“Ah?” Duan Ning’s question caught Xia Wennan off guard. He felt that acknowledging this question wouldn’t be the best idea, but so was ignoring it. He racked his brain for a response, but as he did so, Ming Luchuan, who was resting on the sofa, suddenly twitched, and a low groan escaped his mouth.
“He’s about to wake up,” Duan Ning said. “I should go.”
Right on time, Xia Wennan thought. “All right then, take care.”
As he watched Duan Ning leave the room, he heard Ming Luchuan let out a low groan. Crouching down by the sofa, he noticed Ming Luchuan’s lips moving, as if he was saying something.
“What was that?” Xia Wennan moved his ear closer. Ming Luchuan repeated: “Nannan.”
A burst of crimson flooded Xia Wennan’s face.
He had no idea why he was blushing—it was just that these two words, coming out of the inebriated alpha’s mouth in his deep and low timbre, sounded sticky and ambiguous. Along with by the dense, emotion-packed pheromones emanating from his body, for the unprepared Xia Wennan, it was like a head-on collision.
“What? Don’t just call me that.” Xia Wennan could no longer stand this, but he held on and pinched Ming Luchuan’s mouth.
Ming Luchuan opened his eyes. Under the effect of alcohol, his gaze was scattered, but his eyes remained clear. He stared at Xia Wennan, and after a moment, said, “Why are you here?”
Xia Wennan averted his gaze, refusing to meet Ming Luchuan’s eyes. “Didn’t you ask me to pick you up?”
“So you came?” asked Ming Luchuan.
Xia Wennan didn’t immediately respond after hearing this question, because he smelled the scent of Ming Luchuan’s pheromones in the air growing exceedingly stronger. He’d smelled countless alpha pheromones before, so he was well aware that this one in particular signified an alpha’s lust. Compared to other alphas, however, Ming Luchuan’s pheromones were clearer and richer; if Xia Wennan were an omega, he’d surely have gone weak at the knees by now.
But he was a beta, who would only blush when grasping the biological information Ming Luchuan wanted to convey. To conceal his unease, he deliberately put on a stern expression and said, “Why are you in rut in a place like this?”
Ming Luchuan didn’t speak.As a beta, Xia Wennan had yet to realise the dangers he could possibly face at this very moment. He only said, “There are no omegas here.” As far as he could remember, alphas would only go into rut if lured by omega pheromones.
“What omega?” The alcohol had caused Ming Luchuan’s voice to sound faintly husky.
As soon as Xia Wennan remembered the fact that Duan Ning had just been in this room, he immediately felt faintly upset. “Did you forget about that omega you fended off drinks for earlier?”
“Which omega?”
Xia Wennan gave him an odd look. “You don’t even remember what happened tonight?”
After examining Ming Luchuan’s face, Xia Wennan realised that Ming Luchuan probably wasn’t genuinely asking questions. Ming Luchuan’s gaze never strayed from Xia Wennan’s face. The corners of his eyes were flushed a pale crimson, and it was as if this bit of colour had melted away the indifference on his face; for a split second, he appeared stubborn and passionate. Him not knowing which omega they were talking about may not be due to the fact that he didn’t remember, but because he didn’t care at all.
Despite the fact that the room was devoid of omegas, the alpha was in rut.
It was at this moment that Xia Wennan began to raise his guard. When he made to stand up, Ming Luchuan suddenly grabbed hold of his hand. His grip was strong, and Xia Wennan couldn’t pull away.
“Nannan,” Ming Luchuan called out once more.
It made Xia Wennan’s flesh crawl. “Don’t call me that.”
Seeming to not have heard him, Ming Luchuan drew Xia Wennan’s hand and pasted it to the side of his face. As the cool palm touched his warm cheek, Ming Luchuan softly repeated, “Nannan.”
Xia Wennan’s heart was racing like mad. “You’re drunk!”
Ming Luchuan really was drunk. With his other hand, he pressed down on Xia Wennan’s nape to lower his head, then kissed Xia Wennan’s lips.
Xia Wennan’s inner world instantly exploded in a field of fireworks.
In truth, he could’ve avoided him, could’ve pushed him away; when Ming Luchuan forced him to lower his head, he’d pictured himself punching Ming Luchuan’s face, and yet he didn’t go through with any of these things. He thought back to that day, in the early morning, when he had his eyes closed as he awaited Ming Luchuan to act. It had ended with Ming Luchuan pulling out his eyelash. Back then, he hadn’t been sure what he was waiting for, whereas in this instant, he was fully aware of the fact that Ming Luchuan was kissing him, and yet he made no move to protest.
Xia Wennan’s heart beat faster and faster. Gradually, he struggled breathing, and as Ming Luchuan’s pheromones spread across the entire room uncontrollably, it impacted his beta senses. The alpha pheromones wouldn’t cause Xia Wennan to go into heat, but they overwhelmed him, rendering him dizzy and breathless.
He felt his hands being yanked forcefully, and suddenly his world was turned upside down, and he was laying on his back on the sofa, with Ming Luchuan pushing down on top of him.
The kiss was not yet over; the alpha’s hands grew bolder and bolder, and the hem of Xia Wennan’s T-shirt which had been lifted by a simple breeze was tugged upwards. His waist flinched away as he felt the contact.
Light-headed from the onslaught of alpha pheromones, fear began to settle across Xia Wennan’s mind. He seized Ming Luchuan’s hand to put a stop to his actions. “You’re drunk!”
“Mm,” said Ming Luchuan.
Xia Wennan was almost at the end of his rope. “Then why haven’t you let go of me?!”
Ming Luchuan finally stopped moving. He raised his head and looked down at Xia Wennan. “Why?”
“Aren’t you drunk! Don’t screw around!”
Ming Luchuan’s usual icy tone was laced with a drunken rasp as he said, “Let’s screw then.”
“Screw you!” Xia Wennan could feel the heat and touch on his neck.
Ming Luchuan sneered. “You’re the one getting screwed.”
Xia Wennan used up all his strength to shove Ming Luchuan off of him and hastily rolled down from the sofa to the carpet. “Stop messing around. I’m calling the police.”
Ming Luchuan leaned over and grabbed his leg. “Why would you call the police?”
Xia Wennan tried and failed to shake him off. His tone of voice was both anxious and furious. “You want to force that on me—you’re still not letting me call the police?”
“Force what on you?” Ming Luchuan’s complexion clouded over.
“Let go of me now!”
Ming Luchuan didn’t let go. “You said you like me.”
“When did I say that? In your dreams?” Xia Wennan spat out, “Get yourself together!”
Ming Luchuan stared at him with an increasingly dark and frightful gaze, and asked, “You don’t like me?”
“I don’t like you,” said Xia Wennan.
In the next second, Ming Luchuan suddenly let go of his hand and said, “Piss off!”
Xia Wennan, who had been working hard to get free, was taken off guard by the unexpected release and tumbled backwards. His skull collided with the coffee table with a loud thud, and the pain was so intense that he could see stars. He strained to get up, only to see Ming Luchuan sitting motionlessly on the sofa with his head bowed.
Panting slightly, he lifted a hand to feel where he’d bumped his head, feeling the slight swell the second he touched it. Hissing in pain, he propped himself up with his hands to squat on the floor, and approached Ming Luchuan with caution.
Ming Luchuan’s head was hung low. From Xia Wennan’s line of sight, the man’s expression wasn’t visible, but as he drew close, he heard Ming Luchuan softly repeating, “If you don’t like me then piss off… I don’t need…”
“Are you okay?” asked Xia Wennan.
Ming Luchuan didn’t answer.
Xia Wennan was miffed, but there was no point in engaging with a drunkard, so he asked, “Do you want to head home?” He wanted to call Ming Luchuan’s driver and call someone to help bring Ming Luchuan outside.
When he groped about for his phone, Xia Wennan realised that it had fallen from his body at some point and had landed on the carpet not far from the sofa.
The moment Xia Wennan turned around to retrieve his phone, Ming Luchuan suddenly covered him from behind, pinned his body to the ground, trapping him there, and sunk his teeth into Xia Wennan’s nape.
Xia Wennan vividly felt the pain of teeth tearing open the flesh of his nape, followed immediately by the injection of alpha pheromones.