The mark on my wrist was still burning when the laughing started again.
Duff's hand was still on my arm and I felt every finger.
Duff: Go on, bell-caster. Beg him. Maybe he'll do you a favor.
Wade: Come on, Els. Say something. You're good at fixing things.
Wade: Fix this. Tell them it's a mistake too.
He smiled when he said it. That easy smile I'd wanted aimed at me for years.
I could have taken that smile off his face with my hands, if I'd been close enough.
My own face was so hot the lanterns felt nearer than they were.
Talitha: Just say yes to him, Els. It's kinder for everyone.
The quiet voice in me said beg. It's one word, and he's right there.
It said, you're a foundry girl with grease under her nails.
I looked at the mark on my wrist. I poured a bell with these hands.
Elspeth: No.
It came out quiet, and the front of the square heard it and went still.
Elspeth: I won't beg you, Wade. Not one word. Not ever.
Wade's smile slipped a little, and something mean in me was glad.
Wade: Don't make this ugly, Els. I'm just being honest here.
Elspeth: You said no out loud in front of my mother. That's yours to carry home.
I turned my back on him and started walking, and that was the wrong thing to do.
Duff: You don't walk away from the beta, bitch. You stand there and take it.
His fingers dug in under the mark and the pain ran up my arm like a wire pulled tight.
Esk: Get your fucking hand off my sister.
Esk came through the crowd like a door slamming shut.
He shoved Duff back two steps and put his whole body between us.
Esk: Touch her again and I'll break that arm off you and hand it to your cousin.
Duff: It's pack business. She shamed the beta in front of everybody.
Esk: She shamed nobody. He laughed at a bond mark in front of her mother.
Esk: Any man here who thinks that's funny can come and say it to my face.
The square went quiet in a different way then. The kind of quiet with teeth in it.
My mother's hand came flat on my back, holding me up.
Crane: Wade Corley.
The staff hit the cobbles once and the whole circle turned to look.
Crane: The bond was refused out loud, in front of the pack. That gets remembered, boy.
Crane: You'll leave this circle tonight. Go home and stay there.
Wade: Elder, I only said what everyone else was thinking.
Crane: Then they can think it somewhere else. Go.
Wade looked at me once on his way out, and I couldn't read a thing on his face.
Talitha went after him, and I didn't watch.
I walked out of the lantern light with my chin up.
Behind me the pack was already talking. That's what a pack does with a wound.
Then the air went cold, and warm again, all in one breath.
Someone stood at the edge of the dark, tall and still, with a gap in the crowd around him.
My wolf turned in my chest and pulled, like a rope going tight.
I couldn't see a face. I only knew my whole body wanted to walk toward it.
Esk's hand closed on my shoulder and steered me the other way.
My knees went soft two steps past the fountain, and Ottilie was there before I heard her.
Ottilie: Els. Els, fuck. Come here.
Then she saw Esk behind me and her whole face changed.
She didn't say anything. She just jumped.
Her legs went round his waist and he caught her, and she kissed him on the mouth, hard.
He made a low sound and held her there, one hand in her curls.
Ottilie: Sorry. I know. I know.
Ottilie: I just needed my hands on somebody who loves her.
Esk set her down slow, like he was sorry to do it.
Then she had her arms around me and I let myself be held.
Over her shoulder that cold-warm pull was still at my back, patient as a tide.
My wrist was hot. My wolf still wanted to go. I didn't know who he was.