After one last admiring look at the commander's perfect profile, Demi put away her terminal and gave her general, who had just crawled out of a heap of bugs, a disgusted look.
He looked like some kind of swamp creature.
Demi was just about to remind him to take a shower first.
But Pei Ji straightened his uniform and smoothed his bird's nest of hair.
"Am I handsome?"
"I should have no trouble sweeping him off his feet, right?"
As he spoke, a drop of yellow slime dripped from his hair.
When it landed on the spotless floor, Hall, the old butler, let out a piercing shriek.
"Please bathe and change in the annex before entering the bedchambers, young lord!"
Demi said, "I second that!"
Pei Ji frowned.
"Is it really that bad?"
He raised his arm, wiped the blood from his face, and flashed a conceited smile.
"These are a warrior's badges of honor."
Demi said, "That's a swamp creature's camouflage!"
Pei Ji clicked his tongue and was about to leave when he suddenly stopped, pulled a heavy stone from inside his uniform, and placed it in Demi's hand.
"Have the best artisan in First Oasis work on this."
Demi froze. "This is..."
It was a shimmering crystal.
Soft pink and clear blue intertwined naturally, like the sea beneath a setting sun, rippling with mesmerizing light.
With barely a glance, Demi identified it-
A symbiotic stone of crystallized placer gold and aquamarine.
It only appeared in the asteroid belt near White Sand Star, and even the lowest-quality specimens were worth over ten thousand star coins per gram.
The young maids behind her crowded around, their eyes sparkling. "Oh my... it's so beautiful."
"Pretty, isn't it?" Pei Ji curled his lips and boasted, "It's a wedding gift."
Clever Demi suddenly understood. "So this was why you went all the way to the asteroid belt?"
Pei Ji looked as though it were obvious. "Of course."
"I couldn't welcome him home empty-handed, could I? Everything Dad prepared was too tacky. None of it suited my taste."
Suddenly uncertain, he rubbed his nose, hesitated, and asked, "Do you think... he'll like it? I don't know what Omegas like."
"There aren't any Omegas in my fleet. Don't the Omegas in the General Affairs Office all like wearing sparkly gemstones and things? But is this a little too cute?"
Demi gave him a conflicted look.
"General, beautiful and expensive as this gift is, nobody misses their own wedding ceremony over a wedding gift."
"Not even if that gift is worth ten million star coins."
"Nobody!"
She gritted her teeth.
Just then, the patter of approaching footsteps rang out.
Another young maid hurried out on the second floor, clung to the railing at the top of the spiral staircase, and shouted down.
"Oh no, oh no! Demi, the lady is missing!"
Only after shouting did she notice the general standing in the doorway, and she hastily covered her mouth.
Pei Ji's brows drew together.
"What did you say?!"
Almost at the same instant, he caught a trace of something distinctive in the air.
It seemed to be... a floral scent...
The fresh, lovely scent of flowers just washed by rain.
Intimate and lingering, tempting enough to drive someone to sin.
Pheromones?!
The maids on night duty at Fallen Star Palace, along with old Hall, were all Betas.
Only Pei Ji could smell it.
He strode past the maids and up the stairs.
"Take me to the bedroom!"
As he moved, filthy bug slime and blood dripped all over the floor.
Hall's vision went black.
"Demi, the old butler has fainted!"
He pushed open the bedroom door to find an empty bed and a wide-open floor-to-ceiling window.
Pei Ji's pupils jolted.
Where the hell was my wife?!
"The lady didn't like us following him and told us not to stand guard outside his door."
"I just remembered I'd forgotten to leave water in his room, so I wanted to knock and ask... but then I found..."
Anya, who was specifically responsible for Shen Que's daily needs, paced in a panic.
"Could the lady have gotten lonely and run away from the marriage?!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Demi cut Anya off.
Pei Ji glared at Anya when he heard that last remark.
A considerable concentration of pheromones lingered in the air, trailing out of the room and making heat flare throughout his body.
The commander must have gone into heat.
Why hadn't he stayed put in the bedroom and waited? Could that body of his even withstand a heat?
Besides... if there was even one Alpha in Fallen Star Palace, who knew whether he'd still be my wife by the time I found him.
Pei Ji's expression darkened.
"Don't panic, General. The lady couldn't have left Fallen Star Palace," Demi reassured him. "There are plenty of servants here. If none of them saw him, he can't have gone far. Let's split up and look."
Pei Ji turned and headed down the corridor.
"No need."
His voice was icy.
"I can smell him."
Like a tempting piece of bait, the floral scent hooked the great fish that was Pei Ji and lured him all the way to the storeroom at the end of the corridor.
"What's kept in here?" Pei Ji asked Demi coldly.
"Some unused bottles and jars... the things the lord picks up at the Golden Butterfly Auction when he has nothing better to do..."
"And some spare suppressants. Oh, right!"
Demi slapped her palm.
"We passed by here while showing the lady around tonight, and he asked what was stored inside."
Heat. Suppressants.
Pei Ji clicked his tongue.
"Do you have a spare suppressant on you?" he asked Demi.
"Yes!" The maid immediately produced one.
Pei Ji injected it into himself without blinking.
The burning heat rapidly subsided, along with the sordid thoughts stirring in his mind.
A sharp crash of breaking glass suddenly came from inside.
A low cry of pain followed.
"Ah..."
Bang! The door was shoved open with brute force.
In that instant, Pei Ji felt as though he had plunged into a sea of flowers.
Clear moonlight draped the figure inside.
His Omega was kneeling on the floor, shards of glass scattered around his feet.
Slender fingers pressed against his temple, and at the sound by the door, he turned his head in alarm.
A trembling eye peered out from between damp strands of hair.
Its usual coolness was veiled in moisture, taking on an alluring hue.
The corner of his eye was faintly red.
A gaze far more vivid and alive than any photograph turned toward the doorway.
It was him.
Shen Que.
Pei Ji stood rooted to the spot, his throat bobbing.
Those two simple syllables rolled over his tongue again and again.
The next second, the man on the floor shifted, seemingly trying to stand.
Overpowering pheromones spilled from Pei Ji's body.
Shen Que's legs abruptly gave out as he tried to rise, the Alpha's pheromones pinning him firmly in place.
"Ngh!"
Pei Ji darted forward, glass crunching beneath his feet.
He carefully steadied the weakened Omega and said in a low voice, "Don't move."
By then, Shen Que's mind was already clouded.
All he registered was a smell suddenly surging into his nose.
The familiar... smell of bugs, rank and foul.
He instinctively resisted, but the force restraining him was too strong to defy.
Shen Que struggled a few times, only to be held even tighter.
"Let go of me!"
His voice was so hoarse it scarcely sounded like his own, yet it carried an unquestionable command.
Pei Ji raised a brow.
"Quite fierce, aren't you, Commander?"
He lifted Shen Que's chin, forcing him to look at him.
"Think you're still in your own fleet?"
"Do you know who I am?"
Shen Que struggled even more fiercely.
"Get away."
How unreasonable.
Pei Ji frowned and glanced at the broken glass and spilled suppressant on the floor.
So he really had come looking for suppressants. Didn't this Omega know he couldn't use them?
Pheromones flooded every corner like a vast net, trapping the prey in his arms.
Unable to struggle any longer, Shen Que gave a soft sob.
"Suppressant..."
Satisfied to see the man in his arms stop resisting, Pei Ji slid an arm beneath Shen Que's knees and lifted him firmly.
"Yes, yes, I'm your suppressant. Now it's time to go back to your room with your suppressant."
The even stronger stench made Shen Que choke and cough.
His clean, fair skin was instantly smeared with muck.
Standing outside the door, Demi and Anya covered their faces at the same time.
"Ewww..."
Before you continue