The moment Kael stepped into the moonlit chamber, something shifted inside him. The air pulsed. Not with danger—no—but with a promise of something ancient, powerful, and alive. He placed a trembling hand on his lower abdomen, and the pulse answered, fluttering beneath his fingers like the flicker of a phoenix's wings.
The witches had warned him: the child was no ordinary heir.
Kael's magic—once dormant, modest, and quiet—had started humming through his veins with an erratic rhythm. The baby, now visibly growing inside him, was influencing his essence. Each movement of the fetus sparked echoes of magic that shattered candles, cracked stone, or warped illusions around him.
He had secluded himself deep within the sacred caverns beneath the coven's sanctuary. Even the elders dared not follow him for long. He meditated for hours, trying to calm the storm brewing inside—but it was no use.
Tonight, the heat inside his body wasn't just magic. It was something more primal. More carnal.
Kael's breath hitched as a sudden wave of heat coiled low in his stomach. He whimpered, back arching against the cool stone altar behind him. Shadows danced around the room. His sweat-glossed skin glowed with fae markings igniting like embers—his body calling not for rest, but for a mate.
"Elias…" he whispered.
Miles away, Elias's chest constricted. The pact-mark on his skin lit crimson, searing with a familiar ache. He growled low, lips pulling back from his fangs as he leaned against the black marble balcony overlooking the city.
"He's calling for me," he muttered.
Lucian, his father, watched with distaste. "Your weakness will ruin everything."
Elias turned slowly. "My heir is awakening. Kael needs me."
Lucian hissed. "He's a fae runt with an abomination growing in him. That child will unravel the order of bloodlines."
Elias's aura exploded in the room, dark tendrils wrapping around walls, windows, crushing antique stonework. "That abomination is my child. My heir. And if you speak of them like that again, I'll rewrite the entire vampire code in their name."
Back at the sanctuary, Kael's moans turned guttural. He writhed as waves of pleasure and magic collided inside him. It wasn't just heat. It was evolution. The child within him had begun bonding with his body, and their energies were synchronizing in bursts of erotic ecstasy.
Glimmers of Elias's face flashed in Kael's mind—his hands, mouth, voice, his dominance…
"Come to me," Kael gasped. "Please… I need…"
The cave pulsed. Magic snapped like a whip, and the protective wards around the sanctuary howled.
Suddenly, the shadows parted. A swirl of dark smoke formed at the mouth of the cave.
And Elias stepped through it, eyes glowing red.
Kael's breath left him in a sharp cry, both from shock and aching desire. His body responded instantly to the vampire's presence, thighs parting involuntarily, heat pooling between them.
"You called, Kael," Elias said, voice like silk and storm.
Kael tried to speak, but Elias was already in front of him, lifting him into his arms like a prince cradling fire.
"I felt your need. The bond brought me through every barrier." Elias's lips brushed Kael's neck, fangs grazing, breath searing. "You don't know what you've awakened, Kael. The power… the pleasure… it will destroy us both."
"Then destroy me," Kael gasped, arching into him. "Just don't stop."
Clothes tore.
Bodies collided.
Magic surged.
Kael cried out as Elias entered him, the raw connection between them sparking flashes of old memories, older lifetimes, and the overwhelming sense that this act wasn't just about desire—it was destiny reclaiming itself.
Each thrust was a promise. Each moan a covenant. Their bodies were forged together beneath the cavern's heartbeat, and in that union, the child inside Kael glowed brighter.
The heir had chosen.
And the world would never be the same.