So the moment they stepped out into the outer passage and the cold air touched her face, Kian bent slightly as if to lift her.

Isabella immediately pressed a hand against his chest. "No."

He looked at her. "You are tired."

"I can walk."

"You can be carried."

"I am not being carried in front of everybody."

Kian’s expression did not change. "Why?"

"Because I still have dignity."

He looked at her stomach, then at her face. "Your dignity can be carried too."

Isabella stared at him, completely speechless.

At that exact moment, two beastwomen passing by with baskets of dried herbs slowed down and looked at her stomach. They tried to be polite, but beastwomen were not always good at hiding curiosity, especially when a pregnant female looked this close to birth.

The first woman smiled warmly. "Lady Isabella, your stomach has dropped lower."

Isabella blinked. "It has?"

The second woman nodded. "You may give birth soon. Very soon. Maybe the little ones are already tired of staying inside."

Isabella’s face changed.

Kian immediately looked even more tense.

The first woman saw his face and quickly added, "That is good. It means the children are strong."

Isabella lowered her head to look at her stomach as if it had betrayed her again. "Even my stomach is making announcements before me?"

The two women laughed softly.

Another older beastwoman nearby, who had the thick wrists and calm face of someone who had seen too many births to be scared by anything, glanced over and said, "When the babies want out, they will not ask you first."

Isabella stared at her. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Then she looked at Kian. "Did you hear that? Even unborn children are rude here."

Kian’s mouth moved slightly, but he held the smile back.

Barely.

The older beastwoman looked at Kian and then at Isabella with amusement. "Do not let the king frighten you. Males always look like this before birth. They act strong, then when the female starts hurting, they become worse than cubs."

Kian’s face went cold.

Isabella immediately brightened. "Really?"

The woman nodded with great confidence. "Very true."

Isabella looked at Kian with delight. "So you are going to become a cub."

"I will not."

"You already looked half dead earlier."

Kian’s blue eyes narrowed slightly. "That was because Cyrus spoke badly."

The women laughed again, and Isabella laughed too, feeling for one moment like the fear inside her body had loosened a little. The cold air was still sharp, and her back still hurt, and somewhere in her mind she knew the messenger’s departure would bring trouble, but this small moment was warm.

Kian finally did not carry her, but he did keep one arm around her the entire way back.

And because his hand was firm and careful at her waist, and because he slowed whenever she slowed without making a big show of it, Isabella did not complain too much.

She was still smiling faintly when they entered the inner hall again.

Then her smile slowly faded.

Because she remembered Zara.

Mira.

Whichever one she claimed to be.

The woman sitting under guard inside her own borrowed skin, still breathing only because Isabella had decided death was too easy.

Isabella stopped walking.

Kian noticed at once. "What?"

She looked down the passage leading toward the guarded rooms, and the warmth on her face changed into something much quieter.

"I need to talk to her," Isabella said.

Kian’s eyes darkened. "Now?"

Isabella’s hand rested over her stomach, and her gaze stayed on that cold passage.

"Yes," she said softly. "Now."

Kian’s eyes darkened the moment he heard her say that.

"Now?" he asked.

His voice was very calm, but Isabella could feel the displeasure inside it without even needing to look too deeply. His blue eyes had already turned cold, and the arm around her waist tightened a little as if his body had decided before his mouth that she was not going anywhere near that woman again.

Isabella looked up at him and immediately knew this would not be easy.

To be fair, she understood him.

She had almost been poisoned.

Again.

And this time, the poison had not only been aimed at her. It had also been aimed at the children in her stomach, and that was the kind of thing no beastman could take lightly. Especially not Kian. He was a king, and a male who had already placed Isabella somewhere inside his bones whether he wanted to admit it every hour of the day or not. So the idea of letting her walk into the same room as the woman who had just tried to poison her was probably making every beast instinct in him rise like a storm.

Still, Isabella had to go.

So she softened her voice first.

"Kian," she said.

His expression did not change.

Isabella blinked slowly and leaned just a little closer to him, enough that her stomach brushed against his side and enough that his hand at her waist became even more careful by instinct.

"I need to talk to her."

"No."

The answer came too fast.

Isabella looked at him. "You did not even think about it."

"I thought about it before you finished speaking."

She stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "You are so unreasonable sometimes."

Kian looked down at her. "She tried to poison you."

"Yes, and I am still alive."

"That does not make it better."

"It makes it a little better."

"It does not."

Isabella wanted to argue, but the look on his face made her swallow the words again. He looked too serious. Too cold. Too deeply afraid under all that control. That was the part other people might miss, but Isabella saw it clearly. Kian’s fear did not tremble on the surface like Ophelia’s might. It did not turn soft and guilty like Cyrus’s. It became sharper. Colder. More commanding. As if he could force the world to behave if he only stood still enough and looked dangerous enough.

So Isabella changed her method.

She reached up and touched his chest lightly.

"Kian," she said in a softer voice, "I promise I will be fine."

His jaw tightened.

"I am coming with you."