It all made perfect sense inside of Laurent's head. Which was, granted, a place heavily influenced by the dreams of others. One could only visit so many dreams and see how so many minds worked before they began to take an undeniable toll. His time had left him with a desire to fulfill certain dreams he was not even fully certain were his own, and yes, a heavy influence had been Rae's own dreams. It seemed like the thing to do and even though there had never been any talk of actual marriage there had been the ring and the general intent and that had made her happy. Laurent lacked the ability to feel ashamed about that even if it did have to be said, and thought of, in the past tense. Otherwise he would have not been able to buy Odette something like that without setting off some bout of paranoia.
"Ah yes, the alpha. And four of you." That was a surprising number, four of them. Not as many as his own House could claim and yet a large number, in his mind, for the Canis if they were not all nice and packed together. "The class one expects from our country vanished centuries ago. And my book is... coming along, I suppose, not as fast as the publisher wants but then I haven't an idea of what to write next." Writer's block, he supposed. "And what I have planned, the rest of it, is keeping you company for the rest of the night until you feel the need to sleep. And then I was hoping to join you." Laurent's smile was not exactly boyish, but very nearly, as he took another sip from his glass. What? It was a better topic than thinking about Rae or how the French were deteriorating from what they had once been. It all started when they got rid of the monarchy.