"......"
A heavy silence filled the room. No one spoke.
Grayson, who had stepped confidently into the counseling office, quietly shut the door behind him and turned around. He glanced between Josh’s hardened expression and Steward before breaking into his usual easy smile.
"I'm disappointed, Steward. I never thought you'd betray trust so easily."
Dramatically placing a hand over his chest like the protagonist of a tragedy, he even let out an exaggerated "Ah!" in lament.
Josh said nothing. It was Steward who finally spoke.
"I'm sorry. I made a mistake."
"Are you really sorry?"
Grayson narrowed his eyes as he asked, and Steward responded with a nonchalant expression.
"Of course. I'm reflecting on my actions."
He deliberately added, after a pause,
"Please don’t revoke my license."
With a pleading "please," Steward made it sound like he was begging.
Grayson simply stared at him.
A heavy silence hung in the air.
What is this man thinking right now?
Josh felt uneasy as he observed him.
Grayson, who had been staring at Steward, soon moved toward the couch and plopped down onto it.
"Well, no choice now. He was bound to find out eventually."
Then, scanning the room, he asked,
"Where’s Chase? Don’t tell me you came alone? I didn’t see his car."
As Grayson turned to look behind him, Josh replied curtly.
"I came to pick up his medication. Mr. Miller is filming."
"Oh, really?"
At that moment, an employee entered, placing snacks on the table.
"Thanks, Julie."
Grayson greeted her warmly before she left, then picked up a piece of chocolate and unwrapped it.
After tossing it into his mouth without hesitation, he suddenly made a disappointed face.
"This isn't it."
What does he mean?
Josh frowned in confusion, but Steward spoke first.
"All the ones with medication were taken by the police. My apologies."
Josh blinked in disbelief.
Was he looking for the drugged ones?
And Steward—why the hell was he apologizing for this?
Josh was baffled, but Grayson only frowned in annoyance.
"You should’ve kept a few. I’m disappointed, Steward."
"I'm sorry. But once the analysis is done, I’ll find a replacement."
"You better."
Satisfied with the promise, Grayson picked up another chocolate, examining it with a look of regret. Even though he already knew it was just regular chocolate, he still tasted it, only to make another disappointed expression.
Josh couldn’t make sense of him.
But that wasn’t the important part right now.
Josh spoke up, his voice firm.
"Mr. Miller... he really didn’t do it, right?"
Grayson, who had been pulling out another chocolate, glanced at him.
Steward simply shrugged without answering.
Slowly unwrapping the foil, Grayson popped the dark chunk into his mouth. The soft chocolate crumbled and melted as he chewed leisurely.
Then, he finally spoke.
"If I tell you, what will you do for me?"
"I won’t hit you."
"That’s it?"
Grayson suddenly burst into laughter.
This was not a situation to laugh at.
Does he think I’m joking?
Josh clenched his fists.
This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.
He needed to make it clear how serious he was.
Just as he was about to act, Grayson, still chuckling, spoke again.
"I don’t like getting hit, so I guess I better talk. ...Well, I was planning to tell you soon anyway."
He glanced at Steward before shrugging.
"Secrets don’t last forever."
Steward only smirked.
Josh shifted his gaze from Steward to Grayson, who had draped an arm over the couch and was now pulling out a cigarette.
Josh had to wait through an agonizing silence as Grayson lit the cigarette, inhaled deeply, and exhaled a slow, curling plume of smoke before speaking.
"When Chase experienced his first rut, he didn’t have a partner. He was just a shy teenage boy."
Anyone who knew Chase now would find those words unbelievable.
"Shy," "teenage," "boy."
Josh waited in silence.
Grayson let out another slow breath of smoke before continuing.
"In desperation, Alex was brought in, but he was useless. Chase couldn’t even get hard—he just passed out. In the end, we had to extract it with a syringe. When he woke up, he didn’t remember anything, so we just... told him a version of events."
"...What?"
Josh blinked blankly.
The meaning of his words slowly sank in.
"So it didn’t actually happen, but you let him believe it did? You made him think he did it with a dog while unconscious?"
Grayson muttered, as if making an excuse,
"What else could we do? He refused to release his pheromones otherwise. If they keep building up, his brain will fry. He’d go insane."
"But that’s— That’s blackmail. You took him to an orgy against his will!"
Josh could never forget that night—when Chase had returned, barely able to breathe.
Did this man even know how much his brother had suffered?
But what Grayson said next was even more shocking.
"Not that it mattered. He never does anything. Every time, he fights until he passes out."
"...What?"
Josh thought he had misheard.
Grayson continued, utterly indifferent.
"He says he doesn’t want to do it, so he gets dragged along, but no matter what happens, he refuses to sleep with anyone. Then his pheromones build up and drive him insane. So we have to inject him and force it out. He always ends up thinking he rolled around like trash, but..."
The reality was the complete opposite.
Josh turned pale.
Seeing his stunned face, Grayson let out a dry laugh.
"If we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t even be able to give him the injection. He could just find someone to sleep with and get it over with. But he won’t. Josh, my little brother has never dated anyone. Can you believe that?"
Josh remained silent.
Grayson sighed dramatically.
"He doesn’t want casual sex, doesn’t want to date just for the purpose of getting through a rut. But we can’t just let him pass out with someone random—what if he ends up impregnating them? So all we have left is the injection. And if you ask him, he’ll say he wants to live like that forever. But at some point, his arm will rot away from all the injections."
Josh was speechless.
His mind was spinning, trying to process the truth.
Grayson kept talking.
"One day, he’ll accept reality and figure it out like other Extreme Alphas. If not, we might really have to bring in a dog. Of course, that’d be a last resort... for hygiene reasons."
He smirked.
"Don’t you agree?"
Josh responded by punching Grayson square in the face.
Crazy bastard.
Josh gritted his teeth, pressing down on the accelerator.
The speedometer shot past the limit, but he didn’t care.
That bastard—how the hell could he say that with a smile?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
I should have beaten him half to death.
If Steward hadn’t pulled him back, he would have done much worse.
And yet, even as he lay bloodied on the floor, Grayson had only smirked and taunted him.
"Why are you so angry?"
Josh didn’t know if he was being serious or just trying to provoke him.
But one thing was certain—he had smiled, even while covered in blood.
How can someone laugh in that situation?
It made Josh’s skin crawl.
And yet, what angered him the most—what left him utterly shaken—was Chase.
He had suffered through that hell since his secondary sex presented?
Josh had to tell him.
He had to make it clear.
"You never did it. You’re innocent. You never forced yourself on anyone."
But then—
Josh slammed the brakes.
Tires screeched against the road.
His hands gripped the wheel tightly as he stared blankly ahead.
"I’m the only one he’s ever been with?"
Josh’s eyes widened.
That’s not possible.
He tried to deny it, but Grayson’s words made it reality.
Chase had never slept with anyone.
His pheromones had always been removed by injection.
"This can’t be happening..."
He sat frozen in the driver’s seat, mind completely blank.
By the time Josh arrived at the filming location, it was much later than planned.
He took two deep breaths before stepping out of the car.
The first thing he had to do was clear up the misunderstanding about the dog.
As he walked toward Chase’s trailer, he thought about how to explain everything.
That would be a relief, at least.
And then—
And then...
His mind stalled.
He didn't even know what kind of expression to have when facing Chase.
"I was the only one Chase had ever been with."
Realizing he had judged Chase as someone experienced, assuming he was a man who had seen it all, made his thoughts a tangled mess.
It’s obvious, isn’t it? How could a man in his late twenties still be a virgin?
But for Chase, that was exactly the case.
The trauma from his first rut had made normal intimacy impossible.
That part, at least, made sense.
But the fact that he had never even dated anyone? That was harder to believe.
Chase C. Miller—one of the most beautiful men in the world.
He had the looks, the fame, and more money than anyone could count.
And yet, he had never been with anyone?
Josh knew there were plenty of people who would have overlooked his personality just to have him.
It didn’t add up.
He shook his head, trying to push the thought away, but then—
He remembered.
Chase’s face, flushing red far too often.
His clumsy, flustered reactions over a simple kiss.
How he sometimes seemed completely overwhelmed.
The first time Josh had gone down on him—wasn’t he too excited? No, every single time, he had been too excited.
And he always wanted more, over and over, in just one night.
Josh had been like that too, when he was new to sex.
That was the final realization that shattered his last defense.
"It’s all because of Grayson Miller."
Josh redirected his anger, clenching and unclenching his fists.
His knuckles still ached from punching Grayson, but he ignored it.
What face was he supposed to make when he saw Chase?
He’d figure that out later.
Right now, he just needed to see him.
Even as his feet hesitated, he forced himself toward the trailer.
Then—
His phone rang.
"Yeah, Mark?"
He answered while still walking.
On the other end, Mark’s voice was tense.
[Josh, where are you? Are you almost here?]
"Yeah, I’m heading to C’s trailer now. What’s wrong?"
[Good. Hurry up. We’ve got a situation. Everyone’s gathered here.]
"A situation? Did something happen to C?"
A cold sense of dread tightened around his chest.
Mark let out a slow breath before finally saying,
[C is K.]
Chase was kidnapped.
The realization hit Josh like a bullet.
His voice sharpened instinctively.
"What did you just say?"