Chapter 79: Burning Point

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Burning Point

Nero was moving before the aircraft had fully stopped.

The moment the cabin door opened, he descended the stairs onto the private tarmac behind Villa Petrana, barely acknowledging the security personnel waiting beside the armored vehicles.

The night air was cold.

He hardly felt it.

His white-blond hair had come loose during the flight, falling over the shoulders of his black formal jacket while his long strides carried him across the tarmac toward the illuminated rear entrance of the villa.

Hale followed several steps behind.

He had known Nero since birth and had watched him grow from a child who considered danger an interesting recreational activity into a crown prince capable of making entire governments reconsider their decisions.

Nero could be dramatic.

Frequently.

He could also become frighteningly calm when something genuinely angered him.

Hale had never seen him like this.

"Your Highness."

Nero did not slow down.

The pressure surrounding him was becoming unbearable, dark pheromones rolling across the tarmac in waves that made the security personnel instinctively retreat.

Smoke.

Fire.

Something sharper beneath both.

Hale felt his own alpha instincts recoil.

"Nero," Hale called to him, but the name did not seem to reach the crown prince at all.

His violet eyes had grown lighter, almost white at their centers, and his speed was becoming inhuman.

Nero barely registered the distance between the aircraft and the villa.

His instincts had been clawing at him since the meeting in Altera, growing increasingly violent throughout the flight until maintaining control had become an exercise in forcing his own body to obey him.

Now, with Sebastian somewhere inside that building, even the smallest delay felt intolerable.

FASTER.

The command tore through his mind.

Nero’s jaw tightened.

He had spent his entire life keeping his pheromones contained, allowing only the smallest amount to escape when he wanted to influence someone or make his authority unmistakable. Unlike ordinary dominant alphas, who often maintained a low ambient presence, Nero had learned early that an enigma’s unrestricted output could overwhelm almost everyone around him.

He had never considered that a limitation.

His power was useful precisely because he controlled it.

Only Sebastian had ever been allowed to remain surrounded by his pheromones for extended periods, and even then, Nero had carefully regulated the output to provide stabilization without overwhelming his changing receptors.

Tonight, that control was slipping.

The air around him grew unbearably hot.

Smoke and dark spice rolled across the tarmac, followed by the sharp, burning pressure of his enigma as the security personnel instinctively moved away from his path.

Nero barely noticed.

His attention had narrowed to the illuminated rear entrance of the villa.

Sebastian.

He needed to see him.

Touch him.

Feel his heartbeat beneath his palm and verify that the man was still alive, still breathing, still somewhere Nero could reach.

The red ocean flashed behind his eyes.

Nero stumbled.

His foot struck the edge of the stone walkway, and for one disorienting instant, the pale pavement became dark red liquid stretching beneath an empty sky.

His heart slammed against his ribs.

Nero felt his mouth clench around something hard and cold.

He choked.

His hand flew to his throat as he staggered against the stone railing, the red ocean swallowing the tarmac beneath his feet while an impossible weight settled between his teeth.

Something was in his mouth.

Something enormous.

He could feel its smooth, cold surface pressing against his tongue, its weight pulling at his jaw while a strange tension stretched through his entire body, as though whatever he held was connected to something far beyond his sight.

Nero tried to open his mouth.

His jaw refused to move.

The pressure increased, accompanied by the disturbing sensation of something shifting between his teeth, scraping against them with a hardness that reminded him of scales.

What the fuck?

He could not see the thing he was holding.

He could barely see himself.

The red ocean stretched in every direction beneath the colorless sky, its surface perfectly still except for a broad ripple moving somewhere beyond him.

Then something pulled.

Nero’s teeth clenched harder.

The movement had not come from him, yet his entire body reacted as though releasing whatever he held would be the most catastrophic decision he could possibly make.

DO NOT LET GO.

The command tore through his thoughts with such force that his pheromones surged.

Fire and smoke rolled across the stone walkway, carrying enough pressure to make Hale stumble several meters behind him.

Nero barely registered the movement.

His jaw ached.

He could feel something moving through the red liquid, something connected to the weight between his teeth, and the terrible certainty that whatever was happening had everything to do with Sebastian.

My moon.

The thought struck through him.

Nero tried to move forward, but the red ocean seemed to stretch with him, its surface remaining perfectly still despite the violent pressure building inside his chest.

Then the weight moved again.

His teeth tightened instinctively.

NO.

The ocean vanished.

Nero sucked in a breath.

The cold night air struck his lungs as the tarmac returned beneath his feet, the villa standing less than fifty meters ahead with its rear entrance illuminated beneath the covered terrace.

His mouth was empty.

He ran his tongue across his teeth, searching for blood or some trace of the object he had been holding.

Nothing.

Yet his jaw continued aching, and every instinct he possessed remained fixed on something he could neither see nor understand.

"Nero!"

Hale’s voice finally reached him.

Nero straightened.

His breathing had become rough, his chest rising beneath the black formal jacket while the pressure of his pheromones continued spreading across the walkway.

For one brief moment, he considered explaining what had happened.

Then he looked toward the villa.

There was no time.

He pushed away from the railing and moved.

The attendant waiting at the rear entrance had barely managed to open the door when Nero reached him.

"Your Highness, welcome—"

An alarm sounded.

Nero stopped.

The sharp electronic warning echoed through the entrance hall, followed by another alarm somewhere beyond the private corridor leading toward the medical wing.

Then he felt it.

Sebastian.

His pheromones.

For weeks, Sebastian had possessed almost no detectable pheromonal scent while his secondary-gender system restructured itself, leaving Nero to recognize him through the ordinary warmth of his skin and the familiar traces of soap, shampoo, and clothing.

Now something was pouring through the villa.

Violent, unfamiliar pheromones saturated the corridor, carrying enough pressure to make the attendant stagger backward and brace one hand against the wall.

Nero’s enigma reacted immediately.

His vision sharpened.

The pale centers of his violet eyes grew brighter as something primitive surged beneath his skin, demanding that he find Sebastian and destroy whatever was threatening him.

Nero was already running.

The polished stone floor disappeared beneath his feet as he crossed the entrance hall, his long white-blond hair streaming behind him while his pheromones rolled outward in increasingly violent waves.

The wall lights flickered.

Small purple sparks flashed through the air.

He had spent his entire life containing his pheromones because releasing them without restraint could overwhelm almost anyone nearby.

Tonight, he barely remembered why that mattered.

Sebastian was calling for him.

FASTER.

He reached the observation suite.

Duncan was standing near the entrance, phone in hand, while the medical alarms continued sounding beyond the open door.

"Your Highness, his readings started climbing less than two minutes ago. We were trying to—"

Nero passed him.

The room was saturated with Sebastian’s pheromones.

They pressed against Nero’s skin with enough force that his enigma reacted almost violently, flooding the space with smoke and burning heat before he had consciously decided to release anything.

His gaze found the bed.

Sebastian lay tangled in the sheets, dark hair scattered across the pillow while his chest rose and fell in quick, uneven movements.

His eyes were closed.

The monitors surrounding him displayed numbers that continued climbing.

Nero stopped breathing.