“We’ve been through worse,” Sera said quietly after Thomas had quieted.
Thomas scoffed and turned away toward the drink bar. “Yeah. And I don’t want to have to kill my mate over it.”
The words landed harder than a slap.
Sera didn’t respond immediately. She rose slowly, deliberately, and crossed the room until she stood directly in front of him. Then—without hurry, without apology—she lowered herself to her knees in front of him.
Not submission.
Calculation.
Her hands slid up his thighs, gentle, familiar, touching him in the precise way she knew unraveled him every time. The way that bypassed anger and went straight for instinct.
Something he loved.
“Thomas,” she said softly. “I would never betray you.”
His eyes tracked her movements with sharp caution, assessing even as heat flick
