"Beta, it is time for the young lady's examination," the lady in waiting said, her voice carrying through the door with practiced politeness. "The physician is ready and would like to determine whether the fifth month ritual can be performed.
Inside the room Hazel lay still on the bed, her eyes closed, her breathing slow and deliberate. But she was not resting.
She had been sharpening her hearing since they arrived outside her door, pulling every sound toward her with quiet concentration, learning to let her remaining senses fill the space her sight had left behind.
She caught every word.
"Who proposed this ritual?" Korran's voice came through clearly, low and measured but carrying an edge beneath it.
"We have all discussed it among ourselves and we are ready to proceed," the mage said. "The ritual will ensure the child inherits his father's exact traits and abilities. Every gift, every power, copied precisely." He paused. "The mother's influence will not touch him. Not her abilities. Not even her appearance."
"Is the Alpha aware of this?" Korran asked, his voice carrying the particular stillness of someone choosing their words carefully.
"Not yet. We intend to bring it to him upon his return."
"What is it you intend to bring to me?"
The voice came from directly beside them.
Both men startled, spinning around. Phoenix stood among them as though he had always been there, his presence arriving before his scent did, before any sound had announced him. He looked between them with eyes that missed nothing.
"Alpha," they said in unison, visibly shaken.
"The copy ritual, Alpha," the mage recovered first. "We are requesting permission to perform it on the young lady. To ensure the child carries only your traits."
Phoenix was quiet for a moment, his gaze moving briefly toward the closed door of Hazel's room.
"I will see her first," he said. "When I am done we will discuss this."
He pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Inside the room Hazel's eyes remained closed. But her fingers had curled slowly into the sheet beneath her hands.
"That ritual will not be happening," Hazel said, her voice calm and unbothered, still facing the wall. "Not on my child. Not ever." A small smile curved her lips. "And if anyone tries anything I want you to remember that I can end this pregnancy myself. You know I am capable of it."
She turned back to the wall and said nothing further.
Phoenix stood in the doorway looking at her for a moment.
Then he smirked.
In one swift motion he crossed the room, took her hand firmly and placed his other hand flat against her stomach.
"I did not come here for you," he said, his voice cold and even. "I came for my child. Stay still and stay quiet while I communicate with him."
He lowered himself and pressed his ear gently against her belly.
And then something remarkable happened.
The hardness in his face dissolved. The sharp lines and the cold authority softened into something unguarded and completely still, a peace that had no place on the face of a man like Phoenix and yet sat there naturally, as though the child had simply called it out of him.
Hazel felt it too. A warmth moving through her like a tide coming in, slow and irresistible, pulling her under before she could think to resist. Her eyes grew heavy.
She was asleep before she knew it.
The physician entered quietly and conducted his examination without disturbing either of them.
"Alpha," he said softly. "She is doing remarkably well. The child also. Shall we proceed with the ritual?"
Phoenix lifted his head.
"No," he said simply. "Leave her as she is."
"Yes Alpha." The physician bowed and slipped out.
Korran entered shortly after, carrying a tray which he set carefully on the desk beside the bed. He stood over Hazel for a moment, looking at her sleeping face, and then reached out and gently brushed his fingers across her cheek.
Hazel stirred, her senses reaching outward before her body had fully woken.
"Oh. It is you," she said.
"I brought porridge," Korran said, setting the tray down beside her. "Thought you might want something after dinner."
"Thank you." She pushed herself upright slowly. "Are you alone?"
"Yes. Just me."
Hazel tilted her head slightly, her nose working quietly.
"Is it my senses deceiving me or do I smell your heartless Alpha somewhere nearby?"
Korran laughed, genuinely and fully, the kind of laugh that arrives without warning.
"Heartless," he repeated. "He is many things but he is a good ruler."
"I will give him that much," Hazel said, reaching for the porridge. "He did not throw me in a prison. He gave me a decent room, food and relative peace. As far as incubators go I have heard of worse arrangements."
Korran's laughter faded into something quieter.
"Why do you speak of yourself that way?"
Hazel was quiet for a moment, her spoon moving slowly through the porridge.
"Because I am realistic," she said. "Three kingdoms want me dead for what I did to their Queen. The only reason I am still breathing is because of this child. The moment I give birth that shield disappears." She paused. "I cannot see. I have no plan. My alliances probably believe I am gone." She turned her face toward him, steady and certain. Then a she laughed, "I know this is terrible".
"Perhaps after the birth my powers will return and I will simply walk out of here," Hazel said, her tone light.
"Why are you telling me this?" Korran asked.
"Because it is hardly a secret," she said simply. "Everyone in this building knows I would leave if I could. Nobody here is foolish enough to pretend otherwise."
Korran felt it before he saw it. A weight in the air behind him, heavy and sudden. He turned.
Phoenix stood in the corner of the room, still and unbothered, as though the walls themselves had produced him.
"Alpha," Korran said, visibly caught off guard. "When did you return? I neither heard nor smelled you."
"I have been here since you arrived," Phoenix said.
Hazel smiled without turning.
"I knew my senses were not failing me," she said. "Unlike some things in this kingdom."
"You should be careful how you address the Alpha," Korran said quietly. "It is punishable."
"He is an Alpha," Hazel said, her voice unhurried and perfectly calm. "Not yet a King. And to become a King he needs a Luna." She paused letting that sit. "The woman he has been planting his seeds into is already a Queen and a wife to one of the greatest kings alive." Another pause. "His own brother. The one who trusted him above everyone." Her head tilted slightly. "Is that not the very definition of ungrateful?"
Korran's sword was out before she finished the sentence.
"You do not have the right to speak to him that way."
Phoenix looked at them both.
Then he turned and walked out of the room without a single word.