"Arthur, sweetie, are you done? We only have about fifteen minutes before we need to leave!"
The clock was already creeping toward 6 p.m. An hour earlier, fresh off an epic, world-shifting chat with Natalia, Arthur had retreated to his room with the noble intent of staring at the ceiling and thinking deeply about life.
What actually happened was fifteen minutes of giggling into his pillow like a lovesick squirrel, followed by unintentionally passing out as if he'd been struck by a tranquilizer dart.
Now, predictably, he was in a state of absolute chaos.
"Gosh. That little brat must be the only person alive who can manage to be late for an evening plans because he woke up late," Uncle Kevin's booming voice drifted up the stairs, accompanied by heavy, dramatic footsteps that clearly meant business.
Arthur, however, was far too high on pure serotonin to feel guilty. He had been floating in a cozy, rose-tinted dream involving Natalia and… a comically large bowl of ice cream. He wasn't a napper. He had always silently judged people who napped. Yet here he was, utterly betrayed by his own blissfully exhausted body.
"I'm ready!" he yelled back, bolting out of bed.
He caught his reflection in the mirror. He was, as always, wearing his trusty uniform: crisp black trousers and a white button-up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows like he was about to audit someone's taxes. He could practically hear Uncle Kevin's voice in his head: 'This boy's closet looks like a rainbow threw up, but every time we go out, he dresses like a Victorian ghost.'
But Arthur liked it. It was neat. Serious. He wasn't trying to stand out, and he certainly didn't care about being memorable to the world.
Well... except maybe to one person now.
Sprinting downstairs, he bypassed Aunt Kelly, who merely offered a warm pat on his back and a fond, knowing smile. Uncle Kevin trailed behind them with a heavy groan, jingling the car keys as if the metal itself was personally offending him.
As they stepped outside, Arthur casually scanned the driveway. His heart gave a sudden, heavy sink when he didn't immediately spot her. His shoulders slumped, a shadow of disappointment crossing his face so clearly that Kelly opened her mouth to ask what was wrong.
Before she could speak, Arthur's face lit up as if someone had flipped a master switch. A wide, helpless grin bloomed across his features.
Kevin followed the boy's starstruck gaze. There, leaning casually against the passenger door with her arms crossed and a look of quiet amusement, was Natalia.
The older Alpha blinked, entirely derailed. 'Since when did those two get close enough for Arthur to beam like a lighthouse?'
Kelly glanced between them, pressing her lips together to stifle a sudden giggle. Her daughter and Arthur? 'Oh, they are definitely doing more than just talking,' she thought, delighted.
The family piled into the car. As Kevin pulled out of the driveway, Kelly kept sneaking glances into the rearview mirror. In the back seat, Natalia and Arthur sat a respectful distance apart, but they were visibly locked into their own orbit, exchanging fleeting, secret glances through the reflection of the window.
Kevin, blissfully oblivious to the silent drama unfolding inches away, was entirely focused on navigating traffic and wondering if Kelly would let him have a few drinks with his buddy, Mr. Josiah, later.
With the front-seat adults distracted, the quiet bubble in the back finally bloomed into something entirely private.
Arthur peeked over, only to find Natalia already watching him. Her lips curved into a slow, devastating smirk. Locking eyes with him, she mouthed four words deliberately:
"Handsome and so beautiful."
Arthur's breath hitched.
Those words... for him? Aside from Auntie and Uncle, who had raised him with all the unconditional praise a child could ever need, no one had ever called him beautiful. No one had ever looked at him like this.
'Ha… I never knew it felt like this,' Arthur thought, his chest aching with a sweet, terrifying warmth. 'To be complimented by an Alpha. By her. By my Alpha…'
The word took root in his mind, fierce and undeniable. My Alpha. They belonged to each other. She really liked him back.
Arthur's heart hammered against his ribs. A bright, blazing pink flushed across his cheeks, and his lips curled into a hopelessly giddy smile.
Watching the colorful warmth bleed across his face, Natalia felt a sudden, powerful stir in her chest.
It was a primal, deep-seated instinct. The way he blushed at her voice, the way he looked at her as if she were the sun and stars wrapped into one human frame—it triggered something fiercely possessive within her.
Mark him, a quiet, ancient whisper echoed in her mind. Protect him. Keep him safe. Make him yours.
And for the first time in her life, she didn't want to fight the instinct. Love shouldn't be a battlefield. It shouldn't be exhausting. It was supposed to make you happy from the very beginning. Unlike everything that had come before...
'I shouldn't even say I just "like" him anymore,' she realized, a soft wave of clarity washing over her. 'I've completely lost my mind over him.'
'I love him. And I'm going to make him the happiest omega alive.'
Her eyes softened, though a fleeting twinge of guilt pricked at her. She thought of the years she'd spent abroad, the time wasted where she hadn't paid him any attention at all. But that was the past. They were here now, slowly dismantling each other's walls, piece by piece, gentle and patient.
"Cute," she murmured under her breath.
She'd been using that word a lot lately. Arthur always protested, huffing that he was older than her and "not a baby boy," but she couldn't help it. He was utterly, adorably helpless when he was flustered.
As the realization of her own depth of feeling settled in, Natalia's pheromones stirred instinctively, leaking a subtle, intoxicating trace of warm, possessive Alpha scent into the tight space of the back seat.
Arthur noticed immediately. His breath caught, and before his shy nature could stop him, his hand drifted across the fabric of the seat.
His fingers brushed against hers—tentative, trembling, and impossibly gentle—before lightly lacing through them for one single, electric heartbeat.
"Y-you're g-gorgeous too," he whispered, his voice barely audible over the hum of the car engine. "Mm... th-thank you, by the way."
In a flash, he snatched his hand back and whipped his head around to stare fixedly out the window, his ears glowing a brilliant, telltale red.
Natalia bit her lip to hold back a low chuckle, her gaze hovering somewhere between profound fondness and sudden, dark hunger. There it was again. That undeniable spark.
'Arthur… you're an absolute miracle,' she thought, her heart doing a slow, happy flip.
No matter how long it took, and no matter how shyly they had to move, she was going to do this right. She was going to cherish every single piece of him.