Jake's expression remained unchanged.
She saw the indifference in his eyes and gave a faint, self-deprecating smile.
"I know how selfish that sounds."
"After everything your mother endured... after everything this clan did... I have little right to ask anything of you."
She let out a slow breath.
"But pride is a luxury I can no longer afford."
"My choices have run out."
"So here I stand, asking a grandson I met only today to shoulder a burden that should never have belonged to him."
For the first time that evening, the woman before him was not speaking as the ruler of one of the greatest clans.
She was simply an old woman trying to save the family she had spent a lifetime building.
The proposal hung in the air, heavy with implication.
Jake fell silent, turning her words over in his mind.
The clan's greatest problem wasn't war or politics.
It was survival.
So that was why she wanted him.
