逆转 (Reverse) – 莲鹤夫人
Chapter 5
For over a month after that, the omega’s movements were somewhat forcibly restricted while a cure was being made. He wasn’t allowed to see his family, go far from home, or go to the usual omega gatherings. Someone else read every message he sent and monitored his electronic devices. He wasn’t sure if other omegas with partners were treated the same way, but his husband was busier than normal and only came home once a week. That robbed him of his opportunity to ask.
No, referring to it as “robbed” was unnecessary. Asking wouldn’t have made a difference either. He had no right to ask his husband questions, and his husband would never give him a real answer anyway. All he got were sharp, cold looks from the corners of his eyes and brows, along with a knowing, cruel smile that quietly told him to fuck off.
In the evening of the fifth week, things changed.
On that particular day, the omega stayed in and read. Reading had become the one thing he kept on doing—because, even if his body was restrained, his soul and thoughts couldn’t stay trapped in this small universe. For whatever reason, the temperature felt unusually hot. Even though he was sitting in a chilly place, sweat rushed out on his skin.
As he was wiping away sweat and reading intently, the house phone rang.
The omega was surprised. Who could it be?
He set down the book and walked over. The simple act of walking caused a fine stream of sweat to slowly roll down his back.
“Hello?” he softly asked, “May I—”
“Please, you have to come quickly!” the voice on the other end was lost in a sea of noise—screams, cries of fear, and a deep, sad howling in the background. The caller was so loud that they almost blew the omega’s eardrum out.
“The car will get there soon—your husband went into rut! Please—please call in more people! Don’t worry about your rank or status; use the high-pressure water cannons![mfn]The same kind that the cops use to keep protesters away.[/mfn] Please come as soon as you can and bring your clothes. Please, I’m begging you, you have to come!”
The call was ended quickly in a panic.
A sudden, powerful storm that starts and ends just as quickly. A piercing beep resounded from the dial tone, sending shivers down the omega’s spine.
In rut?
Right now?!
It was only then that he realized why he had been sweating all the time. He thought it was just the hot weather—never thought it was because his partner, who was hundreds of kilometers away, was going through a terrifying rut.
Downstairs, the screeching of brakes gave way to the sound of rushed footsteps and frantic pounding on the door. If he had any doubt left before, it was gone now. The convoy brought not just the cold, metallic stink of machinery and gunpowder, but also the overwhelming, chaotic, and unmistakable scent of alpha pheromones—thick enough to cling, the kind that could only come from an alpha in rut.
It was terrible.
The omega quickly packed a handful of his usual clothes and pressed his fingerprint to the door. When it opened, he saw a line of betas with guns waiting outside. At this point, no one would dare let another alpha accompany the partner of a crazed alpha—their pheromones clinging to the omega would only make matters worse.
“Please get in the car now!” The lead beta man wore sunglasses, and sweat stuck his hair to his face, “We’ll make sure that you’re safe!”
The omega’s muscles tensed up. Then he gave a little nod, “Okay. Thank you.”
Inside the car, a beta specialist who was also sweating started to give the omega psychological counseling right away, wiping his forehead while he spoke. Without paying close attention, the gist was clear: the alpha’s high social standing, the importance of his decisions and contributions, and how much was at stake. The omega knew exactly what the government was trying to say without having to hear the rest.
Irritated and restless, always bothered by his marked partner’s rut, the omega opened his eyes and asked gently, “Are you telling me all these because you think I’ll ask him to kill himself?”
With a look of sheer embarrassment on his face, the beta specialist froze. He tried to keep going, but the omega cut him off in a quiet voice, “Don’t pester me anymore. I need to save my energy.”
Out of the car. Into the building. To the elevator. By then, the omega had been bathed in the alpha’s overwhelming, aggressive pheromones. Everyone they walked by looked scared and was in a hurry to make way for him. The top floor had been cleared out. Even with a floor between them, he could hear the alpha’s furious, agonizing screaming, mixed with countless cries he couldn’t figure out. He felt his heart tighten even more tightly with the mark’s bond.
They had the alpha pinned in the middle with high-pressure water cannons.
People from the government circled the scene. Alphas and betas stood apart from each other, and everyone, man and woman, looked on in horror at the once-powerful alpha who had been weakened by rut. They looked scared and cautious, and their whispers were like a storm around him. And the alpha lay there being stared at, talked about, and drenched by loud, heavy water, crying and screaming like an injured animal caught in a trap.
Pain stabbed through the omega’s heart like a red-hot needle, causing it to shake violently.
“Stop!” he said, his voice shaking, “Stop it… That’s enough!”
He knocked one of the water cannons to the side and ran ahead. Someone quickly shut off the last of the nozzles behind him. He knelt in the cold water and hugged the alpha, whose lips had turned blue and whose body was shaking all over. Without realizing it, tears poured down his face.
“Wife… wife…” the alpha’s voice trembled and weakened as he cried out, “I… I want… my wife…!”
He was crying like he had been treated unfairly in every way possible. The omega released his pheromones in a desperate attempt to calm him down. After a long time of weeping, the alpha seemed to be catching his breath, but then he suddenly broke down again.
“You weren’t here! You left… y-you weren’t here. You don’t want me anymore! Wife… my wife no longer wants me…”
The omega clasped his face and held him as tightly as if he were embracing a massive, critically injured lion.
He clenched his teeth and put up with the alpha’s strong grip as it closed around him. The alpha’s arms were so tight that they hurt, and they blocked out everything else, making a small, quiet world just for them. He said softly, “I’m here. I’m here. It’s fine now. It’s all right…”
The alpha cried and choked on the broken words, “They… they doused me with water… I’m hurt, it hurts so much… I wanted to find you, but I couldn’t get up, and they made sure I didn’t. I feel miserable. I’m going to die… It hurts so much…”
The omega pushed the words out while crying, “Be good. Isn’t it okay now? I came to get you, I came to see you… So behave, okay? If you behave, they won’t treat you like that anymore…”
The alpha, feeling him cry, raised his head and kissed the omega’s face with his salty lips, mixing their tears together. Between sobs, he said, “Wife… wife, don’t cry… don’t cry…”
The omega clasped his head in his hands, crying even more than before. The beta specialist stood at a distance, too scared to get closer. He could only shout, “Your husband hurt more than a dozen people earlier! We had no choice but to take extreme caution! We’re sorry! We’re terribly sorry!”
The omega held his alpha close and shook his head.
Was he crying because his partner was hurt?
All he saw was a man suffering like a trapped beast under countless stares and whispered judgments—like a child wandering through a vast world, unable to understand what he’d done wrong or why he was imprisoned and rejected so cruelly.
“Let’s go back home.” He kissed the alpha’s cold, almost freezing cheek and said, “We’re going home, okay?”
The alpha sniffed and cried, “Then—I want to sleep in your bed, use your blanket, and hold you… you can’t go, you can’t leave me…”
“Alright.”
“Not ever… in my entire life…”
“…Okay.”
They were soaked and trembling, leaning on each other, when they got into the car that took them home.
The alpha got hurt badly. During the six days, the omega only gave in to his attempts to seduce him once. During the rest of the time, he took care of him by showing him how to make ginger soup, giving him medicine, and changing his dressings.
—The second rut was over just like that.
By the time the alpha woke up for the first time on the morning of the seventh day, he saw it all as utterly unbelievable.
No one can be this kind without being dumb. What did his so-called wife really want?
He was well aware that deals without a price tag were always the most expensive and difficult to understand. So he called the omega, who had left early that morning, hoping to get a clear answer.
“What do you want?” he asked bluntly. “You could’ve killed me during my second rut. I can think of at least ten great ways to kill myself without anyone else helping me, and you did nothing?”
The omega’s face was still pale. He broke the long pause and said quietly, “I made ginger soup.”
“…What?”
“You… you enjoy the taste of ginger soup,” he said. “But you drank too much in the first few days. That’s all.”
The alpha looked at him for a while and smirked, “You sound like you’re brushing me off.”
“I—”
“No need.” the alpha said, cutting him off and glaring at him. “To be honest, I don’t think a family like yours could raise a naive, innocent bargaining chip. Your family sent you here for money, power, and political promises, didn’t they? Still, I’m grateful. You’ve saved me twice. For just that, I should give you a reward.”
The omega turned to face him.
“Name your price,” the alpha continued, “I prefer my deals straight and simple.”
“…I know how that feels.” the omega said, his voice rough.
The alpha, cigar in hand, arched his brow in surprise.
The omega went on, “I’ll be honest too. Watching you struggle under the water cannons… shattered my heart. As if I were seeing a reflection of myself. My former self. Heat pushed me around, unable to stop, while everyone around me stared at me strangely. As if I were out of the ordinary. Those eyes—I recognize them. I can feel it…”
“You feel sorry for me?” Anger flared up, and the alpha’s expression turned icy, “Your sympathy is shallow and stupid. Take advantage of this chance if I were you—”
“But you’re not me.” For the first time, the omega raised his head and looked the alpha in the eyes with a cold gaze, “I know exactly how it feels. Losing your power. Feeling degraded. Having your feelings, your life, and your very existence controlled by another person. Yes, I know. And because I know, I can’t do that kind of thing—can’t do what you do.”
The alpha froze, “Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.”
Tears were streaming down the omega’s face, making his eyes shine like flames as he glared at his husband with almost fierce intensity, “Everyone says that alphas are meant to lead and omegas are meant to follow. I despise being an omega. I despise not having the genes that allow me to fight back. I despise my weak, timid personality. I despise that I’m so empathetic and lack the guts to be as cruel as you!”
The last sentence came out of him as a roar.
“…If only I could be as arrogant as you,” the omega cried. “If I could be as cruel as you are while you’re in your rut, watching you cry out and beg me, your partner—if I could just laugh like you do… it would be the easiest thing in the world.”
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Translated and edited by janemoyu (12/28/25)
