Impossible. This is impossible…
The same thought kept repeating in Ian's mind. An alpha could actually have sex with another alpha…? Yunhui's overwhelming power had left him as helpless as if he were caught in a snare, unable to move a muscle. Yet he didn't feel nauseated or repulsed. He was simply bewildered by how completely he was being swept along.
“Ah!”
His hips jerked upward when he felt a hand touch him from behind.
“W-wait, mmph!”
Their lips had parted for an instant, and Ian had tried to tell him no, that this couldn't possibly work. But Yunhui swallowed his words with another kiss.
The fingers that had slipped between his testicles and moved farther down, circling and rubbing against his most intimate place, pressed firmly against him. A gasp escaped Ian's throat. With their lips sealed together, the sound was swallowed along with Yunhui's tongue as it pushed deep into his mouth.
Ian couldn't even tell whether what he felt was pain. The sensation was so unfamiliar, so utterly foreign, that his hands clenched around the bedsheets before he realized what he was doing.
He turned his head, barely managing to break the kiss, and let out a series of ragged breaths, his face contorted. He could feel Yunhui staring down at him.
“Does it hurt?”
Ian flinched at the sound of his voice. It was so incongruous with everything that was happening.
When he looked back at Yunhui, he found him frowning too. Was he worried?
It was a foolish thought, but the look on Yunhui's face made him wonder.
“If I say it does, will you stop?”
Yunhui's pheromones had weakened a little, if only for a moment. Ian took advantage of the reprieve to draw several deep, heaving breaths before asking his question.
The crease between Yunhui's brows deepened.
Ian held on to a slender thread of hope, but Yunhui neither said he would stop nor drew away.
Instead, he stared down at Ian with his lips pressed into a thin line, then twisted sideways and opened the drawer of the bedside table. When he turned back with something in his hand, Ian saw that it was a clear container of gel.
A sigh escaped him.
All Yunhui had done was confirm that he had absolutely no intention of stopping.
Yunhui squeezed a generous amount of gel into his palm and reached behind Ian.
Ian clenched his teeth as the cold gel touched him. His wounded pride made him struggle desperately to keep even the smallest moan from escaping.
He had chosen to give Yunhui his body, and he had no intention of running away. But he had lived his entire life as an alpha. Not once had he imagined that he would find himself beneath someone else.
Of all the humiliations Ian had endured in his life, this was the greatest.
Yunhui's fingers entered him more easily than before. The foreign sensation mingled with pain, but Ian refused to make a sound.
The gel made every movement obscenely audible. Ian grimaced, feeling as though the wet noises might pierce his eardrums, but when Yunhui pressed their lips together again, he no longer had the presence of mind to worry about them.
As Yunhui's breathing grew heavier, the pheromones pouring from him became even more intense.
Crushed beneath their force, Ian felt the tingling throughout his body turn into something that seemed to burn him from within.
He couldn't even take a proper breath. Kang Yunhui's pheromones filled the air he inhaled, pressing against his lungs.
“Ah!”
When Yunhui spread Ian's legs and pushed himself inside him, Ian could no longer hold back his cry.
The brilliant white pheromones surrounding Yunhui flickered like flames before engulfing Ian.
Every powerful thrust of Yunhui's hips shook Ian's body with it. His vision blurred again and again, and ragged breaths spilled from between his lips.
It was unbearable.
The inability to draw a full breath, the crushing pressure that sent tingling sensations through his entire body—Ian had never experienced anything like it.
He couldn't even tell whether what he was feeling was pain or something else.
All he knew was that Kang Yunhui had him so completely under his control that his mind was going blank.
*
It was early morning.
Sitting upright against the headboard, Yunhui lowered his gaze.
Ian lay asleep beside him, sprawled on his stomach. The blanket had slipped down to his waist, leaving his smooth back exposed to the air.
Yunhui reached out and caressed his back. His fingers traced a slow path from the nape of Ian's neck down along his spine, but Ian remained perfectly still, as though he had lost consciousness.
Yunhui's hand traveled farther down, reaching Ian's waist beneath the blanket.
Without hesitation, he pushed the covers aside and continued lower.
Even when his hand reached the gentle curve of Ian's buttocks, he didn't stop. The blanket slipped farther down, exposing Ian's thighs.
Yunhui bent forward and pressed a kiss to Ian's waist.
The soft sound of his lips touching and leaving Ian's skin echoed through the silent bedroom.
It had taken him twenty years.
Twenty whole years…
Yunhui had wanted Seo Ian longer than Yudam had. He had wanted him more, and far more deeply.
So deeply that he had been frightened of his own desires and forced himself to keep his distance.
“I won't let anyone take you away from me again. No one.”
After murmuring those words, he pulled the blanket up over Ian's shoulders and climbed out of bed.
He wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing, but there was no one around to see him anyway.
Last night, before sending Park Minjun away, he had given all the household staff time off as well.
Until the day after tomorrow, the only people in this house would be Ian and himself.
Twenty years of pent-up desire.
There was no way a few hours could have satisfied him.
But he couldn't very well take Ian again while he was unconscious, either.
He needed to cool himself down with a cold shower, however briefly.
On his way to the bathroom, Yunhui found his phone and sent a message.
It was a notification to Han Yudam's mother that he intended to cancel the engagement.
In exchange, he planned to award the Han family enough Sanha Group contracts to ensure they had no cause for complaint.
After all, those business opportunities were the reason the Han family had wanted the engagement in the first place. They had been eager to establish a firm connection with Sanha Group so that Yunhui couldn't change his mind about the business arrangements later.
Yunhui took a shower under water cold enough to chill his entire body, then returned to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed.
Ian was still lying in exactly the same position, without the slightest movement.
Perhaps unconscious would be a more accurate description than asleep.
For now, Yunhui intended to leave him alone until he woke up.
He would have to make sure Ian ate something when he did.
After all, Ian wouldn't be able to leave this house for the next two days. He would need plenty of nourishment.
*
“Ugh…”
A low, pained groan escaped Ian before he could help it.
He was awake, but his body refused to move.
He didn't even have the strength to lift his eyelids, so he kept his eyes closed and simply lay there, breathing slowly.
“Awake?”
Ian flinched at the voice coming from right beside him.
He barely managed to crack his eyes open.
Kang Yunhui was standing in front of him.
Unlike Ian, who felt utterly wrecked, Yunhui looked not merely energetic but positively refreshed.
The sight made Ian want to curse him.
That animal.
Fragments of last night's memories surfaced in his mind, leaving him too exhausted even to sigh.
He had never once considered himself physically inferior to anyone.
Yet Yunhui had left him with an overwhelming sense of defeat.
It wasn't a question of whether it had been Ian's first time. Nor was it simply the strain of accepting another alpha as an alpha himself.
Why the hell hadn't Yunhui stopped after the first time?
Ian had already been struggling to withstand the pheromones pouring out of him, yet Yunhui had kept up that relentless activity for hours.
Eventually, Ian had given up even trying to keep track of how much time had passed.
The last thing he remembered was everything going black, as though he had finally passed out.
When he tried to sit up, his entire body ached as if someone had beaten him all over.
Below his waist, he could barely feel anything at all.
He really hadn't shown me the slightest mercy.
Even if Ian had been an omega, he would have struggled to endure Kang Yunhui.
The thought even occurred to him that if Yudam, with his slender body, had been the one dealing with that bastard, he might have ended up being carried off to the hospital.
Ian finally managed to sit upright.
“Haa…”
A sigh escaped him, sounding more like a groan.
Yunhui hadn't made any halfhearted attempt to reach out and help him. He had simply watched Ian struggle, clicked his tongue, and walked out of the bedroom.
Ian didn't call after him.
Having Yunhui leave was better than being subjected to his scrutiny any longer.
Only after sitting up did Ian realize that he was completely naked.
He was looking around for something to wear when Yunhui returned carrying a tray.
“Eat.”
He set the tray down in front of Ian.
There was a bowl of rice porridge accompanied by a few simple side dishes.
Ian was about to ask why he had suddenly brought him porridge, but then he remembered the state his body was in and decided against it.
It wasn't as though he had spent the entire night moaning aloud. If anything, forcing himself to swallow every sound had only made his throat hurt worse.
He doubted he would have been able to swallow an ordinary meal anyway.
“Do I have to feed you?”
Yunhui added the question when Ian continued staring blankly at the porridge.
Ian drew a shallow breath and picked up the spoon.
As he stirred the porridge, he noticed that it contained quite a few generous pieces of abalone.
“Is anyone else here?”
It didn't look like something Yunhui had bought.
If someone had cooked abalone porridge in the house, that meant there had to be someone around who had prepared it.
Ian hadn't seen anyone last night, so the thought hadn't occurred to him until now.
But there might be household staff here.
And if they were here, they might have heard everything that had happened in this bedroom last night.
The mere possibility made him want to die of embarrassment.
“No. I gave everyone time off until the day after tomorrow.”
Ian let out a breath of relief at Yunhui's answer.
Then he froze.
Giving everyone time off meant Yunhui had deliberately emptied the house.
But why?
And why until the day after tomorrow?
Surely he wasn't planning to…
A sense of foreboding crept over Ian.
Still holding his spoon, he looked up at Yunhui.
“What?”
Yunhui turned toward him when he noticed Ian staring.
“No. Nothing.”
Ian hurriedly shook his head and buried his face over the tray.
“By the way, who made this?”
“I did.”
The casual answer brought Ian's spoon to a halt again.
This time, he couldn't even bring himself to look at Yunhui. He simply stared down at the spoonful of porridge in his hand.
“Don't worry. It won't kill you. I haven't put anything strange in it, either.”
Ian would have been better off not hearing that last part.
He hadn't been thinking anything of the sort until Yunhui mentioned it.
Now he couldn't help feeling vaguely uneasy about what might be in the porridge.