Davian woke up a little confused, but too content to bother opening his eyes to survey his surroundings.
Not when there was that soothing scent of lemon and honey spilling over him.
There was someone on his bed with him but he wasn’t alarmed although he couldn’t place who it was for a few minutes.
Eventually, he had to face reality and wake up, opening his eyes to find soft brown eyes staring right at him.
Lake panicked when Davian roused, his eyes darting around.
But it wasn’t like he could put some distance in between them to spare himself because Davian still had a vice-like grip around his waist.
The Alpha’s empty gray eyes were always unsettling, and with his mating mark on display, Lake was rightfully nervous.
"You didn’t get any sleep?" Davian asked instead, wiping away all of his nervous thoughts.
"I did," Lake murmured, looking away. "A little."
Having a conversation with barely any space between them wasn’t an easy task.
Davian went quiet, his words balling up in his throat.
There were a lot of things he wanted to say, and there were a lot of things he should say but he couldn’t seem to get them out.
The events of yesterday still felt like a fever dream but Lake was very much real right now.
And he was not only pregnant with his child but also wearing his mating mark... Davian felt like he was going to dry heave.
He needed to take a walk to get some air... for several hours but he was wary of Lake leaving in that time just because he couldn’t get his shit together.
Lake had come to inform him that he was pregnant, and he had... Davian winced at the fractured memories he had of his rut.
He was starting to feel more like himself, the effects getting weaker and weaker.
Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to deal with another of it in the foreseeable future.
He should sit up and have a proper conversation with Lake, they should discuss their plans now that there was a baby involved...
An important, adult conversation. He could do this...
"You’re staying, aren’t you?"
Davian mentally slapped himself on the head as Lake whipped around to stare at him.
"Here?" Lake had to clarify.
Because Davian was always quick to ask him not to leave but he didn’t expect the Alpha to want him to practically move in.
He was fine to stay in his current apartment, he just wanted to talk about the baby with Davian, and ask the Mafia King to claim the child.
"Yes," Davian said carefully, reluctantly releasing Lake from his hold.
He sat up and tousled his short hair, the air awkward between them.
"I..." Lake trailed off.
He supposed there wasn’t any harm in staying, and it would be easier to take care of himself and the baby with Davian’s money.
"Sure," He accepted, a little hesitantly. "So... you want the baby?"
Davian’s blood ran cold at those words, "You don’t want to keep it?"
Lake got off the bed and rose to his feet, tucking his hair out of his face.
He couldn’t handle the close-quarters conversation for much longer.
"I do but..." Lake decided to go for honesty, he was doing all this for his child after all.
"...I don’t have much, and I don’t want my child to have the life I lived. It’s why I came here immediately I found out," Lake said with a hint of sadness in his voice, gingerly sitting on the ground.
"If you didn’t want the baby, I would have had to get rid of it."
Lake was saying that now but he doubted that Caspian would let him do that for that reason.
As a matter of fact, he knew he couldn’t do it. Even if there was no one to Discover more novels on NovelHub - your gateway to endless stories.
"I want the baby," Davian said in a rush, moving to the edge of the bed to bring them closer together. "I want..." He stopped himself before he could get all of his words out.
He had nearly made a slip there and added Lake to his list of wants.
Lake smiled a little, "Glad we agree on that."
Davian was already being more forthcoming than he had expected, it was difficult to not be hopeful.
"Don’t sit on the ground," Davian closed the distance between them, joining him on the ground. "It’s not comfortable... for the baby," He added as an afterthought.
Lake was so surprised by this that he let the Alpha pull him to his feet and help him back on the bed.
"Right," He mumbled, stewing in the awkward air between them.
"By the way, can Caspian come over?" He decided to ask while Davian was being very accommodating.
Now that he would be staying here, he would need to move his things here.
He would also need to figure out what he would do about Arthur and ’Lady’ Matilda.
Davian didn’t seem to notice that something had happened last night, and he didn’t want to bring it up yet without finding out more information.
If he would be staying in the mansion, he needed to completely get rid of as many people that would pose a danger to his child.
They could do whatever they wanted to him, but he would draw the line at his baby.
"Caspian?" Davian repeated, a look of disapproval on his face.
"Then can I go over to see him?" Lake asked instead.
He was merely asking Davian to be polite, if he wanted to leave the mansion, the Alpha couldn’t stop him.
"He can come over," Davian switched up fast, his voice gruff.
Lake bit back his smile, now he was seated on the bed wearing just Davian’s shirt, the Alpha replacing him on the carpeted ground.
He reached for his phone to send Caspian a quick text, his smile blooming when he got a text back almost instantly.
"Are you hungry?" Davian asked abruptly, shooting to his feet.
Lake looked up from his phone, his moment interrupted by Davian’s question.