“It’s not strange at all,” Dr. Kobayashi-Jones said with a smile. “And not really contrary. Lou is acting in regard to your safety—letting you know that it’s important to her. Which makes you feel safe. And if you feel safe, it’s natural to relax your guard.” She motioned a hand toward Juliet, making the bangles on her wrist chime as they collided. “Much like having Juliet here—someone familiar to you—makes you feel safe, so you’re more comfortable talking to me.”

“Smooth transition there, Doctor.”

She gave me an unrepentant grin. “Yolanda, please. Now, Juliet and I are up to speed as best we can be—I read the tribunal transcripts, and we did some research—but what this all boils down to, for us, is you. So, if you’re willing, I’d love you to take a little time and share your background. How did we get here, to this moment, Declan?”

“Everything you say to us here is confidential,” Juliet reminded me. “And if at any point you want me to leave, let me know. Okay?”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath, trying to think of the easiest way to explain everything. “My father, Angus Campbell, started Moon’s Chosen People a few years after my mom died. Then he took up with one of the members—a young shifter woman named Daisy—and we got Zoey shortly after I turned five.”

“Daisy was his second mate?” Juliet asked.

I shook my head. “No, they never mated. My dad didn’t think Daisy was strong enough.” I glanced at them both. “The thing you need to understand—the mating bond, it’s a psychic and emotional bond between two people.”

Juliet frowned slightly. “That sounds like the familiar bond.”

“But not the same,” I said, pausing to let a family pass us by. “In the familiar bond, there’s a different dynamic. The mage is in control. The mating bond is a partnership between two people. A balance, negotiated between the partners, but no one controls the other. A bonded pair, they can see inside each other in a way that no one else can.” I shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it, only to say that it’s very intimate. It made my dad feel vulnerable, and after my mom, he wasn’t in a rush to do it again.”

“But he did mate with Eva,” Yolanda said.

She’d said it like a statement, not a question, but I answered it anyway. “Yes, because Eva was strong, and she could help solidify his hold over the pack.”

“He had to know her plans, though.” Juliet’s words were soft as she tried to work the problem through. “Her interest in binding a shifter as a familiar.”

“Yes,” I said, and the smile I gave her was a strained one. “But as her mate, she couldn’t bind him. The two bonds can’t coexist like that—the mating bond wouldn’t allow it. My father is many things, but at his core, he’s a narcissist. He only cared what mating to Eva would bring him.” I tipped my face up to the sunshine. “Eva made a good threat. Kept the pack in line.”