After leaving the CEO’s office, Lu Qingli arrived at the RYG waiting room to take a short break, drafting in her mind the statement for the press conference scheduled two hours later in the company’s main conference room.
When her phone screen suddenly lit up, her eyes dimmed.
The app auto-push notification happened to be about the trending topic surrounding this plagiarism scandal.
From the moment the incident broke until now, as the person involved, she hadn’t clicked in to read any of it.
However, she could roughly guess that the comment section was filled with either words of comfort in times of need or people taking delight in her misfortune.
A moment later, she turned off her phone, closed her eyes, leaned back against the chair, and exhaled a long breath. Her trembling eyelashes fluttered like struggling butterfly wings.
She recalled what a friend had told her before: An innocent person proves themselves naturally.
Her thin lips parted slightly as she murmured to herself: “An innocent person proves themselves naturally, huh…”
I’m afraid an innocent person can hardly clear their own name.
Feeling too suffocated and heavy-hearted, she happened to remember that the top of this building had a rooftop terrace.
Might as well go get some fresh air…
Reaching the top floor, she gently pushed the door open, leaving a sliver of a gap.
The light outside was a bit glaring. Lu Qingli involuntarily squinted her eyes slightly and pushed the door open to step out.
She walked over to the railing on the rooftop, gazing out at the scenery in the distance that had shrunk and turned blurry.
A gust of autumn wind blew against her face, fluttering her long, soft hair. The shifting shadows cast by her hair swayed across her ice-cold eyes.
Her mood had hit rock bottom.
Suddenly, her vision spun wildly, and an abrupt wave of dizziness swept through her mind.
She hurriedly stumbled back a few steps, stepping away from the railing.
What was going on? She clearly wasn’t afraid of heights.
The accompanying rush of heat raised her vigilance. Perhaps her heat cycle had arrived ahead of time.
Her soft, delicate hand stroked her own cheek. She felt the surge of heat inside her body crashing in like ocean waves, while the tips of her ears began to burn uncontrollably.
Lu Qingli pressed her palm against the wall, barely able to keep herself upright. However, the rapidly rising body temperature forced her to slide down and sit against the wall.
…Why was it coming on so intensely?
None of her usual emergency knowledge was of any use now. She didn’t have any suppressants on her, and her phone was in her bag back in the waiting room.
The Omega, caught off guard by the heat, leaned against the off-white wall completely limp and weak. Her tightly clenched fingertips had turned pale, and her shoulders trembled uncontrollably, looking like a fragile spark fluttering in the cold wind.
She forced herself to calm down, doing quick calculations in her head: Trying to crawl from here back to the conference room would likely end in dehydration halfway, not to mention the risk of tumbling down the stairs…
Time ticked by, every second agonizingly difficult to endure.
Under the scorching effect of instinct, her body grew hotter and hotter. The burning heat singed every inch of her skin, lust spreading from the inside out.
Her breathing turned rapid and ragged. Unconsciously, her reddened knuckles tugged open the top collar button that felt as if it were choking her breath away.
Is there anyone who can come and help me? A faint sliver of hope floated up in her heart.
However, that possibility was quickly extinguished by her own logic, who would come to the rooftop for no reason?
When the body suffers in agony, time always passes exceedingly slow.
Suddenly, Lu Qingli, who was on the verge of losing consciousness, felt an extremely faint Alpha pheromone approaching her, which was soon dispersed by the wind.
She struggled to lift her eyes and saw a small head wearing a ribbon bow peeking out from behind the adjacent wall.
The ink-black long hair blown by the wind carried a gentle fragrance. Those bright eyes held timidness and tentative hesitation, alongside a hint of hidden curiosity.
Why would an Alpha come to the rooftop?
She had no time to ponder that question. The fact she had to face right now was: she was currently in a dangerous heat cycle, and standing before her was a young Alpha.
At the very least, the Alpha in front of her was no stranger.
Lu Qingli recognized her, or rather, anyone who watched TV or surfed the internet knew this perfect idol, let alone a junior in the same company.
When Luo Xuan’s tall figure, somewhat contrasting with her cute appearance, stepped out from behind the wall, Lu Qingli suddenly felt a sudden shudder ripple up her back.
The young Alpha walked over to Lu Qingli’s side, dropped to her knees, and squatted down. Her brows were filled with concern as she supported Lu Qingli’s shoulder, asking in a sweet, clear voice: “Sister… you look really uncomfortable?”
Hearing that refreshing cool voice, clear and pure like spring water, Lu Qingli felt her already scorching throat grow even drier.
“Why… are your… pheromones… so faint?” she asked brokenly, her voice raspy from being scorched by the heat.
Only then did the young Alpha remember that she still had a blocker patch stuck on the back of her neck.
Luo Xuan quickly brushed her hair to one side, revealing her paper-white back neck, and raised her hand to peel off the blocker patch.
Instantly, a warm and radiant sea-salt pheromone, like beach sunshine, wrapped around the two of them, sweet without being cloying, carrying the refreshing comfort of an ocean breeze.
Even in such an open space, Luo Xuan’s pheromones were remarkably rich and concentrated.
This smell was a lethal temptation for an Omega in heat. Sitting on the ground, Lu Qingli felt her waist go completely limp and weak, the corners of her eyes tinted pink with faint traces of tears.
This pheromone brought her back to reality, the Luo Xuan before her eyes was a young S-grade Alpha bearing a rich and dominant sea-salt pheromone.
The heat spiked abruptly.
“Sister, does this feel a bit better?” Luo Xuan held up Lu Qingli’s slender back, deliberately averting her eyes from the fleeting view exposed at the partially unbuttoned collar.
She wasn’t used to releasing her pheromones yet because she always wore a blocker patch on normal days. Her manager, Gu Shuyun, would also calculate her rut cycles precisely, reminding her a day in advance to take suppressants and rest at home.
However, even wrapped in her own pheromones, she felt that the Omega sister beneath her didn’t seem to improve in the slightest.
The heat transmitted from her palm almost scalded her.
Facing another person’s heat cycle for the first time, the young Alpha panicked slightly. She hurriedly pulled out her phone and said:
“Sister, hang on. I’ll call my manager right now to bring some suppressants over…”
The edge of her jacket was suddenly grabbed by a pale, slender hand. Following that hand up, the flush-faced Omega was gasping for air vulnerably, messy strands of hair sticking to her cheeks, yet a stubborn glint flickered in the depths of her eyes.
“Don’t… call.”
She didn’t want anyone to see her in heat.
Nor did she want to accept a mark from the Alpha in front of her, even if a temporary mark was the quickest solution to relieve a heat cycle.
The lingering embers of logic and instinctual desires clashed repeatedly in the Omega’s mind.
Luo Xuan froze, not understanding her intention. Raising her brows, she asked, “Then how do you want me to help you?”
Engulfed in the Alpha’s rich, sweet sea-salt pheromones, ripples stirred involuntarily inside the Omega’s body, her amber pupils trembling.
Seeing that Lu Qingli no longer seemed to have the strength to answer, Luo Xuan tentatively reached out her hand and gently brushed away the damp hair covering her forehead.
The astonishing temperature against her fingertips reminded her that if she didn’t take action soon, something would definitely go wrong with the Omega’s body.
She had to do something.
“Sister.” Luo Xuan supported her shoulders, a touch of determination settling into her voice.
A temporary mark, right? Just one bite would solve the Omega’s heat.
She knew how to do it.
At least in past biology classes, she and some fellow Alpha trainees had watched the soothing mark instructional video together with blushing faces and racing hearts.
“Wait, don’t, ” Sensing her intention, the Omega grabbed her sleeve once more.
“It’s okay, don’t be scared, sister.” Thinking that she was unwilling to be marked or afraid of the pain, the young Alpha reassured her softly, “It’ll be over very soon.”
As if weighing countless voices in her head, the Omega finally gave a subtle, silent nod.
Having received approval, the young idol disregarded her own image, kneeling down beside the wall and pulling the woman into her arms.
The sea-salt scent around her was quickly replaced by the scent of roses, the Omega’s pheromones were actually even richer.
The Alpha’s body gradually warmed up as well, heat transferring from the person in her arms.
When she brushed aside the long hair draped over the other woman’s back, exposing her fair, tender nape, she couldn’t help feeling that the hidden gland seemed like a pulsing, living entity.
Following the memory of the instructional video, she leaned in and lightly bit down on the swollen, burning gland.
“Mm, !” Lu Qingli gasped from the pain, but as if afraid of worrying the young Alpha behind her, she immediately stifled the noise.
Hearing the sound, Luo Xuan released her bite quickly. “I’m sorry, does it hurt?”
“It’s… fine…”
“Then I’ll continue.”
Learning as she went, she lightly kissed the delicate nape, and after a gentle lick, drove her canine teeth through that thin layer of skin.
As the tips of her teeth slowly injected pheromones, she felt the slight tremor running through the Omega’s slender waist.
A strange emotion flickered through her heart.
After the mark was complete, Lu Qingli didn’t get up immediately. Instead, she remained resting against her chest, her breathing gradually turning steady and even.
The Omega spoke with an unconscious, alluring lilt in her voice: “Let me lean on you for a moment.”
“Okay.”
She swallowed her breath. Looking from this angle, the Omega before her looked dangerously captivating right now.
That flushed face, those slightly parted, panting, moist lips…
If she hadn’t come to the rooftop today, would this vulnerable appearance have been seen by someone else?
At the thought of this, a strange sense of displeasure briefly surfaced in her heart.
The rose pheromones in the air seemed to fade, replaced by Luo Xuan’s sea-salt pheromones becoming intensely prominent.
The Omega’s short-term heat had come to an end.
Once she regained her clarity, the atmosphere fell into silence.
Fortunately, this posture avoided eye contact, so even the silence carried a touch of ambiguity.
As the older one, Lu Qingli broke the silence first: “Should we get up now?”
“Mm, okay. I’ll help you up first.”
Luo Xuan hurriedly stood up as if granted a reprieve, smoothing down her wrinkled skirt.
She reached out to pull Lu Qingli up. The moment her fingertips touched the other’s elbow, the image of the Omega being marked by her flashed through her mind.
A hint of smug pride couldn’t help but rise in the young Alpha’s heart.
After standing, Lu Qingli lowered her head to tidy her clothes, rebuttoning the collar buttons she had messily undone earlier. In a cool tone completely different from before, she said:
“No need for introductions. I’ll repay you for today’s matter in the future. Thank you.”
Having safely passed her heat cycle, she instantly reverted to her distant, unapproachable self.
Luo Xuan naturally agreed with her first statement, but the words that followed made that unpleasant feeling rise in her heart once more.
An Omega had gone into heat on the rooftop, got saved after being stumbled upon, and now intended to brush her off with such an official line?
“Sister, what do you mean by that?”
She showed a sweet smile, but the warmth didn’t reach her eyes.
Looking at the young Alpha before her, Lu Qingli felt a sudden chill run down her spine despite the girl’s smile.
Avoiding her gaze, her tone was as cold as icy rain mixed with snow: “It means literally what I said. Please act as if today’s incident never happened.”
However, no sooner had the words left her mouth than she was backed into the corner of the wall by the seemingly harmless young Alpha.
Over a height difference of nearly half a head, Luo Xuan looked down at her, her voice carrying an intoxicating, deep charm laced with hidden laughter:
“Sister, going into heat in front of an Alpha younger than you… don’t you feel embarrassed at all?”
“You…!”
As if someone had poked her nerve, a deep blush rapidly spread across Lu Qingli’s cheeks.
“I remember you used to be very particular about keeping your secondary gender private, sister?” Luo Xuan glanced down at Lu Qingli’s wrist and let out a light laugh, “You even wrapped bandages around your wrists, didn’t you?”
Only someone meticulous to the extreme would cover up the marks left by suppressant injections to prevent people with ulterior motives from discerning their gender through the needle hole size.
Lu Qingli’s left hand subconsciously covered her right wrist, backing up half a step. She hadn’t expected the Alpha before her to hold onto this matter so tenaciously.
Recalling how sweet the girl had sounded calling her “sister” from behind just moments ago, she felt a wave of cold air rush up her back.
…No matter how pure and innocent she pretends to be, she’s still a wolf pup after all.
Seeing the other party flustered like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Luo Xuan couldn’t help laughing inwardly.
She leaned down and whispered into Lu Qingli’s ear, her tone dripping with temptation.
“How about… we make a deal?”