Amun’s hand touched Cayden’s forehead. He had placed the back of his hand against it.
It was warm.
But it wasn’t burning hot like someone who was ill. His skin wasn’t blazing like fire. It just seemed like his body, which hadn’t properly rested for several days, was declaring the need for rest.
“Did His Highness also dislike the scent of Cayden’s pheromones?”
The hand hovering over his forehead slowly slid down. It brushed against Cayden’s eyebrows, his half-closed eyes, and his dry cheeks.
Amun found his own question embarrassing and humorous. He was only now sensing Cayden’s pheromones yet pretended not to know and spoke unnecessarily. In truth, it was essentially asking in a roundabout way what the night with Assad Mekerius had been like.
“I’m not sure if… he sensed my body scent.”
Cayden answered after thinking deeply. But as if remembering something, he immediately added a few more words.
“Even if he noticed, I don’t think he’ll remember. They say that during someone’s first heat cycle, everything seems good. No matter who you spend the heat cycle with, they appear beautiful, and their pheromone scent feels pleasant…”
“His Highness is not someone who lacks such discernment. Surely, even in the midst of heat, he would have seen through to the essence.”
Amun quickly responded with wide eyes.
Amun, who was Assad, was taken aback. Cayden’s words were too strange.
The heat cycles of alphas and omegas were different from dabbling in mages’ love spells. One partially loses rationality and moves according to instinct, making it impossible to hide likes and dislikes. How could everything in the world seem beautiful when there was no room for calm in one’s heart?
Assad had also experienced this during his first heat cycle. During the past two days, only Cayden had felt good to him.
“Then… did he come to dislike me more?”
Cayden muttered with downcast eyes. His voice sounded somewhat melancholic.
“Pardon?”
Amun asked back. Having been lost in thought, he hadn’t fully caught the worry Cayden had muttered almost to himself.
“I was talking nonsense.”
“It’s because you have a fever. If the residual heat doesn’t subside by noon, I think you’ll need to take medicine.”
Amun stood up. Carefully laying down the disoriented Cayden, he continued speaking.
“His Highness will not find Cayden’s pheromone scent strange. He’ll probably think it’s pleasant. That’s what I believe.”
“…”
“So, never use pheromone deodorants or anything like that. Such things… are absurd.”
He didn’t know what the situation was like in Elba above. But at least here in Helio, only ill-natured individuals used perfumes or deodorants that erased pheromones. They might also use them to hide shameless infidelity. Whatever it was, all of them were matters far removed from Cayden.
Hiding the mysterious anger that surged and subsided repeatedly, Amun moved his hands diligently. He smoothed out the disheveled blanket and pulled it up to cover Cayden’s chest. Seeing him lying in the white blanket was reassuring.
“Thank you.”
Cayden expressed gratitude to Amun. His face, spread with a faint smile, looked tired. Needlessly pitiful. And somewhat disquieting.
For some reason, it felt like his insides were twisting.
“Amun.”
“Yes.”
“He’ll want to see you.”
Blinking slowly, Cayden murmured. It was impossible to guess what thoughts led him to say such a thing.
Amun hurriedly sat at the edge of the bed after getting up.
“What about the Crown Prince? Don’t you want to see him?”
Amun suddenly asked the person who was disoriented with drowsiness. He was asking from Assad’s perspective.
“…I do want to see him.”
It wasn’t a bad answer.
“So you want to see him.”
Amun’s body leaned toward Cayden, who had already closed his eyes. Looking down at Cayden, Amun smiled silently.
I should have come in my original form. Such regret flashed by.
The Crown Prince, who had noisily spent his first heat cycle, distracted by carnal desire experienced for the first time in his life, would have rushed to the Crown Prince’s consort as soon as dawn broke. It was clear that such nonsense would spread, so he had refrained… He felt like he had worried unnecessarily. Regardless of what those loose-tongued individuals might say, he should have done what he needed to do.
Covered with the white blanket, Cayden quickly fell asleep.
Assad silently examined the face of the man with closed eyes. The anxiety, uneasiness, and silly resentment he had felt while running down the corridor disguised as Amun seemed to subtly disappear. The tension that had hardened his chest began to dissipate.
The plans he had set for the future were being disrupted.
But he simply couldn’t delve deeply into thought. Nor did he want to. He wanted to postpone setting up insubstantial schemes a bit longer. He could use the excuse that his mind was still somewhat hazy with residual heat from the cycle.
‘Next time… I need to do better. So he won’t suffer like that.’
Amun’s upper body leaned a bit more toward Cayden. Assad, as Amun, lightly kissed the cheek of his sleeping bride. He knew it wasn’t an action suitable for a loveless couple. But what could he do? He had succumbed to the trickery and impulse of pheromones.
“The person you want to see, you will meet when you wake from sleep.”
Amun whispered as he caressed Cayden’s black hair. It was a statement Cayden, who had already fallen into dreams, couldn’t hear.
* * *
Assad sought out Cayden the very next day.
In the evening, when the sun had completely set, Assad flung open the door to his bride’s bedroom. With a coldly hardened face, his urgent manner of entering resembled not the always composed Crown Prince of the empire, but a loan shark coming to collect money—excluding his handsome appearance, of course.
An awkward silence fell over the table placed between the two men sitting face to face.
Assad glanced at Cayden. The sound of Assad’s fingertips tapping on the table sounded somewhat anxious.
Cayden, who had awakened from a long sleep, still appeared to lack energy. His face, which was failing to meet Assad’s eyes properly, was as pale as a dead person’s—no, like someone who had died and come back to life.
Assad wondered how a young man who was only four years younger than himself could be so frail.
I should feed him something good for his body and let him sleep for a long time. If I take him outside to let him bask in the sunlight… will he become healthier? Assad pondered, caring about someone else’s health that he had never worried about before.
“…”
Assad groaned inwardly. The words that had flowed freely when he was in Amun’s form kept circling in his mouth. The tunic he wore to hide traces of their recent intimacy, which covered his entire upper body, felt needlessly uncomfortable.
But the silence didn’t last long. Eventually, impatience pushed Assad.
“Are you… feeling alright?”
Assad, who had fully rested his arms on the table, asked Cayden. It took longer than expected to utter just this one sentence.
“Yes. I am well.”
Cayden hastily gave an answer to Assad’s question. When their eyes met, the awkward smile he showed was no different from before they spent the heat cycle together.
That was strangely… irritating.
There was one thing different from before. The scent of Cayden’s pheromones, which had filled the bedroom just yesterday, was no longer detectable.
Since there had been no reports of pheromone deodorants entering the separate palace, it didn’t seem like he had forcibly erased the scent. Moreover, if deodorant had been used, the alpha pheromones clinging to Cayden would have disappeared as well.
However, Assad’s pheromones that were embedded in Cayden hadn’t disappeared. They were still shamelessly clinging to him firmly. To a ridiculous degree… with explicit desire contained within.
‘Like a child writing their name on their possessions.’
It was too childish. Even though they were married, so for the time being, that man was his and he was that man’s.
An awkward silence flowed again. It was a stillness where even the sounds made by birds encountering the light swarms patrolling the night garden would be missed.
‘What should I say?’
Assad thought and thought again while observing Cayden’s mood. It was inexplicable why he felt so anxious. A sense of urgency swept over him, feeling like he should say something.
After contemplating, Assad finally opened his mouth as if he had made a decision. Forcing himself to meet the eyes of Cayden, who was feeling awkward with him, he uttered one sentence.
“Thank you… for spending the heat cycle with me.”
It was a cringeworthy statement that made his entire body shudder. He regretted opening his mouth.
“It was nothing.”
“You made me a complete alpha. It’s right that I express gratitude.”
The regret continued even longer. Because he had said something even more cringeworthy than before. “You made me a complete alpha” – this was too… an expression that should only be exchanged in a mature romantic relationship. It felt somewhat disgusting, making his insides twist.
Assad rested his cheek on his hand. It was to hide his deeply furrowed face. It was also to conceal the inexplicable impatience that was shaking him.
The fact that he and Cayden had mixed bodies became real in this way. He felt an indescribably complex emotion. It was so complex that he wanted to avoid the problem he faced. Assad Mekerius and avoidance. It was an incompatible term. It was also a term that shouldn’t match.
His emotions were different from when he had visited Cayden in Amun’s form. Amun was also himself, but his inner thoughts changed just because his appearance was different. Perhaps it was because thoughts he couldn’t have right after the heat cycle came belatedly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
