Seven years into their marriage, Aiden came home with news that made Kieran's dead heart stutter.
"I found her," Aiden said, barely containing his excitement. "Kieran, I found her."
"Found who?"
"A baby. Six months old. She was abandoned at a hospital, no family, no prospects. She'll end up in the foster system, passed from home to home, probably never finding stability."
"Aiden, we can't turn a baby. That's—"
"I'm not talking about turning her. I'm talking about adopting her. Raising her human. Giving her a childhood, a family, love." Aiden pulled out his phone, showing photos of a beautiful baby girl with dark curls and bright eyes. "Her name is Luna. And Kieran, the moment I saw her, I just... knew. The way I knew you were my mate. I knew she was meant to be ours."
Kieran looked at the photos, and something inside him cracked open. "A human child. In a vampire household."
"Why not? We have Sofia, Kai, and Elian, but they're adults now, independent. This would be different. This would be raising someone from infancy, watching them grow, giving them everything we wish we'd had."
"She'll age. She'll grow old and die while we stay young."
"I know. And that will be heartbreaking. But Kieran, isn't fifty or sixty or eighty years with her better than her having no family at all?"
"She'll discover what we are eventually."
"Then we'll tell her the truth, the way my mother learned the truth. Let her choose whether to be turned when she's old enough to decide." Aiden gripped his hands. "Please. I know it's complicated and scary and risky. But I want this. I want to give this child the family she deserves."
Kieran looked at his husband—his eternal mate who'd waited lifetimes to be here, who'd built a family out of love and second chances, who saw possibility where others saw only problems.
"Okay," he said softly. "Okay, let's bring Luna home."
The adoption process was complex—vampires adopting human children raised questions. But Kieran's wealth and connections smoothed the way. And three months later, Luna came home.
"She's perfect," Elian whispered, watching the baby sleep in her nursery.
"She's ours," Aiden corrected, tears in his eyes.
Raising a human baby was chaos. Vampires didn't sleep, which meant they were always available for 2 AM feedings. But they also had to be careful—vampire strength could accidentally harm such a fragile creature, vampire instincts sometimes responded to baby blood scent inappropriately.
"This is the hardest thing I've ever done," Kieran admitted after a particularly difficult teething phase. "And I've fought in literal wars."
"But it's worth it, right?" Aiden asked, Luna sleeping against his chest.
Kieran looked at his husband holding their daughter, surrounded by their vampire children who'd gathered to coo over the baby, and felt something he hadn't felt in sixteen hundred years.
Complete contentment.
"It's worth everything," he said.