SPW 42

“I’ll show you to the bedroom…”

“I don’t need you to show me.”

Bright red blood dripped from between Sarang’s fists as he passed Bailey with a deathly pale face. Perhaps because of the blood, or perhaps because his emotions were running wild, Sarang’s pheromones were faintly leaking out. No, maybe it was because he was also approaching his heat. Standing before the door, Sarang took a deep breath and grabbed the doorknob.

“Bailey, please prepare condoms and contraception pills for alphas.”

“The condoms are in the nightstand drawer. The pills…”

Bailey couldn’t continue.

Click. The door opened from the inside. Florian stood there, his brain having turned to mush from the heat fever, leaving only instinct. With just the faint pheromones outside the door, he recognized not ‘Sarang’ but ‘alpha’. His unfocused eyes seemed to look up at Sarang, then he suddenly reached out his hand. His wrist was seized by a hand on which blue veins stood out like a scream, and Sarang was dragged inside the bedroom.

Standing in front of the door, Bailey couldn’t bring himself to knock or open it.

The sounds leaking from within the thick wooden door easily brought to mind the sexual act between an alpha and an omega. No one could give a clear answer as to whether the heat cycle existed to quench the desire for survival and procreation, or if the desire for survival and procreation dominated a secondary gender’s reason because of the limited heat cycle.

‘What’s the difference between a heat cycle and reproductive activity, Bailey. It’s a natural phenomenon for us secondary genders, and a necessary activity to live, so there’s no reason for me to get bogged down in it.’

Behind the always relaxed and self-assured Florian, there was no room for physiological feelings of inferiority, superiority, or low self-esteem about being a secondary gender, a dominant omega. He was an omega, the sole successor to a ducal family, and the precious young master of the Wellington family. He was also Florian the human being himself.

‘Why did you only come now.’

The excuse that Florian didn’t want it was not enough. After all, they hadn’t gotten Florian’s consent before pushing Sarang into the room now either. Sarang was the last resort. It wasn’t Florian’s decision. He was the last option lined up in Bailey’s mind.

‘Because I had a bad dream.’

Since then, Florian had changed little by little. A natural grace was ingrained in his disposition, which, like his wonderful attitude and appearance, was not to be trifled with. It wasn’t something created because he was the child of a noble house, because he was born a dominant, or because he was born with everything. Florian was a dominant, but he was merely an omega secondary gender. The misfortune of being a dominant omega, subject to checks and rebukes from both alphas and omegas, had followed him his whole life.

But Florian was not greatly bound by such things. Because he was an omega, because he was a dominant, because he was a successor, because he was an heir who would one day be responsible for the company. Rather than being crushed by heavy responsibilities, Florian acknowledged and accepted them. To reach that point, bloody effort was an absolute prerequisite. And that person was breaking down.

Florian, said to be the most perfect among living omegas, was broken, is being broken, and will continue to be broken by the tyranny of pheromones, and by the tyranny of the alphas who are the only ones who can stop that tyranny.

Bailey’s teeth chattered with rage at the thought of those alpha bastards. Florian, who was more dignified than anyone despite being an omega, Florian who could make even those cruel and arrogant alphas kneel, felt unreal to Bailey. When he realized that the unreal was real, Bailey learned deep admiration.

The only driving force for that admiration to develop into friendship was Florian’s unprejudiced attitude. Bailey would have been satisfied even if his relationship with Florian was defined as a simple secretary, as a superior he served rather than a friend. But now, Florian was Bailey’s most precious friend. He felt useless and miserable that he could offer no help while such a friend was in pain.

‘Bailey, I will not become Kim Sarang’s partner, lover, spouse, or imprinted mate. A guardian. I intend to be a good guardian to him.’

The tone of Florian’s voice as he drew up the contract, declaring he would become the guardian of a suddenly picked-up Asian boy, had sounded less like an announcement and more like a vow. A firm resolution to never love Sarang. If he had to make such a resolution, wasn’t it because he had already lost his heart to that person?

But at the time, it had only been a week since Florian had met Kim Sarang. Before he had even seen the Kim Sarang on the list, before he had stormed the Kaia villa and taken the child, it was as if Florian had already known Kim Sarang.

When? Sometime in between. Where.

The problem with his pheromones had also started that winter Sarang left.

It was impossible for a young alpha who had just become an adult to have any kind of influence on Florian. However, the world of secondary genders was one where nothing would be strange if it happened. It was truly an absurd notion, but if Florian’s pheromone problem had arisen because of that young alpha, then he was also the right person to put things back as they were.

‘Kim Sarang? That’s the same name as one of the candidates on the list for this heat’s partner.’

Bailey, who had been biting his nails outside the mansion every time Florian spent his heat with an alpha since that winter, belatedly recalled that memory.

That notebook Florian had scribbled in frantically after barely regaining consciousness five days after the terrorist attack. Bailey ran into the first-floor study of the mansion to find that notebook. A wave of dizziness hit him as soon as he stepped inside the entrance. It was the effect of Florian’s pheromones, now deep in his heat. Although he was a beta and couldn’t smell it, Bailey didn’t stop walking despite the physical shock of just entering the radius.

The study was neat, just like Florian’s personality. He usually kept notebooks or notepads in the first drawer. And the important thing was. Bailey, who had rushed in impulsively, finally came to his senses. Florian only kept important information in his own head. The notebook was probably burned or shredded. It was as he expected. The notebook in which Florian had densely written something was nowhere to be seen.

‘I don’t like leaving things in other people’s hands.’

Since then. No, it had been strange from the beginning. The meeting between Florian and Kim Sarang. The strange things continued even after Kim Sarang moved into the mansion Florian had found for him, saying he would become independent.

Boss. If you’re going to give me a job, at least give me the proper information.

Letting out a deep sigh, Bailey looked down at the contraception pills for alphas. Although they were made for oral use, there was not much demand for them in the first place, so setting aside the high price, they were difficult to procure. It was the first time in his life he had seen an alpha request contraception pills.

Is that kid also approaching his heat? Did I make a mistake by calling him in?

But Florian had been adamant that he would not spend this heat with an alpha.

‘Boss. This suppressant hasn’t even finished clinical trials. We don’t know what symptoms might appear, and taking it while your pheromones are unstable is no different from self-harm.’

The doctor, who had been looking at Bailey as if to say do something to stop him, looked like he was about to burst with frustration. Bailey was no different. While he understood Florian, who was uncharacteristically not acting rationally, he empathized more with the doctor’s position.

‘Boss. A suppressant with no guaranteed effect is like poison. Surely you’re not intending to commit suicide, are you?’

Florian, who hadn’t even opened his tiredly closed eyes, showed no sign of flinching at Bailey’s provocation.

‘You’d be better off just choosing a suitable alpha and settling down, Boss.’

Florian’s twitching eyelids trembled.

‘If you wish it, Boss, alphas who want to become a modern-day Cinderella will line up from beyond Canton City. An arrangement by the ducal family, or an introduction from Princess Erita would be good too. The Wellington main family will welcome it with cheers.’

‘Yes, shall I do that?’

Florian, raising the corners of his mouth, was angry. Not at Bailey, nor at the doctor. Florian was feeling powerless and angry at a situation he could do nothing to break through on his own.

‘If I pick a suitable alpha and settle down, that damn memory loss will disappear too, won’t it.’

Bailey realized once again how preposterous the words ‘a suitable alpha’ were. What grounds were there to believe that ‘a suitable alpha’ would not become tyrannical after imprinting with Florian? Who could guarantee that his pheromones would stabilize if he imprinted and settled down with ‘a suitable alpha’?

Forming an imprint with an alpha who could turn and act selfishly at any moment was a dangerous thing for Florian in his current state. If the memory loss during his heat continued even after imprinting, Florian’s safety could not be guaranteed. The alpha who would be left alone with Florian could do anything. Settling down with ‘a suitable alpha’ was a once-in-a-lifetime gamble that mortgaged the rest of his life.

‘I’m not saying I’ll just endure it blindly, Bailey.’

Florian’s bright blue eyes were calm as he swept back his blond hair with a weary face.

‘A suppressant that hasn’t finished clinical trials. An alpha who I don’t know what he’ll do to me. I will find out which of the two is more dangerous, which side is more bearable, and then I will make my decision.’

‘But Boss….’

‘Don’t forget that even though it’s in clinical trials, it’s scheduled to be released soon, Doctor. I am neither a fool nor a patient suffering from suicidal urges.’

There was no way to persuade Florian, who had already made up his mind. If that was the case, Bailey had to find not ‘a suitable alpha,’ but ‘a safe alpha.’ He had to find one and push him into Florian’s heat.