The cell was silent, save for the rhythmic, ghostly sound of my breathing that I could never quite shake from my ears. I was in a daze, the kind that makes the world feel like it's made of static and smoke. When someone called my name, the sound felt like it was coming from underwater. I didn't turn. I just stared at Sol, my eyes wide and aching, as if I were staring at a ghost that hadn't realized it was dead yet.
The questions were clawing at the back of my throat, sharp and desperate. I wanted to ask him what he was. I wanted to ask if he felt the shift in the air, the way my own S-class scent was curdling into something faint, sweet and heavy - something that shouldn't exist in an Alpha's biology. But I knew the price of those questions. If he knew why I was like this, if he realized that he had left a permanent mark inside me, he would never leave.
He would set fire to his reputation, and his freedom just to stay in this place with me. And I couldn't let him. Besides, a cynical part of my mind whispered that the tests were a fluke. A faulty batch. A cruel joke played by a body pushed to its limit by suppressants and trauma.
That night, I lay down, my eyes burning with sleeplessness. I felt the heat of him against my back, his breath a steady, warm puff against the nape of my neck. I turned slowly, my joints protesting, and just watched him breathe. I memorized the way the moonlight caught the bridge of his nose, the slight twitch of his eyelashes. I realized then, with a terrifying jolt of clarity, that he had grown to mean so much to me. And because he meant everything, I had to be the one to let him go. All my plans were now a tangled mess.
I leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to his forehead. He smiled unconsciously in his sleep, a soft, boyish expression that broke my heart, and I pulled him closer, tucking my head under his chin. Beyond his shoulder, in the darkness of the cell, I saw Fei's eyes. He was awake, watching us with that predatory, silent intelligence. But I saw the hint of jealousy cross his face but it was so fast I could be wrong.
I ignored him, closing my eyes and praying for a dreamless sleep that wouldn't come.
The following day, the prison felt like it was holding its breath. Sol was taken for his final hearing at dawn. I sat on the floor of the cell, eyes glued to the flickering television screen, missing the woodshop for the first time. CJ had excused me; he'd taken one look at my pale face and told the guards I wasn't fit to go to the woodshop.
On the screen, Sol looked like a stranger. He was dressed in a charcoal suit that fit his broad shoulders perfectly, his hair swept back, his expression a mask of corporate elegance. He looked put together, every inch the ZQ heir the world expected him to be.
But I saw the way he fidgeted with the cuff of his sleeve. I saw the uncertainty in the tension of his jaw. My heart physically ached watching him. I wanted to reach through the glass and hold him just for a second .
The trial was a grueling marathon of legal jargon, but halfway through, the atmosphere shifted. A guard walked past our cell and, with a subtle flick of his wrist, a note slipped under the door. I moved quickly. I unfolded the paper, my eyes scanning the coded instructions.
I felt the walls closing in. Everything was moving faster than I had anticipated, the gears of the conspiracy grinding toward a climax just as my own body was betrayed by new life. I walked to the toilet, flushed the note, and watched the paper swirl away. When I sat back down, my jaw was tight. I watched the TV as the lawyer made his closing arguments. They were brilliant, legitimate; they painted Sol as a victim of circumstance, a man wrongly accused.
He was going to be released. I felt a wave of relief so strong it made me dizzy, followed immediately by a crushing grief.
The the trial was over. My hand went to my pocket, touching a small, crumpled note I had written for Sol—a goodbye he wouldn't find until he was miles away from this place. I managed to slip it into his notebook.
The cell door hissed open. I expected I-an, who usually finished his chores early, but instead, Fei walked in. He didn't look like a prisoner. He walked with the arrogance of a king who had simply decided to visit the dungeons for a day.
The tension in the room snapped like a violin string.
"You know they are lying," Fei said, standing sideways in front of me, his hands shoved deep into his pockets as he watched the silent TV.
I knew his ideologies. He was a radical who believed the secondary gender status quo - the hierarchy of Alpha, Beta, and Omega - was a shackle that needed to be broken. I hadn't cared about politics before, but now, as a living anomaly, I understood. Man had found a way to weaponize biology, and I was the proof.
"You don't have to do it," Fei said, finally turning his head to look at me. His eyes were cold, devoid oh his usual demeanor.
"What don't I have to do?" I asked, my voice a low, warning growl.
"Kill me," he said simply. "Even if you succeed, they won't hold their end of the bargain, Bin. They'll dispose of the weapon once the target is hit."
I let out a ragged sigh, the weight of the secret in my belly making me feel twice my size. "And what? You want to offer me a better deal?" I scoffed.
"Yes." His voice was a pillar of confidence. "I really like you. It would be a waste to see a talent like yours rot, or worse, stand on the wrong side of history."
"Are you implying you're the 'right' side?" I asked, holding his gaze. Word had spread about Fei's ruthlessness. He was a ghost in the system, a man whose empire was slowly rising in the shadows.
"I am the only side that guarantees your survival," he said. He lowered himself slowly, squatting until he was eye-level with me. The mask of the "trembling Omega" was gone. "I regret I didn't get to you first. Before the ZQ brat did."
His eyes shifted, becoming darker, more possessive. "Is it the money? If it's about his wealth, I have plenty of my own. I can offer you a world where you don't have to struggle. If you agree, I can get you out of this hellhole by tomorrow."
He leaned in, his lips grazing my ear as he purred the words. I felt a chill, but I didn't flinch. I straightened up and pushed him back with a firm hand.
"I think there's been a misunderstanding, Fei."
"What misunderstanding? That you were sent here to kill me?" He cocked his head innocently, a genuine, terrifying smile on his face. He reached out, his tongue darting out to lick the skin of my neck. I turned my head away, and he just smirked, his hand sliding beneath my shirt, his fingers cold against my hot skin.
"I can do so much for you, Bin. "
I grabbed his wrist, stopping his hand before it could wander lower toward my stomach. His jaw tightened. It was obvious he wasn't used to being denied. He pulled away, looking at me as if I had wounded him, but the threat was still there, shimmering in the air.
"Think about it," he said, retreating to his corner just as the cell door opened and CJ walked in.
CJ looked between us, his instincts clearly sensing the aftermath of a storm. He sat down next to me and placed a heavy, paternal hand on my shoulder. "Are you feeling better, kid?"
I nodded, unable to speak. My eyes were fixed on Fei - the wolf in sheep's clothing. But as I sat there, I wondered if I was any better. I was a killer carrying an anomaly. I had two options: my handlers, who would likely kill me, or Fei, who would likely use me. Neither led to a life where my child was safe.
I had to escape. I had to disappear before the biology of my body made the secret impossible to hide. I had tried to mask the scent shift, but the suppressants were poison now. My body rejected them violently, leaving me shivering and vomiting on the bathroom floor. I was terrified. An S-class Alpha wasn't designed to carry life; I wondered if the strength of my own pheromones would crush the pulse inside me.
The final night came. The rut room was a sanctuary of dancing shadows and the smell of sex.
"Fuck!" I moaned, my head thumping against the timber floor.
Sol thrust into me again, his arms like iron bands anchoring my legs around his waist. He was desperate tonight. The news of his release had reached him, and the reality of our separation was a physical weight in the room. He grunted against my neck, his teeth grazing my skin as he dove himself deeper.
I held him with a strength that bordered on violence. I wanted to swallow him whole, to keep him beside me so he could never leave.
I kissed the side of his face, my fingers digging into his shoulders, leaving bruises.
"I love you," I whispered.
The words were out before I could stop them. He froze. I froze. The air between us seemed to crystallize. I hadn't meant to say it, but I didn't want to take it back. I realised in meant it.
He looked at me in shock, his dark green-hazed eyes softening. Then, a smile - a real, heartbreaking smile -formed on his lips. "I love you too," he whispered back. He began to kiss my whole face, my neck, my chest, as if he were memorizing my geography. His hands were gentle, tracing my skin with a reverence that made me want to sob.
He began to move again, but it was slow now. Agonizingly slow. He wanted to feel every inch of me. He grabbed my member his hand massaging my sensitive skin with a rhythm that matched his thrusts. My body felt like it was crumbling into stardust. I moaned against his lips, my hand tangling in his hair.
"Fuck! What have you done to me?" I gasped.
The man I was in this moment- vulnerable, weeping, and who had allowed himself to be claimed - was unrecognizable to the man who had entered this prison. Sol had given me a glimpse of a happiness I didn't think I deserved, and now I had to watch it walk out the door.
When we finally cum, the intensity was so sharp it felt like a death. He pulled me into his arms, our bodies slick with sweat, both of us breathing in heavy, ragged gasps.
"I can't imagine staying away from you for so long," he said, his voice sounding small and distant. He had spent the last hour talking about lawyers, about funding a retrial, anything to get me out of this.
But we both knew the truth. The public or even the company itself would never allow the ZQ heir to associate with me withoutscrutiny. The moment he stepped outside, the walls of his world would rise up to keep me out. And I couldn't wait for lawyers. I had something even more important that I needed to protect.
I pulled him closer, kissing him one last time, tasting our shared desperation.