Breeding Instinct - Chapter 3: Sanghyeon (2)

Though she had been momentarily distracted, her thoughts had still been about him. That made her feel somewhat wronged, though she didn’t dare show it. Instead, she pleaded earnestly for forgiveness.

“Do you think you’ll listen better if you’re punished here?”

However, as if he didn’t care about Kanna’s promise in the first place, he continued to speak and slowly swept up her parted vagina with his fingertips. Since it was already wet, his fingertips quickly became slick.

“I… I’m sorry, Master.”

The thought of being struck there terrified Kanna—it seemed far more painful than being hit on her hips. Desperate, she pleaded for forgiveness.

“Fine. I’ll let it go this time. But there won’t be a next time. From now on, you’ll only think about me. Understood?”

“Yes, I will,” Kanna answered immediately.

Damian chuckled softly at her quick response. He had been smiling more often lately, and Kanna liked that about him. Just as her body started to relax, a sharp smack landed on her.

Slap!

“Ah!”

“Since it’s morning, I’ll only give you five,” Damian said calmly.

“…Yes,” she replied quietly.

He didn’t let her mistake go unpunished. His firm hand left her skin reddened as he delivered each strike. Seeing her hold her posture as he’d taught her, without collapsing or protesting, brought a satisfied smile to his face.

Even the scent of her nervous pheromones seemed endearing to him.

“You did well,” he said gently.

“Th-thank you…” she answered, holding back a whimper as his hand softly caressed the spot he had just struck.

“The ointment needs to be reapplied—it’s all gone now.”

Damian carefully applied ointment to Kanna’s exposed entrance while she lay on her stomach. After leaving several bite marks on her reddened skin, he stepped back to clean his hands.

“Wait here,” he ordered before stepping out of the bedroom.

Kanna knew he would return after washing up and getting dressed. In the meantime, she was to remain there, waiting for him—completely naked.

A fleeting sense of embarrassment crossed her mind, but what scared her far more was the thought of being abandoned by him. So she stayed obediently in the position he had left her, not even touching her sore skin.

Soon, the door clicked open, and Damian returned. Without hesitation, he approached her in the same calm manner.

“Good girl. You can get up now.”

As she rose, the bedding brushed against her sensitive skin, causing her to let out a soft whimper.

“Come here. I’ll help you put on your underwear,” he said.

“Yes, Master.”

Kanna didn’t mind Damian’s care. In fact, she liked it. Having never experienced being taken care of before, she found it embarrassing at first, but now she felt she’d be sad if he stopped.

After even helping her wash her face, Damian gently brushed back her messy hair.

“Come here and sit,” he said.

Without even checking herself in the mirror, Kanna quickly ran to him. He was sitting on the windowsill, bathed in morning sunlight, which gave him an almost ethereal appearance.

Every time she looked at him, she couldn’t help but admire how handsome and well-built he was. At the same time, she found herself wondering when such a perfect man would eventually get married.

The maids who came to clean the bedroom often whispered to Kanna, “You’ll be abandoned soon.” They advised her to be careful, saying that powerful nobles were notoriously fickle and she should do everything possible to avoid being discarded.

Kanna believed them without question—it seemed entirely possible to her.

“Your hair’s grown a bit longer.”

Kanna smiled shyly as she sat in front of Damian. She enjoyed these moments when he brushed her hair. The firm yet gentle touch of his fingers on her scalp was soothing, to the point where she forgot about the soreness in her body.

Damian deliberately stimulated her scalp while combing her hair, hoping her animal ears might appear by accident. However, Kanna seemed to have surprising control over her form, maintaining her human appearance flawlessly while awake. The fact that none of the staff had ever seen her true form was proof of her skill.

To be cautious, Damian had limited the number of servants allowed into this area of the mansion. If Kanna’s secret were exposed, it could cause trouble. The staff permitted into his room were carefully selected—orphans with no family ties, ensuring no loose ends in the worst-case scenario.

A faint, chilling smile crossed his lips as he set down the comb and gently took Kanna’s hand. He gripped her small hand firmly, thinking of the day they might share grooming each other like true partners.

“…Huh? Where are we going?” Kanna asked as he led her toward the door.

“Starting today, we’ll have breakfast in the dining hall,” Damian replied.

Unlike usual, he didn’t stop in the private parlor but stepped outside with her for the first time. Kanna, who had never left his quarters since arriving, grew anxious and clung to him.

“You should gradually expand your range of movement. You’re free to explore the mansion whenever you like,” Damian reassured her.

He had allowed Kanna to adjust at her own pace for the past month because he understood her sensitivity to new environments. Based on his experience with Suinjeung, creatures like her were highly sensitive to their surroundings.

The sudden change in scents and spaces could easily trigger anxiety. While humans might not notice, the difference was stark for her.

“You don’t need to be afraid. Haven’t you noticed it yet?” he asked.

Kanna, still cautiously descending the stairs with him, wrinkled her nose and sniffed the air. She realized that the mansion was filled with a scent similar to his. The familiar smell instantly calmed her nerves.

“It smells like you, Master. I love it,” she said softly.

“Next time, I’ll create a fragrance that matches your scent and let you try it,” Damian offered.

“My scent?”

“Do you even know what you smell like?” he asked with a smirk.

Damian had already identified her scent—it was sweet and refreshing, like ripe oranges with a hint of citrus bitterness. It carried a stronger, more pleasant tang than any ordinary fragrance.

“Um… I’m not sure,” Kanna admitted.

As Damian had suspected, she couldn’t fully sense her own pheromones. He wasn’t sure if it was a side effect of her upbringing or a deliberate suppression, but the thought made his desire to erase the Maclen family even stronger.

“You’ll figure it out once you’ve fully adapted here,” Damian assured her.

If her rejection stemmed from a lack of familiarity, making her perceive this mansion as her territory would solve the problem. Damian planned to guide her step by step until she understood herself fully.

Ultimately, he wanted her territory to extend beyond the mansion—to encompass the entire capital. But part of him selfishly desired to keep her confined to the mansion, making it the only place she could call home.

“Hmm… that won’t do,” he muttered, deciding that, for now, she wouldn’t be allowed to leave the mansion.

Kanna, sensing that he was deep in thought, quickly caught on that he had just made a decision on his own. While he was lost in thought, she glanced around and noticed several servants standing silently in the corridor with their heads lowered.

Servants terrified Kanna. Unlike her indifferent family, the servants had always watched her closely—seeing her every day. For her, they were far scarier than her family ever was.

As the two arrived at the restaurant, the waiting attendant opened the door for them. Kanna glanced around cautiously at the unfamiliar space, but soon relaxed as a familiar scent reached her.

“You can take a look around if you want,” Damian said, releasing her hand after leading her to the main seat and taking his place.

Kanna wanted to sit beside him, but she knew she couldn’t disobey his orders. Following his words, she cautiously explored the restaurant before running back to him. The new shoes she wore each day never hurt her feet, making her joyful with every step.

“Ah, Mari!”

At that moment, Mari entered the restaurant and greeted them with a quiet bow. Kanna’s face lit up with ease once she saw Mari, and she stood before Damian with a pleading expression, silently asking him to pull out her chair.

Damian smiled gently at her. He had grown fond of how naturally she’d gotten used to waiting for him to pull out her chair. Standing up, he pulled the chair back for her once again, and the other staff members exchanged surprised glances at the unexpected sight.

Damian could sense the intense stares directed at him from all around the room. As he raised the corners of his mouth into a faint smile, the staff lowered their heads in embarrassment, realizing they had just witnessed something they shouldn’t have.

The cold and distant master they had known was now treating Kanna with warmth and affection. This sudden shift made them reevaluate Kanna’s standing in the household. Some decided it would be wise to stay on her good side, while others—still wary of her unclear origins—continued to look down on her.

Among them, the head chef, who took immense pride in his work, despised the idea of his food being served to someone who wasn’t of noble blood. Though Landon had warned him several times before, the chef couldn’t suppress his frustration when Kanna entered the restaurant. In a moment of weakness, he acted on feelings he should never have allowed to surface. He committed a grave mistake.

*

Damian paused as he was cutting his steak, setting his knife and fork down. Kanna’s pheromones, normally calm and soothing, were now erratic and uneasy.

Concerned that the unfamiliar setting might be making her uncomfortable, he carefully observed her. He quickly noticed something unusual.

The same woman who had happily eaten her potato soup just yesterday now looked distressed with each spoonful she took. She was also drinking water far more frequently than usual.

“…What’s wrong?” he muttered to himself.

Startled by his voice, Kanna immediately looked up.

“Huh?”

“If it doesn’t suit your taste, I can have it replaced,” Damian offered calmly.

“No! It’s delicious! I can eat it just fine!” Kanna exclaimed, unable to hide her surprise. While she found today’s soup unusually salty, it wasn’t bad enough to complain about. Thinking the chef might have simply made a mistake, she shook her head firmly.

But what Kanna didn’t know was that Damian trusted her pheromones more than her words.

He watched her intently, reading the emotions her pheromones conveyed, while his gaze carefully swept across the room.

As he stopped eating, Landon, who had been standing nearby, approached him and asked, “Is there something you need, Master?”

“Landon.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Bring me a new spoon.”

“Understood.”

Landon swiftly brought various types of spoons. Damian took one at random, then turned it around and handed the handle to Landon.

“…Master?”

Landon looked puzzled by the strange request. Noticing his hesitation, Damian gave a cold command.

“Taste the soup.”

“Excuse me?”

Caught off guard, Landon quickly ran through the possible reasons for this odd order. Whenever his master behaved strangely lately, it was almost always related to Kanna. With that in mind, Landon carefully dipped the spoon into Kanna’s soup rather than Damian’s.

After taking a large spoonful, he froze, unable to swallow. Damian, who had been watching him closely, immediately grabbed Kanna’s soup bowl and smashed it to the floor.

Crash! The bowl shattered, and thick soup splattered across the floor.

“Again,” Damian said with an expression devoid of emotion. His command made every staff member in the restaurant tense with fear.

Shocked by the sound of the bowl breaking, Kanna pressed her lips together and lowered her head. She thought her expression must have betrayed her after all. Even though the taste had been strange, she had convinced herself to endure it. She had no right to complain.

Before coming here, she’d been lucky to eat even one proper meal a day. Whatever she received, she should have been grateful for. Yet now, she was causing trouble over something as small as an overly salty dish.

What if this keeps happening?

What if he starts hating me?

What if he finds me annoying and throws me out?

Anxiously scratching the back of her hand, she silently prayed that wouldn’t happen. That was when his voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Look at me.”

The moment he spoke, Kanna raised her head. She met Damian’s cold, hardened expression, gasped softly, and stammered.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“Do you even know what you did wrong?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Then tell me.”

Though flustered, Kanna hesitated briefly before deciding to be honest about what she thought.

“It was a little salty, but I could have still eaten it… I just… didn’t.”

Her naïve response made Damian’s lips curl into a dangerous smirk. He had thought that after a month of teaching her, she had learned something. But it seemed that wasn’t the case.