It was already past 11 p.m., which meant the duke’s rut had lasted for more than a full day. For some reason, even after a day had passed, the duke’s condition still hadn’t stabilized, and moans could still be heard from inside his room.

Joyce’s mouth was parched.

When he found out that the duke had imprinted on a mere human, and even worse, on Clyne, no, Chloe, who had deceived them about her gender to get the job, he almost went to find Chloe and grab her by the collar. Of course, he wasn’t so out of his mind that he actually did it, and in the end, he endured it.

The fact that he had to regard the maid as the duchess was unbelievable, but in the end, there was no other choice but to accept it. The imprinting of a werewolf was that terrifying.

It was because of the absolute and inevitable nature of imprinting that his family had faced the situation of the wolf blood being extinguished due to the repeated misaligned imprinting of their ancestors. But after making such an imprint, Chloe Liden said she was going to leave the duke’s side and return to her hometown. He couldn’t even express how displeased he was about that.

If she had only been in Loyzen, it would have taken eight hours round trip to bring her back. But from Börgen to Schneider, it was a twenty-four hour round trip. A full day.

He had barely accepted her as his lord’s woman, and now he felt the urge to rebel again. However, he had to suppress these feelings. When his lord’s life depended on that woman, such feelings were nothing short of disloyalty.

Please come quickly, Chloe Liden.

He gritted his teeth and called out to Chloe Liden in his mind.

Around 30 minutes past midnight.

Just as he thought he heard the sound of two people’s footsteps, Chloe Liden finally appeared in front of the duke’s residence.

“Lady Chloe!”

Joyce jumped up and called out to Chloe, but her gaze passed him and turned towards the door. Seeing the worry etched on her face, Joyce realized that Chloe was aware of the duke’s condition.

Did she know from the beginning? Was she deliberately approaching him after all?

In the midst of this, suspicion reared its head again, but he shook his head vigorously to shake it off. Such suspicions were meaningless now.

“He’s inside. Will you go in right away?”

He asked, and Chloe Liden was already turning the doorknob instead of answering. Seeing her hasty actions, Joyce felt that regardless of whether she had deliberately approached the duke or not, at least for now, she was sincere towards the duke.

She entered the duke’s room and immediately closed the door behind her. He didn’t know what would happen inside, but in front of the door that slammed shut, Joyce sighed with relief. In any case, the woman the duke needed had finally arrived.

Only after closing the door did Chloe’s heart finally sink. She knew that the way to relieve the duke’s rut was to sleep with him. But when she actually saw the duke lying on the bed and groaning, she was flustered by the current situation.

What should she do?

But she couldn’t just stand there in a daze because she was flustered. The duke was curled up in a position similar to when she had seen him at the inn in Solain, groaning in pain.

“Your Grace.”

She approached the duke. But the duke didn’t seem to hear her voice.

“Your Grace.”

Chloe had already come to stand right in front of the duke’s bed and bent down towards him.

The duke let out a rough breath and frowned.

“Your Grace, it’s Chloe Liden. I’m here.”

Chloe raised her voice a little more. She had to muster up her courage. On the way from the inn in Arne to here, she had pondered and pondered again about her feelings, the duke’s condition, and the situation they were in. And finally, she had made up her mind.

The duke was her man. It didn’t matter whether the duke had chosen her or not.

He was just subordinate to her because of the imprint, not because he loved her. The fact that she had been agonizing over this was now a thing of the past.

Because she had chosen the duke. Because she had already chosen the duke before imprinting him.

She had believed that it was only after the imprint that she had come to like and love the duke because of the attention he had shown her. But while listening to the words of the innkeepers, she was finally able to look into her own heart. Her reactions hadn’t been admiration for a handsome man or adoration for the famous swordmaster.

She had fallen for the duke the moment she first saw him, and she had come to love him while being by his side. She had simply been denying that it was love.

That was why she had slept with the duke. Even if the duke said no, her heart had come first. So it didn’t matter even if the duke’s body had come first.

What did it matter which came first? There was no law that said the duke had to love her first. She had chosen first, and now the duke was a werewolf who couldn’t do without her.

There was no point in arguing anymore. She loved the duke, and the duke needed her. The idea that the duke should have loved her first was just a meaningless desire.

Chloe Liden loved Hugrey Ulpaz. That was enough. The person she loved said he needed her, so she was ready to give her everything to him.

“Your Grace, Hugrey!”

She called out to the duke again. And at that moment, the duke finally opened his eyes wide.

“Chloe?”

A rough, cracked voice flowed out of the duke’s mouth.

“Yes, it’s me. I came to see you, Your Grace.”

The duke sat up. It was a swift movement, as if he couldn’t possibly be a sick person.

“Your Grace, you’re in rut, right?”

Contrary to her firm resolution, once the words were out of her mouth, she suddenly felt embarrassed.

Wasn’t there a better way to express it?

“You… know about the rut too?”

But it was already too late, as the duke had heard her words and asked back. With a face drained of color, he gave a feeble smile.

“Yes. I know everything. Even that you become like a living corpse without me.”

“……”

The smile disappeared from the duke’s face. It was a joke though.

“Your Grace, so I… with you…”

Her courage kept trying to disappear.

“You what with me?”

It was strange. He clearly looked like he had no color in his face and was about to die, but why did it seem like he was teasing her?

“So I’m saying I’m okay with sleeping with you, Your Grace.”

In the end, Chloe had to say the most embarrassing thing. Since the person who was supposed to be sick and groaning seemed to be joking around despite his condition, she had no choice but to come to her senses.

“Saying you won’t come back and then talking about sleeping together. What kind of whim is this? Are you trying to do a good deed before killing me?”

“Ah…!”

It seemed that the letter she had sent to Börgen had been delivered here. She thought he wouldn’t be able to receive her letter since he was here.

She almost laughed at herself. Sending a letter saying she wouldn’t come back and then coming to find him like this to spend the night together.

“I changed my mind. I decided to come back. I said I might not come back, not that I would never come back.”

Chloe clasped her hands together and spoke as if making an excuse.

“…So now you’ve come back? You won’t change your mind again?”

“Yes.”

This time, she answered more firmly than ever before.

“So you’re willing to sleep with me now that I’m in rut?”

“Yes.”

Her firmness had diminished a bit, but Chloe still answered with conviction. Because she loved this man.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have the strength to do that right now…”

For a moment, Chloe asked herself if she had misheard something. Strength, what?

“I mean, I’ve been in rut for more than a full day now, so I have no strength at all. I understand your desire to be with me, but… I don’t have the energy to do that right now.”

The duke lay back down as if even speaking was too much effort. Chloe’s face flushed as if it had caught fire.

What had just happened to her with the duke? She had overcome all sorts of embarrassment for the sake of the duke and herself and brought up the subject. What? He didn’t have the strength to do it because of his rut?

This was probably the most embarrassing thing that had happened to her in nearly 10 years. No, 20 years! What kind of duke was this!

Chloe unknowingly covered her cheeks with both hands. Her face was so hot that she felt like tears would fall from her eyes. Not from sadness, but from embarrassment.

For the first time, Chloe wanted to curse the duke from the depths of her heart.

What kind of rut was resolved so easily? Was it all a lie that he was dying? Didn’t they say that if he couldn’t relieve it, the heat would build up in his body? That his internal organs would all melt away?

All sorts of questions were exploding in her mind, but she couldn’t say a word and was just trembling.

“Ah!”

But she, who was trembling with embarrassment and anger, found herself pinned beneath the duke in an instant. She didn’t even have time to trace back what had happened to her in such a short moment. The duke’s eyes, which had looked like a dying flame, were glowing green and looking down at her, and his arms were trapping her on either side of her shoulders, rendering her immobile.

“Chloe, come to think of it, you came all the way from Börgen to here. To sleep with me.”

“Well… that’s true, but.”

The duke’s words omitted the reason behind it. It wasn’t as if she had set out solely to sleep with the duke!

“It seems wrong not to acknowledge it when you want it so badly.”

“No, that’s not it…”

She should have said that the duke’s claim was ridiculous, that he shouldn’t say such nonsense.

But it didn’t matter whether it made sense or not. Because of the heat she felt from the duke’s hands on her shoulders. It was so intense that she could feel it even through her clothes. The heat of desire emanating from his eyes was the same. He wanted her. Fervently.

At some point, the duke’s hands caressed her shoulders. Now, instead of on top of her clothes, she could feel the duke’s hot hands on the bare skin of her shoulders.

“It’s hot. Your hands…”

“Yeah.”

The duke, who had come down right above her face, whispered a small reply.

“Your Grace, the lamp…”

She tried to tell him to turn off the lamp, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. Because the duke’s mouth was already covering hers.

Feeling the hot and sweet heat, Chloe closed her eyes instead of turning off the lamp. Soon, not only her shoulders but her entire body was engulfed by the duke’s burning heat.