The next morning, as soon as Ethan left, I slammed my foot on the gas and sped straight to a love hotel.

I changed into a black men's shirt. Facing the full-length mirror, I twisted my fingers into the delicate skin of my collarbone and neck.

"Ouch…"

It hurt, but it had to look real.

Ethan was a top predator. Only the deep, purplish bruises of subcutaneous bleeding could serve as proof of a night of passion.

Next came the main act—smell.

As the stand-in trying to quit, my goal wasn't to hide but to make my "adultery" known to the world. I had to project a betrayal that simply couldn't be hidden.

I sprayed cheap men's cologne and sickly sweet rose fragrance all over me.

The cheap scents tangled together. It was murky, suggestive, and utterly nauseating.

"Ugh…"

It was too much, like black ink spilled over a blank page.

Once Ethan got close, this provocative scent would invade his senses, directly challenging his pride as an Alpha King.

Now, the final step.

I left the buttons of my shirt undone to expose my skin marked with bruises. Then, with a glassy look in my eyes, I sprawled across the messy bed.

I raised my phone and adjusted the angle. The shot had to capture the perspective of a secret lover taking a photo of their conquest after the deed.

I took the photo and saved it.

Back in my own clothes and carrying the "evidence", I headed for the airport humming a tune.

…

At the airport, when Nora stepped out with her suitcase, she was glowing.

No wonder she was Ethan's fated mate. Just standing there, she had this magnetic presence that made it hard to look away.

"Freya!" She rushed over to me, but in the next second, she looked like she had hit an invisible wall.

She pinched her nose and took three steps back.

"Oh my god, Freya! Did you fall into a chemical plant? The smell on you is so overwhelming! How is Ethan's sensitive nose going to stand this?"

I tossed my hair with total indifference. "You don't get it. This is the smell of freedom."

Nora gave me a complicated look but didn't ask further.

In the car on the way back, she fidgeted nervously, her face etched with worry.

"Freya, I'm actually really scared to see Ethan. When I ran away from our bonding ceremony, I ruined his pride. I came back to spite Reynold this time. What if Ethan still hates me?"

"Don't be scared." I gripped the wheel, speeding while giving Nora a pep talk.

"Don't forget. You two are fated mates! What if you meet, and it's love at first sight? You could find out that he's your true love! Ethan is an Alpha King. He's way better than that idiot Reynold, who only pisses you off! Also…"

I glanced at the rearview mirror with a sly smile. "I also hope someone more suitable can take care of him."

Nora was left stunned by my words. "R-Really? But he already has you as his mate…"

I flashed a bright smile and said breezily, "As long as you love each other, I don't mind him becoming my brother-in-law."

…

Soon, we arrived at the palace.

Perhaps it was fate, or maybe the Moon Goddess herself was helping me set up this perfect scene.

Because not long after I parked my car, a black car pulled up behind me. Its presence radiated a murderous intent.

Ethan was back.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Nora's face went pale. "It's him… He's in the car… I can feel the pressure."

As I gazed at the black vehicle, my heart pounded rapidly, but it wasn't due to fear.

It was excitement! It was thrill! It was the rush of an atomic bomb about to destroy a prison door!

At this moment, his destined mate sat on the left, exuding an innocent charm.

On the right, I—his ex-mate with a heartbreaker vibe—held a nuclear weapon in my phone.

This was the perfect timing!

Reaching for my burner phone with its anonymous card, I pulled up the "lewd photo" I had just taken.

I entered Ethan's number and attached the photo. Then, I edited the message with the most provocative, infuriating words I could muster, aimed directly at Ethan's Alpha King pride.

"Ethan, your stand-in partner is so soft and tight. When she moans, gosh, she's a total slut. I heard your fated mate is back. Perfect. Break your mate bond with Freya and let me have her. We're a match made in heaven. I really can't wait."

The car door opened slowly. A long leg in suit trousers stepped out, cutting through the air with lethal intensity.

Now!

I slammed the "send" button, and the message was sent.

I turned off the phone, my smile stretching wide with glee.

"Come on, Ethan," I thought.

On the left was his fated true love, and on the right was his cheating mate. He'd better brace himself for the ultimate double blow!

In the living room of the palace, Nora nervously twisted her fingers.

Outside of the floor-to-ceiling window, Ethan stood next to his car. I could clearly see him take out his phone and start reading the message.

One second passed, then two.

His previously indifferent expression froze the moment he saw the screen. First came shock, then his pupils contracted violently.

He stared at the photo as if he could burn a hole through it, and a storm of suspicion began to brew in his eyes.

After that, his thin lips slowly curled into a dangerous, mocking smile. The veins in the back of his hand were bulging.

Even from this far away, I seemed to hear the sound of the expensive phone screen cracking.

A terrifying, palpable rage swept through the entire courtyard, so powerful that even the crows perched on the trees scattered in a panic.

He saw it!

Now, all he had to do was step inside. Once he saw Nora, that fury would transform into a blaze that incinerated his past love for his fated mate.

Just then, the door slammed open with a kick. Ethan stormed in, bringing a hellish chill with him.

"Fre…"

But the moment his eyes landed on Nora, the angry man froze, and his pupils shrank. A strange, sweet scent suddenly exploded in the air. It was the unmistakable signal of the fated bond activating.

His long-dormant instincts were screaming, pushing him to rush at Nora, mark her, and claim her.

Nora, clearly feeling it too, shyly stood up to greet him. "Hi, Ethan. Long time no see."

As I watched the scene unfold, my heart swelled with excitement. I nearly burst into applause right there.

This was it! The sheer, awkward tension! Love was in the air! This was exactly what it looked like when love began to bloom!

"Now that the real deal is here, I'll leave you two to catch up," I said, struggling to hold back a grin as I played the part of the considerate ex.

I grabbed my bag and tried to slip away.

Freedom, here I…

"Stop right there." A cold, deep voice, void of any warmth, froze me in my tracks.

I turned around, surprised.

Ethan was staring at me. In his bloodshot eyes, there wasn't a trace of the tenderness he should have felt for his mate.

They held only the lethal fury of a beast whose domain had been trespassed upon.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. That was a sign of the sheer willpower he was using to fight back his body's instinctive biological response.

"Ethan?" Terrified, Nora looked at him with a look of utter helplessness.

Ethan took a deep breath and averted his gaze before instructing his butler, Romeo Sparks, "Take Ms. Nora to the guest room in the West Tower. No one is to disturb her without my permission."

The West Tower?

That was the most isolated part of the palace and the furthest from the master bedroom.

"W-What?" I was dumbfounded. This wasn't how the script was supposed to go! "Ethan, she's Nora! She's your—"

"To the study. Now."

Ethan ignored my protests entirely. His hand clamped around me like an iron vice, and he dragged me straight toward the second-floor study.

With a loud bang, the door to the study slammed shut, and I was thrown onto the couch. My heart pounded in my chest.

I curled into the corner of the couch, rubbing my wrist. I tried to comfort myself, thinking that at least we were in the study and not the bedroom.

We would be discussing something important in the study, right? Like breaking our mate bond?

But before I could calm my thoughts, his towering figure loomed over me.

Ethan didn't head for his desk chair like he usually did. Instead, he dropped a knee onto the couch and forced his long leg between mine with overwhelming dominance.

"Eth—"

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words were choked back by the wave of scorching heat radiating from Ethan's body.

In the confined space, the air seemed to thicken, becoming heavy and charged with tension.

His hands braced on either side of me, trapping me between him and the back of the couch. His gaze was terrifying.

There was no yelling, no accusations. Ethan simply leaned in, silently and aggressively. His nose nearly brushed my skin, trailing from my collarbone up to the hollow of my neck.

I stiffened, too nervous to even breathe.

The crushing pressure of a top-tier Alpha King wrapped around me like a suffocating, airtight web.

A strange heat began to bloom along the inner thighs he'd forced apart, sending my heart into an irregular, frantic thrumming.

"Such strong cologne," Ethan murmured in a low voice, rough with a barely contained fury. "Rose… and a nauseating stench of cheap cologne."

My heart skipped a beat. He smelled it!

According to the plan, I was supposed to boldly admit that I had a man now and make him leave me.

But as I faced this beast on the edge of losing control, I couldn't utter the words I had prepared. All I felt was the primal fear that made me want to run and deny everything.

Ethan's finger suddenly lifted a stray lock of hair by my ear. His fingertips ghosted over the red mark I had carefully created.

The touch was light, but it sent a shiver down my spine.

If he shifted my hair just a fraction more, the forged hickey would be completely exposed.

"Freya."

His breath fanned against my sensitive ear. It felt hot and wet, with a force that seemed to burn me from the inside out.

"Where did you go this morning, besides picking up Nora from the airport?" Ethan asked.

"N-Nowhere…" I turned my face away, unable to meet his eyes. "I just… stayed in the car..."

Damn it!

If I had just told him that I went to a love hotel, it would have angered him enough to break our mate bond. But I completely chickened out under that suffocating stare.

A strange sense of guilt and pressure made it feel like the oxygen was being sucked out of the room, and my chest tightened with panic.

"Really?" Ethan let out a soft chuckle, but his smile never reached his eyes.

His hand suddenly slid down along the strands of my hair. His fingers felt slightly rough as they grazed the most sensitive skin on the side of my neck.

"If you didn't go anywhere…"

He suddenly moved closer. With his lips hovering just over my ear, he spoke in a tone so deep it sounded like a murmur from the depths of hell.

"Then where did this smell of another man come from?"

"Mm…"

Whether it was fear or the sensation of my ear being teased, I shuddered, and a soft gasp escaped from deep within my throat.

It was trembling and seductive, sounding exactly like the sound I made when he pushed me to my absolute limit in bed.

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Ethan's crimson eyes darkened with fury. That sound made him seethe with jealousy, yet simultaneously filled him with the satisfaction of total control.

He straightened up abruptly and swept his arm out.

With a swoosh, the heavy blackout curtains were drawn shut. The room plunged into darkness, as if the night had come early.

In the dark, his glowing eyes locked onto mine.

"Can't answer me?"

Ethan closed in on me, completely blocking off any retreat. "Since you can't answer me…"

In the darkness, he traced the glaring red mark, then pressed his fingertip into it as if trying to erase both the skin and the memory with it.

His voice was harsh and obsessive as he growled, "Then let your body remember every moment that's about to happen. Forget everything that shouldn't be in your mind, completely!"

With those words, his large hand slammed against the back of my head. Driven by a raw possessiveness, he crashed his lips onto mine in a brutal kiss.

He wanted to overwrite everything with his scent, his mark, and his very being, leaving me with nothing but the memory of him.