Chapter 1
Prologue
Forced Awakening of the Omega Trait
Long, bright blond hair spread across the sheets like rippling waves.
The sheets, made of purple satin, were embroidered with delicate stitching at all four corners—bedding befitting a royal bed in both color and luxurious material.
Yet Edith’s hair, shining even more brilliantly than that, resembled platinum.
Each time she weakly shook her head, her hair curved in gentle waves, forming white foam like surf crashing against rocks.
A strangely feverish moan escaped her lips, and she could barely breathe, gasping in short, shallow breaths.
That odd breathing recalled the way a startled young animal’s flank quivers.
Her nape was flushed almost pink from the heat.
Between the tightly buttoned blouse, right up to the last button, blotches of feverish redness peeked through.
Not only her neckline but even her cheeks were mottled with a gentle red, like someone who had just stepped out of a hot bath, and the tips of her rounded ears were the reddest of all her features, as if they were burning.
“Hot…”
Trying to escape the heat even a little, Edith rolled up her sleeves.
Wide lace, more than a palm’s breadth across, adorned the cuffs, and when she raised her arms into the air, the lace flipped back, revealing her pale wrists.
Her flawless skin made the bluish veins stand out all the more starkly.
There was a gaze right beside her, obsessively tracking her every movement.
A man whose sharp eyes flashed as he missed not even the smallest motion of Edith’s hands, relentlessly observing and analyzing even the slightest deviation.
Crown Prince Clyde.
As if representing his noble bloodline, his eyes shone a splendid gold.
Within their dark, vivid outlines, the color glittered as though dusted with gold powder, radiant on its own.
No one was ever allowed close enough to him to know this, but when one looked carefully into those beautiful golden eyes, they formed a fantastical, tangled pattern, as though they held an entire galaxy within them.
At this moment, those golden eyes were mercilessly intent. All his senses were focused solely on Edith.
“If you’re hot, you can take it off.”
The low voice that resonated was like that of an incubus incarnate, one that stirred obscene desire.
But to undress in front of His Highness Prince Clyde—such a thing was unthinkable.
Even through her hazy thoughts, she recognized it as an outrageous suggestion.
The back of her head prickled under his gaze.
She wanted to turn away and avoid him, but she couldn’t.
Her body felt cramped, she could hardly breathe, and it was as unbearably hot as if she had caught a fever.
Just moments ago, she had been certain she would never take anything off, yet at some point her unconscious mind had begun unfastening her buttons.
Her trembling fingers twisted at the button that had been choking her throat.
“Why… why am I like this?”
She couldn’t believe the sight of herself thrashing about on the crown prince’s bed.
Her normally impeccable conduct collapsed in an instant.
“That’s because you’re forcing yourself to endure it. Just let yourself go the way your body wants.”
“E-endure… what…?”
Her short, panting breaths were tangled through her words.
“The disposition that’s been sleeping inside your body is finally waking up. Don’t suppress it—accept it as it is.”
“Disposition?”
“Yes, your disposition. The omega trait you’ve been mistakenly living as a beta all this time.”
Unable to hide his satisfaction, he stretched his lips into a long smile.
Clyde’s face, like a flower in full bloom, was devastatingly beautiful.
Her heart, already racing, felt as though it might burst out of her ribcage.
If one were to embody the greatest male god described in myth, wouldn’t he look like this man?
His sharp jawline looked as if it had been carved from marble, a lethal hint of a smile lingering there.
Even as her body struggled on the verge of collapse, he rose from the chair where he had been watching Edith all this time and approached the bed.
He paused at the edge, gazed down at her steadily, then sat with an unhurried motion.
She couldn’t tell him to get away. This was his bed.
Her reason was slipping away from reality.
Scratching at her burning nape with her fingertips, Edith barely managed to gather herself and replay the hint he had given her.
Omega. Yes—omega.
But I’m not an omega. I was a beta who never manifested any trait, even after growing into adulthood.
His relentless gaze didn’t miss the way her pupils trembled.
As if to dispel her doubts, Clyde answered a question she hadn’t even asked.
“If you can feel my pheromones, Edith, then you’re no longer a beta. That means you’re either an alpha or an omega.”
Only then did she understand the difference.
It was completely unlike the usual times when, as a beta, she would feel instinctively oppressed and bow her head whenever he scattered the substance called pheromones.
“I… I…”
She still instinctively acknowledged his superiority, but now her entire body bristled, dizziness threatening to steal her mind away.
Her animal instincts were screaming for her to throw herself into Clyde’s arms.
“And this scent starting to waft out—no matter how you smell it, it’s unmistakably omega.”
From him poured a massive amount of dominant alpha pheromones.
Clyde curled his lips upward in a wicked grin, the very image of a demon.
Dominant alphas—the apex predators—were few even across the entire empire.
And among them, Clyde’s disposition was peerlessly strong. As if flaunting his qualification to become emperor, his alpha traits were exceptional.
Already recognized for his leadership and genius intellect, and on top of that possessing superior physical abilities—it was honestly infuriating.
To face that nature head-on, bare and exposed, was a situation she never wanted.
The room filled with alpha pheromones to the point she could barely breathe.
Unbelievable as it was, if she truly was manifesting as an omega, then this scent was unmistakably alpha pheromones.
So sweet it felt as if her nose might rot.
Her whole body felt drenched in honey—thickly sweet—yet at the same time so sharp and keen it made the back of her neck prickle.
Those opposing sensations tormented her body simultaneously.
Her exhausted body crawled, inch by inch, seeking out the alpha.
Though it was something she should never do, she leaned her head against the crown prince’s knee and rubbed against him.
Her foggy mind could no longer distinguish dream from reality, and her unfocused gaze held only the blurred figure of Clyde.
“You always satisfy me.”
Was it a smile, or a sigh? His jaw loosened, his lower lip swelling like a ripe fruit.
Despite his relaxed expression, an unseen force swelled thickly around Clyde.
Alpha pheromones craving an omega.
The dense, wild scent poured into her nose and mouth like a tidal wave.
“Ugh, Clyde…”
Though invisible, he possessed the alluring pheromones of an alpha and an overwhelming presence that influenced others.
The presence of a dominant alpha who stood above all others.
Clyde wrapped her in his alpha scent as naturally as blinking or breathing.
He showed no restraint in using his pheromones.
As though she were overwhelmed with gratitude, as though he couldn’t suppress his satisfaction, he swallowed a deep laugh in his throat.
His low voice echoed in their private, silent space and burrowed into Edith’s ears.
“Edith… how adorable, manifesting as an omega like this.”
She couldn’t understand what about her was adorable. In truth, nothing felt real anymore.
The scent gradually grew stronger.
Clyde’s scent.
A fragrance that stirred instincts deep in her belly—ones she had never felt during all the time she’d been with him.
“Please…”
Like prey tangled tightly in a net, Edith flailed and raised her hoarse voice toward him.
“What? Is there something you want me to help with?”
Clyde’s feigned innocence made his intentions painfully obvious.
He wanted her to accept the feeling of being pricked and drenched in honey by the dense alpha pheromones.
If she were truly an unresponsive beta, she wouldn’t be reacting and struggling like this.
A beta simply kneels instinctively before a dominant predator.
She had no choice but to admit it—she could fully feel Clyde’s pheromones.
“Please… pull back… your pheromones…”
A faint smile crossed his cruel face.
“Ah, these pheromones?”
With a decadently husky voice, a hand heavy with greed settled against her cheek.
His hand was large enough to cover half her face.
Long fingers with prominent joints stretched out and gently stroked along her hairline. Against her feverish skin, his body temperature felt comparatively cool.
The palm cupping her cheek felt cool yet stubbornly intent.
Though his wrist didn’t even touch her, it radiated a warm heat.
Was it just her imagination?
It felt as though his blood was boiling like a hot spring.
Then, from the alpha’s instinct-driven wrist, even more pheromones gushed out thickly.
Even the coaxing tone of his slightly hoarse voice carried a strange, sensual undercurrent.
“Be good, Edith. Stop resisting and realize your true nature. Let your pheromones flow freely.”
From every part of Clyde where his body heat ran high, powerful scents burst forth.
His long, firm nape, his picture-perfect forehead, even the faint breeze of his breath—all of it was beastlike.
He intended to stimulate her with alpha pheromones and awaken the omega trait that had been sealed shut.
The agony of it all belonged solely to her.
It wasn’t something she could reject, avoid, or have someone else endure in her place. The only thing she could do was awaken as an omega as quickly as possible.
“C-Clyde…”
Moisture pooled around her bloodshot eyes.
“I’ll help you. I’ll stimulate you with my pheromones so you can manifest.”
He firmly caught her wrist as it flailed uselessly in the air.
He merely closed his fingers around it, yet the thumb pressing down on the spot where her pulse throbbed carried a distinct pressure.
His encircling hand felt like a noose.
Pressing neither too hard nor too lightly, measuring her pulse with his fingertips, there was something obsessively possessive about the act.
Barely enduring the painful moment, Edith looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.
She couldn’t understand why Clyde was paying her this much attention.
Whether she manifested as an omega or not, he could have just left her alone. Yet he stayed glued to her side, releasing alpha pheromones to help her—it made no sense.
In the original novel, Clyde was clearly an obsessive madman devoted to the main protagonist.
He poured all his passion into one person alone, doing all kinds of insane things for them.
It wasn’t just that Edith wasn’t the novel’s main character. This wasn’t reality—it was a BL world.
And since he was the main male lead, regardless of whether Edith manifested as an omega, her sex alone should have already placed her outside his interest.
So watching over her omega manifestation with such earnest, aching eyes was crossing the line far too much.
It even felt like a different story from the novel she had read.
“It seems I’ll have to push you harder. If we just drag this out, you’ll only get more exhausted.”
When the faintly emerging omega pheromones remained weak and the situation showed no progress, Clyde made a decisive move.
He released far more of his alpha power than he had been controlling until now.
Alpha pheromones have two functions.
One is the power of seduction—using pheromones to court someone they desire.
The other is a coercive power unique to dominant alphas, forcing those weaker than them into psychological submission, like weaker animals cowering before a stronger one.
What Clyde released now was solely the power of seduction.
Though he flooded her with an overwhelming amount of pheromones, there was not a shred of coercion.
Instead, sensations that only an omega could feel overwhelmed her, making her thrash on the bed like a fish thrown onto land.
Her hands went limp, as though she might melt away at any moment.
“S-stop…”
“Hang in there. Just a little more.”
In that final push, there was no mercy.
Like a beast marking its territory, Clyde’s pheromones clung thickly to her.
“I…”
Unable to finish her sentence, Edith trembled violently from head to toe.
She rubbed her forehead against the hem of his clothes, letting out a cry full of anguish.
In that instant, she felt as though her entire body burst apart.
Like a blocked spring finally breaking open, the omega pheromones that had pooled inside her erupted all at once through every newly opened passage.
From her eyes, nose, and mouth—and even from her pores—her unique scent poured out.
It felt like being reborn.
She couldn’t remember the moment she left her mother’s womb as a newborn, but if she had to compare it, it would be something like this. The body that had housed her soul for over twenty years felt as though it were transforming into something entirely new.
Outwardly, nothing had changed, but her disposition had—and learning to emit pheromones for the first time was a difference as vast as heaven and earth compared to a scentless beta.
Shuddering violently like someone on the brink of death, she barely managed to force out a moan through her constricted throat.
“Cl… Clyde…”
Her pale hands reached out blindly.
It wasn’t a conscious act—pure instinct guided her.
Her flailing arm was suddenly seized, and she was abruptly lifted up to face him. Her sweat-soaked back left the sheets.
Clyde had suddenly pulled her up.
She felt as though she were floating in midair.
Her foggy mind and heat-dulled skin couldn’t withstand the sweet yet fierce power of the alpha pheromones filling the room.
Having lost all sense of self, she was led by him like a soft, pliable doll.
In her severely diminished sense of reality, Edith’s retina happened to catch the image of a tall man.
Despite her swollen, tear-streaked eyes, she found herself face-to-face with him at a distance of barely a hand’s span.
Strangely, Clyde’s eyes weren’t simply golden like a mineral.
Radiating outward from his black pupils were rainbow-colored lines, impossibly beautiful. It reminded her of patterns she might have seen when carefully observing the Milky Way on a deep night.
If they hadn’t belonged to the superior who tormented her morning and night, she might have fallen for them at first glance.
She had no time to dwell on that fleeting beauty.
Before she could even grasp what was happening, her body was pulled upright in an instant.
And then—
With enough force to make her side ache, she was wrapped tightly in his arms.
