The sting bloomed hot and instant. Around us, the air changed. I could feel the gathered wolves draw back half a step, could smell the sharp spike of shock cutting through the crowd like iron through still water.
"Forgive me, my Luna. This old servant is petty by nature. You don't beat the dog without checking who its master is. Since you hit me first, it's only fair I return the favor."
Celeste nodded. "Nana raised me from infancy. She is like a mother to me. For your lady to strike her is the same as insulting my elder. She took a slap from your mistress, so now they're even. When the heir returns, we'll call the matter settled."
Nana Ashwick spat on the ground. "You were so pleased with yourself a moment ago, weren't you? Humiliating my lady like that. Now you'll kneel and bare your throat to her, and welcome her into the estate with proper respect. From now on, you'll be sisters, nothing more."
Rosalind snarled, the sound ripping from deep in her chest, more wolf than woman. "You? You're nothing. How dare you demand our Luna bare her throat to anyone."
A guard was already moving. His boot caught Rosalind square in the chest and sent her sprawling. Then he seized my wrist, dragged me in front of Celeste, and shoved me down. "Kneel."
I looked up at him, cold and unblinking. "You forget yourself. What gives you the right to lay a hand on me?"
The words had barely left my mouth when something slammed into the backs of my knees. They buckled, and I crashed onto the cobblestone with a crack that shot white-hot pain through every bone in my body.
The guard pressed the flat of a silver-edged blade against my spine. The metal seared through the fabric, a thin line of heat that made my wolf recoil deep inside me, pressing herself small and silent against the pain. "Apologize to the lady."
Celeste stood before me. Her embroidered slippers were exquisite, each stitch immaculate. They might as well have been a taunt.
Rosalind clutched her injured chest and tried to lunge forward, but Celeste's wolves pinned her down. "Shut your mouth. A low-ranked she-wolf has no business running it in front of our lady."
Celeste's voice drifted down from above me, soft as silk. "My lady, all you need to do is apologize. I won't hold it against you."
"Or is it that you look down on me? That you think I'm some shameful unbonded mate not fit to be seen?"