Heat Period
“Qi Ying, Qi Ying?”
He opened his eyes groggily. A blurry orange halo hung there, piercingly hot, so he closed his eyes again.
“Mm?”
“Are you afraid of heights?”
“Ah, a little…”
“You don’t look so good. Why don’t you take my seat? I’m fine by the window.”
“Oh, thanks.” The halo in Qi Ying’s field of vision disappeared, and he felt much better. “About how long until we land?”
“Soon, maybe another half hour. Have you been to Jasu before?”
“No.”
“That’s a real shame. Jasu’s coconut palm sunsets are gorgeous, and Pode Beach is great for vacations. Of course, you won’t see it if you go now—it’s all destroyed.”
“Hopefully there’ll be a chance after the reconstruction.”
“Sigh, who knows how long that’ll take. They won’t be signing a ceasefire agreement anytime soon. How about coming to West Africa when you’re free in the future? West Africa is beautiful too—when the time comes, I’ll show you…”
BOOM—
A violent glare of fire exploded right in front of his eyes, and fierce flames swept over him.
Qi Ying snapped awake.
Gasping for air like a drowning man, his heart raced, his ears rang, and sweat poured down his face. The scar on his collarbone throbbed with a burning pain.
Before he could recover from the nightmare, he noticed the pheromone concentration detector on his wrist was vibrating at high frequency and flashing red. He hurriedly turned his head toward the monitor.
In the night-vision camera feed, Lu Mengzheng wasn’t in bed—he was by the desk.
His fingers gripped the edge of the desk as he stood hunched over, looking in immense pain. His water cup had rolled onto the floor as well. Without suppressants or Omega pheromones to soothe him, Lu Mengzheng was on the verge of losing control.
Wiping his face, Qi Ying immediately ran to the storage room, quickly grabbing a syringe and suppressants. Having organized the place before, he knew where everything was down to the exact spot.
Yet as he walked up to the containment cell door, his footsteps slowed.
He knew the passcode to this reinforced steel door, but he had never opened it—nor had he ever planned to. After all, he just wanted to coast on a fixed salary. It wasn’t like selling liquor for a commission; extra effort wouldn’t yield extra pay, so why risk his life?
Looking at the situation, though, if he didn’t go in to help Lu Mengzheng now, the man’s life would be in danger. If something truly went wrong, him going bankrupt wouldn’t even be enough to cover the damages.
Fuck. If I die, I die.
Gritting his teeth, Qi Ying entered the complete passcode. The heavy explosion-proof door slowly swung open before him. The infrared lasers overhead automatically formed an intersecting web of red lines in the air to verify his identity, ready to shoot down unauthorized personnel at any moment. Qi Ying stepped carefully over the threshold; simultaneously, the pheromone detector on his wrist let out a sharp siren.
He raised his hand to turn off the alarm. The explosion-proof door behind him shut tight immediately, the lasers extinguished, and the room was left in pitch darkness. Losing the camera’s night-vision capability, Qi Ying realized he couldn’t see a thing in the room. He didn’t even know if Lu Mengzheng was still by the desk.
“Mr. Lu?”
Qi Ying called out cautiously. He groped along the wall, but couldn’t find a light switch; he had never entered this room before and wasn’t familiar enough with its interior.
A rustling sound came through the dark, like a snake flicking its scales. Qi Ying followed the direction and kept moving forward. The temperature inside the containment cell was several degrees lower than outside, freezing him until his skin erupted in goosebumps.
“Mr. Lu, are you there?”
The noise grew a bit more intense, accompanied by Lu Mengzheng’s voice—sounding more like a low growl desperately suppressed in his chest: “Get out.”
“I brought suppressants. Let me give you a shot, it’ll be quick.”
Qi Ying stretched out his arms, groping as he drew closer. Though he couldn’t feel the pressure of Alpha pheromones, the high-frequency vibration of the detector made him extremely tense—so much so that his legs were turning to jelly.
Lu Mengzheng adjusted his suppressant bracelet to the highest setting: “Leave the suppressants. You, get out.”
Getting a little impatient, Qi Ying raised his voice: “Get out? This is my job. I’m in charge of Storage Room 105, and I’m in charge of you.”
“You can’t handle this.”
“Why can’t I handle it? I’m a Beta, I won’t go into heat because of you, and I don’t have a gland. We don’t interfere with each other—I’ll give you the shot and leave.” As the ambient temperature kept rising, Qi Ying felt he must be very close to Lu Mengzheng now, even catching the faint glow of the breathing light on the man’s suppressant bracelet. “In your current state of muscle spasms, injecting it yourself will snap the needle.”
This time, Lu Mengzheng didn’t argue back.
Seizing the chance, Qi Ying pressed forward, but suddenly tripped on something on the ground with a clatter, losing his balance entirely and pitching forward. Right at that moment, he grabbed hold of a lean, muscular arm.
Scorching hot and powerful.
It was Lu Mengzheng.
“What on earth…” He took a tentative kick at the floor again, and the culprit rolled away into the distance with a clatter, gleaming with stainless steel—it turned out to be the water cup that had fallen to the floor.
“Thanks,” Qi Ying said with a sigh of relief to Lu Mengzheng, who was holding him steady. But the other man didn’t let go right away.
“Mr. Lu?”
The two arms wrapped around him were tense with muscle, not only failing to release him, but gradually tightening their grip instead.
Although a Beta couldn’t release pheromones, a slightly cooler body temperature still attracted the feverish Alpha to an extent. Lu Mengzheng’s weight pressed down uncontrollably. Subconsciously taking a step back, Qi Ying’s back bumped into the wall, and Lu Mengzheng’s chin happened to rest right on his shoulder.
Qi Ying froze completely, his mind going blank.
No pheromones were even needed; the sheer pressure brought by the Alpha’s towering frame, combined with the intense hormones wafting off him, made it hard for Qi Ying to breathe.
He now thoroughly regretted taking the initiative to mention his profession as a doctor during the interview. In reality, he had zero experience soothing an Alpha or Omega during their special periods. At least, none in his memory.
“Lu Mengzheng!”
Qi Ying’s teeth chattered, unsure whether it was from anger or fear. He gave a slight push, but couldn’t budge the man.
“You…”
Before he could finish his sentence, a shiver ran up his body from bottom to top. The man’s scorching breath spilled onto his ear, burning him so badly his knees buckled, and his skin instantly broke out in goosebumps.
This is way too much.
Tiptoeing, Qi Ying tried to exert more strength to push Lu Mengzheng’s chest away, but it was like a wall of bronze and iron—completely unmovable. If anything, it looked more like he was eagerly pressing against it.
“Let go of me first, let me give you the shot!”
The word “shot” was uttered through gritted teeth, as if what Qi Ying had in mind wasn’t an injection, but a left hook followed by a right hook—preferably beating Lu Mengzheng until he fell to his knees begging for mercy and wailing.
However, the proposal was not only ignored, but invited further intrusion from the Alpha. Lu Mengzheng’s grip clamped firmly onto his waist, beginning to grope around forcefully.
“Hey, hey, hey…” Qi Ying twisted himself into a pretzel. “Where are you touching?!”
Lu Mengzheng remained silent. Before Qi Ying could react, he felt himself spun like a top. His head was held by a palm and pressed down; the right side of his face was squished flat against the wall, while the chest muscles he had admired on the camera for so long were now forcefully pressing against his back, rubbing against him.
“Don’t move around, and you’ll suffer less,” the Alpha warned in a deep voice in the dark.
Under the powerful intimidation, Qi Ying temporarily ceased his resistance, knitting his brows as he endured Lu Mengzheng’s movements behind him. The two men’s heavy breathing alternated in the containment cell, mingling together in a damp, scorching haze.
Just as the Alpha was gradually losing his patience, a small piece of leather dangling across the keeper’s chest caught his attention. While Lu Mengzheng was trying to figure it out, Qi Ying suddenly slammed a fierce elbow backward. Unfortunately, to a nimble soldier, this move was far too clumsy and was easily dodged. To punish his restlessness, his head immediately suffered another, firmer press, squishing his lips into a pout and embedding the right side of his face almost into the wall. This time, he went completely quiet.
Qi Ying had heard news stories about Betas being tormented to death by raging Alphas, but he had never imagined such a thing would happen to him—nor had he ever thought that one day, the back of his neck would be completely exposed to an Alpha in the middle of a heat period.
He tried his best to shrink his neck, but the area around his gland couldn’t help shivering in chills. Lu Mengzheng’s gaze felt tangible, pinned dead onto that spot, carving out flesh and sucking out the marrow.
But he had no gland to bite.
A Beta’s gland functions had long since withered into near nonexistence. He couldn’t be marked or claimed, nor would this process bring any pleasure to an Alpha.
Lu Mengzheng naturally knew this as well, yet he simply ground his canine teeth back and forth; Qi Ying heard the tiny, skin-crawling sound with utmost clarity.
“I’m saying… don’t take your frustration out on a Beta like me,” Qi Ying suggested with rough gasps, doing his absolute best to control his trembling vocal cords. “How about this… do you have an Omega? I can apply and see if I can have them brought over.”
As if the word “Omega” had triggered him, Lu Mengzheng began groping around his body once more.
“Hey, hey, hey… Not me, an Omega! I can go find your Omega!!” Qi Ying felt as if his stomach were about to be squeezed out by Lu Mengzheng, the ends of his hair soaked with beads of sweat.
Lu Mengzheng’s movements paused for a second, his tone ice-cold: “I don’t have an Omega.”
An S-rank Alpha with no Omega? Then how does he get through his heat every time?
“If you don’t have one… even if you don’t have one, you can’t treat me like an Omega… Fuck… stop touching!”
The Alpha’s hand moved irresistibly down from his chest to his lower abdomen, then meandered to the side of his thigh, and amidst Qi Ying’s struggling, slid right between his legs.
As that spot was suddenly clamped firmly in a palm, a wave of numbness shot up Qi Ying’s tailbone. Tilting his neck back, an embarrassing, muffled groan escaped his throat.
Unable to believe he could make a sound like that, he instantly bit down hard on his lip. His burning ears picked up the Alpha’s final ultimatum: “I told you, don’t move around, Sir—”
In a flash of inspiration, Qi Ying realized that although Lu Mengzheng was causing him a bit of pain, he hadn’t actually suffered any real harm. Rather than an assault, this was far more like a violent pat-down search.
Understanding dawned on him immediately: “What are you looking for? You can just tell me…”
Lu Mengzheng’s breathing grew heavier, but he didn’t answer.
“I don’t have anything on me!”
“No keycard! Your leg shackles have a voiceprint lock—I can’t open them!”
The squall halted abruptly. Two seconds later, the pressure on his shoulders eased. As if drained of strength, Lu Mengzheng leaned against the wall, taking half a step back, and Qi Ying pushed him away with force.
“I give up… I really give up!!”
He vented several complaints in succession like the mumblings of someone who had just suffered a scare, his entire body’s muscles trembling nonstop.
Why on earth do people have to work? Bad enough that work takes up time, but does it have to cost my life too?
Qi Ying swiftly pulled out the syringe from his hoodie pocket, popped off the cap, and flicked the needle tip, his movements smooth as flowing water: “Give me your arm!”
Lu Mengzheng didn’t cooperate, so Qi Ying had no choice but to lift his arm for him. Before injecting, he noticed his hand was shaking a bit; after flicking his wrist twice, he finally pushed the drug in.
The process went so smoothly that it failed to make Lu Mengzheng fall to his knees begging for mercy or wailing loudly.
Qi Ying only hated his own over-competent skills.
After depressing the plunger, both of them fell silent for a short while, and the erratic rhythm of Lu Mengzheng’s breathing slowed down.
“How do you feel?” Qi Ying let out a heavy sigh of relief. “I’ll request some stronger suppressants tomorrow.”
Lu Mengzheng’s facial features weren’t visible in the dark; only his eyes gleamed, nodding up and down slightly like a big cat.
“Don’t even think about running—there are electronic eyes everywhere outside.” Qi Ying gave his collar, twisted crooked during the struggle, a yank back into place and stuffed his thoroughly rummaged pockets back in. He secretly rejoiced that he hadn’t turned on the lights; otherwise, his flush cheeks and awkward lower body would have been exposed completely to this wretched prisoner. “How about this: I’ll be the bigger man. You say ‘sorry’ to me, and I’ll go find you a few clothes. You can pick whatever scent of pheromones you like, anything you choose…”
Lu Mengzheng’s lower eyelids lifted slightly, the tip of his tongue pressing against his canine tooth, and his breathing turned messy again.
…….
“No way, are you a dog? You go into heat just from mentioning pheromones?!”
Qi Ying suffered a complete meltdown. He knew ordinary suppressants had limited effects on a top-tier Alpha like this, but he hadn’t known they would be this limited—a single shot couldn’t even hold up for five minutes.
Greasing his soles to run, he was just thinking about how to escape this time when Lu Mengzheng beat him to it, speaking without a trace of mercy.
“Get out!”
“Hey, how can you be so—”
Lu Mengzheng desperately suppressed the pain, merging back into the shadows. “Get the fuck out, and don’t come in here again.”