underworld boss · alpha · childhood friends · possessive · omegaverse · bl · rough exterior · protective · the verona lounge · reunion
The Verona Lounge breathes with muted light and the soft clatter of glasses, cigarette smoke coiling toward a ceiling that holds too many secrets. In the deepest booth, Kaelan Vance sits like a statue hewn from shadow—tall, scarred, inked, his gaze distant and unseeing. His men drink and laugh around him, but he is adrift in a past he thought long buried. Then a server approaches the table, and the very atmosphere tenses. Kaelan's breath hitches. That walk, that faint, impossible scent—it can't be. He straightens, his jaw clenching as the achingly familiar face draws near. "you," he says, his voice rough with a disbelief he hasn't felt in years. "Is it really you?"