The night bled quiet after the storm of death.
Adrian had stitched his side with a surgeon's precision, jaw locked against the pain. Kai had cleaned the blood from his chest, his face, even his hands though nothing could erase the copper tang from his mouth, nor the sight of Adrian bleeding for him.
They sat in silence for a while, the tension stretched between them like a fraying wire. Until Adrian finally spoke.
"I made a vow once," he murmured, voice low, rough like gravel. "That I would never love again."
Kai turned to him slowly.
Adrian's eyes were fixed ahead, as if watching ghosts walk across the far wall. "Love makes you soft. Love gives them leverage. That's what they said. That's what I believed. Until you."
Kai blinked, throat tight.
"You burned through me like moonlight through mist, Kai. All quiet defiance and trembling bravery. I tried to stay away, but the more I did, the worse it got. You became the pulse under my skin."
Kai let out a shaky breath. "Then why do you still look like you want to run?"
Adrian turned to him, gaze dark and tender. "Because loving you is the most dangerous thing I've ever done."
Kai reached out, his fingers brushing Adrian's. "And yet here we are. Still alive. Still breathing."
"Barely." Adrian smirked bitterly. "We're marked now. You're bait, remember? And I'm the prize they're trying to bleed."
Kai shook his head. "No. I'm not bait. I'm your mate. I'm the one standing with you, not behind you. And I won't let them use me like that."
Adrian looked at him really looked. And in that gaze, the centuries fell away. All the battles. All the blood. All the walls he'd built brick by brick to keep others out.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring silver, elegant, forged with a crest Kai didn't recognize.
"It's not a mating ring," Adrian said. "Not yet. But in my family… this means protection. Allegiance. It means I choose you."
He held it out.
Kai stared at it, lips parting.
"Put it on," Adrian said, voice hoarse, "and I swear by fang, blood, and fire no one touches you without going through me."
Kai took the ring, slid it onto his finger. It shimmered against his skin.
And then Adrian kissed him.
Not soft. Not sweet.
It was a claim.
Teeth clashing. Tongues battling. A growl from Adrian's chest as Kai pulled him in with both hands, clutching his shirt like he might vanish.
They broke apart only when air demanded it, both panting, both trembling.
"No more waiting," Kai said, cheeks flushed. "You said we stop hiding. So let's end it."
Adrian nodded, eyes glowing faintly red.
"At dawn," he promised. "We draw the line. We bring war to their door."
And when dawn came, it wasn't light that filled the sky It was the sound of wings.
They were already here.