“An Omega Should Act Like One…”

006

“Meridian, I’ve heard so much about you.”

Arthur shoved the royal agent’s glasses onto the bridge of his nose while simultaneously grabbing Annie’s hand as she reached for the frames.

Damn it!

Annie had already been reaching for the electric button hidden in her sleeve when Meridian’s steady baritone came through the earpiece.

“Good day, Mr. Kane.”

The subtitles appeared simultaneously in the lenses. “Since you’re both here, I’ll be brief.”

Annie had no choice but to stop her reach for the weapon.

“I’ve already relayed the matter of the Federation agent’s compromised channel to the Interstellar Federation’s high command,” Meridian continued. “The original plan is scrapped. After consulting with the Federation, I’ve settled on a new one: make contact with the free Resistance on New Thebes first, and have them provide support for the two of you for the time being. What do you think?”

Arthur frowned. “Easier said than done. Do you even know where the Resistance’s stronghold is? The Federation has been investigating for this long and only managed to pick up the signal of their encrypted communications.”

If it were that easy, “Twilight” wouldn’t have clamped down so hard.

“The Federation has already shared the signal with me, and I’ll transmit it to Annie’s private terminal,” Meridian said. “Have some faith in your partner, Mr. Kane. Annie possesses the most advanced hacking skills in the entire Empire.”

Arthur’s gaze snapped to Annie.

He’d wanted to kill her all along. Arthur never cooperated with anyone. If that was true even for his fellow Federation agents, how much more so for an Imperial dog?

The moment he’d received the mission, Arthur had made his decision: kill the Imperial agent at the first opportunity, then complete the mission himself.

What he hadn’t expected was that he could never find the right moment.

If Meridian had proposed that Arthur arrange the safe house and new plan, Arthur could easily have used that as his opening—he’d killed so many Imperial agents and assassins that the Empire considered him a thorn in their side. How could Meridian not want him dead?

Play along, find the chance to snap this little Omega’s neck, then pin it on the terrorist organization. Clean and simple.

But Meridian had said he wanted Arthur to contact the free Resistance.

If you couldn’t trust the Empire, you could at least trust the Resistance that had been locked in conflict with “Twilight” for years—no one wanted to see the terrorists’ plans fail more than they did.

And the key to contacting the Resistance apparently lay with this Omega.

Her?

He still hadn’t let go of Annie’s hand. Her wrist was pale and slender, like a freshly washed lotus root. With the slightest pressure, Arthur could snap her ulna clean in two.

Small and fragile—she hadn’t even noticed his approach, letting him snatch her glasses without a sound.

Then again…

She’d reacted quickly enough when dealing with “Twilight” yesterday.

Maybe she had some use after all.

“Then we go into the city,” Arthur said coldly. “You know the price of messing with me.”

If they couldn’t find the signal, he could always kill her then.

He released her hand and shoved the glasses back into Annie’s palm.

“Agent Annie,” Meridian’s voice came again. “I’ve sent the Resistance’s secret signal to your private terminal. You mentioned Arthur Kane’s pheromones earlier—what about them?”

“…I’ll explain once it’s safe.”

Annie put her glasses back on and looked at Arthur’s retreating back.

His heat was strange. If she could figure out the cause, maybe she could use it.

But this could wait until she had a moment alone.

After all, that man… Annie was sure he’d felt the urge to kill her again just now.

“I’ll analyze the signal first. Thank you, Meridian.”

With that, Annie opened her private terminal and pulled up the data.

…………

…

Two hours later, inside the City of the Radiant Sun.

Their papers were in order, and they passed through the checkpoint without trouble. But getting into the city was only the beginning.

The City of the Radiant Sun was New Thebes’s largest metropolis, with a population of nearly ten million. Because “Twilight” controlled it and enforced a curfew, people were forced to do all their daily business during the day.

It was mid-morning, and the old streets were packed to bursting. Forget vehicles—even pedestrians could barely move an inch.

Arthur was squeezed in among the crowd, utterly fed up.

With so many people, the whole street stank. The miasma of overlapping pheromones grated on Arthur’s sharp senses, leaving him irritable. And on top of that, he had an anchor dragging behind him—when he turned around, she was three steps back again.

“Can you move any faster?” Arthur had no choice but to stop and wait.

Annie rolled her eyes without a shred of politeness.

If she were one point nine five meters tall, she wouldn’t need to watch where she was going either—she could just walk straight ahead, okay!

Besides, they weren’t here for a stroll.

New Thebes was hot and dry, and the streets were shoulder-to-shoulder. Annie, wearing a hooded cloak and with her face covered, was on the verge of passing out. She could barely hold herself upright, let alone keep scanning for the signal with her terminal and glasses.

Fieldwork was a thankless job. But for the fat paycheck, she’d endure.

“We’re very close to the signal,” Annie said, suppressing the discomfort in her stomach and chest—she suspected she was getting heatstroke. “A little further… wait for me!”

Arthur, who had already taken half a step, lost his patience. He turned and scooped her up with one arm.

“If you’d just—hey?!”

Annie’s complaint was cut short as she felt a tight grip around her waist.

Then she was lifted completely off the ground, slung onto Arthur’s back like a rabbit being hauled away.

That hurt!

Her chest slammed into his shoulder, and Annie’s breath caught. She quickly reached out and wrapped her arms around Arthur’s neck.

When she looked up, the view opened up before her.

No more sea of dark heads blocking her vision. On both sides of the street, the whitewashed walls and shop signs were clearly visible.

Being tall really had its advantages!

Arthur’s back was broad and solid. Annie perched on it steadily and felt her breathing ease.

“Hurry up and scan for it,” Arthur urged. “Which way?”

With a human substitute for a vehicle, she could finally concentrate on tracking the signal.

Annie tapped her glasses frame, activating scanning mode to record all the shops and street information while tracking the stray signal.

“The communications signal is moving,” Annie said. “That’s why I wasn’t keen on staying in the crowd. Judging by the stride, it’s moving on foot like us. And—

“Shut up.”

“…What’s your problem now?”

Annie tilted her head and saw Arthur’s handsome face suddenly tense up.

He clenched his jaw and swallowed.

No matter how you put it, Arthur couldn’t say it out loud—Annie’s lips were pressed against the back of his neck, her little mouth chattering away, the fine vibrations traveling through his skin and landing precisely on his scent gland.

An Alpha’s gland was not meant to be touched.

When that soft mouth touched his skin, a jolt of danger raced up his spine like a gun barrel pressed to his head, and his instincts screamed to throw her to the ground.

But the one touching him was the Omega he’d temporarily marked just last night. His brain slammed on the brakes, telling Arthur he couldn’t hurt her.

The two conflicting impulses tied themselves into a knot inside him, turning into a shudder and a tingling numbness he’d never felt before. It attacked his brain, then flowed downward, spreading through every limb, sinking into his abdomen and lower.

Damn Omega.

Arthur cursed under his breath. This was all the Empire’s plotting.

“Less chatter,” he said, of course not willing to expose his weakness to Annie. “An Omega should act like one.”

Annie rolled her eyes so hard they nearly stuck.

Just then, the signal in her glasses came to an abrupt halt.

It was right ahead.

An Omega should act like one, huh?

Without a second thought, Annie grabbed Arthur’s left ear. “Left, left! Giddy up!”

Arthur: “…”

The Alpha’s forehead bulged with veins.

The moment they found the Resistance’s hideout, the first thing he’d do was kill her!

Fortunately, his murderous intent didn’t affect Arthur’s stride.

He was tall and strong, easily carrying Annie through the crowd, then turning left onto the main road.

Instantly, the two understood why the street had been so congested.

The old desert-style building, once painted white, had been scorched black. Several huge craters marred the walls, and flames still licked at the edges. Even an armored vehicle had been overturned—an explosion had clearly just occurred.

Dozens of fully armed “Twilight” soldiers stood inside the cordon. From her perch on Arthur’s back, Annie could see everything: a dozen or so corpses had been dragged into the street, laid out in two rows—some in Twilight uniforms, others in ordinary civilian clothes.

And across from the bodies…

Three men were bound and forced to their knees. Standing before them was a Twilight officer in a crisp uniform. He leaned down and said something to one of them.

The next moment, the man suddenly lunged.

The officer just laughed. He stepped back half a pace, and the soldiers behind him raised their guns without hesitation.

“Bang!”

The man crumpled to the ground, blood pooling beneath him.

The surrounding residents screamed and scattered. But Annie’s attention was fixed on the virtual projection in her lenses.

“They’re Resistance,” she said in a low voice, her words brushing against Arthur’s ear. “The signal cut off right here.”

Her fingers were still pinching Arthur’s ear, her voice trembling, and the combination of touch and sound was like a flame blazing up from his left ear and into his brain.

But the horrific scene in front of them mattered more than anything.

“Keep tracking the signal,” Arthur said.

“What—they’re all dead!” Annie exclaimed.

“More of Twilight’s people died. The armored vehicle’s overturned on the roadside—this was a Resistance attack,” Arthur said, taking in the scene at a glance. “They caught the ones at the scene, but an operation this size must have logistics support working in the shadows.”

Annie felt a chill run through her.

She immediately re-summoned the signal and continued searching along the severed encrypted channel.

“Got it.”

It was just as he said.

Several signals on similar frequencies appeared on the map Annie had mapped out, blinking and positioning, then moving away at walking pace in different directions.

If she caught more signals, she could keep tracking them!

But before Annie could urge Arthur to leave, a glaring red box suddenly popped up in her lenses, framing the officer ahead.

The “Twilight” officer turned around—

Red cap, red scarf, and a red medal marking his rank. He stood slouched at an angle, his assault rifle hanging from his neck.

Annie’s pupils contracted sharply.

This was the officer who had stopped Arthur outside the quarantine zone!

And Arthur Kane was extremely tall. Even with Annie on his back, he stood out prominently in the crowd.

Officer Charles spotted the two of them at once. He blinked, then broke into a broad, careless smile.

“Well, well—if it isn’t the little bride from the checkpoint.”

He walked straight past the cordon and headed toward Annie and Arthur.

“You really dote on your wife, pal—can’t even bear to let her walk,” Officer Charles said, his gaze flicking to Annie’s face, covered up to the nose. “Turns out the little bride is nearsighted too?”

Watching the “DANGER” warning flashing in her lenses, Annie’s heart suddenly raced.

Author’s note:

Annie: Riding the big horse, giddy up!