The Hound behind the Mask

Lee Jaeha, heir to the Yooshin Group and a dominant Alpha, lived beneath the pall of malaise, an affliction marked by crushing, unrelenting ennui. Then, at a tedious gathering he had never wanted to attend, his path finally crossed with that of another man.

Jang Taegeon, an Alpha affiliated with Janghan Construction, exuded volatile pheromones that carried an almost violent edge. Their gazes caught for no more than a fleeting second, yet something sparked deep in Jaeha’s lower abdomen, sending a sudden, searing heat surging through his core.

Shaken by the unexpected reaction, Jaeha fled the gathering in haste. That very night, a sudden rut seized him, plunging him into an unfamiliar and agonizing ecstasy unlike anything he had ever experienced.

Lee Jaeha was an Alpha who stood at the summit of the world, with wealth, power, and privilege laid at his feet. Yet he was forced to confront an impossible truth: he had become captivated by another Alpha. Ignoring the chorus of opposition surrounding him, he proposed marriage to Taegeon, only to be met with a demand he had never anticipated.

“There is only one thing I want from this marriage with Executive Director Lee,” Taegeon had told him.

“…”

“Abandon everything that belongs to Yooshin and come to me. After that, who knows? Perhaps your status as an Alpha will no longer matter to me.”

Jaeha accepted his terms, though any affection that might once have existed had long since been stripped from their arrangement. As the Yooshin Group began its slow, inexorable decline, a seismic change started rumbling beneath the surface of their marriage.

Scars marred the man’s body, few in number but jagged and deep. For a fleeting moment, Jaeha found himself wondering what had become of the people who had dared to leave such marks on Jang Taegeon.

Lost in that thought, he continued staring until Taegeon broke the silence with a sharp, mocking laugh.

“Keep staring like that, and you’re going to start drooling.”

“I… did not drool.”

“Did something else drip, then?”

Jaeha followed the flick of Taegeon’s gaze toward his groin and recoiled in shock. Even more startling was the intensity of his own reaction, so unlike anything he would normally have allowed himself to show.

Watching his composure unravel, Jang Taegeon chuckled again, dark amusement threading through his voice.

“This really does feel like devouring some brat.”

“That is not what…”

“Although, now that I think about it, I’m the younger one, aren’t I?”

His smile sharpened.

“Right, Jaeha hyung?”

At that final word, crimson rushed across Jaeha’s face. For the life of him, he could not decipher the true intention concealed beneath Taegeon’s teasing tone.