He leans into Josh's touch. He's mated with two humans before this, careful to choose them for specific strengths and traits, but rarely does he actually end up liking the person. And that's all fine and good since usually, Alecto was content to keep the process, the intention, and the eventual outcome a secret anyway (it was easy to do so, since most of them didn't live for very long after the fact, so it's not like they had the ability to care).

But for some reason, this time, he didn't feel the need to hide.

"I'd like to mate with you," he says, matter-of-fact.