In the early morning, before dawn broke, Dimitri, with his keen ears, woke up to the sound of a noise in the next room.

Rowaine was moving silently. Without even calling for a servant, she quietly moved around alone in her room before stepping out.

Hearing that, Dimitri, who had the habit of sleeping like a cat, moved silently without making a sound and swiftly jumped onto the table in front of the window. As he waited, peering out from behind the curtain with only one eye peeking out, sure enough, Rowaine got on the horse at this time again today.

He watched her back for a long time until the heavy sound of hooves from outside the window ceased.

“Ha…”

He touched his forehead with his round front paw.

“How long is she going to avoid this?”

Since the night they had shared champagne together, she had been avoiding him and had been going to the shelter to work early in the morning, then returning secretly in the afternoon to fall asleep early. Still, she was able to efficiently handle her duties as a duchess, meeting with several nobles seeking mercenaries after the luncheon party and even taking on requests.

“How can she only avoid me like this?”

Dimitri let out a small sigh and went to the dressing room to grab his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. Then, in a very familiar manner, he swiftly jumped up at the door, grabbed the handle, and dashed down the hallway.

‘I’m sure she’s traveling to another region by magic circle, but I can’t send her that far alone.’

The best time for cats to hunt was at dawn, when people had yet to wake up, and only rats roamed the streets.

Rowaine was going out this time under the excuse of wanting to check the cool cat mercenaries completing a request personally. Even though she said she would take Avila, a wizard, and a few soldiers from the shelter to accompany her, Dimitri couldn’t trust any of them.

‘D*mn wolf. He’s no help at times like this.’

While it would have been nice if Esca came along, that monk-like wolf stubbornly refused to use the teleportation magic circle made by humans.

‘Hmph, I don’t like any of this at all.’

Grumbling to himself, Dimitri moved his feet again.

“Hihi! I caught one…!”

Lourdes, a member of the cool cat mercenary group that was chasing the runaway rat shapeshifter, jumped in surprise upon seeing a gray cat that appeared out of nowhere.

“Hiik, you scared me!”

The gray cat glanced at Lourdes as if mocking him before effortlessly intercepting the dream demon carrying the rat shapeshifter.

“You, you can’t…!”

“Well, do you have a problem with me?”

As Dimitri furrowed his brow, Lourdes took a step back as he was taken aback. Even though he considered himself a strong and cool alpha cat, his tail involuntarily curled in the face of Dimitri’s presence.

‘This is the gray cat they’ve been talking about who always shows up and gets in the way!’

He had heard stories from fellow mercenaries about the mysterious gray cat—a mysterious cat shapeshifter who appeared out of nowhere and disturbed people. In addition, the owner of the pheromone scent emanated from the leader, Rowaine.

‘I guess he’s the leader’s cat? Still, why is he following us around and disturbing us like this?’

As Lourdes frowned and stepped back, Dimitri stared at him with disdain while chewing on the demon’s heart he had taken from the dream demon.

“Get lost.”

When he raised his front paw and pretended to hit after his words, Lourdes was startled and quickly took a step back before he scurried away.

Looking at Lourdes like that, Dimitri let out a snort.

‘What bad luck.’

He had seen Lourdes acting cute with Rowaine earlier, so this was revenge for him.

The next moment, Dimitri sat gracefully on the roof of a building with his tail swishing slowly, looking down at Rowaine. She was watching the cats hunting with Avila, while sometimes, she intervened to stop them from arguing among themselves.

The mercenary members, at some point, had become quite friendly towards Rowaine, and they would be busy being cute in front of her.

‘Maybe it’s because of the scent of grass that comes from her.’

As she quickly became popular among the cats at the shelter, more and more wanted to join her mercenary group. Now, they could split into two teams and handle two requests a day.

Dimitri scoffed softly as he watched Rowaine surrounded by the cats.

“Hnh. Tsk.”

Grumpy, he disrupted another cat humanoid like a bully and chewed on the stolen demon’s heart.

Since the demon’s heart determined the allocation of the reward, the cat shapeshifters who had it stolen from him ran away in frustration.

“Hmph. Weaklings.”

Dimitri raised his head haughtily.

Esca noticed Dimitri wedged between a group of mercenaries who had returned from the request.

He also knew that he had been tormenting the cats at the shelter and at the locations of the client’s request.

Then, as he discreetly followed him as he headed towards the back of the shelter building, he could see Dimitri, in the form of a cat, arguing with other cat shapeshifters at the shelter like a bully.

“Why, why are you doing this…”

“W-We have no intention of fighting…”

The cowering cat shapeshifters were backing away from Dimitri, who was moving menacingly toward them, step by step. Esca, taking advantage of his distracted state as he was arguing, sneaked up behind him before he slipped his hand under his armpit and hoisted him up.

It was a wild wolf that took advantage of the cat’s focus on its prey.

“Uugh! Aak! Who’s there? Let go of me!”

In the meantime, while the cat shapeshifters who were being harassed fled as if they were saved, Dimitri used his flexible body to escape from Esca’s grasp easily and glared at him.

“What are you doing?”

“What about you? What are you doing?”

Dimitri nervously groomed his messy fur and snapped, “Why do you care? Acting like some monk. D*mn it, how dare you touch me?”

“I’m in charge of managing this place, so it’s my role to mediate unnecessary conflicts here.”

“I’m the owner of this place! Whatever I do here is my business.”

“The owner of the shelter is the Duchess.”

“I’m the one who granted that permission, you stupid wolf.”

While Esca glanced down at him with an unfazed and calm expression, Dimitri growled at him with fierce eyes.

“Why, what? Don’t look at me like that. You’re annoying.”

“If you want something from the Duchess, Dimitri, you should go to her and talk to her directly. That would be the simplest and quickest way.”

Pricked by Esca’s words, Dimitri bristled and grunted.

“Do you wolf read minds now? What do you know? Are you reading minds now, huh?”

He thought as he dodged Dimitri, who was lunging at me in a frenzy.

‘He’s still cute.’

As I was walking out of the office and looking around the shelter, my ears perked up when I suddenly heard a voice coming from somewhere.

‘Who’s fighting?’

The shelter took in a large number of cat shapeshifters that didn’t know each other, so there would be fights—both big and small—almost daily. Although we had established a rule that any injuries resulting from fights would result in expulsion, they often fought in unseen corners, unwilling to be driven out as either victim or perpetrator.

‘This time, I’m really going to catch him and punish him severely.’

I crept towards the direction from where the voices were coming, with the intention of catching those fighting. However, as I got closer to the place where I heard the voice, I was taken aback. It was because it seemed like I knew whose voice it was.

‘…Dimitri? What is he doing here?’

It was definitely Dimitri’s voice.

As soon as I heard his voice, memories from the dinner party immediately flashed through my mind—multiple kisses, the warmth of his breath, his strong shoulders…

‘Uhg…’

Only after shaking my head vigorously several times was I able to escape from the thoughts of that day.

‘S-Should I go back?’

Although I didn’t know why Dimitri was here, I wasn’t ready to face him yet.

His words were true.

As soon as I woke up the next day, I ran away to the shelter because I didn’t have the confidence to see him… and I’ve been avoiding him like that for several days.

‘But… it’s all too confusing.’

In a moment, the resolve I had built over twenty-nine years of living as Seo Eunsoo almost crumbled. The idea of love being too dangerous, false, and negative was so strong in my mind that I couldn’t believe I almost threw myself into that pit of desire, unable to resist.

And still, just hearing Dimitri’s voice made my heart race like this.

‘It’s just a hormonal reaction. It’s just a chemical reaction driven by the instinct of reproduction simply because we’re animals. Come to your senses. I need to act rationally, or I’ll surely regret it once my emotions cool down.’

I tried to calm my mind and turned away.

Still, Dimitri’s voice kept enticing me.

‘Who on earth is he fighting with like that? I’ve never seen him raise his voice like that before.’

I couldn’t make out exactly what was being said, but he sounded very angry. Moreover, while it seemed like he was clearly talking to someone, the other person’s voice was hard to hear.

‘Yeah, this! It’s not attraction driven by hormones, it’s curiosity. It’s the curiosity that makes me want to go.’

In the end, I eventually found myself heading towards where he was.

‘I can’t avoid him like this forever.’

As soon as I turned the corner, I was startled by the sight that unfolded before my eyes.

“Di…mitri?”

 
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