I was on my knees at the wash basin when Odessa came in, scrubbing ink out of my sleeve in cold water.
The water had gone grey and my hands were red, and the ink still would not lift.
Odessa: Get in the back room. The Alpha's coming up the hill and I won't have him looking at that.
She came close enough that I could smell the new oil in her hair.
Odessa: Look at me when I'm talking to you, you half-blood bitch.
Her palm cracked across my cheek and my head snapped sideways.
The cut Joss had opened split again, and I put my hand up and it came away red.
Odessa: One word out of you in front of him and I'll have your mother out of the healer's house by dark.
Odessa: No tonic. No blanket. She'll die coughing in the rain and you'll get to listen.
I didn't doubt a word of it. She was the kind of sister who kept her promises, especially the ugly ones.
Joss came in from the hall with his jacket open and his hair still wet.
Joss: She's bleeding on the floor. Clean it up before he gets here.
Then Joss had my wrist, his thumb dug into the old bruises until they burned fresh.
Joss: You had one man and you couldn't keep him. He's not going to look at you.
He shoved me toward the back room. My hip hit the table corner and I bit down on the sound.
Then the boots came. A lot of them, heavy and steady on the step outside.
Vidar: The Alpha of Gloamridge. He comes for the choosing.
And then a voice, low, saying something to a man outside.
My whole body went cold and hot at once. I knew that voice.
I had heard it in the dark, in the rain, with his mouth against my ear.
I looked through the gap in the door. I shouldn't have, but I did.
He was bigger than the room. Black coat, short black hair, a thin scar along his jaw, and grey eyes that went around the room like it was already his.
His eyes stopped on the blood on the floor.
Odessa: Welcome, Alpha. It's a cold day for a choice. Let me get you warm.
Odessa: I know every family in this valley. I could help you decide.
Varek: You bled on this floor.
He wasn't talking to her. He said it to the room, flat and quiet, and the men behind him went still.
Odessa: A kitchen accident. Our girl is clumsy.
Varek: Clumsy enough to split her own lip? Clumsy enough to bruise her own wrist?
He walked the length of the room, boots loud on the boards, and the whole house held its breath.
Varek: Come out.
I stepped out into the firelight. My whole body shook, blood wet on my mouth, black ink down the sleeve of my dress.
I kept my eyes on the floor. If he looked at me long enough he might hear the tower in my voice the way I heard it in his.
Varek: Look at me.
I lifted my head and he looked at me the way he'd looked at the blood on the floor. Careful. Hungry. Like he was reading something written small.
Something in my chest pulled toward him, warm and wrong, and I hated how much I wanted to stand closer.
The bite on my shoulder began to burn under my collar, dull and hot, as if it knew him standing there.
Varek: What's your name?
Eden: Eden. Eden Harker.
My voice came out in pieces, and something moved in his face. Not a smile. Something older and darker than a smile.
Varek: Turn your head.
I did not move. If he pulled my collar down, he would see teeth marks in the shape of his own mouth.
Odessa: Alpha, don't waste a look on her. She was Joss's promise and now she's Joss's leftovers, and the whole square laughed her out of it this morning.
Odessa: She's a hole where a woman should be.
Joss laughed. The sound went through me like a blade.
Joss: It's true. Two years I had her and I couldn't tell you one thing about her.
Joss: She's got a warm cunt and nothing else. And not even that. She just lies there.
Varek didn't look at Joss. He kept looking at me, and the cold thing in his face went colder.
Varek: Vidar. Shut that man's mouth.
Vidar put him into the wall hard enough to shake the house. There was a crack, then blood on Joss's mouth.
Vidar: The Alpha didn't ask you.
He said my name slowly, like he was tasting it.
Varek: Eden Harker. I'll take this one.
Odessa: Her? She's a half-blood with no name and no land.
Varek: She's got a pulse. That's enough.
He put his hand out and I looked at it a long moment before I took it.
His hand was hot and dry and closed all the way around mine. His thumb went still on the bruise Joss had left.
Varek: Who did this?
I said nothing. I could feel Odessa's eyes on me, and my mother's name in her mouth.
He turned toward Vidar and lowered his voice, but I was close enough to hear every word.
Varek: Keep the men on the tower tonight. All of them.
Vidar: Alpha, the men are sick of the tower.
Varek: I don't care if they're sick of it. She's up there. Find her.
So that was the choosing. He had picked me up the way a man picks up a coat in a cold room, to wear until the one he wanted came back.
And I had stood in front of him with blood on my chin and said not one word about the mark under my collar.
Varek: Get your things. You leave with me tonight.