Chapter 2: Escaping Marriage and Kidnapping My Fiancé

Shao Ye stirred awake slowly, his mind clearing to the sight of the man who should have been tightly bound in the back seat. Instead, that same man was now staring him down, his gaze sharp and unrelenting, practically burning through him.

A jolt of alarm shot through Shao Ye's chest. He swore he'd tied the guy up securely—how the hell did he get loose?

But there wasn't time to dwell on that. Judging by the man's now-composed demeanor, it seemed whatever madness had overtaken him earlier was gone. Good. If he wasn't foaming at the mouth anymore, there was no point in keeping him restrained.

Shao Ye shifted to sit up, only to freeze. The man was holding a gun. The cold, unyielding barrel was aimed directly between Shao Ye's eyes, and the man's expression matched the weapon—chilling, unfeeling, utterly devoid of warmth. Those eyes, though strikingly bright, were like shards of ice.

Shao Ye didn't dare move, his voice cautious but firm as he broke the tense silence. "Hey, brother, let's not get too hasty here. We're both Omegas, right? Same school and everything. I only tied you up because you were out of control and—you bit me, by the way—not because I wanted to."

A flicker of surprise flashed across the man's face before he responded in a low, skeptical tone. "School?"

"Yeah! Capital Omega Academy. You're one of the noble students, aren't you? We're in different departments, but you've definitely heard of me. Shao Ye. Weekly troublemaker. If there's a disciplinary notice, my name's on it. And last week's chem lab explosion? My handiwork."

Shao Ye's grin was so shameless, he might as well have been boasting about winning a medal.

The man's expression shifted subtly, becoming harder to read, his gaze growing heavier. "Shao Ye... The top-grade Omega with premium inducement pheromones. If you've already paired with an Alpha, why are you here?"

"Why?" Shao Ye snorted, scratching his head. "Because pairing is why I ran away in the first place. My so-called match is Lu Zhanxing, that notorious pervert who's already ruined over a dozen Omegas. No way in hell I'm marrying a guy like that! And let's get one thing straight—I'm a man. A real man. There's no way I'm letting another dude touch me. What, do they think the goods in my pants are just for decoration? Marriage, for me, is finding a hot girl. End of story."

The man didn't reply immediately, but something unreadable flickered in his eyes—a storm brewing just beneath the surface.

"By the way, do you have a match?" Shao Ye pressed on, as if the gun wasn't still in play. "Because honestly, seeing you feverish and out of it last night makes me think you don't. If you had an Alpha, no way you'd suffer through your heat like that."

Without waiting for a response, Shao Ye leaned in with an audacious grin. "Hey, why don't you ditch the whole system and escape with me? We're both outcasts here, and we can look out for each other. Who needs Alphas anyway? Screw 'em. We'll be fine on our own, right?"

The man finally lowered the gun, his gaze lingering on Shao Ye for a long, weighted moment before he said evenly, "I'm... a Beta."

Shao Ye blinked, unsurprised but curious.

Yeah, no way an Omega would look like that.

Although the academy was Alpha-free, plenty of Beta staff roamed around. This guy must've been one of them.

But Betas didn't have heats, right?

So what the hell was up with that feverish meltdown last night?

His eyes darted to the man's pale face, his instincts kicking in. Shao Ye reached out to touch the guy's forehead, but his wrist was seized mid-air with startling speed. The man's grip was like steel, his gaze cutting like a knife.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Shao Ye winced, unable to hide his yelp.

"What are you trying to do?" the man demanded, his tone sharp enough to draw blood.

"I just wanted to check if you're still running a fever," Shao Ye grumbled. "You were burning up last night, completely out of it."

The man glanced down at Shao Ye, his gaze briefly flicking to the clothes Shao Ye wore—his clothes.

"Oh, these?" Shao Ye quickly caught on. "Your clothes... I only took them off you to cool you down. Want them back? I can strip if you want."

The man let go of his wrist and exhaled deeply. "There are spare clothes in the car."

Relieved, Shao Ye eased back, but his body screamed in protest—sore and weak, like he'd been hit by a truck. Worse, there was a persistent ache at the nape of his neck, sharp and irritating, as if a beast had sunk its teeth into him.

"What time is it?" he asked, his voice still casual despite his discomfort.

"Nine in the morning," the man replied. "You've been out for three days."

Three days?!

Shao Ye shot upright in shock, only to collapse back, utterly drained.

The man caught him before he fell, his grip steady but impersonal. "You've got a fever yourself. Stay put."

"Oh, okay." Shao Ye nodded grudgingly, realizing he wasn't in any position to argue. Between stealing this guy's car and underestimating his combat skills, he was clearly outclassed. Better to play it cool and wait for an opening.

"Hey, you've trained, haven't you?" Shao Ye blurted out, unabashedly eyeing the man's physique. "I mean, you've got abs. Eight-pack, right? They're insane."

The man didn't answer, only stood and walked to the back to fetch a change of clothes. His silence felt deliberate, like he was weighing every word he didn't say.

"You still haven't told me your name," Shao Ye demanded, his tone edged with impatience.

The man didn't bother answering directly. Instead, he countered with a question of his own: "In the Alliance, Omegas have no independent rights. Especially Omegas like you—prime age, unbonded. Without a compatible Alpha, you're a walking target. Escaping out here, where exactly do you think you're going?"

Shao Ye clicked his tongue, irritation curling his lips into a faint sneer. "A man like me, even if I'm an Omega, doesn't need an Alpha to survive. Those brain-dead Omega Academy curriculums—teaching obedience, homemaking, popping out kids—they might have crushed others, but not me. I learned coding, mastered mechanics. I can fix anything from battle mechs to a fridge. I don't need anyone to put food on my table." He paused, his voice dropping an octave, steady but resolute. "Most importantly, I have a little sister waiting for me back home. So, I'm going back. No matter what."

The cabin fell into silence. Even the man, busy adjusting his clothes, seemed to hesitate for a beat.

"If you want to go back," Shao Ye sighed, his voice quieter now, "can you at least drop me off in the Dust District first? Three days out cold—guess my wanted posters must be plastered all over the Imperial Capital by now."

The man's brows furrowed slightly, his expression contemplative. After a moment, he gave a soft grunt of acknowledgment.

"You're agreeing?" Shao Ye's relief was palpable, his tone nearly exuberant. "Then can you at least tell me your name now?"

"Lu Chen," the man replied curtly.

Without another word, he slipped an ID card from his jacket pocket and discreetly tossed it out of the car window. The card landed softly on the grass outside, bearing a photo and the name: Lu Zhanxing.

——— TN: Rofl ———

Shao Ye frowned in thought, rifling through his mental catalog of notable families in the Imperial Capital. Among the aristocratic clans, only one bore the surname Lu. None carried the name Lu Chen. Then again, Shao Ye wasn't one to bother memorizing high-society gossip. As long as the man wasn't a noble, it didn't matter.

"So, how old are you?" Shao Ye pressed.

"Twenty-six."

"I'm twenty-one. You're older. Guess I'll call you 'Brother Lu.' You can just call me A-Ye. No need to be so formal."

Lu Zhanxing didn't respond. Instead, he busied himself sorting through supplies in the rear compartment, his movements brusque.

Unfazed, Shao Ye stood, stretched, and strolled over. "Brother Lu, can you check my neck? Feels like something stung me back there—it hurts like hell."

With that, he turned his back to Lu Zhanxing, exposing the slender curve of his neck and the unmistakable imprint of teeth encircling his gland. Completely oblivious, Shao Ye had no idea how scandalously brazen this act was—displaying his gland like that, especially for an Omega.

Lu Zhanxing went rigid, his entire body taut as a bowstring.

Those marks were unmistakably his.

For years, as a top-tier Alpha, Lu Zhanxing had struggled with pheromone instability—a condition so severe it often left him on the verge of losing control. In extreme cases, his body would shift to an almost feral state.

Doctors at the Alliance's leading medical center had given him a simple solution: bond with an Omega whose pheromones matched his.

The problem?

His compatibility rate with most Omegas barely scraped 15%. Their scents didn't just repel him—they triggered physical rejection, a phenomenon so rare it bordered on the pathological.

Recently, however, a message from O'Dell Academy had reached the Lu family: a high-value Omega with a pheromone compatibility rate of 99.9% had been discovered. Putting his frontline duties on hold, Lu Zhanxing made his way to the academy to meet this Omega.

Yet, as the academy car neared its gates, chaos erupted nearby. Amid the commotion, Lu Zhanxing's condition flared up, rendering him barely lucid.

He didn't remember what happened afterwards. When his senses returned, he found himself clutching a feverish, unconscious Shao Ye, his teeth sunk into the young man's gland.

That bite—it wasn't just a casual injury. It was a temporary claim.

And for the first time, his pheromones didn't reject someone. Shao Ye was the only Omega he could tolerate. Temporary or not, Lu Zhanxing had made up his mind: if Shao Ye agreed, he'd make this bond permanent. No matter what it took.

Because when he held Shao Ye in his arms, an unprecedented sense of fulfillment and calm washed over him. It was as if the raging, restless beast that had long clawed at the walls of his chest had finally been soothed, sinking into silence with a quiet submission.

Lu Zhanxing pushed down the surge of emotion threatening to overtake him and said, curtly, "You've got a cut. Stick a bandage on it."

He rummaged through the med kit, pulled out a bandage, and handed it to Shao Ye.

But Shao Ye didn't take it. Instead, he leaned closer, tilting his exposed neck toward Lu Zhanxing with disarming casualness. "I can't reach it, Lu-ge. Help me stick it on?"

Lu Zhanxing's gaze landed on the faint mark his teeth had left on Shao Ye's gland, and the air in his lungs seemed to thicken. His pupils darkened, and his breathing grew heavier.

As the Alliance's highest-ranking commander, he had long grown immune to the endless parade of Omegas who tried, in vain, to seduce him. Their contrived efforts barely registered—a nuisance at best. Yet Shao Ye, with his clumsy innocence, wielded a charm so uncalculated, it struck straight at the heart. His pulse quickened despite himself, his face heating in a way that felt both infuriating and inevitable.

And that was the worst part: Shao Ye seemed utterly oblivious to it all, entirely unaware of the subtle war he was waging on Lu Zhanxing's restraint. They hadn't even known each other long, yet Shao Ye had him teetering on the edge.

Was his self-control really so fragile?

Biting back the chaos in his head, Lu Zhanxing forced himself to appear unaffected, carefully applying the bandage.

He tried to avoid any unnecessary contact, but the light brush of his fingers against Shao Ye's skin sent a jolt through the Omega, who shivered, visibly startled. It took him a moment to exhale the breath he'd been holding.

"What's wrong?" Lu Zhanxing asked, his voice low, tightly controlled.

Shao Ye turned to face him, his expression a mix of confusion and curiosity. "Lu-ge, are you an ice giant or something? How are your hands so cold?"

"It's not my hands," Lu Zhanxing replied, his tone sharp. "It's your gland. It's burning."

"Gland?" Shao Ye's face lit with surprise. "You mean... on the back of my neck?"

Lu Zhanxing stared at him, at a loss for words. How could there possibly be an Omega in this world who didn't know their gland was on the back of their neck?

Yet Shao Ye remained as oblivious as ever. He leaned in again, tilting his neck even closer to Lu Zhanxing, utterly unconcerned. "What does it look like? Is it nice? Do all Omegas' glands look the same?"

Lu Zhanxing was rendered speechless. Glands were intimate, private. For an Omega to expose theirs so openly to an Alpha was akin to rolling out an invitation to bed—an act that was bold, reckless, and utterly improper.

But Shao Ye was so earnestly naïve that it disarmed every instinct Lu Zhanxing had to rebuke him. Before he could stop himself, the words slipped out: "No, they don't. Yours is beautiful."

———TN:

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