* * *

How much time had passed?

Before I even opened my eyes, I could feel an intense gaze fixed on me in the darkness.

The heavy blanket pressing down on my entire body was a testament to this place’s northern customs.

My brows furrowed slightly before I managed to lift my eyelids, and a low voice broke the silence.

“Ha… you can sleep more if you like. I’ll wake you… when morning comes.”

The voice was interrupted repeatedly, the rough breathing between words breaking the sentences apart.

I barely managed to lift my head toward the direction of the voice, only to find Hernan sitting unnervingly close, his movements frantic.

The room was saturated with his distinct scent, mingling with the musky warmth of his body, making it impossible not to sense what he was doing—even if I didn’t want to.

A weary smile spread across my face.

“Wasn’t yesterday enough for you? Seriously, what… ugh…”

A sharp headache pierced through my skull, and my whole body throbbed as if I’d been beaten.

I tried to adjust my position to lie back down, only to be overwhelmed by a searing pain.

Flinching from the sensation, I stumbled, and Hernan quickly caught me with his calloused hand.

“Sorry… your fever hasn’t gone down since earlier….”

Even as he carefully laid me back down, his taut abs betrayed the tension in his body.

I let out a small sigh of disbelief, shaking my head.

“You could’ve just woken me up—or asked me to help, at least.”

Still groggy, I blinked to clear my hazy vision.

Hernan’s response came in a voice so low and strained it sounded like he was desperately trying to suppress something, almost like a boy caught in the middle of a wet dream.

“You were asleep… How could I…? Ngh… right.”

His silver hair, damp with sweat, clung to his forehead, framing his predatory gaze that bore down on me as if he wanted to devour me.

His voice might have been tender, but his eyes gleamed with an intensity that suggested he’d already crossed the line several times in his mind.

Without thinking, I reached out to cup his flushed cheeks, trying to cool them.

Only then did I notice something odd about the hue of his irises.

“…? Hernan, your eyes….”

The moment I leaned closer in alarm, Hernan lunged at me as if I’d just given him permission.

His sharp fangs grazed the swollen inner lining of my lips, the raw sensation sending a thrilling ache through my chest.

It wasn’t unpleasant—rather, it felt as if he was digging deep into my core, stirring up an unbearable itch.

“Mmnh….”

If this goes any further, my pelvis might really break. Just as I began to reconsider everything, Hernan pressed himself even closer.

Sure, this wasn’t the first time I’d done something like this sober instead of drunk, but his stamina was absurd.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all—until I noticed something different about the way he pressed against my inner thigh compared to before I fell asleep.

“Wait.”

Startled, I pushed Hernan away, only to see tears welling up in his eyes, threatening to spill as he gazed at me like a scolded child.

“…?”

I asked hesitantly, dreading the most likely explanation.

“When’s the last time you took a rut suppressant?”

As a beta, it wasn’t something that directly concerned me, but having an omega sibling meant I wasn’t completely ignorant about it.

After all, girls like Berta, who’d lost their parents, often became targets for scumbags.

With no interest shown by our father or mother, I’d been the only one to protect her until she left for the Everdeen family, as fate had dictated.

For both alphas and omegas, the typical cycle for heats or ruts was about a month.

However, the presence of a bonded mate or exposure to someone else’s pheromones could disrupt this rhythm.

Those not planning on having children often took suppressants to maintain low pheromone levels regularly.

Had Hernan been taking his suppressants?

I’d been in Velon for quite some time now.

If his rut followed a normal schedule, it should have come and gone a few times by now.

Judging by his lack of inappropriate behavior, it seemed safe to assume he’d been taking them.

But what if he hadn’t?

Feeling uneasy, I asked, and Hernan responded with difficulty.

“I’ve been… ngh… taking them regularly….”

Then why was this happening?

His earlier enthusiasm had been unusually intense, but I’d assumed it was just his natural vigor.

I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, considering I’d been the one to seduce him first.

If anything, I’d worried he might think I wasn’t interested because I wasn’t reacting more, given his monstrous stamina.

“Maybe the medication was faulty…?”

I offered a guess, but Hernan shook his head.

“It’s the same as always… I just… was so happy to feel wanted by you, Everdeen, that… ngh….”

So, in short, our time together had been so overwhelming for him that it triggered his rut.

And I was supposed to believe that?

As absurd as his explanation was, the desperate restraint he showed as he tried not to touch me while I slept was endearing.

Instead of answering, I pulled Hernan into an embrace.

Our damp skin pressed together, and his erratic breathing quickened.

His trembling only made my heart pound harder.

“Such a nice scent….”

Whenever I was this close to Hernan, his scent seemed to intensify.

Burying my face in his damp neck, I inhaled deeply, and his shoulders quivered violently.

The tension in my stomach coiled tighter, like an invisible hand clutching my insides.

“…Want to keep going?”

Driven by impulse, I teased Hernan, once again making the same foolish mistake I’d made before.

Even though I knew this would never lead to him planting his seed in me, the thought didn’t stop me.

My eyelids fluttered shut, and a scalding warmth crashed down on my lips.

---

That afternoon, long past sunrise and well into lunchtime, I dragged myself out of bed, my body aching all over.

Even standing felt like a Herculean task as I groaned in frustration.

“That crazy bastard….”

No matter how I looked at it, he really was insane.

What had made me think I could handle a dominant alpha in rut without pheromones to calm him down?

The numerous blank spots in my memory confirmed I’d passed out several times in the middle of it.

If this keeps up, I might die before I ever get pregnant.

Flopping back onto the bed, utterly drained, I heard Hernan’s subdued voice from beside me.

“Are you… in much pain?”

Was that even a question?

If I had the energy, I’d have hurled a pillow at his face.

Unfortunately, I didn’t even have the strength to lift one.

“What… time is it?”

My voice cracked, dry from overuse.

Hernan, noticing the state of my throat, rose swiftly and handed me a glass of water from the bedside table.

“It’s a little past three. It seems you won’t be able to travel by carriage or train for now, so please rest well today.”

He brushed the damp strands of hair from my forehead with the care of someone tending to a wounded animal.

His tone was so apologetic it was almost pitiful.

‘You weren’t the one punished for hours—my waist was.’

Though incredulous, that wasn’t the issue at hand right now.

“Wait a second. It’s not 3 a.m., but 3 p.m.?”

I was absentmindedly listening to Hernan rambling, in a daze, like a dog whining in the distance.

Then it hit me—this wasn’t dawn but late afternoon, and sunset was looming.

My heart sank.

In the North, the days were short, and the nights disgustingly long.

By 4 p.m., the sun dipped, painting the sky with hues of dusk, and by 6 p.m., it was pitch dark.

To make things worse, I was under a strict regimen to be in bed by 9 p.m., which left me a mere six hours to eat, wash up, and accomplish anything.

“This isn’t the time for this. I need to wash up and get going…”

Resolute, I shot to my feet—only for a searing pain to shoot through my lower back, forcing a sharp scream from my lips.

“Agh…!”

Hernan rushed to steady me, his movements clumsy but earnest.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You should rest properly today…”

Rest? No way.

I had already wasted all of yesterday, and today wasn’t some holiday where I could casually call in sick.

“Stop talking nonsense and get the carriage ready. We’re leaving in 30 minutes.”

For context, we were currently at one of the residences owned by the House of Yudenette within the capital.

Last night, I had foolishly slipped out of the ball, snuck into an unused storage room, and caused quite the incident.

By the end of it, I had nearly passed out, collapsing into an exhausted sleep.

The only reason I had been extracted from that predicament, carried out of the Garnet Palace, and brought here was thanks to Anton’s considerable assistance.

‘…I want to die.’

Hernan might have attempted some semblance of damage control, but without tools or expertise, how much could he really have done?

And to think that someone other than the culprit himself had seen me passed out, covered in unmistakable traces of last night’s escapade…

The sheer embarrassment made me want to disappear, but what’s done was done.

* * *