Chapter 6: Blood Oaths

Gunfire rattled in the distance.

Emma sat frozen on the bed, every muscle tight, every nerve screaming. The sounds of war cracked the night open — shouting, engines roaring, the deep boom of explosives.

Skyler…

Every second dragged like an hour.

She hated this — being powerless. Being vulnerable.

But what terrified her even more was the thought of Skyler not coming back through that door.

The seconds bled into minutes.

Then — the heavy thud of boots approaching.

Emma jumped up as the door slammed open.

Skyler stormed in, covered in blood and dust, chest heaving, gun still clenched in one hand.

Her heart lurched painfully.

But he was alive.

"Skyler!" she cried, rushing to him without thinking.

He dropped the gun and caught her, arms crushing her to him like he might lose her if he let go.

For a moment, he just buried his face in her hair, breathing her in, grounding himself.

Emma felt something hot and wet on her shoulder.

Blood?

No.

Tears.

Skyler Romano — the most feared man in the underworld — was shaking in her arms.

"They almost got you," he rasped brokenly. "They almost took you from me."

Emma's own tears welled up.

"I'm okay," she whispered, clutching him tighter. "I'm okay, Skyler."

But he wasn't listening.

He pulled back just enough to look at her, his eyes wild, desperate.

"I made an oath tonight," he said, voice rough and shaking. "I swore on blood — on everything I am — that no one would ever touch you again."

"Skyler, you can't—"

"I killed them, Emma." His voice cracked. "Every last one."

The raw violence in his confession should have horrified her.

And part of her was horrified.

But another part — a dark, broken part she didn't even recognize — felt safe.

Wanted.

Cherished.

Skyler cupped her face again, gentle despite the blood staining his skin.

"You're mine," he whispered, as if it was a prayer, a curse, a vow.

"And you…" His voice dropped even lower, reverent and agonizing. "You own me now."

Emma shook her head, tears slipping free.

"I don't want to own you," she whispered brokenly. "I just want you safe. I want you alive."

His forehead pressed to hers again.

"I can't live without you," he said. "I won't."

Emma closed her eyes.

This was wrong.

Dangerous.

Madness.

And she didn't care anymore.

She kissed him first this time — fierce and desperate, pouring all her fear and longing into him.

Skyler groaned low in his throat and deepened the kiss, his hands tangling in her hair, his body pressing against hers like he needed to merge them into one being.

Clothes were a blur.

Breathless, wild, they fell back onto the bed, all lips and hands and desperate, whispered promises in the dark.

It wasn't soft. It wasn't slow.

It was brutal and aching and real.

And when they finally collapsed together, spent and trembling, Skyler wrapped himself around her like a shield, like a man who would die before letting her go.

In the silence that followed, their hearts pounded in sync.

Emma traced the scar on his chest with trembling fingers.

"What happens now?" she whispered.

Skyler's arms tightened around her.

"Now," he murmured against her hair, "we go to war together."

Emma swallowed hard.

She wasn't just a bystander anymore.

She was his.

And the world would burn before Skyler Romano let anyone take her away.