Chapter 479: Underneath

Boreas had been moved to Otto and Minerva’s residence the morning after Victor’s first visit.

Dean had objected until Boreas growled at Arion twice during breakfast.

Not aggressively enough to attack, but enough that the dog remained tense whenever Arion released more than the faintest trace of vetiver. Keeping him in their residence while repeatedly exposing him to something he clearly perceived as dangerous had stopped being useful and started becoming cruel.

Minerva had taken him without complaint.

Boreas knew the emperor’s palace almost as well as their own and had happily followed her into the gardens after one last suspicious glance at Arion.

Three days later, Victor still had no explanation.

Dean stood inside the isolated testing room beneath the private medical wing, arms folded over a loose black sweater while yet another set of results filled the screens along the wall.

Everything was normal.

Again.

Arion sat in the examination chair wearing black trousers and a fitted grey shirt with the sleeves pushed to his elbows. Several monitoring patches crossed his chest beneath the open collar. A collection tube remained attached to the sampling apparatus near his throat, gathering active pheromonal output while Victor increased the demand on his glands in controlled stages.

Resting.

Protective.

Dominant.

Aggressive.

They had even reproduced enough physiological stress to push Arion’s output close to what he might produce during combat.

Nothing.

Victor stared at the data.

Seven stood beside him with a tablet, reviewing the same numbers for what had to be the fifth time.

Dean leaned against the observation counter.

"Well?"

Victor ignored him for another twenty seconds.

Dean had learned that was apparently the specialist’s preferred communication style.

Finally, Victor removed his glasses.

"Clean."

Arion looked distinctly unimpressed.

"That is what every test has said."

"Yes."

"Then Boreas is reacting to nothing."

"No."

Victor turned toward him.

"The dog is reacting consistently to your expressed pheromones. That is observable. The laboratory is failing to identify the cause."

Dean glanced between them.

"That sounds like a very expensive way of saying you still don’t know."

"It is."

Seven’s mouth twitched.

Victor began comparing the newest chromatographic profile against Arion’s historical samples.

The screens showed lines Dean understood only in broad terms: molecular fractions, carrier ratios, glandular metabolites, and compounds present in such minute concentrations that half the values looked theoretical.

All of them sat within normal parameters.

Arion started removing the adhesive sensors from his forearm.

Victor stopped and looked at Dean.

Not Arion.

Dean immediately disliked that.

"What?"

"How close have you been during every test?"

Dean glanced around the room.

"Here."

"That is not what I asked."

Arion’s attention sharpened.

Victor looked toward the measurement markings built into the floor around the examination chair.

Dean followed his gaze.

He was standing less than a meter away.

Almost exactly at the edge of his effective neutralizing field.

Something cold settled beneath his ribs.

Seven noticed too.

"You think Dean is interfering with the readings."

"I think we have not tested whether he is."

Dean straightened.

"I’m not using my ability."

"Consciously?"

"No."

Victor looked at Arion.

"When Boreas reacted at your residence, where was Dean?"

"Beside me."

"Initially."

Arion frowned.

Then remembered.

Boreas had positioned himself between them.

Dean on one side.

Arion, on the other.

The dog had physically created distance.

Victor put his glasses back on.

"I want Dean outside."

The answer came from both of them.

"No."

Victor looked up.

Dean had already moved closer to Arion.

Seven sighed quietly.

Victor, predictably, did not appear impressed by unanimity.

"For ten minutes."

"No," Arion repeated.

"We need a baseline without Dean’s ability influencing the environment."

"My ability is not active," Dean said.

Victor’s gaze shifted to him.

"You have a bonded mate and an ability specifically designed to neutralize pheromonal effects within your immediate range. You are also pregnant."

Dean’s hand moved unconsciously toward his abdomen.

Victor continued.

"Your physiology currently has exceptionally strong reasons to suppress anything it perceives as a threat coming from Arion."

The room became silent.

Dean looked at Arion.

Arion’s expression had gone completely still.

Seven lowered his tablet.

"You think the bond is activating Dean’s neutralization reflexively."

"Possibly."

"Without the field manifesting?"

"Why assume the field has only one mode?"

Dean frowned. Because until now, it had. At least as far as he knew.

When he deliberately used it, there was a clear boundary. Within roughly a meter, pheromonal advantages and abilities disappeared.

This did not feel like that.

He could smell Arion. Feel him. His vetiver still affected Dean exactly as it should.

Victor seemed to follow the objection.

"I am not suggesting you are suppressing Arion completely. I am suggesting you may be neutralizing one component."

"One we don’t know exists," Dean said.

"Yes."

Arion looked toward the sealed door.

"And separating us would reveal it?"

"If my hypothesis is correct."

Dean immediately shook his head.

"No."

Victor’s expression hardened slightly.

"You cannot investigate a possible corruption while refusing the test designed to expose it."

"I can refuse being separated from my mate during an early pregnancy."

"It would be ten minutes."

"That is irrelevant."

Arion reached for Dean’s hand.

Dean took it.

The simple contact calmed something in him before he consciously realized he had become tense.

Seven noticed.

Of course he did.

"Victor," he said, "the obstetric team specifically recommended stable exposure to Arion’s pheromones."

Victor looked irritated by biology.

Dean almost appreciated that.

Seven continued.

"The pregnancy was not planned. We do not yet have a complete baseline for how dependent Dean’s current regulation is on his mate’s profile. Removing Arion abruptly for experimental purposes is not something I am approving without obstetrics involved."

Arion’s thumb moved over Dean’s knuckles.

"And I am not withholding my pheromones from him."

Victor stared at them both.

"This could involve corrupted output."

"If it does," Dean said, "then apparently my body is already neutralizing it."

"That is not a treatment plan."

"No. But separating us without knowing what happens to either of us is worse."

Victor walked toward the monitors.

For the first time since Dean had met him, the man looked genuinely frustrated.

Not because they were being difficult.

Because the evidence was almost there.

He enlarged two sets of results.

Arion’s active-output profile from the previous test.

The sample was collected in their suite when Boreas had reacted.

Victor pointed to a cluster so small Dean would never have noticed it.

"These are technically normal."

Seven stepped closer.

"But?"

"The proportions shift when Dean is present."

Arion stood.

Dean felt his hand tighten.

Victor continued.

"Not enough to trigger any diagnostic threshold. Not enough that I would have noticed without looking for suppression rather than contamination."

Dean stared at the screen.

"So something is underneath."

"Possibly."

"And I’m removing it."

"Possibly."

Dean hated the word now.

Arion came beside him, vetiver beginning to rise instinctively.

Dean felt it immediately.

His mate’s pheromones were warm, familiar, and safe.

Nothing like what Boreas apparently smelled.

Victor watched the monitors as Arion’s pheromones increased.

The questionable fraction dropped.

Victor looked toward Dean.

Dean was standing within half a meter of Arion.

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

Then Seven exhaled.

"That is not coincidence."

Victor’s expression had become grim.

"No."

Arion looked down at Dean.

Dean squeezed his hand.

"We are not separating."

Victor began to object.

Dean stopped him.

"Find another way."

His voice remained calm.

"I’m pregnant. Arion’s pheromones are part of my regulation now, and if my ability is suppressing something dangerous in him through the bond, separating us could destabilize both sides of this equation at once."

Arion’s arm settled around his waist.

Victor studied them.

Then looked back at the data.

"I’ll design another protocol."

Dean nodded.

That was acceptable. What was not acceptable was the implication glowing quietly across the monitor.