The Alpha’s Perspective

Karvan Baharga.
The one who defies even death.

Before the Valta, who possessed the strongest primordial energy in history, the entire clan tucked their tails.
They pledged their obedience and crawled into the city he had built, Bahalgras.

The situation in Bahalgras was like walking on thin ice.
The ones who had once been the heads of their tribes and strutted around had their pride hurt by having to prostrate themselves before a young wolf.

Although they pretended to bow down to survive, there were countless who were secretly aiming for his throat.

The old Varg, who wanted to put a leash on him, use him as a totem to chase away the grim reapers, and divide and devour Bahalgras, were drooling.

Karvan, who seemed to be made of frozen eternal snow, had no weaknesses, but there was one flaw.
He had no mate.

For the Varg, a mate is an indispensable existence.

The Varg, who have fled for hundreds of years to survive, must not sleep.
The moment they close their eyes, the grim reapers will approach.

Therefore, they must be able to protect each other’s bedside, taking turns receiving a transfusion of power with their ‘mate,’ who has come to share their mana.
Such an important existence, yet it is not something one can choose for oneself.

Imprinting is not accomplished by will, nor can it be refused.
It is a destiny and an inevitability determined from birth.

Karvan had not yet met his imprinted partner.
Living a life that was neither particularly long nor short for a Varg.

Unfortunately, such cases exist.

If the imprinted partner has not yet been born.
Or has already died.
If the dimensions of time and space are misaligned, they will never meet their destined partner in their lifetime.

He thought so too.
He had no particular feelings about it.
He had lived without one until now, so what was the big deal about a mate.

“Is there still no news of the imprint, Valta?”

But after becoming Valta, it became a big deal.

A Varg without a mate is an object of pity, but a Valta without a mate is a flaw.
A leader without a partner makes the faction incomplete, cannot continue the lineage, and cannot fully exert their primordial energy.

“A Valta who hasn’t imprinted, tsk. What will happen in the future.”

With that one flaw, the Varg council, the ‘Maha,’ relentlessly tore him apart.

“Even if you find Dowongyeong, can you usurp it? You won’t be able to use your power for long without a mate.”

‘Wouldn’t it be faster to wring all their necks than to find an imprinted partner.’
He was in the middle of being tormented by the impulse.

Karvan was looking for the location of Dowongyeong.
The Bahalgras he had built was incomplete.
The grim reapers, who learned combat methods, were getting stronger day by day.
Before the grim reapers became even stronger, he had to reclaim their old home.

Just as the Destroyers could not see them after the Ruin, the Varg could not see that land.
A discarded dog is not even shown a bone.

A place that all races can freely enter and exit, but the Varg do not even know its official name and cannot even see it.

The kingdom from which they were exiled in the distant past.
A city they have searched for for hundreds of years but have never been able to find.

Dowongyeong.

To reclaim that land, he approached the Nemea tribe.
He had not come to fight, so he showed his unarmed state and tried to talk to them, but they, after watching him, rushed at him in a group and threw him in prison.

He was about to pull out all their innards as his temper dictated, but he decided to wait for the chief first.
He did not bother to mend his wounds or wash away the blood.
This way, they would think he was about to die, be relieved, and wag their tongues.

And so, two days.
It was a boring time.
The Nemea chief, who was said to be out, did not return.

Just as his patience was about to run out, he met that woman.

“Alright, alright. I’ll go in, okay?”

A human woman.

The moment he saw her, a deep-seated hatred rose up from his bones.

‘Her clothes. Her appearance. Her features.’
‘Undoubtedly a Destroyer.’

But the woman recognized him clearly.

A Destroyer cannot see a Varg.
As if they were beings of another dimension, they see but do not perceive.

But, the woman was looking straight at him and talking to him.

‘…Yes, she must not be a Destroyer.’

“Hey, want to make a deal with me?”

‘She can’t be a Destroyer.’
‘A Destroyer wouldn’t be spouting such crazy talk about asking for an imprint.’

When he threatened her, asking if she knew what she was saying, she insisted that she knew and annoyingly pestered him.
He was about to shove her away as his temper dictated, as she approached him fearlessly, but he met her desperate eyes.

“Pleeease! I just need to borrow a little bit of your strength. Huh?”

Desperate eyes full of a desire to survive.
The desperation, as if driven to a cliff’s edge, was not unfamiliar.

It was an impulsive decision.
‘Yes. That much effort is commendable, so let’s see what you can do.’
He had left her alone, thinking he would kill her if she did anything foolish, but he never thought she would go and imprint on him.

What she had said, that she knew well what an imprint was and to leave it to her, was true.
The woman accurately pressed down on his imprint vein and injected her saliva.

In an instant, his world was turned upside down.

If until yesterday the sun above the snowy mountains and the earth beneath his feet had been supporting him, now the world began to revolve around the human woman he had never seen before, who was right in front of him.

‘Air, food, nothing is needed.’

‘Only this woman. The female in front of me. My partner with wide eyes.’

“Ah, hngh, let go! You crazy bastard…!”

When he came to his senses, he was copulating with the woman.
‘To think I would have my first heat in a place like this.’

By the time his reason barely returned, the woman was moving away from him with terrified eyes.
She ran away, dripping his seed between her legs, and huddled in a corner.

He felt conflicted seeing her resentful eyes blaming him.
But what could he do?
It was something she had to endure, having come to him and imprinting on him without permission, choosing him to be with her for the rest of her life.

He had always been good at ordering people to kill or tear apart when he was displeased, but he had never said a gentle word in his life, so he didn’t even know how to soothe a female.
Even if his tongue were long, it probably wouldn’t even reach her terrified face.

He closed his clumsy mouth and quietly approached her.
She was trembling, so he silently took off his clothes and covered her, and though she hissed with her fur raised, when he gently soothed her and licked her, she became docile again.

“…It hurts here too.”

He thought she was unfamiliar with imprint healing, but she opened her eyes wide and held out her arm, which was quite impudent.

The boring air in the prison changed in an instant.
He didn’t even notice the time pass as he was watching her flushed face.
He watched her, who was sleeping soundly in his arms and then startled awake, and what was so funny and pleasant about it.

“My name is Shinbi.”

An unfamiliar but catchy name that sounded quite like his own.
As he was quietly repeating it, the woman transformed into a beast-kin.

Once again, his suspicion raised its head.
Only a Destroyer steals and uses the power of another race.
A being who is not affected by the grim reapers even when doing something that goes against the natural order.

‘But it can’t be.’

‘Why would a Destroyer imprint on a Varg.’
‘A Destroyer who had chosen a bat-like parasitic race would not choose him.’
‘Even if so, there would be a conflict of interest or a hidden motive. Because they are that kind of race from birth.’

“…Ouch, hot!”

‘But the woman is not a beast-kin either.’

He was sure of it when he saw her grab the silver iron bars with her hands without fear.
‘Even a naive child who doesn’t know the ways of the world would instinctively know not to put their hand in a fire.’

And then when she was crying that it hurt, he sighed and licked her, and she chattered that she was grateful, which was quite tolerable.

“Listen carefully.”

The chattering of the Maha was so annoying, but the woman’s chattering was not bad, so it seemed the imprint had been done properly.

She was chattering about an escape plan, having thought hard with her small head, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that the Sura would come and overturn the place with a single mental transmission.

“…Did you understand, my plan?”

‘How can I tell that proud face that the plan is useless.’
‘Yes, do as you please.’
He was about to stay silent, but she urged him again, asking if he had understood.

“Did you really understand?”

At her face, which looked as if she didn’t trust him at all, he nodded again, and only then did she turn away with satisfaction.
A chuckle escaped him as he looked at her small back.
‘If I keep her by my side, I’ll probably be quite wrapped around her finger.’

The woman finished the plan as she had boasted.

She easily dealt with the Nemean guards, threw off her own handcuffs, and then left without looking back.

The reason he didn’t bother to catch her was a final test.

He remembered her eyes, which were occasionally filled with fear.
Even if he had imprinted on her, there was no reason to forcibly hold onto her if she didn’t want to.
It might even be better if she didn’t come back.

‘An existence of unknown identity.’

‘It might be better if she just leaves for good.’
‘In any case, the imprint vein has been pierced, so the evidence remains.’
‘I can just say that my mate died on the way.’

‘If so, I can shut the mouths of the Maha who were chattering about a Valta without a mate.’
‘They’ll probably cling to the fact that I’m a Valta who has lost his mate, but what can they do if she’s dead.’

‘…A considerable amount of time has passed, but as expected, she is not coming back.’
‘The woman left without even taking off his handcuffs.’

He crushed the silver handcuffs in his hand.
His insides hurt more than his palm, which was burning from touching the pure silver.
‘He had thought it would be better if she didn’t come, so why was he in such a low mood?’

“…Karvan!”

As he was taking his anger out on the guards by breaking their necks one by one, the woman returned.
She came closer happily, swinging a bunch of bloody keys like a tail.

“They said it’s a master key, so it should open most of the cells.”

A strange feeling came over him as she handed it to him as if doing him a favor, her round eyes crinkling into a smile.

His imprint vein below his earlobe became hot, and for a moment, his vision blurred.

‘How should I describe this feeling that fills me up as if I’m choking.’
‘Is it suffocation, or is it like thirst.’

“Your subordinates seem to be upstairs. Go on.”

They would have been freed by the Sura who had already stormed in, but the woman, who didn’t know, looked up at him as if asking for praise.

He clenched his twitching hand to resist the urge to grab the woman, who was like a hopping small animal.
If he were to grab her rashly, she might get scared and run away again, or she might break, so he just threw a bait.

“Let’s meet in front of the Nemea fortress in an hour.”

If they were to face each other any longer, he might snatch her away even if she didn’t want to, so he turned around first.

‘I’ll finish my work quickly and come back to discuss our future together.’

‘Since she didn’t just leave after imprinting on me. Since she came back and found me again, you must have feelings for me too.’

‘Yes, are you my destiny and the mate of my life.’

A lightning-like intuition strikes him.

He should have known from the moment he didn’t break the neck of a human who was touching his body, let alone a female.

‘She was destined to be his mate from the beginning.’