Chapter 508: The Larger Ones

Dean had discovered that twelve infected dogs were considerably easier to accommodate than twelve infected beasts.

Unfortunately, they had also become considerably harder to remove.

Three weeks after Claudia’s Palace, the animals remained in the secured western gardens of the imperial residence, where Victor had transformed one of the old maintenance buildings into a temporary observation facility and assigned enough medical personnel to make the arrangement look like a small research institute.

The dogs had not infected anyone.

They had not reverted to their original forms, displayed aggression, or released corrupted pheromones unless Arion deliberately instructed them to do so.

Even then, their output remained controlled.

Victor considered the results fascinating.

Hendrik considered the entire situation a security problem that had somehow acquired twelve wagging tails.

Dean considered them adorable.

He was still forbidden from approaching them while pregnant, which had not prevented him from naming the little black dog Ducky.

Arion had objected.

Dean had explained that the animal possessed the same ridiculous innocence as the hundred miniature ducks scattered throughout their residence.

Unfortunately, the name had stuck.

Even Hendrik had started using it.

Now, standing inside the reinforced observation station overlooking Alamina’s largest infected territory, Dean was beginning to suspect that his husband intended to acquire more dogs.

Enormous ones.

The forest stretched across the valley beneath them, dark green beneath the late-spring sun and almost entirely untouched by human activity. The infected territory had expanded gradually over the years, swallowing old roads, abandoned settlements, and entire sections of protected woodland until only aerial surveillance could reliably map its interior.

They had barely inspected a fraction of it.

Dean stood beside the observation window in loose black trousers and a pale-blue shirt, one hand resting beneath his rounded stomach while the other held a tablet displaying the latest thermal readings.

At twenty-five weeks pregnant, hiding the bump had become someone else’s problem.

The public announcement had been made the previous week.

The communications team had survived... Barely.

Arion stood beside him in black field trousers and a fitted dark-green shirt beneath a lightweight tactical jacket, his gold eyes fixed on the forest rather than the tablet.

Nero occupied the chair behind them, wearing a black shirt and dark-purple trousers that were considerably too expensive for a military observation station. His long white hair had been tied into a low braid, and he was examining a drone feed with the expression of someone hoping the day would become more interesting.

Hendrik stood near the communications console.

Victor appeared on the largest screen.

From his office.

Dean stared at him.

"You made all of us travel here while you stayed home?"

Victor adjusted his glasses.

"I am old and tired."

"You are fifty-eight."

"And tired."

Nero laughed.

Victor continued without acknowledging him.

"The drones provide everything I need. I am not entering a forest full of infected beasts merely because the royal family has developed an unhealthy interest in collecting them."

Arion looked toward the screen.

"We are not collecting them."

Hendrik made a quiet sound.

Dean turned toward him.

"Was that a laugh?"

"No, Your Highness."

"It sounded like one."

Hendrik returned his attention to the monitoring equipment.

Dean decided not to pursue it.

Arion had been preparing for this examination since the first dogs demonstrated that their new forms were stable. The animals had remained healthy, their pheromonal profiles controlled and their behavior remarkably ordinary, but they had been comparatively small specimens from Claudia’s containment chambers.

The beasts in Alamina were another matter.

Some had grown large enough to dwarf the original creatures from Draxil, their bodies altered by years of corruption and adaptation within an environment no one had been able to investigate properly.

If Arion could influence them too, they might finally gain access to the deeper forest without sending soldiers into a massacre.

If he could not, they needed to find out before anyone attempted something considerably more ambitious.

Dean looked toward his husband.

"You are not bringing twenty more home."

Arion turned.

"I haven’t even entered the perimeter."

"I am establishing expectations."

Nero leaned back in his chair.

"Perhaps they will become horses this time."

Dean considered that.

Arion immediately recognized the expression.

"No."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were thinking."

"Apparently that is illegal now."

Hendrik looked toward the ceiling.

Victor cleared his throat through the communication system.

"Can we begin before the child is born?"

Dean pointed toward the screen.

"You are becoming increasingly unpleasant."

"I have always been unpleasant. You merely had fewer reasons to notice."

Arion kissed Dean’s temple before moving toward the secured exit.

Dean caught his wrist.

His expression changed.

"Be careful."

Arion’s hand settled over his stomach.

"I will."

"And if you start feeling strange, you leave immediately. I am not waiting five hours for another call from Victor."

"You have direct access to my channel."

"That is not permission to become a beast again."

Arion bent and kissed him properly.

Dean allowed it, then released his wrist with obvious reluctance.

Outside the observation station, the security detail waited beside the reinforced pathway leading toward the inner perimeter.

Arion joined them while Nero and Hendrik moved toward the adjoining control room, where the lower observation platform provided a clearer view of the approach.

Dean remained inside the sealed station.

He disliked that arrangement.

He disliked it even more because it was reasonable.

The pregnancy had reached a stage where exposing himself to unidentified pheromonal compounds for the sake of proving that his neutralizing field could handle them was not something Seven or the obstetric team would tolerate.

Arion had not even bothered arguing.

The inner gate opened.

Dean watched his husband step through.

For several minutes, nothing happened.

The nearest cluster of beasts lay beneath a broad limestone overhang almost two hundred meters from the observation station, their massive bodies partially concealed beneath vines and dense vegetation.

Thermal imaging showed eleven animals.

Seven were considerably larger than those recovered from Draxil.

One was almost twice their size.

Dean looked toward Victor’s screen.

"You are absolutely certain that thing is alive?"

Victor enlarged the thermal reading.

"Very much so."

"It looks like a mountain."

"An unusually warm mountain."

Dean sighed.

Arion continued down the path.

His pheromones remained controlled, the familiar vetiver moving through the forest without the pressure Dean associated with his more aggressive dominant output.

Then the nearest beast lifted its head.

Dean straightened.

Across the valley, another animal moved.

The enormous creature beneath the limestone overhang opened its eyes, raised its head, and slowly pushed itself upright.

Hendrik’s voice came through the communication system.

"Eleven confirmed active. No aggressive response."

Arion stopped several meters beyond the marked observation point.

The first beast approached him.

Its dark hide carried thick ridges of corrupted tissue along the shoulders, and the black lines connecting its scent glands remained visible beneath the skin.

It walked slowly.

Deliberately.

Another followed from beneath the trees.

Then a third.

Dean’s fingers tightened around the tablet.

Arion did not move.

The first beast stopped a few meters away, lowered its enormous head, and regarded him with an expression Dean could not begin to interpret.

Behind it, the largest creature emerged from the overhang.

Nero leaned toward the monitor.

"Oh, that one is magnificent."

Dean closed his eyes briefly.

His husband’s cousin was genuinely the worst possible person to bring on an expedition involving dangerous animals.

Then the first beast stepped closer.

It lowered its head until its nose nearly touched Arion’s chest.

Arion raised one hand.

The animal sniffed his fingers.

And slowly, one after another, the enormous beasts began moving toward him.