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I stay on my feet. “There’s nothing to discuss. She’s my mate. I’ve waited years for her.”

“And you’ll wait longer.” He comes around the desk until we’re toe-to-toe. “Aya’s wolf just awakened to the bond tonight. She needs time.”

“Time.” I give him a hard laugh. “That’s the only thing anyone ever offers me. I’ve been patient since I was a hatchling, Father, while she walked past me every day like I was furniture.”

“And now you want to rush the very thing you’ve been waiting for?” He frowns. “That’s not wisdom, Ezra. That’s impatience.”

My dragon pushes against my skin. “It’s not fair.” I throw my hands up. “Her first heat could take years, Father. How is that fair to me?”

“Fair?” His eyes flash as he leans in. “You think the stars concern themselves with fairness? You think Polaris asked permission before it became the North Star? The universe doesn’t operate on your timeline, Ezra.”

Only my father would drag the sky into a fight about my mate. “I don’t need a star lesson right now.”

“Clearly you do.” He jabs a finger at me. “Because you’re acting like a hatchling who can’t see past his own desires.”

I plant my bare feet on his classroom floor and don’t give him an inch. “I know what I want. I’ve always known.”

“And that certainty, that fire…” He studies me. “You are pure Stormscale when you get like this. That same stubbornness, that same refusal to bend.”

Hot smoke curls out of my nostrils and ears at the name. “Don’t.”

He keeps going. “The way you carry yourself, that free spirit, that absolute conviction⁠—”

“I said don’t.” I’m growling. “We’re not allowed to claim Stormscale. It’s Ash Clan now. That’s the deal you made when you mated with Mom.”

He flinches as his scent goes bitter with grief. My dragon quits pushing. I know how much my father misses his clan and the family he lost. But I can’t hear about Stormscale tonight, not while I can still taste Aya on my lips.

He sighs. “That’s a conversation for another time,” he says. “You’re right. Tonight we need to focus on Aya.”

“I’m tired of the world telling me to wait.” I pace the classroom. “Everyone acts like I’m being unreasonable, but I’ve done everything right—the poems, the patience, the space when she needed it. And now that she finally feels what I’ve felt since childhood, I’m supposed to just… keep waiting?”

“Yes.” That’s all I get. It makes my dragon want to burn the star maps off the walls.

“Why?” I spin to face him. “Explain it to me, Father. Because from where I’m standing, it seems like the rules only exist to torture me.”

“The rules exist to protect both of you.” He holds up a hand when I open my mouth. “Listen. A mate bond is not just attraction. It’s partnership. It’s knowing someone so deeply that their soul becomes an extension of your own. Do you know Aya’s fears? Her dreams? What keeps her awake at night?”

“I know her,” I snap.

“You know her scent. Her face. The sound of her voice.” He shakes his head. “But you don’t know her. Not yet. And if you claim her before you do, you risk building a bond on sand instead of stone.”

I scowl at him. “Then I’ll learn,” I say. “I’ll learn everything about her. But I shouldn’t have to wait for some arbitrary heat cycle that might not happen for years.”

My father sighs. “It’s not arbitrary. It’s biology. It’s⁠—”

Someone knocks on the classroom door. We turn as it swings open. Torin stands there with Nala on his arm, her belly leading the way. Behind them, Aaron carries a telescope wrapped in cloth. He reeks of secondhand embarrassment. I couldn’t care less that they heard every word.

Tyrion nods at them. “We are going to discuss this when we get home.”

“That’s fine, Father.” I straighten and meet his eyes. “We can discuss how to get the preparations ready for her arrival to Ash Clan.” I make him wait for it. “Or should I say Stormscale?”

No one moves. In the quiet, I can hear my father’s pulse stumble. He looks like I slapped him. I don’t back down, even though I know it’s cruel to throw his sacrifice back in his face. Everyone in Wintermoon has had a say in my mate bond except me, and I’ve known my heart since before I could shift.

Torin catches Nala’s eye. That’s young love. Their scents sweeten. I’d swear they remember being this certain.

My dragon preens over the win while I slip past them with my chin up and step into the corridor. Nala giggles behind me. “Like father, like son,” she murmurs.

I don’t turn around or slow down. There are preparations to make and poems I still owe my mate. I’m going to steal every moment with her I can get.