Dawn comes to Hollowmere like it's doing the town a favor. The market row is already full.
Four Alphas stand at the top of the pump stairs, and every stall has come out to watch them do it.
Kestra: Not even a full day. That has to be some kind of record.
Ulric: She's mine. I scented her first, before any of you got your boots wet.
Dain: You scented river mud and called it love. Very romantic, Ulric.
Talon: A bond isn't a race. You don't get her because you got there first.
Ulric: Says the man with his hands up a stable girl's shirt an hour before he found her.
The crowd eats it up. They always do. Somebody laughs, and it rolls down the row like water.
Four of the most feared men in the valley, arguing over me like I'm a dog they all found.
Veyla: Whichever one of you wins gets a wolfless bitch with a wrench and a bad attitude.
Veyla: Enjoy the prize, boys.
Kestra: Say it again, Veyla. Slower. Let the whole row hear what a coward sounds like in daylight.
Aric: Enough. All of you.
Aric: We're not doing this in the street while the town sells tickets.
Dain: Then where, Aric? Your room? You already had one of those upstairs last night.
Aric's jaw goes tight. He doesn't answer, because there's nothing to answer.
Kestra: You're all standing here deciding what I am.
Kestra: Not one of you has asked me a single question since you rode in.
Ulric: Fine. Do you feel it?
Kestra: I feel a headache. Wet boots. And four men who can't shut up.
Somebody in the crowd says I should be grateful. Somebody else says pick the richest one and stop whining.
My ears go hot. Being wanted is supposed to feel good. This feels like being undressed in the street.
Six years I kept this row dry. Nobody asked my name.
Now they know it, and it's a joke with four punchlines.
Kestra: I've been alone down that pump house my whole life, and I did fine.
Kestra: So don't stand there telling me you're doing me a favor by fighting over me.
Kestra: You want to fight? Fight. I've got work.
I turn my back on four Alphas and the whole market watching.
My hands are shaking. My chin is up. I keep walking.
Ulric: She's walking.
I'm Aric, and my hand is flat on Ulric's chest before his boot leaves the cobbles.
Ulric: Move your hand.
Aric: No. You go after her now and she'll hate us until the day she dies.
Aric: She'd be right to.
She doesn't cry. She doesn't shout. She just puts her back to us, and that's the part that gets under my ribs.
I've taken things from men who fought me. I've never had to earn a single thing in my life.
Talon: She looked at us like we were nothing.
Aric: Worse. Like we were a mess she'd have to clean up.
Dain: So what do we do?
Aric: Nothing. We do nothing until we know how to deserve her.
She's past the fish stalls now. She doesn't look back once.
I let her go, and my wolf claws at my ribs the whole way.