Chapter 8 –– Warm Embrace

“How is he?” I asked the healer

It’d been two hours since Noam fainted near the gnox router. The moment he suddenly fainted, I reflexively caught him and carried him back to our family’s mansion. I brought him to his room and called a healer to have a check on him. The rest of my family immediately entered to the room to learn what just happened.

“It looks like he experienced an abrupt and drastic imbalance in his gnox energy which made him faint. He should be waking up in a few hours.”

This was the first time something like this had ever happened. In the past, people had gone close to the router many times, especially for maintenance purposes, but nobody ever fainted from it. I’m not sure if it was because he was from a different tribe, but I had a feeling that it was not because of that.

I fully understood that it was his request and all, yet, I couldn’t help but feeling responsible for letting something like this happen to him. If only I had not taken my eyes off him, this wouldn’t have happened.

The healer then left the room, leaving Noam with me and my family. My little sister stood by Noam's side, staring at him with concerns.

“Fatima, let’s go. It’s almost time for dinner,” my mother called my sister.

I keep staring at Noam and his condition. His face looked pale and so did his body. He seemed like his energy was sucked dry or something. I feel so sorry for him.

“Are you sure you’re not coming with us, Dawoud?” my father asked.

“No. I’ll come later,” I said.

“Alright. Let us know when he wakes up,” my father asked me.

I nodded without turning my head. The rest of my family left the room to have dinner without me.

It’s just Noam and me right now.

I took a look at his face carefully. Even at this state, he still looked so beautiful. I had to say, so far, he was the most beautiful omega I had ever seen. I had been with a lot of omegas and betas before–– mostly people from Caninus tribe–– but nobody was ever as beautiful as Noam. He was so beautiful that every time we walked together, people were always looking at him, especially alphas. I’m pretty sure it’s not because of his pheromones, because I was walking by his side and I didn’t smell any pheromone coming from him, so it must have been due to his striking visage.

I loved the way his eyelashes curled up whenever he blinked. I loved how he subconsciously showed his fangs when he laughed. I loved how his hair covered his eyes when the wind blew too hard on him. I loved how he shriveled his ears when he was scared or nervous. I loved how his eyes glistened whenever he got excited and asked questions. I loved everything about him. He was unbearably adorable.

I reached out my hand to part his hair, moving it aside from his face. I touched his cheek, it was ice cold. It felt like he barely had any life force in him.

I saw his fingers twitch, looking like he wanted to reach for something. I took his paw and held him tightly. It was cold, just like his face. I used both of my paws to warm him up, wrapping my paws around him and trying to transfer some of my warmth to him. After a while, his paw felt slightly warmer.

I tried to touch his arm, it was just as cold as the rest of his body. Even though I put a lot of layers of blankets on him, his skin still feels ice cold. The only thing that made him warm was when I held his hand with both of my paws.

He suddenly started to shiver due to his low body temperature. His face looked like he was suffering. I couldn’t bear seeing him looking like that. I don’t care what he’s gonna say after this, but right now I’m focusing on making him feel better. I decided to lie next to him and wrap him around my arms to warm him up.

I put his face on my chest and hugged him tightly. My body was bigger than his, so he felt so small in my embrace. I put his arms in between us so that he could get as much warmth as possible. I wrapped my legs around his, tangling us both. I put some blankets over us and gently brushed my fingers against his hair.

Thankfully, I could feel him regaining some body heat. His skin felt warmer and the expression on his face looked calmer. With our faces facing each other this close, I realised once again just how beautiful he was. He was so fucking adorable that I wanted to kiss him so badly right now. But I can’t do that because I don’t want to take advantage of the state he’s in.

I could also smell his natural body scent lingering around. He smelt so sweet that I couldn't help but get excited because of him. Smelling him almost felt like an aphrodisiac for me. I didn’t want the same thing to happen again just like last time, so I tried to scoot away from him.

After his body got warmer, he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was me, lying next to him on the same bed, embracing him. We made an eye contact with our faces literally one span from each other.

“Dawoud?” he said, while rubbing his eyes.

He looked so cute when he just woke up.

“O–oh. Hey, Noam. Feeling any better?” I asked him in a shaky voice.

I was too startled by the fact that he just woke up with me right in front of his face.

He just realised how close our faces were and the fact that I was hugging him. His face got all red, blushing from the situation.

“Wh–what’s going on??”

As expected, his ears shriveled whenever he got flustered or nervous. I don’t think even he notices this part of him.

He scooted away from me, keeping some distance between us. Well, I guess now that he’s conscious, he doesn’t feel comfortable being physically this close to me.

“You fainted when we visited the gnox router. I brought you here afterwards. Your body temperature was so low so I tried to warm you up,” I explained to him briefly.

He took a moment of silence to recall what happened. He doesn’t seem to remember it.

I got up from the bed to give him some space. I don’t want him to get uncomfortable in a place far from his home, so it’s better this way.

“Do you want some dinner? We can have one of the maids deliver some dinner to your room––”

Right when I was getting up from the bed, he grabbed my hand and stopped me.

“Can you stay here for a little longer?”

Again. With those glistening eyes. How could I ever say no to that?

“Of course.”

I went back to bed, lying next to him, just like before.

He then started putting his arm on my waist, initiating a hug. I opened my arm to let him rest his head on my chest. We then cuddled for a little bit.

Before long, he was fast asleep. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep on my chest, even though he just regained his consciousness. After he fell asleep, I also felt sleepy from watching him sleep. His warmth also rubbed on my body, making me feel drowsy. I closed my eyes for a little bit to rest for a little.

“Dawoud! Dawoud!”

I felt someone shaking my body while I was sleeping. I woke up because he shook me so violently.

“I said, wake up!”

I opened my eyes and saw Noam beside me. Huh? Why is Noam––

I suddenly realised that I had been embracing him the whole night. I was thinking of closing my eyes for a little bit only to realise that I slept through the night and it was morning already. I slept while hugging Noam tightly in my arms, cuddling him like some kind of body pillow.

Noam woke me up to scoot away from me. He woke up earlier than me and had been wanting to go to the bathroom for a while now.

“O-oh! Sorry...”

I immediately released my arms to let him go. He then immediately went to the bathroom.

Damn. I just realised we ended up sleeping on the same bed last night.

Judging from his expression earlier, he seemed to be a whole lot better now. Right now, I think it’s better for me to leave while he’s in the shower. I also needed to get prepared for today’s agenda.

Later that day, I invited Noam to have a walk with me around the village. It was supposed to be only the two of us, but suddenly, my little sister Fatima begged us to bring her along. I declined her request because I wanted to spend the day just with Noam. However, since Noam was more than willing to take Fatima with us, the three of us ended up going together. I guess I had no say in this. Children seemed to like him for some reason and he accepted them with open arms. He seemed to be good with children, which was an interesting side of him I just learnt.

First of all, we went to a well known restaurant in the village. They had some really good mushroom dishes in their menu, so I imagined Noam would like it a lot. I only booked a table for two, but since there was a change of plan, I asked them if it was possible to add one more seat for my little sister. They were more than happy to accommodate my request, likely due to my status as the Chieftain’s son.

We then sat at a table that was reserved for us. After ordering some of the signature dishes of the restaurant, the staff finally served us the meals that we ordered.

“Ooh! It looks delicious!” Fatima exclaimed.

She looked even more excited than the both of us. Well, my parents rarely take her outside of the mansion so it would make sense that she was excited to have a look outside of the mansion.

We then started eating the meals we ordered. I couldn’t help but notice how different Fatima was when he was around Noam. Usually, Fatima was a quiet girl when my parents and I took her outside. This was the first time I saw her being this cheerful. She was being playful to Noam and Noam kept interacting with her, like she was his own little sister. There was this one moment where there was soup on Fatima’s mouth and Noam wiped it off from her with a smile. Even though they barely knew each other, Noam seemed to be very comfortable around her, and so was Fatima around him.

I don’t know why I find that part of him attractive. He seemed like he could be a good father. Was it because of his natural instincts as an omega? No, that couldn’t be true. I’d been with a lot of omegas before and none of them had a good relationship with Fatima. Besides, Fatima was usually shy in front of strangers, so it was truly something else that Fatima opened up this easily in front of him.

After we had lunch at the restaurant, we went to the park. The park had a playground for children to play, so we let Fatima play with the other children while Noam and I had a chat. This was such a rare chance for her to play with kids her age, so she better took full advantage of it.

“She’s so cheerful,” Noam said, with a smile on his face.

He looked very fond of her. His expression looked as if Fatima was his own sister.

“You know, she isn’t usually like this,” I told him.

“Really? How come?”

Noam looked shocked. He could not imagine her not being as cheerful as she is today.

“Our parents never really took her outside that much. She spent most of her days in our mansion, with the butlers and maids. That’s probably why she’s having so much fun today.”

Noam looked saddened by what I said. He probably felt awful about the way Fatima was brought up.

“That’s really sad.”

Looking at his somber expression, I found him incredibly cute. I couldn’t help but find Noam's pouting face looking like a kid who just lost his ice cream.

“Noam, about last night––”

Just when I was about to open the conversation about what happened last night, something happened in front of us.

“Dawoud! Fatima is fighting another kid!”

Noam noticed Fatima fighting with another kid. He then interrupted our conversation to focus on her who was playing at the park. We then approached them to understand the situation at hand.