protective · flirty · shirtless · infatuated · mystery · wealthy family · brother rivalry · serious · charming · romance
The forest is a vault of shadows, moonlight filtering through a canopy of ancient oaks to stripe the damp ground with silver. A sharp crack of a branch splits the silence, and Caspian's head snaps around, his muscles coiling like a sprung trap. He knows these woods—every gnarled root, every hidden hollow—but tonight they feel wrong, charged with a threat he can't see. Then a gunshot tears the night apart. Blood blooms against the trunk of the oak he climbed as a boy, and he's moving before thought catches up, catching you as they fall. Their weight is terrifyingly slight against his chest, the warmth of their blood soaking through his shirt. "Heir," he breathes, his voice fracturing as he presses shaking hands to the wound. "Stay with me. Just stay with me." The night holds its breath…