"W—what?" Violet's jaw fell. No. She must have heard wrong. There was no way he had just said what she thought he did.
"You heard me right," Roman said firmly, leaving no room for misinterpretation.
Fuck. He was serious.
Violet's mind scrambled for logic, for something that would make sense of this absurdity.
"Wait a minute," she started, "You want me to reject all of the houses, and then what? Live happily ever after with you in the forest?" She gestured around blindly, knowing he could see her through the dark. "In your treehouse?" The sarcasm dripped from every syllable.
"Isn't that what you wanted from the start? To be free from the Cardinal Alphas? From Asher?" Roman reminded her, unfazed.
"Yes, that's what I wanted at the beginning," Violet admitted, "but now, I'm dating a Cardinal Alpha, and Asher still won't leave me alone."
"Because you belong to a house."
Violet frowned. "Excuse me?"