My lips were still warm from his kiss when Bastian stepped back from me.
He did not look pleased about it, and he did not look sorry either.
Bastian: You'll say the terms once more. This time with witnesses.
Bastian: Rusk. Stand there and keep your mouth shut until I'm done.
The Beta filled the doorway like a wall, and my father had signed me over like grain.
Now three men watched me name my own price.
Bastian: Your brother gets a healer, and I'm the one who pays for it.
Bastian: Every coin of that debt dies before it touches his name.
Bastian: You keep your satchel and your coin. You work.
Bastian: And no hand on you without your say.
Rusk: A debt bride with terms. Next she'll want a crown and a warm tongue between her legs.
One guard laughed at that, and my face went hot while my hands went cold.
Bastian: Rusk. You're Beta, not a market drunk.
Bastian: Say one more word about her body and I'll have you on the border with the rats.
The laugh died in the room, and Rusk's jaw went tight.
Bastian: Say the third term, Tamsin. Loud enough for them.
Tamsin: Nobody lays a finger on me unless I allow it.
Tamsin: That goes for your Beta, your father, and you.
Rusk: Then she'll be a cold wife in a cold bed.
Bastian: She'll be what she chooses. Your opinion is not needed.
Bastian: Those are your terms. Do you take them back?
My father's voice was in my head, telling me to be worth something.
Lowell never asked. He told me to stand and not talk.
Tamsin: No. I don't take them back.
Bastian said nothing, and he did not move from the table.
He just looked at me, scarred side pale in the candlelight, his face unreadable.
He could have taken everything and called it law, and he asked instead.
Then he reached inside his coat and set a key on the table between us.
It scraped across the wood and stopped beside my hand.
Rusk: Alpha. The west room? That's beside yours.
Bastian: I know where my rooms are.
The key was cold against my fingers, but my heart was not cold at all.
He had listened to me, and now he was giving me a door.
I did not know if it was boldness or plain stupidity.
I stepped close to him and kissed him first.
His mouth was warm and still at first, and then his hand came to my waist and pulled me in.
My fingers found the scar on his jaw and stayed there.
He stepped back before I was ready, and his face shut like a door.
Bastian: The key is yours. So are the terms.
Tamsin: I meant every word.
His gray eyes gave me nothing, not anger and not softness.
I picked up the key and closed my hand around it.
His cold look followed me to the door.