Chapter 528: Something Human

The inspection happened two weeks later than Hendrik originally intended, mostly because being crown prince had proven inconveniently incompatible with disappearing into a restricted forest whenever Arion found the alternative more interesting than reviewing budgets.

Nero had found this deeply amusing until Dax arrived to collect him.

Not metaphorically.

Dax and Chris had remained in Alamina several days after visiting Theodore, and when Nero attempted to extend his stay for what he described as important godfather responsibilities, Dax had informed him that Saha also possessed a government and that several of the documents Nero had been avoiding were now waiting in his office.

Nero had been considerably less amused after that.

His real disappointment, however, had been the inspection.

"You delayed it specifically until after I left," he accused Arion on the morning of his departure.

"I did not."

"You knew I wanted to go."

"You wanted to see whether the bear remembered you."

"It liked me."

"The bear tolerated you."

Nero looked toward the secured western garden, where several of the transformed dogs were sprawled across the winter grass despite the cold, their completely black eyes making them appear considerably more threatening than their current behavior justified.

Ducky was sitting directly against Nero’s boot.

Nero looked down.

Then at Arion.

"Your dogs disagree."

"They are not my dogs."

Ducky placed one paw on Nero’s shoe.

Arion closed his eyes.

Nero smiled triumphantly.

By the time Dax finally got him into the vehicle, Nero had said goodbye to Theodore twice and to the infected dogs individually.

Chris had wisely pretended not to notice.

Two weeks later, Arion stood at the edge of the forest without Nero, which improved the statistical probability that nobody would intentionally poke an infected animal simply to see what happened.

The morning was cold enough that frost still clung beneath the heavier vegetation, although the sky above the restricted district was clear, washed pale blue over the enormous stretch of forest occupying nearly a third of Alamina’s central region.

From ground level, its scale was difficult to understand.

Trees swallowed everything.

Old roads disappeared beneath roots and years of unchecked growth, while abandoned service structures had collapsed gradually into the landscape, leaving only sections of concrete visible between moss and dense undergrowth. Somewhere far beyond the marked perimeter, entire settlements remained inaccessible, consumed decades earlier as infected populations spread and the Empire withdrew rather than continue losing personnel trying to reclaim them.

Today was not an attempt to reclaim anything.

Hendrik had repeated that several times.

Arion suspected the repetition was primarily for Otto.

His father had insisted on accompanying them once the inspection was finally approved, although unlike Arion, Otto appeared perfectly content to treat the expedition as observation rather than an opportunity to test anything.

Hunter joined them as well.

Dean had initially questioned why his own chief of security was participating when Dean himself remained home with Theodore, but Hunter had worked extensively with the perimeter teams during previous beast-season preparations and knew several of the older evacuation routes better than most officers currently stationed in the district.

Dean had eventually approved.

Then informed Hunter that if Arion came home with another animal, he was personally responsible.

Hunter had stared at him.

Arion had left before the conversation became worse.

Their vehicles were compact tracked terrain carriers rather than conventional armored transports, reinforced underneath but narrow enough to move between the trees without destroying half the forest in the process.

Arion sat in the first with Hendrik driving and Otto beside him, while Hunter traveled in the second vehicle with the technical team responsible for the scanning array and drone coordination.

The inspection proceeded quietly.

Almost disappointingly so.

The first transformed wolf pack appeared twenty minutes inside the restricted zone, moving through the trees parallel to the vehicles without approaching closely.

Arion felt them before he properly saw them.

Not thoughts.

Never thoughts.

Just that strange pressure of attention at the edges of his awareness, like knowing someone was watching without needing to turn around.

The wolves remained calm.

One crossed the old road ahead of them, its coat thick against the winter cold, black eyes briefly settling on Arion through the reinforced windshield before it continued into the undergrowth.

Otto followed it with his gaze.

"I still dislike the eyes."

"So does Victor."

"Victor dislikes everything he cannot explain."

"That is most things involving me lately."

Otto looked toward him.

"I wasn’t going to say it."

"You were thinking it."

Hendrik made no effort to hide his amusement.

Arion looked toward him.

"Drive."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The deeper they went, the less recognizable the original district became.

Drone feeds mapped the surrounding terrain onto Hendrik’s display while the vehicle’s scanners measured pheromonal concentrations, thermal movement, and traces of the neurological suppressants that had once kept much of the population dormant.

Those compounds were almost gone now.

Whatever influence Claudia’s network had exerted over the region had weakened steadily since her death, leaving the infected wildlife awake, alert, and yet strangely unwilling to return to the seasonal attacks that had haunted Alamina for generations.

Nobody knew why.

Victor believed Arion’s influence might be involved.

Arion preferred not to make assumptions simply because every inexplicable event had recently begun pointing toward him.

They stopped twice to examine monitoring stations and replace damaged sensors before continuing toward the old central service route.

After nearly an hour, the terrain widened enough that both vehicles could travel side by side.

Hunter lowered his window slightly and looked toward Arion.

"Nothing."

"That is generally considered good."

"Not when Hendrik dragged half the monitoring division out here because something was moving."

Hendrik glanced toward the secondary feed.

"It was moving."

"Past tense?"

"No confirmed signature since yesterday evening."

Otto looked toward the forest.

"So we either missed it or it knows we’re here."

Arion did not particularly like the second possibility.

He released a controlled trace of vetiver, just enough to test the air without flooding the surrounding territory.

The response was subtle.

Several distant animals turned toward him.

Nothing else changed.

No black channels formed beneath his skin.

His thoughts remained clear.

The forest simply acknowledged him and continued existing.

Then the alarm sounded.

A sharp tone erupted from Hendrik’s console.

Every vehicle stopped immediately.

Arion straightened.

"What?"

Hendrik was already pulling up the source.

"Proximity detection."

Hunter’s voice came through the shared channel.

"Animal?"

Hendrik did not answer.

His expression changed.

Arion looked at the display.

A thermal signature had appeared less than two hundred meters east of their position, moving slowly through a section of forest too dense for direct visual confirmation.

Otto leaned closer.

"That isn’t a beast."

"No."

Hendrik magnified the scan.

Two legs.

Human proportions.

Body temperature significantly below normal, but not low enough to suggest a corpse.

The figure stopped.

Then began moving again.

Toward them.

Hunter’s voice sharpened.

"Identify."

The drone descended through the canopy.

Branches filled the feed first, blurred by movement, before the camera stabilized above a narrow game trail.

Something stepped between the trees.

A man.

Or something that had once been one.

His clothes were little more than deteriorated layers hanging from a lean body, the fabric stained dark from years of exposure, while black channels crossed the visible skin of his throat and disappeared beneath his jaw.

He walked barefoot over frozen ground without reacting to the cold.

His movements were controlled.

Then he lifted his face toward the drone.

His eyes were completely black.

Nobody inside either vehicle spoke.

Arion felt something shift at the edge of his awareness.

Different from the beasts.

The man looked away from the drone.

Straight toward where Arion sat behind layers of reinforced glass.

And started walking faster.