Hearing the Alpha call out to him, Shen Jiayu’s brows furrowed in heartache as he instinctively responded, “Sir…”
Wen Xiuheng stood up unsteadily, the chains on his ankles clanking heavily as he approached. With every step the Alpha took, the heavy sound of metal echoed.
Finally, his large hands cupped the youth’s cheeks, caressing them with extreme restraint. He confirmed with cautious disbelief whether the boy before him was real or merely another hallucination. This was the only moment of lucidity the Alpha had possessed since dawn.
The man’s voice was terribly hoarse, yet he called out with a paranoid, frantic devotion: “Baby… Jiayu…”
Shen Jiayu’s heart ached and soured intensely. Not knowing what else he could do for the other man, he could only respond to him over and over again. “Sir, I’m home.”
As if finally confirming the youth was real, the Alpha gritted his teeth and slowly released his hold, the veins on the back of his hands and arms bulging. Wen Xiuheng closed his eyes and opened them slowly, his voice was raspy and low, as if torn: “You shouldn’t be here, Jiayu. It’s dangerous.”
Shen Jiayu’s frown deepened, his voice tinged with a sob. “But, Sir, you are suffering right now.” He felt for Wen Xiuheng and wanted to stay by his side.
Wen Xiuheng’s dark pupils stared at the youth. His voice was very soft and slow, backed by the ultimate effort of restraint and suppression: “Do you have any idea what I will do to you if you stay here?”
Shen Jiayu froze, a mist of tears rising in his rose-colored eyes.
The Alpha continued hoarsely, “Jiayu, I will count to ten. Leave this place and find Auntie Cui, okay?”
Shen Jiayu lowered his head and bit his lip.
“One, two, three…” The Alpha looked down, watching him closely.
Shen Jiayu did not move.
The Alpha’s voice grew deeper: “…four, five, six…”
Shen Jiayu kept his head down, closing his eyes tightly as his fingers curled into a fist.
“…seven, eight, nine…” At this point, Wen Xiuheng felt his last shred of sanity vanishing. Pheromones crashed through his body like a blizzard.
The Alpha deliberately paused at “nine,” looking down at the slender youth. Shen Jiayu still showed no intention of leaving. His beautiful rose colored eyes slowly opened, and when he looked up again, his gaze was firm.
The Alpha gave a low sigh and finally uttered the number “ten.”
In an instant, the raging, ice-cold pheromones were released in full, flooding the entire room. The Alpha’s dark eyes became even murkier and unreadable, his voice reaching a peak of hoarseness, carrying a heavy sense of oppression and danger.
The man raised his hand again, pinching Shen Jiayu’s chin and rubbing his thumb over the boy’s lips, coaxing him: “Good boy, take off the muzzle for me.”
Shen Jiayu stared blankly at the Alpha. He felt as if the man had suddenly become a different person. His surroundings felt freezing cold, as if he were caught in an endless blizzard. But he had made his decision, he would stay. The man had always been kind and gentle to him, how could he abandon him when he was in the most pain?
Wen Xiuheng leaned down. Shen Jiayu’s eyes were rimmed with red, his soft voice trembling: “Sir, how do I unlock it?”
The man gazed at him fixedly, taking his hand and guiding it to the back of his neck, his eyes never leaving Shen Jiayu’s face. In those dark depths was a desire and raw possessiveness that could no longer be hidden. Such a gaze made Shen Jiayu’s heart skip a beat and his body tremble.
His fingers touched cold metal. With a soft click, the muzzle was unlocked.
This muzzle was specially made, the Alpha could not unlock it himself. It required someone else to do it. This meant the beast had willingly entered a cage of his own making, unless someone was willing to unlock the shackles and personally release him.
As the cold black muzzle fell to the floor, the Alpha’s final shred of sanity finally snapped.
Shen Jiayu turned his head away, not daring to meet Wen Xiuheng’s gaze, whispering softly, “Sir, it’s unlock.”
The next second, his words were cut short as his eyes widened in a sharp, brief gasp: “Mm!”
The Alpha had leaned down and kissed him directly!
With veins bulging on his hands, the man cupped the youth’s face and gripped the back of his white neck, forcing him to look up and endure the kiss. This was the most honest desire in the Alpha’s heart, he had wanted to kiss and possess him like this for a long time.
His dark eyes never blinked as they stared at Shen Jiayu. The man’s voice was terrifyingly low and raspy, like a magic incantation: “Good child, open your mouth.”
This was the boy’s first kiss. Shen Jiayu’s mind went blank, and he instinctively obeyed. The moment his lips parted slightly, a tongue forced its way past his teeth, plundering his mouth frantically. The man chased him, refusing to leave a single gap of space.
Shen Jiayu tilted his head back, unable to stop the intermittent whimpers from his throat. He sounded pitiful, his long eyelashes trembling uncontrollably.
Soon, the oxygen in the narrow space was nearly depleted. Shen Jiayu felt his vision go white, his slender fingers pushing weakly against the Alpha’s chest to no avail. Saliva he couldn’t swallow escaped the corner of his mouth. Just as he felt he was about to run out of air, the Alpha finally pulled back slightly, giving him room to breathe.
Shen Jiayu’s face was flushed, his rose colored eyes misty with physiological tears as he gasped for breath. The Alpha’s eyes were full of madness and obsession as he cupped the boy’s face, his thumb rubbing the bright red lips.
Shen Jiayu’s chest heaved, thinking the kiss was over. Unexpectedly, Wen Xiuheng gripped the back of his neck again and kissed him once more. This kiss was even more surging and intense than the last. The Alpha delved into more hidden passages, a deep kiss that made the boy feel faint, this time, he couldn’t even make a sound.
“Jiayu… Baby…” The Alpha’s raspy, magnetic whispers echoed in his ear. Shen Jiayu’s legs soon went weak, and his body began to slide down.
The Alpha’s large hand scooped up the youth’s slender waist, leaning down to pin his body closer. Their chests were pressed tightly together, their heartbeats thumping against one another. Through the repeated deep kisses, Shen Jiayu gradually lost all strength and unknowingly fell into the Alpha’s embrace.
The youth’s vision slowly lost focus, and his eyes drifted shut. It wasn’t until a warm, wet sensation touched the side of his neck that he suddenly snapped his eyes open.
“Ugh!” Facing raw desire for the first time, the youth instinctively used his last bit of strength to push against the Alpha buried in his neck. But it was useless, the man holding him seemed to have completely lost consciousness and reason.
The Alpha frowned slightly, calling out low and hoarsely, “Baby…”
Shen Jiayu instinctively cried out “Sir” in a panic, trying to call back his consciousness. In the struggle, he managed to slip from the Alpha’s embrace and scrambled forward on all fours. But he had only crawled a step before a strong, powerful arm circled his narrow waist and pulled him back.
The boy’s thin back was pressed against the Alpha’s chest. One of the man’s hands covered his flat, narrow belly, while the other rested over his heart. The Alpha arched his back, burying his head in the boy’s neck, whispering pleas into his ear: “Jiayu, let me mark you, okay? Baby…”
This was the first time Shen Jiayu had seen the man show vulnerability, but he had no strength left to reply. He could only heave his chest, his entire body shaking violently in the man’s arms.
Shen Jiayu’s consciousness was fading. He thought hazily that he was just a Beta, and Betas couldn’t be marked. How was the man going to mark him?
The Alpha soon gave him the answer through action.
Hot breath fanned across the snow white back of his neck as the Alpha frantically searched for a gland, but he could find nothing. Unlike Omegas, Betas do not have that small raised patch of skin on the back of the neck, they cannot be marked through a gland.
But the Alpha had long lost his mind and forgotten this common knowledge. He whispered instinctively, “Why… why is there no gland…”
He was so close to Shen Jiayu that he had long ago smelled the faint scent of other strangers’ pheromones on him. These were picked up accidentally when the boy took the bus, his classmates included other Alphas and Omegas, and in a closed bus, such traces were unavoidable.
To an Alpha in his rut, this was maddening. Irritability and anxiety were magnified infinitely. The Alpha frowned deeply, his eyes bloodshot. The urge to monopolize and mark him roared through every cell of his body.
The mature, cold Wen Xiuheng known to the world was gone. All that remained was an Alpha driven mad, irrational and anxious because he could not mark his Beta lover.
In a deep state of infatuation, helplessness, and panic, the Alpha could no longer control himself. His sharp canine teeth instantly pierced the youth’s skin.
Suddenly, Shen Jiayu felt a sharp pain from the back of his neck. Immediately after, a surge of heat was injected into his body, quickly spreading to his limbs and bones, penetrating every drop of blood. It felt extremely foreign, yet he felt himself soaked in a comfortable warm current, his entire body becoming soft to the limit.
Shen Jiayu’s neck snapped back, his eyes widening in a daze, his lips parted, but he was unable to make a sound. His mind went completely blank, and a second later, he lost consciousness entirely.
During the interval, Shen Jiayu woke up briefly and intermittently. In his murky consciousness, he heard the man’s heavy breathing, frantic and insecure whispers, and the warm, wet sensation on the back of his neck, as if he were sucking or gently nibbling. The last thing he vaguely heard was the man’s voice calling his name with urgency and guilt…
After an unknown amount of time, Shen Jiayu struggled to open his eyes. His vision cleared to find himself in his own familiar room.
A familiar voice came from beside him: “Jiayu… Jiayu, are you okay?”
Shen Jiayu turned his head. Wen Xiuheng was sitting by the bed, his silver-grey eyes watching him with heartache and concern. The man looked haggard, as if he hadn’t slept at all. Shen Jiayu didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but it seemed the man had been waiting for him to wake up.
Wen Xiuheng’s eyes were full of pain and self-reproach. When he regained consciousness yesterday, he had found Shen Jiayu fainted in his arms. The boy’s neck was covered in tooth marks and dense hickeys, which were stark against his white skin.
Wen Xiuheng had immediately called for doctors, not just cardiologists, but also a team specialized in Beta health. The two groups brought equipment and worked non-stop to check on Shen Jiayu.
Lu Jun had also come. Seeing the dense marks on Shen Jiayu, Lu Jun couldn’t help but gasp. If Wen Xiuheng had only performed a shallow, temporary skin contact mark at the hospital before, this time with the canine teeth piercing the skin and injecting pheromones, was a temporary mark in the true sense, even if such a mark could only last a short while for a Beta.
After the check-ups, the doctors told Wen Xiuheng that the boy had simply lost consciousness due to fatigue. Only then did Wen Xiuheng feel slightly relieved. He didn’t go to the company, instead staying by the bedside for a day and a night until Shen Jiayu woke up.
Wen Xiuheng frowned in heartache. He would always remember how Shen Jiayu chose to stay even after the countdown ended. But it was also because of him that Shen Jiayu had been in danger.
The Alpha raised his hand, wanting to touch Shen Jiayu out of guilt. The moment he moved closer, Shen Jiayu’s eyes widened, and the memories flooded back. The boy instinctively held his breath.
The Alpha acutely noticed the slight movement. His hand, which wanted to stroke the boy’s hair, froze in mid-air and slowly retracted. Wen Xiuheng’s face still held pain. The usually cold and powerful head of the Wen family bowed to the person he loved for the first time, his tone sincere and pleading.
“I’m sorry, Jiayu. It’s my fault. I kissed you and… I gave you a temporary mark.”
He knew he had scared his “little friend.” Although he was in his rut and had lost control, that was no excuse. “I’m sorry, Jiayu.”
The repeated, earnest apologies reached his ears. Shen Jiayu stared blankly at Wen Xiuheng, not knowing how to react. In truth, when he woke up and saw that the man was fine, he felt happy and relieved. Regardless of whether his staying had helped, as long as the man had passed his rut safely, he felt lucky.
It was just that the Alpha who kissed and marked him was much more intimate than the version of him when Shen Jiayu was drunk. He felt even more shy and unsure of how to face him. The version of the man who had lost control and shown such raw possessiveness felt foreign.
Shen Jiayu opened his mouth and could only stutter a soft reply to the man’s initial question: “I-I’m fine…”
Wen Xiuheng saw the boy’s discomfort. The Alpha slowly lowered his silver-grey eyes. He wanted to tell Shen Jiayu that he loved him, that kissing and marking him wasn’t just Alpha instinct. But he knew now wasn’t the right time.
The man gave a gentle smile, though it was tinged with helplessness. He didn’t stay long, thinking the boy needed time and space to process their relationship. I personally pushed the distance between us further away again, Wen Xiuheng thought bitterly.
He bid Shen Jiayu a gentle goodbye, telling him to rest well and to call for help whenever needed. As the word “me” was about to leave his mouth, he smiled bitterly and changed it to “or Auntie Cui.”
As the man reached the door, a soft, light “Sir” stopped him. The Alpha halted immediately.
Shen Jiayu had sat up in bed, looking at the man with his rose colored eyes before quickly looking down, his long lashes trembling. He hesitated but couldn’t help asking: “How… how is your health?”
Since he woke up, the man had only cared about him. He hadn’t said a word about his own condition, even though he had just gone through a rut where his medication failed.
Wen Xiuheng was stunned for a moment, then suddenly broke into a gentle smile. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. Get some rest, Jiayu.”
After a rut, he would inevitably suffer from headaches and irritability for a while. However, he hadn’t expected to pass through it safely after the special medicine failed. The reason was still unclear. Lu Jun had already urged him to go to the hospital for a check-up.