* * *
Somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean.
Inside a large cruise ship’s pub, dimly lit and jazz music softly playing, a man sat with his cap pulled low, quietly enjoying his drink.
The peaceful hum of conversation, soft music, and relaxed atmosphere was interrupted only by the table next to him— where a group of people were loudly chatting in very familiar Korean.
“His face is so familiar. So this is the Concubine? The Main Palace? Wow, he’s really pretty.”
“He is pretty, but isn’t the whole thing just ridiculous? A Concubine in this day and age?
That’s basically an official affair.”
“It’s different. He’s the emperor. Sure, the Daehan Empire technically reinstated the Concubine system, but no emperor actually took one. They all stuck to empresses.”
“But our current emperor doesn’t have an empress. Isn’t this guy going to become one by default?”
“I thought it was a political marriage since his family’s not on good terms with the royal house, but apparently not? The emperor rushed over like he’d lost his mind. Didn’t the guy’s face get messed up? Who grabs someone’s face like that?”
“If someone did that to my Omega, I’d kill them. And he’s the emperor’s Concubine, no less…”
Their gossip about the emperor and the royal house caught his attention more than usual.
Maybe because they were Korean too.
No matter the country, people love complaining about their royalty.
But this wasn’t really complaining— they sounded more like they were fawning over some national treasure.
Did the emperor really go public with his Concubine?
That never happens.
Out of sheer curiosity, the man edged closer to the group.
Normally, Concubines aren’t revealed to the media.
Only empresses appear with the emperor.
So what changed?
Since the Joseon era, the nation has only had one imperial concubine, the Great Concubine, so there had never even been a precedent for others.
As for the man in question, despite his lifetime in the cruise and travel business—experiencing all sorts of bizarre things—this was a first.
Which only made him more curious.
“The Emperor’s concubine was made public?”
“Oh, no. Not officially. They were caught on video while out on a trip together, but the palace had it taken down. Still, a screen capture of the Concubine’s face is going around. Want to see?”
“Really?”
“Here it is.”
It was worth the awkwardness to ask.
He didn’t check his phone often these days, and being out at sea most of the time, he had no clue this had become a hot topic.
Either way, getting to see the Concubine’s face felt like a stroke of luck.
His business often required dealing with high-status people, so knowing their faces was never a bad idea.
Excited, he leaned in to see the image they held out.
“…Huh?”
But the moment he saw the face of the Concubine, his expression twisted in disbelief.
It was my first time seeing a dominant alpha in rut.
I’d never seen one in the pre-rut state either.
But still, I could tell right away—what I was looking at now was Joo Minhyuk’s body slowly preparing for rut.
It was shocking, the way his member throbbed with swelling veins, inflating from the base as it readied for knotting.
It was different from just moments before.
The thick pulse visibly beat like it could respond to being spoken to.
Why is it getting even bigger?
No other thought came to mind.
It might sound unbelievable, but if someone had seen it with me, they would’ve had the same reaction.
I would’ve known my response was completely normal.
I always found those cringey lines in novels so ridiculous:
“How is that thing attached to a human body?”
“There’s no way that could fit.”
They felt cliché and made me roll my eyes every time.
I used to think any author who imagined a member that massive was out of their mind.
And yet here I was, face-to-face with that exact scenario.
It wasn’t some overdone, unbelievable line anymore—it was real.
I’d never seen an alpha’s genitals before knotting, but apparently the way novels described them… was accurate.
If that thing went inside me, it wouldn’t be a beautiful act of love. It’d be assassination.
Yes, assassination.
It wouldn’t even go in, and if it did, I’d be torn apart and permanently damaged.
No, no. This is terrifying.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty—”
“You’re wet enough, but your hole’s too small. It won’t go in easily.”
“…What? Then don’t put it in.”
“I’ll just do it in parts—Huh? What kind of nonsense is that, Concubine? You get me all worked up and now you’re backing out? I’m in rut right now.”
It was obvious he was in rut.
The nonsense was him talking.
“In parts”? What does that even mean?
“And you know this already—you studied it too. Once a dominant alpha is aroused during rut, it doesn’t go down. Do I really have to say this out loud?”
Shut up!
Don’t act all bashful when you’re clearly gone in the head.
Just thinking about what’s going to happen next made me want to cry.
This life really wasn’t fair.
I died young in my past life due to illness, and now I was reborn as an omega concubine—something that wasn’t even in my fate.
Sure, I wasn’t terminally ill in this life, but I’d been hated, walked on eggshells all my life, and now I was about to die via… that thing.
It was too humiliating and unjust.
With nothing but Joo Minhyuk’s monstrous manhood on my mind, I ended up imagining my own funeral and burst into tears without even realizing it.
Joo Minhyuk, who had been kissing my neck while stroking his now fully prepared length, was startled by my sudden sobbing.
His eyes had seemed glazed, but for a moment, I thought I saw the old him again.
Was my crying that powerful?
I should’ve cried sooner.
“But it’s just… it keeps getting bigger. And the shape is weird.”
“It’s not weird. It’s because of the knotting. Are you that scared? It’s okay. It’s your first time. You’ll get used to it.”
Stop saying “it’s okay.”
It’s not your body.
He made it sound so easy.
For some reason, that made me feel even more upset.
I covered my face with my hands, trying to stop the tears from falling.
“…Can I just put mine in instead?”
“…What?”
I couldn’t see his face, since my hands were covering mine, but I could feel the disbelief in his voice.
“Mine. I think it would be more reasonable for me to put mine in you. Mine’s way smaller… I mean, it just makes more sense. Neither of us would get hurt…”
I refused to admit that my member was small.
It wasn’t because I was an omega—this was what a normal one looked like.
Yes, it was Minhyuk who was absurdly abnormal.
He sighed softly and pulled my hands from my face, trying to soothe me while barely holding onto his reason.
Suddenly, a fresh and pleasant scent filled the air.
Joo Minhyuk’s pheromones were much stronger now.
He was deliberately releasing more to calm me down.
And though his scent brought an odd sense of comfort, my body began to react instantly.
The intoxicating aroma made my body hypersensitive, like every part of me had turned into an erogenous zone.
I’d always sensed his pheromones before, but this felt different.
Why did it feel wetter down there?
Why was I so dizzy?
It was definitely unlike anything I’d experienced.
“Let’s try it once. If it hurts, we’ll stop. I promise.”
“…Really?”
I couldn’t trust that, not at all—but I still asked.
And when I saw that little smile, I realized he had no intention of keeping that promise.
Of course not.
Once knotting starts inside, you can’t pull out.
But my body was growing so sluggish that those thoughts were starting to fade away.
My mind slowly emptied until all I could feel was his pheromones.
“Feeling a little more relaxed?”
“…Yeah. Ngh.”
Joo Minhyuk didn’t let me speak any further.
Honestly, for a dominant alpha in rut, he’d been surprisingly patient.
Most alphas would’ve snapped long ago.
He deserved praise for that much.
But it seemed even his patience had limits—he began to rub himself against my entrance, matching our bodies together.
The sensation, mixed with his pheromones, made me lightheaded, and all thoughts left my mind.
“Cha Haejoo… ha… your pheromones drive me crazy.”
His hand, which had been holding mine, moved to grip my rear firmly.
He alternated between squeezing and lightly smacking it, then eventually spread my cheeks apart to open the entrance wider.
“You know that? You’re all skinny, but you’ve got the most meat here. Did everything you ate go straight to your ass? Hm? What did you do to make it so soft? Are you taking care of it? It makes me wanna bite you.”
“…Shut your mo—ah!”
But it wasn’t his mouth that shut—it was mine.
Joo Minhyuk’s thick, swollen member began to push inside me without mercy.
The pressure felt like it could burst something inside.
After pausing briefly to catch his breath, he slowly pushed in deeper.
And the moment he was fully inside, my pheromones exploded outward.
Even as I struggled to breathe through the overwhelming pressure, I couldn’t help but wonder what was happening to me.
It wasn’t just release—it felt like my pheromones had burst from within me.
My mind went blank, my sense of self dissolved.
My first heat had begun.
* * *
