They Were Celebrating Our Wedding

They reached the entrance of the Fallen Star Palace.

Safiya suddenly remembered something.

"Pei Ji, are you really not coming to the tavern these next few days? The party's going to last a whole week. Everyone's waiting for you."

Pei Ji leaned lazily against a pillar. "Why would I? I've got someone waiting at home. I'm not single like the rest of you losers."

Safiya nearly choked on her own outrage. She was about to say something when she suddenly clamped her mouth shut.

Pei Ji said, "What? Are you leaving or not? Planning to spend the night here? If those Interstellar Paparazzi camped outside see you, you'll be more famous than me tomorrow..."

Safiya frantically waggled her eyebrows toward someone behind him.

Pei Ji said, "What's with you? Got a twitch in your eye?"

Safiya burst out, "Are you blind?!"

Pei Ji said, "I've scored 8.0 in both eyes on every checkup since I was a kid."

Before, Safiya would at least have replied, "Well, aren't you fucking amazing."

But...

She closed her eyes. "Pei Ji, you're screwed."

Pei Ji slowly offered a "?"

Safiya said, "If you have the misfortune of becoming single again, remember that us single losers at the tavern will always have your back."

At almost the exact same moment, Demi's clear cough sounded behind him.

Pei Ji turned toward the sound.

Shen Que stood five meters away, silently watching the two of them at the entrance.

His expression was complicated.

Behind him, Demi and Anya both mouthed:

[You're screwed.]

Safiya tossed her hair and winked at Shen Que, who had been staring at her for some time. "Hello, Commander."

Pei Ji immediately shot her a glare.

You vixen. Who do you think you're seducing?!

And you, a married Omega-who are you staring at so intently?

He casually stepped forward, placing himself between Shen Que and Safiya.

"What are you doing out here?" Pei Ji demanded.

Shen Que froze.

He hadn't even asked what Pei Ji was doing standing at the entrance with an Omega in the middle of the night...

The Alpha forcefully blocked his appraising gaze.

He feels protective of this Omega... doesn't he?

Shen Que briefly closed his eyes.

Some things were better left unasked.

"I came out to get my medicine."

He answered Pei Ji's question.

"Two doses are missing. They might have been put in the Storage Room with my luggage."

"Missing?"

Pei Ji strode over to Shen Que.

"Was it prescribed by Messiah's doctors? What does it do? Didn't you take it yesterday? Why did you only notice today?"

Pei Ji fired off a barrage of questions in one breath.

Shen Que didn't know which to answer first, so he went through them one by one.

"It was prescribed by a doctor on the Capital Star."

"I only need to take one vial a day... It mainly calms the mind, eases pain, and restores mental power..."

"I took it before the wedding yesterday. I didn't take any more last night, so I didn't notice any was missing..."

His voice sounded exhausted.

Pei Ji's heart clenched. He held Shen Que by the shoulders and lowered his voice.

"Then why didn't you send a servant to look for it? Why come out yourself?"

Anya had originally intended to look for it for him.

But the doctor had told Shen Que to walk around after dinner to help his recovery. He happened to run into Demi, who had come to make sure he took his medicine, so they had all gone together.

He hadn't expected...

His gaze unconsciously drifted toward Safiya again.

That Omega was beautiful. Her skin was rosy and clear, far lovelier and more vibrant than his sickly pallor.

At this distance, he could smell tobacco on Pei Ji beneath his own pheromones.

Mixed into it was the faint scent of another Omega.

It was sweet.

Like ripe grapes.

He didn't like it.

Pei Ji was giving instructions to the two maids. "Don't just stand there. You two go look for the medicine in the Storage Room, then send someone to Dr. Li to see if he can prescribe the same thing."

"I'll take the Commander back to his room. He's in such poor health. Why did you let him wander around..."

After watching Demi pull Anya away, Pei Ji turned back, still grumbling, and discovered Shen Que was looking at Safiya again.

Pei Ji was unhappy.

Pei Ji was getting sulky.

He hooked a hand under Shen Que's chin and turned his face toward him.

"What are you looking at, Commander?" Displeasure seeped into the Alpha's voice. "That interested in my friend? You haven't stopped staring since you got here."

"Think I can't see you?"

Shen Que tried to pull away, but failed and had no choice but to meet Pei Ji's eyes.

The grape-scented pheromones that belonged to neither of them curled around him again.

In truth, the pheromones lingering on the Alpha were very faint, no stronger than what would normally remain after an interaction at an ordinary social distance.

If Shen Que released even a little of his own pheromones now, he could erase that scent.

But he couldn't.

His pheromones were in disarray, beyond his control.

He couldn't do anything.

He could only let that unfamiliar scent linger on Pei Ji.

For some reason, he felt both annoyed and restless.

Suppressing his tangled emotions, Shen Que spoke as calmly as he could:

"I only looked at your friend a little longer out of curiosity. If that upset you... I can apologize."

Pei Ji faltered.

What did he mean by that?

Shen Que tried to pull away again, but still couldn't escape Pei Ji's grip.

The Alpha was too strong. His hand held Shen Que's chin in place like a clamp.

He could only look at his Alpha with those cool, exhausted eyes that trembled faintly.

"I'm sorry. I'm a little tired right now."

"Could you let me go back to my room?"

"If I end up single again, I'm telling the Interstellar Paparazzi you sleep with eight men a night, and letting your idiot fans chase you down ten streets cursing you out!"

Before leaving, Pei Ji flipped Safiya off.

"How the fuck is that my problem?" Safiya flipped him off right back.

"Sir, may I come in?"

Anya knocked on the door.

A quiet "Mm" came from inside.

At Pei Ji's signal, Anya pushed the door open a crack and slipped in.

The bedroom lights were off.

Shen Que stood before the floor-to-ceiling window.

Bright moonlight draped over him, making his straight-backed figure look even more aloof and noble.

The actual moon had been destroyed in an interstellar war three hundred years ago.

What now hung high in the Icarus Galaxy's night sky was an artificial planet modeled after the moon.

It came online every evening at eight sharp.

In part, it was meant to recreate Earth's ecology on Blue Star No. 33.

It also preserved a small reminder of humanity's past.

Watching the stars dim in the moonlight, Shen Que suddenly asked Anya, "What party are they holding at the Desert Tavern?"

"The Desert Tavern? A party?"

Holding the medicine she had finally managed to buy from the First Oasis, Anya stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly understood.

"Oh! You must mean that!"

"The party celebrating the young lord's wedding!"

Excitement filled Anya's voice.

"Because of your wedding to the general, the lord declared a weeklong holiday across White Sand Star."

"There are parties everywhere now! It's even livelier than the Starfire Festival!"

Shen Que froze.

"Our wedding?"

"Yes, yes! The lord said this was the general's big day, so everyone had to celebrate for seven whole days. It had to be lively, and it had to be grand!"

"...Really?" Shen Que stared out the window. "I didn't know."

They were actually celebrating their wedding.

"Those are celebrations for ordinary people. It's well soundproofed here, so it's perfectly normal that you haven't heard anything, sir."

"But the lord's private banquet should be held in a couple of days, too."

"Lots of wealthy merchants and nobles will attend. The general will bring you along and dance the first dance with you. From then on, he'll officially be the young lord, and he'll receive a vast amount of property, shares, and a fief..."

"Oh, sir, your terminal is flashing."

Anya's voice drew Shen Que back from his wandering thoughts, and he opened his terminal.

An unknown signal appeared on the blue screen.

A tranquil melody drifted through the connection.

Shen Que's expression sharpened.

It was a call from the Empress.