"Simple. I don't use my pheromones unless the situation absolutely requires it." Marianne shrugged. "If you solve every problem by crushing the room, eventually you forget how to solve problems any other way."
Her gaze drifted to Dax again with that maddening blend of fondness and exasperation that only existed in people who had once tried to handle him and survived.
"He, on the other hand, decided to rebuild a collapsing country using dominance as a structural material."
Chris pictured it easily. Dax, thirty percent constitutional authority, seventy percent alpha pheromone and unrepentant aggression.
"…yes," he said slowly. "That tracks."
