Chapter 487: Omission

Dean made the entire operation easier by refusing to hear about it.

Arion should probably have felt worse about how relieved that made him.

Three mornings after Dax suggested deliberately approaching one of the infected beasts, Arion found Dean stretched across the chaise near their bedroom windows with a tablet balanced against his thighs and Boreas occupying enough of the rug beside him to make walking through the room unnecessarily complicated.

Late-spring sunlight poured through the glass, warming the pale floor and catching against Dean’s loose blond hair. He wore soft black trousers and an oversized cream shirt that no longer completely disguised the curve of his stomach when he shifted.

Arion stopped near the dressing table to fasten his watch.

"I’m meeting Hendrik this afternoon."

Dean looked up.

There was a brief narrowing of violet eyes, followed by the expression of someone actively deciding whether curiosity was worth the consequences.

"Hendrik means military logistics, beasts, or both."

Arion kept his face neutral.

"Usually."

Dean studied him for another second.

Then he returned to the tablet.

"I don’t want to know."

Arion paused.

Dean scrolled through what appeared to be yet another list of possible names for their son.

"You don’t?"

"No. If you tell me, I’ll have an opinion. If I have an opinion, I’ll become involved, and apparently everyone becomes deeply offended whenever the pregnant man wants to participate in anything more dangerous than selecting curtains."

"You tried to join a security review last week."

"I sat in a chair."

"You also rewrote half their response protocol."

"It was bad."

Arion nearly smiled.

Dean waved one hand without looking up.

"Go meet Hendrik. Return intact. I am choosing peace today."

The relief was immediate enough to feel like guilt.

Technically, Arion had said nothing untrue.

He did have a meeting with Hendrik. They would discuss beasts. Dean had simply declined to ask where that discussion would happen or why Dax and Otto had both cleared their schedules for it.

An omission was not a direct lie.

Arion suspected Dean would make that distinction meaningless if he discovered the truth before Arion returned.

He crossed the room and bent to kiss Dean.

Dean caught the front of his dark shirt before he could straighten.

"That was suspiciously affectionate."

"I kiss you every day."

"That one had guilt in it."

Arion met his eyes.

Pregnancy had made Dean disturbingly perceptive and catastrophically willing to say whatever entered his head.

"I’ll be back before dinner."

Dean continued staring. Then his expression softened.

"You’d better be."

Arion kissed him again.

This time Dean let him leave.

—

Nero arrived before Arion reached Hendrik.

He was waiting in the private underground garage beside an unmarked vehicle, leaning against the rear door with his arms folded and an expression that suggested he had already decided he belonged there.

His white hair had been tied into a low braid for travel, falling over the shoulder of a fitted black coat with dark-purple lining. He wore no visible royal insignia, although there was very little chance anyone familiar with Saha would mistake him for ordinary security.

Arion stopped.

"You weren’t invited."

"My father told me."

"That explains why you know. Not why you’re here."

Nero straightened.

"He smelled corruption in your pheromones after I told you repeatedly that I felt nothing. Obviously I came."

Arion opened the vehicle door.

"You flew three hours to smell me again."

"When you say it like that, it sounds strange."

"It is strange."

Nero climbed into the back beside him.

"I want to know whether proximity to the beasts changes anything."

Arion glanced over.

Nero’s expression had lost most of its humor.

That was the real reason.

Nero was extraordinarily sensitive to pheromonal changes, far beyond what ordinary dominants could distinguish, and yet he had detected nothing wrong with Arion even after actively searching for it.

If the corrupted layer responded to an infected beast, Nero might be able to feel the change before equipment captured it.

Hendrik entered from the opposite door and looked at Nero.

He did not even bother hiding his annoyance.

"Why is he here?"

"Nobody has given me a satisfactory answer to that."

Nero fastened his seat belt.

"I am useful."

Hendrik looked at Arion.

"Is Dax aware?"

"He caused this."

"That sounds correct."

The vehicle pulled away.

They left the palace through the eastern service route and climbed gradually toward the northern forests, the city falling away behind them as glass towers became low suburbs, then farmland, then dense stretches of pine and mountain road.

Hendrik had chosen one of the closest controlled observation sites.

The beasts there had remained dormant for months.

No attacks. No migration. Minimal feeding.

Their metabolic readings remained unnaturally low but stable enough that nobody had been willing to provoke them merely to satisfy curiosity.

Today was different, not reckless.

Hendrik had made that clear repeatedly.

They would remain beyond the established reaction radius until the first stage of testing was complete, and extraction vehicles waited less than three minutes away.

Arion listened while Hendrik reviewed the protocol.

Part of his mind remained elsewhere.

Dean would be at home now.

Probably with Boreas stretched across his feet while he rejected another name for their son.

Arion disliked being this far from him.

He disliked it more knowing exactly why he had come.

Nero noticed.

"He’s safe."

"I know."

"You look like you’re considering turning around."

"I considered it before we left."

"And?"

Arion looked through the window at the forest sliding past.

"Dean would come with me if he knew."

Nero understood immediately.

"You didn’t tell him."

"I told him I was meeting Hendrik."

Hendrik looked forward from the opposite seat.

Nero’s mouth curved.

"You are lying by omission to your pregnant husband."

"I am aware."

"I would like it formally recorded that I had no part in this."

"You flew here voluntarily."

"That is unrelated."

Arion ignored him.

—

The secure site appeared after another hour, hidden behind dense forest and two military checkpoints.

Otto was already there.

So was Dax.

Neither wore formal clothing. Otto had changed into dark field trousers, boots, and a lightweight military jacket, while Dax stood beside him in black beneath a plain weatherproof coat, silver visible through his hair beneath the pale afternoon light.

Dax looked at Nero once.

"You came."

"You told me."

"That was not an invitation."

Nero glanced toward Arion.

"Apparently nobody appreciates initiative today."

Otto almost smiled.

Hendrik led them through the inner facility, past sealed equipment rooms and observation stations where technicians monitored temperature, heart rate, movement, and wind direction from remote sensors.

The final gate opened onto a reinforced elevated platform overlooking the forest basin.

No one spoke for several moments.

Below them, between the trees, the beasts lay scattered through the undergrowth.

Large bodies half-hidden beneath shadow.

Breathing slowly.

Almost unnaturally still.

Dormant.

Arion moved to the barrier.

Nero came to his left.

Dax stopped on his right.

Otto and Hendrik stood a pace behind them, watching both the animals below and the monitors mounted along the platform wall.

The nearest beast lifted its chest with one slow breath.

Arion felt his own pheromones stir beneath his skin.

Five men stood facing the infected forest.

And somewhere inside Arion, something old waited to see whether it recognized what was below.