Chapter 79

Murderous, incandescent light flared in the beast’s eyes. His absolute resolve was crystal clear: the very second she uttered a single negative prognosis regarding Lino’s survival, he was going to rip those unborn cubs to shreds.

“No! It’s not dire. It’s just something I already anticipated… A natural birth is going to be completely impossible. We need to prep the operating room immediately. Let me call my brother, and then I’ll explain everything to you.”

Fingers flying across her screen, Erin immediately dialed Enoch. Just looking at this mess, it’s glaringly obvious he couldn’t keep his paws off a fully pregnant man and triggered early labor.

Ugh, he really is a literal animal. 

She heaved a massive, internal sigh of relief that Lino’s gestational period operated on a beast’s timeline rather than a human’s. Had he been forced to endure a full forty-week human pregnancy, she had zero doubt Grondil would have quietly, secretly disposed of his own children by now. To call her master an animal was an insult to animals; he was entirely worse than a beast.

Before the first ring could even finish, Enoch’s voice cut through the line. Knowing Erin wouldn’t call for personal reasons at this hour, his tone was stiff with tension.

“Yeah. Book an operating room at the Grand Temple Capital Hospital, right now. I’ll perform the surgery myself. Prep the top floor, too. Lord Letia is heading there now.”

Hanging up, Erin rechecked the unconscious Lino’s vitals before explicitly instructing Grondil to carry him without compressing his stomach.

“Dammit.”

A rough curse tore from Grondil’s lips. The exact same man who had effortlessly scooped Lino up for a bathroom trip just hours prior was now fumbling blindly, utterly paralyzed by the fear of holding him wrong.

A sudden, burning urge to record Grondil’s unprecedented panic surged within Erin, but for the sake of her own future, she narrowly suppressed it. Shoving a camera in his face right now wouldn’t just end her future—it would immediately sever her head from her neck.

“Come on, hurry up. I’ve already secured the operating room and the ward. If we move quickly, there won’t be any issues,” Erin urged, grabbing Grondil’s hand and placing it directly over Lino’s swollen belly. It was a silent, unyielding warning: Don’t even think about giving up on the cubs. She didn’t need to spell out the apocalyptic consequences if the babies Lino had sacrificed his own body to protect were to suddenly perish.

“The car.”

“It’s waiting out front, of course. I’ve already ordered traffic control, so you just need to escort Lord Letia to the hospital.”

“Understood.”

Grondil gathered Lino into his arms with excruciating care, treating him like a fragile, fractured porcelain doll that might shatter at any moment. The limp, dead weight of Lino’s unconscious body felt sickeningly identical to when he was awake, twisting Grondil’s stomach into knots. Lino had lived such a brutally harsh life; Grondil had simply wanted him to rest comfortably within his own protective fences. He couldn’t fathom what had gone so wrong to force Lino to suffer like this again.

Did you do something to earn the gods’ hatred, Lino Cliff? 

There was no other explanation for a life this arduous. Abandoned naked in the bitter winter of the North the moment he was born, adopted and imprisoned by a deranged baronial family, surviving a slum where people dropped dead daily, and then rotting away for years in a Holy Knight Order teeming with men despite possessing such an obscenely enticing body.

I should have treated him better from the start. Who cared about finding the Letia? Who gives a fuck if that imperial bastard dies a eunuch? I should have just brought him back to Isberg the moment he caught my eye. 

Had he done that, Lino would never have been tormented by the likes of Yuneria, nor would he have ever had to face Baron Haklan again.

Settling into the limousine with Lino cradled in his arms, Grondil was consumed by belated regret. Having never experienced the emotion in his entire existence, he only realized after meeting Lino that regret was a profoundly self-destructive feeling. If only I hadn’t done that back then, could we have avoided this? The insatiable, impossible urge to rewind time and reverse his choices relentlessly clawed at his chest.

“Lord Letia. Can you hear my voice?” Erin called out, checking his consciousness.

A faint, broken moan slipped from Lino’s slack lips. Grondil felt Lino’s fingers twitch weakly against his palm.

“Lino. Does your stomach hurt badly?”

Thankfully, as Grondil and Erin continuously spoke to him and massaged his limbs, Lino’s fading consciousness managed to cling to their efforts, keeping him from slipping away entirely.

“Does it hurt a lot?” Erin pressed.

“I… don’t know…” Lino panted, struggling for breath. He genuinely didn’t know what the standard for ‘hurting a lot’ was anymore. It had been a long time since he’d been in this much agony, but compared to the severe traumas of his past, it somehow didn’t feel quite as apocalyptic. Through the hazy fog in his brain, Lino numbly tried to gauge if his body was actually in pain.

“Lino…!”

As Lino stared blankly up at the limousine ceiling, Grondil’s anxiety spiked. He grabbed Lino’s cheeks, forcing the unfocused eyes to meet his own. “Erin. What the hell is the problem?”

At Grondil’s demand, Erin’s expression twisted into a grimace of distress. Fearing this meant Lino’s condition was critical, Grondil’s gaze turned vicious. A terrifyingly freezing aura began to violently ripple around his massive frame, causing the Lino in his arms to flinch and shudder.

Seeing this, Erin ruthlessly smacked Grondil hard across the back. Smack! Had Enoch witnessed such brazen disrespect toward their liege, he would have thrown a fit.

“This! This right here is the problem!” she yelled.

“…What?”

“Lord Castillion. Lord Letia is currently carrying three beast—no, three divine beast cubs inside an ordinary human body.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“His mortal body is being severely drained trying to provide enough nutrients to children inheriting your immense power! The severe morning sickness only made it worse. Didn’t I tell you before? Your aura has been constantly blanketing Lord Letia, causing the cubs to grow at a terrifyingly accelerated rate!”

“I remember. Hah… So you’re saying… it’s my fault Lino is like this.”

Grondil’s face contorted into a deep scowl as he stared down at Lino’s pale face. 

So it’s all my fault he’s suffering. 

A violent grinding noise echoed from Grondil’s jaw. Yet, a part of him still fiercely blamed the brats wreaking havoc in Lino’s womb. But tracing it all back to the source… it was ultimately his fault for getting Lino pregnant in the first place. He had eagerly knotted inside him, swelling his own cock and filling Lino up until his belly bulged with his seed, time and time again.

I really am a fucking lunatic. 

Recalling the very day he had impregnated Lino, Grondil forcefully ignored the sudden heat pooling in his groin and gently wiped the beads of cold sweat from Lino’s forehead with his sleeve.

“Still, you don’t need to be overly worried,” Erin added.

“He’s drifting in and out of consciousness, and you’re telling me not to worry?” Grondil growled, lightly tapping Lino’s cheek to keep his blinking, hazy eyes open.

Though his tone sounded ready to snap Erin’s neck, the freezing aura around his body had instantly vanished. Erin internally marveled at her master’s absolute mastery over his energy. While Grondil referred to himself as a beast, he was, in truth, a divine beast beloved by the gods—the gods’ favored child.

No one in Isberg could manipulate beastly energy as flawlessly as him.

That was exactly why Erin had naively assumed a mere four-month pregnancy wouldn’t cause any major issues. She simply hadn’t anticipated that Grondil, harboring someone in his heart for the first time in his existence, would be so entirely unable to control his overflowing emotions that he’d constantly pour his divine energy into his heavily pregnant mate.

“It’s just that the cubs are too massive for a natural birth. Lord Letia himself is fine.”

“…Is that true?” Grondil eyed her with heavy suspicion, silently demanding a more thorough explanation.

“It’s purely because the babies are too big. Lord Letia has only endured this long because it’s him. If it were any ordinary human, we would absolutely have to choose between saving the mother or the children right now. Even a beastkin would struggle with cubs this size.”

‘Too big’ carried a multitude of horrific implications. It meant the cubs were suffocating in the cramped womb, and consequently, they were violently crushing and displacing Lino’s internal organs. If it had been just one small beast cub, Lino wouldn’t have suffered this severely. But to have three, and all of them monstrously oversized…

Grondil soothingly patted Lino’s chest, trying to calm his rapid, desperate panting. Whenever Lino’s breathing hitched too painfully, Grondil pressed their lips together, gently breathing his own air into Lino’s lungs.

“The estimated due date was based on the beastkin average, not Lord Letia’s specific condition. Do you remember what I told you during his early pregnancy?”

“I do. You said Lino’s pregnancy and delivery couldn’t be judged by existing averages.”

“Exactly. The bizarrely severe morning sickness, the cubs’ rapid growth rate, and his body’s hyper-sensitive reaction to your aura are all proof of that. So please, keep talking to him so he doesn’t fall asleep.”

“Understood.”

As Grondil resumed murmuring to Lino, Erin messaged Enoch to let him know they were arriving. The moment they reached the hospital, they bypassed everything through the distinguished guest corridor and headed straight for the operating room.

“G-Grondil…”

Lino looked up at him, his eyes swimming with unshed tears. Thanks to Grondil’s constant stream of words, Lino’s mind was remarkably lucid. Just moments ago, his entire abdomen had felt like it was being crushed in a vice, accompanied by a sickening wave of nausea that made him feel like he was going to vomit his very soul. Cold sweat had erupted across his skin, his vision violently spinning before temporarily blacking out.

When he came to, he was secured in Grondil’s arms inside the moving car. He could hear Grondil and Erin conversing, but the actual words refused to compute in his brain. His stomach was in sheer agony. The pain was so absolute and all-encompassing that he couldn’t even pinpoint which specific part was hurting. His crushed organs made drawing a full breath impossible, forcing him to take shallow, rapid gasps. Just as he desperately wished someone would breathe for him, Grondil’s lips met his. Instead of an invasive tongue, a rush of warm, damp breath flowed into his parted mouth.

Conditioned to always meet Grondil’s invading tongue, Lino’s own tongue twitched instinctively, but he was far too weak to do anything more than flinch. The gently delivered breath effortlessly cleared his suffocating airway.

Tears slipped down Lino’s cheeks unbidden as he called out Grondil’s name. Matching his long strides to the speed of the moving hospital bed, Grondil leaned down to reassure him.

“It’s going to be okay. Just take a short nap, and by the time you wake up, it’ll all be over. Don’t worry about a thing and just sleep.”

“Yes…”

With every blink, the scenery violently shifted. From the limousine roof to the hospital corridor ceiling, to Grondil’s distorted face and Erin’s tense expression, until finally, the blinding white ceiling of the operating room dominated his vision. The moment he thought the massive surgical lights were far too bright, his consciousness entirely faded to black.

Grondil refused to let go of Lino’s hand until the anesthesia pulled him into a deep, unshakable sleep. He completely ignored Erin’s insistence that guardians needed to wait outside. When he shot her a murderous glare, demanding to know why the hell he should leave his mate’s side during a life-threatening crisis, Erin merely pointed to the full-body sterilization chamber and told him to go scrub himself raw.

Thus, under Grondil’s terrifyingly watchful eye, Lino’s surgery began.

***