* * *
‘What to do… Looks like I’m worrying Leo again.’
Chaeyi sighed inwardly as he focused on the sound of hurried footsteps.
Despite his lean but well-trained physique, he wasn’t exactly lightweight.
Yet the kidnapper had slung him over one shoulder and was running at considerable speed. C
learly, this person wasn’t ordinary.
‘Who is it?’
Someone he knew?
Or a stranger acting on someone else’s orders?
Concentrating further, Chaeyi analyzed the abductor’s movements—their stride, breathing, and the strength in the arm carrying him so effortlessly. He deduced that the man was surprisingly older.
‘Older…’
For a fleeting moment, a hypothesis flashed through Chaeyi’s mind.
Just as he considered it, the man stopped, perhaps having run far enough or reached his destination.
Without ceremony, he dropped Chaeyi onto the ground and yanked off the covering over his head.
Chaeyi, unbound, shook his head to clear it before looking up.
The man crouched before him, holding a dagger to his throat. His face was obscured by a mask.
“You didn’t resist as much as I thought. Typical arrogant beta.”
Hearing the venom in his voice, Chaeyi’s suspicions solidified.
Despite the blade pressing dangerously close to his throat, Chaeyi tilted his head slightly, calm and unafraid.
“David… Elder, wasn’t it? Or am I misremembering?”
“…It’s David!”
Growling low, the man tore off his mask, throwing it aside.
The oppressive pheromones of an aging dominant alpha enveloped Chaeyi, tightening around him like a vice.
It seemed David had no intention of hiding his identity from the start.
“Tie him up.”
At David’s command, another man appeared, binding Chaeyi’s wrists tightly with rope.
Unlike a typical beta hunter, this one was a manifested recessive alpha.
Still, Chaeyi didn’t resist or show fear, simply fixing David with a steady gaze.
Perhaps it was this unwavering defiance that irritated David.
Gritting his teeth, he delivered a forceful punch to Chaeyi’s face.
Thud!
Chaeyi’s head snapped to the side from the impact.
Even though David was old, he was still a dominant alpha, and his emotionally charged strike wasn’t something to take lightly.
Chaeyi let out a small groan and spat blood from his split lip.
“Well now, what’s got you so angry?”
Despite the injury, Chaeyi’s gaze remained unbroken.
‘A mere beta…’
That composure was intolerable to David.
“You… because of you… Do you know the humiliation I’ve endured?!”
Though Chaeyi didn’t understand what David was referring to, the older man’s eyes were bloodshot with rage, consumed by memories of the past.
It had happened not long after he had secretly summoned Chaeyi to the Round Table chamber.
Leonard, who had no business knowing the location, had suddenly burst into the clandestine meeting of the branch elders.
Without hesitation, Leonard had crushed David’s toes as though they were crackers, leaving him writhing and screaming on the ground in front of the other elders.
Leonard had sneered, threatening David to never touch Chaeyi again, even mocking him for needing to “hide the evidence” by breaking less visible parts.
The shame was unbearable.
David had not only suffered immense pain but had also become a laughingstock.
His humiliation festered, fueling a seething resentment toward Chaeyi.
Night after night, his fury and hatred grew, finding their sole outlet in the beta he deemed responsible.
David, having calmed himself slightly, sneered.
“If I kill you here and dispose of your body in secret… I wonder how that insolent brat will react. He better not disappoint me. Watching him cry and search for you all night won’t be nearly enough.”
“You mean Leo, don’t you?”
“Of course!”
“…Do you honestly think you’ll get away with this?”
Chaeyi furrowed his brows as though pitying David.
Though he wasn’t the sharpest in certain matters, even he knew Leonard wasn’t someone to underestimate.
Crossing the line meant David would certainly face death.
David, however, mistook Chaeyi’s expression as condescension, and the thought of being looked down upon by a beta infuriated him further.
His pride as a dominant alpha—the most powerful and privileged of all classes—was deeply wounded.
The root of his anger lay in his status as a branch family member, a half-blooded outcast.
His insecurities had festered and rotted, eroding his reason.
But David wasn’t stupid.
From the moment he planned his revenge, he had already accepted that survival wasn’t an option.
Grabbing a fistful of Chaeyi’s hair, David snarled.
“I don’t need your pity. If I’m going to die soon anyway, I’ll drag you and your kind to hell with me. It’s better this way… I’ve despised Lancaster and that brat of an heir from the start.”
A sinister smile spread across his face as though a new thought had crossed his mind.
“Now that I think about it, wasn’t it about that bastard’s rut? The pheromones seemed unstable, and this time it looks like he didn’t take his medication… If I could trigger a violent outbreak, it would be a great opportunity to get rid of both Lancaster and that little brat at once.”
Until then, Chaeyi’s gaze, which had never shown any signs of agitation despite the words spoken, suddenly changed.
It was a gaze filled with genuine fury.
Since waking up in the body of the ‘Chaeyi’ from the novel, his life had been relatively peaceful, so this kind of drastic emotional shift was rare.
But now, his anger was so palpable that it radiated an open murderous intent.
Chaeyi was a gentle person.
But he was also someone who wouldn’t hesitate to do anything to protect what was precious to him.
Until now, he had hidden his sharp fangs, like a beast in the calm environment that his circumstances provided.
However, deep inside, he had the same coldness as Leonard.
If he wasn’t like that, he wouldn’t have survived on the frontlines of a war where comrades were constantly dying, fighting for the very survival of his homeland.
“Don’t even think about messing with that kid,” Chaeyi warned David sharply.
In that moment, David froze, stunned by the fierce gaze that only reflected his own image in its intensity.
The chilling atmosphere, so different from his usual demeanor, was enough to leave anyone in shock.
But, wounded in his pride, David quickly tried to regain his composure.
“Ha. Hahaha! It’s really funny. The heir of the Lancaster family is actually worried about some beta… I guess it must be so endearing, huh? Well, you can meet your beloved at the graveyard then.”
Unable to hold back any longer, David’s rage broke through his patience, and he gritted his teeth, raising his sword high.
He planned to torment this beta and make him suffer before killing him, releasing his frustration.
In that split second, Chaeyi, not missing the opening created by David’s emotional outburst, pushed off the ground with his bound hands.
He swiftly leaned back, kicking David’s midsection with a precise strike.
As David staggered, Chaeyi twisted his body, supported by his knee to maintain balance before delivering a swift kick that sent David toppling to the ground.
“Ugh…!”
David cried out in a short scream as he fell.
Chaeyi used the momentum to rise, pushing himself up and quickly untangling the ropes.
Before the overly zealous Alpha could approach, Chaeyi stomped on David’s chest with one foot, then pressed his wrist against his knee, forcing him to drop his dagger.
The fallen dagger now lay in Chaey’s grasp.
“If you come any closer, I’ll kill you.”
He pressed the blade to David’s throat, and the eager Alpha hesitated, unable to approach any further.
Everything had happened in the blink of an eye.
David, his eyes bloodshot and glaring at the blade against his neck, screamed at the hesitant Alpha behind him.
“What are you doing? Kill this arrogant beta right now! Just overpower him, that’s all you need to do!”
But the Alpha, unable to find any opening against Chaey’s cold, unwavering gaze, only swallowed dryly.
It was easy to say ‘just overpower the beta’—but there was no way to allow such a gap in Chaey’s defense.
Even a single step would be enough for that sharp blade to pierce through David’s frail skin, creating a new hole in his throat for the wind to pass through.
It didn’t feel like just empty threats.
“Do it! Can’t you hear me? Lyman!”
“I can’t… I can’t do that, Father.”
In the end, he backed off, his momentum broken.
No matter how dominant an Alpha, he was still human.
If he were to be cut or torn by something sharp, and suffer a fatal wound, he would die.
Though he had never shared any warmth with David, and knew the man was on the wrong path, he was still furious for dragging him into such an ugly situation.
Yet, even then, he could not let his own father die.
* * *
