Chương 24
The silence that followed the doctors' departure was heavy, smelling of sterile antiseptic and the fading scent of medicine. Babe lay motionless on the silk sheets on the bed , his face pale and waxen, the only sign of life the shallow, jagged rise and fall of his chest.
Across the room, the Theerapanyakul elders stood like statues of cold marble.
Alan stepped forward, his boots clicking sharply against the polished floor—a desperate rhythm in a room full of despair. He stopped before Kinn and Vegas, his hands clenched at his sides to hide their shaking.
"Don't do this," Alan pleaded, his voice cracking with a raw, jagged edge.
"Babe is... he's fragile right now. He made a mistake yes , but he's anchored to his child. If you tear them apart the moment the surgery is over, you aren't just taking a baby. You're killing Babe too."
Alan's gaze flickered to the bed. Charlie remained seated there, silent and terrifyingly still. He was focused entirely on Babe's abdomen, his long fingers tracing the curve of the baby bump with a gentleness that didn't match the frost in his eyes.
It was a possessive gesture—the touch of a creator claiming his masterpiece while ignoring the canvas it was painted on.
"Please..Talk to him," Alan whispered, looking back at the elders.
"Please. Charlie listens to you. Tell him he can't be this cruel.Please tell him to don't separate them"
Beside Alan, Sonic and North stepped up, their faces etched with a mixture of fury and grief.
"He made a mistake!" Sonic cried out, his voice high and trembling.
"He was tricked by the photos! You can't sentence him to a life of mourning just because he's human."
Kinn Theerapanyakul didn't flinch. He adjusted the cuff of his suit, his expression unreadable, settled in the kind of authority that didn't need to raise its voice to be heard.
"Charlie has already made his decision," Kinn said, his voice as smooth and cold as a whetstone.
"The legacy of this family is paramount. He has decided he wants the heir, not the carrier.."
Vegas stood beside him, a dark smirk playing at the corners of his lips—a look that suggested he found the tragedy unfolding before him more entertaining than tragic.
"It's final, Alan. The boy chose the bloodline. Don't waste your breath."
With a sharp nod, Kinn turned to leave, Vegas also followed him and theirpartners falling in line behind him like a shadow without a single glance at Babe.
Tankhun who followed the others draped in an oversized silk robe, paused at the door, his eyes glittering with a manic sort of excitement.
"I can't wait until tomorrow!" Tankhun chirped, his voice cutting through the heavy air with a surreal, jarring cheer.
"A new heir! The nurseries are already being lined with the best silk. I'll see you all at the surgery!"
He didn't look at the pale, broken man on the bed once. To him, Babe was already a ghost, a vessel whose purpose was nearing its end.
The door clicked shut, leaving the room plunged into a suffocating quiet. Alan, North, and Sonic stood in the center of the room, their faces etched with a profound sense of loss, their anger bubbling beneath the surface like a toxic sea.
Jeff stood in the corner, his shoulders hunched, his eyes fixed on the floor. He was a silent witness to the wreckage, his presence a constant reminder of the truth that had come too late. He looked up, his gaze catching Charlie's for a fleeting second—but Charlie didn't look back.
Charlie's hand was still on Babe's stomach, a soft, rhythmic caress that seemed entirely disconnected from the cold, final words his uncles had just spoken. He was a king in his own silent, frozen kingdom, and the only person who could have reached him was the one currently sinking into the darkness of an unconscious sleep.
"Babe, I don't know how to help you kid.." Alan whispered, his voice a ghost of a hope.
But the monitor continued its steady, uncaring beep, and the shadows in the room grew longer, reaching for the man who was about to lose everything he had ever truly loved.
Alan's frustration boiled over. He walked to Jeff and grabbed Jeff by the shoulder, not with malice, but with a desperate, shaking intensity.
"Jeff ! let's talk outside " said Alan dragged jeff outside of the room.Jeff went without complaining and at the hallway away from the room Alan grabbed jeff 's shoulders.
"You're his brother, Jeff. He loves you more than anyone. He's doing all of this—this madness—because he belives Babe was with another man..But he didn't ..You have to be the one to tell him to stop."
"Babe didn't do it," Sonic added, stepping closer, his voice thick with unshed tears.
"The night of the gala... it was a misunderstand.. He was alone he didn't spend the night with another man, Jeff. He spent the night crying for Charlie, not with someone else. Please, just tell Charlie to look at the evidence. Tell him to give Babe a chance."
Sonic reached out, tentatively touching Jeff's arm. "You're the youngest. We've seen how they treat you. Kinn, Vegas, even Tankhun—they adore you. They'd listen to you before they'd listen to any of us. Please, use that.Please Jeff"
Jeff looked at them, his eyes shimmering with a deep, quiet ache. He didn't pull away, but he looked smaller, burdened by a truth that felt like lead in his chest.
"I can't," Jeff whispered, his voice soft but final.
"Why?" Alan demanded, his grip tightening slightly.
"If they love you so much, why won't they listen to you? "
"Because I'm not a biological Theerapanyakul, Alan!" Jeff's voice finally broke, a single tear spilling over.
The silence that followed was deafening. North and Sonic froze, their eyes widening in shock.
Jeff took a shaky breath, looking back toward the door where his family—his real family—sat.
"They love me. They've never made me feel like anything less than a son,their own. My Dad,Kinn protects me, Uncle Tankhun spoils me, and Charlie and my other elder brothers would burn the world down for me. They treat me as their own because, in their hearts, I am."
He looked down at his hands, his voice dropping to a painful murmur.
"But I'm an Omega. In a house of Enigmas, who treat me as their own..and they made a decision and I am not challenging their decision. If I try to interfere with a decision Charlie has made as an Enigma regarding his heir, I'm not just questioning a choice—I'm challenging the very foundation of the family that saved me."
Jeff looked up, his expression one of pure, helpless heartbreak.
"They love me, Alan. They really do. They will do anything I ask , And because they love me, I can't be the one to bring shame to them by acting out of turn.."
Alan felt a cold chill run down his spine. He remembered a night months ago, watching a drunken Tankhun boast about the family. "Theerapanyakuls only breed Enigmas ,the strongest, Alan! Our blood is pure power!"
Looking at Jeff—soft-spoken, kind, and clearly an Omega—the pieces finally fell into place. The family loved him unconditionally as their youngest, but that love didn't grant him power over the cold, hard laws of their biology.
"Babe broke my brother's heart and hurt him more than one time, but now Charlie doesn't want him, so I am not going to challenge his decision or talk to him to change his decision..I can't help you with this, Alan..sorry "
Alan understood Jeff had made his mind and he cant change it. So Placing a steadying hand on Jeff's arm, Alan spoke in a low, gravelly whisper.
"Do us a favour, Jeff. Take him out of here. If Babe wakes up and sees a Theerapanyakul or Charlie standing over him like a sentinel, his heart won't take the stress. He needs peace before tomorrow. He needs his friends."
Jeff nodded solemnly. He understood the fragile state of an Alpha who had been stripped of his pride. He walked toward the room, and Alan and others followed him back.
Jeff walked inside the bedroom and walked to the bed where the unconscious babe was lying, and Charlie, who is still carsing babe's baby bump..talking silently to his unborn child. His footsteps muffled by the thick carpet, and jeff placed a gentle hand on Charlie's shoulder.
The air in the room remained thick, a suffocating blend of medicinal sharpness and the heavy, unspoken grief of the men standing within it. Alan looked at Babe—so small and drained of his usual fire—and then at Charlie, whose devotion to the unborn child was as beautiful as it was terrifying.
"Let him rest, Charlie," Jeff murmured, his voice a soft anchor in the quiet room.
"Let's go."
Charlie didn't move at first. His head remained bowed, his fingers still tracing the swell of Babe's stomach through the thin hospital gown. He shook his head slowly, a stubborn, pained gesture.
"I can't leave him, Jeff. It's only a few hours. A few hours until I finally hold my son. I want to spend this few hours with them."
Charlie wouldn't admit it—not to the elders of his family , not even to himself—but the sight of the "racing legend,Babe" the arrogant pretty Alpha looking so vulnerable was tearing at the edges of his resolve.
Chalir had fallen in love with the prettiest man who was fire and arrogance, a man who ruled the tracks with a smirk and a heavy foot. Seeing that man reduced to begging, his pink, pouty lips parted in a silent plea even in sleep, felt like a sacrilege.
Babe was always unpredictable, but this shattered version of him was something Charlie hadn't prepared for.
"Charlie," Jeff pressed, his voice gaining a firm, elder-brother quality despite his own status.
"The doctors said he's under too much pressure. If he wakes up and sees us—sees the people who are taking the child—his vitals will spike. Let Alan and the others be with him. They are his safe harbor. We can come back at dawn."
Charlie considered the words, his gaze lingering on the rhythmic rise and fall of Babe's chest. He didn't want to cause more harm, yet the pull of the life beneath his palm was magnetic. Finally, with a heavy sigh that sounded like a tectonic plate shifting, he gave a hesitant nod.
"Okay."
Charlie leaned down, his face hovering inches from the bump. The Enigma's golden eyes softened into a deep, chocolate brown as he pressed a lingering, reverent kiss to the fabric.
"Papa will see you soon, my son," he whispered, the words a sacred vow. "I'm waiting for you."
He straightened up and, for the first time that night, truly looked at Babe's face. The Alpha he had desired beyond words, the man who had been his entire world, looked hauntingly beautiful in the dim light. Those lips, which had once tasted of victory and sweetness, now looked bruised by exhaustion.
For a fleeting second, Charlie's hand hovered over Babe's brow. He gave a single, feather-light pat to the damp hair—a goodbye to the pretty arrogant man he once knew—before turning away.
As he walked toward the door, he passed Alan, North, and Sonic. They stood in a grim line, watching him with a mixture of resentment and pity.
They had seen the gentleness he just showed; they saw the love that still lived in his fingertips, even if his heart was locked away. They knew Babe had lit the match that burned this bridge, but the fire was consuming everyone.
As Charlie reached the threshold, Sonic's voice broke the silence, high and trembling with a desperate truth.
"Charlie... he didn't spend the night with that man. He was alone. He never betrayed you like that."
Charlie stopped. He didn't turn around, but his shoulders tensed. A sad, weary smile touched his lips—a look of a man who had already mourned the dead.
"The relationship was already cracked, Sonic," Charlie said softly, his voice echoing in the hallway.
"Trust isn't just about one night. It's about the foundation." He took a breath that seemed to rattle in his lungs.
"I will be back tomorrow morning.,take rest everyone."
He stepped out into the corridor, his shadow long and lonely. Jeff cast one last sorrowful look at Alan before following his brother into the evening, leaving the room to the steady, lonely beep of the heart monitor and the three friends who were all that stood between Babe and a devastating tomorrow.
The clinical silence of the room was shattered when night comes. It started with a frantic, hitching gasp—the sound of someone drowning and finally finding air.
Babe's eyes snapped open, but they weren't focused on the luxury of the suite. They were wide, glazed with a primal terror that made his pupils dialate until his irises were thin rings of amber. His hands immediately flew to his stomach, clawing at the hospital gown as if he expected to find a hollow space where his heart used to beat.
"No... no, no, no,"
Babe whimpered, the sound scraping up from his throat like broken glass. He tried to sit up, but his body was a leaden weight, and the sudden movement sent a wave of nausea through him.
"Alan! North! Is it morning? Are they here? Did they take him?"
Alan was at the bedside in a heartbeat, his large hands catching Babe's trembling shoulders to keep him from tumbling off the mattress.
"Babe, hey, look at me. Look at me, it's Alan. Breathe, just breathe."
"The surgery... Charlie said tomorrow... it's tomorrow, isn't it?"
Babe's voice rose into a thin, hysterical peak. He grabbed Alan's forearms, his fingernails digging into the older man's skin.
"I felt him, Alan. I felt Charlie's hand on me before the dark took over. He was here to say goodbye, wasn't he? He's coming back with the doctors to rip my baby out!"
"It's nighttime, Babe. Look at the window," Alan said firmly, though his own voice was thick with suppressed emotion. He gestured to the glass where the moon still hung low and silver over the city.
"It's barely midnight. You've been out till night. No one is taking him. Not yet."
The realisation that he still had time didn't bring Babe peace; it only opened the floodgates. The "Great Babe," the man who had stared down death at two hundred miles per hour without blinking, collapsed into Alan's chest. He let out a wail—a raw, guttural sound of a man who had been stripped of his armour and left raw to the world.
"Don't let them, Alan,"
Babe sobbed, his face buried in the fabric of Alan's shirt, his tears hot and soaking through.
"Please... please don't let them take him. I know I messed up. I know I was cruel. But he's mine. My Baby is the only part of Charlie I have left that doesn't hate me."
Alan wrapped his arms around the younger man, rocking him slowly. It felt like holding a bird with broken wings. Behind them, Sonic and North turned away, unable to watch their friend—their hero—and their brother break apart so completely.
"I'll do everything I can, Babe," Alan choked out, his eyes stinging.
"They're so powerful," Babe cried, his breath coming in short, jagged hitches.
"Charlie... his eyes, Alan. They weren't brown anymore. They were gold. Cold, hard gold. He looked at me like I was a stranger. Like I was just a box he had to open to get his prize. Tell them I'll go away! Tell them I'll disappear and they'll never see me again, just... just let me keep my son. Please .. I am begging you, Alan..do something..Please.."
Every sob that racked Babe's body felt like a physical blow to Alan's heart. He had seen Babe survive crashes that should have been fatal, had seen him walk away from wreckage with a smirk.
But there was no walking away from this. The Theerapanyakul shadow was lengthening over them, and as Alan held the weeping Alpha, he realised with a sickening dread that even his protection might not be enough to stop the dawn.
"Shh, Babe," Alan whispered into his hair, his own tears finally falling. "Just breathe. We're here. We aren't leaving you."
But as Babe's desperate pleas continued to fill the sterile room, Alan looked toward the door, dreading the moment the sun would rise and the Enigma would return to claim what he believed was his.
Babe's fingers clawed at Alan's jacket, his knuckles white and trembling. Each breath he took was a jagged sob that seemed to vibrate through his entire frame. The once-sturdy Alpha, who had conquered the most dangerous tracks in the world, was now reduced to a terrified child, clinging to the only people who hadn't looked at him like he was an object.
"Take me away, Alan," Babe choked out, his eyes darting toward the heavy mahogany door as if he expected the handles to turn at any second.
"Don't let the sun come up. If I'm here when the light hits, they will take my child..I can't live without him..I can't.. They'll take him, and I'll be empty. Please...you always say you love me as your own brother,I don't want to stay here..please get me out of here."
Babe turned his tear-streaked face toward North and Sonic, his voice dropping to a desperate, haunting whisper.
"I don't care about the fame. I don't care about the cars or the trophies. I'll live in a shack. I'll change my name. I'll work in a garage in the middle of nowhere. Just don't let my Baby take away from me"
Alan looked at North, a silent, grim communication passing between them. The weight of Babe's plea was a physical pressure in the room. Alan's heart screamed at him to say yes, to scoop Babe up and run, but his logical mind was already calculating the impossibility of it.
"We have to get him out," Sonic hissed, his voice trembling with a mixture of fury and fear..
"I don't care who they are. They can't just keep him here against his will."
North joined him, his expression hardening. "Look at this mansion, Sonic. It's not just guards. It's a fortress."
Below them, the sprawling gardens of the Theerapanyakul estate were bathed in the silver glow of security floodlights. Every fifty feet, a man in a black suit stood with the rigid posture of a professional soldier. Infrared cameras swept the lawn in a rhythmic, unblinking dance.
"We have the van," Alan said, his mind racing. He kept his arms wrapped tight around Babe, feeling the frantic heartbeat against his chest.
"If we can get him to the garage, we can hide him in the back. But how do we get a pregnant, barely-conscious Alpha past a dozen trained guards without a single one of them noticing the scent of distress?"
Babe heard them. He gripped Alan's wrists harder.
"I'll be quiet. I won't make a sound. I'll hold my breath until my lungs burst, Alan. Just try. Please, just try."
Alan looked down at Babe, seeing the sheer, unadulterated hope in his broken eyes, and felt a wave of nausea. He knew the Theerapanyakuls. He knew that if they were caught, the consequences wouldn't just be for him—they would ensure Babe never saw the sun again.
"North, check the back stairwell," Alan commanded, his voice shifting into the tone of a leader who had made a choice. "Sonic, see if you can find a way to loop the camera feed in this hallway for even five minutes. We need a window. A tiny, impossible window."
"Alan..." North cautioned, his eyes reflecting the sheer danger of the plan. "If we fail, they won't just stop the surgery. They'll lock him in a basement."
"If we stay," Alan replied, his gaze dropping to Babe's trembling form, "he's already dead. We move at 3:00 AM. It's the deepest part of the night. It's our only shot."
Babe let out a small, shuddering breath of relief, burying his face back into Alan's chest. It was a suicide mission, a desperate gamble against the most powerful family in the country, but for the first time since the gala, the suffocating darkness in the room felt like it had a single, flickering light at the end of it.
The small spark of hope that had ignited in the room was extinguished as quickly as a candle in a gale.
Sonic and North had slipped out with the quiet focus of men on a mission, but they returned less than ten minutes later. They didn't just walk in; they practically stumbled, their faces drained of color and their eyes darting toward the floor-to-ceiling windows with a frantic, bird-like energy.
"What is it?" Alan asked, his grip on Babe tightening as he felt the younger man's body go rigid with new anxiety.
"What did you see?"
North didn't answer immediately. He ran to the window, throwing back the heavy velvet curtains with a violent tug. Sonic followed, pressing his forehead against the cold glass, his breath fogging the pane in quick, shallow bursts.
"Alan..." Sonic's voice was a broken whisper. "Look."
Alan stood, helping a trembling Babe to lean against the headboard, and joined them at the glass. Below, the estate had been transformed. Where there had been a dozen guards before, there was now a small army. Black-clad figures stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the perimeter of the guest wing, their tactical gear glinting under the floodlights. The "golden cage" had just been reinforced with steel bars.
"The plan... it's not going to work," North said, his voice sounding hollow and dejected. He turned back to the room, his shoulders slumped as if he were carrying the weight of the entire mansion.
"They've doubled the detail. There are guards every five paces in the hallway, and there's a secondary perimeter right below this window. They aren't just guarding a guest anymore; they're securing a high-value asset."
The silence that followed was suffocating. The realization hit them all at once: the Theerapanyakuls hadn't just predicted an escape attempt—they had prepared for it with the cold, clinical efficiency of a family that had spent generations mastering the art of the hunt. They knew Babe's friends would try to save him, and they had responded by turning the mansion into a fortress.
"They know," Sonic whimpered, sliding down the wall to put his head in his hands.
"They knew we'd try to take him. Charlie... or Kinn... they saw right through us."
Babe let out a sound that wasn't a cry; it was a thin, high-pitched keening of pure despair. He collapsed back into the pillows, his hands clutching his stomach as if trying to shield his son from the very walls of the room.
"I'm never getting out," Babe sobbed, the tears flowing freely now, soaking into the expensive linens.
"They've locked the doors. They're just waiting for the sun so they can come and take him. Alan, they've turned me into a prisoner! My own son is going to be born in a prison!"
Alan rushed back to the bed, pulling Babe into a crushing embrace, but he had no words of comfort left. He looked over Babe's shaking shoulder at the dark, armed figures standing guard outside, and for the first time, Alan felt the true, terrifying scale of the family they were fighting.
The Theerapanyakuls didn't just own the land; they owned the air, the time, and the very life growing inside Babe.
"We're trapped," North whispered to the empty air.
As the clock on the bedside table ticked toward 1:00 AM, the room felt smaller, the walls closing in as the inevitable dawn prepared to bring the Enigma back to claim his prize.
Would you like me to continue with how they spend those final hours, or perhaps have someone unexpected—like Jeff or even a conflicted Charlie—re-enter the scene?
Alan felt the walls of the mansion closing in, a physical weight that made it hard to draw a full breath. Every tactical advantage belonged to the Theerapanyakuls. They had the guards, the money, the bloodline, and now, the absolute resolve of an Enigma who had been pushed too far.
Looking at the guardss outside the window, Alan realized that a physical escape wasn't just impossible—it was a death sentence.
He looked down at Babe. The Alpha's face was red and blotchy, his eyes swollen from hours of weeping. Then he looked at North and Sonic, who stood like broken pillars of a fallen temple. The desperation in the room was a living thing, thick and suffocating.
Slowly, a sharp, dangerous clarity settled over Alan's features. His grip on Babe's shoulders tightened, but this time, it was steady.
"There is only one thing left to do now," Alan said, his voice dropping into a low, resonant tone that cut through Babe's sobbing like a knife.
The shift in his energy was so sudden that North and Sonic straightened up, their eyes snapping to his face. Even Babe's hitching breaths stuttered to a halt as he looked up, a glimmer of terrifying hope reflected in his tear-filled gaze.
"Alan?" Sonic whispered, his voice trembling. "What is it? Is there a secret exit? A way to bribe the guards?"
"No," Alan replied, his gaze fixed on the heavy mahogany door that separated them from the rest of the Theerapanyakul wolves.
"We can't outrun them, and we certainly can't outfight them. If we try to sneak out, we'll be caught before we hit the downstairs, and they'll separate Babe from us forever."
"Then what?" North asked, his brow furrowing. "If we can't hide and we can't run, what's left?"
Alan leaned in closer, his expression grim and resolute. "We stop playing their game of shadows and force them into the light. We don't go to the guards. We don't go to Kinn or Vegas."
He looked directly into Babe's eyes. "Babe, you said Charlie's eyes were gold. You said he looked at you like a stranger. But he's still in this house. And despite what he says, he stayed here tonight because he couldn't leave you. Not yet."
"What are you saying, Alan?" Babe breathed, a fresh tear tracking down his cheek.
"Sonic! Where is your phone..We need to make calls.."Alan said.
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