I jerked up my chin. “I don’t.”

“Ellis, you don’t get to throw down the gauntlet and then decide to pick it right back up and dust it off.”

“You’re supposed to be my mate.” He’d said it himself, that his current disagreement with Bessemer stemmed from confusion over how my talent interacted with pack magic. “Don’t you think what you did was disrespectful?”

“I walked a beautiful woman home who was having trouble with the word no.” Imogen’s tenacity didn’t appear to surprise him. “I did go inside. I drank sweet tea and chatted, and then I left once the glass was empty. I’m polite, not disloyal.”

Had Dell known that was all there was to it? Or had she retreated from that intimacy before getting stuck with mental images she couldn’t shake of a man she admired? She had assumed the worst because there was history between them, and I had too. Was it too much to hope both of us had underestimated him?

“That’s the problem.” I flipped the cap open on the squeeze bottle, snapped it shut. “We aren’t mated. If you want to be with Imogen—”

“Then I wouldn’t be here with you.”

Flip. Snap. Flip. Snap. “We aren’t real.”

He reached over and cupped my cheek in his warm palm. “You feel plenty real to me.”

The melting sensation in my chest left me scrambling for a new topic. “What is the selection?”

“It’s exactly what the name implies.” He withdrew and snaked his arms across his chest. “The top three wargs in a pack get one chance to pick their mate. There are laws about soul mates, but that’s a separate item. The most dominant wargs can bring home a mate of their choosing for inspection by the alpha. If he deems him or her worthy, the mating becomes official in the eyes of their peers, the new member is folded into the pack, and that’s the end of it.”

I got a bad feeling about where this was headed. “If the alpha doesn’t approve?”

“The pack member becomes a petitioner and the proposed mate becomes an aspirant. The aspirant then has to earn their title—their right—to stand beside their chosen partner.”

Earn by tooth and claw no doubt. “What happens if the aspirant fails?”

“The alpha grants the victor the right to claim the petitioner as their own.”

I waved my hand. “What victor?”

“The aspirant must secure rank within the pack. Dominance fights mostly. They are required to rack up an equal standing to the petitioner.” He blew out a short breath. “Should the aspirant fail, the warg who defeats them becomes the victor and has the option of choosing to claim the petitioner as their own if they’re of equal dominance.”