ARIEL'S POV

I leaned against the bathroom door, watching with a smile as Ravenna carefully bathed my cat, like a mother who’d tended many children. She had started by helping it get used to the water, dripping just a little on its paw and coat. Then she trimmed its long nails with gentle precision.

"You'd make a good mother," I commented at last, relieved that she hadn’t spent the time prying into my outing with Alpha Viktor. Instead, she’d poured all her attention into pampering the cat like it was royalty.

She chuckled, her cheeks turning pink. "You think bathing a cat makes me "mom material" ? A real human...