"Can Nayra inherit the throne?"
"Do you really want to work for Nayra?" Chris asked with a low laugh.
Nero paused.
Then, with the grave seriousness of a prince weighing national stability, "That is an excellent point."
Dax looked faintly pleased with his mate, as if this counted as a successful redirection rather than parental mockery.
Then, because mercy had never truly lived in him, he added, with the calm of a man laying out renovation plans and not fresh psychological damage, "Your training will shift. Less sparring for now. More pheromone control. And you'll add classes on how to manage it."
Nero stared at him.
There was a beat of silence in which Chris visibly registered the sentence, evaluated it, and decided, with weary resignation, that he agreed with the substance while objecting to the delivery with every civilized bone in his body.
