To help balance the gland’s growth rate and maintain a stable recovery, Dr. Zhong discontinued Yan Yi’s growth medication for a month. During this time, he relied solely on the soothing pheromones provided by Lu Shangjin to supply the energy needed for recovery.
One month later.
Lu Shangjin opened the bedroom closet. Yan Yi was curled up in a ball in the corner, burying himself under clothes as if nothing had happened.
“Yan Yan, we agreed last night—be a good boy.” Lu Shangjin bent down and reached into the closet, feeling Yan Yi’s little tail sticking up. He gave it a gentle tug. “Come out.”
Yan Yi kept playing dead.
Lu Shangjin pushed aside the scattered clothes to dig Yan Yi out, cradling him under his armpits as he carried him out of the closet. “It’ll only take a little while.”
Yan Yi was hoisted onto his shoulder and couldn’t move, his hind legs dangling limply. “I don’t want to go to the hospital.”
“You have to go whether you want to or not.” Lu Shangjin gave him a light pat on the butt. “I’m with you. What’s there to be afraid of?”
After a long, drawn-out coaxing session, the car pulled up to Anfia Hospital at two in the afternoon.
Yan Yi lay nervously in Lu Shangjin’s arms, clutching his arm tightly, his tail quivering.
As soon as his pants were pulled down half an inch, Yan Yi fearfully pressed his hands against the waistband, burying his face against Lu Shangjin’s neck. “No, please don’t. This hurts so much, so, so much. I want to go home and eat. Can I bake you a cake tonight?”
A few days ago, on a whim, Yan Yi had learned how to bake cakes. When he presented a strawberry cake to Lu Shangjin, who had just gotten home from work, it moved Lu Shangjin to tears.
From then on, Yan Yi learned to use cakes to coax Lu Shangjin.
“You still have to get the shot.” Lu Shangjin pulled him closer, releasing pheromones to soothe him.
Every time he brought him in for the growth hormone injection, it was a real ordeal. The usually mischievous, bouncing little bunny looked so pitiful and listless after the shot that it truly tugged at his heartstrings.
The little bunny’s eyes were red from the shot, and he lay limp in Lu Shangjin’s arms, sobbing.
“Why do I have to get a shot every month?” Yan Yi wiped his eyes and asked, his voice choked with tears. “Do I have a disease?”
“No, don’t be silly.” Lu Shangjin cradled his head and kissed the corner of his eyebrow. “Can you walk? Let’s go home.”
The sixteen-year-old cool kid felt that crying in front of others was embarrassing, and he couldn’t let his Alpha carry him home anymore.
Once they stepped out of the hospital, he wiped his face clean and quietly slipped his hand into Lu Shangjin’s palm, wanting to hold his Alpha’s hand—only to have it released.
Yan Yi froze, staring blankly at his now-empty hand. A sudden emptiness washed over him, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint where this familiar sense of loss had come from.
He snapped back to reality and looked down at his feet; his loose shoelaces had been tied.
Lu Shangjin straightened up and naturally took Yan Yi’s hand, leading him toward his car: “You sit in the back. You can lie down for a bit; otherwise, your butt will hurt.”
Yan Yi climbed in, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed: “Don’t say that!”
“Sorry, baby.” Lu Shangjin chuckled as he closed the door for him and returned to the driver’s seat.
Yan Yi lay face-down in the back seat and saw, through the glass, a figure emerge from behind the old ginkgo tree at the entrance of Anfia Hospital.
The face was familiar, but just like his other hazy memories, Yan Yi couldn’t place who it was. He only remembered those almond-shaped eyes, which seemed to be smiling yet weren’t quite.
Just one glance sent an inexplicable chill down his spine. Yan Yi retreated into the back seat, quietly snuggled up behind Lu Shangjin, and reached over the seat to wrap his arms around him.
Lu Shangjin lifted a hand to stroke his face. “It’s dangerous. Stay down.”
The Alpha by the ginkgo tree stepped out and stood at the hospital entrance, watching Lu Shangjin’s car drive out of sight.
Shao Wenjing had been standing there for a long time. The wind was too chilly, so he walked into a nearby coffee shop to sit for a while.
When his coffee was served, he was still staring blankly at the street outside the window.
A few days earlier, he’d received word that someone had seen Lu Shangjin taking Yan Yi in and out of Anfia Hospital, always at the beginning of each month. So he’d seized an opportunity to come here; if he could take Yan Yi away without a fight, that would be ideal.
It wasn’t until he arrived that he learned the floppy-eared omega’s glands had been damaged—by a gunshot.
The coffee beans at the shop tasted subpar, so Shao Wenjing casually pushed the cup aside.
With the glands damaged, the mark he’d left had vanished. That strange sense of attachment faded along with it.
More surprising than Yan Yi’s damaged glands was the fact that Lu Shangjin was willing to go to PBB to steal stem cell samples for him.
He hadn’t believed it at first, until just now when he saw Lu Shangjin crouching on the ground to tie Yan Yi’s shoelaces.
It was a ridiculous gesture he could never have pulled off in his entire life.
He felt as though a layer of restrictive threads wrapped around him had been torn away; he felt inexplicably lighter, yet a sense of helpless guilt welled up inside him for no apparent reason.
His phone vibrated; Wen Chi had sent a text: “There’s a parent-teacher conference at 9 a.m. the day after tomorrow. Don’t forget.”
Shao Wenjing swiped the screen off, grabbed his car keys, and left.
At 8 p.m., Lu Shangjin had to make a last-minute trip to the office. The nanny hadn’t returned by the time she was supposed to clock out, so Yan Yi told her to go home first. He leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window, reading a book while gazing at the bright lights outside.
Near the new neighborhood was a park that was brightly lit at night, where children fed the pigeons in the square with store-bought corn and chopped nuts.
Yan Yi rested his chin in his hand, lost in thought, and unconsciously wrote the three characters “Lu Shangjin” in the margin of his book.
He stared blankly at the name he’d written, then suddenly felt a sharp twinge of pain in his stomach.
Yan Yi shivered, pulling his clothes tightly around him with a sense of unease, and hastily smudged the name into a black smear.
Just seeing this inexplicably familiar name made his heart feel heavy.
At 8:15, Lu Shangjin still hadn’t returned, and the house was empty and silent. Yan Yi rubbed the sweat from his palms and suddenly remembered to look for his phone, wanting to give him a call.
Before he could find it, the entire house suddenly went dark, plunging into pitch blackness—so dark he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.
His eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness yet; he couldn’t see a thing, and the floor-to-ceiling windows had turned into a solid black void.
Yan Yi froze. His legs gave way, and he sank to the floor. Trembling, he inched backward until he reached the corner, pressing his back tightly against the wall. He curled up cautiously, pulling the hem of his pajamas as far out as possible, and tucked his toes inside it.
The power will be back on soon, right?
Yan Yi wanted to find his phone and call his Alpha, but he didn’t dare leave the corner. He dared not close his eyes, nor did he dare keep them open; the darkness before him was a murky void, as if something were about to come and suck him in.
With his vision obscured by the darkness, his other senses became hyper-alert. Yan Yi could hear the clatter of clocks, which gradually transformed in his mind into the chaotic sound of gunfire.
In a panic, he pressed his hand against the faintly aching scar from a bullet wound.
“Don’t come over…” Yan Yi closed his eyes in terror. Something was approaching, clawing at his ankle.
Yan Yi was nearly driven mad with fear when suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around him, enveloping his entire body in a soothing pheromone.
Lu Shangjin lifted him up and gently patted his back. “I’m here. It’s okay. It’s just a circuit inspection.”
He heard the little rabbit in his arms sniffle and cling to him tightly, as if grasping at a lifeline.
Yan Yi held on as tight as he could. He had an Alpha—a gentle, reliable Alpha, powerful yet tender, who would protect him from harm.
From being harmed by “Lu Shangjin.”
Lu Shangjin didn’t know what he was thinking; he just assumed he’d been scared by the power outage. So he carried him into bed, curled up beside him, and stroked his hair.
“I had to work overtime today. It’s my fault,” Lu Shangjin murmured, afraid the room was too quiet. “Let’s go out this weekend. Write down anywhere you want to go. If you can’t think of anything, just leave it to me.”
“Brother.” Yan Yi interrupted him softly.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Shangjin continued stroking him gently.
“I’m scared.” Yan Yi buried his head in Lu Shangjin’s chest, clutching his hand tightly.
Lu Shangjin sensed something was off: “What are you afraid of?”
“I’m afraid you’re too much like that person I hate.”
Yan Yi didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he climbed onto Lu Shangjin and straddled him, as if to confirm that the Alpha before him loved him unconditionally. He cupped Lu Shangjin’s cheeks, arched his back, and pressed his lips against his.
“Please don’t become that person,” Yan Yi pleaded silently in his heart.
The little bunny was passionate and proactive today, sitting astride Lu Shangjin’s lap, grinding against him through the fabric, his breath coming in hot, rapid gasps as he leaned down to kiss him.
Lu Shangjin stroked the base of his tail, eliciting a slight tremor from the omega in his arms.
“Your tail… it’s so sensitive…” Yan Yi whispered hoarsely against Lu Shangjin’s neck, “I want your ears too…”
Lu Shangjin kissed the soft, trembling rabbit ears until the sweet, milky scent of his love pheromones wrapped around his glands. Only then did he belatedly realize that his omega was in heat.
Seventeen years old.
Lu Shangjin rolled over, pinning Yan Yi beneath him, and folded his legs up against his chest.
The Alpha’s breathing grew heavier, his heat triggered by the Omega’s mating pheromones. The scent in the bedroom suddenly thickened, filled with the restrained emotions of an Alpha who loved but could not have.
Yan Yi took Lu Shangjin’s hand and placed it on the swelling between his legs, guiding him to rub gently as he whispered, “Touch me.”
For a full six months, Lu Shangjin had been forced to rely on suppressants to get through his heat cycles. He knew Yan Yi had endured even more heat cycles alone than he had—it was his own doing—but an Alpha’s heat cycle was, by nature, far more intense and unbearable than an Omega’s.
With his beloved Omega beneath him, begging for him, he simply couldn’t resist.
Like a falcon diving to strike, its talons clamping down on a helpless little rabbit, Lu Shangjin couldn’t control himself as he kissed his neck, working his way down, covering his entire body with kisses, until finally he took penis into his mouth.
Even as he was aroused, Yan Yi remained obedient. It had been so long since they’d made love that hard, the pain felt as if he were about to split open.
The little rabbit bit his lip tightly, silently enduring the pain, afraid to cry out. In his mind, this kind of pain could only be borne alone.
Lu Shangjin leaned down to kiss his trembling eyelashes: “If it hurts, I’ll stop. I’ll make you come, and I can use my fingers for the rest. I’ll use an inhibitor.”
Yan Yi clung tightly to his neck, pleading: “Can you always spoil me from now on? Don’t fall for anyone else. Don’t turn into… the person I hate the most.”
“I’ll only love Yan Yan.” Lu Shangjin promised sincerely, moving with the utmost gentleness to ease his pain.
He came deep inside him, kissing the side of his neck, giving the seventeen-year-old an incredibly tender and intoxicating sexual experience.