Chapter 335

Isaac seemed shaken by the words he himself had spoken. In a daze, he mulled over what he had said.

Siron stared at him in disbelief and frowned deeply. After a moment, he exhaled a long frustrated breath and turned to Baekgyeong.

“So to summarize — if you knot under the full moon in nature, the Imprint happens?”

Baekgyeong nodded without blinking.

“Right. Harmony of yin and yang, that kind of thing.”

“Sounds like a martial arts novel setting.”

“Pretty similar. Masters usually get stronger through cultivating energy, right? Ever heard of techniques like Formless Emptiness Art or Diamond Body Art?”

Siron rolled his eyes, thinking. It did sound familiar.

“...Maybe.”

“Good. Think of it as a similar training principle.”

Though the techniques sounded familiar, Siron couldn’t be certain and glanced sideways at Isaac. Even the man who seemed like a walking encyclopedia appeared never to have heard of such a method.

More than anything, the idea that Imprint occurred through sex under moonlight was impossible to believe.

“Don’t joke seriously. It just puts me in a bad mood. You’re treating me like an idiot.”

Siron hugged his legs and rested his chin on his knees.

“I’m not treating you like one.”

Instead of getting angry at Baekgyeong’s stubbornness, Siron asked seriously,

“Why are you insisting on the lie so firmly?”

Baekgyeong shut his mouth. Siron realized it then — the two men had no intention of telling him the real Imprint method.

Or outdoor sex under the full moon really was the method.

Siron imagined Gezar Bazelli and the unknown Dr. Yuri Berek tangled naked outdoors beneath a full moon. Rather than simply ridiculous, the image stirred something irreverently exciting. Gezar Bazelli had survived thanks to that act. Though he eventually died, at least he lived well past thirty-five.

Suddenly Siron felt indifferent. Whether true or not, there was nothing to lose. If it could stop Baekgyeong’s limited lifespan from ending, he would even have sex in Times Square, not just in nature.

In a dry tone devoid of humor, Siron said,

“If outdoor sex under a full moon is the Imprint method, both of you will be responsible for that statement.”

He moistened his dry lips with his tongue and straightened his shoulders.

“I’ll try it.”

Baekgyeong asked uneasily,

“Try it? ...That? There isn’t even a full moon.”

“Why wait? Just because the probability is highest under a full moon doesn’t mean other days are impossible. And I’m still in Rut.”

He beckoned Baekgyeong.

“You too.”

But trying Imprint with Isaac did not sit well with him. Isaac turned him into an Omega solely for Imprint, yet he had attempted suicide with him in the underground tunnel without even trying it. The only reason he was alive now was because the Designer had not been there. If the Designer had been present, Isaac — whose lifespan was already short — would have died peacefully there, satisfied he had achieved something close to exterminating the Alphas.

In the end the Designer was absent, and Yoon Siron and Isaac survived together. The plan was merely postponed; eventually Isaac would kill the Designer and choose the time and place of his own death. There was no guarantee Siron would remain safe in that process.

What if the Designer died first and the ticking bomb in Isaac’s head also went off, removing both Alphas from Siron’s life?

Freed from threat, Siron would become happy. He should feel that way — yet he could not find any emotion fitting that ending. The only thing he knew was that he did not want Isaac to die.

Suppressing his emotions, he said,

“If you want in, Isaac, join.”

“Yoon Siron, I’m against it.”

Baekgyeong immediately objected, but Isaac rose at Siron’s ambiguous permission. Stepping forward, he grabbed Siron’s cheek and kissed him. Not mentally prepared, Siron’s body stiffened like stone. Meanwhile Isaac, granted permission, clung to his lips like a sprinter launching at the starting gun.

“Mmph! Ngh—mmph—!”

Struggling for air, Siron tried to push him away, then remembered to breathe through his nose and accepted the kiss.

Perhaps because his senses were heightened, Isaac’s kiss drew the most primal response from him. Siron gripped Isaac’s head, rubbing his tongue against the warm, soft flesh. Chills crawled repeatedly up the back of his neck.

“Yoon Siron. Am I not enough?”

Baekgyeong, now standing, grabbed the back of Siron’s head and pulled it back to expose his throat. As Siron tilted his head, Isaac changed posture and covered him from above, kissing him again. Watching their messy kiss with a darkened expression, Baekgyeong sucked at Siron’s cheek as if claiming ownership, then pushed Isaac aside and took his lips.

Like a dog robbed of a bone, Isaac stared hollowly at them. Sitting in the bath, panting from heat and desire, they clung desperately to each other’s mouths. The pheromones of Rut, briefly subdued, surged richly again at slight stimulation, intoxicating them like a drug. Watching, Isaac said,

“You really are irritating.”

Baekgyeong pulled away from Siron’s lips and answered indifferently,

“Stand there and watch pathetically.”

Isaac did not respond to the provocation. Instead he left the bath and went into the lodging. Without needing to fight over Siron, the confrontation ended anticlimactically. Free from interruption, Baekgyeong relaxed and focused on Siron, intending to spend the night in filthy, sticky Rut together.

But soon Isaac returned, holding two neatly folded robes. Unable to grasp his intent, Baekgyeong eyed him warily. Isaac set the robes on the deck and walked back to the bath, suddenly grabbing Baekgyeong’s arm and yanking him backward.

“What the—!”

“Sorry, but you’ll be the one watching.”

Without hesitation Isaac dragged him out. Baekgyeong snapped back to his senses, sprang up, and slammed Isaac against the outer wall, making the whole building creak. Just as Baekgyeong raised a fist, Isaac drove his knee into his groin.

Baekgyeong collapsed, unable to breathe from the pain, but Isaac gave no chance to recover. Grabbing his hair, he dragged him inside and threw him before a thick wooden pillar supporting the ceiling. As Baekgyeong tried to rise, Isaac pulled his arms around the pillar and instantly cuffed his wrists.

“Release me! Now!”

Baekgyeong struggled like a caged beast while Isaac looked down coldly.

“You won’t get free unless you cut your arms off. So stop struggling and sleep.”

Wiping sweat from his forehead, Isaac rose to return to Siron — but the person who should have been waiting in the bath was gone.

Siron had already disappeared.

Siron left the lodging without thinking. After running a long time through darkness, regret crept in — he should have taken the car keys, not just a robe. But he was already too far away.

He kept walking. Beyond the dimly lit trail, black trees rose like blades. A deeper darkness awaited where path and cliff were indistinguishable.

He regretted it. He had forgotten Imprint was a one-to-one bond. That was why he carelessly told Isaac to join. But Imprint inevitably provoked competition.

He did not want Alphas competing over him, nor to become a trophy for the strongest after a fight.

Lost in thought, the wind behind him shifted. Wet footsteps approached rapidly — before he could turn, his arm was grabbed.

“Let go!”

Isaac did not release him. Instead he pulled Siron toward the forest.

“I’m not having sex, you horny—”

“That’s not it.”

Isaac’s voice cracked for the first time.

“I needed time to talk alone.”

Catching his breath, he added,

“That’s all.”

“Don’t lie. Then what was that kissing?”

Siron clenched his teeth, stomach churning at the hypocrisy — treating him as a tool for survival and desire, yet now claiming he wanted conversation. Holding back a trembling breath, he glared into the darkness at Isaac.