Broken Bond: Between Vices and Virtues (BL)
Chapter 70: The truth unfolds [7]

Chapter 70: The truth unfolds [7]

"Mr. President!"

The dressers and the styling department’s staff all hurried to the president like ducks waggling their butts. They simultaneously explained what occurred, only to earn the ire of the boss for their incomprehensible tattling.

Athan shoved them away and walked in. He glared at Elise’s manager, his eyes narrowing at her pointed finger. The manager nervously folded her trembling finger and lowered her hand. She couldn’t meet Athan’s cold and domineering gaze so she looked away and whimpered like a scared dog.

"Miss Elise, may I ask why your manager is scolding my secretary?" Athan asked in a cold voice.

Elise obediently and timidly explained what had happened. Knox listened, but when the female omega finished and Athan gave him a chance to explain, he ended up coughing from the strong smell that poured into his nose.

The sweet scent of an omega wafted in the air. Athan raised his brows, unaffected by the pheromones Elise Chen was releasing. He opened his mouth and barked, "Stop spreading your pheromones, Miss Elise. Not everyone here is insusceptible to your scent. If something happened to you because of this open release, I guarantee you that the company won’t take any responsibility as you’ll bring it upon yourself."

Elise looked flustered. Her snow-white cheeks turned red as she firmly denied, "I-I’m not doing it on purpose, President Horace. I’m sure you know I underwent a gender change, so my condition sometimes became unstable due to my emotional state. I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I’ll try to rein it, please don’t worry."

Athan sighed, "If you can’t talk right now, let’s end this commotion here. Sec. Arden, let’s go. Fa—

"U-Um..." Elise Chen voiced out. She looked at Knox apologetically and fidgeted with her hands, "I’m sorry about my secretary acting rudely toward you, Sec. Arden. She was just concerned about me since you almost splashed the hot coffee on my skin. Luckily, only my dress was harmed. And it’s okay, I know my clothes are too expensive for you to pay, so you don’t have to compensate me."

The manager gaped at her boss unbelievably. She looked moved but also upset, so she turned to Athan and spouted, "President Horace, are you sure he can be trusted? I heard that he committed design theft in your company, and now he almost burned the main model of your show. Is this really just a reckless coincidence or..."

"Who told you about the design theft?" the manager flinched at Athan’s voice. The sweet atmosphere set by Elise’s pheromones turned into a suffocating one. The alpha pheromones thickened in the room, putting pressure on everyone present. Above all, the omegas in the area trembled in fear as they could feel the terrifying aura full of anger settled in the air. Not just one scent, but three different smells.

Before they could ponder who the two pheromones belonged to, they were already catching their breath, as the tense atmosphere began depriving them of breathing properly.

Even the betas shuddered. Who wouldn’t? Three dominant alphas were expressing their rage through their pheromones, putting them all in a tighter spot.

The manager, who was a beta, replied with quivering lips, her eyes watered as she lowered her head ninety degrees, "I-I j-just he...heard about it, sir. T-They were talking a-about it so..."

"Then, you’d better keep it to yourself if you don’t want to be sued for slandering my secretary."

Athan scanned the room with his downward eyes. Everyone bowed their heads, avoiding his piercing gaze. Amidst all this, Elise Chen, a dominant omega, huffed and had a hard time breathing.

She painfully looked at Athan, a dominant alpha, waiting for his help but the latter only turned to Knox whose face had become paler.

Knox was temporarily unable to be affected by alpha pheromones because of his incomplete bond, but to have three of them in such an intense manner was like a cold bucket of ice water poured at him in the middle of the winter season.

His complexion turned whiter than paper, and his body broke into cold sweat. In addition to that, he was having a really bad headache.

"Sec. Arden, are you okay?" Athan came and supported Knox’s staggering figure. The male omega nodded his head slightly. But whoever looked at him could tell he wasn’t in his best condition. Athan brushed away the strands of damped hair from Knox’s forehead.

Whispers broke into the room after that.

"Is it really true? They’re in that relationship?"

"No wonder, that annoying secretary looked so bold and dauntless. Someone’s backing him no matter what he does."

"I heard he’s a recessive omega. I guess even recessive can be useful in ’that’ sense, huh."

Azrael was standing near all of those gossiping mouths silently. He came to look at the commotion out of curiosity and hope to see Knox. He did see him, but his face distorted in a fit of wrath after seeing him cornered, looking as though he’d faint any moment.

He tried to step forward and yank Elise and her manager away from him, but Athan Horace beat him to it. For some reason, he was rooted in his spot, and let the man fix the internal conflict in his company.

However, after hearing someone comment that recessive omegas can be useful in ’that’ matter, his timer quickly decreased to zero and he snapped. He slammed the makeshift wall used as a partition next to him. The wall shook and soon fell to the ground, surprising anyone in the room.

They screamed. Azrael thought they were exaggerating as the wall wasn’t even that heavy, but when he lifted his head, his eyes caught a glimpse of Knox Arden clinging unconsciously in Athan Horace’s arms.

"Knox!" Athan shook his younger brother’s shoulders. He immediately carried him, but the other omega in his front fell on the floor as well.

"Miss Elise!"

"Oh, my god, what’s happening?!" the staff shouted in terror.

Elise’s manager looked at Athan with tearful eyes, "President Horace, please carry Miss Elise too! She fainted from your pheromones!"

Athan dropped his gaze at the manager kneeling beside her unconscious talent. He looked troubled, but not guilty at all. Elise was the main model they hired for that show, so it wouldn’t be good in the eyes of the public if his company or he, the president, ignored the influential actress and let her sleep on the floor.

He looked into the crowd of people for someone to carry the female omega. His eyes settled on Azrael and remembered that Elise was basically working for him as he already owned the Idol Entertainment. He parted his lips to ask him, but the guy just averted his eyes and shifted them to the person in his arms.

Aware of what Azrael might be thinking, Athan’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance. He looked back at the manager to inform her of Azrael’s presence, but a voice interrupted him instead.

"Give him to me. The floor is cold, the poor woman might catch a cold if you keep dawdling here."

Gasps filled the room at the appearance of the older male alpha. His light blonde hair mixed with locks of white strands due to his age, and his facial features clearly showed foreign descent, paired with his greenish eyes that were slightly dulled from the glasses he wore, was a face known to anyone and even got featured many times in magazines.

Deafening silence reigned in the room as the Chairman of the Horizon Corporation walked in followed by his secretary, Steve Williams.

Everyone was holding their breath and didn’t dare to make even the slightest noise. Steve politely asked Chairman Nathaniel, "Shall I carry him, Chairman?"

Chairman Nathaniel didn’t answer. With his tall yet slightly hunched figure that still carried an air of elegance comparable to nobility, he walked to Athan himself and opened his arms. Then, he repeated, "Give him to me."

Athan was stunned at first. Then, the disbelief was replaced with uncertainty and doubt, "You won’t drop him?"

The chairman arched his brows at his son, "I will never."

Athan showed a ridiculous face to his father. But in the end, he still placed Knox in his arms carefully and gently. He paused after hearing his father mumbled, "He’s heavier than the little one, of course."

Everyone in the room was shocked at their wits. Their jaws fell as they watched the chairman of HZ look down at Elise’s manager condescendingly. With a voice dripping with ice, he remarked, "A hundred thousands of dollars, did you say?"

The manager flinched and shook tremendously. Chairman Nathaniel glanced at Steve, "Make sure to compensate them for the dress."

"Yes, chairman," Steve responded.

The chairman looked around and stated once more, "You’re getting paid on your jobs to work efficiently and properly, not to gossip during work. And who brought cups of coffee in a room full of expensive clothes and then left them anywhere?! Your reckless behaviors are what led to this situation."

With that, the chairman walked away. As they were leaving, Steve asked quite loudly, "Chairman, the young master is heavy, please let me carry him."

The ones who heard him were all astonished. But their astonishment skyrocketed after hearing the chairman’s reply. "Let me, at least, carry my son, just this once."

Even Azrael who stood next to the fallen makeshift partition lost his mind for a moment, since he supported his staggering figure by leaning on the wall, only to be reminded that he punched that wall after his hand touched nothing. He remembered all the times he acted rudely and violently because of his jealousy. He palmed his forehead and mumbled, "F*ck."