CHAPTER 447: CHAPTER 447: ENJOY THE COUCH

There were questions one asked at crossroads in life.

’What is my purpose?’

’What legacy will I leave behind?’

’Is there life after Trevor’s libido?’

Lucas stared blankly at the miniature fortress being erected on the plush carpet, a small red brick pinched between his fingers, the other hand bracing the small of his back as he shifted with a wince. His knees ached. His spine cracked ominously every time he leaned too far forward. His hips felt... untrustworthy.

He was twenty-seven.

Trevor was thirty-four.

And somehow, his husband still had the stamina of a genetically enhanced bull with a superiority complex and a gym membership.

Lucas rubbed his lower back and tried not to dwell on the fact that he hadn’t walked straight in four days. Or that the only reason he was sitting now was because Sebastian had dragged him bodily to the floor with the quiet authority of a five-year-old who ruled the palace they called home like a small, smiling tyrant.

"Daddy, this one doesn’t fit."

Lucas blinked, pulled from his spiral by a tiny hand shoving a brick at him. He took it without protest.

Sebastian, cross-legged in soft navy pajamas with dragons on them, no doubt a subtle Trevor gift, was sorting building blocks methodically and with the emotional gravity of a military architect. His hair stuck up in a dozen directions. There was dried green paint on his elbow. And he was humming the imperial anthem under his breath.

Lucas sighed. "Try rotating it."

Sebastian did. It snapped into place with a satisfying click.

Lucas leaned back against the settee and exhaled slowly. There was something soothing about the repetition: brick, snap, shuffle, repeat. If he ignored the slight throb in his thighs and the quiet ache along his ribs, it almost felt normal.

But deep down, under the last few weeks of exhaustion, he couldn’t shake the thought:

’I really hope I’m pregnant. Because if not, I may never recover enough to try again.’

He had never thought his life would involve scheduling post-bond checkups around royal galas, political sabotage, and whatever divine form of cardio Trevor had weaponized in the bedroom. But here he was, one sore omega with a charmingly deranged child and a husband who thought "round four" was a reasonable way to start a morning.

"Are you okay, Daddy?" Sebastian asked, glancing up from his battlement plans.

Lucas blinked. "What? Yes. Why?"

"You’re making your tired face."

Lucas paused, then gave a faint smile. "That’s just my normal face now."

Sebastian considered that. "Do you need a snack?"

Lucas let out a soft laugh. "Gods, yes."

The boy nodded sagely and crawled over to the tea table like a gremlin in mission mode, returning with a single shortbread cookie. He handed it over with both hands.

"For your recovery," Sebastian said gravely.

Lucas accepted it like it was a priceless relic. "You’re a good kid."

"I know," Sebastian said. "Papa says I’m the best thing you ever made."

Lucas bit into the cookie and muttered around the crumbs, "You were the easy one. You didn’t come with a morning-after limp."

Sebastian tilted his head. "What?"

"Nothing," Lucas said quickly, smiling too brightly. "Eat your bricks."

"I think you mean build them."

"That too."

The door creaked open then, just enough for the warm scent of cologne, cedar pheromones, and soap to spill in. Trevor appeared, hair damp, tie in one hand, smirk already loaded.

"There you two are," he said. "Is this a family meeting or an architectural summit?"

Lucas didn’t even look up. "If you say one word about stamina, I will throw this cookie at your forehead."

Trevor clutched his chest dramatically. "You wound me."

"You wounded me," Lucas snapped. "Repeatedly."

Sebastian looked between them, then up at Trevor. "He said you have too much energy."

"Well, we are trying to give you a sibling. It does require a lot of energy."

Sebastian’s eyes lit up. "A sibling?"

Lucas froze.

Trevor had guessed three days but didn’t say anything, partly because Lucas would murder him in cold blood if he dared suggest "alpha instinct" or "gut feeling" again, and partly because it wasn’t just instinct.

Lucas’s pheromones had changed. Trevor was a dominant alpha and Lucas was his. He could tell. The scent he breathed in every morning, usually sharp, clean, and wrapped in equal parts coffee, honey, and chaos, was now warm around the edges. Softer. Like something was brewing underneath skin and bone. Like his body knew before his mind.

So Trevor smiled. Slowly. "Maybe."

Lucas turned, eyes narrowing with suspicion. "Don’t."

"What?" Trevor asked innocently, walking in with his half-tied tie still hanging around his neck and damp hair slicked back from the shower. "I didn’t say anything."

"You’re thinking it."

"I think a lot of things," Trevor said. "Most of them are correct."

Sebastian, meanwhile, was calmly sorting bricks with all the gravitas of a civil engineer mid-deadline. "So if I build a castle, I get a sibling?"

Lucas made a strangled sound. "No."

"That’s not..." Trevor started.

"Not how that works," Lucas finished, without missing a beat. "You need medical clearance, poor decision-making, and a really bad night’s sleep."

Sebastian blinked. "What’s medical clearance?"

"It’s what keeps me from getting arrested," Lucas muttered.

Trevor leaned over the back of the couch and dropped a kiss onto Lucas’s hair. "You’re glowing."

Lucas didn’t even flinch. "That’s the oil from Sebastian’s snack hands. And maybe blood pressure."

"Nope," Trevor said, voice lower now, just for him. "It’s you. You smell different."

"Then why did you continue to do it?"

Trevor grinned, entirely unrepentant. "Because you smelled fertile, not fragile."

Lucas groaned, dragging a hand over his face. "This is on me, I choose to marry you and ask for a second child." He gave Sebastian a new brick and continued. "You are banned from my bed."

Trevor blinked. Then crouched dramatically, as if physically struck. "You don’t mean that."

"I mean it so hard I’m about to get it notarized."

Sebastian peered up at them with interest. "What’s a notary?"

"It’s the person who helps make Papa sleep on the couch," Lucas muttered.

"Temporarily," Trevor said, already sidling closer. "You’re just emotional."

"I’m sore."

"Emotionally sore."

Lucas flicked a brick at him.

Trevor dodged it with alarming grace and plopped onto the floor beside them, unbothered and infuriatingly gorgeous in his half-buttoned shirt. He picked up a loose piece from the floor and tried to snap it into the wrong part of the castle. Sebastian immediately reached over and removed it like a disapproving project manager.

"Wrong part," Sebastian said solemnly.

"Apologies, Architect," Trevor replied with mock deference. "I am but a humble donor of genes and property."

Lucas muttered, "You forgot ’pain in my spine.’"

Trevor leaned in, dangerously close, and whispered near Lucas’s ear, "But such memorable pain."

Lucas didn’t blush. His ears just turned a little pink. And maybe he shifted slightly away. To maintain balance. Definitely not because Trevor’s scent curled warm and familiar around him.

"You are still banned," he said stiffly.

Trevor rested his chin on Lucas’s shoulder, undeterred. "From the bed, or just your bed?"

"Trevor."

"I can build you a new one. Lower. Padded. Easier on the hips."

"Trevor."

"Lucas."

"You are not seducing your way back in with ergonomic furniture."

Trevor pouted. "Then what’s the point of my entire personality?"

Lucas elbowed him lightly, and they both watched Sebastian add a drawbridge to the fortress.

After a moment, Trevor’s voice dipped again. "You’re sure you want this?"

Lucas didn’t look at him. Just rested a hand over his stomach, almost without thinking. "I asked for it. I want it. I just... forgot it would feel like being hit by a very polite truck."

Trevor turned his face into Lucas’s shoulder and exhaled. "You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever met."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Flattery gets you nowhere."

"Except into your heart," Trevor said smugly.

Lucas, unable to resist, kissed the top of his head. "And out of my bed. Enjoy the couch, Your Grace."

Trevor grinned. "Worth it."