The Alpha’s Torment

The Nemea chief, whom he had waited for for two days, had tucked his tail and run.
He had abandoned his garrison and fled to save himself.

Still, he didn’t feel like he had come back empty-handed.

As he was waiting for the woman in front of the fortress, Tegen, the number one Sura, came crawling to him with a long face and reported.

He said he had told her not to meet him again.
He had even returned the clothes he had given her, in case the Sura didn’t recognize her and attacked her.

He looked down at his clothes, which still held her scent.
Just by smelling her scent, the nape of his neck grew hot.

‘I gave her so many chances, and she came back on her own, and now she’s trying to run away again.’
‘She’s so fickle and clueless.’
‘It would have been better if at least one of them was fine. I’m at a loss as to how to live with her.’

As he was laughing in disbelief, the Sura, who would have pretended to die if he had ordered it, peeked at him.

‘Why don’t you have the sense that even those guys have?’

Chuckling hollowly, he headed in the direction that all his nerves were pointing to.

There was a woman there.

She was surrounded by numerous grim reapers.
The grim reapers were chattering in their own language.

‘Awakener. Shinbi.’

One word rolled over and stuck.
He couldn’t understand most of the grim reapers’ language, but he knew instinctively.

‘…Was she a Destroyer?’

‘Is that why she was running away so frantically.’

‘Why did you deceive me? Destroyer. Why did you imprint on me?’

The terrible self-loathing and betrayal of having mixed his body with the race that had destroyed his clan, and even imprinting.
It was not enough to kill her right away, but when he saw the woman being choked by a grim reaper and gagging, his body moved first.

Imprinting is truly a fearsome thing.
She was just a Destroyer whom he hated from the bottom of his heart, but his world had changed just because they had had s*x once.

A fierce hatred boiled up to his chin, but as soon as he met her cherry-blossom-colored eyes, the accumulated feelings melted away like snow, and he just stared at her endlessly.

His heart fluttered, and a parched thirst arose.

‘I can’t bear it if I don’t put her in my arms right now.’
After chasing away the grim reapers, he looked at her, at a loss as to what to do, and she tried to sneak away.

“It was a good connection. Well then.”

‘Where are you going when you’re limping because you’re hurt.’
Putting aside his boiling hatred, he started to treat her first, but even after mixing their bodies, she was whimpering and making a fuss, as if she were embarrassed.

“P-please. It’s dirty, it’s dirty.”

‘Dirty.’
‘Your whole body is already vibrating with my scent.’
‘There’s no one who doesn’t know you’ve become mine.’

The Sura, who had already noticed, were in a festive mood.
They were excitedly chattering that the Valtael had finally appeared.
Not even knowing that she was a Destroyer.

‘A woman who will be a weakness.’

He thought caustically as he lifted the Destroyer, who had fainted from struggling, and headed for the incomplete city.

His ancestors had all died protecting their mates.
They had thrown away even their own lives, unable to make a sound judgment, and had endangered the clan.

His father had been like that, and so had his grandfather.

He had promised himself that he would not be like that.
He would take care of himself rather than a mere mate, and lead the clan.
He would survive tenaciously and prove the existence of the Varg.
He thought that was his mission and his reason for living.

It was more stubbornness than a sense of responsibility.
A rebellion against the gods who had abandoned them.
Revenge against the Destroyers.

‘So, it’s better not to have a mate.’

‘Even if he were to imprint, he would kill his mate with his own hands on the spot.’
‘Since it’s a once-in-a-lifetime imprint, it will be my weakness. I vowed to tear out that wound with my own hands.’

‘…Strangely, it’s not as easy as I thought.’

He had made up his mind and even tried to grab her slender neck, but he couldn’t put any strength in his grip.

‘Is it fear, or is it regret?’

‘Is it like the instinct to flail your limbs even in the water you jumped into to end your life.’

In the end, he couldn’t cut off the woman’s breath.

After finally bringing her to Bahalgras and laying her down, his worries deepened.

He had imagined what he would do if he got a mate, but he had never even imagined that she would be a Destroyer.

‘My mate, and the one who will destroy my future.’

‘What should I do with you.’

‘For the sake of the clan, I should kill her without a second thought, but seeing her tremble and ask if I’m going to kill her, my heart flutters again.’
‘I could only close my mouth and stare at her, at a loss.’

‘I can’t kill her in one blow. And I can’t just let her live with a peaceful mind.’

As he was thinking about what to do, he came to a conclusion.

“Let’s make a contract.”

‘Use the woman. Just as the Destroyers did to them.’

‘They drove them out of Dowongyeong, revered the vampires, and reduced them from intelligent beings to mere monsters, used them, and then threw them away. I will discard her when her usefulness diminishes.’

‘But the self-loathing is nauseating.’
‘It’s a disgrace to feel desire for a Destroyer as if it were breathing.’

‘Even when I try to recall my hatred, as soon as I meet her light plum-colored eyes, the accumulated feelings melt away like snow, and I just stare at her endlessly.’

He was sparing with his words, afraid that he might say something irreversible, but his gaze was fixed on her.
He had even assigned the number one Sura to her when every hand was needed, and came out alone to soothe his noisy insides.

Bahalgras was already in an uproar.
They were chattering that the Valta had brought a mate, and that the imprinting was already done.

‘It must have reached the ears of the Maha, so I’ll just keep her for a while for show and then dispose of her.’
‘That’s what he thought.’

‘But she keeps filling his eyes. Like a moon close to being full.’

“She is suffering a lot from the imprint sickness. I am making her a decoction, but it would be helpful for her condition to improve if you came back once every two days and held her.”

He had ordered them to report her every move under the pretext of surveillance, and she was always said to be sick.
It was understandable.
Since she was enduring the imprint sickness, which even the Varg would be bedridden from, with a human body.

Worried, he went back, and she was already getting along with the Sura, chattering like old friends.

He didn’t know how she had won their hearts, but the guys he had sent were all full of praise.
He was conflicted at the sound of them chattering that she seemed like a good person and would be a perfect match for Valta.

“Uh, can we talk for a moment?”

At first, he thought she had a hidden motive for imprinting on him.
But now he knew.
She was a transparent woman.

He thought she must have a request, as she approached him, even acting cute, which she never did, but she said something unexpected.

Tegen had been beaten up by someone and his face was swollen.
‘He may act all cheerful in front of me, but his nickname is ‘Demon,’ so for him to end up like that, the other party must be lucky to be alive, but she was crying, saying it was because of her.’

It was annoying that she had shed tears for another male.
He was already annoyed that she had gotten too close to the underlings, so he was going to take this opportunity to separate them, but she wouldn’t even resent him if her own kin was hurt.

His mood soured, and he said some harsh words that he didn’t even mean, and she got all sulky with her tearful eyes.

“…Karvan!”

Worried about her dejected face all along, he ordered them to treat Tegen.
And then, as if nothing had happened, she came to him with her eyes crinkled and wagged her tail.

“Thank you for listening to me.”

At your appearance, as you thanked me with your cheeks blushing, I felt it then.

‘I can’t leave you like this.’

Pushing you into the Forest of Trials was, in fact, a test for me, not you.

Since I had no intention of keeping you alive until the full moon ceremony anyway, it would be a relief if you died at this opportunity.
I thought that if you were lucky enough to survive, I would give you a chance.

Of course, I thought you would beg me to save you.

I was even thinking of taking you out, pretending I couldn’t win, if you clung to me with tearful eyes, as you did with Tegen, saying you didn’t want to go, and to please be lenient just this once.

‘You don’t even look at me.’

‘You were so keen on watching my expression, wanting to save your own life.’
‘But you head for the forest without even giving me a glance, with your face as pale as if you were about to die.’

‘Why did my heart feel so cold at that sight.’
‘I hastily chased after you and even gave you the sword I had never given to anyone, but you just turned your back on me, leaving behind the cold words that I didn’t need to come and find your body.’

‘Your receding back is surprisingly small.’
‘Can you even fight properly with a body like that.’

‘The Destroyers I had seen until now were no different from a natural disaster, but can that delicate woman, who is like a freshly bloomed red plum blossom, even though she is a Destroyer, stand against the beasts of the trial.’

‘She can’t even hold my neck properly when we’re mating, can she even hold a sword properly.’

‘Can she come back alive.’

Imagining the woman’s pale, cold corpse, he broke the rules halfway and followed her into the forest.

“…You scared me!”

‘I’m sorry,’ that word is so difficult, so he made an excuse, turning it over and over, but she somehow understood and expressed her disappointment with tearful eyes.

‘If I were to talk to her for a long time, I might say something I shouldn’t, and if we were to stick together, I might end up mating with her like a beast, so I tried to keep my distance, but she must have been quite upset.’

‘I’ll dispose of her before the full moon ceremony.’
‘Forgetting the promise I had made, I soothed her.’
‘The resolve I had, thinking it would be better if she died, had long been forgotten.’

When he returned after being caught by the Maha and listening to their annoying chatter, you were dead drunk.

“Because she drank all the underlings’ cups…”

He hated drunken behavior, but for some reason, your appearance wasn’t bad.

He approached and sat next to you, and you laughed freely, completely wasted.
When he gently pulled you into his embrace, you whined but clung to him, and he even thought that it would be good to be drunk sometimes.

The black mane Radugan is slandering you with fabrications.
The reason he didn’t bother to say anything to the lowly ones was because he was short of manpower at this time.
He was just watching, and if they crossed the line, he was planning to dispose of them immediately.

‘Threats, warnings, intimidation.’
‘Those don’t suit me.’
‘If they talk annoyingly, I don’t pull their tongues, I pull their necks.’

But, thinking of your dejected face, he was worried and even made up a lie he had never done before to make an excuse for you.
When he even threatened to pull out their claws if they touched you, they shut their mouths.

“Mmm, I like cats. I don’t like wolves…”

‘I did it for you, but you say you hate my kind.’

“You, are scary.”

‘Yes. I know too.’

‘That you’re afraid of me. That you hate me.’

“…I didn’t do it for you.”

His mood was not good, so he said some contrary things he didn’t even mean, and then you came up to him and wagged your tail.

“But thanks anyway.”

It was hard to resist the whispering lips, so when he tried to steal a glance, you got scared again and flinched, pushing him away.

‘Every time I’m rejected like this, my body has no pride.’
‘It’s just happy that our hands have touched.’