Rhain’s hand tightened at my knee. “You didn’t sleep for four days,” he said carefully.
“I noticed.”
His eyes narrowed in scolding. “You didn’t tell us.”
“I didn’t know what to tell you.” My voice came out sharper than I meant it to, then softened because neither of them deserved the edge. “My body was saying something, I just didn’t know what.”
Rhain breathed out.
Dominic’s attention came back to me, immediate and steady.
“I read it as vigilance,” I said. “Stress. Schedule disruption.”
Rhain’s thumb stilled at my knee. “Catalina.”
“I know.” My face was still hot, which felt rude at this point. “Believe me, if I’d known my insomnia was actually an ancient dragon mating protocol with a very specific group-project requirement, I would’ve led with that.”
Dominic blinked once. Rhain looked briefly at the floor.
I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t laugh.”
“I would never,” Rhain said.
“You absolutely would.”
“Ordinarily, yes.” His eyes flicked toward Dominic. “At the moment, I am too afraid of Graves.”
Dominic moved into my line of sight before I could decide whether that deserved an answer. He went to one knee at the side of the bed, careful and deliberate, and set his hand at my jaw. His thumb traced my cheekbone. The bond at the left of my throat warmed under his palm.
“Catalina.”
“Yes.”
“Look at me.”
I looked.
His face was steady, the steady men use for handling something fragile without letting the fragile thing know.
“You are in charge of this,” he said. Dominic’s gaze did not move from mine. “Not the bond. Not the protocol. Not what Yuki said your body needs. You.”
Rhain’s hands stayed at my knees, warm and still.
Dominic continued, voice quiet. “You tell us what you want. What makes you comfortable. What you do not want. Where we touch you. Where we do not. If you want to stop, we stop. If you want to try to sleep first, we lie here and let you sleep. If you want one thing from me and another from Solberg, you say it.”
Rhain’s thumb brushed the inside of my knee. “Anything, Catalina.”
I looked down at him. His expression had gone very quiet. His mouth curved faintly, but the softness in his eyes stayed serious. “We are very capable of taking instruction.”
Dominic did not look away from me. “You only need to say it.”
My entire body flushed. A full-system betrayal.
“I hate both of you a little,” I said.
Rhain’s mouth twitched.
Dominic’s thumb stilled at my cheek. “No, you do not.”
