“I’m a dominant, which usually means a stronger, purer bloodline.” He kept it light, like it meant nothing. “I’ve got a good chance at having full-blooded kids.”

No wonder Becca was willing to have a go at me. A union with Graeson offered more than status, he represented the possibility of something far more precious. Babies. The future of the pack. Of their species.

Another thread of doubt wriggled through my mind, the fear I was standing between him and a thing he might want, an opportunity he might feel obligated to explore. Biological urges were strong, but his conscious needs and wants factored into his choice, right?

Plenty of people—fae and human—had children with partners they didn’t like or downright despised. Who benefited from those unions? The children growing up in divided households? Or worse, in homes where resentment polluted their every breath from infancy? The mothers with their dull eyes or fathers with the collar of duty strangling the life from them?

Instead of accepting his brush-off, I had to know. I told myself his answer would decide for me whether fighting for his hand like some twisted fairy tale was the right thing to do or if it was my own stubborn refusal to allow tradition to swallow him whole, but I wasn’t entirely convinced that was the truth. It was hard sitting in my kitchen eating the man’s bacon while denying the heat coiled in my belly wasn’t from the rendered pork but his proximity.

I chewed thoughtfully. “That’s not an answer.”

Fabric whispered as he slid into the booth opposite me, took my hands in his and linked our fingers. “What if I said I want blond-haired girls or boys with storm-cloud eyes that roll with thunder like their mother’s?”

Children who, if he got his wish, would bear an uncanny resemblance to me, and to the sister I had lost. Gemini birthed twins. Always. How painful would it be to look into the faces of my daughters and see Lori’s shadow? Would I be able to endure it? Could I view them as individuals, or would I only see her ghost and flee from the pain the way my mother and father had? Leaving Graeson, once again, to raise children on his own?

Honesty was the most I could offer. “I would say I don’t know if I can give that to you.”

His thumbs rolled over my knuckles. “I understand.”

And the worst part was, I knew he did. He had an uncanny way of reading me as though the pack bond was always strung between us. I wished I understood him half as well.

A couple of raps on the door announced Dell’s arrival. Graeson didn’t react, so I figured she had given a mental knock before the physical one.

“Come in,” I called, unable to stand because my fingers were meshed with an unmovable object’s.