The hall let me walk. I did not wait for anyone to change their mind.
I took the back stairs down to the river and let the cold hit my face.
The tide was up. Ferry ropes creaked and sweated against the bollards.
Dax: Going to cry down here where nobody can see?
He came down the boards with two of his father's men behind him.
Dax: You think a stack of paper makes you somebody?
Dax: You're a wolf-less bitch with a fake name and a dead claim.
Dax: Fuck you and your ledgers. Nobody on this river will hire you for shit.
His spit landed on my boot. Two years ago, that would have broken me.
I did not step back. The anger in me went still and cold.
Nessa: Say it in front of the hall tomorrow. Or are you only loud at night?
He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him.
Out on the tide, the ferry wallowed and the whole dock lurched under my boots.
Dax: Get off my dock.
Then the mooring rope snapped.
It came whipping across the boards like a live thing, straight for my face.
A hand closed on my jacket and tore me sideways.
The rope cracked the air where my head had been.
I hit a chest and a shoulder and stayed standing.
The man holding me had black hair and a scar through his left brow.
Gray coat. Salt-stained boots. I had seen him outside the hall, standing apart.
Rogue, people whispered when they passed him. Exile.
Then the pull hit me.
It started under my ribs and went out to my fingers. Warm. Certain. Not a choice, and not a trick.
My body knew him before my head caught up.
Something inside me that had been asleep for two years lifted its head.
My wolf. She opened one eye and she answered him.
Kier: Are you hurt.
His voice was low and rough, and his hands were careful.
He held me like I mattered, and not like I owed him for it.
Dax: Rogue. Get your filthy hands off her.
Kier: She almost lost her head to a rope. Step back.
Billie: Nessa. Nessa, are you whole?
Billie came at a run with her gloves still on and planted herself between us.
Billie: You. Rogue. Who told you to put hands on her?
Kier: Nobody told me. The rope was going to take her.
Billie: And now you're taking your time letting go.
He let go of me like my jacket had gone hot.
His hands were shaking. A big man, and his hands shook.
Kier: I should not have touched her. I'll go.
The relief that went through me was embarrassing. Deep and warm and stupid.
Dax had held me a hundred times, and I never once felt chosen.
This stranger pulled me out of the way, and my whole body said yes.
Dax: Look at that. The rejected one collecting strays.
I looked at Dax and felt nothing but the old bruise where love used to be.
Billie: Stay where I can see you, rogue.
He backed into the fog with his hands held out from his sides.
My wolf pressed against the inside of my skin, wanting to follow.
Is a bond true when it comes from a man who is afraid of himself?