CHAPTER 76: THE MERCY THAT KILLS

Far behind, in another car trailing Ash’s mother, Bravin raised his phone and made a call.

"Sir," he said after a click, "I don’t know what’s happening. It seems either Young Master Ash or his mother is unwell."

Adrian’s voice came through, steady but alert. "Why do you say that?"

"As usual, after school they should’ve taken the road home," Bravin replied. "But today...they went toward a hospital."

"Hospital?" Adrian repeated. "Which hospital?"

Bravin squinted through the windshield, trying to read the faded sign of a shadowing building. "It’s called...Ba-ck Street Me-di-cal."

Adrian frowned. "What a strange name. I’ve never heard of it before. If one of them was sick, they’d have called our family doctor, or gone to the national hospital. Why there?"

"I don’t know, sir..." Bravin began, then froze. Ahead, he saw two men in white coats carrying Ash’s limp body into the building. "Sir, something’s wrong. Young Master looks unconscious."

Adrian’s chair scraped sharply as he stood. "What?" His voice hardened.

He turned to his computer, quickly typing Backstreet Medical. The search results loaded, then his expression froze.

"Backstreet Medical," the first line read. A small hidden facility reportedly involved in illegal abortions and unregistered medical practices. The clinic denies the accusations, claiming it’s the work of rivals attempting to destroy their reputation.

Adrian’s pulse quickened, a cold weight settling in his chest.

Bravin’s voice came faintly through the phone. "Sir, earlier when Young Master entered the car, he looked happy and perfectly healthy..."

Adrian’s hand tightened around the phone. Sweat trickled down his temple. "Enter the hospital," he ordered. "Do whatever you can to stall them. Don’t let anyone touch Ash. I’m on my way."

"Yes, sir," Bravin replied.

Right after Bravin’s call ended, Adrian’s phone rang again, Lucien.

He answered quickly, his voice tense. "This isn’t the right time, Lucien. Let’s talk later."

"Adrian, wait," Lucien said urgently. "I just...I don’t know, I’ve had a bad feeling. I’ve been thinking about Ash..."

Adrian cut him off. "Ash has been taken by his mother to Backstreet Medical Hospital. I don’t know what she’s planning. I’m on my way there now."

Before Lucien could say another word, Adrian had already hung up.

...

Ash lay weakly on the narrow bed. One of the men in white smiled faintly. "It’s okay," he said. "It won’t take long."

Ash mumbled, his voice barely a whisper. "Please...don’t hurt my baby."

As if he hadn’t heard, the doctor took his arm and rubbed it with a cold, spirited sponge, searching for a vein. Then he reached for a syringe on the metal tray, drew a pale liquid from a small vial, and turned back toward Ash.

"Please," Ash pleaded, tears slipping from the corners of his eyes. "I want to keep it."

The doctor’s expression didn’t change. "Your mother doesn’t want that," he said simply, lowering the needle toward Ash’s arm.

Ash closed his eyes, his breath shaking. I’m sorry, Adrian.

Just as the needle brushed his skin, the doctor’s hand was struck aside. The syringe clattered to the floor.

A wave of thick, pink pheromones filled the air, heavy and charged like a storm. The doctor staggered, chocking. "Wh-who are you?" he gasped.

Ash’s blurred gaze lifted. "Bravin..."

Bravin stood at the doorway, eyes glowing faintly under the dim light. "Don’t worry, Young Master. I’m here to get you out."

Another doctor appeared at the entrance, his voice sharp. "Who is he?"

"The intruder," the first doctor rasped. "Someone sent to stop us."

The newcomer stepped forward, releasing his own pheromones in a dense blue shimmer. "No one interferes once the procedures begins."

Energy crackled in the air as their pheromones collided, pink and blue, sending a pressure wave across the room. Bravin’s aura pulsed, forcing the doctor back.

Then the first doctor joined in, his own pheromones flaring. "Even if you’re an A-ranked Alpha," he said through clenched teeth, "you can’t overpower two B-ranked Alphas combined."

The room trembled with invisible force as their energies clashed, the walls groaning under the supernatural tension.

They forced Bravin back, the air around him ragged as he coughed, a thin line of blood darkening his lip. One of the doctors laughed coldly. "See? You’re useless. You can’t stop us."

A new voice cut through the tension. "But I can."

Adrian stood in the doorway, his silver pheromones shimmering faintly around him. The two doctors looked up and instantly dropped to their knees, trembling. "Superior...please, spare us," one begged. "We only followed orders from your stepmother."

Adrian’s shoulders tightened. He exhaled slowly. "I know," Without another word, he walked past them and went straight to Ash.

Ash managed a weak smile. "Adrian..."

Adrian reached out, brushing a hand across his cheek. "Your husband is here."

Ash gave a soft, breathy laugh. "Husband."

The kneeling doctors glanced at each other, confused by the word. Ash whispered faintly, "Please...don’t take me home."

Adrian’s voice gentled. "I won’t." He lifted Ash carefully into his arms.

Just then, Lucien burst in, breathing hard. His eyes swept the room; the two kneeling doctors, Bravin leaning weakly against the wall, and Adrian holding Ash, and his face hardened. "What did I miss?"

Adrian kept moving toward the exit. "They were ordered to terminate my baby by your mother-in-law."

Lucien’s gaze snapped to the doctors. Rage flared in his voice. "They deserve to die."

Adrian stopped and turned. "No. It’s not their fault."

"No," Lucien growled. "I must..."

The doctors dropped their heads low, voices shaking. "Alpha Lucien, please, spare me. My wife is pregnant; she’s waiting at home."

The second added, tears welling, "I have a family...four children. I’m their only breadwinner. Please, I beg you."

Lucien stared at them, disbelief breaking through his anger. A small, bitter laugh left his lips. "You do abortions everyday," he said quietly, "yet now you beg for your own lives to be spared, for the sake of your children you didn’t kill like the others."

Lucien’s pheromones flared through the room, thick and sharp with fury. He turned to Adrian, his voice low but trembling with rage. "Adrian, please, let me kill them. They’ve gotten on my nerves even more."

Before Adrian could reply, Ash spoke weakly from his arms. "Don’t...kill them...please..."

Silence followed, heavy and tense.

Lucien finally exhaled through his nose. "Fine," he said after a moment, his tone tight. "I won’t. But I must greet them for a bit."

He gestured toward the door. "Go."

Adrian gave him a long look, then turned. "Bravin, let’s go."

Bravin nodded quietly and followed him out.

As Adrian stepped into the open air, carrying Ash gently in his arms, the night wind brushed against them, then a series of sharp, agonized screams echoed from inside the hospital.

Ash’s eyes widened. "Is...is he killing them?"

Adrian’s reply was calm but edged with steel. "I guess it’s worse than killing."

A car door slammed nearby. Ash’s mother stepped out, her heels striking the ground hard, eyes narrowing as she saw Adrian with Ash.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, marching toward him. "And where are you taking him?"

Adrian’s gaze hardened. "I should be the one asking that, " he said evenly. "What are you doing here, and why were you planning to terminate my baby?"

Ash’s mother face twisted with anger. She struck her chest once, her voice rising. "Ash is my child! I have every right to decide his future, whether to keep it or end it!"

Adrian’s patient snapped. "And he’s my mate, the one I chose to be my breeder."

Before she could speak again, Adrian walked past her, his tone turning icy. "I’m not in the mood now, Eva."

She froze, startled by the sound of her maiden name. "Did you just call me by my maiden name?" she shouted after him.

Adrian looked back over his shoulder. "I can’t call you ’mother’ when you want to kill my child."

Without another word, he opened the car door and carefully placed Ash inside. Bravin slid into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and drove off, leaving Eva standing in the cold, trembling with disbelief and fury.

Moments later, Lucien stepped out of the building, looking tired as he wiped his hands with a white handkerchief. "That was fun," he muttered.

Eva stared at him in shock. "What did you do to the doctors?" she demanded, pointing at him. "If you killed them..."

Lucien cut her off lazily, tossing the blood-stained handkerchief aside. "No, I didn’t. We were just talking. I’m not that brutal."

Eva’s eyes darted to his hands. "Talking? With your hands full of blood?"

Lucien stretched his arms and started walking away. "If you don’t believe me, go look for yourself. You’ll see I’m not lying."

Eva rushed inside. The moment she entered, she froze in horror. The doctors lay on the floor, their arms and legs severed, tongues cut, bodies trembling and soaked in blood. They cried weakly, their eyes pleading for mercy.

Eva clutched her head, trembling. After a long moment, she spotted a large knife nearby. Her hands shock as she picked it up and raised it toward them. "It’s better to die than to live like this," she whispered.

The doctors, through tears, nodded faintly in agreement. With shaking hands, Eva pierced each of them through the heart, one by one, until their breaths stopped.

Just then, the police officers burst into the room, guns drawn.

"Put down the weapon!" one shouted. "You’re under arrest for murder! You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in court!"