I opened the shed door with wire still twisted around my fingers.
Piet stood in the gray light with his jaw set like he had practiced his words.
Piet: Can I come in, or do I have to say it through the crack?
I stepped back and let him in. The bench was cold, and neither of us sat.
Piet: Evander's my Alpha. He will be, anyway.
Piet: He asked me to talk to you.
Piet: He wants you at the hall tonight. You show up and keep your mouth shut about that tower.
Piet: You bend your head to Adelie. Then this all blows over.
I looked at him like he had spoken another language.
Nova: Bend my head?
Nova: He called me a wolf-less bitch in front of the whole pack, Piet.
Nova: He put his hands on me and told me to smile about it.
Piet: He's got a pack to hold together. It's not about you.
That was the worst thing anyone had said to me all week, and it came from my brother.
Nova: Say it again. Say it slower.
Piet: It's not about you, Nova. It never was.
Piet: If you fight him, they take your tools. They take your room. They take mine too.
Piet: One word from you and I'm on the road with you.
Nova: So I should be quiet so you can keep your bed.
He flinched. Good.
Piet: I'm asking you to take it so we both keep something.
Nova: No.
Nova: I've taken it my whole life here. I'm done taking it so you can sleep easy.
Piet: You're my sister. I love you. That's why I'm asking.
The word love landed and hurt worse than the rest of it.
He got in my face then, close enough that I saw the tired lines under his eyes.
Piet: Ma would have done it. She'd have bent her head for the family.
Nova: Don't. Don't use her for this.
His hand shot out and closed around my arm, hard, right where Evander's thumb had ground into my wrist.
Piet: Just say yes and we walk down there together.
Nova: Let go of me.
He let go, but he did not step back.
Piet: He's outside. He asked me to bring you.
I walked out because I wanted Evander to hear it from my mouth.
Half the pack had come to watch. Nothing on this ridge happens without an audience.
Evander stood by the gate with Adelie at his side and the silver pin shining.
Evander: Piet says you're ready to make this right.
Nova: Piet says a lot of things.
Evander: Say it here. You accept my Luna. You keep your mouth shut about that tower.
Evander: Then you keep working. You fix the radios, I keep the pack off your back.
The yard went quiet. Ears up, every one of them.
A man behind me laughed low and said a wolf-less cunt always needs a keeper.
Another said I should be down on my knees thanking Evander for the room.
Adelie smiled at that one.
Nova: I'm not accepting anything.
Nova: I won't stand in a yard and thank a man for calling me a bitch.
Someone in the crowd swore loud and spat in the dirt by my boot.
Evander's face closed up like a door.
Evander: Last chance, Nova. Say it, or Piet pays for the bed you sleep in.
Nova: Then take the bed.
I turned to my brother. I had one question, and I already knew the answer.
Nova: Piet. Choose. Right here, out loud.
He looked at me. Then he looked at his Alpha.
Piet: She doesn't speak for me.
Piet: I'm with Evander. I'm sorry.
My chest went cold. The bond pulled toward Evander, and my own blood pulled toward Piet, and both of them went nowhere.
Nobody in that yard moved to stand beside me. Not one single person.
I walked back to the shed and shut the door, and this time I did not wait for anybody's boots.
Nova: Not chosen. Fine. But I won't be made smaller for a man who counts me like a sack of tools.
My hands were steady on the wire. That scared me more than shaking would have.
I fixed wire until the yard emptied and the voices died down.
Somewhere out there my brother was drinking with them. I knew which side of the table he sat on now.
Then the gate opened, and two sets of boots came across the yard, slow and heavy, straight for my door.