The head servant, facing Assad’s coldened expression, instinctively knew it was time for him to be dismissed.
But before Saban could be driven from the bedroom, Assad grabbed his head. The magicians’ sleep spell had taken effect.
The magic was designed for inexperienced alphas just entering their first Joy Period, as well as for the omegas who would have to deal with them. They needed to drain their strength, even if by magic. This was because they could harm their partner otherwise.
Assad had bought himself time. Even if it was a reprieve of barely two hours.
“Having to feel this dog-awful feeling continuously is irritating…”
“Your Highness. Do you find the Crown Prince’s consort that objectionable?”
“…”
“I’m truly worried about Your Highness’s Joy Period. Though I’ve learned that the first Joy Period is… greatly influenced by one’s environment, mood, and feelings… I’m more worried because it’s so sudden.”
Saban carefully spoke as he guided the staggering Assad back to the bed.
Assad didn’t answer. Reluctantly sitting on the bed, he simply recalled what he had heard from the Emperor, his mother.
“I hear that in the royal family of Elba, they employ alphas and omegas to safely get through the Joy Period—yes, what they call ‘rut’ and ‘heat cycle’—while making the ridiculous excuse that they can’t treat someone they love roughly. If you’re confused about how to think of that child, well, think of him as an omega hired to get through your Joy Period.”
If he were to mix bodies with his bride because of the suddenly arrived Joy Period, it would become as his mother said. Cayden would… become someone who would leave the imperial palace after helping him safely get through his Joy Period time and again. He would become a hired prostitute.
Assad didn’t want to lower Cayden to that level.
This would also be something his bride couldn’t do. He was someone who lived without being able to live up to his face value or age value. He was said to have transformed from beta to omega. Perhaps because of this, he didn’t even emit proper pheromones.
On top of that, it seemed absurd that someone so timid would spend the Joy Period with an alpha as inexperienced as himself.
Would he have ever spent his Joy Period with another guy?
Probably not. It made no sense that an omega with experience of spending Joy Periods with others would feel shyness even at the tiny kindness he had given. Unless he had spent the night with a human degenerate that even sand pigs wouldn’t eat.
“Don’t tell the Crown Prince’s consort. I’ll handle the Joy Period on my own. Just make sure the doors are well sealed.”
“Your Highness…”
“No matter how senseless I get, I won’t jump off the balcony, so don’t worry.”
Assad said. His sunken voice had become as rough as his breathing.
He was confident in controlling his pheromones. How hard had he tried to uphold his grandfather’s teaching that one should not be swayed by one’s trait? He was confident he could get through this Joy Period alone.
‘Just two days. At most, four days. If I set my mind strongly, there’s nothing I can’t overcome.’
Assad thought amidst the pouring drowsiness. He repeated his thoughts over and over until just before falling asleep.
* * *
When Assad opened his eyes again, the world was engulfed in bleak darkness.
The only light entering his eyes was the scarlet light from a small lamp barely illuminating the doorway. But as he regained consciousness, his vision grew brighter. This was thanks to the faint twinkling of fireflies strolling in the garden below and the thin moon that shared its white moonlight as if doing a favor.
But it was literally just a faint light. In the persistent darkness of night, Assad frowned.
From head to toe. His entire body was filled with a heat that numbed his sense of touch. Hot energy kept flowing without giving his body a chance to cool down. It felt as if he had immersed his body in lava.
However, the maddening heat couldn’t completely burn Assad black. Into the heat that seemed to melt everything, a cold energy was mixing in.
His mind became urgent.
He wanted to grasp the coldness that had reached him. He didn’t want to lose that sensation that had momentarily brought him to his senses, something that touched his forehead and hair and then departed.
Assad seized what he wanted. He was in such a state of mind that he couldn’t even feel that his strength wasn’t being controlled.
“Ah…”
A breath mingled with surprise flowed from beside Assad.
Assad blinked slowly. He was holding the hand of someone shrouded in darkness. It was the hand that had been tidying his hair stuck to his forehead with cold sweat.
“You. What are you?”
Assad said after biting the inside of his mouth to regain his senses. It carried a warning that he would attack if there was no answer.
The blurred vision like his hazy mind and the dark scene inside the room were hiding the visitor who had slipped in at night. Assad, who had immediately risen, pulled toward himself the hand of the man sitting on the edge of the bed. The man showed no will to fight and was obediently drawn toward Assad.
Assad’s remaining hand grabbed the man’s hair. He intended to smash his head against the wall and break his neck if necessary.
Assad’s heart, having entered the Joy Period, roughly churned with hostility.
Why wouldn’t there be humans targeting a royal’s Joy Period to change their innate fate? Even while instinctively feeling that the person before him was not an intruder with malice, his actions became rough. It was because the world surrounding a young alpha meeting his first Joy Period was too dark and hot.
Unlike when his wrist was grabbed by Assad, the man didn’t even exhale. He merely quietly looked up at Assad, who was pressing his body against him.
Just then, the faint moonlight crawling into the bedroom briefly illuminated the man who had come to find Assad.
“…”
Assad’s hand clutching the man’s hair fell away. He didn’t release the firmly held wrist, but he loosened his grip enough so that the other person wouldn’t be in pain.
My bride is here, in front of me.
Assad’s hazy vision gradually became clearer. The coldness blooming from his hand touching Cayden spread throughout his boiling body. A much more comfortable breath flowed between his lips.
“…Sorry.”
Assad offered an apology. It was a reflexive utterance.
The hand that had grabbed Cayden’s hair was lost. The touch wandering in empty space eventually slid down, following Cayden’s lower back.
The fingertips touching the thin, soft cloth felt as if they had been burned. Was his bride both hot and cold? It was such a strange thing.
“…”
As if enchanted, Assad pressed his body closer to Cayden. He put his nose to the nape of the man who remained silent. The scent of water from someone who had bathed not long ago and the bitter and sweet fragrance of oil circled his nostrils. The omega’s pheromones were not felt.
The man, from whom no pheromone scent could be felt even normally, still didn’t reveal his own scent, even though he was on the verge of suffocation from the pheromones of an alpha on the brink of hrillak.
Even so, Assad was trying to embrace Cayden in his arms and feel his body scent. He was crumpling the thin robe as if to tear it and pawing at his body, pouring his own pheromones onto Cayden.
Assad firmly held Cayden’s waist as it flinched. So he couldn’t escape from him. So he couldn’t even think of such a thing.
Just by holding his bride, just by having him in his arms, he felt better. As space opened up in his mind, which had been clogged with hazy heat, his breathing eased. It wasn’t just hot, as if thrown into a pit of fire.
His senses returned. Touch, pain, smell, sight. All of them were now regaining their original functions. He began to feel everything about Cayden completely.
But apart from the pleasure of the flesh, Assad was continuously cursing inside.
Why Cayden was here, why he couldn’t even think of separating from Cayden and was pressing his body against him. He couldn’t understand. Too many questions rapidly grew in size within him. He was so confused.
“Who made you come all the way here? Who… made you like this?”
Assad whispered in Cayden’s ear. It was while forcibly suppressing the rising, half-violent and half-sticky repulsive impulse.
“I was worried because Your Highness’s pheromones… were becoming increasingly dense, so I came.”
When asked who made him come here, he says something else. It was typical of someone who wouldn’t blame others even in situations where responsibility should be shifted to others.
No. If Cayden’s words were correct, the person who had called him here was himself.
He let out a hollow laugh. It was because it was ridiculous that his body had spread pheromones all around while briefly asleep, intending to reach his bride who was in the west wing of the separate palace.
“Assad. You mustn’t let mere pheromones control you.”
“You must not let the alpha trait devour your name.”
The teachings that someone no longer existing in this world had entreated to his grandson seemed to have lost their meaning.
Assad knew that he had lost his self-control. From the fact that he had no intention of letting go of Cayden at all, while understanding that he should immediately drive him away from this place.
Whether knowing or not knowing such feelings of Assad, Cayden calmly continued speaking.
“Before you awakened from sleep, I made the bedroom dark.”
“…”
“I’ve come having completed all preparations, so as Your Highness wishes… you can do anything.”
Hearing Cayden’s words, Assad was at a loss for words. He didn’t understand what preparations Cayden said he had completed, or what he meant by doing as he wished.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
