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“Yeah.” Adar cleared his throat. “That’d be good.”
Silently, they made their way over and sat. It took a while before Adar spoke. “Thank you for suggesting what you did. That you want to dominate me, I mean.”
“You don’t think it’s a ridiculous idea?”
Adar sharply turned his head sideways. “No, why would I think that?”
“Because I’m a beta?”
“Ah. I don’t care about that.”
“Really?”
Adar quirked an eyebrow. “You don’t believe me?”
“I do, but I wanted to make sure.”
“If you’d asked me five, six years ago, I would’ve felt differently. But back then, I had a much harder time admitting to myself that this was what I needed. The shame was real.”
“I can imagine. It’s hard to let go of the role patterns we’ve been taught.”
Adar gave an affirmative hum, and another silence fell, but it felt peaceful.
“Do you think Oliver’s voice is back for good?” Adar asked.
“I can’t say for certain, but the timing does suggest it may have had to do with Queen Grian’s death and funeral. If that’s the case, it very well could be permanent.”
A slow smile spread across Adar’s mouth, those full lips curving up in a tantalizing grin. “I love how you’re always so precise with your words. You’re really smart, and it shows.”
Delton’s cheeks heated, but Adar wouldn’t notice that in the darkness. “Words matter in what I do. People don’t always realize it, but how you label something has power, positive or negative, so it’s important to use the right language.”
“Can you give an example?”
“One experiment showed participants a video of a crash between two cars. When the researchers asked the participants to guess how fast the cars were going, it made a difference which words they used. If they asked, ‘How fast were the cars going when they slammed into each other?’ the estimates were much higher than when they used the phrasing hit each other. The word slammed primed the participants to guess a higher speed.”
Adar widened his eyes. “That’s a little scary. If something so small can influence how we see things, that means we’re very easy to manipulate.”
Delton nodded. “We are. Much easier than most people realize. We think we have much more control over our decisions than we do. As much as ninety-eight percent of what we think of as our decisions aren’t ours at all but influenced by things like biology, chemistry, previous experiences, our primal brain, you name it.”
“Like I said, you’re really smart.”
“In this specific area because I’ve specialized in it. Don’t ask me to do math, for example, or question me about history. I’m a total idiot when it comes to those.”
Adar’s smile was back, even bigger than before, and Delton’s stomach did funny little flips. “A total idiot? Now you’re yanking my chain. I refuse to believe that.”
“Oh, I promise you I know nothing about that stuff. In high school, I almost failed science because I had no interest in it whatsoever. I mean, what good was learning the periodic table going to do me when I wanted to be a psychologist?”
Adar shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I only passed science ‘cause my teacher felt bad for me. That shit is hard when you’re dyslexic.”
“I can’t even imagine.”
Adar blew out a long breath. “I’ll ask Isam if he’s willing to train you.”
“If you feel comfortable with that, that’s perfect. If not, I can work with anyone from your club.”
Adar bumped his shoulder. “You’re pretty great, you know that?”
“Thank you. I do what I can to help others.”
