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unpleasant, and when my tone is harsh with you, and I do not apologize for making a mistake and going too far too soon. And maybe I would simply, quietly tell you. We are allowed to lie to the brides, but on this, I would not lie."
    We sat quietly for a minute while I tried to absorb everything. Then Michaela said, "Zoe, I will be very angry if you elope. Do you understand me? I cannot disallow it, but if I could, I would. I would be very angry with you. You may say 'no' to this tradition, and if you do, I will support you, but do not elope to escape it."
    "She might not ask me."
    "She may not," Michaela said. "But if she does, you must not elope."
    I nodded. "We won't elope."
    "When the time comes, I will talk to your maid of honor, and I will insist on being involved," Michaela said. "And Michele will be there as well. And I will ask if Hadley may be there."
    "If. When. The time comes, I will want all three of you," I said. "Thank you for explaining."
    "You may talk to any of us," Michele said.
    I nodded. "Thank you." I turned to Hadley. "I want to know what you would consider unpleasant and what might be horrible?"
    "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know you well enough yet." She paused. "You have perhaps noticed the number of tattoos amongst the wolves and our Alpha Fox."
    "She has Lara's tattooed on her bun, and fox and wolf tracks on one leg."
    "Yes," said Michaela. "The 'Lara's' was a punishment from the first ransom night. The fox and wolf tracks were during a redo, as I wasn't satisfied with my first performance. I kicked their asses during the second one."
    "You got away?"
    "Oh hell no," she said. "But they broke long before I would have."
    "A tattoo doesn't seem so bad," I said. "I don't have any."
    "Well, that would probably be one of your punishments a few hours into the night," Hadley said. "Not horrible. Perhaps unpleasant, but humans get tattoos all the time."
    "And something horrible?"
    "I don't know you well enough to say this, either, but I might try to break you emotionally before physically. I am not human, and do not have the sense of fear that you do. But I am a lawyer, and I could probably do it. But if Michaela is there, I am almost certain she could."
    "Will you tell me how?"
    "No," Michaela said. "But I will tell you, on my first, I begged because they beat me emotionally, not because they were hurting me physically. And as I said, I beat them on the second. Lara paid only with favors."
    I laughed. "All right. Is there more?"
    "Yes. I haven't decided about this yet. For my first, because Lara is also a woman, we did both her and me at the same time. That was too much, and so for Angel and Scarlett, we did Scarlett first and Angel another night."
    I stared. "I'd have to ransom Portia? I don't have anything! And you said I'd have to pay for food and water. I don't have anything."
    "It's worse," Michaela said. "My house? You know I lost it to the enforcers?" I nodded. "It was my price for Lara."
    Again I stared. "I don't have anything. Except my car and my cameras. I can't trade those. Those are my livelihood, Michaela, and I don't have enough money to replace them. I couldn't come up with more than a couple of grand, and I don't have that much right now."
    "I know," she said. "It would be the enforcers holding Portia, although I would be there as well. And after Elisabeth took my house and they saw how well that has worked, even these years later, they wouldn't dare try something like that again. But I don't know what happens in this case."
    "We do this tradition even when the groom is dirt poor," Hadley said. "He pays with work. Zoe, you would pay with work. But Alpha, I do not believe the pack would require this. For you and Lara, yes, Lara needed to prove herself, and it was right for Angel and Scarlett. But I do not believe it is necessary for Portia. She is a deeply dominant wolf mated to a human. And so, perhaps she will ask or invite this tradition, but I do not believe she should feel pressured