After arriving home the previous night, the household had quietly scattered into their respective rooms. Arthur soon found himself curled up beneath his blankets, his phone screen illuminating the dark as he reread the text messages he and Natalia had exchanged during the car ride.
A soft, helpless smile crept onto his lips. Her texts were laced with a quiet, grounding undercurrent of worry, she had clearly picked up on the exact moment he had spiraled into that dramatic, internal tragedy about future heartbreaks.
He really had been an absolute drama queen, hadn't he? Arthur buried his face in his pillow, fully acknowledging his own ridiculousness.
Eventually, their text conversation had drifted into territory that was dangerously flirty. Natalia's effortless teasing had sent a rush of heat straight to his cheeks. Ultimately, he had been forced to lock his phone and shove it under his pillow, knowing full well he was going to waste another half hour replaying her words in his head anyway.
He was right, of course. It took him a solid thirty minutes of staring giddily at his ceiling before sleep finally claimed him.
The next morning, Arthur managed to wake up late yet again. This time, his alarm took the form of Aunt Kelly, who marched into his room and rumbled him awake with a few highly affectionate, heavy slaps to his back and arm.
Downstairs at the breakfast table, Arthur instantly tensed the moment Natalia walked into the room. Without a word, she claimed the seat directly beside him, casually dragging her chair a fraction of an inch closer to his. It was a minor, predatory adjustment, but it went completely unnoticed by the older couple across the table.
Natalia was dressed for the corporate world today, and Arthur had to fight a losing battle against the urge to stare. Just like before, he felt entirely hypnotized by her posture and her striking, effortless command of the room. The tailored dark suit fit her perfectly, accentuating the sharp, elegant lines of her frame. The subtle click of her heels added to her formidable aura, and her dark hair was pulled back into a neat, flawless ponytail.
She looked gorgeous. And incredibly intimidating.
Arthur was reasonably certain that no Omega on the planet could ignore her; she was the type of Alpha people turned around to stare at in the street. That category very much included Arthur himself, who was currently struggling to breathe normally.
He desperately wanted to admire her more, but he didn't want to cross the line into looking like a bizarre, starstruck stalker. 'Maybe I'll get plenty of chances in the future,' he comforted himself, his heart fluttering. 'To just look at her up close… in peace.'
"You're heading into the main company today?" Kevin asked, breaking the silence as he cut into his scrambled eggs.
"Yeah," Natalia replied smoothly. "Actually, I was thinking that from now on, I'll start working out of the primary office regularly. Since I'm finally back, you can afford to rest more. Take some time to work from home."
Uncle Kevin paused, a warm, proud smile spreading across his face. "Are you sure, sweetheart? I don't want to dump the entire weight of the firm on your shoulders all of a sudden."
"It's not sudden. I've been preparing for this for a long time."
"I know you have. I believe in you," Kevin said softly, his chest swelling. "You're going to do even better than I did."
"Thank you, Dad. I'll do my best."
Aunt Kelly beamed at the touching father-daughter display, affectionately sliding an extra helping of eggs onto her husband's plate.
"Also," Natalia added, her tone dropping into a casual, detached register, "from now on, I'll handle dropping Arthur off at the school and picking him up. You do that drive every day anyway."
Arthur's heart gave a violent skip. He bit down hard on his fork, his eyes darting toward Uncle Kevin.
The older Alpha went entirely quiet, the clinking of his silverware stopping instantly. The silence stretched for a long, heavy moment.
"That's alright, dear," Kevin finally said, his protective nature flaring slightly. "I can handle the school run myself."
A sharp wave of disappointment washed over Arthur. He tried his best to keep his face completely blank, quickly glancing at Natalia to see her reaction. To his surprise, she didn't look bothered in the slightest.
"Dad, you can trust me," Natalia said, her voice smooth and unyielding. "I'll take good care of him. Besides, it'll give us a good opportunity to get to know each other better."
Once again, Kevin fell into a pensive silence. Finally, he shifted the entire weight of his gaze onto Arthur.
"I do trust you, sweetheart," Kevin said gently, before addressing Arthur. "But I want Arthur to decide. As much as I want the two of you to build a bond, I don't want anyone forcing or rushing him into anything."
"I understand, Dad," Natalia replied.
Arthur felt Kevin's protective, paternal gaze settling over him. Despite the heavy disappointment of a moment ago, a profound wave of warmth moved through him. Uncle Kevin truly, deeply cared about his comfort and safety.
Arthur offered a soft smile, stealing a fleeting glance at Natalia before looking directly at his uncle. "I'm actually completely okay with it, Uncle."
"Really?"
The sheer surprise in Kevin's voice was unmistakable. Even Aunt Kelly paused mid-bite, her fork hovering in the air. But unlike her husband, she didn't look shocked at all. Her eyes lit up with a sudden, intense burst of excitement, an energy that felt far too explosive for a simple carpool arrangement.
"Well then! Who's dropping him off today? You?" Kelly asked, immediately pointing her fork at her daughter.
"Yeah. If he's ready," Natalia said.
Arthur caught the distinct, victorious smirk playing on Natalia's lips as she turned her head to look at him. It was getting harder and harder to pretend he was completely oblivious to whatever calculated strategy she was pulling off.
"Wonderful! Please take extra good care of my baby, alright?" Aunt Kelly rattled off without pausing for breath. "Drop him off right at the school gates. And remember to be patient and gentle with him, okay? He gets stressed easily!"
Uncle Kevin watched his wife's sudden enthusiastic outburst and let out a quiet, knowing chuckle.
Arthur, however, felt unexpectedly choked up by Aunt Kelly's fierce, maternal protectiveness. A prickle of emotional tears actually began to well in the corners of his eyes. He was just about to lose himself in the sweet sentimentality of the moment-
Until a firm, warm hand suddenly landed squarely on his thigh beneath the table.
The sheer shock of the touch sent a jolt straight up his spine. Arthur gasped, inhaling sharply, and instantly sent a mouthful of scrambled eggs directly down the wrong pipe.
He erupted into a violent, hacking cough.
"Oh my god! Arthur! Here, drink some water!"
Tears instantly flooded his eyes, blurring his vision as he clutched his chest, staring down at his plate while his aunt and uncle scrambled in a panic, shoving a glass of water into his hands.
"Haa..." Arthur wheezed, taking a shaky sip of water and clearing his throat, his face burning from a mix of oxygen deprivation and sheer embarrassment.
As his vision cleared, his eyes locked onto Natalia. He hadn't seen many of her expressions yet, but the look currently occupying her face made his chest ache. The cool, unshakeable Alpha looked completely unnerved, wide-eyed, pale, and thick with an immediate, heavy guilt.
'Well, she should feel guilty,' Arthur thought, his inner Omega practically pouting. 'She's the reason I almost died over breakfast.'
Yet, seeing her look so completely terrified for his well-being stirred a strange, deeply possessive thrill inside him. Before his rational mind could stop him, his body acted on pure, unfiltered instinct. Seeking a strange mix of comfort and mild retaliation, Arthur reached down beneath the table, found Natalia's thigh, and gave it a firm, deliberate squeeze.
Natalia froze instantly, her entire posture stiffening as if she had been struck by lightning.
It felt like a small, satisfying piece of revenge. But when Arthur noticed her rigid shoulders slowly begin to relax, a soft sense of relief washed over him. She really had been worried about him.
'Haa… these stupid eggs,' Arthur grumbled internally.
Still slightly annoyed, entirely distracted, and very much operating on an adrenaline high, Arthur's hand lingered. His fingers remained pressed against her thigh, and without thinking it through, his fingers tightened, unknowingly squeezing the soft, heavy muscle of her leg a second time.
A sharp, metallic clink echoed through the dining room.
Arthur flinched and immediately yanked his hand back into his own lap. Natalia had just stabbed her fork into her eggs with a sudden, aggressive force that nearly cracked the porcelain plate.
Arthur stared at her, blinking innocently. 'Oh… wow. She's really angry at the eggs too.'
She wasn't.
She wasn't angry at the food at all.
In reality, Natalia was currently staring down at her plate because the lingering, burning imprint of a male Omega's possessive hand on her thigh was actively making her lose her mind.
The scent of him, the heat of his touch, the sheer, intoxicating audacity of his squeeze, it was making her ravenous. And right now, under the watchful, innocent eyes of her parents, she was trying very, very hard not to devour him right there at the table.