My father didn't wait for the meeting room to empty. He walked me out to the yard with his hand clamped on my arm.
Alden: Keep walking. Say one word and I'll add to it.
Every wolf in Greyfen was already in that yard. Word travels fast when somebody's about to bleed.
Della: Told you I'd fill it, cousin.
Alden: She brought shame on Greyfen with Blackpine watching. Now she pays for it out here, in the open, with all of you as witnesses.
Nobody said a word against it. Not one wolf in that whole yard.
Della: Take the shirt off. I want to watch the marks land on bare skin.
Two of them had it off my shoulders before I could fight. The cold hit my back like a slap.
They put me against the post and tied my wrists over my head. The rope bit in and my boots scraped the dirt.
Alden: Ten. Count them.
The first one came down before I was ready for it.
It landed across my shoulders and the pain went through me like a hot wire, all the way to my teeth.
My wolf slammed against my ribs, screaming to get out. She couldn't. She had never been able to.
So she did the only thing she could. She curled up low and wrapped herself around something inside me and held on like a set of teeth.
The second lash split the first one open. I heard the skin tear before I felt it, a wet sound that made my stomach turn.
Then the blood came, warm, running down my spine.
Della: Look at her. Big dam heir can't take a whip without crying like a bitch.
Laughter rolled around that yard, and it was worse than the leather.
The third one caught my ribs and I screamed. I couldn't help it. It came out of me and just hung there in the cold air.
Alden: Louder. Let Blackpine hear it from their side of the border.
I found my mother in the crowd. Third row back, gray cardigan, hands folded like she was at a funeral.
Rhea: Mom. Mom, please.
She looked at me for one second. Then she turned her head and studied the fence like it owed her an answer.
I screamed for her again and she didn't move. My own mother would not look at me while I bled.
Four and five came fast. My back was on fire and my wrists were shredded raw from the rope.
Della: Don't pass out, cousin. You'll miss the good part.
Six tore across my ribs and I tasted blood from biting my own lip. Seven hit the same spot and my legs gave out.
I hung there by my wrists and I made myself look at him.
Alden: You brought this on yourself. Every wolf here is watching what a mouth costs.
Rhea: You sold me first, you bastard. You sold me to a man who said he'd take me on your table.
Alden: Eight.
Eight, nine, ten. By the last three I stopped counting and just rode them, one hot stripe after another.
Then the rope went slack and I hit the dirt on my knees.
Not one hand reached for me. My mother stayed by that fence. My father had already turned his back.
So I pushed myself up out of the dirt with blood soaking into my tank top, and I met every pair of eyes that had stood there and let it happen.
My wolf was still curled down low, guarding that small stubborn thing inside me I couldn't name yet. She didn't care about the whip. She cared about that.
This was a world where the powerful took what they wanted and everyone else helped hold her down. Fine.
Kael Rourke put the whip in my father's hand. He would hear it land if I had to crawl to his border to tell him.