“You like him?”
“That is a separate question.”
“Dominic.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “I do not dislike him.”
I smiled despite myself. “That’s practically a sonnet from you.”
His hand curved at my waist. A small pressure. A quiet answer.
I asked, “What does entering the nest correctly mean to you?”
Dominic’s mouth settled. The corner that had moved went flat.
“It means you ask for him because you want Rhain. Not because the bond wants completion. Not because he is suffering. Not because I am willing to withstand it. Not because the council has backed you into a corner.”
“That’s a lot of not-becauses.”
His hand flexed at my waist. “You need to choose for you,” he said. “Your want. Your consent. Your timing.”
A line drawn around the only thing that mattered.
Me.
“And the bite?” I asked.
“If you choose him, he bites you with me and the council present.”
My pulse kicked hard.
“You bite him back when you choose to. Not because law requires balance. Because you want the claim returned.”
I watched him. “That matters to you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His answer came without hesitation. “Because I know what it felt like when you bit me,” he said. “And he deserves that.”
My body went hot. My hand tightened in his shirt. “Dominic.”
“Yes.”
“I want him.”
His hand tightened at my waist. Enough to tell me the words had landed exactly where he had no armor. “I know.”
“I’m not ready to complicate things more tonight.”
“No.” His answer was immediate. Certain. A boundary.
“But I’m moving toward him,” I said.
Dominic didn’t look away. The pain was still there, banked under discipline and a generosity I hadn’t expected from any dragon, much less mine.
“Yes.”
