The conditioning isn't just physical, isn't just Miles reaching up to stroke back Kurt's hair, cradle the cheek that he'd bruised only moments before. Each time Kurt submits, each time they surrender to what Miles wants, he reaches through the fractured link that only they share, soothes them from inside out with waves of comfort, warmth, affection. It isn't just the loss of their pack that'll hurt, it'll be the absence of them, the hollows they've left behind. Eventually Kurt will seek out Miles, seek to obey and please him, if only to fill up that terrible emptiness for a moment.

"Of course, of course," he soothes, stroking his thumb over their cheekbone, brushing away their tears. "That's what a true Alpha would do, hm? They'll be as good as mine once we meet. Even Corrigan would have to respect that." Miles reaches out with his free hand, the one he'd set on Kurt's stomach, reaching around to tug them forward, into his lap.

"Though I think he'll respect you carrying my pup even more so, don't you?" He nuzzles against their ear, whispers softly: "If you do everything I say, if you obey me without question, I'll take you with me when I conquer the pack." Miles lets this linger, a potential of reunion, of return to Corrigan and the others, even as the first prisoner of a usurper, an invader.

But then: "I'll let you choose what order I kill them in."