At first, it was just lips rubbing against lips, but slowly, Shang Sui began to bite Shi Qi’s lips, tentatively probing deeper.
Shi Qi parted his lips cooperatively. The Alpha’s soft, nimble tongue slipped inside, carrying a rich, honeyed scent, like a delicious pastry.
Despite the sweet, fragrant scent, Shang Sui’s movements shifted from gentle to rough, greedily sucking on Shi Qi’s tongue again and again, almost making it impossible to breathe.
Shi Qi let out soft, whimpering sounds and instinctively tried to pull back.
But Shang Sui chased after him, pressing in for more kisses, his fingers sliding into Shi Qi’s light-colored hair, massaging the back of his head in sync with the kiss.
His other hand wrapped around Shi Qi’s waist, pulling him close and making it impossible for the kissed Omega to escape.
“Mm… mm…!”
Realizing he couldn’t break free, Shi Qi could only use his tongue to push back against the other, which only made it easier for the invader. He ended up even more tightly entwined.
Shang Sui chased his scent like an addict. The palm that had been cradling the back of Shi Qi’s head gradually moved downward, meticulously caressing his small earlobe and slender neck. From time to time, his hand squeezed Shi Qi’s neck over the leather collar, tightening his fingers with a force that was irresistible yet not uncomfortable, then loosening again.
Shi Qi went limp from the kissing, the bell on his collar trembling incessantly.
He couldn’t breathe.
But it felt so good.
Shi Qi heard the other person let out a muffled groan from deep in his throat—a low, satisfied sound that was especially enticing.
In a daze, he recalled the wet dream he’d had before. This first kiss with Shang Sui was even more entangling than in the dream.
Their pheromones merged, sending a tingling current through their bodies, as if thick syrup stretched between their lips and tongues.
Shi Qi’s cheeks grew hotter and hotter, and his vision began to go white.
Tick—
A mechanical unlocking sound echoed in the room, but Shi Qi was too preoccupied to notice.
It was only after a while that he realized he had soiled the carpet again.
Tears spilled from his eyes, soaking the white lace wrapped around his face. Shi Qi collapsed weakly in Shang Sui’s arms, his bound hands trembling uncontrollably.
With a rapid ticking sound, the shackles around Shang Sui’s ankles automatically unlocked.
A rut wouldn’t end naturally; it only stopped when the Alpha’s desires were fully satisfied or when he was completely exhausted.
In that intensely intimate kiss, Shang Sui had achieved an unprecedented level of satisfaction. His inner desires had been fulfilled one by one, and his pheromones returned to normal levels, ending his rut early.
The seductive, greedy expression faded from the Alpha’s face, and even the flush at the corners of his eyes lightened a little. Rationality gradually returned.
As if suddenly falling from the clouds, Shang Sui closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again.
Before he could fully regain his senses, his gaze landed on a flushed, tear-streaked face.
The Omega in his arms was blindfolded, lips slightly swollen and parted, wrists bound behind his back.
Very beautiful and tempting, but also very pitiful.
Shang Sui froze for a moment, staring in disbelief at someone who shouldn’t have been there.
“Xiao Qi?”
He could sense that Shi Qi had been under his mental control.
He had even tried to hypnotize him, making Shi Qi fall into a state of obsession.
“How is this possible…!”
He remembered bringing Shi Qi to the mirror, ordering him to stand still, putting on the accessories one by one… What happened after that? Did they kiss?
For the first time, Shang Sui deeply hated the incomplete memories from his rut. Looking at the situation now, it almost seemed like he had forced Shi Qi.
He quickly untied the white lace from Shi Qi’s wrists, then removed the part covering his eyes, the cat ears, and the leather collar. During the process, Shi Qi’s expression remained dazed, as if still caught in the aftereffects of mental control.
Shang Sui cautiously pressed the back of his hand to Shi Qi’s flushed cheek, and Shi Qi, looking as if his mind had gone blank, let out a faint hum, his face streaked with tears.
It took a while before Shi Qi came back to his senses, his tear-filled eyes slowly moving.
What happened to Shang Sui?
Why did he have such a guilty expression?
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have done that.”
He seemed to want to hug Shi Qi, but didn’t dare to act rashly, afraid that getting close would make Shi Qi uncomfortable. He could only apologize from a small distance. “Are you hurting?”
Shi Qi stared at him blankly.
Had Shang Sui’s rut ended?
“I’m fine.” Shi Qi pressed his palm to the floor and slowly straightened up. “It doesn’t hurt.”
If anything, he had been so… comfortable just now that his mind had gone blurry.
He hadn’t even heard Shang Sui calling him.
Shi Qi couldn’t bring himself to explain how he was really feeling, so he just repeated, “I’m really fine.”
After saying it, he felt a little confused.
Now that the rut was over, Shang Sui no longer looked like he was about to devour him whole. So… was it because Shang Sui liked him that he had wanted to do those things, or was it just because of the rut?
He’d been too lost in the moment earlier to think about any of this.
Logically, compared to Shang Sui, who had been in rut, he should have been the rational one.
But he had nodded his head when the other wasn’t fully conscious. If the rut hadn’t ended, they might have gone all the way.
Before Shi Qi could sort out his feelings, Shang Sui said softly, “You don’t have to force yourself.”
He guessed that Shi Qi didn’t truly understand how dangerous he could be during a rut and had simply wanted to help. “You wanted to use your pheromones to ease my symptoms, right? But I lost control and tied you up, forcing you to do those things.”
“It’s my fault.”
Shang Sui made it sound like Shi Qi had been forced, like he hadn’t had any selfish motives.
Shi Qi felt like something about that wasn’t quite right, but he didn’t know how to explain it. What made him even more shy was that when Shang Sui mentioned “tying up,” his wrists twitched slightly, as if he were savoring the memory.
When he denied it, his voice was unconvincing. “No! You didn’t do anything wrong.”
That only made Shang Sui feel more guilty. He said with distress, “You’re crying like this. Don’t worry about me.”
Shi Qi opened his mouth but couldn’t bring himself to say the real reason he’d cried.
If he admitted that their first kiss had completely undone him, that he still hadn’t recovered, and that it had felt so good he’d cried… that would be way too…
Shi Qi’s ears turned bright red. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t get them out. All he could manage was, “Anyway, it’s really not as serious as you think.”
It seemed like the two of them weren’t on the same wavelength. It wasn’t something that could be explained clearly in a short time, and his body felt sticky and uncomfortable. Shi Qi changed the subject. “I want to take a shower first.”
As soon as he stood up, he caught a strong scent of lily of the valley.
Unlike the usual fresh and pure fragrance, his pheromones had turned damp, like crushed flower petals releasing an overflowing aroma.
Seeing the wet marks on the carpet, Shi Qi’s face burned. “The carpet’s dirty now. Don’t look! I’ll buy you a new one.”
After saying that, he rushed into the bathroom he’d used last time, not even thinking about grabbing a change of clothes. His retreating figure gave off a sense of fleeing in panic.
Shang Sui stood there in a daze for a moment before snapping out of it. Instinctively, he glanced at the spot where Shi Qi had been sitting.
His own face grew warm too. Flashes of kissing Shi Qi drifted through his mind.
Those petal-soft lips, that delicate breath. He remembered how he had tangled with the Omega’s small, bright red tongue, as if savoring a gourmet delicacy.
Stop. Enough.
He shook his head, telling himself to stop thinking about it.
After finding some clean clothes for Shi Qi and hanging them on the bathroom door, Shang Sui went to another bathroom.
As water streamed down from above, fragmented memories from his rut kept surfacing in his mind.
He seemed to have even used Shi Qi’s hand.
…
It was driving him crazy.
He knew he had a strong sex drive, but he hadn’t realized it was this extreme. He’d just sobered up, and recalling those vague moments with Shi Qi already had him getting aroused again.
That evasive look Shi Qi had while speaking just now was cute too.
It was like he was shy because he liked him.
He didn’t have especially high moral standards, but even he felt like a bit of a beast. He warned himself not to keep letting his mind wander, but his hand slid down all on its own.
…
His rut usually lasted about five days, but this time it had only taken two and a half.
When Shang Sui came out of the bathroom, he felt a little calmer.
Shi Qi had also finished showering and was walking forward while drying his hair, his eyes damp as he looked at Shang Sui, as if unsure what to do next.
When their eyes met, things that had been overlooked in the earlier chaos resurfaced. Shang Sui gradually sensed that the situation might not be exactly as he had imagined.
If Shi Qi had been mentally controlled and forced into borderline sexual acts, he should be afraid of him. But now, Shi Qi seemed even more dependent on him.
Realizing that Shi Qi was still waiting, Shang Sui set those thoughts aside for the moment and asked gently, “Do you want to sleep in the bedroom?”
“The bedroom’s pretty far from the studio, so there shouldn’t be much of my pheromone in there. It shouldn’t affect you too much.”
Shi Qi nodded, then felt something was off. “What about you?”
“Even though the rut’s over, I might not be able to fully control myself for a while.”
After an Alpha’s rut ends, there’s usually a transition period when they can slip back into a pseudo-rut. It’s like how an Omega also feels uncomfortable and has trouble sleeping for a while after their heat ends.
“I’m worried I might do something that could hurt you. I’ll sleep in the living room, okay?”
If staying here would make Shi Qi uncomfortable, he was also prepared to leave.
Shi Qi’s brain short-circuited a bit, and he blurted out, “Hurt me how?”
“…”
Shang Sui didn’t answer.
Just when Shi Qi thought he wasn’t going to get a response, Shang Sui suddenly lifted his eyes to look at him and said softly, “I might crave your pheromones after you fall asleep.”
It took Shi Qi a moment to realize the very explicit meaning hidden in that sentence.
He let out an “Oh,” appearing calm on the surface, but walked off clumsily, arms and legs moving stiffly. “Then I’ll go to sleep.”
He paused, seeming to remember something, and added softly, “Good night.”
Shang Sui looked at his glistening eyes. “Good night.”
It wasn’t until Shi Qi’s figure disappeared at the end of the hallway that Shang Sui looked away.
Six years ago, Shi Qi had left without saying goodbye, and it had been because of his rut.
His behavior back then had been so frightening that it scared Shi Qi, which had led to his departure.
He had regretted it countless times. Why hadn’t he controlled himself better? Why had he let Shi Qi see him like that during his rut? Now, facing a situation that was somewhat similar to back then, his first reaction had been to think he’d made the same mistake again, not even stopping to consider anything else.
Shang Sui turned off the lights and lay on the sofa, trying to sort out his messy thoughts.
It wasn’t until just now that he gathered the courage to test things a little and finally confirmed that Shi Qi didn’t actually reject any of this.
The thought that the other person might really like him too, and that their intimacy was completely willing… Shang Sui narrowed his eyes slightly in the dark, and his already unstable pheromones began to surge again.
After spending so much time together, anyone with a functioning brain could tell that Shi Qi had feelings for him.
Because of the regret from six years ago, he had always wanted to lure Shi Qi into liking him a bit more, enough to accept his abnormality, and only confess once everything was clearer and more certain.
But given how things were now, it seemed like it was time to be honest about his feelings.
Would he be accepted?
What would be the right way to confess?
He really wanted to say it now, but he was afraid it would seem like he was just being driven by instinct and not sincere enough, blurting out his feelings right after his rut ended.
But if he waited a while longer, how long would that waiting stretch out?
It wasn’t until a faint glimmer of dawn seeped through the curtains that Shang Sui blinked and finally became aware of the passing time.
The whole night had already gone by.
Compared to Shang Sui, who was overthinking everything, Shi Qi had fallen into a sweet sleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
He had originally planned to seriously think about their relationship, and besides, it seemed Shang Sui had misunderstood a few things. He also needed to find a chance to clear that up.
But…
Shang Sui’s bed smelled so good.
The soft bedding carried the light scent of laundry detergent, the fresh aroma of lavender evoking the feel of seawater in summer, and beyond that, there was the familiar, faint trace of honey pheromones.
It was just too comfortable, too relaxing, and after everything that had happened today, he had very little energy left.
Shi Qi couldn’t resist the pull of sleep. He tried hard to think through the situation but failed completely.
Right before falling fully asleep, Shi Qi made up his mind.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, he would definitely think things through.
Author’s note:
How a sensitive person and a slow person deal with emotional issues:
2s: tosses and turns all night
17: sleeps soundly
This is the final stretch; after this part, they’ll be together.
