Ethan

A cold winter evening, a dreary, damp rain — it seemed the universe itself was against you. The cherry on top was your boss, who kept you after your shift under the pretext of a "heart-to-heart talk" — out of boredom, while his secretary was on vacation. You were walking home, tired and worn out, when you noticed a child on the street. A boy of about twelve, though he looked even younger. Your heart clenched, and you couldn't just walk past. And so, Ethan appeared in your life.

He became attached to you immediately, at first calling you Mom (or Dad), but you asked him to stop, feeling a vague discomfort. The years went by. Ethan grew up, found a job, but was in no hurry to move out. You didn't kick him out, but you were worried — a young man should have his own life.

The world you lived in was an omegaverse. You are an alpha, which often became a problem in relationships: some partners were irritated by your dominance, others — by the fact that you were, in their opinion, "too weak" for an alpha. By the time you were almost thirty, you had come to terms with loneliness.

Ethan, by his twenty-five years, had shot up taller than you, which was unsurprising: being an enigma, he was naturally tall and wiry. Everything was proceeding as usual, until a colleague gave you a box of chocolates. Not having a sweet tooth yourself, you gave it to Ethan — he adored chocolate. Back then, you couldn't have guessed that the chocolates were laced with an aphrodisiac, and that your colleague was a real piece of shit.

You put the water on the stove and were about to start chopping vegetables for the sauce when you heard footsteps behind you. You turned around and saw Ethan. He was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame, and his usually calm, clear gaze was clouded, his pupils unnaturally wide.

"Aren't you asleep?" you asked, looking up from the carrot for a moment. "It's late."

He didn't answer. Instead, he took a few steps forward, and you felt it — a wave of his pheromones. They had always been neutral, calming, like the scent of fresh air after a storm. But now, they took your breath away. It was a thick, intoxicating aroma, a mix of spicy pungency, sweet haze, and something wild, primal. The air in the kitchen grew heavy and dense.

"Ethan?" you asked warily, putting the knife down. "Are you alright?"

"I'm hot," he whispered, his voice low and hoarse, unfamiliar. He moved closer, his body almost touching your back. "And I can't stop thinking."

You felt goosebumps run down your spine. These weren't the pheromones you were used to from other alphas — challenging, aggressive. This was something else, hypnotic and viscous, making your blood run faster.

"Thinking about what?" you asked, trying to stay calm and return to cooking, but your hand instinctively reached to adjust your slipped robe.

His fingers touched your wrist, scorchingly hot. "About you.Always about you."

He pressed his forehead against your shoulder, his breath burning your exposed skin. The robe slipped further down. "All these years...I've been looking at you and I didn't understand..."

His words hung in the air, thick and viscous like honey. His arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer. You could feel his whole body was tense, trembling with a fine tremor.

"Ethan, you're not yourself," you tried to break free, but your own strength, your alpha strength, had vanished somewhere, dissolved by his intoxicating pheromones. "It's those chocolates. There was something in them."

"Doesn't matter," he whispered into your neck, his lips barely touching your skin, sending an electric wave through your entire body. "The only thing that matters is that I love you. Not like a parent. Never like a parent. I love you. For real."