The Crown Prince's Courtesan - Chapter 10
Because she was certain that gaze had settled on her and because it felt inevitable they’d meet again, Marie curled into herself like a child, hugging her trembling shoulders.
She knew someone like him would never want an Omega like her — half-broken and incomplete — but the idea of her world changing because of him was unspeakably frightening.
“No. No, it won’t. Nothing’s going to change. Never.”
Marie whispered to herself like it was a promise.
But unfortunately, life never goes the way you plan.
It was a few days later.
Marie was forced to confront all of it at once — the relentless threat letters, her aunt assaulted by a stranger, and a half-destroyed home.
* * *
She had known those people wouldn’t leave her alone.
That despicable debt collector knew exactly how to wear a person down, and there was no way he planned to let an omega like Marie Alphrose go easily. Still, even though she had anticipated this, when it finally came to pass, she could not help herself from trembling.
“There’s no more time…”
Her aunt couldn’t stay away from the general store in the capital forever, and Marie had a younger sibling she had to protect. She had to act right now.
It was on a day when her mind felt utterly unmoored. That a single invitation card arrived, as if its sender knew her predicament too well.
‘That pheromone.’
The unfamiliar Alpha scent clinging to it felt familiar somehow — a strange, inescapable fragrance, like a forest at dawn, cool with morning dew…
She hadn’t sensed that Alpha since that first night he had visited that club. Until now.
That Alpha. If it was him…
The club manager, who always backed down easily at her word, was unusually persistent this time. As if even he couldn’t help it when it came to this invitation.
Just as she suspected — this was no ordinary Alpha. Then who was he? Could she avoid him, truly? Or was this… the best way out?
‘I…’
If she took that card, there would be no going back. She wouldn’t be able to escape again. She’d become someone’s possession. But she could protect her aunt. Let her sibling live a normal life again…
“Still refusing? Just tell me quickly, okay?”
“…I…”
“Think carefully. Just between us, this isn’t the kind of chance you get every day.”
“…”
Marie bit her lip.
A nobleman wouldn’t resort to violence so easily, so in exchange for offering her body, she might be able to negotiate something in return.
‘No, Marie! Never live as an Omega — never let anyone find out!’
Her mother’s cold, sharp cry came back to her, but the reality was that her mother was no longer there.
Marie lifted her head and answered the one who was waiting.
“No.”
“Oh, then?”
“Yes. I won’t refuse that offer.”
She nodded. It was a miserable answer — saying, Yes, go ahead and sell me as a courtesan.
At that moment, as if this was the very answer he’d been waiting for, the manager’s face brightened with relief and excitement.
How strange, Marie thought. It was her decision, so why did her fingertips tremble like this? Why did it feel as if all the blood in her body were draining out?
Like someone walking down a pitch-dark corridor, she trembled uncontrollably yet clenched her fists to keep herself from looking back. There was nowhere left to turn to.
So she had no choice now but to go forward without hesitation.
“I’ll accept the invitation.”
* * *
Marie Alphrose was not the kind of person to be easily intimidated. Life had shaped her that way.
She had learned that lowering her head only invited deeper scorn and harsher coldness than she already endured. But everything that followed her acceptance of the invitation — even she found herself afraid.
‘Who am I going to meet that they’re this extravagant…?’
The carriage’s windows were thoroughly covered, leaving no way to see outside. Worse still, the people sent by the Alpha to escort her were shockingly dressed like knights.
How many nobles could afford to send knights just to summon a single courtesan? Surely, it couldn’t be like she’d once feared that he was an ultra-dominant Alpha.
‘It can’t be.’
Marie ignored her instincts.
There was only one known ultra-dominant Alpha in the entire Kingdom of Crocus, and that man would never step into a club just to scout out a courtesan.
Still… who knew? Maybe there was another ultra-dominant Alpha, one who hadn’t been revealed to the world.
Yes, that had to be it.
Even she was living while hiding the fact that she was a dominant Omega, after all.
Marie rubbed her increasingly cold arms. How long had they been traveling?
“Please step down.”
The knight’s voice was polite, but impersonal. Marie got out of the carriage, and the moment she did, her eyes were blindfolded with black cloth. She was led away like a hostage, sat in a chair she couldn’t see.
“…”
But she didn’t need her sight to know that someone was sitting across from her. That sensation was unmistakable — it was exactly like before.
‘He’s right in front of me.’
