I still remember the rain. The cold hitting my skin, the asphalt slick beneath my shoes. And him… Kai Blake, trembling, collapsing into the storm like the world had finally decided to crush him completely.

I ran without thinking, heart hammering, adrenaline roaring in my veins. “Blake! Stay with me!” I shouted, grabbing him before he fell again. His body shook violently in my arms. I could feel his panic, his fear, the weight of everything he’d been hiding. And I realized then… I couldn’t leave him.

Not again.

Every rational thought disappeared. All that existed was him his ragged breaths, the trembling hands I held tightly against my chest, the fragility that had always made me want to protect him.

I carried him through the storm, ignoring the rain soaking through my clothes, the city streets blurring around us. He was unconscious for a moment, and fear clawed at my chest like a living thing. I couldn’t let him go. I wouldn’t.

At the hospital, I stayed with him. Sat beside the bed, watching, holding his hand like if I let go even for a second, the world would swallow him whole. And in that moment, as I saw him vulnerable and small, I realized something terrifying   I would make him mine. I would protect him. I would win him back, no matter what it took.

And then Felix came. I remember the way his eyes softened when he saw Kai safe, but I also remember the jolt of something sharp: jealousy, possessiveness, a bitter fire in my chest. Felix had always been a calm presence, someone Kai leaned on… and now I understood. I didn’t want Kai leaning on anyone but me. I wanted to be the anchor, the shoulder, the one he trusted.

It hit me then, right there in that hospital room that I wouldn’t leave him. That I would fight, quietly, patiently, relentlessly, for him. No more running. No more leaving.

“Kai Blake…” I whispered to myself, the words more a promise than anything else. “I’ll make you mine. You’ll lean on me. You’ll trust me. And you’ll never doubt it again.”

Felix was there, and I didn’t fight him. Not then. But I understood everything in that glance. The protectiveness, the worry it had sparked something in me I couldn’t ignore.

That day, in the rain, carrying him to the hospital… that was when it started. The moment I knew I could never let him go. And no matter how long it took, no matter the misunderstandings, no matter the past, no matter Felix… I would have him.

Because he was mine, in every way that mattered.