[BL] Alpha, You've Got the Wrong Mate!

Chapter 282: 282 — Alive To Suffer

Liam left the mansion briefly after meeting Zayden. He could sense something strange in the mansion he had always visited; however, he couldn’t point it out or let anyone know he noticed something peculiar, which would put them on alert.

If they didn’t want him to know that Yusha was in the mansion, he had to act as if he was clueless about it.

After all, they would not know how a man who had been possessed by the need to get rid of someone felt. It was a gnawing pain in the chest that kept burning until the mission was fulfilled.

Count Liam was no different right now.

In his mansion, he had scribbled down a map of the place—every entrance and exit, everything he knew and could recall.

As a young child, he had eaten countless nuts, believing they might help with his poor memory. And if that was true, it worked only to a certain extent. Even so, he was still bad at recalling details.

When he finished his map, he began making preparations to sneak into the palace and search for his omega.

He asked the servants to prepare a black cloak, light boots that wouldn’t make much sound while walking, and a mask. He couldn’t let anyone discover his identity before he found Yusha, or he could truly lose his life at the hands of the general.

”My Lord,” a maid stepped into the room.

Liam turned, quickly rolling up the large map on his desk.

”What is it?” he demanded, his voice sharp.

”W-Well, the things you requested are ready. However...”

”However?” Liam raised an eyebrow.

”We were unable to find or make boots that make no sound while walking. But they are light. If you walk carefully, they won’t make too much noise.”

The Count exhaled, clearly furious. Still, he knew very well that he couldn’t blame them. In his mansion, there weren’t many people capable of using strong magic spells—at least, not like those in General Zayden’s estate.

His servants all had limited abilities. They had been hired by his father—the man who didn’t want him to inherit the title of Marquess.

As such, it was evident that he had ensured they were nowhere near as competent as the servants assigned to Liam’s older, dominant alpha sister.

After all, she was his legitimate daughter.

That was precisely why he refused to yield to Yusha.

Liam himself was an illegitimate son—born of a mistake no one wanted to acknowledge, raised in a house that never truly felt like his own.

He had learned early what it meant to exist on the margins: the whispers behind closed doors, the polite smiles that never reached the eyes, the constant reminder that his blood was something to be ashamed of, never celebrated. Countless birthdays came and went. No one—no one ever wished.

But Yusha did. He was the first person to have done so. Perhaps that was why Liam had a soft spot for him and didn’t want to lose him because of some... child.

He simply did not want his child to endure the same fate as him.

The world was cruel enough to those born out of wedlock; it would become even crueller to an omega caught between power, politics, and scandal.

Liam knew that pain too well—the way it carved itself into the chest and never fully healed.

Yet Yusha refused to see it. He had become blind from love for his unborn child.

No matter how many times Liam tried to explain, no matter how carefully he chose his words, Yusha only shook his head, eyes burning with quiet resolve.

He insisted on keeping the child, insisted that love would be enough, that they would endure together.

Yusha didn’t understand.

Or perhaps he did—and simply chose hope over fear.

Liam clenched his fists, jaw tightening.

Protecting Yusha meant going against his wishes, even if it meant becoming the villain in his eyes.

And if that was the price he had to pay to spare his child from a life of shame and suffering, then so be it.

He had long accepted that love, when stripped of power and wealth, was fragile. He had witnessed countless fights between commoners over money and status—fights that had shattered years of marriage.

And he still couldn’t forget how his fiancée had left him for a richer man, a dominant alpha.

He pulled out his chair and lowered himself into it.

”You may leave,” he told the maid, waving his hand dismissively.

The maid bowed and exited the room, shutting the door behind her.

Liam exhaled, closing his eyes.

Hope was a luxury afforded to those who had never been cast aside—to those whose names were spoken with pride rather than whispered in gossip and rumours, to those who had never felt rejection again and again at the hands of their own blood.

Yusha believed in warmth, in promises that Liam knew were meant to be broken, in a future shaped by will alone.

Liam, however, believed in survival.

He turned away from the window, the city lights blurring in his vision.

If he hesitated now, everything would crumble.

Yusha would suffer the moment he gave birth.

The child would suffer the moment it drew its first breath in this cruel world.

And in the end, love would not be enough to shield them from a world that delighted in tearing apart the vulnerable.

”I won’t let this happen,” he murmured to the empty room.

Even if it meant lying to Yusha.

Even if it meant forcing him to hate him.

Liam would shoulder the sin alone.

Because someone like him—someone born unwanted—knew better than anyone that protection often wore the face of cruelty.

And if history were to repeat itself, then he would make sure he was the one to bear the scars this time, not the child who had yet to take its first breath.

”Actually, it won’t even be alive to suffer,” he mumbled to himself.