L*st and Death

Lewis couldn’t hide his revulsion as he passed an alpha exiting the legal counseling department with a look of relief on his face. But since he hadn’t come here to deliver justice, he swallowed his disgust and asked Dylan instead.

"This is surprising."

"What's surprising?"

"I didn’t expect to see this many alphas."

"This many? Today’s actually on the quiet side."

In the brief time Lewis had spent at the Baggers City chapter, he’d already encountered close to a hundred people. Some were betas, but most were alphas.

"You mean there are usually more?"

"Even more if there’s an event going on."

"Really? I’m surprised peace holds."

Dylan laughed as though he'd just heard something amusing.

"Why would you think that?"

"Alphas are naturally violent."

"Hah. That’s a big misconception. Why would we alphas have any reason to be hostile toward one another?"

In truth, the unfamiliar alphas Lewis passed while touring the chapter didn’t show him any hostility. At most, they studied him carefully. Some even cast him friendly glances, as if amused by the rookie trailing at Dylan’s side. But if they ever found out about Yoon Siron’s existence, this place would turn into a warzone in an instant.

As a certain wicked leader once said, animals always pair with their own species. A great tit finds another great tit, a male stork seeks a female stork, a male wolf mates with a female wolf. This restricted form of reproduction had long solidified into a cosmic law—an immutable rule of the universe. In such an empty universe, the alpha was born without a mate, and would wither away alone, a half-formed being doomed to extinction.

So in this place, were the Etas—those betas who emitted pheromones—merely skeletal supports holding up the alphas’ empty universe? Or was it peace born from ignorance—an ignorance that they were half-complete creatures?

Lewis wanted to probe Dylan—ask if he knew that the average alpha lifespan was thirty-five years, or that alphas and betas couldn’t reproduce. But he wasn’t here to start trouble; he only wanted information.

"This is boring."

Lewis stretched and yawned with a dull expression.

"What?"

"I said it’s boring."

He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Honestly, I’m not interested in any of the things you’re showing me. I’m not here to make friends."

"Then why did you come here?"

Lewis pulled out his phone and showed Dylan the chat log he’d exchanged with the counselor.

[Me]: I’m currently approaching my rut cycle. I’d like to know if there are any medical benefits or support available.

"Thanks for all the information, but that’s the only reason I came."

Dylan examined the conversation between Lewis and Counselor H with a cautious eye. Lewis kept his tone deliberately casual, his face cocky.

"Where’s that woman from earlier—the one with the nice pheromones? I want to talk to Counselor H for the medical support."

Dylan let out a quiet snort, as if Lewis had told a pathetic joke.

"Too bad. She’s busy. She doesn’t deal with rookies like you."

"Then who handles medical support?"

"What do you think ‘medical support’ means?"

Lewis stared at Dylan like a mute with honey on his tongue, then finally forced out a few reluctant syllables.

"...Pros...titution?"

"Hah."

Dylan didn’t answer. He only gave a faint, cryptic smile in response to Lewis’s guess.

"If you’re ready to take one step further, I’ll tell you."

Lewis hesitated at his suggestion. If Anna and Siron were right—and Hybris’s “medical support” truly meant prostitution—he needed to stop now. But then again, he couldn’t shake the thought that the woman Dylan had mentioned—the beta who emitted pheromones, the so-called “Eta”—was at the center of all this. He had to know. He was almost certain they were directly tied to Hybris’s “medical services.”

"...Alright. I need to know."

"Then follow me."

Dylan headed toward a door at the end of the hallway. There was nothing special about it—just a standard emergency exit sign with green LED lighting above.

Siron’s fingers anxiously swiped across his phone screen. A blinking dot on the map displayed Lewis’s last known location. He and Anna were stationed on the outskirts of Baggers City, in the Techno Valley district—a sprawl of 5-to-20-story buildings packed tightly together.

Once a vast stretch of pastureland, the area saw a construction boom thirteen years ago when private investors poured in to build a hub for tech development and innovation. But after the federal government built its own Techno Valley in a nearby central city, those dreams went up in smoke.

The streets were littered with the remains of abandoned ambitions. Investors who had once chased prosperity left behind towers that now stood half-empty, and the local economy languished. Lewis’s signal had last been received from an office high-rise deep within the zone.

Anna and Siron were seated at a window table on the third floor of a café diagonally across from the building.

"There don’t seem to be many people going in and out, considering the size of the place," Siron observed.

Anna replied, "Yeah. Barely any cars going into the underground garage either."

The first floor appeared to be entirely used as a lobby. The second housed an employment agency, the third a moving company. Despite having three underground levels and twenty stories above ground, only two tenants showed up in a portal search. WritersResources

"The rest are vacant?"

"I don’t think so. A lot of upper floors have lights on."

The building’s glass façade had privacy film applied, but with a telescope, one could faintly see the windows near the perimeter. Most had blinds, though, making it impossible to discern what was going on inside.

"What the hell is happening in there?"

"It doesn’t look like a high-security facility."

"Right. Otherwise, they’d have confiscated Lewis’s phone and shut it off by now."

On Anna’s phone screen, a red dot continued to blink over the map—a GPS tracking app showing Lewis’s current location. She and Siron kept refilling their coffees and scanning the area beyond the window.

Most of the people entering the building were men. Seven out of ten looked about Lewis’s height, and seemed to be in their twenties or thirties.

"Are they all alphas?"

"They could just be guys going to the moving company or job agency."

"Doesn’t seem like the right time of day for that."

It was already past 5:30 PM. Both businesses on the second and third floors dealt with field work, so it was unlikely many clients would come at this hour.

"If every man who's entered that building so far is an alpha... then what the hell is that place? Is it a frat club or something? Like, an alpha community—but for real alphas?"

"From what we’ve seen with Baekgyeong and Lewis, alphas don’t seem to like each other much."

"That’s because they’re both fighting over you."

Flustered, Siron bit his lip and thought carefully before concluding:

"Yeah... I guess if they don’t know omegas exist, there’s no reason for alphas to compete."

As the wait dragged on and hunger set in, Anna ordered some snacks. She returned with an assortment of sugar- and chocolate-loaded cookies, only to find Siron staring at his phone with a grim expression. She rushed over.

"What is it?"

"The red dot’s moving. Looks like it’s inside the building."

Anna let out a breath of relief, hand on her chest.

"Thank god. At least he’s alive."

But as the café neared closing time, the red dot still hadn’t left the building. Forced to step outside, Anna and Siron now waited in their car, parked half a block away on a two-lane street. The headlights were off but the engine was running—ready to flee at the first sign of danger.

"He should be right around this corner. But I can’t tell what floor he’s on."

"Wait—look! There! It’s Lewis!"

"Huh?"

Anna followed Siron’s pointing finger. Lewis was emerging from the building’s front entrance. It was dark, but judging by his gait, he didn’t appear to be injured. Overcome with relief, Anna nearly flung open the door to run to him—but stopped. She grabbed the telescope instead, scanning behind him to see if he was being followed. Fortunately, no one else was coming out.

Lewis looked disoriented. He was breathing heavily, shoulders heaving, before stopping in place and taking a deep breath.

"...He looks kinda weird, doesn’t he?"

"What?"

Siron snatched the telescope from her. He moved it around until it locked onto Lewis’s face between the glimmering city lights.

"...Huh?"

Lewis’s face, clear through the lens, seemed to be staring right at Siron.

No—it wasn’t an illusion. Lewis had broken into a sprint, heading straight for them.

"He saw us. But... how the hell did he know where we were?"

"We installed the GPS tracker, remember? It’s two-way. He can see our location too."

"...Right. That must be it."

"Of course. Otherwise how would he—"

But Anna’s sentence never finished. The driver’s side door suddenly flung open and Anna was yanked out and thrown to the pavement.

"Ah! What the hell!"

"Move, Anna!"

As Anna rolled on the ground, struggling to gather her bearings, Lewis jumped into the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut, and locked it. Before either of them could stop him, he shifted gears, floored the accelerator, and merged onto the eight-lane road like a bullet.

"Are you insane?! Why the hell are you doing this?!"

Lewis didn’t answer. He was breathing raggedly, eyes wild like a rabid animal, glancing briefly at Siron before fixing his gaze forward again.

Suddenly, Siron felt a shock like glass fiber slashing across his skin.

Lewis’s rut cycle had begun.

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