Following the maid, Aila clutched her skirt tightly. Her nervous hands trembled faintly.

Was she being taken to His Grace like this? Or was she being dragged somewhere else…

However, where the maid stopped at the end of their walk was in front of the bedroom where Aila had originally stayed.

The maid opened the door and silently stepped aside.

The room was almost exactly like she had last seen it on the day she fled the duke’s mansion.

Aila’s eyes widened at the unexpected sight.

But that was only momentary. Her feet moved first, seemingly entranced by the faint fragrance seeping out from inside.

“Ah…”

The door closed soundlessly. Aila didn’t notice at all.

In the sealed room, the fragrance became much more concentrated.

The heavy, addictive scent made her head spin instantly and shook her senses. Her entire body trembled, then her legs gave out.

Thud, Aila’s body sank to the floor.

However, not a single scratch appeared on her knees. It was thanks to the several rugs layered on the floor, seemingly placed there knowing this would happen.

Her green eyes had already become dreamily unfocused.

She could see nothing, hear nothing. She couldn’t think of anything at all.

The fragrance she had craved so desperately.

Her alpha’s, her master’s pheromones.

She inhaled and inhaled again. Like she was trying to fill herself all at once with the pheromones she had been denied.

Each time she drew the fragrance deep into her lungs, the stabbing pain in her abdomen, the dizziness and vertigo, the nausea all subsided in turn.

Even the anxiety and fear that had been gnawing at her mind disappeared instantly, replaced by relief.

She felt like she could live.

Now she truly felt alive and breathing. The sensation of all the pain that had bound her entire body disappearing at once was almost like pleasure.

As tension released, her body, which had been tormented by cold, pain, fear and terror, complained of terrible fatigue.

Without realizing it, her eyes slowly closed. The fluffy, soft fur that clung to her body like an embrace was incomparably cozy and comfortable.

‘I need to… see His Grace…’

The thought flickered briefly in her drowsiness, but sleep quickly overtook her.

It was her first deep sleep in days.

* * *

However, the sweet respite was short.

The next day, Aila opened the door and looked for her master as soon as she woke up.

“Excuse me, is His Grace perhaps…”

“He’s gone out.”

Along with an answer as mercilessly sharp as a blade, her bedroom door closed. A faint uneasiness began to rise, but Aila held it back.

The next day, she looked for the duke again, but once more received the answer that a meeting was impossible.

Several days passed like this. As the pheromones faded, anxiety gradually began to consume Aila.

No, this can’t be. He must have heard that I returned. He must know, so why, why?

He neither called for her nor came to see her.

Now his scent had become so faint that it wouldn’t be strange if it disappeared at any moment.

“Please, I’m begging you. Let me see His Grace.”

But no one would grant her request.

The pain that had stopped began again intermittently. Her barely recovered sanity also rapidly clouded.

She unconsciously clawed at the door before being restrained, and sometimes refused meals. What instantly subdued Aila as she cried out for her alpha to be brought to her was a chilling threat.

“His Grace will not tolerate any further defiance.”

Aila’s shoulders flinched. Into her ears, the maid whispered secretly.

“You should think of the child in your womb.”

Startled, Aila’s eyes widened. Her green eyes shook aimlessly with bewilderment and fear.

“How, how do you know that…”

A chilling realization crept up her spine.

So he knew everything. The fact that she was carrying a child, that she needed pheromones. Yet she hadn’t been able to see his face even once until now…

This was punishment.

Punishment for a possession that dared to deceive her master and run away.

Aila’s vision darkened.

* * *

Eventually, even the handful of pheromones disappeared.

With a burning thirst deep in her throat and pain that seemed to split her belly, Aila writhed.

The comfortable bed and soft bedding couldn’t reduce her suffering.

“Sob…”

Aila rolled off the bed and crawled toward the door on her hands and knees.

I’ll apologize for my wrongs. I’ll beg for forgiveness. Then he’ll give me pheromones. He’ll let me live. He’ll save the baby.

So I need to meet His Grace. I need to receive pheromones.

With her mind in complete chaos, thinking only of this one thing, she opened the door.

“Where are you going?”

The color drained from her face. Her large pupils shook aimlessly in her pale face.

“I, I am…”

While she couldn’t answer with her words stuck, other maids appeared from both sides of her room.

They maintained their usual impeccably polite attitude but gave no leeway whatsoever.

“It’s cold today. It would be better if you went inside.”

“No, no, please let me see him! Please, please!”

Aila struggled desperately. But the maids didn’t budge. Their emotionless, cold faces remained solidly impenetrable.

“We’ll help you inside.”

Eventually, Aila was caught by their hands, dragged into the room, and locked in.

Soon after, her body collapsed like it was crumbling. Her mind also rapidly deteriorated from the extreme pain. She couldn’t breathe like a fish thrown onto dry land.

“Ugh! Ah…”

I’m going to lose the baby. I won’t be able to protect it.

Her vision became hazy. Overflowing tears wet her cheeks. In her increasingly clouded consciousness, Aila prayed desperately.

Please save me, please.

“Gasp…!”

That’s when it happened. The sudden rush of pheromones.

Aila’s green eyes, which had been losing life and dying, opened wide and her lips parted. As soon as she desperately inhaled, the pain that had been consuming even her sanity subsided instantly.

But that too was momentary. The fragrance was cut off abruptly like a lie.

With the pheromones withdrawn in an instant, Aila fell into confusion and groped the floor like someone who couldn’t see. Her sanity had long since ceased to function.

Click, the sound of the door opening and closing rang loudly enough to echo in her head. So did the heavy footsteps.

Through her hazy vision like fog, Aila’s wet eyes pitifully followed her master walking toward her.

“Your Grace…”

Her instinctively outstretched hands desperately grabbed the man’s feet.

“I, I was wrong.”

The gaze looking down was terribly cold. She couldn’t feel a trace of warmth from his expressionless face.

Quiet blue eyes that looked down like viewing something without any value or use.

Meeting that contemplative gaze, Aila was seized by fear.

She felt like she would be abandoned just like this. From the premonition that she would be disposed of like a broken toy.

“I, I was wrong. Please forgive me, I won’t run away again, please…”

I’ll be good. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. Please let me live. Please give me just a little more.

Her voice trembled endlessly as she begged for forgiveness and pleaded for pheromones. Her focus kept blurring. Even when she tried not to cry, she couldn’t stop the pouring tears.

The man looked down steadily at her clinging to him. Even through her blurred vision, his brilliantly shining blue eyes pierced through clearly.

“You worked so hard to run away, but you’re giving up already?”

His low voice urged an answer like an interrogation.

Aila shook her head desperately.

The respite she had tasted amid terrible thirst and pain was too sweet. She had no confidence she could live without that fragrance.

If she could just inhale a handful more pheromones, she felt like she could do anything.

Aila crawled on her knees and prostrated herself at the man’s feet. With slurred pronunciation, she fumblingly begged for forgiveness again.

“Please… please spare just the baby. Don’t take it away. I, I will beg like this…”

The man who had been quietly watching her pitiful crying while clasping her hands together in supplication slowly lowered his posture and lifted her chin.

“Take away?”

A satisfied smile spread across his handsome face. His terribly low voice seeped stickily into Aila’s ears.

“You yourself belong to me first.”

Her lips were immediately swallowed. Her pulled body was firmly trapped in the man’s embrace like being restrained. At the same time, explosive pheromones enveloped her entire body.

The omega’s body immediately responded and rejoiced at the pouring alpha’s scent.

Her dead senses came alive, and pheromones rushed into every tiny gap in her skin, every opening in her entire body.

Rather than inhaling, it felt like holes were being forcibly pried open and flooded.

But even with that violent pheromone shower, Aila felt terrible relief instead.

This was her place. Where her alpha, her master was.

In the man’s comfortable embrace, Aila slowly closed her eyes.