The pack house sat at the end of the gravel drive like it was doing me a favor by letting me walk up to it.
I had my bus money in my boot and a bad feeling in my chest, and only one of those was useful.
Perrin: You took forever.
Maeve: I was doing laundry. It involves water and soap and waiting.
Perrin: Just don't talk like that in there. Please.
Doyle: She's here. Took her sweet time about it too.
Doyle looked at me the way you look at a dog you don't trust off its leash.
Roderick didn't look up when I came in. He was reading that page like it owed him money.
Roderick: Sit down.
Maeve: I'll stand. It's faster.
Roderick: The Alpha King's clerk pulled the pack records this month.
A cold little knot tied itself under my ribs.
Roderick: He found your name.
Maeve: I'm not in any record. I'm not a wolf. I'm not anything.
Roderick: You're a human living under my roof. That's a record. Wendell reads all of them.
He turned the page around. My name sat in the middle of a list, with one short word in the next column like a label on a jar.
Maeve: So he knows I exist. Congratulations. Tell him I said hi.
Roderick: You're going to the Gathering. The whole family presents.
The room got very quiet, the way rooms do when the floor drops out from under you.
Maeve: No.
Roderick: That wasn't a question.
Maeve: Then let me rephrase. No, with feeling.
Perrin: The king's son is choosing a mate at the Gathering. Everyone's saying it.
Perrin: If he picks someone from our pack, everything changes. And you'd be standing right there.
Doyle: She's a human, Perrin. No wolf is going to pick her.
He said it like it was a kindness. It really wasn't.
Maeve: Great. Then I'll be the boring part of the evening and everyone can relax.
Roderick: You'll wear the gray dress Perrin picked out. And you'll keep your mouth shut.
I thought about the four hundred and twelve dollars tucked in my boot. Two more weeks and that number was going to mean something.
Now it felt like a joke somebody had told behind my back.
And I kept thinking about the man under the streetlight. Tall, still, watching me like I was the only thing on the whole street.
Something in my stomach had pulled tight when our eyes met, and it hadn't let go since.
Maeve: What does the clerk even want with a human?
Roderick: He doesn't want anything. That's what worries me. The king's people only pull a name when somebody up there asks for it.
I stood in the hall with my hands shaking, and Perrin wouldn't even look at me.
My whole life I'd been a problem people kept in a back room. Now the king's court knew my name.
Something up there had come looking for me. And I had no idea what it wanted.