit down and play games if the pack was about to fall apart, after all, so I would bluff my way to stability. There were a few faces I recognised as men and women who had barricaded themselves into the kitchen, and they would certainly be taking note.

We were halfway through a rowdy game of Pictionary when Ashley and Zoe both turned around abruptly. I knew they'd seen someone approaching, and I finished rolling the dice before I turned my own head.

There was a grey-haired man standing a few metres away and clutching a folder. My guards were between us, but I dismissed them with a flick of my hand because I recognised him as one of the pack elders.

"A minute of your time please, Luna," he said.

I bit back a sigh and climbed to my feet. "I'm sorry, everyone. You'll have to excuse me."

To my surprise, Kara stood up with me. She was the Beta female, true, but she was still learning how normal life worked, so we weren't expecting her to fulfil her duties until she was ready. But recently, she had been showing more interest - coming with me to talk to the women and looking over job rotas.

We found a table away from prying ears, and then the elder opened the folder in front of me. Zoe and Ashley took up sentry positions, while Kara perched herself on the arm of the sofa.

"The Alpha is returning from the pack meet," he told me. "He has called and asked that we restore the emergency fund to its full value because he will need it to help mobilise the fighters. We need a signature to process the transfer of funds, and it will speed things up if you can sign it now."

Right. We had emptied the emergency fund when we had paid the rogues to let us leave their fortress alive. It seemed silly that they needed my approval to refill the bank account, but this kind of red tape was commonplace around the pack.

"I understand," I murmured. "Do you have a pen?"

He handed me one, and I uncapped it as I began skimming over the documents. The first one was the form I needed to sign, but the others seemed to be something else entirely.

"What's all this other stuff?" I asked him.

"The account statements with all previous expenditure, including the most recent transactions," the elder replied.

Yes, I could see ten thousand pounds leaving the account, leaving it completely empty. I could also see that it had been used scarcely through the years. Jace had only dipped into the account on five previous occasions, and before that-

Before that...

"Nine hundred and eighty six pounds spent on cleaning up a landslip," I read out. "May. Six years ago. Leaving nine thousand and fourteen pounds in the account."

The elder frowned down at the page. "What of it?"

"Nothing, really," I said quickly, covering for myself. "It wasn't refilled until after Jace became Alpha ... why is that?"