Chapter 184: Chapter 184: Through the crack.

Adam’s vacation began in the same way that salvation always did: quietly and suspiciously, as if the world were waiting for the punchline.

The contract with Damian Lyon was coming to an end. The last show had been clean, the last set list filed, and the last security debrief endured. And when the final paperwork was signed and the last venue doors closed behind him, Adam had expected to feel triumphant.

Instead, he felt… hollow.

A year and a half of touring without real breaks did that to a person. A year and a half of turning art into a schedule, joy into an operation, and adrenaline into a resource to be spent and replenished and spent again until the body stopped believing rest was allowed.

He still loved singing. He still loved the stage lights, the crowd, and the moment a room became one breath.

But Damian had a talent for turning everything into military procedure, and Adam was bone-deep tired of being treated like both a morale booster and a liability.

Even the rules that had made sense on paper had worn him down in practice.

No alcohol.

Of course there was no alcohol. Ether and alcohol mixed too easily—loosening tongues, dulling instincts, ruining judgment, and risking the careful ward calibrations that kept crowds from becoming tragedies. Adam understood it.

He had still wanted to throw a bottle at someone every time the rule was repeated like a prayer.

So on his first night ’free,’ Adam did something small and indulgent and rebelliously human.

He showered until the steam fogged the mirror and the tension in his shoulders eased by a fraction. He pulled on a dark nightrobe, soft and loose, and padded barefoot across his apartment like he was reclaiming his own space one step at a time.

Then he poured himself a glass of wine.

A deep red that smelled of fruit and earth, and the kind of life that didn’t necessitate security checks.

Adam took a sip and let it sit on his tongue like a victory.

He leaned against the kitchen counter, eyes half-lidded, and tried to remember what it felt like to exist without a schedule pinned to his spine.

The apartment was quiet. A silence that caused your ears to instinctively search for danger.

The bond on his nape, which had become a dull, familiar presence, did not help. It hummed occasionally when he was tired, like a second heartbeat that was not his.

Max had been… distant. Distant in the way men became when they were busy building cages for themselves and calling it duty.

Adam had learned not to expect anything from him.

Which was why, when the knock came, it snapped through the apartment like a gunshot.

Adam froze mid-sip.

Three knocks. A pause. Two more.

Adam set the glass down slowly, his heart already picking up speed because that was what it did now – tour nerves, security conditioning, and instinct trained into paranoia.

He didn’t move to the door immediately.

He crossed the apartment with careful steps, bare feet silent on the floor. He checked the peephole first because he wasn’t an idiot and because fame taught you very quickly that doors were where people tried to turn you into someone else’s property.

The hall light outside made the image sharp.

A man stood there, still and composed, dressed too neatly for the hour. Black coat. Dark hair. His posture that made corridors feel smaller.

Maximilian Thornwell.

Adam stared at him through the peephole for a beat too long.

Of course it was him.

Of course the first night Adam tried to be a normal person, Max showed up like a complication wearing expensive fabric.

Adam didn’t open the door.

He slid the chain into place anyway, out of stubbornness rather than fear, and then unlocked the deadbolt.

When he cracked the door, leaving only a narrow gap, it allowed cold, clean hallway air to enter.

“What,” Adam said flatly, “are you doing here?”

Max’s green eyes lifted to his face. They were calm, but there was something darker about them than usual – tension kept under control, a man keeping himself together through force.

“I need to speak with you,” Max said.

Adam’s mouth twitched. “You always do.”

Max didn’t rise to it. He looked past Adam’s shoulder for a fraction of a second, as if checking the interior the way he checked streets. Then his gaze returned to Adam’s face.

“Are you alone?” Max asked.

Adam’s eyebrows rose. “Are you kidding me?”

Max’s expression didn’t change. “Answer.”

Adam’s grip tightened on the door edge. The robe suddenly felt too thin, domestic, and exposed. He hated that Max could make him feel that way just by standing in the hall.

“Yes,” Adam said. “I’m alone.”

Max nodded once. “Good.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “That didn’t sound reassuring.”

Max’s jaw worked once, and for the first time, Adam got the sense that Max wasn’t here to argue or flirt or play middleman.

He was here because something had shifted.

“What happened?” Adam asked, voice sharpening.

“If you want to know,” Max said evenly, “let me in.”

He didn’t try to push past the threshold. He didn’t slide a shoe into the gap. He didn’t do any of the petty, alpha things men did when they wanted to test how much control they could take.

He waited for him to make a decision.

Adam didn’t move. He kept one hand on the door, the other still damp from shower steam, and the robe belt tied too loosely to feel like armor. He stared at Max through the crack like he was measuring the risk with his teeth.

Max’s gaze remained firm; he was calm and waiting even through the bond.

“Adam,” Max said, and there was a warning in the softness, “I’m not here to argue on your doorstep.”

Adam’s mouth tightened. “Then talk.”

Max’s eyes flicked briefly down the hall and then back to Adam. “Not here.”

Adam scoffed. “You’re being dramatic.”

Max’s jaw worked once. “I’m being careful.”

Adam’s grip tightened on the edge of the door. He hated being told what to do in his own home. He hated even more that Max had never once tried to force his way past Adam’s boundaries – no matter how irrational, no matter how stupid, no matter how much they inconvenienced him.

Max always stopped at the line.

He just… stared at it until it moved.

“Say it,” Adam snapped. “Whatever it is.”

Max didn’t. He didn’t reward the refusal. He waited again, calm as a man who knew time worked for him.

Finally, his voice became lower, rougher, and less refined.

“Adam,” he said, and it wasn’t a command this time. It was frustration held tight. “You don’t trust the one you asked to mark you?”

Adam’s chest tightened. His instinctive response rose, but Max didn’t give him space to throw it like a knife.

“I’m your mate,” Max continued, green eyes fixed on him now with something darker than patience. “And I’m tired of waiting for you to acknowledge it.”

Silence hit like a door closing.

Adam’s throat went tight. He hated the word ’mate’ – hated how permanent it sounded, hated how it made his body settle even as his mind bristled. He hated that Max saying it out loud made the bond at his nape pulse like it was agreeing.

He forced a brittle laugh. “That’s a you problem.”

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