Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
I was engaged to two shifter brothers at the same time.
Between them, I liked the older one more—the cold, distant one.
Too bad Damian Sterling didn’t like me back.
No matter how much I acted out, no matter how hard I pushed for his attention, he would only shove me away with visible irritation and say,
“Can you just leave me alone for a while?”
Then I got into a car accident.
And when I opened my eyes—or thought I did—a strange stream of comments suddenly appeared in front of me like a live comment overlay.
[She’s seriously trying to get attention so hard she’s practically killing herself. What a scheming side character. Too bad it’s useless—the male lead was never going to look at her twice.]
[Actually, when she crashed, the male lead was nearby. He felt it. But because he was busy keeping his childhood sweetheart company, he deliberately shut off the bond and ignored it…]
[Look, she’s waking up. Let’s see what kind of scene she makes now.]
I opened my eyes.
First, I greeted the younger brother gently.
Then I turned to Damian with a blank, dazed expression.
“Sorry,” I said. “I lost my memory. Who are you?”
The moment the words left my mouth, Damian Sterling was silent for exactly one second before he said, “What pointless stunt are you pulling now? You think this is going to make me feel sorry for you?”
I kept my expression blank and lost. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
His gaze turned cold. “Open your eyes and look at me. Really look. Who am I?”
“I did,” I said. “I still don’t remember.”
“Tessa, this kind of joke isn’t funny.”
When Damian had no expression on his face, he always looked a little frightening.
So I turned to Julian instead. “Jules, do you know him?”
Maybe it was because I called him so intimately, but Julian froze for a moment before answering.
“He’s my older brother,” he said softly. “And also your… fiancé.”
“That’s ridiculous. I don’t even like him. Why would I ever get engaged to someone like that?” I wrapped myself around Julian’s arm with a bright smile. “Besides, in my memory, I only have one fiancé, and that’s you.”
A flush rose across the young man’s cheeks. “Y-you were engaged to both of us at the same time.”
“No, no, no. Impossible.” I shook my head firmly. “There is no way I would ever get engaged to someone I hate.”
The instant I said it, Damian let out a low laugh.
“Well, this is new,” he said. “First time I’ve seen you put on an act like this. I’ll admit, it’s almost refreshing.”
Then his expression flattened again.
“Too bad I don’t have time to indulge you.”
He pressed a beautifully boxed slice of cake into my hands.
“You kept saying you wanted to try cake I made myself. Well, here. Consider your wish granted for once.” His tone was cool, almost impatient. “You should start behaving now, don’t you think?”
I looked down at the cake in confusion.
Then I turned and dropped it straight into the trash.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Sorry,” I said. “I don’t take food from strangers.”
It was the first time I’d ever seen genuine shock on Damian Sterling’s face.
As the man effectively running the Treasury in a world shared by humans and shifters, he carried himself like there was no problem on earth he couldn’t solve.
Except, apparently, being genetically paired with me.
Damian didn’t like me. But he couldn’t defy the state-mandated pairing system, either.
So he’d deliberately added an outrageous condition: if I wanted the engagement, I’d have to be engaged to his younger brother too.
Julian Sterling had an injured lower leg and had used a wheelchair for years.
Among tiger shifters, that was practically the same as being ruined.
And on top of that, there were rumors that his injury had affected him in other ways too—that he was less than a whole man.
No one wanted to marry him.
I’d heard Damian had pulled every string he had, asked every favor, looked everywhere for a match for his brother, and still failed.
He’d assumed that ridiculous condition would scare me off.
Instead, I accepted without hesitation.
God knew how badly I wanted to marry Damian Sterling.
It was my only way out of my past.
And besides, it was a buy-one-get-one deal. One cold, powerful older brother and one pretty younger man with a delicate face—who would say no?
Too bad reality hit me hard.
Damian hated me.
Fair enough. If I were some polished, powerful public figure, I probably wouldn’t have liked a poor human girl either.
He was also a clean freak.
The day he came to find me, I was filthy from head to toe, crouched in a corner scrubbing a toilet.
Damian had frowned the second he saw me. “You’re Tessa Carter? And your pheromone is… catnip?”
“That’s me,” I said quickly. “Yep. Me.”
“How can anyone have a pheromone that bizarre?” He covered his nose and stepped back. “Don’t come any closer. Stay away from me. And why can’t I smell any catnip at all?”
“The Bureau said I only release pheromones under certain conditions.”
“No wonder. All I can smell in here is stink.”
His gaze was glacial, openly appraising, as if he were inspecting some questionable object he regretted being assigned.
After the engagement, I moved into the Sterling estate.
To secure my place there, I used every trick I could think of.
For example: putting on the skimpiest little slip I owned and climbing into Damian’s bed during one of his rut periods.
He hooked a finger under the strap on my shoulder and demanded, “What exactly are you doing here?”
“I came to help.”
“I don’t need your help. Get out.”
“You’re already this hard and you still want to act tough?”
He caught the finger I was using to tease him. “I said get out.”
At the end of his rope, Damian picked me up and dumped me outside the room.
“Nobody ever teach you I hate cheap tricks like this?” he said flatly.
Then he shut the door.
And locked it.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
I clicked my tongue, turned around—
—and saw Julian out in the hall, apparently getting himself a glass of water.
The boy immediately looked away, lowering his eyes like he hadn’t seen a thing.
Damian always got through his rut with heat suppressants.
Back then, I couldn’t understand it.
I was pretty confident in my looks. Even without factoring in compatibility, he shouldn’t have been that cold.
But now, finally, I understood.
Damian had been saving his first time for the story’s heroine.
If I kept pushing after that, I’d just be embarrassing myself.
But then again…
Why was I supposed to bow my head just because the script said I was the disposable side character?
Damian Sterling had spent all these years failing to win over his so-called childhood-sweetheart heroine. That was his problem, not mine.
Damian called in a doctor to run scans on my head.
The doctor studied my brain images with a furrowed brow. “There doesn’t appear to be any physical damage. But since the patient no longer remembers you, this does qualify as amnesia.”
“Then why does she remember Julian?” Damian asked.
“It may be selective amnesia,” the doctor said carefully. “That kind of memory loss is often linked to psychological trauma.”
Damian still didn’t buy it. “Is there any chance she’s faking?”
The doctor hesitated. “Well… if someone were pretending to have amnesia, there would usually have to be a reason.”
“There is,” Damian said coldly. “She’s faked things plenty of times before.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Back then, I used to pretend to be sick, act pathetic, do anything to get Damian’s attention.
Every single time, he saw right through me.
He’d grown sick of all my tricks long ago.
Damian walked over and pulled off his black gloves.
Then he grabbed my chin and forced my face up so I had to look straight at him.
“Go on,” he said. “What’s the point of this little act this time?”
In the wild, tigers are ambush predators.
Damian had inherited that trait perfectly.
His pupils narrowed into slits. His nails sharpened little by little, almost biting into my skin.
The Meta Comment Feed exploded with approval.
[Yes! That’s exactly how you deal with a scheming side girl!]
[Stop pretending already. Do you seriously think this is going to win sympathy?]
[Hero, teach her a lesson! Let’s see if she dares fake being sick again!]
The comments hadn’t even finished scrolling when tears suddenly started spilling down my face.
Two drops landed on Damian’s hand.
He jerked back like he’d been burned.
“W-why are you crying?”
I actually heard a note of disbelief in his voice.
“I’m just asking you a question. I didn’t tell you to cry!”
“I’m sorry. I want to remember you too, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t. It’s all my fault.”
I clenched my fists and started hitting my head, hard enough to look desperate, light enough not to actually hurt myself.
Tears poured down like they were free.
Julian immediately rolled his wheelchair forward.
“Damian, you’re scaring her.”
“She’s faking it!”