Arik had asked, and Liam had handed him the comm like a good little thing with no lock inside him.

Liam’s fingers went cold.

Arik did not look at the screen.

He turned the comm face down in his palm and looked at Liam instead.

"Liam," he said, careful enough that the name barely touched the air. "I asked only for the calendar. I will not open anything you do not show me."

Liam could not breathe.

"I just gave it to you."

"I know."

"You see?"

"Yes."

The simple answer should have destroyed him.

Instead, Arik shifted the comm back toward him, placing it against Liam’s palm, then closing Liam’s fingers around it with the lightest pressure.

"Then you hold it," Arik said. "You show me only what you choose."

Liam stared at their hands.

Arik’s was enormous around his, warm and steady, but he did not take. Did not pry. Did not turn the device. Did not exploit the open gate Liam’s panic had created.

Dr. Selwyn’s voice came through the line, quieter now. She had heard enough to understand there was more happening than a routine heat.

"Your Highness," she said carefully, "I need the suppressant compound or at least the active base. Without that, I cannot advise safely on emergency dosing or whether another formulation will interact."

Arik’s gaze did not leave Liam. "Do you have the compound listed?"

Liam nodded once, jerkily.

"Can you open it?"

His fingers moved slower this time because Arik had given him the question like a bridge instead of a command. He unlocked the comm with shaking hands, opened the hidden medical file, and turned the screen enough for Arik to read without surrendering the device entirely.

Arik’s eyes dropped briefly.

"Selwyn," he said, "the compound is Veyrath-9 base, stabilized with argent binders, a low-dose continuous suppressant. Is that enough?"

"Yes. I will send an injectable compound that is compatible with it."

Arik closed Liam’s comm, his hand still over Liam’s. "Send Mezos with it and tell him to leave it at the door."

"Mezos is fine," Liam said softly. "If he only gets the suppressant here."

Arik looked down at him.

Liam’s face was still pressed too close to his shirt, his fingers still tangled in the fabric with the kind of grip that made letting go look like a negotiation with gravity. His voice had gone quiet in a way Arik disliked more than the yelling. Yelling was Liam. Sharpness was Liam. Threats, insults, illegal machinery, and the desire to dismantle people with a sentence were Liam’s.

This softness was not.

This was the heat getting teeth into him before the door had even closed.

Arik’s hand stilled over Liam’s.

"Selwyn," he said, his voice calm because anything else would make Liam worse, "how long until the heat is in full?"

The physician did not answer immediately.

That was enough.

Liam’s fingers tightened once against his shirt.

"Based on the compound schedule, the symptoms I can see, and the psychological distress?" Selwyn said carefully. "It is due mostly tomorrow. Possibly sooner if the suppressant barrier has already begun failing."

Liam went very still.

Arik felt the change through his whole body.

The breath Liam had been trying to control simply stopped.

"No," Liam whispered.

Selwyn’s voice softened but stayed brisk enough not to become pity. "The distress may be intensifying the onset. I will send a loaded injection gun with a compatible emergency dose. It will not erase the heat entirely if the breakthrough has already begun, but it should blunt the neurological collapse and buy time for safe containment."

"Containment," Liam repeated.

The word sounded rotten in his mouth.

Arik’s fingers closed around his hand, just enough to remind him he wasn’t alone. "Medical containment," he said. "Not restraint."

Selwyn must have heard the edge in his voice because she corrected at once. "A safe room. Low stimulation. Trusted people only. No unfamiliar alpha presence. No verbal commands unless medically necessary and consented to before escalation. Locks controlled from the inside if possible."

Liam let out a laugh that cracked halfway through. "Wonderful. Even my biology requires a prison with better ethics."

"It requires a door no predator can open," Arik said.

That silenced him.

Selwyn continued, "The injection should be administered intramuscularly. The upper outer thigh is preferable if he is distressed and unwilling to expose the upper arm. It can go through thin fabric if necessary, but direct skin is better. Hold the gun flush, pull the trigger once, and keep it in place for five seconds. There may be dizziness, nausea, shaking, and a drop in body temperature afterward."

Arik memorized every word.

"Send it with Mezos," he said. "No one else touches it. No one else knows what it is."

"I’ll prepare it now. Ten minutes."

"Five."

"Your Highness, compatibility checks—"

"Five if safe," Arik said.

A small pause.

"Seven," Selwyn replied. "And if Mezos runs."

"He will."

Liam shifted against him, his voice muffled. "He’ll complain."

"He can complain while running."

Selwyn exhaled once, almost amused despite the situation. "I’ll send the emergency protocol as well. If the injection does not stabilize him within thirty minutes, he must be moved to his prepared heat room immediately and monitored. If he has a trusted omega or beta physician, they should be alerted."

"No," Liam said at once

Arik looked down. "No?"

"No one yet." Liam’s voice trembled. "Not until I know if the injection works."

Selwyn’s silence was disapproving, but the noise from sudden movement and a door opening told Liam that Mezos was already there.

Arik closed the call and shifted Liam a little because his right leg was beginning to go numb under the awkward angle of Liam’s weight.

Liam noticed anyway.

Even half-destroyed by panic and the edge of an oncoming heat, Liam still had enough spite left to glare at him. "If you say I’m heavy, I will use the injection gun on your eye."

"I was going to say your knee is cutting off circulation."

"That sounds like a you problem."

"It is becoming a shared concern."

"Good."

The words were weak, but they were his. Sharp edges wrapped around shaking breath.

Arik accepted that as a victory.

The sitting room door opened. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Liam stiffened so hard Arik felt every muscle lock against him.

Before he could say anything, Mezos stepped in.