CHAPTER 200: CHAPTER 200: HIDING

The shower hissed softly, steam curling off pale tile, and for the first time that morning, Elias was alone. No humming ether, no sharp commands, no crimson eyes following every tremor in his pulse. Just the sound of water against skin.

He braced a hand against the wall, head bowed under the spray. The heat made his muscles loosen, but it didn’t slow the thoughts crawling up from where he’d been keeping them buried.

He knew his body was changing.

It had started with the last heat, the one that burned hotter, deeper, and longer than any before. The scent had turned heavier, his skin hypersensitive, his body responding to Victor’s pheromones in ways he couldn’t fight or rationalize. What frightened him most wasn’t how helpless it had made him, but how right it had felt.

And afterward... everything had shifted. The way his ether responded, the way it refused to obey the same thresholds. His heart beat differently, and his energy felt different, like something new had been written into his blood.

Dominant, Victor had said.

Maybe he was. Maybe that explained the power, the new pulse of strength sitting just beneath his skin. But it didn’t explain the other thing, the quiet nausea in the mornings, the ache low in his abdomen that came and went like a tide, or the way his scent had thickened despite not being in heat.

He closed his eyes, water streaming down his face.

He didn’t want to think about it. Not about dominance, not about what that meant for the bond, and certainly not about the possibility that he might already be pregnant.

He and Victor had never used protection. Not once. Not any of the times that followed, when control and logic gave way to something more primal, older than either of them. His justification was that he was recessive and the chances of pregnancy were almost nonexistent. Until, of course, he became dominant.

A shiver ran through him from the memory of every time they did it. The weight of Victor above him, the warmth that followed, and the lingering thrum of divine energy that still felt like it was moving somewhere deep inside him.

He exhaled sharply, pressing his palms to his face. "Not now," he muttered. "Not yet."

He wasn’t ready for that thought, or for what it would mean. Not with Uno prowling the edges of the world, not with Connor’s message still unspoken, not with his body refusing to be quiet.

The water kept running, drowning the sound of his heartbeat but not the quiet truth clawing its way to the surface.

He was changing.

And no amount of denial was going to stop it.

—

Elias turned off the water and stood there for a long moment, droplets sliding down his skin, his breath fogging the mirror. The quiet felt too fragile to move through. He wrapped a towel around his waist, rubbing a hand through his damp hair, trying to pull his thoughts back into order.

He would take a test. That was the logical next step. A simple blood test, something rational to ground the impossible. He could order it discreetly and have Ruo help if needed. He could still control the narrative before Victor noticed anything.

Except Victor noticed everything.

Elias caught his reflection in the mirror, pale skin flushed from the heat, the faint shimmer of purple ether still flickering under the surface of his veins. He looked like someone pretending not to drown.

"Maybe I can skip training tomorrow," he murmured to himself. "Or fake a field stabilization report. Or claim Uno broke the residual link." He huffed, half a laugh. "Not that he’d believe it for a second."

For the past month, Victor had kept him on an unrelenting schedule: morning sessions, night drills, and meditation before bed. A god’s idea of discipline. Every time Elias thought he could trick him into missing one, Victor had already anticipated it. It was as if the man had mapped out his thoughts three steps ahead, just to be sure he’d never get away with even a single excuse.

He sighed, reaching for a fresh shirt, and that was when the voice came.

"Aren’t you tired of hiding things from me?"

The sound of it froze him mid-motion. Low, familiar, and impossibly close.

Elias turned slowly. Victor was leaning against the doorframe, still dressed in black from the morning’s training, crimson eyes half-lidded but far too sharp to be casual.

Elias swallowed, narrowing his eyes at the relaxed stance of his mate. "You’re supposed to knock."

Victor’s mouth curved faintly. "And you’re not supposed to keep secrets from me."

The silence between them stretched, thick with steam and tension. Elias’s heartbeat picked up. "What are you talking about?"

Victor stepped inside, the soft click of the door closing behind him almost inaudible under the hum of the vent. "You know what I’m talking about." His gaze dropped to Elias’s bare stomach. "You’re pregnant; I’ve felt it for a while."

Elias’s breath hitched. "Then why didn’t you say anything? I barely put it together."

Victor stopped just shy of him, close enough for Elias to feel the heat radiating from his skin. His expression was calm, but not careless, the stillness of someone holding back an entire ocean. "Because you weren’t ready to hear it," he said quietly. "You were still fighting yourself, trying to fit what you feel into the shape of what you think you should be."

He reached out, thumb brushing a damp strand of hair back from Elias’s temple. "I’ve known since your ether changed the morning after your heat. It’s not a thing I could miss, not with you."

Elias’s fingers tightened in the towel at his waist. "You should’ve told me."

Victor’s crimson eyes lifted to his. "I should’ve waited, and I did. I wanted you to tell me when you were ready, but you took your sweet time."

Elias huffed. "That didn’t stop you from training me like some god candidate."