Taming the Wild Beast of Alamina

Nero had attended enough military meetings to know when his father had already reached a decision and was merely allowing everyone else the courtesy of catching up.

Dax sat at the end of the long black conference table in one of Saha’s secure command rooms, broad shoulders filling the back of his chair beneath a dark military jacket worn open over a black shirt. His almost perfect white hair had been pushed away from his face sometime during the first hour, probably by his own increasingly impatient hand.

Nero sat to his right.

The room had no windows. Dark stone walls absorbed most of the light from the recessed ceiling panels, while three projection screens covered the opposite wall. The central one held Otto and Hendrik in Alamina. The others displayed senior officers from both kingdoms, border maps, troop positions, and the latest thermal imagery from the infected territories.

Forty-three beasts remained clustered beneath the same limestone formation.

Nero had watched the recording twice.

He did not like it more the second time.

"They are not inactive," one of Alamina’s generals said. "Dormant is still the best description. Several change position. Others leave the resting areas briefly, then return. They are feeding, but at a fraction of their normal rate."

Hendrik enlarged a thermal map.

Red concentrations sat deep within territory that had once been practically impossible to survey.

"No migration toward populated areas. No response to the test stations. No aggression toward the drones unless they descend close enough to create significant noise."

Dax leaned back.

"And you tested all the options?"

"Sylvia, Thomas and Eva’s preserved samples," Hendrik confirmed. "Blood and isolated pheromone material. Nothing."

Nero rested his forearm along the table and studied the map.

The result eliminated the simplest theory.

Whatever had drawn the beasts toward Alamina in previous years was not merely dominant blood, nor a broad family pheromone profile inherited by Sylvia.

That left Claudia.

And Draxil.

Unfortunately, Draxil had spent months making itself increasingly difficult to tolerate.

Otto’s image shifted as he looked toward something outside the frame. "Arion and Dean are still following the planned route. If their intelligence is correct, they should reach Snake Island within several days."

"They have a possible location," Dax said. "Not a prince."

"No one is calling it confirmed."

"And even if it is Amaru, we do not know what condition he is in."

Nero glanced toward his father.

Dax’s tone remained controlled, but the irritation beneath it had been building for years, not weeks.

Draxil had obstructed investigations into beast movements, refused access to Claudia’s Palace, denied records that multiple kingdoms knew existed, and, more recently, accused Nero personally of interfering in its succession.

Nero had considered the accusations almost entertaining at first.

Dax had not.

"They will assess him themselves," Otto said. "If Amaru is alive and capable of ruling, supporting him may give us a legitimate route into Claudia’s Palace without backing either current claimant."

"And if he is incapable?" one of Saha’s generals asked.

"Then we return to the two existing options," Otto replied.

Dax’s fingers tapped once against the table.

"No."

The room quieted.

Nero turned slightly toward him.

Dax looked directly at Otto through the screen.

"If Amaru is useless, and the two brothers continue refusing access, I am done negotiating."

Nobody misunderstood him.

Hendrik’s expression hardened. "You mean military entry."

"I mean Draxil has spent decades becoming everyone else’s problem while insisting its borders make it untouchable."

One of the Saharian commanders shifted closer to his microphone.

Dax continued before anyone could interrupt.

"They funded illegal clinics. They allowed Claudia’s organization to operate inside royal property. They may be sitting on research connected to the infected beasts while every neighboring kingdom keeps troops mobilized through winter because nobody knows when those things will move again."

His hand gestured toward the thermal image.

"And instead of cooperating, they accuse my son of manipulating their succession."

Nero remained silent.

He had no need to defend himself.

Dax was doing it quite effectively.

Otto folded his hands on the table before him. "An invasion would give both claimants something they currently lack."

"A common enemy."

"Yes."

Dax’s expression did not change. "Only if they remain alive long enough to cooperate."

Several officers went very still.

Nero lowered his gaze briefly.

There it was.

His father’s patience had ended.

Hendrik leaned back, studying Dax through the screen. "Taking Claudia’s Palace would be simple compared with holding Draxil afterward."

"I do not intend to annex it."

"That does not remove the problem."

"No. It simplifies it."

Dax rose and crossed toward the wall display behind him.

He was still a large man, even by dominant-alpha standards, and age had done little to reduce the physical weight of his presence. His pheromones remained tightly controlled, but every alpha in the room reacted subtly when he stopped beside the projected map of Draxil.

Nero noticed shoulders straighten.

Breathing change.

Attention sharpen.

Dax pointed to the western border.

"Saha enters here. We secure the military routes, isolate the royal capital, and take Claudia’s Palace before either brother has time to empty it."

Otto watched him. "And the throne?"

"Not my problem."

"It becomes your problem the moment your army removes whoever is controlling it."

"Then we leave someone competent enough to prevent famine and withdraw."

Nero finally spoke.

"That part is not as simple as entering."

Dax glanced toward him.

Nero enlarged the political map from his tablet and transferred it to the side display.

Draxil’s internal divisions appeared immediately: provinces leaning toward the eldest claimant, military districts held by the second, and regions where local governors had effectively stopped obeying either.

"If Saha invades before a successor exists, the brothers may collapse separately rather than together. Their commanders could fragment into provincial factions. We could reach Claudia’s Palace quickly and still spend years dealing with the consequences."

"I know."

Nero looked at him.

Dax knew exactly what an invasion would cost.

That made the threat more serious.

"You still intend to do it."

"If Dean and Arion find nothing useful, yes."

Otto exhaled slowly.

"Give them time."

"I am."

"How much?"

Dax returned to his seat.

"Until they complete the island route and report on Amaru."

"That is not much."

"It is enough."

Hendrik looked between them. "If Amaru is alive but requires medical stabilization before anyone can evaluate him properly?"

"Then he gets it," Dax said. "I am not asking Arion to drag a half-dead man onto a throne because I am impatient."

That, at least, settled some of the tension.

Nero watched his father lean forward, forearms resting against the table.

"But if Amaru is dead, broken beyond the ability to govern, or unwilling to return, then we stop pretending Draxil deserves unlimited time to decide whether it feels like cooperating."

Otto’s expression remained grave.

"Saha moving alone would create problems."

"Then Alamina can join."

A faint reaction passed through several officers.

Dax looked almost bored now.

"Or do not. I am not asking permission."

Nero’s mouth nearly curved.

There was the king beneath the irritation.

Otto recognized it too.

"You understand Rohan will have concerns."

"Rohan always has concerns."

"Eryx is still a Draxilian prince."

"And wisely chose to live somewhere else."

One of the generals on the Saha screen suppressed what might have been a cough.

Dax continued.

"I have tolerated Draxil because destabilizing it used to be more inconvenient than leaving it alone. That calculation is changing."

Nero looked toward the beast footage again.

The creature beneath the trees remained frozen in the final frame, head lifted, body angled toward something the cameras could not identify.

"If the beasts begin moving before Arion and Dean reach Snake Island?" he asked.

Hendrik answered.

"All border forces deploy immediately. We abandon every nonessential operation and respond based on the direction of movement."

"And Draxil?" Dax asked.

Otto’s eyes shifted toward him.

"If the movement indicates Claudia’s research is involved," Hendrik said, "we will need the palace whether they consent or not."

Dax nodded once.

That was enough agreement for him.

Nero understood the decision that had just formed around the table.

Amaru was no longer merely an alternative claimant.

He was the last clean option.

If Dean and Arion found a man capable of returning to Draxil, they could support him, secure access to Claudia’s palace, and avoid turning the succession crisis into a regional war.

If they found nothing—

Dax would stop negotiating.

Nero looked toward the map of Draxil and felt very little sympathy for its princes.

They had spent years assuming everyone else would continue tolerating them because intervention was too inconvenient.

His father had finally decided inconvenience was acceptable.

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