Caught by the Mad Alpha King-Chapter 310: Family

Christopher had envisioned this moment as calm.

Quiet, even. A rare pocket of stillness before the wedding swallowed the palace whole. Just him, Andrew, and Mia with no strategy, no politics, and no existential threats disguised as gift animals. Something almost normal.

He should have known better.

Mia was seated on the couch, legs tucked beneath her, expression politely bewildered in the way of someone who had somehow become important without ever applying for the position. Andrew lounged nearby with the easy confidence of an older brother who had survived court life by refusing to take any of it seriously and the unhealthy habit of smoking. Christopher stood by the window, watching the late afternoon light spill across the room and thinking, briefly, that this might actually work.

Then Heather appeared.

She simply was hovering at Mia’s shoulder like a very enthusiastic shadow, eyes bright, posture attentive, clearly having decided that Mia was now part of her personal orbit.

Again.

Christopher glanced over his shoulder, took in the scene, and felt something inside him deflate with amused resignation.

"So," he said mildly, "that lasted longer than I expected."

Heather looked up, offended. "What?"

"You being my problem," Christopher replied calmly. "You’ve fully defected."

Heather scoffed. "Mia is nice."

Mia blinked, clearly not associating being nice with her personality. "I am?"

Heather nodded emphatically. "Yes. And you listen. And you don’t look at me like I’m about to cause an international incident."

Christopher folded his arms. "You wound me."

"You look at me like I will cause one," Heather countered.

Andrew snorted. "She’s not wrong."

Mia shifted uncomfortably, glancing between them. "I don’t understand what’s happening," she said honestly. "I didn’t do anything."

"That’s usually when it happens," Andrew said.

He was leaning against the arm of the couch in the way only someone who had raised two younger siblings while still figuring out adulthood himself could manage, casual on the surface, permanently tired underneath.

Mia frowned. "What happens?"

"You attract nobles," Christopher supplied mildly. "Against your will."

"That’s not a thing," Mia said flatly.

Andrew made a low sound of distress and lunged like a man on instinct for his cigarettes, only for Christopher to intercept without even looking, snatching the pack mid-motion without even looking.

"No," Chris said calmly.

Andrew stared at his empty hand. "I am thirty-five. I’ve prosecuted criminals. I have negotiated with people who threatened my life. I am allowed one cigarette."

"You are the heir of the Black family now," Christopher replied. "And you sold your soul for my political protection. Act accordingly."

"I did that so you wouldn’t get eaten alive by court politics," Andrew shot back. "Not so I’d have to quit smoking."

Mia watched them like she was observing a long-established ecosystem. "I still don’t see how this is my fault."

"It’s not," Andrew said, rubbing his face. "That’s what makes it worse."

He dropped back onto the couch beside her. "Lucas Fitzgeralt declared you his friend."

Mia blinked. "I just talked to him. Like a person."

"Yes," Christopher said, amused. "That was a catastrophic error."

Andrew snorted. "Do you know what happens when someone like Lucas calls you a friend? Invitations. Alliances. People deciding you’re safe to approach because you’re adjacent to power."

Mia looked faintly horrified. "I don’t want adjacency."

"And yet," Andrew said dryly, "our brother is a dominant omega and a diplomatic incident walking."

Christopher stretched slightly, unrepentant, like a man who had decided this was an excellent moment to poke an old wound.

"You are still mad at me for not telling you that I’m a dominant omega?" he asked, his tone mild enough to be deeply insulting.

Andrew stared at him.

Slowly, he dragged a hand down his face, the long-suffering gesture of someone who had raised children, buried parents, prosecuted criminals, and somehow still lost to fate.

"Mad?" Andrew repeated. "No. I’m exhausted."

"That wasn’t the question," Christopher said pleasantly.

Andrew pointed at him. "You did not forget to mention you were a dominant omega. You actively chose not to tell me. For years."

"I had reasons."

"You always have reasons," Andrew snapped. "You were eighteen. I was already fighting courts, debt, guardianship paperwork, and the sudden realization that our lives were now a very bad administrative joke. And you thought, ’Yes, this is the ideal time to keep a reality-altering biological fact to myself.’"

Mia winced. "Oh."

Heather leaned closer to her. "Is this a family thing?"

"Yes," Mia whispered. "A loud one."

Christopher shrugged, unbothered. "I didn’t want to be handled differently."

Andrew laughed, sharp and humorless. "You were already being handled differently. You were smarter than everyone in the room, calmer under pressure than grown politicians, and terrifyingly good at reading people. I just didn’t know there was biology backing that up."

He leaned back, arms crossing over his chest, jaw tight. "And fine - fine - I can understand why you hid it from the Maleks. Power games, bloodlines, all that poison. But you couldn’t tell me? Not before a seven-foot-three king decided to abduct you and call it courtship?"

Christopher tilted his head, expression serenely innocent in a way that should have been illegal. "Kidnapped is a strong word."

Andrew stared at him. "He put you on a plane."

"Yes," Christopher agreed. "With coffee."

Andrew made a sound of pure suffering. "You disappeared from my jurisdiction."

"I called... the night before flying to Saha."

"Yes," Andrew shot back, "and Dax got Mia to have dinner with the two of you, but somehow I was left out."

"You were busy," Chris said, calm balanced perfectly on the edge of infuriating. "And I thought we got over this."

"Never," Andrew replied flatly. "I just waited for things to quiet down." He narrowed his eyes behind his glasses, the old prosecutor’s look, the one that had once made witnesses reconsider entire life choices.

Heather, who had been watching this like it was premium entertainment, tilted her head. "Are they always like this?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Mia didn’t even hesitate. "Yes."

Christopher glanced at her, amused. "Only when Andrew feels excluded."

Andrew scoffed. "I feel ambushed. There’s a difference."

"You were not ambushed," Christopher said mildly. "You were... strategically bypassed."

"That’s worse."

Heather brightened. "Oh. So this is family arguing."

Andrew looked at her. "This is what happens when you raise siblings instead of having them."

Heather nodded solemnly. "I like it."

Andrew groaned. "Please don’t."

Christopher smiled, soft but unapologetic. "You’re still here," he said quietly. "Which means you knew I wasn’t in danger."

Andrew hesitated, just for a second.

Then he sighed, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders. "I knew," he admitted. "I just hated that you didn’t trust me enough to say it out loud."

Christopher’s expression gentled. "I trusted you too much," he said. "I knew you’d come running."

Andrew huffed. "Of course I would."

Mia shifted closer to him, pushing lightly with her shoulder. "You always do."

Heather clasped her hands. "This is very emotional. I’m going to remember it forever."

Andrew shot her a look. "You will remember none of this."

Heather grinned. "I will remember everything."

Christopher laughed softly, the sound easing the last of the tension from the room, and for a moment the palace felt less like a court and more like what it had briefly pretended to be...

Family, arguing loudly, intact anyway.