Chapter Text
Glass and maroon liquid splatter all over the wall, the wine bottle having shattered into a million pieces upon impact. The dining room was deathly still, with only the ragged breathing of two furious men filling the room. The Alphas stand opposite of each other, eyes narrowed, teeth bared.
“Get out.” Pantalone seethes.
“Not until you approve the funding I was promised,” Dottore growls back, the mask covering his eyes having slipped slightly in his rapid attempt to dodge the wine bottle Pantalone had launched in his direction.
“Funding is for projects you prove have worth. I will not sink another mora into your brainless experiments without proof of their value.”
“Brainless?!” Dottore splutters, lips curled up in a hideous snarl, “You know nothing of science or the importance of my work!”
“Because you don’t show me anything! Give me a reason, proof, concrete evidence that you aren’t just wasting mora for the sake of it!” Pantalone howls back, barely ducking in time to avoid the fork the doctor had hurled in his direction. It sticks into the wall behind him with a thud, and it only irritates the younger Alpha further.
“Wonderful! Now you’ve gone and damaged my wall!”
“Oh, and you didn’t with that expensive swill you just coated the room with?”
“Swill?! That was one of the finest wines in all of-”
“Yes, yes, a pointless luxury that you don’t mind wasting mora on!” Dottore snarls, before both men fall silent once more. After a few moments, Dottore mutters under his breath.
“Twenty-four hours.”
“What are you babbling about?”
“I will have results for you in twenty-four hours. Is that soon enough for you?” Dottore straightens up, adjusting his mask, “Come to my lab tomorrow evening. I will have proof that my work isn’t ‘worthless’ or futile. I think you will be very impressed with how far I have come.”
Pantalone grins his teeth.
“For your sake, you’d best hope I am.”
~~~
With the doctor finally out of his sight, Pantalone retreats to his bedroom. The moon was high in the night sky, coating his room in pale, milky beauty. He doesn’t bother with any candles, simply slipping free from his heavy coat and boots and sinking into the comfort of his bed.
Dottore was the bane of his existence, and he was certain the blue-haired Alpha was only created to torment him. Weeks and months and years of funding, with little to nothing to show for it. It was tiring, and infuriating, and it certainly didn’t help that regardless of his seething fury, Pantalone found the bastard sinfully attractive.
Perhaps it was the taboo of it all.
Alphas weren’t supposed to find other Alphas attractive, let alone spend the amount of time sharing a bed as they did.
It wasn’t love, but there certainly was passion.
“Hate sex.” as Tartaglia had so eloquently put it one afternoon after walking in on them behaving like wild animals in Dottore’s lab. Crude or not, it was the most fitting term for whatever it was that went on between them.
Rubbing his exhausted eyes, Pantalone groans softly. Perhaps he was being too harsh. Dottore was nothing if not dedicated to his work. Work that Pantalone knew wasn’t easy or quick. It wasn’t as if one more loan was going to break him.
Closing his eyes, the Alpha allows sleep to overtake him, perhaps he would scold Dottore a little at their meeting before allowing him one more extension. After all, what was the worst that could happen?
~~~
Morning comes too quickly and too harshly. The sun is barely peeking into the room when Pantalone is flinging the covers off of himself and stumbling to the bathroom. He barely makes it in time, mouth hanging open as he gags and retches up last night's dinner into the toilet. A cold sweat coats his burning skin, and he chokes as more digested slop forces itself up his throat. Gasping for air, he sits back on his heels, running a hand through his damp locks.
“What the hell…” The urge to vomit subsided just as quickly as it rose, but now he was becoming aware of another problem. Deep in his gut there was a nagging cramp, going from dull to sharp every few breaths.
“Wonderful...just what I needed.” Pantalone growls, blindly grasping for a washcloth to cool his face down with. He isn’t sure if it’s the flu or food poisoning, but either way, it couldn’t get in the way of his work.
Carefully, he pulls himself back to his feet before brushing his teeth and washing his face. He felt better now with the stale taste of bile gone from his mouth, and the cool water helped to soothe his burning cheeks. Reaching for the set of garments one of the servants had prepared for him, Pantalone peels off his sweat soaked shirt and pants. Tossing them aside for someone to pick up later, he begins to dress himself, stopping as he pulls his shirt down across his chest.
“What-” his brows furrowed in confusion, a trembling hand coming to lay across his belly. There was a small, hard, swell right below his navel that caused his stomach to stick out a bit. It wasn’t anything concerning, but certainly odd.
“Bloating.” the Alpha mumbles under his breath, shaking his head. He’d experienced it before during a nasty bout of food poisoning, and it was no less comfortable this time either. Just another irritation to deal with, on top of all the others.
“Perhaps Dottore will have something to ease it.”
~~~
Retiring to his office, Pantalone begins his work for the day. The queasiness came and went at much less violent rates than that morning, but the cramps were growing worse. Every few minutes they seemed to go from dull and annoying to sharp and breathtaking. More than once he was forced to place his pen to the side and grip the edges of his desk to ground himself.
Blowing out a breath through his nose, the Alpha runs a hand through his hair and presses a hand firmly against his belly. The bloating had gotten worse, and his belly was feeling full and tight, making the waistband of his trousers dig into his flesh painfully. Finally, he admits defeat and unbuttons them, letting out a sigh of relief.
He continues to busy himself with work for the next few hours. Signing documents, rejecting loan applications, and dividing the funds between the other harbingers. Everyone needed something from him, and none of them would be happy with what they got. The cramps continued to worsen as he went, but he ignored them the best he could. Each document needed to be read thoroughly, lest he overlook something.
Suddenly, another cramp comes, so intense it catches Pantalone off guard. He gasps, standing up suddenly and clutching at his desk, choking on a cry. The pain started deep in his gut, radiating out into a vice-like grip over the rest of his belly, squeezing until there was barely any air left in his lungs. It’s gone as suddenly as it starts, and he falls back into his chair, winded and frightened. One hand comes to rub his belly, hoping to ease the dull ache left behind.
Something wasn’t right.
A cold chill drips down his neck, his eyes slowly shifting to look down at his belly. A strangled cry catches in his throat.
That annoying little swell had suddenly doubled in size, his stomach bloated out into an obscene shape. The only thing he had to compare it too was that of an expectant Omega, and how their bellies always grew into that soft swell midway through their pregnancy.
Except he wasn’t an Omega.
He was an Alpha through and through.
He presses his fingers into the firm mound, wondering if perhaps there was a tumor inside. Something that would explain this sudden pain and growth. Pantalone squeezes and presses, before crying out in shock and terror. Alpha’s don’t bare pups, and pups don’t grow that fast...but tumors don’t kick and squirm against your touch.
“Dottore.”
~~~
By the time Pantalone manages to reach the laboratory the door in front of him opens before he can even get his fingers around the knob, and the Alpha falls to his knees. He’s a mess of tears, snot and sweat. The pain was excruciating, sucking the breath from him and causing his entire body to seize up in shock.
“H-help me,” he begs as soon as the air returns to his lungs.
“Right on time.” Dottore kneels down before the younger Alpha and runs a hand through his dark locks in an almost loving manner. Pantalone looks up, recoiling in horror when he sees just how widely the doctor is smiling. Not snarling, not a mocking grin, but a genuine, twisted, too-wide smile that showed off all his crooked, pointed teeth.
“You...you did this.”
“Of course I did. You wanted proof didn’t you?” Dottore snaps back, smile vanishing.
“What the hell did you do to me?” Pantalone’s voice cracks, breaking off into a shuttered sob as the pain ramps up again. The doctor chuckles, grabbing the banker by the arm and hauling him to his feet with inhuman strength. The younger Alpha struggles to keep up, one hand grasping at Dottore’s arm, the other slung under his swollen belly.
“Dottore, please, what have you put inside of me?” the how wasn’t nearly as important, that could be handled later. For now, Pantalone just wanted to know what strange creature was growing inside of him, kicking and squirming around just under the skin and making his belly shift in obscene ways.
He isn’t given a response, only forcibly stripped naked and shoved into a hospital bed.
“Answer me Dottore.” the authoritative tone was gone from his voice, terror creeping up his spine as the doctor grabbed his ankles and forced them up into a pair of stirrups. Common sense tells him to fight back and seek help elsewhere, but where would he even go?
The elder Alpha simply mumbles incoherently to himself, something about data, charts, numbers, and results.
“Heart rate elevated, no sign of internal bleeding, fetus appears viable.” a sob catches in Pantalone’s throat, knuckles turning white as he gripped the sides of the bed. The thing inside of him twists violently, dropping low into his pelvis.
“F-fetus?” he chokes out, a strangled cry pushes itself up and out of his mouth, “For fucks sake Dottore I’m an Alpha-”
“Correction,” Dottore finally returns his attention to Pantalone, grinning widely, “You were an Alpha.”
All of the blood in Pantalone’s body runs cold, chilling him to the bone.
“Stop talking nonsense and explain to me-” he’s cut off by the force of the next contraction, pain rippling through his body from his gut to his back down his to his toes and up to his neck. A pair of cold, silver, metal scissors flash in the light of the overhead lamp and begin to cut open the expensive fabric of Pantalone’s clothing. With his overcoat and shirt sliced open, the petrified Alpha is finally able to see the extent of the growth.
“Oh Archons what have you done to me?” he practically sobs, the sight of his swollen, pregnant belly causing all sensibility to drain from his head. Dottore just continues to smile, his cold leather gloves rubbing soothing circles over the taunt, red skin of Pantalone’s belly.
“You wanted to see the results of my work, and what better way to show you than by demonstrating it to you?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Pantalone screams, another contraction wracking his body and causing him to throw his head back against the metal table with a loud clang.
“I wanted to see if it was possible to alter the state of one's secondary gender. After all, what better way to subdue powerful enemies than by turning them into mindless breeding bitches?” Pantalone reaches out to grab the doctor by the front of his shirt but misses him. Cackling, Dottore gives his heaving belly a few gentle pats.
“Tell me, has your water broken yet?” he speaks so calmly as if he were asking how the weather was outside. Pantalone reaches up and pushes his sweat-soaked hair back from his eyes, scowling up at the doctor.
“Has my what broken ye-” he sucks in a sharp breath, eyes going wide as something deep inside of his belly bursts open. A rush of fluid gushes from between his legs, soaking his pants and splattering onto the floor below. Pantalone's world was spiraling into chaos. The pain, shock, and realization that he was now carrying some abomination inside him were too much to process. This bizarre, horrifying experiment Dottore had forced on him had transformed him into something he couldn't even recognize.
“Hm. What good timing.” Dottore changes his position, shifting to between Pantalone’s legs and cutting just enough of the fabric open to leave the younger Alpha's dripping, puffy hole exposed. It somehow felt even more violating than if he’d just ripped his trousers off altogether.
“Now, I need you to listen to me,” Dottore coos, honey dripping from his words in a way that choked the air from Pantalone’s lungs, “With the next contraction, I need you to push.”
As the next contraction hit him, Pantalone gritted his teeth and obeyed the doctor's sinister command. He pushed with all his might, straining his body to expel whatever was growing inside him. His face contorted with agony as he felt something pressing down, moving through his birth canal at a rapid speed. With a gut-wrenching scream, Pantalone felt something large and heavy slip out of him with a rush of fluid.
Dottore's gloved hands deftly caught the abhorrent creation, and Pantalone's eyes, filled with tears and shock, met the doctor's twisted, gleeful gaze. The room was filled with an eerie silence as Pantalone lay there, his chest heaving, sweat dripping down his chin. Dottore held the grotesque creature up to examine it, a mixture of fascination and pride in his eyes. It twitched and squirmed in Dottore's grip, whimpering.
"What have you done?!" Pantalone croaked, his voice weak, his body trembling. He couldn't take his eyes off the monstrous creation in Dottore's hands. It was an affront to nature, a cruel mockery of life. Dottore's smile only widened as he approached Pantalone, the abomination still squirming in his hands.
"I've created something marvelous," he hissed. "A new kind of power, a weapon to use against our enemies. You, my dear, are the first of many to bear this gift." Pantalone's world continued to crumble around him. Perhaps he had been foolish to trust Dottore, but inside he had believed in the man's brilliance. However, the pain, the transformation, and the monstrous offspring left him feeling violated, broken, and utterly powerless.
Dottore, unfazed by Pantalone's suffering, continued to examine his creation. It was a grotesque testament to Dottore's twisted genius. The doctor's gaze finally shifted from the child-like thing to Pantalone.
"You may be the first, but you won't be the last," he said, his voice cold and calculated. "There are others who would benefit from my work, others who will see the potential in this new form of power. You, will serve as an example, a warning to those who dare oppose us." Pantalone's mind raced, trying to find a way out of this nightmare. He was trapped, powerless, and at the mercy of a madman. He couldn't comprehend the full extent of the horror he had been subjected to, but one thing was clear: his life had been forever changed, and he would have to find a way to navigate this new, twisted reality. As Dottore continued to revel in his experiment's success, Pantalone's heart ached with a sense of hopelessness. He was now a pawn in a game he never signed up to play, and his future was uncertain and bleak.