Nero's purple eyes lifted.
The smile remained.
"I will make sure the world wears him down to the point his only chance is to be my mate."
Hale wasn't surprised. He had been in rooms where Dax smiled before violence. He had watched Chris brought to Saha under circumstances no saint would have survived with clean hands. He knew kings did not build countries by being soft, and he knew love did not always arrive dressed as mercy.
So Hale did not recoil.
He only studied Nero with the calm of a man measuring how much time until the explosion was left.
"That is a dangerous plan," he said.
Nero shrugged. "It can be. But Sebastian would become wary and recoil the moment we were placed in the same division or team."
Hale said nothing.
That, from him, was agreement enough.
