Summary:

After four years of silence and a thousand unanswered questions, Ilya finally gives voice to the one that has been tearing him apart. In a quiet room thick with tension, he asks in a raw, fragile whisper, "Is she mine?" Ilya didn't need the words. He could already smell the truth in the sudden spike of Shane's scent, the sharp, tangy fear of a cornered animal, layered with the deep, unwavering love of a parent. He could see it in the way Shane's shoulders slumped, the fight draining out of him, replaced by a profound, bone-deep weariness. Shane looked at Ilya, his eyes glistening with unshed tears, and took a shaky breath, the admission ripped from him by a force stronger than his own fear. "Yes," he whispered, the word a surrender. "She's yours."