Dreaming was a good thing. But someone like me shouldn’t do it.
False hopes become pain. No matter what plans I make, or what dreams I have, they’ll be shattered without leaving a trace anyway.
“Ah….”
Cayden, who had been wandering through overwhelming drowsiness, opened his eyes wide. Beneath Assad’s heavy yet sweet pheromones, a faint body scent was mixing in. It was Cayden’s own pheromone.
Cayden struggled to raise himself up.
‘Why suddenly….’
He wondered if his broken pheromone gland could be fixed so easily.
This is getting complicated. His mouth tasted bitter at the feeling of having more things to worry about. He thought he should use deodorizer to erase his pheromones like before.
After all, it had been a long time since he’d experienced a heat cycle. Even if one came, it would probably just cause a slight fever and then end. But he didn’t want to make others uncomfortable with unnecessary matters. He needed to prepare.
Worries that had piled up like snow drifts shook Cayden. His stomach hurt, perhaps from hastily taking medications or from taking them together. Added fatigue seemed to make it worse. Now… he really wanted to sleep.
However, Cayden couldn’t lie back down. It was because of the door that flung open with a short, light knock.
The door that opened urgently closed just as hastily. Bang. With a noisy sound.
There were only two people in this imperial palace who entered and exited the Crown Prince Consort’s bedroom as if it were their own. One was Assad, the Crown Prince, and the other was Amun, the Crown Prince’s right-hand man and the Crown Prince Consort’s companion.
Today’s visitor was Amun. Assad, disguised as Amun, glared at his bride sitting on the bed with an exhausted face.
‘Runaway. During the deep, inevitable sleep after the end of the joy period, you slipped out of my embrace, you runaway.’
Judging by the moisture in his jet-black hair, he hadn’t arrived at the bedroom long ago.
Assad was in a very low mood. Because Cayden, who had been stuck to him like one body for two days, had disappeared without a trace while he briefly closed his eyes. He was a person with quite exceptional talent for vanishing without a word.
Throughout the joy period, Cayden had cried with pleasure in his arms. But why? As soon as the joy period ended, did he leave him alone on the bed as if his affection had suddenly dropped?
He couldn’t understand at all. ‘From now on, how about sharing a bedroom with Assad Mekerius for about half the week?’ Instead of thinking that, he ran away.
Additionally… in this bedroom now, Cayden’s scent could be felt.
A faint pheromone scent that could only be detected with careful attention was being suppressed by the sticky alpha pheromone circling around Cayden. It appeared as weak and pitiful as its owner.
Assad, in Amun’s form, finally encountered Cayden’s pheromone scent, which he hadn’t felt once during the past two days. He wondered if this made any sense.
Hiding his own pheromones from his husband, then freely releasing his scent only after returning to the bedroom alone. Why on earth? His face flushed red hot.
It was also a problem that Amun, a beta, could sense Cayden’s pheromones. As Lihet had warned Amun, he wondered if he had really become an alpha. It could also be that he was now synchronized with his true nature, having just gone through his first joy period. But either way, it was equally absurd.
“Can you smell it? I’m sorry. If I had known you were coming, I would have somehow removed the smell.”
“…”
“Ah… Amun is a beta, right? I was momentarily confused.”
Cayden said as he observed Amun, whose face was red like a ripe tomato for some reason. It was accompanied by a small smile, as if he had realized something.
Amun tried to stay calm. He had come in an angry state. Still, he had intended to show only a smiling face if possible, but he couldn’t manage his expression at all.
“That’s a relief.”
Cayden’s face, which had been as pale as someone about to die, was gradually finding its original color. Undisguisable relief seeped through his deepened smile.
It seemed like relief not from the fact that the bedroom intruder wasn’t an alpha, but simply from Amun not being able to smell his pheromones.
“Is Your Highness’s scent lingering inside the bedroom?”
“Yes. This rarely happens… I guess it’s because of the Crown Prince’s influence.”
Cayden gave a fumbling answer to the casually thrown question. He discreetly avoided eye contact, as if embarrassed. Judging by his reddening ears, he seemed to be feeling shy.
With such bashfulness, he’ll never step out of the bedroom if he knows that news of the Crown Prince’s first joy period with his Consort has already spread throughout the palace beyond this annex. Better make sure the servants keep their mouths shut.
“I’m curious what kind of scent it is. Since I’m a beta, I’ll never know.”
“It’s not a good smell. Fortunately, it’s hidden by Your Highness’s scent. The Crown Prince’s pheromone scent is… really good. Much better than the perfumes nobles use. No, incomparably better.”
Cayden spoke while rubbing his eyes with his hand, as if trying to drive away the overwhelming drowsiness. There was laughter mixed in his voice.
“Your Highness’s pheromone scent couldn’t possibly be bad.”
“I’m glad you’re a beta, Amun.”
“I meant that sincerely.”
“My pheromone, what was it called? Like the smell from rotten grass on a rain-soaked dirt pile? I heard something like that…”
His bride seemed quite tired. Assad understood Cayden. When the body was exhausted, such nonsense tended to leak out between one’s lips.
“What’s rotten is the nose of the human who said such things.”
“In the past… I used to spray deodorizer when working. Something that erases pheromones.”
They said my pheromone scent was disgusting, so I should completely hide it and not make it difficult for the people I work with, Cayden mumbled. He was saying things he wouldn’t normally say, speaking of past events in his half-asleep state.
It wasn’t just simple sleep talk. It was him asking the alpha who had spent the joy period with him to understand his sorrow, asking if he thought the same way. It was an instinctive behavior that neither Cayden nor Assad was aware of.
Assad moved step by step toward Cayden. As the distance shortened, Cayden’s faint body scent became more noticeable.
A calm and neat fragrance resembling its owner. It was also unfamiliar, something he had never encountered in the desert. It might seem bland to some since it was neither flashy nor dense.
As he traced Cayden’s pheromones, Assad felt as comfortable as if he had laid his body on a soft bed. It felt exactly like being caressed by invisible hands.
Who would try to erase such a nice scent, Cayden’s pheromones? Judging from the crazy talk about not bothering the working people… it must be that young master. Assad was convinced once again.
‘That human is not only morally bankrupt but also has a numbed sense of smell.’
It was a terrible thing.
As he repeated Alex Cooper’s name in his mind, anger toward the person who had previously been intimate with Cayden returned.
That bastard must have been similar trash to that Alex fellow. He must have seduced his innocent and good bride to start a relationship, then satisfied only his own desires as if dealing with a prostitute, not a lover.
Why? Why were there only such humans around this man? A sigh escaped involuntarily. Pity and irritation boiled together.
“Ask the omega servants or guards. None of them will say that Your Highness’s pheromone scent is strange.”
Assad barely swallowed the words telling him not to give any attention to alphas. He thoroughly hid his inner feelings of not wanting those creatures to know Cayden’s body scent. Wouldn’t he look like a husband obsessing over his spouse? What was between him and Cayden anyway?
“Yes, I will.”
Cayden showed a small smile.
I will? Assad inwardly sneered. Because he knew that man would absolutely not do so. Just as he hadn’t asked Lihet about his handsome face, he would certainly brush this off as well. He probably thought like this because the servants were people employed with money and honor, so they would only speak kind words.
“Still, I think I need to get deodorizer again. Because I’m not someone who can hide pheromones well like the Crown Prince…”
“…”
“I lived without pheromones for more than two years, so having them suddenly like this is embarrassing. It’s also bewildering.”
Facing Cayden, who was pretending to be composed, Amun moved his lips.
‘It’s all because of Assad Mekerius. During the past two days, he must have smeared his pheromones both inside and outside of you. Well… isn’t it good news that your pheromones have returned?’
It was frustrating to keep his honest thoughts hidden. But he couldn’t just blurt out words to Cayden while in Amun’s form.
Cayden’s words somehow felt pleasant. There hadn’t been anything like this in the past two years. It meant that the one who drew out the pheromones of this man, who had been close to a beta, was none other than himself. He had opened the tightly closed pheromone gland. Cayden’s former lover, the alpha who must have clung to him disgustingly, couldn’t do what he had accomplished.
Amun half-knelt beneath Cayden, who was sitting askew on the bed. He tilted his head slightly and met the gaze of Cayden, who was fighting with drowsiness. He carefully observed the slightly feverish face and sleepy eyes.
He could say he wanted to go to bed and ask Amun to leave. But Cayden didn’t seem to have any intention of sending away Amun who had come to see him.
‘Too kind-hearted. That’s why he stepped up saying he would help with my joy period.’
Amun’s hand touched Cayden’s forehead. He had placed the back of his hand against it.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
