They stare at each other for a long moment—one calculating, the other furious.
Jake's chest rises and falls fast, fingers clenching into fists. But there's a glimmer of hope in his eyes. A sense of *need.*
"*How*?" Jake finally asks, the word coming out as a half-growl. "How do you know how to get him back?"
"Sit," Mika instructs, gesturing calmly to the other chair.
Jake hesitates—then heaves a breath and complies, sinking into the chair and bracing his forearms on his knees.
Mika sits back down as well, crossing one leg over the other.
"You'll want to listen carefully."
Jake just nods, breath still coming fast—but he's *listening.*
"There are people in this city," Mika says slowly, voice low, "who trade in secrets. In leverage. And sometimes... in *bodies.*"
Jake tenses immediately.
"You're telling me someone *took* him? For *sale?*"
Mika shrugs one shoulder.
"Or ransom. Or revenge. Doesn't matter the reason—it only matters that they have him."
He leans forward slightly, eyes locking onto Jake's.
"And I know where their hideout is."
*That* gets Jake's attention. His head snaps up, eyes narrowing.
"You *know?*" he repeats, the word thick with disbelief.
Mika nods.
"Their hideout. It's a warehouse, down at the harbor. Well-disguised. They do most of their dealings down there."
He leans back in his chair, a small smile touching his lips.
"That's where Felix is."
"Then we go," Jake snaps, standing up—fast. "Now."
Mika doesn't move.
"*We?*" He lets out a dry chuckle. "You don't think I'd just hand over the location for free, do you?"
Jake's jaw clenches—dangerously tight.
"I'll give you whatever you want."
Mika tilts his head, eyes glinting in the dim candlelight.
"**Not whatever.** But there *is* something..."
A pause—one that stretches too long.
"**Swear loyalty to me,**" he says quietly. "**Publicly.** Stand before the court and declare that I hold authority over your crown."
Jake stares at him in disbelief, mouth working for a moment before words finally manage to come.
"You... you want me to *swear loyalty to you?* You want me to give you *power?* *Power over the kingdom?*"
"No," Mika whispers—low, rough, his voice cracking like thunder before the storm. "I want *you.*"
And then it hits.
A wave of pheromones floods the room—thick, dark, *overwhelming*—pouring from Mika in waves he's spent years learning to control… and now finally choosing to *release.*
Jake staggers back a step—but there's nowhere to go.
The door is behind him. The windows are barred. And Mika?
Mika is rising from his seat, eyes glowing with something feral and unrepentant.
"I've waited," he says softly—and dangerously—"so damn long for you to *see me.* To feel me."
Another step forward.
The scent wraps around Jake like chains—heavy with dominance, laced with need so raw it borders on pain.
"Now?" Mika breathes. "*Now you will.*"
Jake growls—a weak protest lost in the thickening air—
but his knees tremble.
Not from fear…
from something far more dangerous:
**recognition.**
---
Mika's hands clench into fists at his sides, but he doesn't stop moving. He takes another step forward, eyes locking onto Jake's with a stare that feels like *lightning.*
"**You don't get it,** do you?" he whispers, voice low and rough. "What you do to me?"
Another step—close now. Close enough to see the way Jake's breath hitches—close enough to hear the soft exhale as his body responds.
"I could have had *anyone*. But I only wanted *you.*"
Mika takes the final step, standing *right before* Jake now. He reaches out—almost gently—to trace a finger down the line of Jake's jaw, savoring the way he *trembles* beneath the brush of his skin.
"And look at you..." he whispers, his eyes glittering with a dangerous mix of lust and need. "How you *respond* to me. Your body *craves* me. You can deny it all you want...
...but *you're already mine.*"
Jake shudders, his eyes fluttering half-shut—and Mika can already see the fight beginning to drain from his body.
"You've been trying to resist," he breathes, fingers tracing a path down Jake's neck now—almost gentle. Almost tender. "Trying to deny the pull between us. But you know it's true—you *feel* it."
Jake gasps as Mika's touch reaches his collarbone, and he can't hide the way he *arches* into the contact.
"Your body betrays you," Mika whispers. "*You betray yourself.*"
"No..." Jake breathes—weak, half-hearted.
But his hands are trembling. His pulse is racing beneath Mika's fingertips.
Mika leans in, his lips brushing the shell of Jake's ear as he speaks—low, intimate.
"**Say it,**" he commands softly. "**Say you want this. Say you want *me.*"**
Jake shudders violently—not pulling away, not resisting—just hanging on by a thread.
"I... I can't—"
"I..." Jake's voice cracks, raw and trembling.
His hands lift—half to push, half to pull.
But he doesn't move either way.
"I..."
He *wants* to fight. He *wants* to deny it. But the pheromones are thick in his blood now, wrapping around his mind like smoke—clouding reason, igniting need.
And beneath it all?
The truth has always been there...
"...I can't stop thinking about you," he finally chokes out—the words barely a whisper.
Mika's breath stills for just a moment—eyes flashing with triumph... and something deeper. Something *raw.*
"Say more," he demands softly. "**Tell me what you want.**"
Jake's head drops back, a rough exhale slipping from between his teeth. His eyes are shut, body trembling—lost somewhere between *fighting* and *surrender.*
"I want..." he whispers. "**I want—**"
Mika's grip tightens around his neck—not enough to choke, but enough to make him fall *silent.*
"Look at me," he murmurs. "When you speak. I want you to *look me in the eye* when you tell me what you want."
Jake's eyes open—dilated, dark, *unsteady.*
He's lost now, almost completely. His hands lift, this time in *surrender*—his fingers trembling as they brush the collar of Mika's shirt.
"I want *you,*" he breathes, voice rough with desire and need. "I've tried to deny it, fight it, push it down... but I *cannot get you out of my head.* I can't get you out of my *blood.* And God *help me,* I can't stop *wanting* to be near you."
"That's it," Mika whispers—low, reverent. His fingers loosen slightly at Jake's throat, then trail down to grip his shoulder instead.
He leans in close again—so close their breaths mingle—foreheads almost touching.
"I've bled for you," he murmurs. "Waited. Watched you love someone else while I burned alive inside."
His voice drops to a near-hush.
"**But tonight...**"
A hand slides around Jake's back, pulling him flush against him.
"**Tonight, you're mine.**"
Jake shudders—not pulling away—but arching into the heat of his body like a man finally coming home… even if the home is built on fire and ruin.
And as Mika claims his mouth in a slow, devouring kiss—
the castle sleeps on…
unaware that everything has just *changed.*
---
Jake's world is spinning, his mind already unraveling as their lips meet. It's been so damn long: the touch, the sensation, the *taste* of Mika's mouth—
He gasps as the kiss deepens, fingers clutching roughly at Mika's shirt for something to ground himself against the dizzying heat.
He's drowning, lost in the flood of feelings surging back to life... and for the first time, he doesn't even *want* to fight.
Jake's breath hitches—suddenly sharp, *clearing*.
For a heartbeat, he's lost in the kiss—the heat, the scent of Mika's pheromones thick and intoxicating—but then—
**Felix.**
His name echoes in Jake's mind like a struck bell.
Not Mika.
Never Mika.
***Felix.***
"*No,*" Jake chokes out—voice raw with horror as he wrenches himself back with sudden force, shoving Mika away hard enough to send him stumbling into the desk. Inkwell rattles again. A chair screeches across stone.
Mika gasps—eyes wide not from pain, but shock—and hurt so deep it nearly *cracks* his expression open.
"Jake—"
"**Don't!**" Jake roars, voice trembling—not with desire now—but *revulsion.* At himself. At what almost happened."
He stumbles back toward the door, hands shaking violently against his face as if trying to scrub something off his skin.
"You... you manipulated me," he rasps between ragged breaths. "You used your damn pheromones—you tried to make me betray him—"
Tears burn at the corners of his eyes—not for shame... but for betrayal of something sacred:
***Felix's love—the only thing that ever kept him whole.***
And he *almost* threw it away...
"No," Jake says again—this time quieter, more certain—as he grips the doorknob like it's an anchor in a storm. "I don't care how long you've waited… how much you want this."
His gaze locks on Mika—one final time—with grief… but unshakable resolve:
"**I belong to Felix alone."**
And then—
he turns and runs,
not just from the room…
but from everything that might have been.
---
The screen glows in the dark.
A small, cracked phone—hidden inside the collar of one of Mika's men—streams live.
On it?
The kiss.
Jake pressed against Mika.
Mika whispering against his lips—
***"Tonight, you're mine."***
And Felix…
Felix watches from a cold, windowless room beneath the city docks—chained by magic-dampening cuffs, pale and breathless… but *awake.*
His eyes are wide. Blank. Emptying out like a soul being drained drop by drop.
He doesn't scream. Doesn't cry out. Just…
*stares.*
As the video replays again.
And again.
And again—
each loop carving deeper into something that can no longer be repaired:
**his trust.**
Outside the warehouse walls—the tide rolls in at midnight low,
but inside?
Something quieter breaks instead:
a heart,
once so fiercely loyal,
now shattering beyond sound.
To be continued.