"I personally borrowed five hundred thousand gold-marks from the neutral territories. I endured over a thousand days and nights of grinding labor, and we finally established our dominion last year."
"After all that suffering together, how dare you claim you built this territory alone?"
The evidence was overwhelming.
I had the blood-sealed debt scrolls from when I'd borrowed the gold-marks.
I had memory-crystals showing us celebrating moon-cycles in that cramped, run-down den during the early days.
Every trace of our struggle to build this pack's holdings from nothing—how could any of it be erased?
Ronan drew a deep breath, his Alpha scent souring with frustration. "I can give you something. But not much. A hundred thousand gold-marks."
A territory worth tens of millions in resources and influence, and he was offering me a hundred thousand.
My vision blurred. Not from tears.
From the aftershock of bonding with a wolf I'd never truly known.
It took me a long moment to steady myself enough to speak normally. "There has to be a reason. Give me a reason for the hundred thousand."