.・..・゜✭・.・✫・゜・..
The Southern Palace was draped in a deceptive, silver moonlight that made the marble corridors look like frozen rivers. For Lorcan, the night was a long, agonizing stretch of wakefulness. His mind was a chaotic storm of the lie he had told and the scent he had encountered earlier. Despite his best efforts to stay away, his feet moved on their own, leading him back to the guest wing where the Northern "intruders" were housed.
He stood in the shadows just outside the heavy oak doors of Aiden's chamber, his heart hammering against his ribs. He told himself he was there to ensure they weren't plotting an escape, but the truth was far more pathetic: he couldn't stop seeking out the man who had once been his entire world.
Inside the room, the air was heavy, but not for the reasons Lorcan imagined. Aiden was sitting on the floor by the bed, his face a mask of clinical focus. Asher was sprawled across the cushions, his shirt discarded to reveal the pale skin of his back and shoulders.
Aiden wasn't embracing him. He was holding a set of thin, silver acupuncture needles he had retrieved from his travel kit—needles specially forged in the North to channel mana directly into the blood-stream.
"Stop.…please," Asher sobbed, his voice muffled by a pillow. The heat was making his skin hypersensitive, and every touch felt like a lightning strike. "Aiden, you're hurting me.…it's too rough.…"
"Stay still, Asher," Aiden sighed, his voice low and exhausted. "If I don't hit the secondary pressure points, the pheromone buildup will cause a seizure. Keep quiet."
But Asher couldn't keep quiet. The pain of the needles piercing the inflamed glands at the base of his neck made him whine—small, broken sounds that drifted through the door and straight into Lorcan's ears.
"Not there! Not over there!" Asher gasped, his body flinching violently. "It hurts.…Aiden, stop!"
"It's for the better," Aiden countered firmly, his hands moving with a terrifying, mechanical speed. "If you want to survive this night without screaming for a doctor, you'll let me finish."
Outside in the hallway, Lorcan felt the world tilt. He leaned his forehead against the cold stone wall, his eyes fluttering shut as he listened to the whimpers coming from the room. To anyone else, it was a medical procedure. To a heart already broken and poisoned by jealousy, it sounded like the ultimate betrayal.
He heard Asher's "sobbing" tone—which was actually a mix of heat-induced delirium and physical pain from the needles—and interpreted it as the sound of a lover being overcome. Every time Asher mentioned his "back" or his "neck," Lorcan's imagination filled in the gaps with vivid, agonizing images of Aiden claiming the Northern Alpha in the very way Lorcan had once hoped to be claimed.
He felt lost. A deep, hollow ache settled in his stomach, worse than the false pregnancy he was pretending to carry. He wanted to burst through the door and scream, but he was paralyzed by the "truth" he thought he was hearing.
Inside, Aiden was becoming frustrated. Asher was thrashing too much.
"You're being too rough and fast with the needles!" Asher hissed, tears of pure irritation and pain streaming down his face. "My back... my neck gland.…you're going to leave scars, you monster!"
Aiden didn't have time for the lecture. He saw the shadow under the door—he knew Lorcan was there. This was the moment he had to solidify the deception.
Aiden reached out and clamped a hand over Asher's mouth, stifling a sharp protest. With his other hand, he took a larger needle—one designed to flush the lower mana gates—and placed it firmly into the small of Asher's back.
Asher let out a muffled, high-pitched yelp against Aiden's palm, his body arching off the bed in a spasm of discomfort.
"One more," Aiden whispered harshly into Asher's ear, making sure his voice was loud enough to carry. "Just endure it. You'll feel much better when I'm done with you."
As he worked, Aiden purposely left small, angry red marks around Asher's collarbones and the base of his spine—not from bites, but from the bruising of the needle injections and the friction of holding him down. To a casual observer or a jealous ex-lover, these would look like the aftermath of a passionate night. To Aiden, they were tactical breadcrumbs.
Finally, the room went quiet. Asher had passed out again, his body finally cooling as the needles successfully regulated his heat. Aiden pulled a blanket over the unconscious boy, his expression turning grim. He looked at the door, sensing the moment Lorcan finally turned and fled down the hallway, his footsteps frantic and uneven.
Aiden stood up, his hands trembling slightly. He hated using Asher this way, and he hated the pain he was causing Lorcan, but the South was a viper's nest. If he couldn't break Lorcan's fake engagement with love, he would break it with the sheer, unbearable weight of jealousy and regret.
Meanwhile, in the deeper parts of the palace, Lorcan collapsed in his own room, clutching his stomach. He felt physically ill. The scent of Aiden's dominant pheromones—which had been released to "ground" Asher—still clung to his nostrils.
"I hate him," Lorcan whispered into the darkness, his voice breaking. "I hate him so much."
But even as he said it, he knew it was the biggest lie of all.
As the Southern sun began to rise on a day that promised only more chaos, the Northern Palace remained under a cloud of dread. Arion had called in the elite trackers, but Celine was still nowhere to be found.
And in the tea room, Kenzo finally managed to sit up. He looked at his hands, which were still pale and weak. He could feel the jagged, dark energy coming from the South—he could feel Aiden's cold calculation and Lorcan's despair.
"Calix," Kenzo said, his voice stronger than before. "We have to go. Something is wrong with Aiden. He's... he's becoming like Papa. But worse."
Calix looked at his twin, the tiger-cub ears on his head twitching with anxiety. The recovery was over. The time for childhood was gone. The Blackwood siblings were being scattered to the winds, and the only way to survive was to stop being the prey and start being the hunters.