Moonlight through bulletproof glass painted stripes across Luna's face as she pressed against the penthouse wall, her pupils dilated like a cornered doe's. Caleb's shadow loomed large enough to swallow the room whole, his breathing ragged - not from exertion, but the effort of containing hurricane-force emotions.
"You think wide eyes absolve betrayal?" His knuckle traced the path of a fallen tear. "I don't play nursemaid to willful brats."
Her fingers scrabbled against textured wallpaper, manicured nails leaving crescent indents. "Stop this... kindness. I can't..." The admission caught like fishbone. "I won't be another debt in your ledger."
"Kindness?" The word detonated like a landmine. His laughter scraped raw against her nerves. "You mistake containment for compassion."
The ice in his tone should've cauterized wounds. Instead, Luna found herself cataloging dangerous details - the split in his lower lip from her earlier slap, the whiskey-and-bergamot scent cutting through his cologne's metallic edge.
"Separate paths," she whispered, tasting the lie.
Caleb's palm hit the wall beside her head, marble cracking beneath the impact. "Then pay your toll, wanderer." His breath ghosted across her trembling mouth. "What currency does a runaway princess carry?"
The elevator ding of his Rolex marked suspended time. Luna's pulse thrummed in her throat where his teeth had left claiming marks hours earlier.
Her palm found his lips mid-sneer. The contact shocked them both - his mouth unexpectedly warm against her life line.
"Still playing virgin sacrifices?" he murmured against her skin, tongue darting to taste salt and Chanel No. 5.
The dual sensations - wet heat and mocking words - broke her paralysis. She recoiled, back meeting cold glass. Twenty floors below, taxis swam like phosphorescent fish, oblivious to the viper's nest above.
Caleb's fingers framed her jaw with mock tenderness. "That peasant boy - your former leash holder." The endearment curdled. "Did he teach you to bite the hand that feeds?"
Her nod came minuscule, throat working around unshed words.
"Good." His thumb pressed cruelly against her windpipe. "Then you'll understand when I break every bone in his body."
The veil tore with a sound like dying cicadas. Luna froze as night air kissed exposed cheeks.
"Has he seen?" Caleb's question held nuclear winter coldness.
"Only shadows."
The admission loosened his grip. Moonlight sculpted her face into something ethereal and knife-sharp - Botticelli angel with switchblade cheekbones. Caleb's restraint snapped.
The kiss tasted of ruin and redemption. Her fists tangled in Brioni wool as his teeth mapped old scars beneath her ear. Somewhere beyond the bloodrush in her ears, a door crashed open.
"Boss, the Tokyo merger - holy shit!" Xander's choked laughter dissolved into retreating footsteps. "Resume defiling the help!"
Luna's shove lacked conviction. Caleb allowed three centimeters of breathing room before crowding closer. "You'll eat," he ordered, nodding toward congee sending up aromatic tendrils. "Then sleep."
The slammed door echoed through penthouse bones.
Frost crystallized on the terrace railing as Caleb chain-smoked Dunhills, each drag failing to cauterize the phantom press of Luna's nails along his spine. Through floor-to-ceiling windows, he watched her restless form carve valleys in Egyptian cotton.
The reheated congee bore her fingerprints in the condensation. His smile felt foreign, muscles unaccustomed to the stretch.
Dawn crept in as thieves do when he finally slid beside her. The narrow medical cot protested his frame, but Luna's sleep-soft body molded instinctively against him. Her arm curled around his waist with unconscious ownership.
"Mine," he breathed into her hairline, the claim settling deeper than flesh.
In the liminal space between sleep and waking, her fingers found the scar over his heart - old bullet wound shaped like California. His lips brushed her forehead in silent treaty.
Somewhere beyond the soundproof windows, the city stirred. On the nightstand, Luna's phone lit with an encrypted message:
Unknown: He killed the man who saved you.
The screen darkened. Caleb's eyes remained closed, fingers tightening in her hair.
Dawn's first light crept through hospital blinds, painting golden stripes across rumpled sheets. Luna stretched into the lingering warmth of Caleb's absence, her cheek pressed against linen still imprinted with his silhouette. The sandalwood trace on his pillowcase mocked her resolve - phantom evidence of borders crossed in darkness.
She pressed burning eyelids to cool glass, watching early shift nurses scuttle across the parking lot like ants. The sterile tang of disinfectant couldn't mask Caleb's cologne clinging to her sweater. Three floors below, a janitor's radio played tinny love songs that made her ribs ache.
Aunt Lin's monitors sang their steady chorus when Luna slipped in. Needles found meridians with practiced precision, though her hands trembled slightly. The attending physician's praise ("Remarkable recovery!") rang hollow as wind chimes.
Thorn Manor's gates swung open to Eleanor's embrace, the old woman's jasmine perfume momentarily smothering Luna's lingering hospital stench. "Child, you're wasting to bones!" Papery palms cradled her face. "We'll convert the east wing to a clinic. Hire specialists. That rickety hospital..."
Luna's protest died at the warmth in rheumy blue eyes. "Grandmother, I..."
The correction slipped out unbidden. Eleanor's delighted gasp echoed through marble halls.
Something soft brushed her ankle.
The kitten's fur glowed pearl-white in afternoon light, pupils swallowing sapphire irises to twin black moons. Luna crouched instinctively, the creature butting its head against her palm with throaty purrs.
"Your shadow's gift," Eleanor murmured, producing a porcelain doll swathed in French lace. "Though he claims this hag prefers baubles to beasts."
Laughter bubbled up unexpectedly, startle a swallow from the chandelier. The kitten's needle claws pricked her forearm as it scaled her sweater - tiny conqueror claiming Everest.
"Yuan Yuan," Luna decided, feeling the name's roundness on her tongue.
Eleanor's nod held ancestral wisdom. "A worthy name for winter's child."
In the kitchens, chaos reigned.
"...three grams cordyceps, five slices deer antler!" Eleanor brandished a cleaver at cowering staff. "And double the maca root! That boy's stubborn as his grandfather!"
Mr. Grayson's whisper carried through spice clouds: "The Young Master specifically forbade -"
"Pah!" The cleaver embedded in a cutting board. "My bones ache with his idiocy! You'll tell him I laced it with arsenic?"
The steward palmed migraine points. Luna ducked past unseen, kitten clutched to her chest like furry contraband.
Steam fogged the ensuite mirror as Luna shed the day's weight. She bypassed silk temptations for practical armor - a rose-quartz onesie plush as kitten fur. The hood's embroidered whiskers twitched with her movement.
Yuan Yuan observed regally from the canopy bed, tail flicking as Luna performed her evening ritual. Kibble clattered into jade bowls. "Patience, little empress," she chided, nose wrinkling at fishy puffs.
The balcony door hissed.
Caleb's reflection materialized in moonlit glass - tie askew, snowflakes melting in his hair. His gaze tracked the ridiculous tail swaying with her steps.
"You're late," Luna announced without turning. The kitten abandoned supper to twine around polished oxfords.
Crouching, Caleb produced a silver bell from his coat. Yuan Yuan's leap became midair pirouette. "Seems I've been replaced."
His thumb brushed the onesie's ear. Luna's breath hitched at the calloused warmth. "Grandmother's soup awaits."
"Poisoned, no doubt." His nose wrinkled at distant herbal stench.
Luna's fingers found his wrist. "She means well."
The contact sparked static. Caleb's free hand rose unconsciously, tucking damp strands behind her ear. Yuan Yuan's contented purr underscored the moment's fragility.
Eleanor's bellow shattered the spell: "Caleb Alexander Thorn! Your soup congeals!"
Laughter burst from Luna's lips, bright and unguarded. Caleb's answering smirk held dangerous fondness. Arm in arm, they descended to culinary warfare - the kitten trailing like living snowdrift.
In the dining hall's chandelier glow, Eleanor's triumphant smile outshone crystal prisms. Luna sipped suspicious broth, watching Caleb grimace through vitality tonics. Yuan Yuan batted at falling snow beyond leaded glass.
Somewhere between bitter herbs and stolen glances, the word "family" lost its jagged edges.