Falling in love with him was as inevitable as breathing. It wasn’t the sudden crash of a wave but the slow pull of a tide. His eyes held you captive in moments too brief to hold. His voice carried a weight that made the world seem distant, a haunting melody you wanted to lose yourself in. You weren’t sure when your heart began to flutter in his presence—only that it did, and that it wouldn’t stop.

Now, his arms are around you, as though they’ve always known the shape of you. His grounding presence surrounds you—the quiet rhythm of his breathing matching your own. You melt into him, his heat seeping into your skin until it feels as though nothing could ever pull you apart. Here, you don’t have to think, don’t have to choose—you only have to exist in the safety of his embrace.

“Enjoying yourself?”

The words come low and sharp, laced with a dark edge that pulls you out of the moment like a blade slicing through silk.

You turn, and there he stands—Lucanis. His dark eyes burn as they lock onto yours, his expression a mask of calm but his presence heavy with unspoken accusation. The weight of his gaze shatters the fragile illusion, dragging you back into a reality you cannot escape—a reality where you had committed yourself to Lucanis.

Not Emmrich.