"Isn't that boy Jax just the sweetest? He immediately came over to talk to Arthur. What a polite, respectful kid."
As the car glided through the quiet night, Aunt Kelly couldn't stop praising the young teenager. She had been thoroughly impressed by his manners, but Arthur knew her better than that. He could see the quiet, radiant pride shining in her eyes. She wasn't just proud of Jax; she was proud of the son she had raised, a man respected so deeply by his own students.
Arthur couldn't hide the soft smile tugging at his lips as he nodded along. Truthfully, if he thought about it, Jax really was a remarkably good kid.
"Carol told me he's a Beta," Kelly continued, her tone softening with a touch of pity. "Apparently, he's been kind of pushed into the corners by the other students because of it. You know how it is with the Alphas and Omegas dominating the social circles."
Arthur blinked, turning his head in surprise. "Huh? But I'm certain there are plenty of Betas in his grade. Statistically, they make up the majority of the student body."
"Really? Well, maybe his specific class doesn't have many Betas for him to bond with."
Arthur listened, a slight frown marring his forehead. That didn't sound right at all. School administration carefully balanced secondary genders across all classrooms specifically to prevent that kind of isolation.
'So somehow… he's still entirely alone?' Arthur thought, a pang of sympathy tightening his chest. 'With no friends?'
It felt impossible to believe. Jax was outgoing, charismatic, and undeniably sweet. In fact, Arthur had naturally assumed the boy already had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Even the most troublesome, annoying students managed to find partners in high school; it was practically a rite of passage.
Though romantic relationships were strictly forbidden by school policy, the rules were mostly a formality. The students didn't care, and the faculty turned a blind eye. As long as it didn't derail their academic performance, no one bothered to interfere.
"Maybe..." Arthur murmured softly.
He didn't want to worry Aunt Kelly with the systemic flaws of school social dynamics, so he let the subject drop. But a heavy layer of professional and personal guilt settled into his chest. As an educator, the thought of a student slipping through the cracks troubled him deeply.
'Maybe I can make things a little better for him,' Arthur reasoned, trying to find a silver lining. 'Now that we've properly met, I can make it a point to check in on him whenever I see him in the halls.'
Satisfied with his decision, he leaned back against the headrest. Almost unconsciously, his eyes drifted to the silent Alpha sitting right next to him.
Natalia's gaze was fixed entirely on the dark, blurry stretch of landscape rushing past the window. She looked completely detached, as if she hadn't absorbed a single syllable of the conversation happening around her.
A cold, sudden wave of insecurity crashed over Arthur.
'Did I talk too much? Did I annoy her?'
The heavy silence stretched between them, fueling his worst anxieties. After all, what were they right now? They were just testing the waters, dating to see if they were even compatible enough to take a real step forward.
'Maybe… she's already bored of me,' his mind whispered, torturing him. 'Maybe I'm just completely out of my depth. I'm not what she wants.'
Natalia was the most brilliant, striking Alpha he had ever met, the only one he had ever dared to want in a real, romantic way. Even that single, intoxicating kiss they had shared felt entirely unreal now, like a beautiful fragment of a dream he had no business having. And maybe long-term dating was just another fantasy he was foolishly letting himself believe in.
'Ugh, no. Stop it, Arthur. You can't give up this easily.'
He liked her. He liked her so much that, for the first time in his life, the thought of letting an Alpha mark him didn't terrify him, it comforted him. That realization alone made this serious. This wasn't a fleeting crush. It was a deep, soul-stirring gravity. The thought of getting his heart broken made his stomach twist with raw terror, but at the end of the day, his heart was already out of his control.
Arthur let out a quiet, heavy sigh.
He froze instantly when a soft, warm palm gently brushed against his cheek.
His head snapped toward the Alpha. Natalia had turned completely away from the window and was focusing the entire, crushing weight of her attention on him. Her dark eyes were intense, searching his face as she slowly, lingeringly drew her hand back.
"Why do you look so stressed?"
Her voice was barely a whisper, a low vibration meant only for the two of them, yet her touch felt louder than anything else in the car. Arthur swallowed hard, his eyes darting nervously toward the front seats. He made absolutely sure Kevin and Kelly were still preoccupied before sinking deeper into the shadows of the backseat.
"N-no," he breathed back, his voice trembling slightly.
"You are lying."
Arthur stared at her, his pulse racing. It felt like they were playing a high-stakes, risky game. In the dead silence of the night, even their lightest whispers could easily carry to the front of the car.
He despised this paralyzing nervousness. He hated feeling like a criminal just for being close to her. Even though they weren't doing anything wrong, and even though Natalia had explicitly reassured him that it was completely okay for them to explore this, the deeply ingrained fear of disappointing his family still clung to him like a second skin.
Needing a barrier, Arthur pulled out his phone. His fingers flew across the screen, typing out a message before hitting send.
Natalia watched him, a look of quiet understanding crossing her face as her own phone buzzed in her lap. She pulled it out, entirely aware of the game he was playing.
Truthfully, Natalia wasn't a fan of this hide-and-seek dynamic. Neither of them was committing a crime. Yet, this Omega seemed entirely consumed by the irrational fear of getting caught, as if simply speaking to her would somehow make him a disappointment to the parents who adored him. He worried over the most harmless, innocent things.
'Such an absolute overthinker,' Natalia thought, suppressing a sigh. 'He loves to torture himself.'
But as she looked at him, the frustration melted into something profoundly tender. She really, truly liked him. He was a genuinely good, pure soul, and she felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude that she had found him, and that he actually liked her back.
Maybe this really was fate.
Natalia was a rational, guarded person. Under normal circumstances, she would never, under any condition, jump at the chance to kiss an Omega she had only recently met, regardless of whether he carried the most intoxicating, desirable scent in the world.
Yet, she had done exactly that.
Not only had she kissed him, but she was now actively planning a future with him. It was a complete betrayal of all the strict, protective promises she had made to herself during that agonizing, bitter heartbreak from her past. Back then, she had convinced herself that she almost hated Omegas that they were inherently manipulative, fragile things she wanted no part of.
But with Arthur, it hadn't even taken a single second for her defenses to crumble. She had thrown away her carefully built walls just to seize a chance with him.
She had never been this reckless in her entire life. Part of her felt like a fool, even worrying that she might have come across as a predatory player by kissing such an innocent Omega when she hadn't even fully processed her own romantic feelings yet.
For God's sake, she was falling hard and fast, entirely eager to claim this one Omega as hers for the rest of her life. Either she was completely losing her mind... or fate was actively derailing her life to ensure she ended up with the right person.
'I can be patient for him,' she promised herself, her gaze softening as she watched him type. 'I will wait for however long he needs to feel safe.'
Everyone gets a second chance in life, and Arthur was hers. Her second chance, and undoubtedly her last. His care, his shyness, and his attention toward her felt entirely real, completely devoid of malice or hidden agendas. She refused to let her past doubts poison what they had, even if trusting him meant risking another heartbreak down the line.
He was the one. The real one.
Natalia's phone lit up with a rapid succession of messages as the Omega next to her furiously typed away, entirely concentrated on his screen.
...