The Contract Wife Tries to Leave - Chapter 11
[If you don’t produce an heir by next year, you won’t inherit the title, the land, or anything!]
The letters always ended with threats from his grandfather. Leonid, furrowing his brows in annoyance, sneered coldly and burned the letter. He glared at the small piece of paper burning in the fireplace as if it were his enemy, then moved and sat down heavily on the sofa by the window.
The annoying letter from his grandfather disrupted his peaceful evening, sharpening his nerves to a needlepoint. Absentmindedly searching his pocket, thinking he might have a cigarette, he sighed and sank deeply into the sofa’s backrest upon remembering he was in his no-smoking period.
‘If you continue smoking while taking large amounts of suppressants for a long time, it will be really bad for your health. How about quitting smoking slowly from now on…?’
The reason he decided to quit smoking, which he had been addicted to since he was twenty, was due to his doctor’s words. The alpha’s rut. That damned thing was always the problem.
It’s been almost eight years since he went through his rut without an omega. His first rut was at sixteen. His whole body burned with heat, and his mind was filled only with thoughts of breeding, enduring the beastly estrus alone with the help of a large amount of suppressants.
He knew that continuing like this would harm his body, no matter how hyper-dominant an alpha he was. He loathed the idea of an omega, but to safely inherit his grandfather’s estate and officially become the ‘Duke of Elderique’, it might be necessary. To solve his rut as well, in passing.
However, he detested sticky relationships. Mixing with an omega was enough with body, fluids, and pheromones. In fact, even that made him sick to his stomach. But he was willing to endure it if necessary. After all, he must become the head of the Elderique family.
‘That way, Mother won’t bother me anymore.’
Leonid put a chocolate-flavored candy in his mouth instead of a cigarette. It seemed like he would have to come up with a plan soon. Ideally, it would be a relationship that could end cleanly. For instance, one bound by a contract.
* * *
My whole body is hot.
It felt like I was in a boiling pot.
Johanna, tossing and turning while groaning, flinched involuntarily at the sensation of fabric brushing against her skin. Her skin was overly sensitive.
“Ugh…”
She felt an unresolved itch pooling in her lower abdomen. A dull, sticky, and clinging sensation. This desire, which she experienced for the first time in her life, engulfed her in an almost maddening thirst.
‘Why on earth am I like this? What… is this?’
Her head was spinning, and her consciousness was flickering. It felt as if her body was out of control. As she panted heavily, Johanna suddenly sensed something shapeless emanating from within her and froze.
It was a scent so sweet it tingled her tongue, like the fragrance of flowers.
No, to be precise, it wasn’t a scent or smell. It was just a minuscule substance that felt that way. Ordinarily, as a beta, she should never have been able to perceive it in her lifetime…
It was the pheromone of a genetically marked individual.
‘Why is it coming from me…?’
Her heart thumped rapidly. The cruel insult from the man who said he’d buy her if she manifested as an omega echoed in her mind. Johanna bit her lips until they bled.
The sudden malaise, the boiling fever, the heightened senses, the instinctive desires she could never satisfy alone… And the pheromones.
Pheromones were an enticing substance emitted by alphas or omegas to attract the opposite trait. If something like that was coming from her body, there was only one answer.
Manifestation.
She was one of those extremely rare cases manifesting in her early twenties.
“Ha…”
Even amidst the overwhelming sensation, she let out a hollow laugh. The heat that couldn’t be alleviated no matter how much she suffered alone. The instinctive craving for something to fill her tightly.
Though she didn’t know much, she instinctively understood that this was the desire of an omega wanting an alpha. Unfortunately, she seemed to have manifested as an omega. Manifesting this late in life, most likely because she was destined to be an omega.
‘So, it has come to this.’
She had heard all her life that she looked pretty enough to be an omega. It felt like that remark had stuck to her like a curse, ultimately causing her to manifest as one. She felt wronged and resentful.
‘I really didn’t want to live as an omega.’
