"You're right," Lucas said quietly, and the admission seemed to shock all three of them. "I should have waited. Should have had Storm bring you immediately.
" But I—" His voice cracked. "—I heard him crying and I ran. I didn't think. I just ran."
"And when you got here?" Leo demanded, still positioned defensively between Lucas and Alex.
"When you saw him like that, smelled him like that—what were you thinking THEN?"
Lucas met the lion's burning gaze without flinching.
"That I wanted him. That every instinct I possess was screaming at me to claim him right there on the floor. That if he'd asked one more time, in that voice, I might have—"
He stopped. Swallowed.
"I might have done something unforgivable."
The raw honesty hit like a physical blow.
"But you didn't," Alex whispered, his voice small and broken. "You held back. Even when I was—when I was begging—you didn't—"
"Because you weren't asking me," Lucas said softly.
