Taming the Wild Beast of Alamina

By the time they reached the security entrance, everyone who was bleeding had been dealt with as much as the circumstances allowed.

Arion’s upper arm had been cleaned, closed beneath a compression dressing, and hidden again under the torn sleeve of his dark coat. The cut was shallow enough that Dean had stopped threatening to inspect it every thirty seconds, although the dried blood beneath Arion’s nose remained visible until Hale handed him a cloth and told him, with admirable lack of ceremony, to clean his face.

Duncan had required more work.

The knife wound through his shoulder had been packed and bound tightly, while the bruising already spreading along his left side made it increasingly obvious that Nero had broken at least one rib and possibly two. He had refused anything strong enough to cloud his judgment, which Hunter had accepted after confirming that Duncan could walk without collapsing.

Nero had escaped with little more than a torn coat and the deeply satisfied expression of someone who considered the morning a success.

They now stood inside the northern security enclosure of the residence, shielded on three sides by grey stone walls and on the fourth by the forest they had crossed.

Above the entrance, two cameras continued turning through their programmed arcs.

Neither could see them.

Dean watched one rotate directly toward Arion, linger for several seconds, then continue past.

On Hunter’s tablet, the live feed showed an empty paved approach bordered by damp stone and winter shrubs.

No Arion.

No Dean.

No Nero’s impossible white hair.

Nothing.

The camera was working perfectly.

It simply did not perceive that they existed.

Duncan looked from the screen to Arion.

"What exactly are you doing?"

Arion barely glanced at him. "Restricting the area."

"That camera is pointed directly at us, and it sees only the wall?"

"Yes."

Duncan considered that for a moment, apparently adding another item to the list of things he had learned about the people who had invaded his workplace that morning.

Dean understood the confusion.

Arion’s ability did not make them invisible in the ordinary sense. He manipulated perception so completely that the small section of space they occupied became irrelevant to anything trying to perceive it. The cameras continued recording the environment around them because, as far as their systems were concerned, there was simply nothing unusual there to record.

Hunter checked the feed once more.

"No interruption. No missing frames."

"That matters," Duncan said. "Any camera outage longer than twelve seconds reports automatically."

Hunter looked toward him. "Anything else you remember that would have been useful ten minutes ago?"

"I was busy having my ribs wrapped."

Nero leaned against the stone beside him. "He complains a lot for someone who asked to work for me."

Duncan looked at him without answering.

Dean suspected he was already reconsidering several life choices.

The biometric panel beside the entrance illuminated.

Duncan stepped toward it carefully.

"No one else should be inside the security wing today," he said as he placed his palm against the scanner. "Price and I covered the property until the afternoon rotation. Domestic staff remain outside the secure perimeter unless summoned."

"When does the next team arrive?" Arion asked.

"Just under two hours."

Hunter checked his watch.

"One hour fifty-three."

Enough time if nothing went wrong.

Dean had learned not to build plans around that last condition.

A thin green light moved beneath Duncan’s palm before the retinal scanner extended from the wall. He leaned toward it, waiting while the system read his eye, pulse, and pressure distribution.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then the lock released with a muted mechanical click.

Duncan exhaled carefully around his ribs.

"No alarm."

Hunter checked the tablet.

"Confirmed."

The heavy door opened into a narrow security corridor finished in dark stone and brushed metal. The lighting inside was low and motion-activated in sections farther down, while another camera watched the entrance from the ceiling.

Arion expanded his distortion slightly.

On Hunter’s screen, the door appeared to have opened and closed on its own.

Nero smiled. "That is unsettling."

"You fight people with a flame sword only for entertainment," Dean said.

Duncan glanced between them before apparently deciding he did not want an explanation.

They moved into the security room immediately beyond the entrance.

Three workstations faced a wall of monitors showing the grounds, exterior corridors, and service entrances. One screen displayed the southern perimeter where Nero and Duncan had fought earlier.

There was no sign of what had happened beneath the trees.

The older alpha’s absence would become a problem eventually.

Hunter looked toward Arion.

"We need the body moved before the rotation arrives."

Arion nodded.

"Hale and I will handle it," Hunter continued. "We’ll take him off the patrol route and bring him inside through the maintenance entrance once Duncan clears it."

Duncan’s face remained neutral.

Dean watched him anyway.

The older alpha had worked beside him for years, even if neither had been particularly loyal to Claudia herself. Duncan had offered Nero his allegiance remarkably quickly after losing, but that did not mean the dead man meant nothing to him.

Duncan noticed Dean watching.

"He would have killed Nero."

"So you are fine with this?"

"No." Duncan adjusted the edge of the sling Hale had improvised around his shoulder. "But those are different questions."

Dean accepted that.

Nero did too, judging from the way his expression became slightly more serious.

Hunter pulled the interior plan onto one monitor.

"The outer security remains our responsibility. If anyone approaches earlier than expected, Nero and Duncan intercept them before they reach this building."

Nero crossed his arms. "Without killing them?"

"Preferably."

"No promises."

Hale gave him a flat look.

Nero smiled.

Duncan pointed toward a side corridor on the plan.

"The maintenance entrance is here. I can unlock it remotely once you reach the sensor. There’s a refrigeration room beside storage that nobody uses outside deliveries."

Hunter understood immediately.

"Temporary concealment."

"Yes."

"The body stays there until the prince is secured and the island government can take over."

Duncan nodded.

Hale checked his knife, communications unit, and gloves before moving toward the outer door with Hunter.

That left the central section.

Dean looked at the floor plan.

The oldest structure began beyond the next security barrier, where the modern villa had been built around the original stone core. Duncan had described an airlock, then a control room, then the sealed corridor containing the synthetic pheromonal system.

Nobody knew what would happen once they crossed it.

Dean touched Arion’s wrist.

"We go together."

Arion looked down at him.

"That was never in question."

Dean’s neutralizing field extended only one meter.

Whatever synthetic pheromones waited inside, they would find out very quickly whether his ability could suppress them. If it worked, Arion needed to remain close enough that Dean could keep both of them inside that protected space.

If it did not work—

Dean preferred not to finish the thought before reaching the door.

Nero pushed away from the wall.

"I stay here with Duncan."

Arion nodded. "Keep the entire perimeter closed."

"If you call, I enter."

Duncan looked sharply toward him. "You have no idea what is in that air."

"Neither do they."

"That is my point."

Nero’s purple eyes settled on him.

"Then hope Dean’s ability works."

Duncan frowned.

"Dean’s what?"

Nobody answered.

Dean smiled.

Duncan had already learned quite enough family secrets for one morning.

Hunter opened the exterior door, Hale following him into the blind area Arion maintained around the entrance. Within seconds they disappeared toward the northern forest to retrieve the dead alpha.

Nero took Hunter’s position beside the security monitors.

Duncan remained near the biometric controls, injured but alert, his attention dividing between the exterior feeds and the corridor leading deeper into the villa.

Arion removed his damaged coat and left it across the back of one chair, exposing the fitted black sweater beneath and the fresh bandage around his upper arm.

Dean did the same with his jacket.

Neither wanted loose fabric catching on anything inside.

Duncan opened the next security door.

Beyond it waited a short stone passage terminating in a heavier sealed barrier.

A small warning light glowed amber above the frame.

CENTRAL ENVIRONMENT ACTIVE.

Dean stared at it.

Somewhere behind that door, Amaru had spent years breathing air engineered specifically to keep him under control.

Arion stepped beside him.

Dean let his field settle around them.

Arion was close enough that their shoulders nearly touched.

Behind them, Nero and Duncan remained in the security room while Hunter and Hale dealt with the evidence of the fight outside.

For the first time that morning, there was nothing left between Dean and Arion and the central section except a door.

Duncan entered the authorization code.

The first lock disengaged.

Dean looked at Arion.

"Ready?"

Arion’s hand closed briefly around his.

"Yes."

They stepped into the airlock together.

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