23 Years Ago

"I don't think we can hide her from them, Henry. They'll find her no matter what," Naomi trembles while holding the little girl in her arms.

The young Mistress of the house Von Dorn is still unconscious after they barely save her from the fire.

"Darling, you have to save her no matter what. Remember, we owe our lives to her parents. She doesn't need a luxurious life, but this little omega deserves to live. Fate will make a way for her to return home, but for now, she has to go. Don't look back, just go." Henry said while looking at the daughter of his employers.

His employers are now probably dead.

Naomi sobs as she kisses her husband one more time. 

She knows they could just turn a blind eye so they could both live in peace but Henry learned to love the girl in her arms.

 And she knows that her husband would do anything to make sure the young Mistress is alive.

"Promise me then Henry, you will follow us. You will come and find us." Naomi said, crying.

The alpha didn't say anything anymore as he pushed his mate away together with the little pup in her arms.

"Take care of her as if she's our own child," Henry said before running back inside to check on the other boy's condition.

Naomi managed to escape the building. 

She doesn't even know how she managed to escape without being seen by the police or the people responsible for the tragedy of the Von Dorn family. But at that moment, she is just grateful that she was able to flee with their young mistress.

Back at the headquarters of the biggest political party in the country, Henry found his boss lying on the ground while holding his mate.

 He carefully walks towards them only to find out that the couple are both bleeding.

 He isn't stupid he knows that something is going on.

 He was about to run away when he was blocked by a few alpha and beta.

"W-who are you?" Henry asked but no one dared to answer until he heard a crying woman being dragged by a familiar man. 

His eyes widened with horror when he recognized the two.

He attempted to remain calm since he was unsure of who the mated couple was or why they were there. He eventually realized something.

"Julius, please... Please find him! He was just here with the omega girl. Please...." the woman begged her mate but Julius just continued to drag her out.

"I told you not to come here, especially not today! You Fucking dragged your weak beta son here so who's fault it is now that he's gone?!" Julius yelled at the woman before he shoved her inside their car.

At some point, Henry thought he was out of their radar only to be surprised when one of Julius' men kicked him to the ground.

"Sorry man, just cleaning up for my boss." the beta who looks like a goon said before pulling the trigger of his gun that ended Henry's life.

It was chaos, but Julius was very pleased knowing that the biggest obstacle in his position as Assemblyman had finally been removed.

 Desmond Von Dorn was the leader of the party list he wanted to belong to but the same leader refused to accept him into their group.

He tried everything in his power just to be with the party list but Desmond seemed to have a different morals with him. 

The pure-blood alpha didn’t want to accept bribes and gifts. 

He believes in high morals and good values that for Julius, would only slow down his success.

That is why he plotted this evil plan to terminate the leader of the party. 

The only flaw in his plan was when he didn't anticipate his mate's plan to visit her friend who's coincidentally Desmond's wife.

It was a horrible day but Julius was determined to make his plan work. 

Desmond and everyone in the building needed to die.

He didn't even grieve for the loss of his son because he immediately replaced him with someone he thought would be more deserving to be his son.

"Stop crying, why don't you bring our son to his room," Julius said while smiling at the little boy with a doe eye who was staring at him.

Mrs. Carter turned to look at her mate. 

She couldn't believe that it was her mate talking to her because Julius seemed to be a monster to her now.

"Julius, how could you do this to our son?! Cyrus isn't someone you could just replace with anyone! My son died in that building and we couldn't even bury him…”

SLAP!

Mrs. Carter was beyond shocked when her husband slapped her. 

Good thing that one of their maids already took the little pure blood away so he wasn't able to witness what happened between the mates.

"I told you, our son is not dead! Stop talking crap like that or else, you'll end up like him!" Julius gritted his teeth when he grabbed his mate's neck.

Mrs. Carter is trembling. 

She couldn't believe that her husband was capable of such a horrible crime. 

Julius managed to take their son’s body but they weren't able to give him a proper burial because, to her horror, Julius took another child to replace their son immediately.

She's about to leave the country with the little boy who's now their son; it's the reason.

PRESENT

"Can you explain? The Prime Minister wouldn't want his son to pursue a career in politics!" Julius exclaimed loudly in his office when one of his employees informed him of the news that would also impact Cyrus's future position.

"I'm sorry Mr. Carter but our source is certain that the party of the Prime Minister is already preparing for Knight Ashbourne. They might announce it before the filing of candidacy three months from now." the beta replied to their boss who's now really furious because of the turn of events.

He never expected the Prime Minister to involve his son in politics. That's why he was very confident that Cyrus had a big chance of getting the position once they got the approval from the president.

"Call Cyrus now! Tell him I need to talk to him!" Julius ordered his secretary who immediately did it as told she didn’t want to be on his bad side.

At Knight's office, Justin just ended a call with their informant from the opposition party list.

"They already got the news Knight but please can you enlighten me on what's going on now?!" Justin asked his boss and best friend.

Knight has been acting strange in the past few days. 

He also received a lot of weird calls from a lot of people and every time he tried to ask Knight, all he said to him was, 'You'll know in time.'

Knight sighed. 

He couldn't believe he managed to hide everything about his plan from his best friend. 

At first, he thought of asking Justin for help about plans but since he knew that Justin would just scold him, he tried to move alone first. But with the look his best friend is giving him, he already knows he couldn't lie to him.

"I'm helping Aria."

"Wow, that's great! So Aria will be running in politics now? Because last time I checked, she was busy preparing for her album because she had decided to debut as a singer. Now tell me the truth Knight, why are we constantly receiving calls from anonymous people and what does it have to do with Aria? Does she even know you're doing this?" Justin asked, his eyes were a little scarier than usual but as a pure-blood alpha, Knight remained unfazed.

"Justin, Aria’s daughter is alive!" Knight said and for a moment he thought Justin was going to have a heart attack because he saw how the alpha froze.

"H-how?” 

“Knight! Stop messing with the little angel! This isn't a funny joke! I hope you didn't tell Aria that because if you did, then you're an asshole!" 

Justin said when he finally got his voice back.

"Unfortunately, I did. But I.” 

"What?!"

"Wait, listen to me first. So yeah, I did tell her about that since we met the kid during the grand ball. I saw the girl and you wouldn't believe it Justin, she looks exactly like Aria! But the thing is, there's this Alex chick who told Aria that the kid is hers and Cyrus so I decided to have my own investigation done. The kid, Kiana, is not Alex's daughter because she's Aria’s!" Knight explained.

Justin fell into silence he walked towards his best friend and hit him with the book he saw on his table.

"Ouch! What is that for?" Knight asked with wide eyes.

"You're crazy! Why the Fuck would you do that?" Justin asked, still can't believe Knight acted like that.

He has known him since they were in university and the pure blood never acted impulsively, let alone dip his finger in anyone's business.

"It's Aria and…”

"Exactly! It's Aria’s life and you don't have the right to go snooping around behind her back. Does she even know you're doing this?"

"No, but Justin please listen to me. Aria’s life is still in danger. Someone wanted her out of the picture and based on Cyrus’s reaction when we saw him, it's not him." Knight said with furrowed brows.

It's been two weeks since he decided to investigate Aria’s past just to know what happened to her and her daughter and to be honest, he is still in the process of understanding everything because it seems like the people around Aria before she left the country were the same people who set her up.

"Knight this isn't you! Why are you doing this?" Justin asked all of a sudden because he realized how deep of a hole his best friend was digging for himself.

"Aria means so much to me Justin and if one day she accepts my courting, then I'd like her not to have any regrets of her past. I hope you understand. even if you don't, I'll do this alone." Knight said this time he's speaking not just as Justin’s boss but as his best friend.

The two stared at each other before Justin finally nodded, indicating that he'd support him no matter what.

"As long as you are happy, I got you," he said with a smile. Knight thanked his best friend with a tight hug before he went back to his chair.

"So, what's the plan? Why are we involved in the political party? Does it mean the Prime Minister has something to do with this?" Justin asked.

"The Prime Minister doesn't have anything to do with it but I did ask his permission if I could spread a rumor that I'll be joining the party soon."

"And why would you do that? you hate politics Knight!" Justin exclaimed.

"I do hate politics and there are people who aren't scared of shedding blood for it. I need them to present themselves to me, also...I need to speak to Cyrus without raising any suspicion. If my guess is right, he's as clueless as Aria." Knight said.

"Woah, hold up! this isn't just any game you're developing! This is real-life Knight! You can't just make conclusions based on your guesses because you might Fuck someone else's life up." Justin reminded his best friend but Knight just shook his head.

"As long as it's not Aria’s, besides I believe that Carter also deserves to know the truth. I need more information from him too because the closer I get to him, the closer I'll get to the truth." Knight said with determination in his voice.

Justin nods in understanding. He knows Knight so well and he knows that he won't stop until he learns the truth.

In another part of the City, Aria was searching for different clothes designs on her phone. 

Her co-worker advised her to buy new clothes if she is planning to be a singer. 

At first, she was hesitant but since everyone around her has been nothing but supportive, she decided to take the day off to go shopping.

At first, she wanted to ask Knight to accompany her but knowing that the alpha would want to pay for everything she changed her mind almost immediately and just decided to go alone.

 She sent him a message informing him that she would come home later just to make sure Knight didn’t get worried about her. 

She went to the nearest shopping mall close to her company.

Aria never thought that she would enjoy shopping. She grew up in an orphanage where she was used to sharing everything with her fellow orphans. 

Even when she went to college and started to work, she still couldn’t afford to buy everything he wanted because her priority was her school fees.

When she got married to Cyrus, she didn't need to go shopping because Cyrus used to buy everything for her and she didn't need to go out to get anything.

So now that she has the money to buy the things she wants, Aria just can’t stop smiling. 

She bought a few tops from the store she fell in love with.

She was initially shocked by the prices but then she remembered  Kyrie once told her that she looked good in Gucci.

 It's also the brand Knight loved to buy for her so she just bought them.

When she was done buying a few things from the luxury shop, she decided to buy a pair of shoes too. 

She was walking alone with her paper bags when she spotted a fancy toy shop for kids.

Aria couldn’t help but think about her baby when she saw a doll on the display rack. 

She walked closer to the store just to see all the pretty toys inside the shop.

A really pretty doll caught her eye and just as she was about to touch it she heard a familiar voice.

"Pwetty Princess!!!!"

Aria slowly turned around to check where the voice was coming from and she almost ran away immediately when she saw the little girl.

"Kiki!"

"I towd daddy I saw you, I was right! It's you again Pwetty Pwincess!'' The little girl excitedly throws herself at her as if she knows that she will catch her no matter how many bags she has to drop on the floor!

"Kiana!" Cyrus startled the two who were still hugging each other.

 "God, Angel, don't do that again. I got so worried!" Cyrus said while trying to wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

"See, Daddy I told you I saw pwetty pwincess here! Can we go watch the movie now?" Kiana asked as if she were asking for a piece of candy oblivious to the tension between the two adults in front of her.

Aria was about to put the little girl down because she didn't expect to see the father and child in the mall at that moment but Kiana just tightened her arms around her neck. 

Cyrus seemed to notice her predicament but instead of taking his daughter from her, he started to pick up the paper bags she dropped on the floor.

"See what you made Aria do baby," Cyrus said while placing the paper bags in his arms.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that, let me…”

"It's okay pwetty pwincess, daddy will hold them for you so you can cawwy me. Can we watch the movie now?" Kiana insisted again and this time Aria purposely looked at Cyrus for the first time. 

She was expecting the alpha to say no, or to at least make some excuses for the little girl but to her surprise, Cyrus ignored her eyes and just smiled at his daughter.

"Sure princess, but I'm not sure if the pwetty pwincess wants to watch Elsa too," Cyrus said as if everything was normal among them.

It was only then that Aria realized that when the little girls said "WE" it included her. 

Aria’s eyes widened at that realization because first, she never thought she would bump into the father and daughter duo without their security details, and second what the hell?! Why would she watch a movie with them? Where was Alexx?!

 "Pwetty Pwincess, can we watch the movie pwease? Daddy pwomise me we could watch the movie alone today so he sneak out of his work from Uncle Didi, pwease pwetty pwincess?" Kiana asked again, this time the little girl even pouted and used her puppy eyes on her.

Aria looks at Cyrus one more time because she was waiting for the alpha to oppose the idea but Cyrus just raised his eyebrows on her as if he was expecting her to agree.

"You know it's not every day that we get to watch a movie in the cinema so I know it would mean the world to her if you'll agree and come watch with us," Cyrus said when Aria remained quiet.

In truth, Cyrus' heart was pounding in his chest. 

Never in his wildest imagination did he think he would bump into his daughter's mother on the day he decided to ditch work for his daughter.

 He didn’t know how but the moment they entered the mall a while ago, his pup seemed distracted and when she started talking about the pwetty pwincess, he got more confused until she started to run away from him.

So the moment he spotted Aria carrying his Kiana, it felt as if someone knocked him off all the oxygen in his body because the scene in front of him was overwhelming.

 He saw how Aria’s face lit up the moment she saw Kiana and he also witnessed how his omega dropped everything in her hand to catch their daughter.

 It was heartwarming for him even when he knew that Aria didn’t want to acknowledge their child. 

That is why when Kiana invited the m Omega to join them to watch her favorite movie, Cyrus just took advantage of the opportunity.

He went with the flow and now he and his pup are just waiting for Aria’s confirmation.

"Uhmmm, but where's Alex?" Aria finally decided to ask because she felt like she was intruding on a family day out.

Cyrus frowns at her, obviously unhappy with her question so Aria just takes that as the other alpha failed to accompany the father and daughter. That's why Cyrus reacted that way.

"O-okay, let's watch the movie then." Aria finally agreed because Kiana looked like she was about to cry.

Cyrus didn't say anything when she agreed, instead he just guided them to the cinema.

 And since Kiana is the boss at the moment, she chose to sit on the last chair by the wall and let Aria sit beside her, making the two adults sit beside each other.

"Kiana, do you want to sit here in the middle so you could sit beside your….”

"Ssh, be quiet pwetty pwincess. The movie's about to start, besides.. daddy will just sleep the whole time." Kiana replied before taking Aria’s hand to her own as if she didn't have any plan of letting the omega escape from her.

Aria almost teared up with the little act.

she doesn't want Cyrus to see how much of a crybaby she is, she tries to control herself and focus on the movie too.

The three are quiet and just enjoying the movie for the first few minutes until Aria can’t hold it back anymore as she turns to look at the alpha who's staring at her the whole time.

"Will you stop staring at me please?" She whispered at the pure blood alpha but Cyrus just leaned back in his seat and continued to stare at her.

"Why? Are you bothered?" 

"NO."

Then the two pretend to watch the movie again because Kiana asks them questions once in a while.

They're halfway through the movie when Aria suddenly realizes something she slowly turns to the pure blood alpha beside her, thankfully Cyrus’ eyes are on the screen this time so Aria has the chance to stare at him.

 Cyrus still looks handsome, no scratch that! He became devilishly handsome with his long curly hair. 

He's also wearing black pants and a black shirt topped by a white windbreaker that makes him look younger than his age. 

He doesn't look like an Assemblyman at all and Aria might never admit it out loud but she likes this Cyrus better because it reminds her of her mate, her husband.

The l omega is in deep thought and she doesn't even realize that Cyrus already caught her staring.

"Do you like my face better than the movie?" Cyrus teased. Only because if he didn’t break the silence between them, he felt like he might do something stupid.

"You wish Carter!" Aria replied before she averted her gaze from him. 

"Then why are you staring?"

"Why is your child wearing a scent blocker?" Aria blurted out, regretting it when she saw the unexplainable emotion that crossed Cyrus' eyes.

There's a lot of things running on Cyrus’s mind the moment he saw Aria again, but hearing the other blatantly rejecting to acknowledge that Kiana is his wasn’t one of them. 

He saw how Aria’s eyes soften whenever she looks at Kiana so he doesn't understand why she is not acknowledging her

"Wait, why do you mean again? Did you see her before the gala?" Cyrus suddenly asked when he realized something.

"Yeah, but both times she was wearing scent blocker so I'm just wondering why Alex woukd suppress your child's scent? I mean, I'm sure she'll smell fantastic but…”

"Aria!" Cyrus cuts the omega off because he just feels something isn't right at all. 

The way Aria keeps involving Alex to his and Kiana’s life, the way… oh Luna! 

Cyrus's head is spinning with questions, but before he can ask one, Kiana stands up and faces them both.

"Daddy, you're being loud! Pwetty pwincess, can we change seats pwease so I can remind daddy to be quiet?" Kiana said as if Aria has a choice.

Cyrus was about to refuse the idea because there's a lot of things he wanted to ask and tell Aria but Kiana was already sitting beside him and this time, his little girl intertwined her fingers with both of their fingers just to make sure they won't do anything without her permission first.

Aria doesn't know why but the little action of the girl beside her really warms her heart as if Kiana holding her hand was the most natural thing on Earth next to breathing.

Aria and Cyrus remained quiet for the rest of the movie. 

The three of them went out of the cinema together while Kiana was still holding their hands. 

They were outside when the little girl looked up to Aria.

"Pwetty pwincess, are you gonna eat dwinner with us?" she asked while batting her eyelashes.

Cyrus almost wanted to laugh because he remembers how Aria used the same tactics on him when she wanted something from him. 

Aria glared at the alpha who was holding his laughter because she also thought the same thing.

"Princess, why don't you call your mama Lexi so she can also join you for dinner?" Aria innocently suggested without knowing that his last question would finally answer all the other questions in Cyrus head.

 "W-what did you just call Alex?" Cyrus asked with a frown.

 Aria suddenly felt like she walked on an egg shell because she can clearly smell Cyrus’s dominant pheromones as if the pure blood alpha would rip her heart out if she says something wrong. 

Aria was about to repeat her words when Kiana spoke.

"Pwetty pwicness you're so silly. Aunty Lexi isn't my Mama. My Mama went far far away and daddy is going to get her back! Right daddy?" Kiana said while tugging to her father's hand.

Aria’s  eyes widened upon hearing the little girl's words. 

She doesn't know why she suddenly felt like the air around them became thicker. 

She also began to experience tears welling up in her eyes as she gazes at Cyrus.

Cyrus replied to his daughter, "Yes, baby. She is close to us. Daddy just has to bring her back home, just like I promised when you were born." His eyes were fixed on Aria, who was now crying while holding Kiana's tiny hand .