"Good. Then where should we do it? Grabbing a room would be better, right?"
Haeil was about to call a manager to use a VVIP room.
For a pheromone shower, Kanghyeon would have to pour his pheromones out in full. He wasn’t just any Alpha but a Dominant Alpha; do that anywhere and it would be a disaster. There was no way Omegas, half out of their minds under Kanghyeon’s pheromones, would leave him alone.
After a brief think, Kanghyeon said something unexpected.
"No, let’s go somewhere else. There are a lot of Omegas here; it’s dangerous."
The population ratio of Alpha and Omega was a mere 1%.
It was a rare figure, but not inside this club.
There were enough of them to run a pickup-matching system for Alphas and Omegas and hold events just for them. According to Kwon Haeil, there were even days when Alphas and Omegas outnumbered Betas.
This was something Kanghyeon, after a careful tour of the club, agreed with.
That was why this place made him uneasy. He was afraid Omegas might get dragged in out of nowhere and be harmed.
The corner of Haeil’s eye twitched.
The fact that Baek Kanghyeon was worrying about some unknown Omegas more than him stuck in his craw.
But it was also true he wasn’t anything to Baek Kanghyeon to get angry or argue about it.
That grated a second time. Like a hangnail snagging on fabric, tic, tic.
Forcing his face to stay neutral, Haeil asked,
"Then where would satisfy you?"
"Preferably somewhere without Omegas… without people at all. Somewhere we can respond immediately if there’s a problem, and if possible, somewhere you can really rest afterward."
An Alpha to an Alpha—worse, Dominant to Dominant—meant there was no telling what state he’d end up in. He might even pass out from the pain while receiving the pheromones.
The moment he heard Kanghyeon, Haeil drained the Blue Margarita in one go. Following the large bob of his Adam’s apple came a pleasant clink of ice.
"Let’s go."
Exhaling a cool breath, Haeil spoke. Kanghyeon emptied what was left of his Negroni and asked,
"Do you have somewhere in mind?"
"I do."
Setting his and Kanghyeon’s empty glasses side by side on the rail, Haeil answered.
"My place."
***
Come to think of it, maybe he was a little drunk.
On the lavish heat of an unfamiliar space.
On the countless mingled pheromones.
On the red cocktail a stranger handed him, saying it resembled him.
On the Dominant Alpha who was a lunatic liable to fly in any direction.
Otherwise it didn’t make sense.
The layout was identical to his own, yet it was distinctly a different space.
Beyond the living room’s wide floor-to-ceiling glass, the same deep night sky and far-off city lights were visible. The ivory silk curtains—perfect for catching sunlight—were different to start with.
The living room was far better appointed than Kanghyeon’s, which was simple and barren.
A luxurious yet modern black leather sofa. A delicate glass table with a silver-patterned border. A plush cream-colored viscose carpet laid beneath.
On one wall, a latest-model 98-inch smart TV was installed, and around it the latest audio system and various smart devices naturally took their places. On the opposite wall hung an abstract painting in bold colors that looked expensive.
But more than that, the chandelier’s unusual form drew the eye. Rectangular crystal panels were arrayed in long, tiered layers, and the cascaded scatter of light between them was remarkably alluring.
It’s like a piece of art.
Even Kanghyeon, who had an eye for art but no interest, found his gaze taken by that chandelier.
While Kanghyeon took in the living room, Haeil—who had tossed his outer coat carelessly over the sofa—tipped his chin at him.
"What are you doing standing there? Come sit."
Patting the open spot beside him as if to urge him over, Haeil grinned playfully.
"Why? Should I leisurely brew you some tea?"
"I’m fine. I’ll be leaving soon."
Kanghyeon sat where Haeil had patted without even taking off his coat. His air said he meant to do what he came to do and leave at once.
Unfastening two buttons up to the base of his throat, Kanghyeon said,
"Lie down."
Staring at the white neck revealed between his shirt, Haeil answered a beat late.
"More proactive than I thought."
"Would you prefer I do it while holding you?"
"That’s good too."
There was still plenty of mischief in Haeil’s voice.
Frowning, Kanghyeon pushed Haeil’s shoulder sideways. With no resistance, his body flopped over and looked up at Kanghyeon with a smile.
Kanghyeon moved over Haeil, who was lying on the sofa. Even so, his knees and both hands were braced into the sofa as if pressing it down; their bodies didn’t actually touch. Kwon Haeil was simply caught beneath Baek Kanghyeon.
There was a reason to attempt a pheromone shower in a pose this awkward.
A pheromone shower’s purpose was to deliver concentrated pheromones and smear them on thick.
So while avoiding direct contact, Kanghyeon had chosen a position that would let him pour his pheromones down on the other man more closely.
In general, the most effective way to do a pheromone shower was to be fully pressed together, clinging and blasting—but the psychological distance between him and the man before him was far too great for that. This would have to be the compromise.
A deep black shadow of Kanghyeon fell across Haeil’s bright face.
"If your condition turns strange, I’ll stop immediately."
"No—if you’re going to do it, do it right. Don’t do anything halfway."
Haeil’s hand lightly hooked Kanghyeon by the throat of his shirt and tugged. The shirt crumpled in his grip and opened wider, making the white line of his neck show more clearly. New chapters come out on NovelPing first.
"I despise halfway."
At Haeil’s provocative words, Kanghyeon looked down at him, cold.
"If it feels like you’re going to die, I’ll at least call an ambulance."
"Do that."
Kanghyeon still didn’t like that Haeil was lightly smiling.
Even Alpha lovers tended to avoid this because it was nothing but torment. He still couldn’t understand why he was asking for it.
After turning it over again and again, Kanghyeon deliberately swept his mind clean.
Whatever.
Whether Kwon Haeil suffered or not, he would pay the price for what he wanted and leave.
From Kanghyeon’s body, powerful Alpha pheromones began to flow out by degrees.
Unlike expressionless Kanghyeon, something unreadable—expectation—gleamed in Haeil’s eyes as he faced the pheromones.
The Alpha pheromones spilling from Kanghyeon’s body poured down on Kwon Haeil beneath him as if to pin him in place.
Unaware, Haeil tightened his grip on the fistful of shirt. The loosely held fabric crushed in his hand with a rough scrunch.
For an Alpha to be steeped through in another Alpha’s pheromones was never going to be pleasant.
The downpour of Alpha pheromones bound and crushed every inch of Haeil’s body. If he’d been standing, his knees would have buckled already.
"Ugh…."
The ease on Haeil’s face gradually vanished, and the corners of his eyes trembled finely.
Letting another Alpha’s pheromones soak you thick with no guard up was undeniably dangerous. Instinct kept screaming to draw out his Alpha pheromones and hit back even now.
Even so, Haeil stubbornly suppressed his own pheromones. If he bounced the pheromones off, the rebound might make Kanghyeon stop.
It’s even more… fucking awful than I thought, huh.
Feeling his breath grow tight, Haeil bit lightly at his lip.
The pheromones of a fellow kind, without goodwill or affection, were intensely unpleasant. As an Alpha with a predator’s bent, the sensation of being shoved underfoot and crushed was hard to accept in silence.
Feeling his whole body over-charged and prickling, Haeil flinched more than once. It was like being jabbed here and there with thick awls.
He wanted to shove Baek Kanghyeon off him right this second.
The urge boiled up to burst his own pheromones and, on the contrary, smother and crush him. If he could, he wanted to sink his teeth into his neck whole. He even thought it would be good to ruin him so thoroughly that he would never dare even draw out his pheromones in front of him again.
But Haeil answered none of those countless instincts.
Only one.
He hewed to one very simple instinct.
Fuck… it’s so damn sweet….
Swallowing the deep sweet scent rolling over him, Haeil wetly traced his lips with his tongue.