Angry

The air froze, and the standoff remained deadlocked.

Forced to meet Si Jinyan's gaze, the emotion in Chi Li's eyes gradually turned cold as well. Yet the fingertips hanging at his sides trembled faintly. That was fear.

He absolutely could not go with Si Jinyan. Si Jinyan was a dangerous Mutant Form, and danger lay everywhere around him like a mire.

He could sense Si Jinyan's emotions through pheromones, and Si Jinyan could likewise sense his. No matter how composed Chi Li appeared, the faint pheromones he leaked still betrayed him.

Si Jinyan noticed Chi Li's fear.

Si Jinyan's chest tightened. Countless people loathed and feared him. He knew that.

A moment later, Si Jinyan suddenly loosened his restraint on Chi Li and released Chi Li's chin.

Chi Li was wound tight. He instinctively leaned forward, trying to put some distance between himself and Si Jinyan.

Si Jinyan paused, but in the end, he merely stretched out an arm and wrapped it around Chi Li's waist.

Si Jinyan's voice came from behind him, low and hoarse, carrying an almost imperceptible weariness. "Come back with me. I won't do anything. I won't hurt them."

He needed Chi Li.

Needed him badly.

Chi Li lowered his eyes to the hand at his waist. The dark patterns on Si Jinyan's wrist were concealed by the night and barely visible.

He could not see Si Jinyan's expression, but he clearly sensed the shift in Si Jinyan's emotions—his pheromones had become unstable, sharp and tense one moment, then soft and gentle the next.

It was as though he was trying to show weakness, trying to please him. When that thought surfaced, Chi Li froze, and something strange rose within him.

What was this strange feeling? Chi Li suddenly could not make sense of it.

Yet a moment later, Chi Li remembered something, and his heart abruptly began to race.

Chi Li considered it before speaking coldly. "I won't go back with you."

He said slowly, "I can't go back with you right now."

Si Jinyan stared at him, and Chi Li stared back.

While Si Jinyan was not paying attention, Chi Li hooked his fingers around the gun that had been flung aside by Si Jinyan earlier and had slid nearby during the fight.

However, Chi Li had still underestimated Si Jinyan—or overestimated himself. Before he could pick up the gun and aim it at himself, Si Jinyan had already seized his wrist.

Perhaps Si Jinyan had noticed Chi Li's intentions several seconds earlier.

Chi Li watched with his own eyes as Si Jinyan's pupils suddenly constricted. Seconds later, his golden vertical pupils began to widen. Like a nocturnal beast adjusting to darkness, they gradually swallowed the black of his eyes.

Pheromones surged toward him. It was Si Jinyan's anger.

Chi Li's heart pounded violently with unease.

"So, you want to threaten me?" Si Jinyan tightened his grip around Chi Li's wrist, along with the gun in his hand. "Like this?"

The wrist holding the gun was pinned between them. Then the muzzle was turned around and aimed at Chi Li's chest.

The hard muzzle pressed against his chest. If Si Jinyan pulled the trigger, the bullet could pierce his heart at once.

Chi Li's breathing quickened. The thought of using himself to threaten Si Jinyan had only flashed through his mind.

Si Jinyan's gaze darkened. "Why did you suddenly think of this? Why did you think that threatening me this way would make me let you go?" The muzzle pressed hard against Chi Li's chest, and Chi Li's heart hammered fiercely against his ribs.

He had not been completely certain. He had merely noticed something strange in Si Jinyan's behavior and recalled a possibility he had once dismissed.

His identity had been exposed. As an Alpha, he no longer had any value in stabilizing Si Jinyan's condition—unless he injected the Omega masking agent again. But that would be enough to make Si Jinyan repeatedly...

—If he were in Si Jinyan's position, he would not hesitate to act.

Si Jinyan's pheromones in the air began to turn strange. A thin sheen of sweat formed on Chi Li's forehead, his breathing grew abnormally heavy, and an unnatural flush spread across his exposed skin.

Si Jinyan slowly approached him and repeated, "Do you think threatening me this way will work?"

Chi Li realized why his body had become strange and backed away. "Pheromones... Stop releasing your pheromones!"

His body softened under the heat pheromones, while a part of him that should have remained still underwent an obvious change.

He was being forcibly driven into heat.

Because of his pheromone defect, Si Jinyan was often in a state of heat. An Enigma was unaffected by an Alpha, but due to the mark, Chi Li would be affected.

"I've indulged you too much," Si Jinyan said.

Chi Li backed away to avoid Si Jinyan until his body hit the wall, leaving him nowhere to retreat. Si Jinyan forced him into the corner.

Only then did Si Jinyan answer Chi Li's earlier question. "You guessed right. I've already marked you."

As an Alpha, the symptoms after being marked differed from an Omega's to begin with. Documented cases of an Alpha being marked by an Enigma were even rarer.

Chi Li had believed that as an Alpha, it was impossible for him to be marked by Si Jinyan, another "Alpha."

After leaving Si Jinyan, he had noticed nothing unusual and had not undergone any tests. With Si Jinyan absent, he was unaffected, and his condition was no different from before.

But now, he truly felt that he had been marked.

Rage surged violently from the depths of his heart. He was an Alpha, yet Si Jinyan had marked him!

And because of it, he had uncontrollably gone into heat in a situation like this?!

Chi Li nearly ground out the words through clenched teeth. "Si. Jin. Yan."

He did not want to investigate how Si Jinyan had marked him. If he could, he wanted to tear Si Jinyan to pieces.

Si Jinyan's eyes lowered slightly. When he raised them again, the emotions stirring in them had already been concealed.

"I never wanted to do this, Chi Li," Si Jinyan said blandly.

Si Jinyan's gaze darkened. "You should learn your lesson."

The pheromones around them grew increasingly dense.

Chi Li did not know that there was a corpse lying outside the window. That person had originally been after Chi Li, but Si Jinyan had discovered him.

By then, Chi Li could no longer take in anything. No matter how resolute his will, he was still affected by the relentless, all-pervasive heat pheromones.

Si Jinyan knelt before him on one knee, undid Chi Li's clothes, and grasped him as his pheromones surged there with increasing force.

Chi Li noticed Si Jinyan's actions. The veins on his forehead throbbed as he tried to knock Si Jinyan's hand away, but that strength was negligible to Si Jinyan.

Chi Li's back tensed against the wall.

He had nowhere to retreat, and nowhere to vent his anger.

Before him, Si Jinyan's golden pupils had swallowed the black of his eyes entirely. The dark scales at his neck gave off an eerie gleam, making him look like a demon from hell beneath the night sky.

Si Jinyan was still amplifying his desire.

Then a thought suddenly crashed into Chi Li's mind. He jolted awake, his eyes widening as he began to struggle. The abnormal emotion rising within him—that desire made him unable to resist wanting to get closer to Si Jinyan.

Chi Li struggled. "Get away... Don't touch me..."

Si Jinyan was still fully dressed, while Chi Li's clothes were in disarray. He did not even have the strength to stop Si Jinyan. He could only clench his teeth, trying to stay conscious.

A muffled groan caught in his throat. Si Jinyan noticed and released his hand, leaning forward to seize Chi Li's jaw.

The taste of blood immediately filled his breath.

A kiss heavy with the scent of blood.

The two pheromones that should have repelled each other became uncontrollably entangled.

In despair, Chi Li felt his body fall into the net Si Jinyan had woven...