Chapter 18

“You’re aw—”

Yoon Mujin, who had been about to offer a morning greeting, went rigid halfway through the motion. His black eyes trembled faintly before snapping toward Jeong Iwon, sharp and fierce like a wild animal’s. A faint but unmistakable scent of pheromones had rushed into his nose.

“Iwon, are you…”

He dropped the axe in his hand almost as though throwing it aside and hurried forward, but Jeong Iwon immediately raised a hand and stopped him.

“Right there. Don’t come any closer. Listen from where you are.”

“…”

“You caught the scent, so you already know, but I’m going to be unwell for a few days starting today. You know what I mean, right? So go stay somewhere else for a while.”

“Somewhere else where?”

“The village community hall, or get yourself a room at an inn in town and stay there for a few days. Until my heat breaks, don’t come anywhere near this house. Understood?”

At the cold order to leave, the muscles in Yoon Mujin’s jaw tightened.

His suppressed alpha instincts were howling at him to take the flushed, feverish omega standing before him straight into that room. Though suppressants were barely keeping them in check, Jeong Iwon’s pale cheeks and the lewdly reddened rims of his eyes were relentlessly gnawing away at Yoon Mujin’s reason.

But Yoon Mujin forced down that violent impulse and clenched his fists. He understood better than anyone why Jeong Iwon was pushing him away, and he had no intention of forcing the issue like some animal and frightening him.

“…Understood. I’ll pack a bag and stay in town.”

“Good. Now hurry up and go.”

Only after hearing that answer did Jeong Iwon finally release a long breath of relief.

But it was too early to relax. There was still one more person he had to deal with.

“Oh, right.”

Turning back toward the house, Jeong Iwon suddenly stopped and called out.

“Do you happen to have that lunatic Kwon Heeseong’s number? When I blocked my family’s numbers a while back, I wiped everything, so I don’t have his contact.”

At the name that came out of Jeong Iwon’s mouth, Yoon Mujin’s brow twitched slightly.

“Kwon Heeseong? I don’t know his number, but I know where he lives.”

That makes things troublesome.

Jeong Iwon’s eyes wandered as he thought, but Yoon Mujin volunteered exactly the answer he needed.

“If you have a message, I’ll deliver it.”

“Thanks. Then tell that bastard not to come to the house this week, and that if he does, I’ll actually kill him. Got it? Make it very clear that he’s not to come.”

A strange sense of relief and satisfaction crossed Yoon Mujin’s eyes. The fact that Jeong Iwon was thoroughly refusing and shutting out Kwon Heeseong satisfied his possessive alpha instincts.

“Understood. I’ll make sure he gets the message. So don’t worry about anything and rest properly. And lock up securely.”

Yoon Mujin obediently nodded, packed a few things, and left. Watching until he was gone, Jeong Iwon firmly barred the gate, went into the main room, pulled a thick quilt over himself, and panted through the fever.

If he could just endure like a corpse for a few days until the medicine took effect, it would all pass.

But there was one thing Jeong Iwon had badly overlooked.

The two alphas circling him were absolutely not the sort of men who would meekly heed his warnings.

Kwon Heeseong was leisurely drinking coffee and reviewing documents when Yoon Mujin arrived.

“Why are you all the way out here?”

He scowled at the sight of a man he didn’t even want to look at, while Yoon Mujin returned an equally unyielding expression.

“I came to deliver a message.”

“What is it?”

“Iwon says he’ll be away from the house this week. He asked me to tell you that if you come anyway, he’ll kill you. Don’t waste the trip.”

There wasn’t a shred of courtesy in the message. At those words, one corner of Kwon Heeseong’s mouth curled upward.

“Ha. Away from the house? Give me a break.”

It was a clumsy lie.

Jeong Iwon, who had only yesterday been muttering about needing to pick the lettuce he’d planted, wasn’t suddenly going to leave home for any length of time. And on top of that, he had sent Yoon Mujin—the human wall sticker—to warn him off. Above all, Yoon Mujin’s attitude was unusually raw and tense.

Quick on the uptake, Kwon Heeseong immediately saw through the obvious pretense.

It’s his heat cycle.

His mouth twisted into a grin, and he quietly cheered.

It was the period when an omega was at his most physically sensitive and psychologically vulnerable.

Of course, he had not the slightest intention of losing his reason, forcing himself on him, or taking advantage of him. But if he stood dependable guard beside a feverish, suffering Jeong Iwon and nursed him with utter devotion, surely even that prickly brat would have no choice but to open the door to his heart.

It was the perfect opportunity to make his case.

“If I didn’t actually go, I’d be no dominant alpha at all.”

Kwon Heeseong immediately called a hospital in Seoul and had the finest suppressants, with minimal side effects, flown down. Then he loaded up an armful of top-grade abalone porridge and restorative foods to help Jeong Iwon regain his strength and started his large SUV, humming cheerfully.

That afternoon.

A familiar engine rolled up the lane in front of the blue-roofed house. The man who stepped out wore a strange expression of anticipation and confidence.

Both hands weighed down with shopping bags, he strolled toward the firmly shut gate.

And there, blocking his path, stood an enormous black shadow.

“…”

The man standing motionless in front of the gate with his arms crossed was Yoon Mujin.

He was supposed to have gone somewhere else, according to Jeong Iwon’s orders.

So why was he still playing gatekeeper at this house?

The truth was that Yoon Mujin had never had the slightest intention of leaving Jeong Iwon’s side. Leaving his omega, feverish and suffering, alone and defenseless was something his alpha instincts simply would not permit.

He had pretended to leave with his bag, then taken up position at the gate while Jeong Iwon lay ill.

In case anyone tried to climb over the wall, he stood watch in front of the house with his presence completely suppressed.

And exactly as he had grimly predicted, the worst possible uninvited guest—the one who needed watching most closely—had come walking up on his own two feet.

“What’s this? Why are you moping around in front of someone else’s gate?”

Kwon Heeseong furrowed his brow and asked with clear distaste.

Without unfolding his arms, Yoon Mujin slowly raised his head and looked up at him. His dark, settled eyes were filled with deep wariness and fierce hostility that he made no effort to hide.

“You were clearly told not to come. Go back.”

“Move. You’re not the one I came to see.”

“Iwon said nobody was to come.”

“I brought medicine, though.”

Kwon Heeseong shook the shopping bag in his hand and arrogantly lifted his chin.

“When someone’s sick, a proper person should be there looking after him. Leave him alone and what’s he going to do except collapse? Quit being pointlessly stubborn and move. If Iwon collapses, are you going to answer for it?”

Treating Yoon Mujin as though he weren’t even there, Kwon Heeseong reached for the gate handle.

Clamp!

Yoon Mujin’s thick, powerful hand seized his wrist.

“Ah, damn it! Let go!”

Kwon Heeseong grimaced and tried to pull his arm free, but overpowering that grip was no easy feat.

“You really don’t understand plain speech, do you?”

Yoon Mujin slowly straightened.

As a man well over 190 centimeters unfolded his full height, the overwhelming pressure pouring off him bore heavily down on Kwon Heeseong.

At the same time, thick, fierce alpha pheromones began bursting from him. A savage, rough scent like wet earth mixed with the raw tang of metal, closing around the throat.

“You’re not crossing this threshold. Not one step.”

But Kwon Heeseong was not a man who would meekly back down.

He was a dominant alpha himself, and in his entire life, he had never once been cowed by anyone.

At the blatant provocation, he released his own pheromones.

“You crazy bastard. Who are you to throw your weight around? Is Iwon your property or something?”

“At the very least, I’m closer to him than an uninvited guest like you.”

“Ha! There’s a limit to delusion. You’re begging meals off another man’s house while looking like a vagrant, and you think you belong next to Iwon? Learn your place, you loser.”

Yoon Mujin didn’t so much as blink at the insults and mockery.

If anything, his gaze grew colder and deeper, carrying an unmistakable killing edge.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of man I am. What matters is that right now, Iwon is refusing you.”

Yoon Mujin flung his wrist away and took one long step forward.

“And as long as I’m guarding this gate, you won’t see so much as a single hair on his head. If you don’t want to die, turn the car around and get out.”

Two dominant alphas stood taut with the tension of the instant before they tore into each other’s throats.

In front of an old gate in a quiet country village, a terrifying contest of wills over the bedridden Jeong Iwon burned, suffocating.