Chapter 40: Adrian’s Fractured Core
Adrian walked toward the car, his chest tight, each step heavier than the last. As he sat in the rear seat, Ash’s words echoed mercilessly in his mind: If I want to sleep with him, it’s none of your business." The sentence cut deeper each time it replayed.
"Pull off to the club," Adrian instructed Bravin .
At the club, drink after drink disappeared in his hand. The manager finally approached, voice cautions. "Boss, I think you’ve had enough."
Adrian’s eyes darkened. Rage rolled off him, his pheromones flaring like a storm. He shoved the manager back, pointing furiously. "How dare you try to stop me!"
The air grew thicker and dangerous. Other ABOs in the club trembled, shrinking back as Adrian’s unstable aura pressed down on them. Then, without warning, his body buckled-his core-injured pheromones surging violently. The suffocating pressure sent patrons scrambling out of the club in fear.
Bravin rushed to his side, sliding the mask over his own nose to shield himself from the heavy pheromones. The air still crackled with tension as he pressed a pheromone-blocking patch firmly against Adrian’s neck.
"This will hold for a while. It’s time to see..." Bravin’s voice faltered, hesitation weighing on his tongue.
Adrian lowered his gaze, remembering Dr.Han handling him the last bottle of Alpha stabilizers and urging him to seek another path to survive. His voice quiet but certain. "Prophetess Annette."
...
That night, Aster barely slept. He lay stretched on the couch, restless, ears sharp to every sound, hoping to catch Lucien’s footsteps.
Since the evening, when he had gone to pick him up from school and found no trace, unease gnawed at him. Still, Aster gave himself hope- Maybe Lucien had other matters to look into...maybe he would come home on his own.
But as the night dragged on and morning crept closer, Lucien still hadn’t come.
...
Morning sunlight filtered weakly through the classroom windows. Ash sat at his seat, chin resting on his hand, lost in thought. The scene from that night still clung to him, sharp and unsettling. Why did I say those words to Adrian...?
Naomi leaned across her desk, lowering her voice with a teasing smile. "By the way, you came in with Lucien this morning. Does that mean you slept at his place?" She gave a silly little cough. "Looks like your relationship just leveled up."
Ash snapped out of his gaze, staring at her in disbelief. His mind tugged him back- Adrian had left that night in fury, and in the heat of it, Ash had blurted words he never truly meant: If I want to sleep with Lucien, it’s none of your business.
Later, uneasy, he had turned to Lucien and muttered, "I didn’t mean it like that."
Lucien had only smiled faintly, cutting him off with quiet assurance. "I understand." And with that, he had chosen to spend the rest of the night in another room.
Ash shook himself from the memory, fixing Naomi with a disgusted look. "Stop those naughty thoughts. We didn’t do anything."
Naomi frowned. "Tch...so my ship isn’t leveling up yet."
Martin, seated nearby, glanced at her with a small laugh, shaking his head in amusement.
...
That evening, Lucien asked softly, "If you still don’t want to go home, we can return to the hotel."
Ash shook his head, offering a small excuse. "My mother would worry if I missed going home a second day," But deep down, the truth was different-he wanted to see Adrian.
Lucien seemed to understand without pressing further. He simply called a taxi for him, since Bravin hadn’t come to fetch Ash as usual.
When Ash arrived home, his ears stayed sharp, straining to catch the familiar sound of Adrian’s return. He lingered by the balcony, eyes fixed on the gate, waiting for the car headlights to pierce the night. But the hours dragged on, and Adrian never came.
At last, unable to wait any longer, Ash closed his eyes and called on his fifth gift- the ability to pinpoint exactly where Adrian was. But the vision that formed in his mind was blurred, hazy, as though a veil had been cast to block him. Someone or something was interfering, keeping Adrian’s location from showing clearly. Restless and uneasy, Ash decided to teleport.
However, teleportation was a power Dr. Eric had strictly forbidden him to use, as it drained a tremendous amount of mana.
Of the seven gifts he carried, the first was sensing, the second heightening hearing, the third an unusual productivity beyond other omegas, the fourth teleportation, the fifth pinpointing locations, the sixth erasing memories, and the seventh strength rivaling that of S-ranked Alphas. But teleportation and fighting were strictly off-limits-too dangerous for his core.
Even so, Ash had broken those rules before, when it meant saving Adrian’s life...or Lucien’s. And now, with his heart pounding, he let the forbidden pull spread through him, determined to find Adrian.
The pull yanked him forward, and in the next breath, Ash found himself standing in a deserted place beneath the shadow of a hill. At the very top, silhouetted against the fading sky, stood a lonely hut. Its thatched roof swayed in the wind, and at the door, Bravin was posted like a sentinel, his stance rigid, eyes scanning the dark.
Ash’s heart quickened. Adrian...could he be inside? The thought made his chest tighten. But why here-why in such a desolate place that seemed to breathe secrets and unease?
He stepped forward, but the moment his foot crossed the threshold, an unseen force slammed against him, shoving him back. Gritting his teeth, he tried again, only to be hurled away with greater force. A third attempt left his knees trembling, and this time, a warm trickle slipped from his nose.
He wiped it with his fingers and stared at the smear of red. His breath hitched. A seal...this place is bound by a power far beyond mine. I can’t enter it.
...
Inside the hut, the air was thick with the smell of burning herbs. Adrian lay stretched on a worn mat, his body lined with talismans that clung to his skin, each one glowing faintly as if drawing or binding the energy within him. His chest rose and fell in uneven rhythm, every breath sounding heavier than the last.
A short distance away, Prophetess Annette sat with her legs crossed before a shallow wooden bowl filled with water. Symbols marked its rim, and faint ripples stirred across its surface though the room was still. Her eyes were fixed on the water, where an image shimmered faintly; Ash outside, struggling against the invisible barrier.
Her lips moved in a low murmur, words falling like an incantation carried by the air. " The thread you bound is the wound you must heal...only you draw him back."