The orange lighting in the living room of the south shore ocean-view villa was suggestive.
A tall, handsome man sat on an elegantly colored sofa, undercurrents stirring in his deep black eyes.
His long fingers held the chin of the young man straddling him, his fingertips stroking gently down that slender neck.
Nearly soaked through, Nan Zhou chuckled softly, his hot breath and sweet pheromones brushing the man's nose.
"Are you sure?"
"Why so much talk? Are you not-"
A thumb pressed against his moist upper lip. "Answer me."
That deep voice, those intensely possessive movements, and the powerful desire for control in his presence mingled with an intoxicating scent.
Nan Zhou parted his thin lips and enunciated each word. "I'm sure, baby."
The next second, the man tightened his arms.
Nan Zhou's eyes flew wide.
That bastard actually dared to bite him!
He swore instinctively. "You son of a bitch!"
When Nan Zhou woke again, his whole body felt weak and sore.
He struggled to roll over and sit up in bed, still finding it all far too unreal.
He had actually transmigrated!
Just two days earlier, he had been swimming during a beach vacation when a wave accidentally swept him away.
When he came to, he was lying on the beach, burning all over and muddleheaded.
Following his instincts, he had rung the doorbell of a seaside villa within sight. After a long, boring wait, its owner finally opened the door.
Nan Zhou believed that he had most likely gotten the door open because the melody he rang on the doorbell was so pleasing.
He had always been confident in his own compositions.
What followed was the same tired plot found in books.
A handsome guy whose looks and bearing suited his tastes, and the two of them alone together...
He just hadn't expected the guy to bite him!
That bite had nearly sent Nan Zhou straight to meet his late great-grandmother.
At the same time, through the haze, strange memories and knowledge had poured into his mind-he had transmigrated.
Into an ABO world, into the body of someone with exactly the same name!
Getting out of bed, he rubbed his sore, slender waist, surveyed his surroundings, and went into the bathroom to wash up.
A little later, he pushed open the bedroom door.
The villa was silent, with no one around.
The best one-night stand was one where, after that night, neither had anything more to do with the other.
Well, all right, theirs hadn't been one night, but two...
That wasn't important.
Nan Zhou found his shoes in the entryway and put them on. When he opened the door, a blast of cold wind made him stop short. He took a black overcoat that wasn't his from the coat rack and put it on, grabbed his phone, which someone had fully charged, and strode away while turning it on.
As soon as his phone powered up, Nan Zhou got a call from his current body's agent, asking where he was.
"I don't know either." Looking around, he said, "How about this? I'll send you my location. Come pick me up."
Half an hour later.
Nan Zhou got into his agent Hao Jia's car.
"What are you doing all the way out here? You scared me! I thought the pressure had gotten to you and you were going to kill yourself! Seriously, that bastard Lu Zhou is disgusting. He knew you had a crush on him. During those two years in the temporary group, how many fans did he gain and how much did he profit by playing up your ship?"
"And now look at him. He got famous and went solo. Announcing a relationship right afterward was bad enough, but then he turned around and slapped that accusation on you."
"What does he mean, you're not an omega? Just because he can't smell your pheromones, you're not an omega? Maybe his damn nose doesn't work. Even I can smell them right now, and I'm a beta-"
At that, Hao Jia turned his head in horror. "Wait, what's with that scent on you?"
Puzzled, Nan Zhou lowered his head and sniffed himself. "What scent?"
"You can't smell it yourself? Fuck!" Hao Jia was close to losing it. "An alpha's scent!"
He had been so busy complaining about Lu Zhou that only now did Hao Jia belatedly notice the powerful alpha pheromones enveloping Nan Zhou, brimming with possessiveness.
The scent was so overwhelming that even he, a beta, felt instinctively a little afraid.
"Oh," Nan Zhou said casually. "I slept with an alpha."
Hao Jia was dumbstruck. His hands jerked on the wheel, and he nearly hit the curb.
Slept. With. An. Alpha?!
Turning on the hazard lights, he pulled over and asked gravely, "Did you go into heat?"
Although he was Nan Zhou's agent, he was also his best friend from high school and knew about his little condition.
Several years earlier, Nan Zhou had been in a serious car accident that severely damaged his gland.
Not only had he lost the scent unique to omegas, but even his heat cycles had been affected.
"I probably did." Nan Zhou thought back to his condition that day and nodded.
The information he had received from the original owner's memories was incomplete, and his understanding of both the original owner and this world was far from thorough.
Hao Jia couldn't help asking, "Was it temporary... or permanent?"
"Huh?"
"Forget it. Let me put it another way. Did you use protection?"
"...I don't remember." Nan Zhou thought back.
He had been in a haze for the past two days.
His senses had all failed him, leaving instinct in control.
In his memories, the air had been filled with a warm, dry, sweet scent, so comforting that he couldn't help losing himself in it.
The man's embrace had been warm, and his voice had been sexy, too.
Those deep eyes, in particular, had looked even more captivating when damp with sweat.
His low, husky chuckle and the tender, indulgent sound of his voice when he spoke made it seem as though everything in the world would involuntarily obey his commands.
"Do you like it?"
"Say it."
Nan Zhou's throat went dry. He gave an uncomfortable little cough. "It should be fine, right?"
"What do you mean, fine?" Hao Jia nearly jumped out of his seat. "You were marked during your heat! That means there's a very good chance you could..."
With every word, Hao Jia's expression grew more anxious. The moment he finished speaking, his gaze shifted to Nan Zhou's abdomen.
...Could what?
Nan Zhou followed his gaze to his own stomach. Surely not...
The impact of that information made his brain shut down for a moment.
"No, we need to get you to a hospital for a checkup right now." Hao Jia quickly started the car. "We need to plan ahead. If we have to, we'll pull out of that dating show even if it means paying enormous damages. Your health comes first!"
"Speaking of which, who was the person who marked you?"
The person who marked him?
An SSR pulled by fate. How was he supposed to know?
When Nan Zhou didn't answer, Hao Jia began to get an inkling and roared, "Fuck! Some random alpha out there took advantage of you, too?!"
Now that was something Nan Zhou didn't like hearing.
He corrected him. "Be precise. I took advantage of him."
"Oh, give me a break!" Hao Jia nearly couldn't catch his breath.
"Don't get worked up yet." Nan Zhou's tone remained calm.
Hao Jia felt a little reassured by him and was just about to offer a few words to bolster them both when Nan Zhou leisurely added, "You'll have plenty to get worked up about later."
Hao Jia: "..."
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