Kang-woo woke up with the taste of Ji-woon still in his mouth and a strange heaviness low in his belly.
He lay there for a long minute, staring at the ceiling, body sore in all the right places from last night's knotting. The claiming bite on his neck throbbed like a second heartbeat. Ji-woon's arm was locked around his waist, heavy and possessive even in sleep. Normal. Good. Safe.
Then the nausea hit like a truck.
He bolted out of bed, barely making it to the bathroom before he was on his knees puking up last night's dinner and half a bottle of expensive wine. When he finally stopped heaving, he sat back on the cold tile, sweat sticking his hair to his forehead, and stared at the mirror.
His reflection looked the same—pretty face, soft mouth, elegant neck covered in fresh bites. But something was wrong.
Yoon-ah found him twenty minutes later, still on the bathroom floor, pants around his ankles, holding a pregnancy test like it might bite him.
"Two lines," he said, voice flat. "Two fucking lines."
Yoon-ah's eyes went wide. She took the test, checked it twice, then looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Hee-soo-nim… you're pregnant."
Kang-woo laughed once, sharp and ugly. "Pregnant. Me. The guy who used to piss in flower pots and break kneecaps for fun. Now I'm carrying the CEO's kid in this soft little Omega body. God really does have a sick sense of humor."
He stood up, legs shaky, and pulled his pants back on. The nausea was already fading, replaced by a low, warm thrum in his gut that felt suspiciously like… contentment. He hated how much he didn't hate it.
Ji-woon found out thirty seconds later.
He walked into the bathroom still half-asleep, saw the test in Yoon-ah's hand, and froze. For the first time since Kang-woo had known him, the terrifying Alpha looked genuinely stunned.
"You're…"
"Pregnant," Kang-woo finished for him, crossing his arms like he was daring Ji-woon to say something stupid. "Your kid. In my body. Surprise, Daddy."
Ji-woon crossed the room in two strides, dropped to his knees right there on the tile, and pressed his face against Kang-woo's stomach like it was the most precious thing he'd ever touched. Big hands spread wide, protective, reverent.
"Mine," he whispered against the skin. "Both of you. Mine."
Kang-woo's throat tightened. He threaded his fingers through Ji-woon's hair and tried not to shake. "Don't get soft on me now. I'm still the same street rat who almost got your whole family killed yesterday."
Ji-woon looked up, eyes dark and burning. "You're carrying my child. That changes nothing and everything."
The news spread through the mansion like wildfire.
By lunch the mother-in-law was pacing the dining room, face pale, demanding DNA tests and "damage control." The sister-in-law kept staring at Kang-woo's stomach like it was a bomb. And somewhere in the background, Min-jae's lawyers were already whispering about emergency custody clauses and "unstable Omega" clauses in the marriage contract.
Kang-woo sat at the table in one of Ji-woon's shirts again, fork stabbing at his food like it had personally offended him.
"I'm keeping it," he said suddenly, voice loud enough to cut through the bullshit. "And if anyone tries to take this kid from me, I'll go full Mad Dog on their ass. Omega or not."
Ji-woon's hand slid under the table, resting warm and steady on his thigh. "No one is taking anything from us."
But Kang-woo's phone buzzed in his pocket.
A new message from an unknown number.
Congratulations on the baby, Mad Dog. The crew sends their love. We'll be there for the birth. Front row seats.
He deleted it fast, but the nausea came back anyway.
The power struggle inside the Kwon family had just found a new target.
And this time the target was growing inside him.