He did not kneel.
I want to be specific about this because specificity matters and because the version of this moment that exists in pack tradition — the formal, witnessed, kneeling presentation of a mate claim in front of a full pack council — was not what happened in my kitchen on a Tuesday evening.
What happened was this:
He stood in the middle of my kitchen floor — not kneeling, not performing, not doing the theatrical version of anything — and he looked at me the way he looked at things he had decided mattered completely, and he said:
"I want to claim you. As my mate. Formally, properly, in front of whoever needs to witness it." He paused. "But I'm asking you first. Because you're not a variable in someone else's plan and you never were, and what happens next is your decision as m
