I Left With Son After Vampire Mate Chose Human Lover

The next morning, Luka's fever spiked.

UV burns could turn septic fast at this stage. His body was still learning how to heal itself — the awakening window didn't just make fledglings more vulnerable to damage, it made recovery slower too.

I rushed him to the compound's healing chamber, his small body burning up in my arms.

That's when we ran into Kaelan.

He was standing in the corridor with Vivienne beside him, one hand on Damian's shoulder. Damian had a runny nose and was wiping it on his sleeve. Kaelan was watching him like he was made of glass.

Luka saw him first.

Despite the fever, his eyes lit up.

He pulled free from my arms and stumbled toward Kaelan, legs unsteady, both hands reaching out.

"Father." His voice came out small and wrecked. "You came. I forgive you for yesterday — did you come to stay with me while I see the healer?"

Kaelan looked down at him.

Then stepped back and pulled Damian closer.

"Didn't I tell you to come in the afternoon? Why is he here now?"

Damian shoved Luka hard.

"Stop calling him Father. He's MY dad!"

Luka was already unsteady from the fever. He went down hard, UV burns hitting the stone floor.

His cry echoed through the entire corridor.

Damian moved to kick him.

"Hey." I stepped between them, pulled Damian back, and scooped Luka off the floor. His skin was still burning. "Damian, apologize to Luka. Right now."

Kaelan's eyes flashed. "How dare you put your hands on him."

He pulled Damian behind him. "I told you to come in the afternoon. You did this on purpose."

"My fault?" My voice was shaking. "Your son is covered in burns because you left him in the UV zone yesterday. He has a fever of a hundred and four. Where exactly was I supposed to take him?"

Kaelan had already turned away. He crouched down and checked Damian — nose, forehead, color. Careful, quiet, thorough.

His son was on the floor behind him.

He didn't look once.

Vivienne stepped forward. Her voice was soft, her eyes softer — the kind of soft that always came with an agenda.

"I'm so sorry, this is such a mess." She glanced at Luka, then lowered her voice like she was sharing something difficult. "Damian caught a cold two days ago and he still hasn't slept properly. Kaelan's barely left his side."

A cold.

Damian had a cold.

Luka had UV burns splitting open across both arms and a fever pushing a hundred and four, and Kaelan had barely left Damian's side because the boy had a cold.

The healer stepped out of the chamber and pulled me aside.

"I need to speak with you about Luka's condition." Her voice was low. "The UV exposure has slowed his awakening progression. Having his sire present during treatment would significantly help stabilize him. Even an hour would make a difference."

I looked at Kaelan.

He was straightening Damian's collar.

"Kaelan." I kept my voice even. "The healer says Luka needs you with him during treatment. Just an hour. His awakening is being affected."

Kaelan looked up.

For a moment I thought he was going to say yes.

Then Vivienne touched his arm. Barely a brush. Light enough to look accidental.

"I don't want to make this harder than it already is." Her voice dropped to almost nothing. "But Damian asked for you this morning, and I—" She stopped. Pressed her lips together. "We're still human, Kaelan. Damian and I. We don't have centuries ahead of us the way you do. All we have is right now."

She looked up at him.

"You and Luka have all the time in the world. We don't."

The corridor went quiet.

Kaelan looked at Vivienne for a long moment.

Then he looked at Luka — really looked at him, for the first time since we'd run into them in the corridor.

Luka was still in my arms, burning up, watching his father with the kind of hope that had no business still being there after everything that had already happened.

Kaelan looked away.

"I'll come by later," he said. To me, not to Luka.

"Come on," he said to Damian. "Let's get you back to bed."

"Can you stay until I fall asleep?"

"Of course. I'm not going anywhere."

Their voices faded around the corner.

I stood in the middle of the corridor holding my son, who had stopped watching the place where his father had been and gone very still in my arms.

"Mom," Luka said quietly.

I tightened my arms around him.

"Damian just has a cold," he said. "Colds go away on their own."

He didn't say anything else.

He didn't have to.

I carried him into the healing chamber, sat down with him in my lap, and waited for the healer to begin.

The blood bond dissolution request was still sitting on my desk.

Half-written. Waiting.

I looked down at Luka's face — fever-bright eyes, burns across his arms, brows drawn even now — and I thought about what the healer had said.

His sire would help stabilize him.

His sire had just walked away to sit with a human child who had a cold.

I thought about the bonding ceremony. The way Kaelan had wiped his hands clean after.

I thought about four years of waiting for him to come back and mean it.

I thought about Luka spending a month carving that blood-seal stone.

Then I stopped thinking about it.

"File the dissolution," I said quietly.

Not to anyone in the room.

Just to myself.

For the first time, it didn't feel like giving up.

It felt like the only thing left to do.