WARNING: GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF CHILD ABUSE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THIS CHAPTER. 

Jihoon was in his own seat again, warming his hands around a new, hot cup of tea.

“When I was born,” he said softly, “and they do your blood, you know?”

“…I’m not up to date on ABO chemistry,” the alpha blushed. “Fill me in.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes a little, but explained anyway. “When a baby is born, there is an added gene on the X chromosome. This gene is either an alpha gene or an omega gene. It controls whether somebody will bulk up easily or not, whether they will be feisty or more go-with-the-flow. It controls whether you are a fierce warrior, or slightly more… introverted. Now, when there are two X chromosomes present – indicating a little girl – two of the genes cast each other out, and they become a beta, which is completely neutral. Alright?”

Seungcheol went even redder. It really was basic. “Alright.”

Jihoon sighed a little. “Aron was the perfect child, and Nana was austere but oh so pretty. Joshua was her favorite child, and Jeonghan was… well, Jeonghan. Yoonjo was gorgeous, too. Minhyun… well, you’ll find out someday soon, so I might as well tell you. He has a mental disability. It’s called Angelman’s syndrome. It doesn’t show up real quick or anything, so the Queen was pregnant again with Jun when they found out.

“She didn’t do so well. She takes the whole natural order of birth real sharp. She couldn’t believe that she had given birth to a boy like him.” Jihoon’s hands became little fists. “There’s nothing wrong with Minhyun. He’s beautiful. He has such a kind heart. And he just wants to play and love. That’s all he wants. There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s beautiful. He really is. And the Queen, well… she called him all kinds of terrible things. Terrible things, Seungcheol. Things I’d never repeat.”

Seungcheol urged him past the deeply disturbing topic. “So she was pregnant with the Bloodthirsty Prince?”

“Yeah. When she gave birth to Jun and he turned out to be an entirely healthy boy, she didn’t mind trying again. I guess she thought she could just lock Minhyun up and forget about him. But when she gave birth to me – when they did the blood test and found out I was an omega… she slipped into a very bad depression.

“It was worse than giving birth to somebody with a disability, for her. She had given birth to a weakling. To be honest, if you’re going to have seven sons and ten children in total, at least one is bound to be an omega. But she saw it as a flaw of her own body she didn’t want to remember. She hated my existence. It took her ten years to try for another child.”

A moment of silence passed as Jihoon drank his tea.

“There’s nothing wrong with being an omega,” Seungcheol said quietly.

“There’s an unpopular opinion,” Jihoon smiled gently. “Most people see us as a genetic fault. A recessive gene that will one day go extinct.”

Seungcheol made a pained face.

“My mother… well, they call it torture. I was held to the greatest standards, especially when I was younger, and punished badly when I didn’t make the cut. When I was four years old, my mother told me to play Midnight Sonata on the piano.

“She took me into the bathroom, filled up the bathtub, and held me under water for minutes at a time. That was my punishment for not being able to play the piano. It was ten minutes before somebody found us and saved me. I’d been under the water for an entire minute. Much longer and she would have drowned me.

“One time she made me hold a target for Jeonghan’s shooting practice. The whole family was there to see, but she held sway over them and forced him to fire at me. Jeonghan wasn’t a good shot. Didn’t you ever wonder how I got that scar over my right hip?” The Prince gave a sad smile. “Jeonghan’s target practice, when I was about ten years old.

“Beating was more regular, and never surprised me. She used to take me out into the inner courtyard and grab a thick bamboo stick. Then she’d tie my hands together to a log there and she’d just beat me. She’d made the whole family watch her do it, too. I can imagine it was as awful for them as it was for me. One time she beat me unconscious. The doctors were afraid I’d sustain some kind of brain damage. I was lucky.”

“Lucky,” Seungcheol broke out. It sounded like he was choking on the word.

Jihoon couldn’t stop now. “Her favorite punishment she only pulled out when I smiled as a child. She would take me away to where nobody would find her and… well. She would break my legs. I had to learn how to walk again by the age of six. By that time I’d already learned not to smile. Why should I smile, when my existence was such a blight on her track record? She enjoyed torturing me. Shave my head. Beat me in front of my family. Drown me. Throw burning tea candles at me. When I grew up – became strong enough to run, hide or pull away from her… she had already had Shannon, a beautiful baby girl. Her wrath cooled to extreme insults and the occasional beating.

“There’s not a hallway or room in that palace that’s safe for me. She lingers everywhere, even now that she’s dead. Every room is saturated with her memory. Physical pain. Mental abuse. All of that.”

“Good God,” Seungcheol hissed. “How does nobody know about this?”

“Everybody who was ever in the palace for over twenty-four hours during that period knows it. They were all gagged by a confidentiality clause. Even the servants.”

“…wow.”

“Yeah.” Jihoon shrugged. “That’s why they titled me