The Price

Whatever had woken in my chest went quiet again almost immediately, like it had opened one eye, looked around, and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

I told myself it was nerves. Humiliation did strange things to a person.

Up front, Alpha Hale recovered his voice. “Alpha Aurexian. This is an unexpected honor.”

“It shouldn’t be.” The one with the gray eyes didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “You knew we were coming.”

Up close, in the lantern light, I could see them properly.

They were brothers. That much was obvious. Same height, same wide shoulders, the same sharp line of jaw, like someone had carved them from the same block of stone and then gotten bored halfway through.

The one who’d spoken stood in the middle. Dark suit, close-cut hair, so still he barely looked like he was breathing. His gray eyes moved over the clearing like he was taking inventory and finding everything lacking.

To his left, the second brother looked like he’d been dragged here against his will and was considering violence about it. His sleeves were shoved up to his elbows, tattoos curling down both forearms, and a thin white scar cut through his left eyebrow. He was scanning the crowd too, but not the way the first one was. He was looking for threats.

Or prey.

The third brother was smiling.

That should have made him the least frightening of the three. Longer hair pushed back from his face. Rings glinting on his fingers. Hands in his pockets like he’d wandered in from a party and found this one more entertaining. He looked relaxed. Friendly, almost.

Every wolf near him had quietly taken a step back.

“Fenris,” someone whispered behind me. “That’s Fenris in the middle. The heir.”

“Which one’s Dax?”

“Scar. Don’t look at him.”

“And the other one?”

A pause. “Rhys. Don’t look at him either.”

Fenris Aurexian turned his cold gray eyes on Alpha Hale. “Twenty years ago, Nightreach was three weeks from being wiped out by rogues. My father sent our warriors. Your pack survived.” His voice was perfectly even. “The terms were clear. The river territory or its full value, payable when his sons came of age.”

He let that sit.

“We came of age last month.”

The silence that followed was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.

Alpha Hale cleared his throat. “Of course. Nightreach honors its debts. But the river lands are our best hunting ground, and this season’s been…” He spread his hands. “Difficult.”

“So you can’t pay.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.” Rhys spoke for the first time, cheerful and light. “You’ve got lanterns, a DJ, and a brand-new Luna in silk. You’ve just got no money.” He tilted his head. “Congratulations on the engagement, by the way.”

Nyssa went pink. Draven’s jaw clenched.

Dax said nothing. He was still scanning the crowd. His eyes passed over the back row, over me, then stopped and came back.

He frowned.

I looked away fast.

“There is another way,” said one of the elders. Old Marta, who’d taught every pup in Nightreach their history lessons, including the ones I was never allowed to practice. “Under the old law, a pack that cannot pay a blood debt in land may pay it in service. A daughter of ranked blood, given to the creditor’s household.”

Murmurs swept the clearing.

Fenris’s expression didn’t change. “That law hasn’t been used in a century.”

“It’s still law,” Alpha Hale said quickly. Too quickly.

And I watched it happen. I watched every ranked family in Nightreach realize what that meant, all at once. Mothers pulled daughters closer. The Beta stepped in front of Nyssa like a wall.

“Not her,” Draven said sharply. “She’s my Luna.”

“Of course not,” Alpha Hale said.

Then it was silent again, but a different kind of silent. The kind where everyone is looking for someone else to say it.

My mother said it.

“Flora.”

Just my name. Calm. Clear. Like she was offering a dish at a potluck.

Every head turned. Again.

“She’s of ranked blood,” my mother went on, her hand resting lightly on my father’s arm. “Our daughter. She meets the law.”

My father didn’t look at me. “She’d be useful,” he said. “In a household like yours. She’s quiet. She works hard.”

I couldn’t feel my hands.

Somewhere far away, Orion said, “No.”

Fenris looked toward the back of the clearing. Toward me.

For the first time since he’d walked out of the trees, those gray eyes found something they actually focused on, and it was me in my stupid blue dress.

He studied me for exactly three seconds.

“She has no wolf,” he said.

He didn’t say it cruelly. That was worse. He said it like a fact. Like reading a price tag.

“Then she costs you nothing,” my father said.

A few people laughed. Not many. Enough.

“You can’t.” Orion was moving, shoving through the crowd toward the front. “You can’t do this. She’s your daughter.”

“Orion, stand down,” Alpha Hale snapped.

“She’s not a debt payment! She’s not…”

“Down.”

The Alpha’s command slammed into the clearing. Orion dropped to one knee like he’d been struck, his whole body shaking as he fought it. His teeth were bared, his eyes bleeding gold at the edges, his wolf clawing to get out and failing.

“Orion!” I was already moving. Someone grabbed my arm, hard. My mother.

“Don’t you dare,” she hissed in my ear. “Don’t you make this worse.”

“Worse?” My voice cracked. “You’re giving me away.”

“We’re finally getting some use out of you.”

I stopped struggling.

Not because she was holding me. Because I’d heard her.

I’d spent twenty years wondering what my mother really thought of me. Every cold look. Every don’t make this about you. Every time she introduced Orion to visitors and forgot to mention she had a daughter.

Now I knew.

Finally getting some use out of you.

Something inside me didn’t break. It just went very, very quiet.

Up front, Dax had stopped scanning the crowd. He was staring at Orion, still on his knees and shaking under the Alpha’s command, and his scarred face had gone strangely still.

“Fenris,” he said, low. The first word I’d heard from him. His voice was rough, like it didn’t get used much. “Something’s off here.”

“Everything about this pack is off,” Fenris said. He turned back to Alpha Hale. “We came for land or money. Not a servant.”

“With respect, Alpha, the law is the law,” Hale said. “A daughter of ranked blood, for a debt in full. Nightreach would consider the matter settled.”

“I’m sure you would.”

Fenris looked at me again. Longer this time. A muscle moved in his jaw, like something about me irritated him and he couldn’t work out what.

“No,” he said finally. “A wolfless girl doesn’t cover a debt of this size. Find the land, Hale, or—”

“We’ll take her.”

Rhys.

Everyone turned.

He was still smiling. Hands still in his pockets. But his eyes, when they found mine across the clearing, weren’t smiling at all.

They were curious.

“Rhys,” Fenris said, his voice dropping to a warning.

“Debt’s paid in full,” Rhys said lightly, as if Fenris hadn’t spoken. “You heard the Alpha. Nightreach considers the matter settled.” His grin widened. “Don’t you, Hale?”

Alpha Hale opened his mouth. Closed it. Nodded.

Fenris turned his head slowly toward his brother. Something passed between them that I couldn’t read.

Then Rhys’s gaze slid back to me.

“Pack a bag, sweetheart,” he said. “You’re coming home with us.”