Naga's eyes opened in the darkness—vertical pupils reflecting the dying firelight like twin emeralds. He hadn't been sleeping.
Couldn't sleep, not with Alex's scent so sweet and vulnerable in the air, not with the knowledge that tomorrow his mate would walk alone into danger while Naga had to sit back and let it happen.
The very thought made his fangs ache.
"You're thinking too loud," Leo murmured without opening his eyes. "I can hear your anxiety from here."
"I'm not anxious," Naga lied.
"You're vibrating. Your coils are doing that thing where they ripple every thirty seconds. You've been doing it for an hour." Leo finally cracked one golden eye open. "We're both terrified. You don't have to pretend otherwise."
Naga was quiet for a moment, watching the gentle rise and fall of Alex's chest.
"What if something goes wrong?" he asked finally, voice barely above a whisper. "What if that wolf decides that Alex walking in alone is an invitation rather than a negotiation? What if—"
"What if the sky falls? What if the earth opens up?"
" What if we spend the next forty-five minutes catastrophizing instead of trusting that our mate knows what he's doing?"
Leo's tail thumped once against the ground—soft enough not to wake Alex, firm enough to make his point. "He's brilliant. You know he is. He talked his way past a psychotic saintess and a literal dragon god. He can handle one territorial wolf."
"One territorial wolf surrounded by an entire pack of territorial wolves, all of whom want to claim him."
"Which is why we'll be ready to intervene the second things go sideways," Leo countered.
"Forty-five minutes. That's all we're giving them. And if that wolf so much as puts a hand on Alex in a way we don't like, we turn that entire territory into a cautionary tale."
Naga's lips pulled back from his fangs in something that wasn't quite a smile. "I've already planned seventeen different entrance strategies. Twelve of them involve fire."
"Only twelve? I had twenty-three. Fifteen involve fire, six involve strategic dismemberment, and two involve convincing that dragon to come back and do our dirty work for us."
Despite everything, Naga felt a huff of amusement escape. "The dragon won't help us."
"The dragon might if we phrase it as 'protecting a rare pregnant male from being forcibly claimed.' Even sky gods have standards."
They fell into companionable silence, both watching Alex sleep, both counting down the hours until they'd have to let him go.
"I never wanted this," Naga said eventually.
"A mate. Offspring. The vulnerability that comes with caring for someone more than you care for your own life."
Leo's ear flicked. "And now?"
"Now I can't imagine existence without it." Naga's hand moved to rest beside Leo's paw on Alex's stomach—not touching, but close. "Without him. Without them. The hatchlings. You." He paused. "I would burn down the world to keep them safe."
"I know," Leo said quietly. "Because I would help you do it."
Another howl split the night—closer this time, raising the hair on both their necks.
"They're watching us," Naga observed. "Have been since we crossed into their territory."
"Of course they are. We're two apex predators camping on their border with a pregnant male who smells like he could single-handedly repopulate an entire tribe." Leo's claws flexed once against the ground.
"They're probably drawing lots right now to see who gets to try claiming him first."
"They can try," Naga said, his voice dropping into that dangerous register that promised violence. "They'll die trying."
"Agreed. But let's try to avoid the mass murder until after Alex has his diplomatic victory, hmm? He'll be upset if we ruin his negotiation by preemptively killing everyone."
"He would forgive us eventually."
"Would he though?"
Naga considered this. "No. Probably not. He'd give us that look."
"The disappointed one?"
"The one that makes you feel like you've personally betrayed every principle of civilized society."
"That's the one," Leo agreed solemnly. "I hate that look."
"I would rather fight the dragon again than receive that look."
"Same."
They lapsed back into silence, the easy understanding between them that had formed through weeks of shared purpose.
What had started as uneasy alliance—serpent and lion, natural enemies forced into cooperation by their mutual bond to the same impossible human—had somehow become something close to friendship.
"When this is over," Leo said quietly, "when we have all the stones and Alex can choose whether to stay or go home—what will you do?"
The question hung heavy in the air.
Naga didn't answer immediately. His coils shifted, adjusting around Alex's sleeping form with unconscious care.
"I will respect his choice," he said finally. "If he wishes to return to his world, to his family, to a life where he isn't constantly in danger of being claimed or killed or used—I will let him go. Even if it destroys me."
"You're lying," Leo observed, not unkindly.
"I'm lying," Naga admitted. "I would beg. I would bargain. I would offer him everything I possess if it meant he would stay. But ultimately—" His voice cracked slightly. "—ultimately, I would let him choose. Because loving him means wanting his happiness more than my own."
Leo was quiet for a long moment.
"I don't think he'll leave," he said eventually.
"You can't know that."
"No. But I know him. And I know that he looks at us the way we look at him—like we're his whole world. Like going back would be leaving his heart behind."
Leo's purr rumbled low in his chest. "Besides, where else is he going to find two mates willing to let him sass them, argue about fish, and make terrible plans that somehow work?"
"His world probably has options that don't involve constant mortal peril."
"Boring options. Safe options." Leo snorted softly.
"Alex doesn't want safe. If he wanted safe, he would have stayed in that cave and let us handle everything. Instead, he's walking alone into a wolf pack tomorrow because he thinks he can talk his way into getting what we need without anyone dying."
"He's insane."
"He's perfect," Leo corrected. "And he's ours. And tomorrow, we're going to trust him to do what he does best—talk impossible people into doing impossible things."
Naga's coils tightened around Alex—just enough to feel the warmth of him, the realness, the precious fragility of the life they'd somehow built together.
"Forty-five minutes," he said.
"Forty-five minutes," Leo agreed. "And then, if necessary, we remind the wolves why apex predators are called apex."
The fire guttered and died, leaving only embers glowing in the dark.
Above them, the stars wheeled slowly across the sky, indifferent to the fears and hopes of the creatures below.
And in the forest, unseen watchers continued their vigil—wolves quietly watching 'visitors' camping on their borders.
And Alex slept through it all, dreaming of a world where choices were simple and the scariest thing was biology exams, while his two mates kept watch over him and their unborn young, counting down the minutes until they'd have to be brave enough to let him face danger alone.