“The bond starts trying to solve the problem without your consent.”
“Skip to what it does to me.”
“Fever. Pain under the marks. The sensation of being pulled in two directions while your body keeps insisting it can stand in the middle forever. The marks start fighting for priority. The body becomes the contested ground. It’s what you’ve heard of as bond strain.”
I looked down at my shaking hands and hated that she could see it.
“The answer?” I said.
“The body needs both bites at once before the channel can settle,” Yuki said.
I looked at the floor. There were several possible replies. All of them would have embarrassed both of us.
It could be worse, I supposed. I could have four mates.
Yuki watched my face for one second too long, then gave a short nod, as if something in my silence had satisfied whatever duty had brought her into this corridor.
Then she turned and walked down the corridor without looking back.
I stayed in the alcove for ten seconds. Maybe twelve. Long enough for the words to stop being only words and become the shape of what I had to carry back into the room.
Same room. Same bed. My body as the contested ground.
* * *
Dominic didn’t say anything when he opened the door for me.
Rhain was on his feet by the window. He had been watching the door.
Rhain crossed the room before I had taken two steps. “Catalina.”
“Yes.”
“Sit.”
I sat.
The mark at the right of my throat pulled deep. The mark at the left answered. Dominic felt it from across the room. His shoulders shifted, and then he was moving too, quiet and direct, closing the distance without crowding me.
Rhain knelt in front of me, both hands settling at my knees. He had chosen a height I could meet without lifting my head.
Dominic stopped at my side. Not hovering, just present.
“What did she say?” Rhain asked.
I tried to make a sentence and failed.
“Catalina,” Dominic said.
His voice was lower than Rhain’s. Less question. More anchor.
I looked from one of them to the other. My face went hot.
“I can only say this once,” I said, which was logistics, not drama. I did not have enough dignity available for a second pass.
Rhain’s hands tightened at my knees.
Dominic sat beside me on the bed, close enough that his thigh touched mine, close enough that the left mark at my throat eased and went quiet. His eyes moved over my face, and whatever he saw there made his voice soften in a way that betrayed his concern. “All right.”
