Page 37 of Undertow
9
Sagan
I shot her a look over my shoulder to drop it. “Not a conversation for all here, and I honestly haven’t had time to dive into all the finances yet.” I nodded when Uncle Darren snorted. “There’s going to need to be full audits and more given…”
Pity filled her eyes. “Nothing was handed over gently like Rhys had. No, I suppose not. Whatever we can do, we’re here, Sagan.”
“I would appreciate that. Immensely, and if you can all stay longer than originally planned or have any visits to help in the next few months.” I was being honest and that shocked a lot of people.
Mostly, I’d done it to show I would accept help… Simply not the elders since they weren’t trustworthy.
Yes, I knew how to play the game even if I wasn’t raised at the castle or court. Fools.
Also… The royal family was broke. The main family at least.
From what I could tell, I was pretty fucking broke.
The extended family all had their trust funds from when they turned twenty-five and investments—businesses or whatever they were allowed since they weren’t the heir. That was allowed without conflicts.
I’d never received my private funds though, and my parents had brushed it off.
Now I knew the truth and it was because there weren’t any.
I looked forward to figuring out that whole mess and cleaning it up. I hoped I was simply missing something and there were accounts somewhere with piles of money.
I didn’t have enough faith in life though that there were.
Awesome. Seriously just… Awesome.
I faced back toward the Alphas and rubbed my neck. “When Father took over, he changed the Alpha meetings to monthly. I know a lot of people said it was overkill and showed weakness—a mistake of his rule.” I shot the elders an annoyed look, making it clear I knew who that all came from.
“Many of us appreciated his attention to detail and genuine concern, Your Highness,” one of the Alphas in the back said. “And so did our fathers.”
People seemed to agree with that and I nodded. “Good, because I’m doing the same. We can have the first meeting while people are here for the coronation. Then monthly—not on the full moon, but we’ll figure it out. I hope for the first few years and then we can switch back to quarterly.”
Most of the Alphas seemed on board.
“I understand it’s an inconvenience and emergencies will happen. I’ll allow seconds being sent as long as it’s not constant. We have to work together to show our nation is still strong andstable.”
That was the right thing to say. Alphas didn’t want to travel all the way here at the beck and call of the royal family. Especially not once a month.
Yeah, it was a lot to ask. I understood that.
So was asking everything of me that they were… So suck it up.
Like I had to.
We discussed a few more things, but when I felt the tension about crackling, I knew I couldn’t put off the discussion anymore.
I stood again and moved to the front of the table. “So help me if any of you lose your heads to talk about me as you shouldn’t—just don’t.” I waited until most seemed to realize they had to behave.
At least that was what I hoped.
I let out a long breath. “After checking the family history with Uncle Fraser and Aunt Maple, we have confirmed that none of your families have mated into the royal family in five generations. There is no chance of cousin jokes or any incest claims like other monarchies have.”
I tried not to react when Treena snorted. It was something her family wasconstantlyaccused of being wolves. It was bullshit since—it was bullshit. It was just a way to look down on other shifter species.
“I beg your pardon, Your Highness, but an Alpha family did mate your great-grandmother and…” one Alpha said but then frowned.
