The moment Arthur nodded, Natalia closed the remaining distance.
Her lips pressed softly against his. The initial touch was hesitant, almost cautious, as if she were testing the fragile boundary between a sudden burst of affection and something far deeper.
But the exact microsecond their skin connected, a spark ignited beneath the surface.
Arthur's breath hitched in his throat, a quiet, involuntary gasp that died between them as his fingers fisted even tighter into the fabric of her button-up shirt.
He held onto her as if she were the only solid object left in a spinning room.
It wasn't a rushed collision. It wasn't fueled by a sudden spike of animalistic lust.
It was delicate, deliberate, and fiercely reverent. It was the kind of kiss that carried an unspoken weight, a silent declaration echoing through the quiet space of her bedroom...
Arthur's eyelashes fluttered shut, the frantic tension in his shoulders instantly evaporating. The violent trembling that had plagued his fingers faded into a soft, pliant warmth.
The world outside the room ceased to exist; there was only the grounding pressure of her hands cupping his waist, anchoring him against her, holding him as if he were the most precious, fragile artifact she had ever been permitted to touch.
His heart, which had spent years pacing inside an anxious, self-imposed cage, finally found room to expand. It bloomed, heavy and radiant, right against her chest.
Natalia kissed him with a patient, unyielding certainty. Her own eyes remained closed, her pulse spiking into her throat every time a soft, entirely vulnerable sound escaped his parted lips, those tiny, breathless groans and fragile, honest hitches of air that he couldn't hide even if he tried.
I am making him make those sounds, she realized, the thought sending a thrill straight down her spine.
She was kissing him. An omega. Holding him, breathing him in, letting his essence coat her senses.
For five long, agonizing years, she had kept her heart under lock and key, walled off behind a fortress of professional detachment and bitter memories.
But as she felt Arthur melt completely into her embrace, she knew the walls had crumbled entirely. There was no turning back from this threshold. She didn't want to.
She was going to claim this omega.
Natalia pulled back by a mere fraction of an inch, just enough to rest her forehead against his. Their breaths mingled in the narrow gap, warm, uneven, and beautifully erratic.
"Was that okay?" she whispered, her voice sliding into a husky, low register that sent an immediate shiver down his spine.
Arthur's lips parted, but his throat was entirely dry; words had deserted him completely. He could only manage another slow, wide-eyed nod, his gaze glassy and dazed, resembling sunlight fracturing across moving water.
A vivid, brilliant crimson painted his cheeks, tracking all the way down to his collarbone.
He blinked slowly, his brain desperately trying to process the reality of the last thirty seconds. "I- I..."
"It's okay. Take a breath. Calm down, Arthur," Natalia soothed him, her voice a low murmur as she felt a sudden wave of frantic adrenaline start to spike through his frame. His breathing was growing too fast, his chest heaving with a heavy, overwhelmed rhythm.
Recognizing the impending panic, she tightened her embrace, smoothly guiding his head down until his cheek rested against her shoulder. He didn't offer a single shred of resistance, his forehead sinking into the crook of her neck.
"D-Did you… l-like it?" Arthur's whisper was so quiet it was barely audible, his eyes pinned firmly to the floorboards as his body remained pressed tightly against hers.
He still couldn't conceptually grasp it. We kissed. We actually just kissed.
"I did, Arthur," Natalia said softly, her chin resting against his soft hair. "I liked it enough that I'd kiss you again right now."
Arthur flinched, his entire spine stiffening against her arm. It was a instinctive, knee-jerk reaction, as if his mind simply lacked the programming to accept someone saying something so profoundly kind to him.
"I… I'm sorry," he muttered, the sudden weight of guilt heavy and suffocating in his tone. He buried his face deeper into her shoulder, hiding from the light. "I couldn't help myself. I-I really like you…"
The apology felt ragged. In his mind, he had essentially forced her hand. By allowing his omega pheromones to spill over so violently, he had given her an involuntary invitation to mate, a raw, biological confession.
When an omega isn't in heat, their system doesn't just leak pheromones by accident; it only releases those specific, intoxicating markers for someone they truly, deeply desire.
It was an instinctual cry of the soul, a biological breaking point where the body refuses to let the mind endure its hidden feelings in isolation anymore.
Most Alphas were conditioned from adolescence to control their output with ironclad discipline. Omegas, however, were creatures of raw emotion; their biology often bypassed their logic entirely.
Because of that volatile design, many young omegas grew up fearing their own bodies, confessing too early, losing friendships, facing brutal rejections and humiliation because their scent betrayed their secrets before their lips could speak.
But Arthur was realizing, with a terrifying jolt of clarity, that he was incredibly lucky.
Left to his own devices, he never would have gathered the courage to articulate his feelings. Not this early. Not when she was so sharp, so perfect, and so far out of his league.
But his body had staged a mutiny, acting on its own primitive timeline and Natalia hadn't recoiled. She had answered with her own rich, protective scent.
My first kiss… a small, dazed thought drifted through Arthur's mind as his fingers curled into her shirt. It felt so incredibly good.
But the euphoria was a short-lived high. As his logical brain finally caught up to his racing pulse, a cold spike of panic kicked in.
What if she didn't actually want to kiss me? What if she just felt obligated to respond because I was acting like a pathetic, emotional disaster in her doorway?
Arthur was projecting his own insecurities, unaware of the fundamental truths of the person holding him.
He didn't know Natalia well enough yet to understand that she was utterly incapable of doing something against her own volition.
If Natalia disliked someone, she didn't polite her way through it; she wouldn't even tolerate them standing within arm's reach, let alone permit them to taste her lips.
Furthermore, Arthur's understanding of Alpha biology was fundamentally flawed. True Alphas weren't helpless victims of stray pheromones; they weren't mindless animals easily manipulated by a sweet scent.
It was always, fundamentally, the Alpha's conscious choice to engage.
Accept or reject. And she had looked at him, smelled his devotion, and chosen to accept.
"Arthur, you need to stop apologizing," Natalia murmured, her hand sliding up his back to stroke the tense muscles between his shoulder blades.
Her own heart was thumping a rhythm that felt entirely too loud, too demanding. Holding him this close, feeling the absolute vulnerability of his frame against her own, was awakening a dangerous, greedy streak within her.
"I might have made you uncomfortable… I forced it on youj"
"You didn't force a single thing, Arthur," she interrupted, her voice firm, leaving absolutely zero room for argument. "Listen to me: I would not have kissed you if I didn't feel the exact same way about you."
"…R-Really?" He looked up slightly, his large eyes searching her face for any hint of deceit.
"Yes, really," she smiled, her fingers gently brushing across the sensitive skin at his nape, satisfied when a small, delicate shiver rippled through his body at the contact.
"But you need to remember something very important from this moment on, Arthur. You are not allowed to run away from me, and you are absolutely not allowed to ignore me tomorrow because you feel guilty about this. We kissed. By my rules… that means you're mine now."
Arthur's stomach did a spectacular, zero-gravity flip. A sudden wave of intense heat rushed straight to his face as her hand drifted down, wrapping securely around his waist and pulling him in for a gentle, teasing squeeze.
A tiny, thoroughly embarrassed moan slipped past his lips before he could clamp his teeth together.
Truthfully, Natalia had fully expected him to lose his mind and sprint back to his room.
From the frantic way he apologized, it was obvious how deep his insecurities ran.
She couldn't help but wonder what kind of ghosts lived in his past to make him feel this unworthy of affection. God, he's absolutely perfect. How does he not see it?
"…W-Why would someone like you ever like me?" he whispered, the question sounding desperately small.
"Why do you keep asking questions you already know the answer to?" she countered, her voice dropping into a soft but intensely focused murmur.
"You want to know a secret, Arthur? You are entirely special. I haven't felt this impatient, this completely desperate to respond to an omega's scent in nearly five years. I like you. I want us to keep doing this. I want to see exactly how far this can go."
"…T-Thank you."
Arthur couldn't contain the pressure behind his eyes anymore. A single, heavy tear spilled over his lashes, tracing a hot line down his flushed cheek.
This felt like a beautiful, fragile dream. He had spent weeks mentally preparing himself to love her from a safe, painful distance, reconciling himself to the fact that he would have to suffer in silence while she lived her grand life.
"Why are you thanking me, you silly?" Natalia asked, her chest aching with a profound, fiercely protective tenderness as she used her thumb to catch the tear before it could drop. "Don't cry. I didn't kiss you to make you sad."
She hadn't anticipated the tears, but seeing how much her acceptance meant to him made her heart expand in a way that felt entirely terrifying and entirely right.
"Do you want to come inside?" she asked after a quiet interlude, her eyes drifting down to the hardwood floor where the velvet pouch lay completely forgotten. "Let's actually put the necklace on properly this time."
"Ah… the necklace."
Arthur perked up instantly, his eyes still shimmering with wetness but filled with a sudden, bright clarity.
Then, realizing his hands were still bunched into her shirt, he looked down again, thoroughly embarrassed by his own clinginess.
Natalia's lips curved into a playful, wicked smile. Instead of loosening her grip, she purposely squeezed him tighter against her hip, enjoying the way his breath hitched.
"The n-necklace…" he squeaked.
"Yeah."
"I... I need to pick it up off the floor."
"So?"
"Mmm… can you... can you please let go of me first?"
"No."
"Ah?" Arthur blinked, utterly bewildered, staring up at her with a look of pure, unadulterated confusion.
So incredibly cute, Natalia thought, her inner Alpha purring at the sheer power she held over his expressions.
"I'm just kidding. Go ahead." Natalia finally relaxed her arms, stepping back. The instant the physical contact broke, her arms felt remarkably… cold. Empty.
She watched with a critical eye as he took a cautious step backward, visibly trying to find his equilibrium after being held so tightly.
Sigh.
Natalia had to be completely honest with herself: she wasn't entirely in love with him yet. Not in the traditional, consuming sense of the word.
They had only truly known each other for a little over twenty-four hours. But she liked him immensely. She was fascinated by him, drawn to his warmth, and she knew, with absolute certainty, that she could fall for him completely if given the time.
She wasn't about to articulate that specific distinction out loud, though; she knew Arthur's anxious brain would immediately warp it into a reason to feel guilty for rushing her.
But still… she was profoundly happy. Happy that he liked her, happy that he had permitted her to taste his lips, and happy that his body had forced the confession out into the open.
Natalia watched his slightly awkward, self-conscious stride as he walked past her into the room, bending down to carefully rescue the obsidian necklace from the floor.
Hopefully… you won't break my heart if I choose to trust you, Arthur, she thought, a faint, phantom ache throbbing deep within her chest.
The old, jagged wounds of her past still lingered behind her ribs, betrayals and scars she kept meticulously hidden from the world. But looking at the flush on Arthur's neck, listening to the soft, rhythmic sound of his breathing, she felt the old fears begin to recede.
For Arthur… she wanted to tear down the old scripts. She wanted to try again.
To trust. To love. To protect.