Max didn't answer the provocation.
He just went still, and Adam felt the air tighten around him as if Max had cinched a leash around his own instincts and refused to let them show. The silence dragged, heavy, as if Max had chosen restraint with his teeth clenched.
An alpha who could take advantage of him refused to give in to instincts. That should have soothed Adam.
It didn't.
It made him feel dismissed. Managed. Like Max had filed the request under biological noise and moved on.
Adam's heat pulsed, angry and insistent, and his pride—always too fierce to get him to beg without biting back—clung to the only weapon left.
"Fine," Adam said, voice rough. "Don't."
Max's gaze stayed forward. His jaw flexed once. Nothing else.
The car rolled on, smooth as a lie.
