Everyone thought I had lost my mind. Aurora herself was said to have howled with laughter until she could barely breathe.
But they didn't understand.
Soon, this pack would belong to me.
What was wrong with investing ten thousand marks in my own future territory?
1.
I made the transfer in the dead of night, when the moon hung low and most wolves slept.
My personal stores weren't quite enough, so I quietly used my intended mate's rune-device to transfer an additional five hundred marks to the pack vault.
The next morning, I cast images of both tribute receipts into the pack's shared mind-link, directing them specifically at Alpha Aurora.
"I've given ten thousand marks to support the pack. What more could you possibly demand of me?"
Aurora never responded through the link. But during the midday feeding, I caught the whispered conversations of my packmates, their voices carrying easily to my heightened ears.
They were all discussing me, mocking me as the greatest fool born in a hundred generations.
"Has Lyra gone mad from not receiving her seasonal reward? The Alpha demanded ten thousand marks, and she actually handed them over?"