During heat, the mind was never clear.
Logic told Song Qin Ning that she should immediately put the jacket back and pretend nothing had happened.
But in her ears, it felt like a siren’s voice was softly calling her, luring her toward the Alpha standing in front of her.
To her, this Alpha was like a newly discovered spring found by someone lost in a desert.
She craved that Alpha’s pheromones to ease the burning ache in her body, just like a traveler in the sand longed to touch a patch of clean water with their last bit of hope.
Her lashes lowered slightly, hiding the redness in the corners of her eyes. Her lips parted, and after a moment of silence, she said, “I was just curious about the brand of your jacket.”
She calmly put the jacket down and turned to leave.
But Jiang Qing reached the door before she did and gently locked it behind them.
Her voice was soft but firm. “Miss Song, if you walk out looking like this, people will misunderstand what happened.”
In Jiang Qing’s eyes, Song Qin Ning’s reflection appeared. Her eyes were red, her clothes were slightly wrinkled, her steps unstable. She looked like someone who had been taken advantage of.
And there was something else.
The air was thick with a soft, snowy-sweet scent.
Song Qin Ning was an Omega.
That had never been mentioned in the original story.
Jiang Qing could feel something stirring deep inside her. She realized that she was no different from the Alphas in the dining hall who had lost control when faced with an Omega in heat.
The only reason she hadn’t lost her mind was because the scent in the air was not the one her instincts were drawn to.
In the small, closed space, the air was getting heavier.
To stay calm and composed in front of a beautiful Omega in heat was becoming harder with every breath.
But she couldn’t let Song Qin Ning go out like this.
“There’s no one outside right now,” Song Qin Ning said.
Her voice was quiet, with an unfamiliar trace of pleading.
She was close to her limit.
Without access to an Alpha’s pheromones, the heat waves surged through her more violently each time.
Voices echoed faintly from outside the makeup room.
The room was soundproofed well, but they could still hear some laughter in the distance.
Song Qin Ning didn’t know how long she had been inside, but Jiang Qing had a sense of the time.
Jiang Qing leaned one arm casually against the wall, forming a loose barrier at the door. She said, “Do you hear that? Everyone’s back from lunch.”
Song Qin Ning remained silent.
Jiang Qing wasn’t someone who acted soft just because someone was an Omega. But Song Qin Ning had once shown her kindness, and that changed things.
Especially now, with the situation being what it was, Jiang Qing didn’t know why Song Qin Ning had come to her dressing room, but she was still an Omega in heat. If she went out and ran into a dangerous Alpha, she would have no way to protect herself.
Jiang Qing softened her tone. “There’s a rest room inside. Go lie down for a while and hold on. I’ll find a blocker for you.”
Still, Song Qin Ning said nothing.
Outside, footsteps and quiet conversations passed back and forth.
Jiang Qing offered a compromise. “Alright. I’ll wait in the rest room instead. You can stay here and calm down a bit. Just don’t go out yet.”
She moved to walk past Song Qin Ning, but just as she did, her wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind.
In the filtered light, Song Qin Ning’s emotions were laid bare in her eyes.
She wrapped her arms around Jiang Qing’s waist, her body leaning in close. Every movement had a quiet desperation to it.
She said, “Miss Jiang, I want to hold you for a little while.”
Then she turned her head away.
Her pale neck, tinged with soft red, came into Jiang Qing’s line of sight.
Her hair fell like clouds, brushing down across her neck and hiding most of her back.
Jiang Qing could not see what lay beneath.
But the instincts of an Alpha were hard to ignore. Her eyes were drawn to the area around Song Qin Ning’s scent gland.
She was completely unguarded.
Even a three-year-old Omega would know never to expose their vulnerable neck to an Alpha, not even to their own parents.