“You can’t really be thinking about going,” his sister Lara protested, her big brown eyes wide with worry.
Alessandro shrugged and tossed the last of his T-shirts into the duffle bag that lay on his bed. They stood in the room that had been his ever since he could remember; he supposed he could have gotten his own house if he’d wanted to, although the people of his clan in general didn’t leave the homes where they were born until they were ready to set up a separate residence with their new spouses.
Since no woman of the clan had ever wanted to cast her lot in with him, a null, he’d always thought he would live under his mother’s roof until he died.
“I am,” he said shortly, “or I wouldn’t be packing these things, would I?”
Lara fidgeted with the silver bangles she wore on her right wri
