“Huh?
Le-Leonid?” James stammered.
“Hello, James.
Still as noisy as ever,” Leonid replied coolly.
The two seemed to know each other, exchanging greetings by name.
Johanna, struggling to keep up, could only dart her eyes between them.
“Uh… you’re interested in this exhibition, too?” James said with a nervous laugh.
“How unexpected…” He seemed deeply uncomfortable, avoiding Leonid’s gaze and scratching his head in a way that screamed guilt.
“I have no interest in exhibitions like this,” Leonid stated flatly.
“Th-then what brings you here…?
And what’s with the candy?”
“I’m quitting smoking,” Leonid said, his tone dismissive.
“As for why I’m here…” He strode to Johanna’s side and wrapped a possessive arm around her waist.
Johanna flinched at the sudden contact and looked up, her gaze captured by his sunset-colored eyes.
At the same time, a scent like a vast, pristine winter landscape washed over her.
His pheromones.
“Ah…”
The world tilted, her consciousness reeling.
The dense, potent scent of the Extreme Dominant Alpha completely overwhelmed the lingering traces of the other Alpha’s pheromones.
She was instantly consumed, drenched in his scent until she could do nothing but gasp for air.
She felt Kestner’s bewildered stare fixed on them.
Looking down at the panting Johanna, Leonid smiled faintly.
He unwrapped a new lollipop and gently placed it in her mouth.
“It’s lemon-flavored.
Don’t you like it?” he murmured.
“Huh?”
“If you like it, nod.”
In a daze, she nodded.
His eyes curved into crescents as he gazed down at her with an expression of pure adoration.
Even knowing it was all an act, her heart fluttered helplessly, and she quickly looked away.
Leonid held her gaze for another moment before turning back to James Kestner.
“My fiancée,” he announced, his voice smooth as silk, “has a great interest in historical artifacts.”
*
The only reason Leonid had graced this stuffy exhibition, which he normally wouldn’t have given a second glance, was because his grandfather had donated one of the items on display.
“The organizers wish to express their gratitude, so you will go in my stead.”
Damned old man, always saddling me with his tedious errands, Leonid had grumbled, but he carried out the request dutifully.
He toured the boring exhibition and even exchanged smiling handshakes with the organizers—while wearing gloves, of course.
He had just fulfilled his obligation and was about to leave when an unexpected face caught his eye.
It was the Omega he’d contracted… Johanna Lucerne.
Tickets for an exhibition like this weren’t prohibitively expensive, so it wasn’t unusual to see visitors from outside the upper echelons of society.
Her presence wasn’t surprising, merely… unexpected.
He hadn’t pegged her as someone interested in art.
Then again, she came from a fallen noble house.
Even with their financial difficulties, if her parents had prioritized her education, she would possess a basic level of culture.
His investigation had revealed her father was a gambling debtor, so if anyone had cultivated her artistic sensibilities, it must have been her mother.
The woman stood for a long time before a large marble statue, completely transfixed, as if deeply moved by the sculpture.
Leonid shifted his position slightly to identify the piece.
Lovers Dragged to the Underworld.
Of all the things to like… A crooked smile touched his lips.
He was quitting smoking, so he took out one of the lollipops he now carried, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth.
The sour taste of lemon, sharp enough to make his tongue tingle, spread instantly.
He disliked things that were too sweet; this was just right.
It was around then that the scene in front of him shifted.
A notorious scoundrel, a man Leonid recognized on sight, approached the woman and deliberately slammed his shoulder into hers.
That crazy bastard, pulling his usual extortion stunt again.
Leonid rolled the candy in his mouth, clicking his tongue in mild annoyance.
A part of him, however, was curious to see how she would handle it.
The woman gave off the impression of a fragile wildflower, but a closer look at her eyes revealed a resilience that belied her appearance.
She was less a wildflower and more a weed.
She possessed the stubborn vitality of a weed forcing its way through paving stones.
In truth, Leonid did not dislike such resilience; he rather admired it.
Had she been a Beta or an Alpha, he might have even felt a certain measure of fondness for her.
But she was an Omega.
And he loathed Omegas with a revulsion so deeply ingrained it was part of his very being, impossible to extract—not even for the woman he was contractually obligated to bed.
The argument between James Kestner and the woman was dragging on.
Just as Leonid debated stepping in, his eyes met hers.
Recognition dawned in her eyes, which widened like those of a startled rabbit.
Her gaze became a desperate, silent plea for rescue.
He had intended to intervene anyway, but the sight of that raw desperation stirred a perverse flicker of mischief within him.
Leonid stood with his arms crossed, leisurely sucking on a lollipop as he watched her.
Bewilderment flickered in her gaze before it darted back to Kestner.
Leonid could not hear what Kestner said, but the woman looked momentarily surprised.
She skillfully masked her agitation, however, and replied with a placid expression.
A deeper, predatory interest glinted in Kestner’s greasy eyes.
Watching the entire exchange, Leonid found himself moving toward them without conscious thought.
Kestner was getting on his nerves.
He would not be satisfied until he saw that leering face—the face of a man who lunged at any pretty Omega like a dog in heat—crumple in humiliation.
“What do you think you’re doing, James?” Leonid’s voice cut through the air, sharp with disdain.
“This is an exhibition, not a back alley.
Have you no decorum?”
He reached out, wrapping an arm around the woman’s waist and pulling her flush against his side.
She must have been meticulously controlling her pheromones; he could not detect a single trace of her scent, as if she were a Beta.
The waist that fit so perfectly in his hand was so slender it felt as though it might snap under the slightest pressure.
Calling her his fiancée was, of course, entirely intentional.
*
“Fiancée?” James Kestner sputtered, pointing an incredulous finger at Johanna.
“Who?
You can’t possibly mean her.”
Johanna was too stunned to register the insult.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as if it had been struck.
From the moment Leonid Neuwitz had closed the distance and wrapped an arm around her, her senses had short-circuited.
He had then done the unimaginable—placing a lollipop in her mouth—before crowning the absurdity by calling her his “fiancée.”
Fiancée…
Even knowing it was just a title, a convenient label for their arrangement, a treacherous warmth bloomed in her stomach.
Perhaps this was all a dream, the kind so intoxicatingly sweet that it numbs you to the cruel reality waiting just beyond waking.
“I know you have a weakness for Omegas, James,” Leonid continued, his voice dangerously smooth, “but hitting on another man’s fiancée is poor form, even for you.”
“What?
Truly?” Kestner still could not believe it, his features clouding with suspicion.
This had to be some kind of act.
But as he stared at the mysophobic, Omega-hating Leonid Neuwitz standing so possessively close to Johanna, he could only mutter, “Could it really be true…?”
After all, for Leonid to allow an Omega this close was the most damning proof of all.
He had even unleashed his pheromones without a second thought—a clear, primal display of possession.
“…You said you were a Beta,” James accused, turning his predatory gaze on Johanna, scrutinizing her for any hint of deception.
Johanna, still reeling, moistened her dry lips to speak.
“That is…”
“Your tone.”
Before she could form a response, Leonid cut in.
His icy remark was not for her.
His chilling gaze was fixed squarely on James Kestner.
“…What?” James flinched, taking an involuntary step back.
Leonid’s razor-sharp stare pinned him in place, and he instinctively shrank from the pressure.
It was always like this.
Though they were both Alphas, Leonid Neuwitz dominated others with infuriating ease.
James had despised him since their academy days.
He, too, came from wealth and privilege, but in Leonid’s presence, everything he had seemed laughably insignificant.
The feeling of deprivation was a bitter pill he could never swallow.
“Watch your tone, Kestner,” Leonid commanded.
“How dare you address the fiancée of Marquis Neuwitz with such disrespect.”
“…Ah, right.
Of course.” James forced a laugh, the sound hollow.
“My apologies.
I was terribly rude.
Forgive me, my lady.
May I have the honor of your name?”
My lady?
he scoffed internally.
The woman looked as if she were from the lower rungs of society, not even middle class.
Hiding his disdain behind a practiced smile, James was determined to uncover the identity of this woman Leonid was suddenly claiming.
“…Johanna Lucerne,” she answered after a hesitant pause, her eyes wary.
He had thought it from the moment he saw her, but her teal eyes were breathtakingly clear, like the shallow waters of a warm sea.
Her looks are exactly my type… James licked his lips in regret, but a glance at Leonid’s murderous glare had him snapping his mouth shut.
“Miss Lucerne,” he mused aloud.
“I feel as though I have heard that name somewhere before…”
A jolt of shame shot through Johanna, and she quickly looked away, feigning indifference.
Though her father was the one who had incurred the debts, the shame was always a burden she was forced to carry.
She knew it was only a matter of time before this man discovered the truth about her family.
She just prayed it would not be right here, right now.