I rip my tie, tasting blood on my tongue: “Alice is as innocent as a pup. I’ll refill the pack’s coffers.”
“Refill with what?” Lee snarls.
“We found her Cayman shell apartments—empty as a wolf’s belly in summer.”
The door bursts open.
Alice collapses into my arms, sobbing : “They frame me… I only wanted to plan for our future…”
My arms wrap around her, but I catch the elders’ disappointed stares.
Alice has washed the trails clean, offshore accounts as blank as a moonless night. “Enough.” I lift her, her weight light as a feather. “Pack business resumes at first light.”
As we leave, I feel her lips twitch against my throat.
In my apartment that night, my beta trembles like a leaf in a wolf’s jaws: “Werewolf Bank demands collateral in Five moons, or they’ll raze our territory.”
I st
