The warehouse was quiet, the kind of silence that presses against the skin. Outside, the city slept uneasily, but within those walls, time seemed to stop.
Adair sat on the edge of the narrow cot, her pulse still racing from the storm that had just passed between them. Dominic stood a few feet away, leaning against the wall, his head bowed, as though bracing against an invisible weight.
"Dominic," she whispered.
He didn't look up. "You don't know what you're asking of me."
"Yes, I do." Her voice was steady now, no longer shaken, no longer pleading. "I'm asking you to stop carrying this war alone. To let me in. Not just when you're angry, not just when you're bleeding—but always."
His eyes lifted, dark and sharp, but there was no armor in them now. Only a man stripped bare, the wolf without his crown. "If I give you that, Adair… you'll see all of me. The things I've done. The blood on my hands. You'll hate me."
She rose, crossing the space until she stood inches from him. Her hand reached for his, warm against the cold tension of his grip. "I've seen enough already. And still I'm here. Hate isn't what I feel when I look at you."
Something cracked inside him then. With a low, broken sound, Dominic pulled her against him, burying his face in her hair as though she were the only anchor keeping him from drowning. His hands trembled on her back, not with desire this time, but with the kind of fear a man feels when he realizes he has something left to lose.
They sank together onto the cot, the closeness different now—softer, slower. He kissed her again, but this time there was no urgency, no firestorm—only reverence, as though he were memorizing her.
"Adair," he murmured against her skin, his voice fraying at the edges, "you are the only thing that makes this life worth surviving."
Her fingers brushed through his hair, holding him close. "Then survive for me," she whispered back. "Not for the empire. Not for the war. For me."
For the first time in years, Dominic Wolfe let himself believe he could.
But even as warmth wrapped around them in that fragile moment, shadows stretched outside the warehouse. Unseen eyes watched. Unheard voices whispered. The fire between them had burned too brightly, and now, someone was coming to snuff it out.