Never Before Had an Omega Bitten an Alpha...

Their gazes met, and the room fell silent for half a second.

The next moment, Annie moved first.

Her right fingertips lifted slightly, and Arthur Kane's blue eyes swept over in that instant.

A sharp glare and a counter-move arrived simultaneously—the Alpha seized Annie's right hand in a firm grip!

Pain! Annie's breath caught sharply as a stabbing ache shot up from her wrist. Arthur's strength could snap her bones, and the searing pain immediately numbed her right hand, rendering her unable to release the rope like last time.

Of course, the same trick wouldn't work twice, but Annie couldn't just wait for Arthur to bring down his full force either. His towering form loomed mere inches away; if Arthur bent down, he could easily grapple her to the ground with his bare hands.

She couldn't afford to lose the advantage of striking first, so—

In the flash of a moment, Annie didn't retreat. She even stepped forward of her own accord.

This unconventional move instantly put Arthur on high alert. In a combat state, any slight disturbance would trigger an Alpha's vigilance. Arthur Kane had been through countless battles; a fragile Omega was nothing to him. But her abnormal advance only made him certain Annie had another trick up her sleeve—

She extended her left hand. A simple motion, yet it made Arthur slam on the brakes, pulling back the foot he'd already lifted.

Then her soft fingertips landed on the back of his hand that gripped her wrist. A gentle touch accompanied by the pheromone of lemon leaves washed over him.

The Omega's scent lingered in his nostrils, and the keen-sensed Arthur froze abruptly. A flicker of astonishment crossed his jewel-like eyes—at a time like this?

Then, like a serpent, Annie's fingers coiled through his. Fingers interlocked, palms pressed together. As if declaring affection, as if yielding, the Omega's pheromone surged through his senses, and in this way, Annie lightly restrained Arthur as he tried to break free.

"You—" Arthur's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

Then, Annie broke into a smile.

Not good! The Alpha snapped back to his senses.

Annie's left hand clutched Arthur's right, using that light grip to control his distance, while at the same time, her wristband pressed against his waist. Sensing the gesture of her left hand and the spike in her heart rate, the wristband automatically activated its electric shock mode.

Arthur's pupils contracted sharply. Electric current surged through his waist like a pulse, flooding his body. His frame stiffened for an instant as he gasped for air. A momentary blankness clouded the Alpha's crystalline blue eyes, then his handsome face flushed unnaturally as blood rushed, and he staggered back a few steps.

But he didn't collapse as Annie had expected. His sturdy forearm directly grabbed the front of Annie's clothes.

How is this possible?! Annie was stunned—this was electric shock mode! What had the Interstellar Federation fed this man that a current strong enough to knock out ordinary people or cause them to lose control barely fazed him? He could still move even while stiff!

The two lost their balance, one after the other—Arthur staggered back, the back of his knee hitting the edge of the bed, tumbling haphazardly onto it.

She couldn't give him a chance to recover. Although Arthur hadn't been knocked out by the shock, he couldn't move freely either. The Alpha gripped Annie's collar, his fingers curling, unable to spread open.

If he spreads them, it's over! He'd definitely break my neck.

Annie's mind raced. She straddled Arthur Kane's waist and abdomen, pushed herself up, and reached toward the headboard of the bed.

The blankness in Arthur's eyes faded; he raised his head.

The instant their eyes met, Annie pulled a long rope from the headboard.

*Click.* Arthur's body gave a slight jolt. He looked up, and a pair of gleaming handcuffs locked around his wrists. Without ceremony, Annie pressed the button on the headboard once more.

By the time Arthur Kane regained full sensation, it was too late. The spring mechanism in the headboard retracted the rope, yanking Arthur's hands up and securely cuffing him to the headboard. The special restraints had a layer of soft cloth inside, so they wouldn't hurt, yet even Arthur's monster strength couldn't break free.

"You—" He was both shocked and furious. "What is this?!"

Heh. Sitting atop him, Annie let out a dry laugh. "The room you personally picked, remember?" Who would've thought that the props in a lovers' hotel could become her lifesaving measure? Stay cuffed and behave!

Exhausted, Annie rubbed her forehead. I knew this collaborative mission was a bad idea! The Galactic Empire and the Interstellar Federation had a millennium of enmity, and Arthur Kane had killed plenty of Empire folks. Cooperate just like that? Suspicion and wariness meant any slight disturbance could spark internal strife. And now the Resistance had dropped this bombshell.

The antidote couldn't be known only to the Federation, but Annie felt it couldn't be known only to Meridian either.

What should she do?

While she hesitated, the personal terminal at her wrist rang loudly again. Both of them on the bed started, and even Arthur stopped struggling. With this interruption, Annie remembered she'd never turned off the external speaker for the surveillance device. The mechanical insect was still connected to the hotel's communication system. The monitoring room had been quiet for a while, but suddenly unfamiliar sounds came through.

"This is..." Annie frowned.

"Radio," Arthur said.

Huh? Annie froze for a second at the word, then immediately understood. This fell outside the scope of New Thebes' backward technology—even Twilight had probably completely phased out ancient radio technology. Thus, using it for private communication was the safest option.

"It's the Fly!" In the monitoring room, Old Li's voice turned excited again. "Quick, quick, connect it!"

Another person fumbled: "Hold on, don't rush... Fly, Fly, this is Lizard, report your status! Report your status!" Another burst of crackling sounds.

At this, Annie and Arthur both lowered their guards. Nothing mattered more than the latest lead. Annie turned up the terminal's volume; after the radio static, a scratchy, low-quality voice came through. It was a woman.

"Fly online, the... hostage... has been rescued... need... clearance papers..." The other person's transmission cut in and out; Annie wished she could press her ear against the terminal to hear clearly.

"Go to the governor's wife... same as usual... hurry!"

"Wait, Fly, where can we find the governor's wife? In the hotel, you're the only Omega, no one else can—Fly!" The radio's crackling vanished completely—the line had gone dead.

The monitoring room fell into a brief silence. Then Old Li's voice broke it first: "Those mercenary couple who came to seek shelter... didn't they say they'd help voluntarily?"

The mercenary couple, naturally, meant Annie and Arthur.

Called out of the blue, Annie, straddling Arthur's waist and abdomen, lowered her head to meet his gaze. The room was silent for a moment.

In the end, Arthur Kane broke the silence.

"They'll come knocking," Arthur said, his Adam's apple bobbing as he spoke in a low voice. "Let me go."

The clues were clear: the Resistance agent codenamed "Fly" was clearly the head of the Flowing Light Half-Dream tavern. She'd successfully rescued the scientist who'd developed the gene weapon antidote, and now her goal was to bring him back to the City of the Radiant Sun. But the city was under Twilight's control, and entering it required clearance papers. They needed the papers, but they also had to keep the scientist's identity from leaking...

It sounded like the Resistance had connections—they knew the governor's wife of the City of the Radiant Sun? New Thebes was culturally conservative; a marked Omega couldn't casually meet with outsiders alone unless the other party was also an Omega. If the Resistance had no second Omega on hand, then in an emergency, they'd naturally need to use Annie, who'd just sought shelter with them.

But—

"I won't let you go," Annie refused flatly.

She leaned down, pressing close to Arthur Kane. The thin fabric couldn't block the transfer of warmth; chest pressed against chest. Annie's breath brushed Arthur's neck, the scent of lemon leaves wafting over him. When her cheek touched Arthur's jaw, the Alpha's body tensed again.

He strained suddenly, trying to snap the handcuffs, but it was no use no matter what. The hotel's furniture was truly good quality! Annie decided to leave a positive review online later: these things had literally saved her life.

"I'm afraid that if I let go, you'll kill me. Arthur, if you don't trust me, scenes like this will happen again and again—but think about it: can you or I bear the responsibility for a planet, or even several planets, being destroyed?" She murmured against his skin.

This antidote couldn't be handed over exclusively to either side. Whether the Interstellar Federation or the Galactic Empire, unilateral possession of the antidote would shatter centuries of balance. What followed would be war. No one should do that. Annie understood—but could Arthur understand? He had to. So Annie's tone was extraordinary calm. "So, put your trust in me."

"Wh—" He barely got the word out when Annie's fingertips found their way to the back of his neck. She pressed down, and Arthur Kane's pupils dilated to their absolute limit.

Even though she was on top, as Annie gently turned his head, the Omega's lips brushed against his gland.

It shouldn't be like this. For millennia, it had always been the Alpha marking the Omega. But Annie opened her mouth and bit directly into Arthur's nape.

—Never before had an Omega bitten an Alpha.

Pain exploded instantly. From his nape to his shoulders, then along his spine into every gap between the bones. He sucked in a sharp breath, yanking hard at the leather strap above the handcuffs, his body stiffer than when he'd been electrocuted. Arthur let out a low growl: "Let go!" The roar thundered in his ears. Arthur tried to shake her off, but Annie's lips and teeth clung like a shadow.

The sense of crisis spiked his adrenaline, his gland searing as if set ablaze, and a torrent of pheromones released wildly. The scent of burning metal exploded through the room in an instant, rivaling the intensity of Arthur Kane's heat the night before.

Ignoring his struggles, she eventually released her bite, then, like a lover's intimacy, used her cheek, neck, and hands to rub repeatedly against Arthur's nape, smearing his intense pheromones all over herself. The temporary mark had long since faded. Her own pheromone had been coaxed out a little—it was nothing in comparison, though. The faint scent could do nothing to soothe him; even after being released, Arthur still breathed raggedly, his handsome face flushed deep red.

Annie didn't even look at him. Let him think it through!

Ignoring Arthur's continued attempts to struggle free, Annie swung her legs off the bed, messed up her hair even more, and unbuttoned a few of her inner shirt's buttons. Walking barefoot toward the door, she remembered to drape Arthur's coat over her shoulders and, along the way, picked up the collar he'd thrown to the floor.

She opened the door, and the dense pheromone inside rushed out. Old Li remained unbothered, but the two companions behind him staggered back at the Alpha's scent. That was exactly the effect she wanted.

Annie leaned lazily against the doorframe, dangling the collar from one finger, wearing a look of just-right bewilderment at being disturbed. "What's up?" she asked. "Something going on?"