Haydn turned his head and smiled weakly at Royce, his smile turning more genuine as his husband’s gaze held his. It was a little embarrassing that just looking into Royce’s dark eyes affected him like this. Everything felt magically better when Royce was close and looking at him.
“I know,” Haydn said with a sigh, putting his head on Royce’s shoulder and deeply inhaling his familiar scent. It comforted him. “But Dr. Jordan said this procedure was too risky. What if he doesn’t remember anything when he wakes up?”
Royce dropped a kiss on top of his head. “Then we’ll help him remember. At least he’s back to normal now, not a mindless beast anymore.”
Haydn frowned. “He wasn’t really a mindless beast when we found him in the forest.”
It was most puzzling. Although Devlin hadn’t recognized him, he clearly was capable of at least some cognitive thinking, which was a much better state than he had been in when he’d escaped the hospital months ago. Fuck, there were so many things they still didn’t understand. Starting from the mysterious anonymous message with the feral Xeus’s whereabouts—the message they still hadn’t been able to trace to its source, which suggested the work of a highly skilled hacker—and ending with the fact that Devlin had smelled unfamiliar when Haydn and his people found him in the forest.
Haydn eyed his unconscious cousin with a frown. Devlin’s scent was normal now after the advanced genetic modifications that had forced him to transform back to a man, but it was still bizarre that he’d had a slightly different scent in the forest. The doctors said that it appeared that Devlin had been experimented on, which was probably why his scent had changed and which was why he was less of a mindless beast than he had been months ago. It still made little sense.
“What do you think happened to him?” Haydn said. “Who would experiment on him? Why?”
Royce hummed. “The Secret Service is investigating it. Hopefully we’ll find out soon enough.”
Haydn made a face. “If my father deigns to tell us anything. You know I don’t have authority over the Secret Service anymore.”
His husband just squeezed his hand again. He didn’t need to say anything for Haydn to feel his support through their mating bond. When Royce was touching him, it was difficult to give a damn that the king had all but disowned him already.
“Is he going to come here?” Royce said.
“My father? Probably.” Haydn’s lips twisted into a humorless smile. “Devlin is the next in line for the throne, after all. The king will want to make sure that Devlin isn’t a mindless beast anymore before he can disown me officially.”
There was the sound of footsteps approaching, and Haydn turned his head, already bracing himself for his father’s appearance. He hadn’t seen him in two months, ever since the disastrous Opal House event.
But it wasn’t his father.
It was Lord Chancellor Ksar’ngh’chaali, or Lord Ksar, as they called him because of his unpronounceable alien name.
The medical personnel in the room immediately dropped into deep bows, reminding Haydn that this foreigner was a royal on his native planet, not just a representative of the Galactic Council.
“How are you liking Calluvia?” Lord Ksar said, his cold tone at odds with his polite question.
“The planet is beautiful,” Royce said. “Thanks for your hospitality. The genetic center wouldn’t have accommodated us so fast if it weren’t for you.”
Lord Ksar just gave a curt nod of acknowledgment before glancing at Devlin’s still form. “He hasn’t awakened yet? I have been told he should awaken today.”
Haydn looked at his unconscious cousin anxiously. “He’s supposed to. But his doctor said that it’s impossible to completely predict how his body will react to the reprogramming of his genetic code.”
“Physically he does look fixed,” Lord Ksar noted, his silver eyes flicking over Devlin’s prone form dispassionately. “No claws and fur.”
Haydn glanced at his cousin. He certainly looked back to his incredibly good-looking self, a man once again, rather than the ugly, beastly alpha he’d been for months. While it was a relief, Haydn couldn’t help but think that they might have made a mistake by forcing Devlin to undergo the traumatic procedure of altering his genetic code. It had always been their last resort: Devlin’s doctor thought it was too risky. Unfortunately, they’d had little choice: the doctors who had examined Devlin back home reported that after some unknown experiments on him, Devlin’s genetic code was extremely unstable and in need of a fix as soon as possible. Haydn had had to use his position of Lord Chancellor to get Devlin to Calluvia, a high-tech planet of the Inner Core, in order to get his cousin the treatment he’d needed. It all had happened so fast that there hadn’t been time to pause and think about whether they had been doing the right thing. Had they?