Ren wrenched open the bottom drawer of the vanity, his fingers scrambling past the gauze and saline.

There. A small, amber vial of Cytotox-7. It was a heavy-duty uterine stimulant used in emergencies, but in a high enough dose for a fresh pregnancy, it was a death sentence for any ’fruit’ trying to take root.

"Ren?" Cilian’s voice dropped. The sweetness was gone.

Ren’s heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. He grabbed a pre-packaged syringe, his teeth tearing at the plastic wrap. He just needed five seconds. Three to draw the fluid, two to find a vein.

"What are you doing over there?" Cilian asked, his shadow lengthening across the white tiles as he began to stand up from the tub.

Ren didn’t look back. He shoved the needle into the rubber stopper of the vial, pulling back the plunger with a frantic jerk.

"I asked you a question, darling."

The hand that clamped onto Ren’s wrist was like a shackle of ice. Cilian didn’t just grab him; he twisted Ren’s wrist until the syringe fell to the floor, still half-filled with the amber liquid.

Cilian looked down at the vial in Ren’s other hand, then back at Ren’s pale, defiant face.

The fox-like grin was completely gone, replaced by a cold, murderous gaze.

This was one of the rare times when Cilian didn’t have his grin up, smiling like a maniac.

It meant one of two things.

One, he was seeing the one he loved in pain, hurt for one reason or another. Two, he was hurt beyond what he could explain.

"You were going to kill it," Cilian whispered, his voice vibrating with a terrifying quietness. "Before I could even see the heartbeat. You were going to take it away from me."

"There is no ’it’!" Ren yelled, his voice cracking. "There is only me! And I won’t let you plant your sickness in me! You already own me, is that not enough for you?"

Cilian’s grip tightened until Ren felt an unbearable pain in his wrist. It was the first time Cilian was actually hurting him.

Cilian didn’t look at the syringe on the floor. He looked at Ren’s stomach, then back at his eyes.

"You really are a difficult student, Ren," Cilian purred. Though the sweetness returned, it was now laced with pure poison.

He kicked the syringe away, sending it sliding under the tub.

"I was going to be gentle with you and try to convince you to see this as a good thing, but it doesn’t seem like you’ll listen to words, Ren. What should I do? You’re being stubborn."

"No, you’re being stubborn!" Ren barked back. "I told you, I don’t want to get pregnant. I don’t want to have a child with you," he yelled, his eyes tearing up. "Can’t you understand and just let me be? I don’t want to carry the child of a cruel monster like you."

Cilian’s face remained dangerously still as Ren’s words echoed against the sterile tiles. The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of the tub still overflowing, the water spilling onto the floor in a rhythmic, mocking splash.

"A cruel monster," Cilian repeated, his voice barely a breath. He leaned in closer, his grip on Ren’s wrist not loosening an inch. The poison in his tone was no longer a hidden threat; it was an open wound. "You say that as if you didn’t cry out for me under the stars. As if you didn’t beg for my seed to fill you when the island air was thick with the truth of what we are." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"That wasn’t me!" Ren yelled. "That was the nectar... it was the heat!" He choked out, a single tear escaping and tracing a path through his cheek. "You manipulated everything. You trapped me!"

Cilian’s gaze dropped to Ren’s stomach again, his expression softening into something far more terrifying than rage—a delusional, obsessive tenderness.

He reached out with his free hand, his palm flattening against Ren’s abdomen, pressing firmly through the fabric of the clothes.

"The nectar only brought out what you were hiding, Ren. It didn’t create the life that’s already shifting the rhythm of your blood." Cilian’s thumb traced a slow, possessive circle over Ren’s skin. "You say you don’t want to carry my child? Too late. I can feel the change in you. I can smell it. You’re already mine in ways even you can’t manage."

"Let me go," Ren whispered, his strength failing as the pain in his wrist and the nausea in his gut finally collided.

"I can’t do that," Cilian purred, the fox-like grin slowly returning, though it didn’t reach his eyes. "You’ve proven that I can’t leave you alone for even five seconds without you trying to destroy our future. You want me to understand you? Fine. I understand that you need to be protected from your own ’Hard Heart’."

Cilian didn’t call the guards yet. Instead, he pulled Ren flush against him, his arms wrapping around Ren’s waist like iron bands. He buried his face in the crook of Ren’s neck, inhaling deeply.

"If words don’t work, and gentleness is seen as a weakness, then we’ll do it the Vane way," Cilian murmured against his skin. "I was going to let the doctors handle everything, but I think I’ll stay. I want to hold your hand while they tell us the news. I want to see the moment you realize that there is no escape—not from me, and not from the life inside you."

Ren was trembling, scared, and terrified of the monster holding him.

Cilian felt the tremor but planted his lips on Ren’s skin before lifting his head just enough to look Ren in the eyes, his expression back to that ’always in control Alpha’ but with the mask cracked wide open.

"Don’t look so tragic, Ren. You’re a doctor. You know that life is precious. And I’m going to make sure this life has everything it needs... including a very, very obedient mother."

Cilian finally reached for the wall intercom, his eyes never leaving Ren’s.

"Dr. Aris? Come in. My dear Ren is ready for his examination. And bring the heavy restraints. He’s had a bit of a... lapse in judgment."

Ren’s heart plummeted. He looked at the syringe under the tub, just out of reach, and then at the door as it began to hiss open.

"No, no," he muttered. "Stop, Cilian." he dropped his hand on Cilian’s unbuttoned shirt, gripping hard. "Please, stop," but Cilian simply smiled at him.

They were past the point of begging and pleading.

"You didn’t stop when I asked you to just accept the baby, Ren," Cilian said.

"That’s because I don’t want it. I don’t. I..." His body trembled. "I don’t want to have it."

"But I do," Cilian pinched his chin and lifted his gaze. "I want that baby, Ren. So give it to me."