# Chapter 56
It was April, when the sunlight was especially dazzling. Asher sat at the appointed place, looked down through the window, and let out a small sigh. It had already been a year since he possessed this body. In this time that felt both short and long, Asher unconsciously rubbed his lower abdomen and whispered to the child.
“Baby, I’m sorry… This was the only way for both of us to survive.”
He knew that if the Ducal family discovered there was a child in his belly, they wouldn’t stay quiet. Perhaps both he and the child in his womb would lose their lives. But this one thing uniquely connected to him—Asher’s eyes gleamed fiercely as he resolved to protect it at all costs.
“At least I’m fortunate to be able to say a final goodbye.”
Asher was still murmuring to himself with his hand on his lower abdomen when he heard the bell. He straightened his posture and looked toward the doorway. Silver hair and red eyes that proved his pure imperial bloodline. The man with dominant Alpha blood flowing through him was Grand Duke Luke Nason Blake. He walked toward Asher briefly, then wrinkled the bridge of his nose as if he’d smelled something unpleasant, before sitting across from him.
“My work ran long, so I’m late.”
“It’s fine. I haven’t been here long either.”
Asher smiled more comfortably than ever before. Hoping that his final image would remain a good one in Luke’s memory, he silently gripped his teacup.
“Actually, I wanted to see Your Majesty because I have something to say.”
Asher looked down at his teacup, recalling what he had planned to say. He avoided eye contact, fearing Luke might detect his uncontrolled emotions, but Luke stared at Asher with sharpened eyes.
“I don’t know what you need to say that requires such hesitation, but if it’s difficult to speak about, perhaps we should wait a bit longer?”
Luke Blake. Despite his position as Grand Duke, he always used respectful speech with Asher. It was Luke’s own rule to be considerate of others. Looking at such a Luke, Asher spoke the words he had practiced over and over.
“Actually, I wanted to thank you for everything. The time I spent with Your Majesty was filled with laughter and happiness.”
“…Why are you saying such things?”
“I want to end our relationship now. I was never a suitable match for Your Majesty from the beginning.”
At Asher’s shocking words, Luke’s eyebrows twitched slightly. After appearing to think deeply about something, he called Asher’s name with suspicion in his eyes.
“Asher Anest.”
When the chillingly cold voice flowed from his mouth, the surrounding air changed in an instant. It was a cold energy that could have been mistaken for winter. Feeling the frozen air against his skin, Asher slowly raised his lowered head.
“I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“…”
“I decide who suits me or not. No one else.”
Asher felt like he might hiccup at the eerily chilling voice. Luke had always been gentlemanly and had never dropped his formal speech, but now he resembled the beast Asher had seen in bed. At this unexpected shift, Asher felt his vision flicker.
“So put aside that inadequate talk about breaking up.”
“…”
“If you don’t want to see me go completely mad.”
As the heavy pressure poured down, Luke rose from his seat. With a gentle smile on his lips, he approached behind Asher, bent at the waist, and whispered in his ear. It seemed he was extremely angry at Asher’s suggestion of breaking up. Despite Luke usually maintaining his composure, Asher called out to him with a confused expression.
“…Your Majesty?”
“You should have run away earlier when you had the chance.”
“…”
“Did you think I would just say ‘okay’ when you suddenly tell me you’re leaving me?”
He traced Asher’s pale, exposed nape with his fingertips. Very slowly, at a languid tempo, he gently grasped Asher’s shoulder and took a deep breath. As if he were smelling something from him.
“Asher…”
“Hnn…”
Luke’s emotions flowed through his shoulder. Though Asher could feel through his fingertips how much Luke wanted and yearned for him, Asher ruthlessly suppressed his emotions and parted his lips.
“No matter what Your Majesty does… I’m still going to break up with you.”
Fate has always been this way. The more one tried to avoid it, the more strongly it entangled and suffocated. In such a harsh fate, Asher wanted to protect at least his child. Seeing such an Asher, Luke slightly increased the strength of his hand on Asher’s shoulder and answered calmly.
“Will you be alright? Even I don’t know how crazy I might become.”
Asher’s Adam’s apple bobbed at his words asking if he could handle it. When the real one appears, everything would change anyway. Asher thought of the child in his womb and swallowed his unsettled breath. It was truly time for the fake to exit for the sake of his child and himself.
“Yes, I’ll be fine.”
At Asher’s words, the shop filled with Luke’s pheromones. Fortunately, they had rented this place. Otherwise, he might have suffocated from Luke’s pheromones.
“I told you, didn’t I? That you’d have to deal with all the consequences.”
“…Your Majesty.”
“So who have you been with? Coming here carrying another bastard’s pheromones.”
Asher’s face froze pale at the word “bastard.” Until now, Luke had used rough curses like “damn,” but he had never used such a vulgar word. Asher forcibly turned his stiffened body to look at him.
His red eyes, suffocating in their intensity, blazed hot enough to burn everything. With deep possessiveness in his gaze, he simply curved his lips smoothly toward Asher.
“Whose pheromones are they?”
As if maintaining his composure, he returned to formal speech and asked Asher in a gentle voice. It seemed the reason he had momentarily lost his rationality was because the baby’s pheromones were emanating from Asher. Only then did Asher recall the physician’s words that pheromones couldn’t be hidden from dominants.
‘Even though I sprayed perfume just in case…’
Asher clutched his trembling fingertips and stared at him with a thoughtful face.
At the one-month mark, Asher had deeply hoped the child’s trait would be Beta. Traits like Omega or Alpha made life burdensome and difficult. But seeing how Luke could smell the pheromones, it seemed the child wasn’t a Beta.
“Why…”
Why wasn’t the child’s trait Beta? He had heard that recessive Omegas mostly give birth to Beta children. Having conceived against such slim odds, and now with a child bearing a trait, Asher wore an expression of dismay.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you say you wanted to break up. The engagement that was scheduled to proceed this month will continue without issue.”
“…”
“So it would be best not to have useless thoughts. Even now, it’s sufficiently… painful.”
He caressed Asher’s face gently, behaving as if his eyes had completely turned at Asher’s declaration of breaking up.
“From now on, it would be best not to go around with others’ pheromones on you. Otherwise, I…”
“…”
“Who knows what I might do if I find someone with the same pheromone scent?”
Though he wasn’t showing his teeth, he exuded an uncomfortable aura filled with madness. It seemed Asher would need to leave this place immediately after breaking up with him. Asher took a deep, trembling breath and gently pushed him away.
“I think a good person will appear for Your Majesty, just as I told you. When that happens, I’ll just be a passing breeze to Your Majesty.”
“I don’t think that’s something to say to your fiancé when an engagement is imminent, do you?”
“I’d like you to think that I wasn’t Your Majesty’s destiny.”
Asher tried to stand up as if he had said all he needed to say. But Luke grabbed Asher’s shoulder, gently seated him back down, and stroked his neck with his hand.
“Asher.”
He stroked the area where the collar didn’t reach, then pulled at the clothing to expose Asher’s neck. Feeling somehow eerily uncomfortable, Asher tried to turn his head away, but Luke restrained his movement and pressed his lips to Asher’s nape.
“Soon the day will come when I mark this place as mine.”
As if everything would proceed without issue, his eyes gleamed as he lightly bit Asher’s skin. It was a small pain, just enough to sting.
“D-don’t do this.”
Luke’s pheromones enveloped Asher’s body, tickling his skin and stimulating him. Perhaps because he was pregnant, his body responded more sensitively to the stimulation than before, making his lower regions feel heavy and tight. When Asher tensed his thighs at the unbearable heat, Luke licked down his nape as if he had been waiting for it.
“Didn’t I tell you? You are my Omega. So I, in turn, am your Alpha.”
At his undisguised obsession, Asher recalled what Luke had said to him before.
-It’s natural for an Omega to seek an Alpha. It’s very natural and close to instinct.
-…
-So it’s only natural for you too. Just as you are my Omega, I am your Alpha.
As if this fact wouldn’t change unless a cataclysmic event occurred in the world, Luke kissed Asher’s nape and then pulled away. Almost like warning that he would imprint this spot the next time they met, he revealed the possessiveness he had been holding back and smiled at Asher.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
