Chapter 17. Blood and Lips

After Asher and Noah cried their eyes out for some time, they awkwardly let go of each other. Asher chuckled. “I’m bigger than you, but I was the first one to cry.”

“I won’t tell anyone. It’ll just be a secret between the two of us,” Noah said.

This was the first time Noah had ever sweetly smiled at Asher. Asher found Noah absolutely adorable, from how his fluffy red hair shook to his eyes narrowing from the smile, and he couldn’t help but also smile.

“So, why were you in the garden?” Noah asked.

“Oh, I needed a place to think… and often found myself sitting here recently.”

“I see… I also come here often to play. Oh! Do you know about this flower?” Noah leapt off the bench, grabbed a flower from the flower bed, and brought it over to Asher. “Did you know that if you suck on the back of the flower like this, you can taste nectar?”

It resembled the azaleas Asher had often spotted during his commute to elementary school in his previous life. The shape was slightly different, but the memory of his younger self sucking the nectar from azaleas overlapped with the image of Noah doing the same. Asher got up from the bench and reached his right hand out to grab a flower.

The moment Noah shouted, “Careful! It’s really easy to cut yourself on the leaves,” Asher felt a sting run through his hand; he had hurt himself as soon as he was warned. He immediately withdrew his hand, but several drops of blood fell from his cut index finger onto the ground.

“Asher, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine. It’s no…thing…”

When Asher turned around and smiled to reassure the worried Noah, he noticed someone standing there in a daze. Wearing a black military uniform, the terrifyingly beautiful man with black hair had his black eyes wide open and watched him; it was Theodore.

“Asher?” Noah found it strange when Asher suddenly froze. He turned around to see Theodore there. “Whoa! That scared me. When did Black Knight Theodore get here?”

Theodore stood silent and frozen like a stone statue, not answering Noah’s question. Asher hadn’t seen Theodore ever since the knight left his room back then. However, Asher didn’t expect this sudden encounter and quickly grew embarrassed.

He knew it wasn’t Theodore’s intention, but when dealing with someone he had his first kiss with… he couldn’t help but feel this way. Urgh, and just when he finally got his mind off of it!

“Theodo—” To hide his embarrassment, Asher thought about poking fun at himself for cutting his finger just now, but that didn’t happen. Theodore, who had been as still as a statue, suddenly moved and firmly grabbed Asher’s hand.

“Th-this smell!”

“ngh!” Theodore’s grip was so tight that pain ran through Asher’s hand.

“…my…” Theodore’s face was normally expressionless and unreadable, but this time, it displayed a never-before-seen bewilderment. 

Asher frowned at the pain in his hand. He tried to shake off Theodore, but his grip remained firm and this actually caused Asher to stumble and cling to Theodore’s shoulder for support. Theodore’s black eyes shone, and Asher felt for a moment that he was being sucked inside and got lost in them.

Just then, he felt something moist on his finger. Something warm wiped the blood dripping out of the cut on his finger before the whole section was encompassed by something soft. The feeling of something soft stroking him sent shivers down his back. His mind couldn’t keep up with what he was witnessing. He could only stare.

All of a sudden, Theodore roughly shoved Asher away, promptly lowered his head, and said, “I… I am deeply sorry for my behavior.”

Asher didn’t have any time to say anything before Theodore ran off. Asher and Noah looked at each other.

“Huh?” Asher couldn’t believe what just happened to him before and was in utter shock.

“Did he just… to your finger…?”

“…”

“He… licked your finger…”

Asher wanted to deny, to refute that Theodore would never do that. But his finger had been licked; the warm sensation left on his finger was evidence enough.

Noah continued, “He licked your finger! I saw it! Your finger—”

“I know!”

Noah kept stating it that Asher unintentionally shouted. Asher and Noah couldn’t believe it, but they both witnessed Theodore’s actions before their very eyes, so they had to believe it was real.

Why did Theodore suddenly do that?! Asher stared at his finger in a confused daze, the sensation still lingering. But it had already stopped bleeding.

　

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Theodore covered his nose and mouth with his hand as he quickly walked through the hallways. The passing soldiers froze with baffled looks when they saw Theodore in that state.

For the first time in his life, he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. His head was spinning, and the prince’s blood in his mouth was disgustingly sweet. He was utterly confused by his inability to control his body then. He had been in the middle of searching for Prince Noah on Consort Jeffrey’s order. While walking along the passageway to the garden, a strong scent suddenly hit him.

It was that smell—the unexpected sweet scent he smelled just as he felt the notvis scent rapidly wearing him down. After he fell into deep sleep, his body felt unbelievably light. He had been in so much pain, yet it was as if he had never been affected by the notvis scent.

When he finally arrived at an empty hallway, he staggered over to the wall, leaned against it, and attempted to steady his breathing. However, that was impossible with that sweet scent lingering inside his mouth.

He found… no, that wasn’t right… He ended up finding his…

His fated mate…

Beastfolk decided their partners by smell. Not all beastfolk did, but many were attracted to their partners by their scent and eventually got married. They could instinctually pick out their fated mate by scent. And that was why… exactly why Theodore’s father was pitiful. Oh, how much his father despaired that the one who would become his fated mate wasn’t a beastfolk like him. Theodore wasn’t from the Kingdom of Dias; he was born in a country where discrimination against beastfolk still ran deep. However, it was in that very country where Theodore’s father encountered a human exuding that special scent that told him they were fated to be together. Mutual love between a beastfolk who knew they were fated by smell and a human who couldn’t smell that scent was obviously impossible.

Theodore’s father couldn’t touch his fated mate even though he finally found them. Even though they were right in front of him. Even though he loved them; he loved them so much.

Theodore’s father ended up kidnapping the human and forcing his love upon them. But they did not reciprocate. Far from it, Theodore’s father was continually hated by his beloved mate and went insane. And the mother, pregnant with Theodore, also went insane.

Theodore didn’t know what became of his two parents afterwards. For as long as he could remember, he lived in an orphanage and only learned of his birth from the thoughtless adults’ gossip. They probably didn’t even consider that Theodore could hear them. That was how he came to know he had beastfolk blood in him, and that was how he could see and hear things from farther distances than the average human. He slowly grew to understand that he was something inhuman that took on human form.

At the same time, he wasn’t a beastfolk either.

That was why he was relieved. He didn’t need to worry about being seduced by something as dumb as a fated mate. He wouldn’t die from being unloved because he was neither human nor beastfolk.

However, the moment his nose caught whiff of that familiar scent, he lost control of his body. He rushed as fast as he could to find the source—the boy oozing that suffocating smell.

His golden hair formed an angel’s halo over his head. His face twisted in pain suddenly broke into a smile for Theodore. His blue eyes locked Theodore in place, causing the knight’s heart to beat out of his chest.

Theodore wanted to keep staring forever as the one second stretched out to an eternity. He wanted to hold the prince in his arms right now.

His mate was right in front of him. His.

His impulses took full control of him. He didn’t want anyone to touch a single hair on that head. Even that single drop of blood dripping down his finger was his.

His fated mate. All his.

‘Beastfolk are pitiful creatures… Sad, pitiful creatures forever bound to their mate.’ The voice echoing in his head brought Theodore instantly back to his senses. He shuddered at how much he had desired the person in front of him. He shoved the prince away.

He had to get out of here. Fast.

“ngh! I… I am deeply sorry for my behavior.”

He doubted he could control himself if he stayed there a second longer. However, the farther he went, the more painful a part of him felt, like it was being ripped out of him.

He never thought a mix between human and beastfolk would have a fated mate. He slammed his fist against the wall he had been leaning on and bit down hard on his lip.

“And him of all people… Why did it have to be the third prince…? What a joke.”

That beastfolk-hating, third prince.

After leaving the orphanage, Theodore struggled to arrive in a country that didn’t discriminate against beastfolk. However, just because people say there was none, that didn’t guarantee that deep-seated prejudice was gone. That was why Theodore kept his mixed blood a secret as he rose in the ranks of this country. No matter how human he looked, the moment adults learned he was mixed, their attitude towards him would greatly change. He had seen it happen so many times. Holding himself as a human while hiding his beastfolk abilities—that was how he lived. He didn’t want to die as a pitiful beastfolk like his father.

And yet—

‘When I woke up, I didn’t know who or where I was.’ Theodore recalled how timidly the prince answered. ‘But my memories are slowly coming back… But they don’t feel like mine. I can’t really explain.’

Theodore didn’t understand what the prince was saying. The teary eyes looking at him made him boil with anger.

‘I don’t understand it myself…’

There wasn’t a single hint of filth in those falling clear teardrops. However, that didn’t mean the prince could be trusted.

Theodore had witnessed too many times the heartless insults the prince had thrown at beastfolk. Yet, he claimed now that all he had done wasn’t him but someone else? But it was true that Asher felt like a different person now.

Nevertheless, Theodore refused to believe him.

‘What disgusting creatures beastfolk are. If I was born one, I would kill myself. Haha! Hey, you! Get your flea-ridden body away from me! Filthy monster!’

‘Prince Asher, the Kingdom of Dias forbids discrimination against beastfolk… Moreover, they are our beastfolk army soldiers…’

‘Shut up! When I become king, I’ll get rid of that trash!’

The beautiful face distorted into a nasty sneer as its blue eyes glared at Theodore. This was how Theodore realized that discrimination against beastfolk would never go away because of humans like the third prince. He had come to this country on the faint hope and dream of a place free of discrimination. But when he saw that the royalty here held that kind of mindset, he wanted to beat his younger self for having such naïve expectations.

Theodore had sworn to never forget the way Asher had insulted them by calling them filthy monsters, yet the prince himself denied ownership of those words that came out of his mouth.

Theodore didn’t want to forgive the prince. He didn’t want to forgive anything—the parents who created him, this world that discriminated against beastfolk, or himself for hiding his mixed blood to live.

Most of all, he would never forgive his fated mate, Asher, for entering his life.

He could never ever forgive that.

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