Caught by the Mad Alpha King-Chapter 359: Emotional support (1) [Win-Win]

Chapter 359: Chapter 359: Emotional support (1) [Win-Win]

Ethan was... an omega.

He stood in front of the mirror in the guest suite and stared at himself like his reflection had personally betrayed him. Six months ago he’d looked the same in the ways that mattered - same jaw, same eyes, same posture of a man used to job sites and deadlines and people yelling over machinery.

Now there were differences he couldn’t unsee.

He was leaner. Not ’lost weight’ leaner, Dax’s doctors were too good and too strict to let that happen, but his body carried itself differently, like the structure under his skin had been rewritten. Muscle definition in places that hadn’t needed it before. A different tension in his shoulders. A quiet, constant awareness of himself that felt... biological, not psychological.

It still pissed him off.

Because Ethan wasn’t supposed to be dealing with any of this. He was supposed to be a construction engineer, like Chris used to be before royalty swallowed him whole. Ethan’s world had been concrete, steel, schedules, the practical satisfaction of building something that didn’t lie.

Then he’d done one stupid, heroic thing.

Beta to omega, like someone had flipped a switch in his DNA and called it science.

Chris had found him afterward - furious, efficient, and terrifyingly gentle in a way Ethan still didn’t know how to handle. Chris had brought him to Saha because Saha had the kind of medical resources you didn’t get unless kings owed you favors.

And because Chris, for all his sarcasm and claws, didn’t leave his friends behind.

Ethan had told himself he was grateful.

He was.

He was also tired.

He had an extra organ now - an internal, biological ’surprise’ the physicians explained with diagrams and clinical calm. They’d warned him it would ’sabotage’ him soon enough.

Sabotage, meaning... heat.

"Ugh," Ethan groaned, dragging a hand down his face. He moved through the suite like a man personally offended by luxury. The room was too large, the carpets too soft, the curtains too expensive. It felt like living inside a rich person’s apology.

He grabbed his phone and stared at the screen, thumb hovering.

He could call a doctor, Leon or literally anyone sensible.

Instead, because he was still himself and self-control was overrated, he decided to call the one person who would tell him the truth without sugarcoating it.

Chris.

The line rang once. Twice.

Chris answered, voice calm, clipped, as if he’d been expecting chaos. "Ethan."

Ethan didn’t bother with greeting. "I have a question."

A pause. "Go on."

Ethan looked at his reflection and hated how normal he still looked, as if his body hadn’t been stolen and rewritten. "How do you know if your body is about to betray you, or if you’re just being dramatic?"

Chris didn’t answer immediately. "That depends. Are we talking medically or emotionally?"

Ethan deadpanned, "Both. And I’m also talking about the part where I’m apparently an omega now."

Silence.

Then Chris said, carefully, "What did the physicians tell you?"

Ethan leaned his hip against the dresser. "That the extra organ will ’sabotage me soon enough.’ Which is a cute way to say I’m going to go into heat like a cursed Victorian heroine."

Chris exhaled once. "When?"

"Soon," Ethan said flatly. "That’s the medical standard now."

Chris went quiet again, then said with flawless politeness, "I’m going to excuse myself. I have something to take care of."

Ethan blinked. "What?!"

"Ten minutes," Chris added. "Please don’t do anything reckless."

The call ended.

"...Okay," Ethan said to the empty room, because the Queen of Saha had just hung up on him with perfect manners and zero explanation, and there was no universe where that didn’t feel vaguely threatening.

He sat down anyway, dragged a hand through his hair, and did what any rational construction engineer turned newly-omega would do when faced with a biological event he didn’t understand.

He doom scrolled.

What a heat actually felt like from the inside? What was normal? What was dangerous? How much of it was hormones and how much was... you? How much control you kept when you were the one vulnerable?

He hated that the answers were either vague, romanticized, or written by people who had never had to function through a crisis with a deadline.

He hated that his body was going to do this whether he approved or not.

He hated that part of him was scared.

And he hated, most of all, that the only person he trusted to explain it without turning it into a bedtime story was a man who had just become royalty and told him to wait ten minutes like that was a reasonable request.

Ethan exhaled, hard, and scrolled faster.

Ten minutes passed.

Then a few more, because of course ten minutes meant ’whenever Chris decided, the universe could wait.’

Ethan told himself Chris would call back. That was the logical outcome. A polite royal phone call. A short list of instructions. Maybe a threat aimed at the physicians if they’d been vague again.

So when the suite door slammed open hard enough to make the hinges complain, Ethan’s head snapped up so fast his neck protested.

Chris walked in like he owned the room.

And beside him...

A tiger. A full, albino tiger with pale fur, broad shoulders, and the calm arrogance that made the luxury suite feel suddenly inadequate.

Ethan’s brain took one whole second to buffer.

Then his mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Tania padded in as if she’d been invited, sniffed the air, and looked at Ethan like she was deciding whether he was worth acknowledging.

Chris shut the door behind him with one hand, unbothered by the fact that he had brought an apex predator into private accommodations. He looked annoyingly composed, as if this was normal behavior for a queen.

Ethan finally found his voice. "I thought you were going to call me."

Chris glanced at him, then at the phone still in Ethan’s hand. "I did better."

"You brought a tiger," Ethan said, deadpan, because if he panicked he would never stop.

"She’s emotional support," Chris replied without blinking.

Ethan stared. "For who?"

Chris’s mouth twitched. "For me. And also for you, if you behave."