The Beta Widower Is Coveted by His Brooding Younger Brother-in-Law

[Gloomy, possessive alpha gong x beautiful, frail beta shou]

1.

Born into the Aisilin family, Lin Mi was destined to be a tool for his family's advancement, even though he was only a beta.

As soon as he came of age, Lin Mi was forced to marry the eldest son of the Yan family, the most powerful family in the Imperial Cabinet.

Like all family-arranged marriages, Lin Mi's marriage was all for show. His husband even took a separate room on their wedding night. But Lin Mi didn't care. He was only a beta, with no heat cycle and no need for an alpha's mark. All he had to do was play the part of a good wife and help the Aisilin family gain power when needed.

Just when he thought things would stay that way, an accident sent him into a pseudo-heat. He had planned to endure it alone, but his husband came into his room. In the dim light, Lin Mi couldn't make out his husband's face. All he could feel was the scorching heat of the palm pressing against his waist, his burning breath, the sweat running down his skin, and the scent of his husband's S-rank alpha pheromones, which others told him smelled like narcissus, though Lin Mi couldn't smell it himself.

Three days and three nights later, Lin Mi woke up covered in bruises, his legs trembling. But the person beside him was gone, and the bed had gone cold.

Their marriage remained a union in name only. Even after they had slept together, his husband was still cold toward Lin Mi, almost to the point of loathing him. Yet every night, his husband still came to visit like clockwork, caressing him with incredible tenderness, only to curse him out the next day.

Maybe this was all he was: a tool. Lin Mi tried to console himself. Little did he know that not far away, his younger brother-in-law was looking at him with a gaze growing more and more nakedly passionate...

2.

Before the age of seven, Yan Chi was just a stray dog surviving by scavenging through garbage in the Empire. After he turned seven, he was brought into the Yan family as an illegitimate child and became the eldest son's living prescription.

No one knew that the prestigious eldest son of the Yan family was actually a false alpha, born with a defective gland and no pheromones. Yan Chi's purpose was to serve as his medicine, then, when he reached the right age, have his gland removed and transplanted into the other man.

Yan Chi thought that was how it would all go. But at what was said to be the grandest wedding in the Empire's history, he saw his brother's wife: the refined, beautiful beta everyone said was as lovely as an omega.

His pale gold, slightly curled, shoulder-length hair. His clear, brilliant blue eyes, like precious stones. His translucent fair skin and full, cherry-blossom-pink lips.

Every part of him made Yan Chi yearn for him.

What a waste for such a beautiful beta to be given to his brother, who didn't even have a gland...

Perhaps... he could...

Yan Chi's lips curved almost imperceptibly, his gaze on his sister-in-law growing more and more blatant...

3.

A car accident took the life of the youngest chairman in the Imperial Cabinet, the eldest son of the Yan family, and Lin Mi's husband.

At the funeral, the beautiful, refined beta looked deathly pale, the red veins in his eyes stark against the whites. His slender waist was tightly bound by his solemn black suit, making him seem even more delicate, as if he could snap in a single hand.

With guests arriving one after another, Lin Mi could no longer keep up and fainted. When he awoke, he was in the dim room where he and his husband had spent night after night entwined. In the darkness, a pair of bloodthirsty eyes stared right at him. Lin Mi was terrified, but there was nowhere to run. A hand gripped his waist hard. That familiar scorching heat, burning breath, trickling sweat, and the pleasant scent of S-rank alpha pheromones that smelled of narcissus...

The size and thickness were so familiar, yet the voice in his ear was so strange:

"Sister-in-law, do you remember me?"

P.S.

1. Both are each other's first and only partners, and this is an alpha/beta romance. They are devoted to each other in body and mind.

2. Brother-in-law and sister-in-law romance, happy ending, set in an alternate future.

3. The shou is very beautiful and has a slight tendency to attract everyone.

4. The gong is very dark and possessive, and a little twisted.

5. The gong is older.

Theme: Love is a tender thing.