What did you do to me?

Why… are you like this to me?

Countless unanswered questions were swirling in Chloe’s mind.

It was a confusion similar to what she had felt on the day the Duke last dined outdoors, the moment he had held her frozen hands. That day, it felt like her hands were on fire, but today, it felt like her entire body had frozen.

However, the Duke who had thrown her into confusion had already passed by her and was heading towards the bathroom.

Chloe hurriedly followed behind the Duke. In a state where her swirling soul seemed to have escaped her brain, leaving her body as a block of ice.

A pause.

As the Duke, who was about to open the bathroom door and enter, suddenly stopped and turned to look at her, she nearly bumped her head against his back. Chloe quickly stepped back and looked up at the Duke.

“…?”

With a face full of questions as to why he wasn’t entering the bathroom.

“Why are you following me in?”

“Pardon?”

“Are you trying to assist me with my bath?”

“Pardon…? Then, should I not assist you?”

“…”

The Duke tilted his head slightly and stared at Chloe. As if trying to read her intentions from her face.

Wasn’t he implying that I should assist with the bath? Come to think of it, he only said ‘prepare the bath’, didn’t he? Why did I interpret that as an instruction to assist with bathing? When I think about it, while he didn’t specifically ask for bathing assistance, the instruction to ‘prepare the bath’ was something he often gave…

Chloe felt a sudden heat rising from her neck to her forehead.

Even without looking in a mirror, she was sure her face had turned red.

It must have been because of the Duke’s ominous aura that she had particularly misunderstood his instructions today, but it was awkward to make such an excuse to the Duke.

“Ah, I thought I had to assist with the bath… Then I shall take my leave now.”

“Why?”

The Duke didn’t let her answer slide and asked again.

“Well, I thought you might be especially tired today, Your Grace. It was a long journey to make in just one day.”

“It’s not because you want to see my body?”

“…!”

What is this person saying! When did I ever say I wanted to see his body?

Chloe felt her face, which had just begun to cool down, rapidly heating up again.

Of course, she had made a mistake a few days ago. The slip of the tongue where she had answered that she was attracted to the Duke’s face and body.

When the Duke had directly asked what part of him she was attracted to, she had been flustered and her true feelings had spilled out. When she first saw the Duke, she had indeed been attracted to his face and body.

But wasn’t that a completely normal reaction? Anyone in the world would give the same answer if asked. There probably wasn’t a single person in the entire empire who wouldn’t be enchanted by the Duke’s appearance at first sight.

But annoyingly, the Duke, who had been so refined until recently, was now trying to tease her by picking on those words.

“I told you before, didn’t I? I can show you everything.”

The Duke said with a bewitching smile to Chloe, who couldn’t even answer and only had a flushed face.

“No! I don’t want to see your body! Absolutely not!”

Startled inwardly, fearing she might lose her senses again at the Duke’s smile, she raised her voice in agitation.

“What do you mean, absolutely not? Haven’t you already seen it a few times?”

“Your Grace!”

“Hahaha!”

The Duke finally burst into laughter. It wasn’t the forced smile he had shown earlier in the office, but a perfectly good-humored laugh.

It’s good that he seems to be in a better mood now.

‘…!’

No, that’s not right! What’s good about it!

Right now, this Duke is teasing his attendant, who he said practices male love and likes him! How wicked!

Chloe, surprised at her own train of thought that found relief in the Duke’s improved mood, pulled herself together.

“Your Grace, if you don’t need assistance, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“…”

“Your Grace?”

“Yes. Do that.”

The Duke, his laughter now gone, entered the bathroom without looking back, slamming the door shut with enough force to make a loud bang.

“…!”

Staring at the door that had closed so violently before her eyes, Chloe was dumbfounded for the second time today.

What was that about? After all that talk about showing everything, he suddenly puts up a wall like this.

The door closed so harshly, it felt as if she had been slapped with the door while begging, ‘Please let me see.’

Really. Even though the Duke is her benefactor, and she feels guilty about the series of lies, and she’s especially concerned because he looked particularly tired today.

Somehow, it felt like she had been played in the palm of the Duke’s hand.

It was because she had been completely enchanted by his beauty, which looked particularly melancholic today due to the mask of disappointment and fatigue.

Hugrey, immersed in the bathtub, closed his tired eyes and sank into thought.

It’s been almost a month since the imprinting, so he would go into heat again within this week. That’s why he had desperately hoped that Chloe from Kinden would be his imprinted mate.

However, he realized that the woman called Chloe from Kinden wasn’t his imprinted mate even before he could properly see her face. It wasn’t her scent.

When the door to the room where the woman was opened, and the air rushed out from inside, he felt so repulsed that it didn’t match him at all. He had to stay for about a minute due to the hastily made-up reason for visiting the room, but he wanted to run out immediately, unable to endure even that time.

No wolf, no matter how out of his mind with heat, would sleep with a woman who repulses him.

Joyce, seeing his reaction, asked apologetically if he would go straight to Solarine. If Chloe from Kinden wasn’t the imprinted mate, according to the original plan, it would have been right to depart from there immediately to check on Chloe from Solarine.

Not only because of the route, but also because there wasn’t much time to spare, not knowing when the heat would come.

But he couldn’t do that.

At that moment when anxiety and impatience about not finding his imprinted mate seemed to swallow him whole, he realized he immediately needed something.

In fact, saying he needed something was just self-deception. To be precise, it wasn’t something, but someone else he needed.

Even if Chloe from Solarine was his imprinted mate, even if it meant delaying the time to find his imprinted mate a bit longer, at the moment he decided to return to Roizen, he had no choice.

He only thought about returning to that fellow as soon as possible.

He needed to see that fellow’s face, hear his voice, and inhale his intoxicating, fragrant body scent. Only then did he feel he could overcome the anxiety and impatience that threatened to consume him.

And the burning thirst as well.

Was it a kind of instinct, no, it couldn’t be a wolf’s instinct, so was it something like intuition?

And his intuition was right.

When Clyne, with that naive tone, suggested a bath, he felt his head clear and all that impatience and anxiety dissipate.

Despite being in what was essentially a life-or-death crisis of not finding his imprinted mate, seeing that fellow’s appearance and actions made him burst into genuine laughter from deep within his heart.

In fact, he wanted to drag in the guy who volunteered to assist with the bath right then and there.

He wanted to hold that fellow in his arms and deeply inhale his body scent.

And…

Ah! Enough! What a madman.

It’s madness to even think about it anymore.

He was only temporarily insane, not completely mad, so he shouldn’t continue this line of thought.

He is a wolf shifter bound to his imprinted mate, and homosexual wolves do not exist in nature. Moreover, he was the Alpha, the leader of the wolf shifter race, one of the few remaining on this continent.

He had to bear an Alpha to succeed him. For someone like him to even fantasize about homosexuality was unthinkable.

If he weren’t an Alpha, he might have grabbed that fellow’s wrist and dragged him into the bathroom as he wished.

But he is the Alpha and has the responsibility to lead his race. That’s why at that moment, he suppressed the fierce desire that threatened to overwhelm him if he looked at that fellow’s face any longer.

As if disciplining his heart, like the door slamming shut.

Even if his identity as a normal male wolf was shaken, he couldn’t throw away his responsibility as the Alpha leading his race.

So Clyne should only be a temporary refuge until he found his imprinted mate. While he could accept being temporarily insane, he shouldn’t accept anything beyond that.

Seeing that fellow’s face and smelling his body scent, feeling the peace of mind as if he’d found his imprinted mate, was just temporary mental confusion.

Not true, lasting peace.

Although right now, it feels like he can’t endure without that peace.

Even though he desperately wants it to the point where even a moment’s separation feels anxious.

“Did you sleep well?”

The Duke asked.

Did you sleep well? Really now.

He had shaken the bell rope vigorously like an alarm clock, much earlier than her usual wake-up time, causing her to hurriedly put on her wig and straighten her clothes, rushing over without even wiping the sleep from her eyes.

“Yes, I slept well. Did you also sleep well, Your Grace?”

“Yes. Fortunately…”

Fortunately? Doesn’t he always sleep well?

Chloe didn’t understand the Duke’s mumbled words, but she just nodded her head.

“By the way, why did you call for me? Do you have any specific tasks for me?”

Usually, before the Duke calls, she prepares the washing water first and visits the Duke’s room. There must be a reason why he broke this routine today and called her an hour early.

“By the way, you… haven’t washed up…?”

“Pardon…?”

Ah, do I look dirty?

Chloe stared at the Duke’s face with a slightly reddened face. But strangely, at that moment, the Duke turned his head away.

Hm?

It seemed as if he was avoiding eye contact with her. But that couldn’t be.