After Mistakenly Marking My Ex’s Older Sister, the Disabled Alpha Stood Up - Chapter 75

“Jie, I need to take a leave of absence.”

Jin Yunhan stood before Jin Yunxi’s desk, her voice urgent.

Jin Yunxi set down the document she had just signed, arching a brow at her usually steady, work-obsessed sister. Today, her shirt collar was crooked, a lock of wavy hair sticking up—she looked flustered, like a starving fledgling desperate for food.

“Granted. Where are you going?” she asked.

“To the palace. I want an audience with the Queen.”

The hand holding the pen froze. Jin Yunxi’s gaze lingered on the flush creeping up the tips of her sister’s ears, and suddenly she recalled Yan Qingruo’s teasing words the night before. Leaning against the headboard, twirling a strand of hair, she had laughed softly: “That diligent little sister of yours—Special Assistant Jin says she’s been zoning out at royal news reports lately. Especially the ones about the Queen.”

At the time, she thought Yan Qingruo was only joking. But now, her pulse thudded sharply in her chest.

“You—”

“Thank you, Jie, for approving my leave!”

Before she could question further, the office door slammed shut. Jin Yunhan’s figure vanished down the corridor in such haste that she didn’t even remove her employee badge.

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Dusk fell, spilling across the windows of a cosmetics shop. Instead of heading straight for the palace, Jin Yunhan had come here first.

Her eyes locked on a shelf lined with sleek black boxes. Her throat bobbed as she picked up one marked One Size Fits All. The foil packaging burned hot against her palm, beating in rhythm with her secretive, unsteady heartbeat. A moment later, she set it down again, wavering.

“Excuse me, are you unsure which type suits you best?” the clerk asked, curiosity lacing her tone.

“I’m… not buying it for myself.” Jin Yunhan blurted. Her ears turned scarlet instantly.

The way the clerk’s pupils contracted made her realize how that sounded—she was an Alpha. If not for herself, then… for another Alpha?

Outside the window, the golden light caught on the embossed lettering of the package, making the words Snug Fit gleam glaringly bright.

The clerk’s eyes lingered on her tight jawline, then lowered her voice at checkout: “This brand sells very well. Lots of AA couples from the nearby university stock up on it.”

Unable to explain, Jin Yunhan grabbed the paper bag and bolted. She really wasn’t buying it for herself.

________________________________________

Inside the palace, Lin Ruxi lounged lazily on her throne, a gauzy drape barely concealing her still-flat belly. An Alpha and an Omega flanked her on either side.

The Alpha with a mint-scented pheromone waved a fan obsequiously, as if warding off nonexistent mosquitoes. On her lap, the Omega perched like a pampered concubine, holding a crystal goblet of honeyed wine, teasingly poised at the Queen’s lips—almost feeding her mouth-to-mouth.

This was the sight that greeted Jin Yunhan. Her smile stiffened, grip tightening around the gift box. Standing there, she looked out of place, superfluous.

“What wind blows our little President Jin here?” Lin Ruxi’s emerald eyes didn’t even lift. Her brow arched faintly, voice cool.

“You see your Queen and yet do not kneel. Hm?”

“Yes—how dare this Alpha not kneel at once?” the fan-wielding Alpha sneered, wishing to fan Jin Yunhan straight out of sight.

Jin Yunhan obeyed, knees striking the cold floor, nails digging deep into the royal carpet.

As she inhaled, she caught the cloying sweetness unique to a pregnant Omega seeping from the Queen’s body.

Her heart pounded. Only the child’s other mother could sense it. There was no doubt—she was the mother.

Perhaps sensing the Alpha’s scorching, insistent gaze, heavy curtains were drawn to shut out prying eyes, cloaking the intoxicating tableau within.

Behind the veil, laughter and flirtatious voices drifted out.

The Queen ignored her. Was it because of what she’d said last time? Had she disappointed her? Jin Yunhan’s lashes dipped into shadow.

Time trickled by. She knelt on, unmoving, until the bath was drawn and steam filled the hall.

“Your Majesty…” Her voice was swallowed by the splashing of water.

The Omega giggled, scattering rose petals across the Queen’s shoulders. Mint pheromones thickened the air.

The Alpha leaned in to feed grapes, citrus tang rippling out like waves.

Jin Yunhan’s gaze fell, bitter and tight. They were so close to the Queen—just as she had once been, holding her, turning her over, pressing closer than an embrace allowed.

“What are you doing here?” a small Alpha—one of the Queen’s favored consorts—strode in with the air of a rightful empress. Chin tilted, she cast Jin Yunhan a look of disdain.

With a snap, she dropped the heavy curtain, sealing away the decadent glow.

Lin Ruxi’s soft laugh threaded through the veil: “See her out.”

The order was clear—remove her.

“Your Majesty, I beg an audience!”

Jin Yunhan stumbled into a guard’s hard armor, then dropped to her knees again, forehead pressed to the icy tiles.

“Give me one reason to let you stay,” the Queen murmured, idly tracing ripples across the water with slender fingers.

Jin Yunhan’s nails scraped against the floor as she lifted her head. “I can smell it… You need my pheromones right now.”

Pregnant Omegas often craved the pheromones of the child’s other parent—she had only recently learned this.

“Oh? Little President Jin cares for me now?” Lin Ruxi reclined against the white jade pool, water gliding down her collarbone into the shadowed valley below.

Jin Yunhan remained bowed, head low.

So afraid to meet her eyes? The Queen’s lips curved lazily, voice soaked with languid amusement. Emerald eyes narrowed. “Because I need, you dare intrude into my palace? Risk death to offer yourself? Or is it…”

Her gaze lifted, sultry, teasing, “Has Little President Jin fallen in love with me?”

Fallen in love? Jin Yunhan’s eyes widened in shock.

Mist curled above the jade bath. Lin Ruxi lifted a hand—pausing the Alpha who held out wine, halting the Omega whose hand hovered with a towel.

The hall hushed, only the warm lamplight shimmering in the Queen’s eyes, awaiting the drama to unfold.

Jin Yunhan lowered her gaze and answered, voice steady but taut:

“Your Majesty, I have memorized the Code of Loyalty to the Queen: To think as the Queen thinks, to fulfill what the Queen needs. Your need is my truth.”

To outsiders, her words only meant she had come to provide pheromones for the Queen’s pregnancy—pure loyalty, nothing more.

In ancient times, generals pledged daily devotion to their kings. Compared to them, Little President Jin’s loyalty was almost excessive—utterly free of personal desire.

Predictably, before she could even finish reciting, a wine cup came hurtling at her. Jin Yunhan dodged swiftly—barely avoiding a direct strike to her forehead.

“Out!”

Lin Ruxi’s aura turned frigid in an instant. Her cold command made the Alphas and Omegas flanking her pale and hastily bow out in retreat.

At the vast bath’s edge, only three remained.

Jin Yunhan froze where she stood. Lin Ruxi’s lips curved into a smile that was anything but warm—it carried a bone-deep chill. Her voice, cool and sharp enough to pierce the veil curtains, pressed down with an oppressive weight:

“Simply because I am in need?”

She was bare, stepping barefoot across a floor strewn with rose petals, each deliberate step closing the distance toward Jin Yunhan.

Jin Yunhan had always known the Queen’s body was flawless—she had touched it once before. But that night had been cloaked in shadows, too dim for her to truly see.

Now, kneeling on the ground, she took it in from head to toe—an exquisite masterpiece of creation, impossible to look away from.

Her figure was languid and graceful, her pale, full curves left utterly unhidden. Jin Yunhan’s breath hitched, tightening then breaking into ragged gasps as she dropped her gaze.

The Queen’s beautiful face was half-hidden in shadow, yet her eyes gleamed with an icy light.

“Little Jin,” she murmured, voice cold and cutting, “at this moment, you don’t even have the right to kneel at my feet.”

Droplets of water trailed down the snow-white planes of her body, glimmering under the lantern glow.

When Lin Ruxi caught her favored concubine’s concerned glance, she tilted her chin slightly and extended an ivory arm.

“Be good. Carry me to bed.”

Her voice shifted, cold melting into velvet, steel softening into silk—the sudden change so jarring even Jin Yunhan faltered.

Why? Simply because the concubine had been at the Queen’s side since coming of age, serving both court and bed.

Perhaps when Jin Yunhan first met the Queen at sixteen, this very Alpha had already been bringing her pleasure.

For an instant, she thought of her elder sister, Jin Yunxi. Why hadn’t her sister fallen for the Queen? If it had been her—hounded so relentlessly—would she have resisted?

Obedient, the favored Alpha draped a velvet robe over Lin Ruxi’s shoulders, drying the lingering droplets with tender care.

The curtains fell. Soon, the sound of soft, suggestive moans drifted out.

“Your Majesty!”

Panic spiked in Jin Yunhan’s chest. She lurched forward, calling through the veil,

“I have something to offer you.”

“Then present it,” came Lin Ruxi’s reply, faintly trembling, her silhouette overlapping with the concubine’s in shadow.

Jin Yunhan’s throat worked as she stared at the ambiguous shapes on the curtain. She swallowed hard, as if choking on thorns.

What had she said wrong? Fingers dug into the carpet until her nails threatened to break skin.

Cradled in her concubine’s arms, Lin Ruxi’s eyes danced with amusement. This sharp-tongued Alpha—could it be she was jealous?

And then Jin Yunhan entered, carrying a brocade box.

“What has she brought?” The Queen’s lips curled, motioning her closer.

Jin Yunhan inhaled sharply. Her knuckles whitened on the box, and before she handed it over, she dropped into a half-kneel, dark hair spilling forward to hide the storm in her eyes.

“Your Majesty should take care of your body, especially now…”

Her words died when Lin Ruxi’s pupils constricted.

Through the curtain, the box pressed against her heated thigh like a brand of iron.

Inside lay what Jin Yunhan had bought—condoms.

A selfish, unspoken thought gnawed at her: the Queen was carrying her child.

To imagine her making love in front of her—Jin Yunhan’s skin crawled, heart in disarray.

She wasn’t foolish. She remembered the last time the three of them shared a bed; the concubine had taken precautions. That was why the Queen was certain the child was hers.

So why not continue taking measures now—especially during pregnancy, when risks were greater?

Naively, Jin Yunhan had thought herself different, even generous. To hand over protection in front of the mother of her unborn child, before the Queen lay with another Alpha—what Alpha could claim to be more “magnanimous” than she?

But Lin Ruxi was the Queen.

Jin Yunhan swallowed down her bitterness. She knew the gulf between them was vast—that was why she dared not hope.

Yet wasn’t it her peppermint-lemon scent the Queen craved? Wasn’t it her the Queen needed?

The fragrance in the chamber froze. Lin Ruxi leaned against her arm, silk sliding off one shoulder, revealing faint red marks along her neck.

Her gaze fixed on the kneeling Alpha, voice curling into danger:

“Offer it yourself.”

Jin Yunhan’s heart pounded as she lifted the curtain.

The moment she extended the box, Lin Ruxi flipped it open. Under the amber light, the black foil packets gleamed coldly against gilt-patterned cardboard.

“Ultra-thin. Standard size?” Her jade eyes flickered with derision. “What exactly do you think we are doing?”

The curtain swept open. The concubine’s hand still rested on an acupoint at her waist, sandalwood and massage oil perfuming the air.

Jin Yunhan’s face burned as realization struck—the “moans” had been nothing more than the Queen stretching with languid sighs.

She stumbled back, but was caught in a warm, perfumed embrace.

Lin Ruxi arched her body, slender waist flowing into full, rounded hips—a perfect contrast, curves like ripened peaches, begging for touch.

Jin Yunhan flushed darker. She knew all too well—they were juicy.

That day, when she had spread them apart, she had been drenched in a rush of sweetness, stars scattering across the sheets with every reckless thrust.

Her tongue darted over her lips. Her glands throbbed with ache, just like every morning since being marked.

The Queen’s mark. The tormenting aftereffect.

“Trying to escape?” Lin Ruxi pinched her burning earlobe, scarlet nails tracing lightly over her skin before hooking her belt. Her tone was mocking:

“You bring me condoms to feign restraint, yet stand guard outside my door, longing for entry.”

With a lazy flick of her wrist, she dismissed the concubine.

The Alpha gave Jin Yunhan a look, unreadable as ever.

Jin Yunhan had expected anger, jealousy, resentment. Instead, the concubine simply patted her shoulder.

“Do well. Tonight, the Queen needs you.”

The bed had already been laid with care.

Jin Yunhan: … She had thought herself the most magnanimous Alpha.

But compared to this, she lost.

Still, watching the concubine leave, her heart loosened in relief.

At least tonight, the Queen wouldn’t share her with anyone else. With the baby in her belly, it should be safe.

The thought had barely eased her chest when—

“Little Jin, why are you standing there like a fool?”

“You. Come here.” Now.

Her pupils dilated in shock. Where else, but the bed?

Before she could move, a whip coiled around her wrist. The Queen’s breath brushed her neck, rich with the honeyed sweetness of pregnancy, voice husky with allure and command:

“Too late to regret now, Little Jin.”

“Bring your gift. Wear your offering. And come inside.”

Inside the Queen’s curtains. Inside the Queen herself.

“Present to me your devotion, your loyalty—your body and soul.”

That, after all, is what makes the finest soldier of Yatlan.