Jason’s POV
The room was silent except for the faint scratching of my father’s pen against paper. Alpha Michael leaned back in his chair, flipping through the documents from the earlier meeting, his sharp eyes scanning every word. I stood near the window, looking out at the courtyard as the events of the day played over in my mind.
“You’ve been awfully quiet, Jason,” my father said, his voice calm but probing. “What’s on your mind?”
I turned to face him, my arms crossed. “I’m just thinking about what happened. About how things are moving forward now with Coral.”
He placed the papers down and fixed me with a steady gaze. “And? What’s bothering you?”
I hesitated, running a hand through my hair. “I know we’re taught to respect fated mates, to wait, and to treat them as equals, but I can’
