I didn’t say it.
His apology was more about leaving me to walk into Margot’s history without warning me what it would cost.
But the library wasn’t the only place where Rhain had known more than I did.
“So, you aren’t angry with me,” I said.
“No.”
“You scent-locked on me too.”
“I did.”
“Some of your clan would say that hands you a claim already decided.”
“Some of my clan are wrong about what scent-lock is.” He went on before I could answer. “It’s a fact, Catalina. Not a permission. Fate tells you a bond exists. It doesn’t tell you what shape it should take, or whether the person you locked on wants anything at all.”
“What do you want?”
“An easier question,” he said.
“You don’t get one.”
A faint smile touched his mouth and failed to stay. “No.I rarely do with you.”
He looked at the photograph for another second before he answered.
“I want us to have been allowed to meet at a dinner. A proper introduction. A walk through a city where no one was counting our minutes. I want a year of context behind this conversation instead of seventeen days of council briefings and armed doors.”
“A relationship,” I said.
“Yes,” he said simply.
“The right way,” he added. “The two of us as people before webecame a precedent.”
My hand tightened in my lap.
“I don’t get the right way,” he said. “Neither do you. I’m working with the way we were given, and I would like to do as little damage with it as possible.”
I believed him but it didn’t change the next problem.
“Dominic told me your father will move immediately to withdraw you,” I said.
Rhain looked up. The warmth in him folded away with practiced speed.
I continued, “That he’d apply pressure on Yuki, pressure on you, and political consequence for anyone who recognizes the dual bond. He said Bjorn might delay.”
Rhain nodded. “He read the situation correctly.”
That told me what Martin would do. It didn’t tell me why Rhain expected it to work.
“Tell me about your father.”
He turned the photograph briefly on the table. A small unconscious brace before impact.
“Three things will happen.” He stopped. He stood and filled the water glass he had not touched. “The first is paperwork. He files the recall inside forty-eight hours. Clan-discipline rules. Patriarchal signature. No council vote in the first thirty days.”
“And after that?”
