"No choice?"
"Yeah, you know what she would have done to me if... she didn't let me get that chance."
Realization dawned slow across her sharp, angular features then, those piercing ice-blue eyes narrowing thoughtful as she pieced it together, her blonde braid slipping forward over one shoulder.
"That's why you came to me the night before the duel—begging for my knot. You wanted me to flood your system deep, steady your pheromones against her alpha pull so she couldn't break you that way."
I turned my head away quick on the pillow, cheeks heating under the tight white bandages despite the chill of pain sweat on my skin, staring at the carved wooden bedpost to avoid her gaze. "Yes... I did. Needed every possible edge I could get, even from you."
"You are shameless."
"What? You are shameless too! I am pretty sure that other day with me... was all you."
"I had my own motives."
"Oh, I know that."
