134. A Time To Act

Stan's parents lay sprawled on the floor. It had been quite an eventful night. Upon Yeon's and Stan's return the previous day, Yeon had succumbed to heat uncontrollably that Stan had to seek the help of his parents before he too was overpowered by Yeon's scent. Even after administering a heat suppressant, Yeon still continued to let out large volumes of scent that he had to be separated from Stan for sometime.

In his trance, it appeared that something was not right. While in heat, he seemed to murmur the word 'stop' repetitively which prompted Stan to believe his fated's heat to be abnormal.

"What happened between him and Mora?" Stan asked himself over and over but couldn't bring himself to think of something. According to Mora, Yeon seemed drunk and indeed, his breath had alcohol in it yet instead of his usual overpowering self when intoxicated, he'd got into heat, the kind of heat that seemed even painful for him, accompanied by his eyes returning to a constant luminous red similar to the time he was marked multiple times.

"Something is not right. We've already administered first aid but still, he is letting out scent. Get intouch with your brother honey."

"I've been trying to reach him while you tended to Yeon and Stan but he isn't contactable including his wife."

"This feels like dejavu. Remember when Yeon first came to live with us and was having nightmares? It's the same scenario except this time, he is trapped in a nightmare while in heat. It must be torturous."

"Do you have his blood samples?"

"Done. I've kept them downstairs but we can't test on them. We need your brother or another doctor for fated mates to handle it. This is frustrating really. I had thought Yeon to be fully recovered. Stan has to tell us exactly what happened."

"He seems distraught. Do you really think he is in his right mind to talk now?"

"When I asked him earlier, he said something that made my blood turn cold. That the way Yeon was acting reminded him of how he'd found him for the first time after his attack. Trapped in both heat and pain."

"That is not good." Looking his partner, dad Joss asked. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Don't even think about it honey. If we test Yeon's blood we risk finding ourselves in prison. It's beyond our jurisdiction."

"What could be so different from testing on a fated mate as opposed to pairs?'

"It's not our specialty! Call your brother again!"

"Honey, I can do this! The longer we wait... Argh! I've had it! Enough with calling him!"

"Calm down will you! We need to act calmly and not make decisions on a whim! Your brother has a special license added to his doctoral qualifications specific to fated mates! If you carry out the test, we break our oath!"

"What if Mora did something?"

"Then we contact Elric's mother and have her provide us with some form of emergency approval as back up..." Dad Robin stopped speaking upon his partner reaching for his cellphone. It rang for a while before Elric's mother picked up.

"We have a problem."

"It's- too early in the morning..."

"I think Mora has made her move on Yeon."

Elric's mother sounded exhausted. "We must have woken her up." Dad Robin whispered.

"Loudspeaker!" Dad Joss whispered back, pointing at his phone.

"I can hear you both. What happened?"

Dad Robin's reply was instant. "Yeon and Stan came in late yesterday and Yeon appeared somewhat drugged and intoxicated. As per our diagnosis, he is trapped between having his heat and a nightmare at the same time but we can not have his blood tested without a special permission. We have to receive authorization from the ministry of health for pairs to test on fateds."

"Before his blood is completely relieved from whatever provoked his heat, we have to test it the earliest." Dad Joss added to emphasize on the urgency of timing.

"Leave that to me. I'll work on authorization and get back to you the soonest."

"One more thing." Dad Robin added. "Stan was the one who took Yeon from Mora. They were together in the hotel alone."

"What were they doing together?"

Grabbing the phone from dad Joss, dad Robin urged his partner to proceed with the tests and resumed the conversation with Elric's mom.

"I'm not sure why but according to Stan, Yeon has been meeting up with Mora privately for a while. I do not think we can proceed with our plans to catch Mora in the act."

"I can't get a warrant for her arrest or have her detained without concrete evidence. She has been careful..."

"There has to be something that can pin her in some way. She is a threat to all of us! You said her weakness to be Yeon but as far as I'm concerned, Yeon has a cut on his index finger. Mora did draw blood from him."

"Whatever information I have of her is only word of mouth from her brother and father. They are both considered not mentally sound hence their confession is not enough to keep her locked up even for fourteen days before trial."

"Then what are we to do? The plan has fallen already!"

"She is playing us against each other. This move is clear she knows we are onto her and she probably may have been waiting for us to make a bold move against her but seeming that we were treading carefully, she must have gotten bored and did this. I'll have a word with her father together with the psychiatrist that is helping us in this case and decide the way forward. I don't trust that I'll give you the best advice for people like her. I'm only a good lawyer, not a psychiatrist."

"I understand."

"How long will it take for the blood results to come out?"

"Not more than ten minutes."

"Fantastic. Call me back as soon as you get your findings."

"One more thing. Should we let Yeon's parents know?"

"Not Yet. They might go into a frenzy considering this is their son's second attack. Keep in mind their daughter was a victim of Mora as well."

"Honey! I found something." Dad Joss suddenly appeared.

"My husband is here. Honey what did you find?"

"We have a mid case of a questionable drug in his system as well as an intoxicated blood with a strong liquor. It may have been administered with the blood."

"Just like the first time." Elric's mother said.

"We have a testing kit for pairs so that is all I can vouch for now however, his blood cells seems to be expanding and absorbing this drug while at the same time repelling it. That is why Yeon is trapped in his heat. My guess is he must be in excruciating pain at the moment but isn't aware of it since he is high on that drug."

"She is smart. If we were to argue out this in court, they'd dismiss this just as the first time Yeon scent manifested."

"He was in the same state." Both dad Joss and dad Robin spoke in unison.

"We do have the cut you mentioned and we can work on that. I can use that to detain Mora somehow. How big is it?"

"It's minor, almost bigger than a paper cut."

"That is a disappointment, though I'm relieved she didn't cause more damage than anticipated."

"Seems like we have hit the wall yet again."

"I think we are dealing with a very intelligent individual." Dad Joss said. "She seemed to have calculated her every move."

"Find a way to get more information from Stan. Was he alone?"

"He was with Niel and Elric."

"Elric? Those two are to wed today! They had time for a night out?"

"Wed?"

"They must have snuck off but we will deal with that another time. I'll follow up with them in a jiffy. I'll call you back." Elric's mother immediately hanged up.

"What are we going to do now? ...And why is your brother unreachable?"

"Honey, I need to tell you something I didn't disclose to Elric's mother since it's something medical. Aside from Yeon's blood being contaminated, I noticed you failed to grasp one thing since we are in panic mode right now."

"What is it?"

"You know the process of continuous expansion and contraction of blood cells and what it does to the scent in our blood."

"No way! Scentomosis! Yeon is loosing scent that he may never replenish!"

"...But that is if he were paired. My theory is it isn't that far off from paired partners. Perhaps this is where being fated comes in handy. We will have to administer a heat inducer to Stan and time their copulation for approximately half and hour so they can both balance out each other's scents, Yeon being the one who will gain from scent absorption the most. That may buy us time until we reach Jiwon."

"That could work." Just then, dad Joss's phone rang. "It's Elric's mom."

"Loud speaker! Loud speaker!"

"Sure sure, hello?"

"Mora has been caught trying to flee to who knows where. She must have expected this but we acted quite fast. Look into what happened yesterday. She may have left a trace and was looking into getting rid of it."

"I thought you said we don't have enough evidence."

"I'm getting to that. According to Niel, these idiots have been hiding something too. Mora was blackmailing Yeon for a while to have secret meetings but they thought they could handle it. She cut herself and used that to hold onto Yeon. I'm assuming Yeon must have felt accountable or didn't want to weigh us with this information so he kept quiet. He had dropped charges against Mora's brother which was a clear disinterest in following up the case and Mora knew that and used it as his weakness.

I had a warrant standby for her. I've raised an alert that she is stressed over what is happening to her family hence may have tried to take her own life and Yeon stopped her. That is what we will be using now. She was also bleeding on her wrist when Niel and Stan found her. Have Stan and Yeon updated once they come to their senses. I'll keep Yeon's parents informed to avoid mixup on interpretation. For now, focus on finding a doctor for fated mates."

Dad Robin was about to speak up when the call got disconnected. "...She hung up, and didn't let us speak."

"We don't have time honey. The war has begun. Let's take scent inhibitors before we tend to those two."

"We should also test the blood smears on Yeon's clothings. I do not think that is his but Mora's. Elric's mom did mention she was bleeding just now."

"Yeon's father will kill us when he finds out about this you know."

"Of course he will. We failed to protect his son as promised."