"It's political."
"Is it?" He leans back in his chair and I can feel him studying me. "Caspian doesn't do anything halfway. Once he decides he wants something, he takes it. And he's decided he wants you."
I finally look up at him. "How do you know?"
"Because I've known him since we were kids. And I've never seen him claim protection over anyone before." Knox glances around the dining hall. Students still watching. Still whispering. "Everyone knows you're under Jett Pack protection now. That changes things."
"How?"
"You have status. Power by association. No one's going to fuck with you because fucking with you means challenging him." Knox's voice drops and there's something darker in it now. "But it also means you're his in their eyes. His responsibility. His future mate. Whether you've claimed each other or not doesn't matter to them."
I want to argue but he's right. Caspian made a public statement and everyone interpreted it the same way. This is a claiming in everything but the final act.
The bond I feel toward Knox pulses between us and I see his jaw tighten. He feels it too. The pull. The recognition. His wolf wanting what Caspian is taking publicly.
Julian enters through the faculty entrance and my bond with him pulls tight. Our eyes meet across the dining hall for just a second but it's enough. I feel his emotions flood through the connection before he locks them down.
Jealousy. Sharp and cutting like broken glass. Seeing me publicly acknowledged as Caspian's while our relationship stays hidden in shadows.
Acceptance. Because he knows this was necessary for my survival, knows Chase was closing in and I needed armor.
Possessiveness. Because I'm his mate first, his bond complete, his claim already etched into my soul even if no one else knows it.
The conflicting emotions make my chest ache. I want to go to him, touch him, remind him that Caspian's public claim doesn't erase what we have. But I can't. Not here. Not in front of hundreds of watching students.
He looks away first and moves toward the faculty table. Professional. Distant. Like I'm just another student and not the female whose body he knows intimately, whose pleasure he's wrung from her in secret darkness.
The inequality burns. Julian has to hide while Caspian can claim me openly. It's not fair.
But life isn't fair.
Knox watches the exchange with too-knowing eyes. "Complicated," he observes.
"You have no idea."
"I have some idea." He stands and I notice again the fresh bruise on his jaw. Someone hit him recently and it wasn't me. "Word of advice? Don't fight what's coming. You'll just make it harder on yourself."
"What's coming?"
But he's already walking away, disappearing into the crowd like he does. Leaving me with the cryptic warning and no answers.
I sit alone at my table, surrounded by students who won't approach, protected by an Alpha who wants to own me, bonded to a professor who has to pretend I don't matter. Everything changed overnight. I have status now, borrowed from Caspian's claim. I have armor against Chase and the shield against the Council I desperately needed.
But the armor comes with chains.
I can feel them already. The weight of expectations. The assumption that I'm Caspian's in more than just protection. The way Julian has to hide while Caspian can claim me openly, the inequality burning between us through our bond.
I needed this protection. The shield against Chase, against the Council hunting me. But I also just handed Caspian leverage over me that he's going to use. Soon. I can feel it building between us like pressure before a storm.
The bond wants completion. My wolf recognizes him as mate, wants him to claim me as Julian already has. And now that I'm under his protection, now that everyone sees me as his, the final step feels inevitable.
I want him. That's the truth I can't deny anymore. I want his hands on me, his mark on my throat, his body claiming mine. The way he looked at me in the Dominion meeting, hand wrapped around my throat possessively, that moment is burned into my memory. The heat in his eyes. The promise in his touch.
But wanting and being ready aren't the same thing. Am I ready for what claiming means? For everyone knowing? For the permanence of it?
I don't know.
But ready or not, it's coming.
