The high-rise building, which was said to be among the ‘Top 10 Most Beautiful Buildings,’ was imposing in itself. Two men, having confirmed the building’s height with their own eyes from the outside, entered with admiration.
“I wonder what it’s like to work in a place like this?”
One of the men spoke while riding the elevator after showing his identification at the reception desk. The other man, looking straight ahead, replied with a nonchalant expression.
“It must feel like sucking the blood of others.”
The first man cleared his throat, seemingly embarrassed.
“By the way, why did a lawyer working at such a good law firm go missing?”
The other man, still uninterested, replied to the question, seemingly intended to change the subject.
“Weren’t we doing this to find that out?”
Just then, the elevator chimed as it reached its destination.
“Hello, I received your call.”
After showing their IDs, the Secretary greeted them with a smile and led them inside. The door she knocked on had a nameplate that read ‘Miller.’ The expressionless man entered first, and the other man swallowed hard before following.
“Hello, Mr. Miller. Thank you for seeing us.”
As the senior detective spoke, Dominic Miller came around the desk and extended his hand. The two detectives shook his hand in turn, exchanged greetings, and immediately got down to business.
“As we mentioned in advance, we are investigating the disappearance of lawyer Ashley Dawson. Do you happen to know anything about it?”
To the senior detective’s polite question, Dominic opened his mouth and said, “Not particularly. The last thing I heard was that he was getting married, and then one day he just stopped coming to work.”
“Yes, that’s right. He did.”
This much had already been gathered from phone records and whereabouts. The detective continued to ask questions to find out if there was anything else.
“We understand that you worked at your previous law firm for quite a long time, Mr. Miller. We also heard that you rejected many offers to transfer. Why did you accept Ashley Dawson’s offer?”
Dominic narrowed his eyes.
“Isn’t that a little too obvious to be a leading question?”
The detectives chuckled awkwardly and scratched their heads at his words. Dominic didn’t drag things out and readily continued.
“As you said, I had been at the same company for a long time and wanted a change of scenery when the offer came. I could have moved to another company at any time, but finding a suitable company isn’t easy. H&J was acceptable enough, so I accepted.”
“For someone who felt that way, we heard there were no conditions attached to the transfer.”
The detective narrowed his eyes and stared at his face as if searching for something. Dominic stroked his chin as if something was bothering him, looked away, and opened his mouth at the timing he thought was appropriate.
“There was a condition. The company probably doesn’t know about it.”
At his words, the senior detective hummed and scratched above his eyebrow before subtly speaking.
“Could you tell us what it was? It’s not company secrets or anything like that, is it?”
Dominic gave the detectives, who added a laugh, a faint smile but didn’t answer. When the embarrassed junior detective cleared his throat and turned his head, the senior detective hummed and scratched above his eyebrow before speaking seriously.
“Mr. Miller, we’re all busy people, so let’s get straight to the point. Did you sleep with Ashley Dawson?”
Dominic stared at him without a word. It was a question that directly revealed the prejudice that most people had against Supreme Alphas: that they were promiscuous and would sleep with anyone regardless of who they were.
Unfortunately, Dominic had slept with Juliet, so he had no choice but to accept his prejudice. In his mind.
“That’s an excessively personal question.”
He subtly avoided answering while letting slip words that clearly conveyed the meaning, and as expected, the detective frowned and made a knowing expression.
“What happened? Please tell us honestly, any information will help the investigation.”
“Please.”
The junior detective chimed in from the side. Dominic frowned deeply as if deep in thought, stalling for time before letting out a deep sigh.
“He was just an ordinary person, like you guys.”
“What does that mean?”
The senior detective frowned, and the junior detective looked flustered. Dominic looked at the senior detective and replied.
“Do you think that just because I’m a Supreme Alpha, I’ll accept any offer if sex is the condition? But I didn’t sleep with him.”
“Why not?”
The junior detective interjected.
“Dawson is quite good-looking, wasn’t he your type?”
Looking at his curious face, Dominic said, “He was my type.”
The senior detective, who had been gesturing to stop the junior’s rash behavior, looked at him in surprise.
“No, then why…”
Dominic replied with a bitter smile.
“He’s a Gamma, isn’t he?”
At those words, the junior detective let out a short exclamation as if understanding. Dominic turned his gaze to the senior detective and continued.
“Pheromones don’t work on Gammas, so it takes a lot of effort. Why would I bother with such a troublesome thing for just one night of sex?”
His last words were full of ridicule. Because of this, the detectives could easily imagine Juliet being humiliated and kicked out. The senior detective hummed, seemingly pondering again, before suddenly turning his head.
“With me, you say… so there’s another partner?”
He asked, belatedly remembering the strange word Dominic had used, and Dominic replied nonchalantly.
“I don’t know about that.”
He added in a businesslike tone.
“He just said that while seducing me. That I wasn’t his first.”
The best thing to do when lying is to mix in the truth. Now the detectives would definitely investigate Juliet’s relationships. Then his past would be revealed, and the investigation would proceed in the wrong direction.
As expected, the detectives’ eyes lit up with excitement. They were now rejoicing at the new clue and chasing after it, as if it were right in front of them. Of course, there would be nothing at the end of it.
As if this wasn’t the time for that, the senior detective hurriedly prepared to leave.
“I heard you took quite a long vacation before transferring, I’m envious. Did you go on a trip or something?”
To the question asked out of courtesy, Dominic replied nonchalantly.
“I just rested at home. Nothing special.”
“I see. Thank you for your time, it will be very helpful to the investigation.”
The two detectives shook his hand in turn and left the office.
“This is a jackpot, isn’t it? So you’re saying Juliet was gay?”
To the junior detective’s words, the senior detective walked forward, looking straight ahead, and replied.
“We can’t know that. We’ll have to investigate, he could be bisexual.”
“Well, he does have a fiancée.”
The junior detective then asked.
“Dominic Miller doesn’t seem like much, does he? If he had something to hide, he would have asked about the investigation, but there was none of that.”
“He didn’t seem very interested in the investigation itself. It’s like he only met us because refusing the visit would have been a hassle.”
The junior detective nodded in agreement with the senior detective’s words.
“In the first place, pheromones don’t work on Gammas. It’s not easy for Dominic Miller to harm him, since he can’t feel them in the first place.”
“That’s right. The sweetness inside the office was intense…”
As the senior detective frowned and pressed the elevator button, the junior detective quickly chimed in.
“That’s right, that’s the pheromone of a Supreme Alpha, right? It was my first time smelling it, and I was surprised. I didn’t know it would be so sweet…”
They continued to chatter and took the elevator down. A gossipy employee who happened to overhear their conversation hurriedly returned to the office and spread what she had heard. But unaware of this fact, their steps as they left the building were lighter and faster than ever.
The monotonous cement wall was visible in the empty field of vision. He didn’t know how many days had passed since then. It could have been a week, a month, or maybe not even a day.
Every time, Juliet woke up on the filthy bed, covered in semen and bodily fluids. The interior was no different from what he had seen before losing consciousness, and he couldn’t help but shed tears of despair.
Dominic had ejaculated inside Juliet countless times. He couldn’t feel the pheromones, but perhaps because of the amount of semen in his stomach, a fishy smell rose up from some point on, making him nauseous.
Just before losing consciousness, he thought he was really going to die. But seeing that he had opened his eyes again, it seemed he wasn’t quite ready to die yet.
It’s okay, I haven’t mutated yet.
He tried to shake off his pessimistic thoughts. The only smell he could still smell was the cool scent of cement. But if he continued to be exposed to pheromones like this, even if he had a strong resistance, the worst would eventually happen. Then what would he do?
Wouldn’t someone come and find me?
Surely, a missing person report would have been filed. The police would be looking for me. It’s okay, I just have to hold on. Someone will come. They’ll find me.
Definitely.
Definitely…
Just a little… more sleep… and then…
Before he could finish his thought, he fell asleep. The faintly felt sweet scent was permeating his skin intensely.