Chapter 148: Instinct

Chapter 148: Chapter 148: Instinct

Nero knew Dean and Arion had arrived because Amaru stopped answering his messages.

That was offensive enough on its own.

Finding out why was worse.

He entered the private arrivals hall beside Sebastian and immediately saw Amaru holding Theo as though he had personally acquired the child somewhere between the runway and the palace.

Nero frowned.

"Why is my godson in someone else’s arms?"

Dean turned first.

Amaru tightened his hold around Theo immediately.

"No."

Nero kept walking.

"You have had him long enough."

"I have had him for three minutes."

"Excessive."

Sebastian laughed quietly beside him.

Nero glanced toward him and almost became distracted by the green collar around his throat again.

The old one.

Sebastian had chosen it that morning despite an entirely reasonable campaign involving breakfast, kisses, several offers of bribery, and one exceptionally persuasive argument about how much better the new Sahan collar worked with the dark-green suit he was wearing.

Sebastian had remained unmoved.

Nero was still considering this a personal attack.

Theo spotted him.

"Uncle Nero!"

That restored the world to its proper order.

Nero smiled. "My moon’s favorite nephew."

Sebastian looked at him with a smile and a raised brow.

"He is my only nephew."

"That does not contradict me."

Amaru shifted Theo to his other side, apparently attempting to retreat.

"This is my country."

"And he is my godson."

"That gives you no diplomatic authority."

"It gives me greater authority."

"According to whom?"

"Me."

Nero held out his arms.

Theo immediately leaned toward him.

Amaru looked betrayed.

"You were enjoying yourself."

"I was."

"Then why are you leaving?"

Theo grabbed a handful of Nero’s long white-blond hair the moment Nero took him.

"Nero has long hair."

Amaru stared at Dean.

Dean shrugged.

"You lost to hair."

Nero adjusted Theo comfortably onto one arm, deeply satisfied with the outcome.

"Excellent judgment."

Sebastian sighed. "You encourage him."

"He appreciates quality."

Theo played with the silver clasp holding part of Nero’s hair back for perhaps ten seconds before his attention moved elsewhere.

Specifically to Sebastian.

"Uncle Sebastian."

Nero turned.

Sebastian’s entire expression softened.

It happened so quickly that anyone unfamiliar with him might have missed it, but Nero did not miss anything about Sebastian anymore.

"Hello, Theo."

Theo stretched both arms toward him.

Nero tightened his hold.

"No."

Sebastian raised one eyebrow.

"He wants me."

"He just arrived."

"So did I."

Theo leaned farther, clearly not carrying about Nero’s wants and feelings about this.

"Sebastian."

Nero surrendered him with dignity.

Or something close enough to dignity that nobody needed to comment.

Sebastian took Theo easily, one arm supporting him beneath the legs while the other settled across his back, and Theo immediately tucked himself against Sebastian’s chest as though this arrangement had already been negotiated.

Nero stopped thinking.

The changes in Sebastian had happened slowly.

A difference in scent one week.

A softer line through his waist another.

The muscle built through years of military training was still there, but the transition had begun changing the way it sat beneath his skin, smoothing some of the severe angles without taking away the strength Nero had always loved looking at.

His face had changed too, even if barely so.

Something finer around the cheeks and mouth, something warmer when he relaxed.

His hair now brushed his shoulders in loose black waves, slightly untidy from the Draxilian humidity, and the deep green of his suit made his eyes look brighter.

Then there was the scent.

It reached Nero even from several steps away.

Warm, lightly sweet and unmistakably Sebastian now, no longer so faint that Nero needed to press his face against his neck to find it.

Theo rested his head against Sebastian’s shoulder.

Sebastian shifted him higher and kissed his hair without thinking.

Something inside Nero snapped tight.

MARK HIM.

The instinct arrived with such force that Nero’s pheromones stirred before he could stop them, smoke and heat pressing briefly beneath his skin.

His gaze dropped to the collar around Sebastian’s throat.

Wrong collar.

That was his first completely irrational thought.

The second was worse.

Put a child in him.

Nero went absolutely still.

Every rational part of his mind reacted immediately.

No.

Sebastian was still changing.

His glands were not fully mature.

His reproductive system was still developing in a way no one could explain yet, and Roberta had made Nero suppress his fertility specifically because nobody knew how Sebastian’s body would respond to insemination before stabilization.

They had discussed children only in the distant sense.

There was a wedding in weeks, a transition still underway, an entire future Sebastian was only beginning to accept.

Nero knew all of that perfectly well.

His instincts apparently knew none of it.

Theo said something into Sebastian’s ear.

Sebastian laughed.

Nero nearly suffered a catastrophic loss of intelligence.

Dean looked at him.

That was bad.

Amelie looked at him too.

Worse.

Then Arion followed their attention and Nero decided he hated all of them.

Dean’s mouth curved.

Nero pointed at him.

"I was thinking." Dean said with a smile that promised that there was more.

"Stop doing that."

Sebastian glanced over.

"What are you two doing?"

"Nothing," Nero said immediately.

Dean smiled wider.

Nero considered murder.

Theo saved him by announcing, "Amaru said I can see the kitchens."

Amaru corrected from behind them, "I said I would show you the kitchens."

Nero moved closer to Sebastian.

"We’re going."

Amaru frowned. "I invited Theo."

"I am supervising."

"You are stealing him again."

"Correct."

Sebastian shook his head, still holding Theo against his chest.

Nero placed a hand at Sebastian’s lower back.

That was safer, normal even. Completely appropriate if Nero was generous about his state of mind.

Then Sebastian adjusted Theo again, his body turning slightly into Nero’s hand, and the new scent strengthened with the movement.

Nero lowered his head toward Sebastian’s ear, nostrils flaring to inhale more of the sweet scent.

"You smell stronger today."

Sebastian looked sideways at him.

"That is becoming your favorite observation."

"It deserves repetition."

"You said it yesterday."

"I noticed it yesterday too."

Sebastian’s mouth twitched.

Theo looked between them.

"You’re touching Sebastian."

Nero smiled. "I do that."

"A lot," Sebastian added with a smile that made Nero’s heart skip a beat.

Theo accepted this information easily.

Behind them, Dean laughed.

Nero ignored him and let his thumb move once against Sebastian’s back, grounding himself in something far more manageable than the instincts trying to redesign the next five years of their lives because Sebastian happened to look beautiful holding a child.

He wanted the mark.

He wanted the bond.

He wanted Sebastian wearing his Sahan collar again and carrying Nero’s scent permanently instead of only in traces.

And now, apparently, some primitive part of him had decided it wanted children too.

Nero breathed slowly.

It is not the right time.

He knew that.

Sebastian deserved the wedding, the transition, the recovery, and the freedom to decide when or whether anything came afterward.

Nero was perfectly capable of waiting.

Theo rested his cheek against Sebastian’s shoulder and began explaining something about being "half king" to anyone willing to listen.

Sebastian smiled and carried him toward the corridor.

Nero followed.

Dean passed him on the way and murmured, "You look unwell."

Nero gave him a beautiful smile.

"I’m considering throwing you into a fountain."

Dean laughed and walked faster.

Nero looked ahead again.

Sebastian turned at that exact moment, green eyes finding him over Theo’s dark head.

"Coming?"

Nero smiled.

"Always."

He could wait.

He would wait.

But apparently waiting had just become considerably more difficult.