The tires of Do-hyun's car shrieked as he took a hard turn, the world outside a blur of grey and neon. He drove with a wild, reckless abandon, the kind of furious speed that dared the universe to put something in his way. Every nerve in his body was on fire, his skin thrumming with a violent, possessive rage that had nothing to do with logic and everything to do with instinct. His fangs were a sharp ache in his gums, and he could feel the low, guttural growl that had taken up residence in his chest with every ragged breath. All he knew was that he had to get out, had to move, had to do anything to escape the unbearable agony of betrayal and the primal, suffocating scent of a rival alpha that now clung to his senses.
He screeched to a halt in front of the clinic, abandoning his car in the middle of the drop-off lane. Two security guards rushed toward him, their expressions a mix of confusion and alarm.
"Sir, you can't park here—" one began, only to stop dead as Do-hyun snarled, his eyes bloodshot and dark with unleashed alpha fury.
"Where's Dr. Lee Jisoo?" he bellowed, his voice a threatening growl of thunder that sent a tremor of fear through them. As they stuttered, he pushed past them, a singular, desperate goal in mind: to stop the primal, violent urge of his rut from taking over, before he completely lost his mind and went on a rampage.
He found Dr. Lee behind the reception counter, where she was speaking to a patient.
"It's you again. Where's your—" She took one look at his face and her calm expression faltered. "Oh, you don't look so good."
"Give me a suppressant," he rasped, the words a raw command.
Dr. Lee raised an eyebrow, her clinical curiosity winning over her momentary surprise. "Why a—"
"Give it to me now!" he roared, his fist slamming down on the counter with a crack that made the glass rattle. The patient standing nearby whimpered and shrank away. "Quickly!"
Do-hyun could see the question in her eyes. Alphas rarely came in for suppressants unless a serious medical imbalance was threatening to trigger a rut, or, in extreme cases, a mating frenzy. His body was a storm of both. He was an alpha at the precipice, teetering on the edge of a violent, uncontrollable instinct.
Dr. Lee's eyes scanned him, noting his quaking hands and the ferocious aura he was unconsciously projecting. She nodded to her nurse, who quickly ushered him into another room and began bustling around, preparing the shot. Dr. Lee came in shortly after, shutting the door quietly behind her.
"Try and relax," she said calmly, her voice a lifeline of reason in the chaos. "I can't administer the shot when you're this tense."
He forced himself to take a deep, shuddering breath, the air burning his lungs. The needle plunged into his arm, and in a few moments, the rage and frantic energy began to recede, leaving behind an aching hollowness. He sank down into the chair panting, his elbows on his knees, his face buried in his hands.
"Why didn't you say anything about it?" he mumbled after his breathing had steadied somewhat, his hands muffling the heartbreak in his voice.
"About what?"
"The bite." He looked up, his face a mess of raw emotion. "It's not—" he swallowed, "not mine. I… I can't do it. I can't help him through this."
Dr. Lee's face softened with understanding. "Where is he now?"
"At home—his home, I mean… I can't do this, I can't be his anchor," he confessed, the words tasting like ash.
"Why not?" she asked gently, her voice now full of empathy.
"Because he belongs to someone else!" he roared, the sudden resurgence of emotion making Dr. Lee take a step back. He immediately felt a wave of remorse for his outburst, and with a great effort, took another deep breath, trying to ground himself.
"I'm sorry," he said, the words laboured. "I can't—I don't know what to do." He looked up at her, his expression broken. "I've only known him for three months and I've never felt this lost in my life."
Dr. Lee chewed her lip for a moment, her mind racing to connect the dots. "What happened, exactly?"
In a low, strained voice, Do-hyun recounted the scene, describing it with a chilling precision that belied his wreck of emotions. The kiss, the near-claim, the sudden, sickening discovery.
He had lurched back as if burned, his hands dropping from Jaemin as the sweet, intoxicating scent of cherry blossoms had soured into a metallic, bitter tang in his nose; the scent of a rival alpha—smoky, sharp, and undeniable—had slammed into him not as a whisper, but as a screaming truth that shattered the moment and left only a cold, hollow rage in its wake.
"But… I don't understand—How could it be?" Do-hyun's head swam with a new wave of confusion, even as he tried to shift the conversation away from his pain. "Don't omegas' pheromones… calm down after a bonding bite? Why am I reacting to Jaemin like this, like a potential mate, when he already… belongs to someone else?" Even saying the words was a fight. "Is this… is this normal?"
Carefully, Dr. Lee answered, "That's an excellent question, Kang Do-hyun-ssi. It's not the norm, that's for sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's unnatural." She paused. "The alpha who bit him—He's not with him now, is he?"
"No… No, he's alone right now." Realising this, after he had promised Jaemin that he wasn't going anywhere, a surge of guilt and shame blended in with the waves of rage and betrayal, threatening to engulf him. "He was alone when I left him."
"And do you have any idea who it might be?"
A cold, certain dread settled over Do-hyun. "Yes," he growled, the name of the alpha coming to him in an instant.
Choi Seungcheol.
Watching the growing fury in his face, Dr. Lee spoke. "Kang Do-hyun-ssi. Let me show you something." She walked back to her desk and pulled up a file on her tablet. "When we did the bloodwork for Seo Jaemin-ssi, we found something very unusual."
After a few efficient taps, she turned the screen toward him, pointing. "See this line here? Anti-suppressants. I mentioned them to you the last time you were here. We found not just a trace, but a pretty high dose. These aren't easy to get your hands on, and they can have… severe side effects."
"What?" Do-hyun was shocked into momentarily forgetting his anger. "Where did they come from? Jaemin would never take those."
"I'm not sure either, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here," Dr. Lee replied.
Do-hyun leaned back heavily. "So, what, are you telling me that these anti-suppressants cancelled out the bonding bite, and that's why I've been… attracted to him?" He sighed in frustration. "But that doesn't make any sense! That only happened yesterday, and I… we… this thing between us has been going on for months before that."
A slow, knowing smile touched her lips. "That only confirms my suspicions. I suspect that the bite wasn't a true bond, not on a biological level anyway."
The furrows in Do-hyun's brow deepened. "How did you come to that conclusion?"
"The anti-suppressants are probably countering the bite's effects, and are what's causing Seo Jaemin-ssi's heat to be so volatile, why his pheromones are still so strong and uninhibited.
"However, the fact that your mutual attraction and relationship happened long before any of this, before these anti-suppressants were even in the picture, points to something else. Something far more fundamental than a bite."
"What are you trying to say?" Do-hyun asked, his voice a hoarse whisper. He was terrified of the answer, but his heart, no longer raging, was begging to know the truth.
Dr. Lee sighed. "It means you're his fated alpha, Kang Do-hyun-ssi. Haven't you watched a single movie?"