Caught by the Mad Alpha King-Chapter 234: I love you.

"I didn’t know!" Chris hissed.

"You were horny, irritable, starving, sweating, and sleep-deprived."

"That’s also what happens when I have deadlines," Chris muttered.

Dax pinched the bridge of his nose. "My moon... you were in heat and treating it with soup."

Chris scowled defensively. "It worked! Eventually!"

"You were having incomplete heats alone," Dax said, leaning back slightly to look at him fully. "Do you understand how dangerous that is?"

Chris hesitated. "Okay, well, when you say it like that, it sounds bad."

"It was bad," Dax insisted, eyes sharp with that protective edge that always made Chris feel like he should look away or lean in, he never knew which. "Your system was trying to cycle, failing, then trying again. That’s why this one hit you like a landslide."

And Dax continued like a father on a rant. "I don’t know how you are this lucky, no alpha was in your immediate area to feel you."

Chris blinked at him, offended. "Excuse me, I wasn’t broadcasting."

Dax gave him a flat, unimpressed look. "Chris. You were walking around radiating ’touch me and die’ pheromones while sweating through your clothes."

"That’s just my personality," Chris said weakly.

Dax ignored that. "You had heats, alone in public spaces. With zero supervision. Zero protection. And absolutely no idea what your body was doing."

"I had soup," Chris muttered.

"My moon," Dax continued, now fully in that terrifyingly calm, lecturing-king mode, "you were one hungry alpha within arm’s reach away from imprinting on the nearest wall out of sheer confusion."

Chris frowned. "What does that even mean?"

"It means," Dax said, hands gesturing sharply, "that if any alpha had passed you in a hallway during one of those episodes, they would have known instantly. Instantly."

Chris stared. "...They would?"

"Yes!" Dax threw his hands up. "You think you’re subtle, but you were probably stumbling through life like a heat-drunk kitten."

Chris groaned and covered his face with both hands. "I’m going to bury myself alive."

"You’re not," Dax said, pulling his hands down again. "But I am genuinely baffled that no alpha ever tried anything."

"Well..." Chris paused, grimacing. "Once, in my first year, this guy tried flirting with me, but I thought he was being creepy."

Dax narrowed his eyes. "Define creepy."

"He was always where I was, but being uni, I didn’t really thought anything of it, until one day he tried to force a kiss on me... Let’s say he had stitches after."

Dax went very still.

"Stitches," he repeated slowly, like the word was a weapon he was testing the weight of.

Chris winced. "He... uh... cornered me behind the engineering building and grabbed me. I reacted. Reflexes. Instinct. Maybe a little panic." His voice dropped. "I might’ve broken his nose."

Dax’s eyes darkened, indicating that someone was about to be added to a permanent blacklist.

"He forced himself on you during an incomplete heat," Dax said, voice low and controlled, "and you think the important detail is that you overreacted?"

Chris flailed a hand. "Well, I did knee him. Pretty hard... and I broke a rib."

"Chris," Dax said, leaning in, "you could have set him on fire and I would still say he deserved worse."

Chris blinked. "...That’s not reassuring."

"It’s not meant to be." Dax’s jaw clenched. "What was his name?"

"No." Chris pointed at him immediately. "Absolutely not, be a good husband and don’t try to kill anyone that remotely hurt me in the past. He was the one taken by ambulance, not me."

Dax sighed and decided to drop the matter. "Well, at least we know now that you are better than anyone predicted. You need rest," he said, pulling Chris closer. "Tomorrow there is a public event, we need to be present and respectable."

Chris squinted at him suspiciously. "Respectable? Tomorrow? After this week? Do you even remember what we did on the fifth day? Because my hips do."

Dax pressed a slow kiss to his temple, entirely too serene for a man covered in bite marks. "I remember everything. And no one will know."

"They’ll know," Chris muttered.

"They won’t," Dax insisted, in that royal, reality-warping tone that suggested he could command the sun not to rise if it inconvenienced him. "You’ll be dressed at my side. And you’ll be fine."

"I’m leaking," Chris deadpanned.

"You won’t be by tomorrow," Dax said confidently.

"You don’t know that."

"I do," Dax hummed, brushing a thumb under Chris’s chin. "Nadia said your system is stabilizing. Stay in bed today, eat, drink water, and let your body recover. Everything will settle."

Chris hesitated, fingers tightening around the hoodie fabric. "Are you sure?"

Dax’s voice dipped, soft and warm. "My moon... you did incredibly well. Better than anyone predicted. Better than I predicted."

Chris blinked. "Was that a compliment?"

"An observation."

But his tone was too proud for it to be anything else.

Chris went quiet, staring at Dax’s chest, then slid forward, climbing halfway into Dax’s lap like gravity itself was pushing him there. He wrapped his arms around Dax’s torso, face pressed into warm skin.

Dax stilled for half a heartbeat, then held him tight, palms settling on Chris’s back like they belonged there.

Chris murmured, voice muffled and small, "You need to stay with me today."

"I planned to," Dax answered, kissing his hair.

"No, I mean... actually stay," Chris said, gripping the king’s waist tighter. "No meetings. No being noble. Just... stay with me until tomorrow."

Dax cupped the back of his neck, thumb stroking gently. "I will. I’m not leaving this room unless you tell me to."

Chris breathed out, shaky, the tension easing out of his shoulders. "Good. Because I don’t..." he swallowed, the words sticking like they always did when they mattered, "I don’t want to be alone today."

"You won’t be," Dax murmured, pulling him even closer.

Chris clung harder, legs curling in, hoodie slipping off one shoulder as he tried to mold himself against Dax like he could crawl inside his heartbeat. "Stay with me."

Dax kissed his forehead. "Always."

Silence settled, warm and safe, before Chris whispered into his collarbone, voice cracking just a little, "I love you."

Dax froze like the words physically hit him. Then he wrapped both arms around Chris so tightly Chris felt it in his ribs.

"I love you too," Dax murmured back.

—

"Enter," Dax murmured.

Killian slipped inside and closed the door, took one look at Chris asleep in Dax’s arms... and sighed like a tired uncle witnessing exactly what he expected.

"Well," Killian said, voice polite but laced with dry judgment, "at least he’s alive. That’s better than the betting pool suggested."

Dax shot him a glare that would have sent anyone else out the window. Killian only lifted a brow, unimpressed.

"I’m here to discuss recovery protocol," he continued, his tone evening out into his usual crisp professionalism. "Given the... severity of the last days, I recommend a longer rest period. Two weeks. Minimum."

"He isn’t pregnant," Dax said quietly, still brushing his fingers through Chris’s hair.

Killian’s eyes flicked to him. "You’re certain?"

"Yes. I didn’t inseminate him."

Killian blinked once, expression sharpening into something quietly calculating. "May I ask why? Parliament would expect the opposite."

Dax gave a soft, humorless huff. "They can deal with my patience until then. Christopher’s been in this country for less than six months." He brushed a thumb over Chris’s cheek, gentle in a way that didn’t match his words. "He might be pregnant anyway. But I’m not forcing it just to soothe a few old nobles’ nerves."

Killian nodded slowly, thoughtful. "Practical. And considerate. Two traits parliamentary elders famously lack."

Dax’s mouth twitched, almost a smile. "Let them panic. They’ll survive."

"Yes," Killian said dryly, "but they’ll whine at me."

"That’s your job."

Killian sighed with all the suffering of a man who raised half the royal family. "Unfortunately."

He glanced at Chris again, at the way the omega curled instinctively closer and how Dax’s hand never stopped tracing patterns down his back.

"Good choice," Killian said quietly. "Whether he ends up carrying or not... this way, it’s his decision too."