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My mate was jealous. It hit me with brutal satisfaction, a dark thrill curling through my blood. I stood, towering, and the hostess instinctively stepped back.

“Leave,” I ordered. The woman didn’t hesitate; she disappeared down the aisle so quickly she nearly tripped. Bryn watched her go, lips pressed tight.

Then she looked back at me with fire still blazing. “What?”

I crouched in front of her seat again, voice low. “Say it again.”

“What?”

“That you think I want any woman but you.”

Bryn’s eyes widened slightly, like she realized what she’d admitted. She looked away, jaw tight. “Forget it.”

I reached for her chin and turned her face back to mine. “No.”

Her breath stuttered. “Viking…”

“You think I want her?” I asked softly.

Bryn didn’t answer. I leaned in, close enough that my breath brushed her lips. “There will never be any other woman I want.”

Her eyes flickered, uncertain. I spoke with brutal truth, the kind that couldn’t be softened. “When a vampire finds his mate… the world narrows. Everything becomes her. Her scent, her voice, her blood, her breath.” My thumb brushed her lower lip. “Everyone else becomes nothing, I don’t even pay attention to them.”

Bryn swallowed.

“You don’t understand what you are to me,” I murmured. “You don’t understand that you’re not replaceable. You’re not optional.”

Her voice came out thin. “That’s what men say. So, what. I’m… your obsession?”

I bared my teeth slightly, not in threat. In honesty. “You’re my life.”

That silenced her. I watched the words sink into her like a brand. “My existence is tied to you,” I continued, voice turning darker. “If anything happened to you…” I paused because even imagining it made my hands clench, my blood burn, my mind fracture. “I would be no more,” I finished.

Bryn stared at me, stunned and for a moment her anger faltered, replaced by something rawer. Something terrified. Then she whispered, “That’s not healthy.”

I laughed once, humourless. “I didn’t ask if it was healthy.”

I leaned in, kissed her once, hard and claiming and then I murmured against her mouth, “It’s the truth.”

When I pulled back, her eyes were glassy, her breathing unsteady. And I felt it, the bond tightening, the claim deepening. She wasn’t running now because she was caught.

The plane lifted into the night like a blade sliding through darkness. Bryn lasted all of an hour, maybe two. She tried to stay furious, to stay alert, but exhaustion caught her the way it caught all humans eventually.

Her head dipped and her lashes fluttered, then her breathing slowed, her body sinking into the seat. Asleep. My mate looked softer when she slept. There was less fire, less fight but she was still mine. She would always be mine.

I adjusted the blanket over her without thinking, then moved toward the back of the plane where Draugr waited. The private cabin was darker, quieter. Draugr was sitting at a small table with two seats, screens already lit with intel reports. Draugr slid a document across to me with the latest information.

I read it once, then again. My jaw tightened. “Ceasar escaped,” I snap.

Draugr nodded. “He’s gone to France.” The name tasted like poison. Ceasar, our uncle. The reason we’d come to London at all. The one who should’ve been dead a long time ago. I stared at the map markings, tracing his escape route. He’d slipped us again like smoke through fingers. My temper flared, hot and immediate.

Draugr watched me carefully. “He knew we were close.”

“He’s a coward,” I growled.

“He’s smart,” Draugr corrected. “And he knows what happens if we get our hands on him.”

I exhaled slowly, forcing control back into my veins.