No Way Back - Chapter 2

The first thing I saw was a pair of shoes that looked prohibitively expensive.

My gaze traveled upward. Lin Chongzhi stood over me, his expression cool and aloof.

My mind was swimming. Against my will, memories surfaced of him burying his face against my nape, kissing and licking and biting the same place over and over.

My breath hitched.

The man before me spoke with icy, cutting politeness.

“Shen Yi. Long time no see.”

I forced a crooked smile and ignored him—not on purpose, but because my whole body was on fire. If I opened my mouth, I doubted I could get a complete sentence out.

Instead, I held out my hand to the bewildered man beside him, who I assumed was Lin Chongzhi’s assistant.

“P-please… Give it to me.”

“He’s an Alpha,” Lin Chongzhi said. He didn’t comment on my refusal to acknowledge him, merely turned to his assistant. “Give him the strongest one you have.”

Lin Chongzhi remembered my habits. What he didn’t know was that an Alpha suppressant was useless to me now.

It didn’t matter. I just wanted to get away and find a fresh Omega suppressant.

The assistant hesitated. He clearly didn’t understand his boss, but naturally, he obeyed. He gave me an Alpha suppressant, and when he saw that my hands were too weak to tear open the package, he kindly opened it for me and pressed the injector to my gland.

As he leaned in, the unfamiliar Alpha pheromones made my gland flare with pain.

He wasn’t Lin Chongzhi. His presence only made my body recoil harder.

I clenched my teeth and endured it.

Close enough to catch my scent clearly, the assistant froze. His breathing turned audibly heavier. Realizing he needed to get away, he hurriedly administered the suppressant, invented some excuse, and left.

Lin Chongzhi stood to one side the entire time, watching me with cold eyes.

The wrong suppressant made my head spin, though it dulled some of the itching heat. I staggered to the sink and splashed cold water over the sweat plastering my hair to my forehead.

“Ge.”

Lin Chongzhi’s voice came from behind me.

“…You really don’t have a single thing to say to me?”

“Aren’t you going to explain? It hasn’t even been two months since we broke up. Why do you smell like an Omega?”

He stood there wearing a scent-blocking patch, yet I could still catch a faint trace of his pheromones. The pain caused by that unfamiliar Alpha had yet to subside.

My body, I realized, was like a dog that had chosen its master. It snarled and fought against the approach of anyone else.

Only Lin Chongzhi’s scent could save me.

Summoning every scrap of strength to resist that craving, I forced a few words through my throat.

“Stay away from me.”

Lin Chongzhi frowned and came closer instead.

“Who is the Omega? Tell me. I won’t bother the two of you.”

I couldn’t speak. I shook my head.

Hope brightened his eyes.

“There isn’t anyone, is there?”

That was what he wanted to believe. But the closer he came, the more clearly he could smell the Omega scent clinging to me.

It was too strong. It tormented him.

Worse, the scent of this unknown Omega—wherever I had picked it up—was making him agitated too.

Disgusting.

Lin Chongzhi ground out, “Shen Yi, there is no low you won’t sink to just to get rid of me.”

He thought I had deliberately found someone to make him sick, all so he would leave me alone.

When I gave him no answer, an incredulous laugh escaped him.

“Fine. An Omega. Great. You were right—Alphas belong with Omegas. What are two Alphas supposed to be?”

“I won’t stand in your way.”

“I hope you’re happy.”

By the final words, his voice had gone hoarse, the last syllable trembling.

My heart clenched. Unable to bear it, I frowned and looked up.

I hadn’t expected to find Lin Chongzhi staring at me, his eyes unnaturally red.

The instant he caught my gaze, he surged forward and pinned me against the wall. His movements were overbearing, but his voice held a hurt he didn’t seem to hear himself.

As though I were some monster who had abandoned his wife and child, as though I had driven him to plead with reddened eyes, he said, “Shen Yi, if you hate Alphas that much, I’ll wear a bite guard. I’ll use suppressants and scent-blocking patches. I’ll do anything.”

“…Could you please not leave me?”

He didn’t know he was an Enigma. He knew even less about what had happened to me, and so he had no idea how dangerous his proximity was.

His scorching breath fell directly over the gland at my nape, making me shudder.

He was begging me not to leave him, while all I could think was: Would he bite me if I asked?