After that, everyone waited.
There was nothing else to do.
The physicians monitored the hormone cascade hour by hour. The numbers were obvious now. Arion's body had entered a dominant alpha rut pattern so cleanly it would have been clinically impressive if it had not been happening to an eight-year-old prince trapped in mutation.
Dax did not leave the medical wing.
Chris left only long enough to shower, change, and threaten three people who had asked questions they did not deserve answers to.
Otto arrived in Saha shortly after midnight, with a face that made Hale step back without being told. He went straight to the medical wing and stopped only when the doctors informed him, with the careful bravery of people who knew they were speaking to a father rather than just an emperor, that he still couldn't enter.
He took that badly, not loudly, but badly.
