Eero's perspective
The setup for the family photo shoot last night was evidence that it wasn't just a dream.
"Good morning, Eero," Claudius greeted with his raspy morning voice.
I was turning around to face him when Claudius surprised me with a peck. He pressed his body against mine, making me feel his morning wood.
"You're hard."
"It happens every morning, baby, and it's not that I'm feeling horny, okay?" He defended himself, which made me laugh.
"Oh, so you're not in the mood to do it with me. Okay, I got it. I'm not forcing you to have sex with me—"
"I didn't say I'm not in the mood. Stop putting words in my mouth!" He said in a low voice that got me laughing.
"I'm just messing up with you, Claudius. I'm still sore you were rough with me when we did it in RGC, but maybe later? I'd be down with one round," I whispered seductively in his ear.
Claudius was close to kissing me again when my wolf notified me that our pup was now awake. I pulled away from him, and he knew what that meant.
"I'll heat up and prepare his baby food."
"Thanks, Claudius."
"Good morning, little one," I chirped. Perseus managed to stand on his crib by holding at it to support himself.
Kissing his cheeks and the top of his head, I lifted him from his cribs and gently tickled his tummy, which made him giggle.
A quick bath plus changing him into his loungewear took more than twenty minutes.
Carrying Perseus on my arm, we walked to the kitchen with Claudius setting up the table. Perseus' baby chair awaited him.
"Claudius is doing some kitchen work wearing an apron. It never crossed my mind that I'll see you like that." Holding a baby spoon. He stopped on his track to kiss Perseus' puffy cheeks.
Claudius took Perseus from my arm and sat him down on his chair. He quickly snatched Perseus's bowl from the table, took a small amount of Perseus's baby food and started blowing at it to cool it down. All of it was a muscle memory for Claudius. He was about to feed our son when he was reminded of my presence.
"Do you want to do it?" He asked, offering me the baby spoon.
"I got used to feeding him myself every morning," he reasoned.
"You're very hands-on to Perseus. I wish that I could be hands-on with him, too." I took the spoon from him and gently fed my son.
"Eero, please don't be guilty or think that you're being a bad mother to our son because you can't do this for him all the time. Because we both knew that whenever you can, you're making it up to him, like now." Claudius caresses my back.
"How about we enjoy this moment? Rather than letting your guilt eat you up? You're not being a bad or irresponsible mother by not being by his side all the time," Claudius assured me, and those helped me a lot.
"Say ah," Claudius demanded, which made me look at him.
"What are you doing?"
"You were so busy feeding our son that you forgot to feed yourself, too, so I'm doing it for you."
"What? Claudius, could you stop it? Put that spoon down. Once Perseus is done with his breakfast, then I'll eat." I patted a napkin on the corner of Perseus's mouth to clean him up, then fed him again, but I saw Claudius still holding his fork with a small piece of pancake directed to me.
"Eero, ah."
"Claudius, stop it, please, or someone might see us. I'm not a baby—"
"Yes, you're. You're a baby, my baby, so open up and let me feed you, too." I licked my lower lip, and even when I was hesitant, I gave in and opened my mouth.
"Good girl," Claudius complimented while he wiped the maple syrup that had fallen from my mouth.
A flash of a camera caught our attention; time, and standing meters away from us was Caspian with his DSLR.
"I'll hand over all the candid shots to you after I developed them," he said to Claudius before he could curse him.
"Shots? You had a lot."
"Yeah, from last night. You, too, looked so cute I had to." Caspian pulled a chair for himself. Claudius pushed forward the syrup for Caspian to drizzle some on his pancake.
"Luna Eero—wait, you're no longer the Luna. You're going to be the Alpha of Regulus. I should train myself to call you Alpha Eero, and on top of that, you're a Queen of the realm, too." Caspian teasingly eyed his best friend.
"I see no point in humouring you, Claudius. If there's someone that I must impress, it's her." Claudius picked up a blueberry from his pancake and threw it to Caspian.
"Stop it; your blueberries have maple syrups; they're sticky, and it's disgusting!" Caspian whined, but Claudius ignored it and continued to flung those blueberries in his direction, making me shake my head.
"Eero?" I looked away from Caspian and Claudius. I was quick to notice my phone in Cielo's hand.
"Your phone was ringing nonstop. Your father is calling you," she said, and right after she finished, my phone began to ring again. I stood up from my seat and grabbed the phone from her hand.
Once I'm farther from everyone, I slide it up, and Codrus sighs and welcomes me.
"Eero, where are you? I asked your lady-in-waiting to call you from your room, but you're not there. You didn't come home last night?"
"Are you in RGC?"
"No. I'm in a... h-hotel."
"Our hotel? Which hotel because we have multiples. I know that you're mad, and we need to talk about the announcement that I made."
"There is no need for that. You wouldn't change your mind about marrying Aelice anyway." Claudius heaved.
"My sweet ling, please. Never mind, I'll ask every manager in our hotels to see where you checked in if you don't want to tell me. I'll be there to talk to you in a minute, Eero."