(Damien's POV)
The forest was too quiet.
Even the night creatures that usually stirred the owls, the foxes, the restless hares kept to their burrows, as though they sensed the storm clawing beneath my skin. My wolf paced inside me, a caged beast, teeth bared, demanding release.
But it wasn't the wolves' victory that unsettled me.
It was him.
Adrian.
The taste of him still lingered on my tongue, copper-sweet and intoxicating, like the finest wine brewed in hell itself. The memory of his body pinned beneath mine burned into my veins, a fever I couldn't sweat out. I had kissed him like a conqueror, but it hadn't been enough. Gods, it would never be enough.
And yet… he had let me.
That thought gnawed at me more than anything.
The Vampire King, untouchable, feared by all he had not fought me the way I expected. His body had arched toward mine, a silent betrayal of the cold mask he wore. He could deny it with every ounce of his icy pride, but I had felt it. His surrender. His need.
The wolf inside me howled. Mine.
I clenched my fists, dragging my nails across the bark of a tree until splinters bit into my skin. Pain barely registered. My mind was too full of him, the way his eyes had darkened, the sound of his breath catching against my lips.
And damn me, the way I wanted more.
"Damien."
The voice snapped me back. Kael, my second-in-command, stepped into the clearing. His armor still bore the blood of vampires from the earlier battle, but his stance was steady, unwavering. His loyalty had always been mine, just as Lucien's was Adrian's.
"You're restless," Kael said. Not a question. An observation.
I gave a sharp laugh, bitter and low. "Restless doesn't begin to cover it."
He studied me carefully, his golden eyes narrowing. "It's him, isn't it?"
I turned on him so fast the air crackled. "Careful, Kael."
But he didn't flinch. That was why he was my second, he was the only one who dared face me without trembling.
"I saw the way you looked at him," Kael continued, voice steady. "Like he was prey. But this isn't hunger, Damien. It's obsession."
I snarled, the wolf in me flashing through. "He's mine."
The words tore from me, raw and guttural, before I could stop them.
Kael's expression darkened, but he said nothing. Perhaps he knew better than to argue when the beast inside me had its claws out.
I dragged a hand through my hair, pacing the clearing like a madman. The trees loomed around me, silent witnesses to my unraveling. "I should have ended it," I muttered. "I should have ripped his throat out when I had the chance. That's what any sane wolf would have done."
"But you didn't."
I froze.
Kael's words hung in the night air, heavy and accusing.
No, I hadn't. Because killing Adrian would have been easy. Too easy. But letting him live, keeping him close enough to burn me alive but never consume me, that was madness.
And I was already too far gone.
I turned toward the dark horizon, where the vampire citadel rose like a jagged crown against the sky. My chest tightened, not with hatred, but with something far more dangerous.
"I'll have him," I whispered, almost to myself. "King or not. Enemy or not. I'll have him."
The wolf inside me howled again, satisfied, as if it had been waiting for me to admit the truth.
The hunt had begun.
And I wouldn't stop until Adrian was mine, body, blood, and soul.