Eero's Perspective
Claudius inclined his face to me after careful consideration of Caspian's suggestion.
"What? Don't tell me that you now prefer Caspian's suggestion over our old plan?"
"Eero, Caspian has a point, too, and he isn't saying this because he wanted to torture you by keeping Perseus away from you. Let us postpone this plan of ours for now."
"If we postpone this plan, when do you think we'll have another opportunity to bring Perseus into the realm?" We instantly went quiet as Perseus cried, but all that it took was a little dance and light shaking to lure him back to his sleep.
"When I'm Alpha?" I asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Thank you for your suggestion, Caspian. I appreciate your concern, but we're not doing that," I said. I turned my back on them and put Perseus down on the bed.
Tucking Perseus in bed. I saw Claudius leading Caspian out of his room in the corner of my eyes.
"You know that I would want to be with him as much as I can, Claudius. The howling island is hours away from the realm."
"We have a helicopter, Eero. If we used it instead of a car, it'd be just a few minutes."
"I can't keep sneaking out of my room to go see Perseus."
"You can. You have a tunnel. No one else knows about it, not even Codrus or Octavio. Once you're in your room, and if they knew that you're already asleep, no one would dare wake you up."
"And in RGC, I'll find a way to sneak him in so you can be with him while we're at work." Claudius smiles, "Of course, we can't sneak him on a daily basis, but you get my point."
"We'll install a CCTV in his room, and then, with our phone, we can monitor him." I remained silent and chose to lay next to our pup. Looking tenderly at Perseus, Claudius lay on the other side, and then he rested his arm on top of my waist.
The three of us will be away from each other again, but at least we get to experience sleeping together, even for a short period.
"Promise me that this is just a temporary situation, Claudius. Because if not, I'd rather give up being the next Alpha if being an Alpha means keeping you and our family my secret."
Caressing our pup's tummy, "You and Perseus don't deserve to be kept in the dark, Claudius."
**********
A week has passed since Claudius and I agreed to what Caspian has suggested, and there's one thing that I'm sure of: I'll never get used to this setup.
"Eero, my sweet ling?"
"Father." I got up from my chair and inched myself to him, "What brought you here? Is there something that you need from me?"
"No, it's not that, but I noticed that you had a lot of overtime over the last week. Aren't you overworking yourself?"
"I must make an effort to make sure that I can catch up on my responsibility as the chairman. I got this position because I'm your daughter. Clearly, it's nepotism, and the least that I can do is work hard and show them that I deserve my position."
"When you said that you're working on our new hotel in Phuket and you have Claudius in your team as one of the engineers, you don't have an idea how much I'm scared that he might sabotage you and your performance for RGC."
"He would never do that to me. Claudius is loyal to his words, and he's sticking to his end of your deal. Suppose you're worried about someone trying to sabotage you. Father, you're eyeing the wrong person." Codrus beamed an exasperated smile.
"Per your word, Claudius can be trusted, and I'm doing it." Codrus gulp.
"I'm trying to trust him. Will you do the same for me?"
"Trust Beta Octavio? Father, is the reason why you came here?" I asked, irritated. I wanted us to move on from this topic as soon as possible.
"Day by day, you're becoming a lot like Claudius Cormac, impatient, but asking you to make friends with Octavio isn't why I came here. I want and need you to come home early tonight."
"For what? I was planning to have a late meeting with our architects and engineers for the hotel in Phuket."
"I'm sure you can reschedule that. I have an announcement to make, and as my daughter and heir. You have to be there."
"Announcement? All of a sudden? About what?"
"I'll see you at dinner," he said.
"I have a bad feeling about this," my wolf whispered to me as we eyed the old man slowly disappearing from my office.
After he left my office, I felt anxious, so I clocked off right off the bat.
Walking to my room, my lady-in-waiting welcomed me and behind her was a group of omega bringing flowers to Harren Hall.
"If the Alpha King was hosting the dinner in the Harren Hall, it means that this isn't just a simple dinner. Whatever his announcement was, it's bound to change and affect everyone's life," I said to myself.
"Did he invite you too?" I asked Claudius through the mind link before I sat next to him.
"He did. Everyone in his small council was invited, but I don't have a clue what's going on you?"
"Not even a single clue." The space next to Beta Octavio caught my attention, and when I turned to the doorway of the hall, I found Aelice hurriedly bringing herself in. Like everyone else, she was confused about what was going on.
"Now that we're all here. I won't make you all wait any longer before I adopted my daughter and named her my heir. My council has been pressuring me to find myself a second chance mate, a Luna to lead the Regulus with me while I'm still the Alpha." Claudius held my hand from under the table.
"I called everyone over for dinner to announce that I found the she-wolf I'll take as my second chance mate." Codrus eyed Aelice.
"It's Lady Aelice, daughter of my trusted Beta Octavio."