Kai's breathing was uneven as he stared out the tall windows of Adrian's penthouse. Rain streaked down the glass, mirroring the chaos swirling in his chest. He hadn't been home in days. Adrian had insisted no, commanded that he stay after the last vampire attack, and Kai hadn't found the strength to argue. Not when every night, Adrian's arms felt like the only safe place in the world.
But safety was a lie. He knew that now.
"You're pacing again," Adrian murmured from the couch, voice low and honey-slick.
Kai froze. "I'm not."
"You are," Adrian said smugly. "Want me to pin you down until you stop?"
"Don't you dare," Kai snapped, though the heat crawling up his neck betrayed him.
Adrian smirked, eyes glowing faintly red. "Tempting me with that little tone, omega."
"Stop calling me that," Kai muttered, turning back to the window. "This isn't about your kink."
"No," Adrian agreed, his voice darkening. "This is about them not stopping."
The vampires had grown more reckless. They were probing, testing, hunting him. Kai had felt the pull in his gut a magic deeper than blood. They wanted him for something. Not to kill. Not yet. But to use.
"They know you're mine," Adrian added, voice a low growl now. "And they don't give a fuck."
Kai turned slowly. "Do you even know why they want me?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "No. But I'm going to find out. And when I do"
"You'll burn the world down?" Kai asked bitterly.
Adrian stood in one smooth motion, stalking toward him. "If it means keeping you safe, yes."
Kai's breath caught. The darkness behind Adrian's words wasn't just posturing. It was promise. It was power barely restrained.
"You can't keep me caged here forever," Kai whispered. "I have to live, Adrian. I have to fight"
"I'll fight for you."
"But I'm not weak," Kai snapped. "I'm not a thing to protect."
Adrian's hand cupped his cheek, thumb brushing along the sharp bone. "You're not weak. You're everything. That's why they want you. And that's why I won't let them have you."
Kai trembled, torn between fury and need. "Then what do we do?"
Adrian's eyes blazed. "We get ahead of them. We find out who's behind this. And we end it."
Kai didn't look away. "Even if it costs us everything?"
Adrian leaned in, lips brushing Kai's ear. "Especially then."
Kai didn't sleep that night.
Adrian offered his bed his actual bed this time, not the silky corner of the couch where Kai usually curled up. But Kai couldn't bring himself to accept it. The moment he lay down, the shadows would come, pressing behind his eyes, whispering promises of blood and chains. He could feel it now, even with Adrian only a room away.
He padded into the kitchen barefoot, the tile cool against his skin. Moonlight filtered through the windows, bathing the room in silver. He poured a glass of water, though he didn't drink it. His hands trembled.
"You always sneak around like this?"
Kai turned so fast the glass nearly slipped from his grip. Adrian stood in the doorway, shirtless, sweatpants slung low on his hips. His hair was a mess, and his eyes were shadowed from lack of sleep but even then, he looked otherworldly. Dangerous. Beautiful.
"I didn't mean to wake you," Kai said, voice small.
"You didn't," Adrian replied, stepping forward slowly. "I couldn't sleep either. Not with you tossing and turning in the other room like you were running from something."
Kai bit his lip. "I just… I don't want to close my eyes."
Adrian took the glass from his hand, set it on the counter, then reached out and cupped Kai's jaw with both hands. "You can't keep running on fear, Kai. They'll feed on it."
"I'm not scared for me," Kai breathed. "I'm scared for you. What if they come here? What if they take you from me?"
Adrian's laugh was soft and bitter. "They can try."
"You're strong, but you're not invincible"
"No. But I'm not alone either."
Kai's eyes softened as Adrian leaned in, their foreheads resting against one another. It wasn't a kiss. It wasn't sex. It was something more raw, aching, intimate.
"You've already got claws," Adrian murmured. "You just haven't learned how to sink them in yet."
Kai swallowed hard. "Teach me."
Adrian stepped back just enough to look him in the eye. "That's the first thing you've said tonight that terrifies me, omega."
Kai smirked through the pain in his chest. "Good. Let's be scared together."
They stood there in the quiet kitchen, wrapped in tension and silver light. No promises. No peace. Just the sense that the storm was coming and that they would face it, side by side.
Adrian's phone buzzed against the countertop, shattering the stillness like glass.
Kai jumped.
Adrian picked it up and frowned. "It's a secure line… only my team has this number."
"Do you think it's about them?" Kai asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Adrian didn't answer immediately. He walked a few steps away, took the call, and turned his back to Kai. The silence stretched long. Too long.
When he finally hung up, he didn't turn back right away.
"Adrian?" Kai asked, chest tightening.
"They're coming," Adrian said quietly. "Not just the low-rank feeders either. Someone important. A pureblood."
Kai froze. "How do they know where we are?"
"They don't," Adrian said, finally turning to face him. "But they're sweeping human territories, looking for traces. The attack two days ago? It was just a test. They're closing in."
Fear settled in Kai's bones like frost.
"Do we run?"
Adrian looked at him for a long time. "There's no use running anymore. They'll find us eventually. We either keep hiding and wait to be hunted down, or we make our stand."
Kai's breath hitched. "Here? Now?"
"We'll disappear soon enough," Adrian said, voice rough. "But tonight, we prep. Reinforce the perimeter. Contact my allies. And…" He paused, eyes flickering to Kai's. "I need you to stay close. Closer than ever. No more wandering."
Kai stepped forward until their chests nearly touched. "I wasn't planning to go anywhere."
"Good," Adrian said, voice barely a growl. "Because if anything touches you, I swear to god, Kai, I'll burn the whole world down."
That promise hung in the air like smoke deadly, powerful, and searingly intimate.
The room dimmed as clouds swallowed the moonlight, casting them into soft shadows. Adrian moved, grabbing a drawer and pulling out a sleek black case. Inside lay knives, stakes, vials of silver, and something that glowed faintly blue.
"What is that?" Kai asked, eyes wide.
"Insurance," Adrian muttered. "The kind that kills fast and leaves no time for regrets."
Kai stared. "You've had this the whole time?"
Adrian nodded. "I've been a lot of things, Kai. But never unprepared."
Kai's eyes softened. "And I thought I was the dangerous one."
Adrian gave him a wicked smirk. "Oh, baby. You haven't even scratched the surface."
Thunder rolled in the distance as the first drops of rain began to fall, tapping softly against the windows like a warning. Adrian stood by the large window, his sharp silhouette outlined by flickering lightning. Kai watched him silently, memorizing the way he carried that lethal calm, the way he looked like a storm himself beautiful, deadly, untouchable.
But Kai had touched him. Still did. Every night, every breath.
"I hate this," Kai muttered, arms folded tight over his chest. "This hiding, this running. I'm not some helpless thing."
Adrian turned, slowly, his gaze piercing. "You're not helpless. But you're important to me. And that makes you a target."
Kai blinked. "Important?"
Adrian took a step forward. Then another. "You think I've been keeping you close just because of the vampires?"
Kai's heart skipped. "Haven't you?"
He was within inches now, rain-streaked glass behind him, his presence overwhelming and magnetic. "No, Kai. I keep you close because if you ever walked out that door, I wouldn't just go after you I'd raze whatever world took you from me."
Kai's breath caught in his throat.
"Adrian…"
Adrian's fingers brushed along his jaw, featherlight, yet commanding. "There's no way out, Kai. Not from this. Not from me."
"I don't want out," Kai whispered, voice shaking not with fear, but with something deeper. "I want in. Every damn part of it."
Adrian leaned in until their lips were nearly touching. "Careful, wolf. You say that, and I won't let you go."
"Good," Kai breathed. "I don't want you to."
And then Adrian kissed him.
Not with the urgency of before, not with reckless lust but with promise. With heat that burned slow and deep, like coals in the heart of a fire refusing to die.
The storm raged outside.
But inside, it was just them fang and claw, fate and fire intertwining with no way out.