The person outside remained silent.
Bai Yue could no longer wait and opened the door herself. The hallway light poured in, stinging her eyes and forcing her into a squint.
Long black hair, a beige trench coat, and a sleep dress underneath. Bai Yue clearly saw the person standing outside.
Jiang Manru. Her legal wife.
Her mind went completely blank for a full three seconds.
“You…”
Jiang Manru looked at her, her breathing unstable as if she had run all the way here. The hem of her sleep dress peeked out from beneath her trench coat, and she was even wearing house slippers on her feet.
The moment she saw Bai Yue, she looked as though a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
“You are alright?” she asked, her voice breathless.
Bai Yue parted her lips.
Standing here safe and sound, of course she was alright. But how on earth did Jiang Manru find this place?
“Why are you here?” she asked.
Jiang Manru pulled out her phone and handed it to her. On the screen was a text message from an anonymous number containing only a single sentence: [Bai Yue is at XX Hotel, Room XXX].
Bai Yue stared at those words, and a massive wave churned in her mind.
Who sent it?
The white peach Omega?
Why?
Jiang Manru’s eyes were filled with worry. “I saw this message, and when I called, you did not answer.” She paused. “So I came.”
“I am fine.” Bai Yue felt a little guilty. “It was probably just a prank.”
Jiang Manru patted her chest in relief. “You scared me to death.” Without waiting, she walked straight into the room.
Bai Yue wanted to stop her, but it was too late.
Standing in the center of the living room, Jiang Manru scanned her surroundings. The sofa, the coffee table, the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the half-open bedroom door revealing an empty room inside.
Her expression relaxed as her gaze finally landed on the coffee table.
A single medical vial rested upon it.
Jiang Manru walked over and picked it up to take a closer look. The transparent liquid gleamed faintly under the light.
“What is this?” she asked, tilting her head to look at Bai Yue.
Without changing her expression, Bai Yue lied, “Suppressants.”
Jiang Manru blinked as she looked at her. “Is your rut starting?”
“Mmm.”
“Then why did you not come home?” Jiang Manru asked. “Isn’t home much more comfortable than a hotel?”
“It was too late,” Bai Yue said. “I did not want to wake you up.”
Jiang Manru looked at her with exceptionally clear eyes. “You did not look for me during your rut, and instead ran off to stay at a hotel alone.” She lowered her head. “Did you not want me to help you?”
Her eyes carried a cautious edge, resembling a wife worried she might have done something wrong.
“No.” Bai Yue hurried to explain. “I just, it was too late, and I was afraid of disturbing your rest.”
Jiang Manru placed the vial back onto the coffee table and walked right up to Bai Yue. “You helped me when I was in heat last time,” she said softly. “Let me help you this time.”
The person Bai Yue had waited for all night hadn’t shown up, and on top of that, she had to deal with her wife conducting a surprise inspection. At this moment, she had zero enthusiasm left.
“It is too late today, you should go back first.”
“I am not going back.” Jiang Manru interrupted her.
Her tone was gentle, yet unwavering.
“I am your wife,” she said. “When you need me, I will definitely be by your side.”
Looking at that earnest face, Bai Yue suddenly didn’t know what to say.
“I took a flight all day and I am a bit tired,” she persisted as a last resort. “I want to rest early tonight.”
Jiang Manru fell silent for a few seconds.
“Then you go rest, and I will stay here to accompany you.” With that, she walked toward the minibar.
Watching her back, Bai Yue found the whole situation utterly ridiculous. Before she could snap out of it, a glass of warm water was handed right in front of her. Subconsciously, Bai Yue took it, mumbled a thank you, and drank it all in one go.
Pointing toward the adjacent room, Jiang Manru said considerately, “I will sleep in the side bedroom so my pheromones do not affect you.”
Knowing there was no way Jiang Manru would leave tonight, Bai Yue had no choice but to agree.
They bid each other good night in the living room and then retreated to their respective rooms.
Bai Yue lay down on the large bed and quickly fell asleep.
She did not know how long she had been asleep before a sharp, tingling sensation suddenly rippled through her arm, as if something sharp had pierced her veins.
Her consciousness drifted up from deep slumber, and before she even opened her eyes, she felt the restraint around her wrists.
Soft.
A leather belt? Or perhaps something else. She moved her wrists and discovered they were fixed in a certain position. The upward-stretching posture made her shoulder blades ache slightly.
Her wrists were tied to the headboard.
Bai Yue opened her eyes.
The room was pitch black except for a thin line of moonlight leaking through the gap in the curtains. Yet, that faint light was more than enough for her to clearly see the silhouette sitting beside the bed.
Slender and tall.
Leaning slightly forward at this moment, one hand braced beside her while the other wandered across her body.
The scent of white peach washed over her.
Just like in every single dream.
“Awake?” That voice sounded, low and carrying a hint of amusement.
Yet, that amusement was entirely different from any previous time.
It was cold.
Fraught with unknown danger.
Looking at her lazily, Bai Yue remarked, “You sure have a lot of practice tying people up.”
The person didn’t speak. Instead, she slid her hand over and lightly rested it on Bai Yue’s lower abdomen. Through the thin fabric of her shirt, the temperature of those fingertips was palpable.
Cold.
Bai Yue didn’t dodge. Lowering her gaze, she watched that hand move slowly across her body, sliding from her waist to her ribs, from her ribs to her chest, and finally coming to a stop at her collarbone.
Those fingertips gently traced over the hollow.
“Does it hurt?” the person asked.
Bai Yue pondered for a moment.
“Which part are you referring to?” she said. “The part where you poked me with a needle, or the part where you are touching me right now?”
The other person’s fingers paused.
Amused by her reaction, Bai Yue became even more unrestrained. “Staying up in the middle of the night just to drug me. Do you miss me that much?”
The Omega looked at her in the darkness and lightly patted her cheek. “Aren’t you curious about what I am going to do to you?”
The gesture was like patting an unruly cat.
“Since you tied me here, you definitely aren’t planning to kill me.” Sweeping her gaze from top to bottom over the person in front of her, Bai Yue said leisurely, “You were worried I might die here, so you rushed over in the middle of the night to save me, only to find out I was completely fine. Now you are angry, the kind of angry where you want to pin me down to the bed.”
The Omega leaned down, drastically narrowing the distance between them. The scent of white peach grew so intense it felt as though it might drown someone. One of her hands propped against the side of Bai Yue’s head while the other pinched her chin, not using force, merely resting over it lightly.
“You are quite confident,” she said.
Bai Yue looked up at her, close enough to catch every single ray of light in those eyes. Amber colored, resembling two burning coals in the dark.
“Am I wrong?” Bai Yue curled the corners of her lips.
The Omega’s fingers tightened slightly, forcing Bai Yue to lift her chin higher and feel the pressure.
“Then do you know,” she murmured, “what your current situation is?”
“Tied up. Drugged. Pinned to a bed by a woman whose background I do not even know,” Bai Yue stated the facts with total ease.
With that, she tilted her face sideways, her lips brushing lightly against the hand holding her chin.
A mere movement, exceptionally light, like a feather brushing past.
The Omega’s fingers trembled.
That tiny reaction pleased Bai Yue, whose tongue slipped out to lick the pad of that finger.
Wet. Hot.
Lifting her chin, Bai Yue exposed her neck entirely. Her throat, her collarbone, her vital spots, all laid bare beneath the moonlight.
“So, how do you plan to punish me?”
“What do you think?” The Omega’s hand slid down from Bai Yue’s cheek, past her jaw and neck, finally resting on her throat to feel the pulsing rhythm beneath the skin. “Do you know what I am thinking right now?”
“Wondering how to make me beg for mercy?”
“Wrong,” she said. “I am wondering how your wife would react if she saw you looking like this right now.”
Bai Yue’s breathing paused for a split second.
Jiang Manru.
That jasmine flower.
Right now, she was sound asleep in the bed of the adjacent room.
How could she have forgotten about that detail!
“Did you call her here?” For the first time, a trace of panic crept into Bai Yue’s tone.
The Omega’s hand shifted away from her throat, sliding to the side of her face to gently trace her brow bone.
“So you do feel fear.”
“Fear?” Letting out a deliberately casual breath, Bai Yue replied, “Our two families are in a political marriage bound by mutual interests; she wouldn’t dare divorce me. But why did you call her here anyway? To let her catch us in the act? Or perhaps something else.”
She paused, the smile deepening.
“Or were you worried something might happen to me, so you brought someone to watch over me?”
The Omega’s expression shifted. It wasn’t anger, but rather the annoyance of having hit the nail on the head.
“Fine. Since you are not afraid of anything, let us try a different game,” she said.
Bai Yue raised an eyebrow. “What kind of game?”
“How about,” she leaned right beside Bai Yue’s ear, whispering so her breath brushed against the auricle, “we invite her to join us?”
Pulling back slightly after speaking, the Omega gazed at her with eyes full of amusement under the moonlight, though beneath that mirth, danger and burning heat surged.
Staring at her, Bai Yue momentarily couldn’t guess whether she was being serious or just joking.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she gambled.
Curious, the Omega asked, “Why?”
“If you did that, it would mean admitting you care.” Spouting a string of ungrounded logic, Bai Yue kept talking nonsense to keep the other person off balance and deny her time to think.
“I figured it out long ago,” she said in a low, teasing voice. “You are jealous of the little jasmine.”
Seeming genuinely exasperated, the Omega sighed. “You can’t even protect yourself right now, yet your mouth is still this wild?”
“What else?” Bai Yue tilted her head. “Cry and beg you to let me go?”
“That won’t be necessary,” the Omega said. “You probably look quite pretty when you cry. I will save that for next time.”
Expertly seizing the keyword, Bai Yue asked, “Next time?”
“There are other things to take care of tonight.”
Bai Yue felt the other’s breath brush across her earlobe, sending a wave of tingling numbness through her.
“What things?”
“Teaching you a lesson.” Reaching out, the Omega gently covered her eyes. “Never easily trust an Omega who ties people up.”
Bai Yue burst out laughing.
Laughing until her whole body shook.
“You,” she said, “are truly interesting.”
“There is more where that came from.” Her fingers hovered over an unbuttoned shirt button. “Do you know what happens after that injection takes effect?”
The smile froze at the corners of Bai Yue’s lips as she nearly forgot about that detail.
Gently flicking open that button with her fingertips, the Omega continued, “What happens if I choose to do nothing while you are in your rut?”
Bai Yue’s heart tightened once more.
Of course, she knew.
A forced entry into rut. Three times more violent than a natural cycle. And if no one watched over her, the consequences would be severe.
“You only have ten minutes left.”
Reaching out, the Omega traced her fingertips gently across her cheek.
“You can scream,” she said softly. “Scream louder. Maybe she will hear you. If she hears you, she will come over. And if she comes over, she can save you.”