LVSMLA C4 V2

Volume 2 Chapter 4

It just so happened at the worst possible time—he had only just recovered after being bedridden for so long. Dealing with Duke Harrington alone would have been manageable, but facing Roen in his current state was too much. His breathing quickened, cold sweat beading along his forehead. But it was not simply because he was nervous.

Roen was releasing his pheromones.

The icy alpha scent, like the wind of midwinter, flooded the drawing room in an instant, rolling through the air.

“Are you unwell, Etienne? You don’t look very good.”

“…I’m fine, Your Highness.”

Roen’s face looked sly as he asked so casually. Etienne bit the tender flesh inside his mouth, the metallic taste of blood barely helping him regain his senses. The corners of his lips trembled as he forced them upward.

“Are you truly alright, Sir Winyates? Come to think of it, I heard you were ill until just a few days ago. It seems we may have come at a bad time.”

Duke Harrington looked embarrassed. Being a beta, the duke apparently had no idea what Roen was doing. Etienne stared at Roen with a stiff expression.

Roen smiled brightly at him.

“I asked you something, Etienne. Why aren’t you answering?”

“…Resentment, Your Highness? I can’t imagine why I would bear any.”

Avoiding his gaze, Etienne forced out the reply. Business no longer mattered—he only wanted them gone as quickly as possible. But Roen was relentless.

“There shouldn’t be any reason, of course. But I wondered if you still held something against me because of that bastard child. Surely you don’t think that fire had anything to do with me?”

“…”

Etienne whipped his head toward Roen without thinking. He could not believe Roen had brought it up so casually. He knew he should ignore him, yet the sharp retort escaped before he could stop it.

“I never said anything of the sort. I have no idea why Your Highness would think that.”

“But you changed after that bastard died, Etienne. You became so cold toward me. It’s hurtful.”

“I haven’t changed. There’s no reason for Your Highness and I to have ever been especially close.”

“Wow, that’s harsh. We almost ended up engaged, and this is how cold you’ll be?”

“…Now that I’ve presented as an alpha, there’s no need to speak of engagement anymore.”

“Presented as an alpha, hm… Since you mentioned it.”

Roen tilted his head toward him, blue eyes glinting coldly.

“I definitely saw with my own eyes that you were an alpha, but strangely enough, I’ve been catching a rather unusual scent from you.”

“You’re releasing pheromones, Your Highness. Naturally my own pheromones would react.”

Etienne snapped back harshly, and Roen laughed aloud.

“Yes, of course. But it doesn’t seem like the pheromones of an ordinary alpha.”

Etienne’s heart dropped.

Ever since taking the suppressant catalyst, he had lived as an alpha, carrying the scent of a normal alpha. There was no reason for Roen to suspect him now.

But ever since Roen began releasing his pheromones, cold sweat had poured from him. The scent only grew stronger and stronger, making him dizzy and nauseous, to the point he could barely remain standing.

Most of all, heat coursed through his body, and his lower abdomen throbbed strangely. This was not a reaction caused merely by being overwhelmed by a dominant alpha’s pheromones.

This condition was more like—

The instant the ominous realization flashed through his mind, Roen’s pheromones suddenly turned violent. A tidal wave of alpha pheromones crashed over him.

At once, the heat in his lower abdomen intensified, and something inside him seemed to burst.

Warm wetness spread through his lower body.

Yet there was no time to feel humiliation.

“Urk—!”

Etienne gagged and collapsed forward. Roen, standing right in front of him, caught him easily in both arms.

“Sir Winyates! Are you seriously ill? Someone call the head butler at once!”

Duke Harrington’s flustered voice overlapped with Roen’s laughter.

Etienne struggled to push him away, but the solid body did not budge at all. Leaning weakly against Roen’s shoulder, he could do nothing but gasp for breath, unable even to shake off the arm wrapped around his waist.

“It’s alright, Uncle. I know what this is.”

“What do you mean by that, Your Highness?”

“Well, it’s not really an illness. Isn’t that right, Etienne?”

Etienne could not answer and merely writhed weakly. His mind was growing hazy within the thick pheromones. Strength drained from his limbs.

Then Roen pressed his lips against the back of his neck. Sharp suction spread across the sensitive skin. A trembling moan escaped him involuntarily.

“Hngh… ah…”

“You.”

Roen’s sweet yet cutting voice pierced his ear.

“You were an omega.”

With those words, Etienne went limp in Roen’s arms. Darkness swallowed his vision whole.

The boundary between dreams and reality blurred.

Etienne drifted in feverish delirium for what felt like days.

Occasionally, he heard the worried voices of his father and Doctor Woodson speaking nearby.

“…The medication suddenly lost its effect. Looking at these numbers, it’s practically gone altogether… He’s been under stress for far too long, and the sudden exposure to a dominant alpha’s pheromones likely triggered it.”

“How could the prince do such a thing…? Then what should we do now?”

“His body is far too weak to administer the drug again. At this point, the only option is to reveal his presentation… Cases of secondary presentation do happen occasionally. If you announce that he has re-presented as an omega, people won’t necessarily assume he deceived them before. They may suspect it, but they’ll have no proof.”

After his father let out a long sigh, Etienne fell asleep once more.

When he finally regained consciousness, it was deep into the night.

Staring blankly out the window, he suddenly felt tears threatening to spill over.

Roen had found out in the end.

Roen now knew for certain that he was an omega. There was no room left for excuses or concealment.

Roen had remained unmarried all the way to twenty-eight. Society constantly whispered that it was because of Etienne. Whether true or not, Etienne had never cared much before. But now he had to admit it had become dangerous.

If Roen once again received an imperial order to marry him, neither Etienne nor his father would have any way to refuse.

‘It’s not as though we can wage war against Roen…’

Etienne shook his head with a sigh.

The Winyates military had grown far stronger than it had been years ago, but they still could not raise troops at this point. It would not be to restore Callisto’s status as imperial blood, but simply to defy an imperial decree. That would make them rebels, nothing more. And with Brine’s copper cannons not yet completed, the chances of such a rebellion succeeding were slim to none.

‘Of all times for the medication to fail…’

Perhaps the poor condition he had been in lately had been a warning sign all along. Doctor Woodson had called what he was experiencing a kind of secondary presentation. The reason he had been ill for days was likely because his body had been under strain before the change.

Wishing desperately that Roen would lose interest in him, Etienne closed his eyes in resignation.

Then—

A long gust of wind brushed against the back of his neck.

Frowning slightly, he looked toward the window.

‘When was the window opened?’

It had definitely been closed only moments ago when he last looked outside. But perhaps he had imagined it, half-delirious with fever and exhaustion.

With unfocused eyes, he stared blankly at the half-open window.

It was a night with a huge full moon hanging in the sky. Moonlight poured through the white curtains.

The curtains fluttered gently in the wind.

And every time they shifted aside—

“Who’s there?”

He was standing there, bathed in silver moonlight.

Black hair fell softly across his rounded forehead. Moonlight slid down the bridge of his nose, illuminating sculpted cheeks with an almost transparent glow.

Long, neat eyes with faint double lids turned toward him. The irises staring directly back at him were a deep golden color. Each slow blink made his long lashes flutter like butterfly wings.

Etienne’s reflection shimmered within those translucent amber eyes.

He covered his mouth with both hands.

As if amused by his shock, a smile slowly spread across the man’s lips. His large eyes curved gently, and his full red lips parted lazily.

His Adam’s apple bobbed in the long line of his throat. Then a deep voice, low as though echoing from the floor of a cavern, drifted toward him.

“Eti.”

Etienne’s breath caught.

“I’m back.”

The man stepped toward him.

Each step brought more of his figure out from the darkness, and Etienne’s eyes widened further and further.

His head tilted back automatically. He had grown so large Etienne could no longer even judge how tall he was. While he stared with parted lips, unable to close them, the man had already reached the bedside.

“You’re not going to say anything?”

“Aga…”

Etienne barely managed to whisper the nickname. His voice was horribly cracked.

The man’s brows pinched faintly together.

“I’m not a child anymore.”

A large hand cupped Etienne’s cheek warmly. The heat spread from his skin through his entire body.

“Don’t be sick anymore. Get better soon. Sleep a little more.”

The gentle voice sank deep into his chest.

He could not believe this moment was real.

Was this a dream? Was he hallucinating because his fever was too high? A sudden fear gripped him—that if he fell asleep, the man would disappear.

Rubbing his cheek weakly against the large hand, Etienne closed his eyes.

“I don’t want to sleep. I’m not hurting anymore…”

The man stroked his cheek with his thumb and laughed softly.

“You don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Relax and sleep.”

“But…”

“Everything will work out.”

The reassuring voice was unbearably kind.

As his tension melted away and drowsiness overtook him once more, a low whisper brushed against his ear.

“I promise, hyung.”

And just like that, Etienne fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.