Dawn came gray and cold, and the whole pack came out to watch me get up off the ground.
My shirt had dried to my back. Every breath pulled it open again.
Della: Look at that. The whore of Blackpine survived the night.
Alden: Bring her to the post. Every one of you hears this.
Two men I'd known since I was a kid took my arms like I was a stranger's dog.
Alden: Rhea of Greyfen. Kneel.
I didn't kneel. My knees had done enough for this family.
Alden: Then stand there and hear it.
Alden: I strip you of the name Greyfen. No title. No land. No roof.
Alden: You are nothing to this pack from this breath on.
Rhea: I guarded that dam since I was ten years old. You can't strip that.
Alden: I just did. Say one more word and the pack takes a turn with the rope.
My mother stood in the front with her hands folded, like she was at a funeral.
Rhea: Mom. Say it. Say I'm your daughter, and I'm not nobody.
She looked at the gate instead of me. That was her answer.
Alden: The dam keys. Now.
I pulled the ring off my belt and dropped it, and it made a small sound in the dirt.
Della: I'll take those. They fit my hand just fine.
Della: Now walk off our land, bitch. Go crawl to Blackpine. You're used goods anyway.
Somebody in the crowd laughed. Then a few somebodies.
Alden: Greyfen land ends at that post. Step over it and don't come back.
I turned to say something I would have regretted my whole life.
Alden: I said step.
His boot caught the back of my knee and the ground disappeared.
The rocks came up fast and the whole world went sideways.
My back hit stone, and something in my ribs gave a wet little crack.
My wolf didn't fight for the surface. She curled tight around that low spot in my belly and stayed there.
She had picked the one thing worth guarding, and she would not let go of it while I fell.
A black truck had been sitting at the border with the engine running the whole time.
Kael Rourke stood beside it with his arms crossed and watched me eat the ground.
The bond pulled the second I saw him. My wolf lifted her head inside me and whined.
Kael: That looked like it hurt.
He crouched close enough that I could see the scar through his eyebrow and feel the heat coming off him.
His thumb wiped the blood off my lip, slow, and I did not pull away. I hated that part most of all.
Kael: Greyfen's done with you. That leaves the bond.
Kael: So what happens to you next, sweetheart? That's mine to decide.