[Chapter Six: Gentle Guardianship]

Bailey started noticing the little things first.

Not the big, dramatic stuff—nothing that would make a normal person panic. Just… patterns. Gentle ones.

The security guard near his morning building nodded at him now, always opening the door a second faster than necessary. The campus shuttle driver waited when Bailey ran late, smiling like it was no trouble at all. Even the cafeteria cashier slipped an extra bread roll onto his tray with a conspiratorial wink.

Bailey accepted it all with a grateful smile, tail wagging softly.

“Guess today’s a good day,” he murmured to himself.

From the upper floor of the administrative building, Luca watched the quad through tinted glass.

Bailey crossed the open space below, golden hair catching the light, laughter trailing behind him as he chatted with a classmate. His posture was relaxed. Safe. Unaware.

Good.

Luca turned away before the word mine could form fully in his mind.

He hadn’t meant for his influence to spread this far. A quiet directive here, a mild suggestion there. No names. No explanations. Just an instinctive correction of a world that seemed too sharp for something so soft.

He told himself it was responsibility.

After all, Bailey was his student. His campus. His environment. Protecting an Omega—especially an unclaimed one—wasn’t indulgence. It was biological sense.

Yes. That was it.

Still, Luca found himself adjusting his schedule to overlap with Bailey’s routes. Meetings rescheduled. Calls shortened. Elevators timed. Hallways chosen.

When they crossed paths now, Bailey’s eyes lit up every time.

“Oh! Hi again!” Bailey said one afternoon, nearly bouncing on his heels. His tail wagged openly now—he’d stopped trying to hide it.

Luca raised a brow. “You seem pleased to see me.”

“Well—yeah,” Bailey said, grinning. “You make the hallway feel… calmer. Is that weird?”

Luca should have shut it down.

Instead, his voice softened. “No.”

Bailey beamed.

That was when Luca noticed something…or maybe someone. From a distance, another Alpha. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Watching Bailey a little too intently from across the quad. Luca’s wolf instinct bristled instantly, a low warning thrumming beneath his skin.

The Alpha never approached.

He couldn’t.

Not with Luca standing there—silent, immovable, gaze cold enough to freeze blood.

Bailey didn’t notice the tension. He was too busy talking about an exam he was nervous for, eyes bright, hands animated.

Luca listened, but his focus never left the world around Bailey.

Threats were assessed. Paths calculated. Outcomes neutralized.

When Bailey finally waved goodbye and trotted off, humming softly, Luca stayed where he was.

This wasn’t obsession.

Obsessions were loud. Messy. Uncontrolled.

This was quiet.

Precise.

Protective.

And as Luca turned back toward his office, he accepted one undeniable truth:

Bailey Copper was under his watch now.

And nothing—nothing—would be allowed to harm him.