A second heat

The instant Shen Que fell.

The Control Console displayed:

[Three minutes are up.]

[Based on effective attacks and damage sustained: Shen Que wins, Pei Ji loses.]

But he had already fallen.

Because this was a fully realistic simulation, the pain of crashing through the branches was transmitted to Shen Que exactly as it would have been in reality.

He gritted his teeth.

Along with the pain came another strange, burning heat.

Impact, explosions, pain, heat.

In a daze, the familiar cockpit seemed to spin away, and a shrill red alert sounded.

[Commander! Insect Swarm spotted ahead!]

[Commander! You can't go!!]

As though seawater had risen over his head, the familiar sensation of drowning overwhelmed him.

Shen Que gasped several times, as though pleading for help, or uttering the final words of someone dying in despair.

But it was no use. The last air in his lungs shattered into bubbles, and he could no longer breathe.

Boundless darkness followed.

Just as Shen Que was about to stop struggling and let the darkness swallow him, as he had countless times before.

A ray of sunlight shone down from above.

Pei Ji climbed into the cockpit.

"Commander Shen, are you all right?"

White Sand Star's fierce, unabashed sunlight swept the nightmare away.

The air returned.

"...I'm fine."

Shen Que managed those two words, holding his forehead as his chest heaved, waiting for the darkness before his eyes to fade little by little.

He pushed himself up and was about to climb out of the cockpit when his legs suddenly gave out, sending him collapsing back inside.

"Ah!"

He let out a brief cry, and Pei Ji's expression changed.

"You..."

Bracing himself with one hand, he jumped into the cockpit, caught Shen Que before he fell, and leaned toward his neck to sniff.

"You're in heat?"

Pei Ji gave Shen Que a strange look.

He'd only just been soothed a few hours ago. Why was he in heat again?

Was his body too weak to withstand strenuous movement?

But what did that have to do with going into heat... could pheromone imbalances happen this often?

Pei Ji's thoughts were a jumble.

He slipped one arm around Shen Que's shoulders and the other beneath his knees, carrying the dazed Omega out of the cockpit.

Wave after wave of scorching heat left the man in his arms dizzy.

A little of the pheromones released during combat still lingered on Pei Ji, but they weren't pungent, thanks to the suppressant he'd injected that morning.

Shen Que instinctively nestled closer to the Alpha's neck.

The scent of dry sand slipped into every open pore.

For some reason, he found the scent pleasant, and... somewhat familiar.

As though this wasn't the first time he'd smelled it.

Why?

Pei Ji clearly hadn't stayed in his room last night.

"General..." he said softly.

"What?" Pei Ji leaned closer to the Omega to catch his voice.

"...You lost," Shen Que reminded him.

Pei Ji: "..."

Pei Ji said, "How about I give you and your little maid an award for your way with words?"

The corners of Shen Que's mouth seemed to rise by a few pixels.

It was too subtle for Pei Ji to tell.

He only heard Shen Que speak again. "Breakfast..."

Pei Ji said irritably, "What breakfast? I'm already full of anger..."

He glanced down at the man in his arms. The heat had brought a faint flush to the Omega's cheeks.

Shen Que had closed his eyes again, his long lashes trembling.

He looked impossibly soft.

Pei Ji's half-finished complaint suddenly caught in his throat.

His expression darkened. "I shouldn't have fought you."

He regretted asking Shen Que about combat. Their relationship only needed to extend to everyday life.

Still conscious, Shen Que glared at Pei Ji.

Though the upturned outer corners of his eyes remained cold, the redness at their edges robbed them of any intimidating effect.

His lips moved. Pei Ji lowered his head and heard him say weakly, "Left wing tilted... watch it next time..."

Something slammed hard against Pei Ji's heart, and a thought flashed through his mind.

Maybe...

He was just about to speak when Shen Que flicked his eyes in another direction.

It was an unmistakable signal.

Pei Ji followed his gaze and looked up, meeting the complicated stares of Old Hall and the maid Demi.

They had clearly come to call them to breakfast.

At that moment, Pei Ji was still standing at the cockpit entrance, holding Shen Que.

Of the two D-Class Mecha, one stood upright, while the other lay on the ground.

The assailant was holding the victim, attempting to flee the scene.

Old Hall's trembling voice rang out.

"Young lord, it's the second day of your marriage! Instead of taking your husband to breakfast, you brought him to the training grounds, and-and-and... threw him onto the ground!!"

His beard shook with anger.

"I-I-I... I've recorded everything! I'll hand it over to the Lord's Wife in a moment!!"

Pei Ji stood there holding Shen Que, utterly bewildered.

"No, listen, let me explain..."

"There's nothing to explain!" Anya immediately sold Pei Ji out. "I saw the General throw him out of the air with my own eyes!"

Hall exclaimed, "You even threw him out of the air?!"

"That was self-defense," Pei Ji said. "He'd stabbed his light blade into my hand. Of course I had to fight back."

Demi's gaze was complicated, and her tone even more so. "General, no one fights a combat match with their husband on the second day of their marriage!"

"No one!"

The man in his arms brushed against Pei Ji, bringing a wave of heat with him.

Pei Ji looked down to see Shen Que's reddened eyes. Shen Que gave him one last feeble look, then passed out.

"It's all my fault."

He murmured the words.

"But you can condemn me later... Demi, is the bedroom ready? He won't be able to enjoy breakfast."

"He's in heat again."

Shen Que felt as though he had sunk into warm water again.

The scorching heat surged over him in waves, but soon receded, leaving only a hazy warmth.

The pain was smoothed away little by little.

Were other Omegas' heats like this too?

Did they pass out? Did they burn up?

He still remembered Pei Ji carrying him out of the cockpit.

He had also seen the maid and the old butler hurrying over.

They had exchanged a few heated words with Pei Ji.

That Alpha didn't seem quite so arrogant in some respects.

At least he treated the servants like friends.

The servants at Fallen Star Palace didn't seem afraid of him, either.

Shen Que couldn't remember what happened afterward.

He only remembered the scent of sand lingering around him all the while.

That was... Pei Ji's pheromones.

Like sand burning hot beneath the sun, like crackling firewood.

Warm, dry, forceful.

A little harsh on the nose after he breathed too much of it.

For the first time in ages, he didn't dream of alarms or endless mecha wreckage.

Instead, he dreamed of their recent fight.

Shen Que had known Pei Ji couldn't dodge that move, but he hadn't expected the rabid-dog Alpha to refuse to give an inch, fighting him tooth and nail even at the cost of damage to himself.

If the Alpha hadn't reined in all his attacks after realizing Shen Que was utterly unable to resist.

There was no telling who would have won in the end.

With such a reckless fighting style, it was a good thing he wasn't a combat soldier under Shen Que's command, or he would have driven Shen Que mad.

A faint clink sounded beside him.

Shen Que slowly opened his eyes and, unsurprisingly, found that he was alone in the room again.

Anya was pushing a serving cart, carefully placing silver dishes on the small table beside the bed.

Seeing him awake, the little maid said happily, "You're awake, sir."

Shen Que was just about to speak when his stomach beat him to it.

Grrr...

Hunger reached him through his sluggish nerves, and only then did Shen Que notice that the sky outside had turned a dark blue-green.

He'd slept for... a whole day?

Ever since waking from his coma, he had been exhausted yet barely able to sleep.

His mind had been stretched taut as a string, while his body was too sensitive to fall asleep.

The moment he closed his eyes, shrill alarms would overwhelm him.

The scenes from that day replayed endlessly, like a dagger gouging at his wounds over and over, refusing to let them heal.

Yet since arriving here, he had somehow slept through half of the mere day and a half that had passed...

Was it because having a highly compatible Alpha nearby made him feel safe?

The doctor from Messiah had said being with an Alpha would help him get through this period.

Could physiological compatibility really make such a difference?

Shen Que's thoughts were a mess.

Pei Ji's insufferably arrogant face surfaced in his mind, along with his brazen words.

How exactly was that damned Alpha compatible with him?

Instinctively, Shen Que felt the scent gland at the back of his neck again.

Sure enough, there was still no mark.