Lick Me Up If You Can Novel (Completed) - Chapter 108

His body moved before he could even think. Ashley roared and threw a punch at him. The anger he had suppressed for so long exploded all at once. He had endured and endured everything related to himself until now. But calling Koi a mongrel was something he absolutely could not let slide.

He would smash that disgusting face. He would kill him. I’ll kill him. Ashley gritted his teeth and charged at his father with all his might.

The man seemed to smile faintly.

“…Ugh!”

The punch, thrown with all his might, suddenly cut through the air. His body, losing balance, swayed violently. By the time he realized that the man had easily dodged his punch by merely taking half a step back, Ashley had already tumbled heavily to the floor.

Thud, a loud noise echoed in his ears. His entire body hit the marble floor, but he felt no pain. Half-dazed, he staggered and tried to get up again, when—

“…!”

A sudden kick to his face made him unable to even scream, and he rolled on the floor again. Before the fallen Ashley could even get up, Dominique stepped on his neck with one foot, pressing down.

“Kuh…”

His breath instantly constricted, and a difficult groan escaped Ashley’s lips. The tall man’s height seemed enormous, like a giant. Ashley struggled desperately to remove his leg from his neck, but the man didn’t budge.

Instead, the pressure on his neck intensified, and Ashley’s vision soon went black. Dominique, who had been silently looking down at his son, who was still making futile gestures, his hands hovering around his leg, opened his mouth.

“The only reason I tolerate your insolence is because you are ‘Ashley’.”

You are also ‘Dominique’.

Ashley recalled the utterly cold voice, but he couldn’t even breathe, making it impossible to speak. The shoe pressing on his neck tightened even more, completely cutting off his air. Even the painful groans, “Kkeuk, kkeuk,” completely disappeared, and Ashley’s eyes rolled back.

At this rate, he would surely die. Beyond his fading consciousness, Ashley suddenly wondered. Would this man also stand trial if he killed someone?

He would, just like everyone else.

But the outcome would be different. Guilt or innocence was equivalent to the presence or absence of an expensive lawyer. What he wondered was whether this man would defend himself or put forward countless lawyers from a law firm. It was a meaningless question as he was dying, but—

…Koi.

When he recalled his face for the last time, Dominique suddenly removed his foot.

“Cough, cough, hah.”

The sudden rush of oxygen made Ashley cough painfully. It felt as if someone was squeezing both his lungs. Unable to bear the pain, he gasped and coughed repeatedly, eventually starting to retch.

But only bitter stomach acid came out. Ashley bit his lip and let out a pained groan, feeling another pain as if his esophagus was burning.

When his breathing finally calmed, Dominique bent over him, who was lying prone.

“…Ugh!”

His hair was suddenly grabbed, and Ashley unconsciously let out a stifled groan. Dominique knelt beside him, half-sitting, and looked down at Ashley’s distorted face, opening his mouth.

“You should have just played with such a thing and discarded it.”

His voice was lower than usual. Ashley tried to remove the hand gripping his hair, but Dominique pulled his head even harder. To Ashley, who let out a short scream unconsciously, Dominique uttered in a threatening voice near his ear.

“I didn’t give birth to you to mate with a mongrel.”

Ashley tried to escape Dominique’s grasp, but his body, lying prone on the floor with his waist excessively bent, wouldn’t move as he wished. Because of that, all he could do was glare at the man.

“Don’t… insult… Koi.”

He gritted his teeth and growled through them, and Dominique lowered his gaze. He reached out with his free hand, still gripping Ashley’s hair with the other. Only after he snatched his arm did Ashley realize what Dominique had been looking at.

“To leave something like this to protect such a mongrel.”

There was a rather large scar on the arm Dominique grabbed. It was the mark of being bitten to protect Koi during his presentation. A tiny sense of satisfaction arose in Ashley’s heart when he saw Dominique frown for the first time.

It was indeed good that he did that. It was good that he protected Koi.

“Even if such a situation comes again, I will do the same.”

Ashley declared war on him through ragged breaths. Dominique took his eyes off Ashley’s arm and looked at his face. His face, which had returned, was as cold as ever, and Ashley was a little disappointed.

Dominique gently released his arm, tilted his head, and whispered intimately, as if uttering sweet nothings.

“No matter how much pheromones you release, you’ll regret getting serious with a half-wit who can’t even present.”

“…Ugh!”

Before Ashley could even say anything, Dominique pushed him away and stood up.

“Treat him.”

The moment he turned and gave the order, the secretary, whose presence he hadn’t even noticed until then, moved. Ashley belatedly realized that she had been clinging to the wall like a shadow. He was bewildered by Dominique’s retreating back as he walked out, when the secretary approached, checked his condition, and opened her mouth.

“We’ll have to give him another injection.”

She spoke in her usual businesslike manner, then took out her phone and gave instructions to the butler. Immediately, the butler entered the room with the employees and helped Ashley back onto the bed.

And when Ashley saw the household doctor sigh and press an alcohol swab to his arm, he realized that the needle had come out and that there had been a tremendous amount of bleeding because of it.

The doctor spoke to Ashley, who was staring blankly as the employees hurriedly wiped away the pool of red blood on the floor.

“I’ll put it in the other arm. Don’t pull out the injection on your own this time; if you do, we’ll really have to cut off your arm.”

Leaving a frightening warning, he reconnected the IV and gave Ashley an injection in his other arm. Ashley’s face contorted as he recalled the pain and all the suffering he had felt when he regained consciousness.

“Do I… really have to get this?”

The secretary answered his question.

“Of course. Unless you want your brain to be damaged and go insane because of the pheromones.”

Ashley swallowed a curse and closed his mouth instead. The secretary, who had been silently watching him, began to speak.

“If you had simply released your pheromones, Mr. Miller wouldn’t have been so harsh.”

“…Are you saying I upset him by disobeying him?”

“That too, but.”

To Ashley, who sneered with a chuckle, the secretary continued in a businesslike manner.

“It’s that you cherish that child so much, and Mr. Miller didn’t like it.”

Mongrel.

His voice, full of contempt, echoed in Ashley’s ears. In the end, that’s what it meant. That Ashley liking and being loyal to Koi, who was of an incompatible, insignificant family, was annoying.

Of course, it would be. Even Al thought that man was not up to standard.

Only then did Ashley realize why that man had thrown him into the pheromone party.

He had tested him. To what extent Ashley’s feelings for Koi were. And Ashley had failed the test spectacularly, which angered Dominique.

The secretary continued.

“Wouldn’t it be most ideal to just play around and then break up? Mr. Miller wouldn’t care much if that were the case.”

Ashley didn’t want to take out his anger on her, but he couldn’t tolerate her sarcasm.

“You’ve never liked someone this much in your life, so you can say that so easily.”

She didn’t know. Who in the world could know? How passionately Koi and Ashley loved each other. That they were everything to each other.

The secretary, without any change in expression at Ashley’s disrespectful tone, opened her mouth.

“Well, there’s nothing as foolish as believing that teenage love will last forever.”

Her answer was far from what Ashley had expected. To him, whose face unconsciously contorted, the secretary continued in her usual businesslike tone.

“Moreover, you’ve presented, and he hasn’t. Do you think a Beta can handle an Alpha or an Omega? Wouldn’t it be better to give up for his sake too?”

Ashley flinched for a moment. Her words kept hitting him where it hurt.

“If you truly love someone, you have to know when to let go of being an adult. Of course, you wouldn’t know, not being an adult.”

The doctor, who had finished the treatment, nervously watched the two of them. The secretary, unconcerned, spoke to Ashley.

“Besides, isn’t it strange? With that level of pheromones, he should have presented or mutated by now, but that child shows no change at all?”

“So, what do you want to say?”

Ashley finally gritted his teeth and spat out. Every word she spoke kept piercing his heart. Finally, even the most painful corner.

“He spent several days with an extreme Alpha who presented, and was constantly covered in pheromones, yet he still hasn’t presented. It might be because he’s strongly resisting it himself.”

Ashley’s spirit was broken by her words, which dug up thoughts he had tried to bury. He had only recently presented, and his knowledge of species was lacking. He couldn’t help but be swayed by the secretary’s words.

“…Is that true?”

His voice, asking after a pause, had no confidence at all. The secretary said nonchalantly.

“Well? Shouldn’t all possibilities be open?”

‘Why hasn’t he presented?’ How wonderful it would be if he could answer this question. But no one knew the answer. The secretary released the doctor, who had finished his work, without further delay.

“Thank you for your hard work. You may go now. Then, Mr. Miller, if you need anything, please call. Goodbye.”

The secretary left the room with the doctor, as if there was nothing more to say. Ashley was finally alone, but his heart was more turbulent than ever.