The Merchant They All Betrayed , Now They're Begging

He was trembling with righteous fury.

That ethereal face of his, all sharp angles and cool detachment.

Like some exiled wolf-spirit descended from the moon itself.

Rowena couldn't look away.

"From this day forward, everything in this territory falls under your authority."

Rowena helped Edric to his feet with her own hands.

"The moon-coins, the staff, the land, and every trade route. All of it goes to Edric."

Everything I had built.

One sentence from the Crown Alpha, and it all belonged to Edric Duskborne.

I dropped to my knees.

"Your Highness, I request a bond rejection."

Rowena stiffened.

She was about to speak, but Edric tugged gently at her sleeve.

"Your Highness, if my brother stays any longer, he'll only taint the dignity of your pack. Better to grant him what he asks."

Rowena swallowed whatever she'd been about to say.

"Granted."

When I walked out of the Crown Alpha's territory with the rejection decree in hand, the wolves on the street all stopped to stare.

Some speculated about what I'd done wrong.

Others said I deserved it.

That my head was full of nothing but trade routes and moon-coins, nothing like my brother and his lofty moon-singer principles.

I ignored every last one of them.

The truth was, mating with the Crown Alpha had never been entirely about honoring my brother's arranged mating pact.

As a member of the ruling pack, Rowena could secure an Alpha Trade Seal with almost no effort.

With that seal, I could send caravans as far as the Western Reaches and no pack would interfere.

Now that the Crown Alpha had cast me aside, the seal was gone with her.

My gaze drifted toward another estate on the west side of Moonhaven.

The younger Alpha daughter. Rowena's sister.

In truth, she was the one I'd been meant to mate with in the first place.

My brother and I had each been matched to one of the two Ashenveil daughters.

But Edric ran off on his own, and to save face with Rowena, who held the greater power, the family had no choice but to send me in his place.

In the year since, Elara Ashenveil had remained unbonded.

The door opened, and I looked at her.

"Princess Elara. The old mating pact between us. Does it still stand?"

I had prepared myself.

If she refused,

I would bow and leave without another word.

After all, it was the Duskborne bloodline that had slighted her first.

Elara studied me for a long time.

"It stands."

On the first day of our mating bond, I secured the Alpha Trade Seal.

To repay Elara's trust, I threw myself into the work with even more drive than I'd had at the Crown Alpha's territory.

She told me that every moon-coin the territory earned would be recorded under my name.

"Princess, could it be that you actually like me?"

I was genuinely curious.

She only smiled and said nothing.

Elara was a pack princess who had never been favored by the High Council.

But I would make sure every she-wolf in Moonhaven envied mine.

Before long, Princess Elara's territory, once half in ruins, had a brand-new timber-and-stone wing rising above its walls.

Things at the Crown Alpha's territory, however, had taken a different turn.

Edric declared that the stench of commerce would no longer be allowed to corrupt any wolf's spirit.

Every servant's monthly wage was slashed to a single copper moon-coin.

Only without the temptation of wealth, he reasoned, could wolves stop obsessing over profit.

Only then could they preserve their noble integrity.

My portrait was even turned into a cautionary display.

The entire household was made to remember how vulgar and base life had been when I was in charge.

The Crown Alpha's territory was renovated from top to bottom.

Crane motifs carved in moonstone and ceremonial howl-scrolls adorned every wall and corridor.

The place looked like something out of an old moon-singer's ballad.

You could smell the night-blooming flowers from halfway down the path.

Wolves passing by marveled: "The elder Duskborne truly is remarkable. Look how refined he's made the Crown Alpha's territory!"

Even the Supreme Alpha heard about it and brought the Supreme Alpha Female for a personal tour.

But nobody seemed to realize

that all this elegance

had been bought with the fortune I'd built for the Crown Alpha's territory.

It wasn't long before the territory ground to a halt.

A crowd gathered at the front gates.

They were demanding their back pay.

Edric had burned through nearly every moon-coin in the pack vault on his little vanity project.