Chapter 31: Brother, You’re Mine and Only Mine.

Shao Lan darted forward, grabbing onto Shao Ye like her life depended on it. Her body trembled against him, her head buried deep in his shoulder as raw, choking sobs tore through her. Tears soaked his shirt in seconds, like she’d been stranded in darkness forever and had finally found her beacon.

“It’s my fault. I was too late. I let you go through all that.” Shao Ye’s voice was soft, his hand brushing over her hair like she was made of glass. Guilt and tenderness dripped from every word, every touch. His eyes locked onto her face, still streaked with blood, and a sharp ache twisted in his chest.

At first, Shao Lan basked in the joy of their reunion, her eyes blazing with relief and warmth. But then, like a cold gust, she caught something off him—a scent, a hint—and her face hardened. She shoved him back, her gaze flipping from joy to ice in a heartbeat.

Her brows furrowed, anger and disbelief swirling in her eyes. “You… you’ve been marked?” The words came out shaky, each syllable laced with betrayal.

Shao Ye froze, his expression awkward as hell. He avoided her gaze, fingers fumbling at his shirt hem. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out—just dead air.

“I saw you,” she snapped. “In the lab. Crying in that Alpha’s arms. It was him, wasn’t it?” Her words sliced through the room like daggers, her stare unrelenting, daring him to deny it.

“Shao Lan…” he started, his voice thick with regret, trying to calm the storm before it spiraled out of control.

But she wasn’t having it. Her voice shot up, laced with accusation. “So it’s true, huh? What Boss Bai said? You’ve got an Alpha now. You don’t need me anymore, do you?!” Her fists clenched so tight her knuckles went white, her whole body trembling like she was holding herself back from shattering into pieces.

“That’s not it!” Shao Ye blurted, stepping closer, reaching out to her. “I’ve been looking for you ever since I got back! Boss Bai told me you’d been taken by the rebels for some twisted biochemical experiments. I had to cooperate with them to get you back!” His words came in a rush, desperate for her to understand.

He didn’t spill everything, though—like how he’d hunted down her crystal ball and kept it safe, or how he’d built a tiny house from scratch, brick by brick, for her to come home to. It was crude, but it carried all his hope and longing for her. He’d never once given up on her, and he wasn’t about to let her think otherwise.

But Shao Lan wasn’t hearing it.

“You stink of him, Shao Ye!” she shouted, her voice cracking with rage and heartbreak. “You told me—I’m your only family in this godforsaken world! Was that a lie?” Tears streamed down her face again, raw disappointment etched in every line.

“This is different,” Shao Ye said firmly, his voice calm but unyielding.

“Different how?!” she barked, not buying it for a second. “Don’t tell me he forced you! Because I swear, I’m strong enough now—I can protect you! Even if you’ve turned Omega, nobody would dare mess with us!” Her voice cracked under the weight of her desperation.

Shao Ye shook his head, calm but resolute. “No one forced me. I let him mark me. I wanted it.”

That broke her.

Shao Lan snapped, grabbing the nearest thing—a heavy metal ornament—and hurled it against the wall. The crash echoed as it hit and clattered to the ground in a twisted mess. She wasn’t done. She kicked a chair so hard it skidded across the floor, slamming into the far wall.

“Why?!” she screamed, her voice raw and trembling. “Why him?! I’m the one who’s always been there for you! I’m your blood, your family! How could you choose him over me?!”

Her fury and grief exploded all at once, and Shao Ye stepped forward, his voice steady but pleading. “Shao Lan, it’s not the same. Please, just stop and listen to me!”

“Brother, stop dreaming about that damn Alpha already. You and me—if we stick together, we can get back to the life we had. You can’t just leave me behind, you hear me?! I’m begging you, don’t you dare toss me aside again.” Shao Lan’s gaze locked onto Shao Ye’s, eyes brimming with expectation and a thin layer of fear.

Shao Ye’s heart clenched. He nodded, voice soft yet resolute, “I swear, I’ll never leave you again.”

Deep down, though, he knew the truth. His sister was just another broken kid, desperate for something to cling to. Just like he used to be. To her, he was the only light in a pitch-black world. The only anchor keeping her afloat.

She couldn’t tell love from family.

Couldn’t see the lines.

She was terrified of losing him.

It wasn’t her fault.

He knew this was some kind of mental illness. But he’d been lucky. He found Lu Zhanxing. His sister, though?

She’d lost him at the worst possible moment. When she needed him most—when she was breaking apart inside—he wasn’t there. Then the chaos hit. Raiders, pirates, the rebellion… she’d been alone through all of it. God knows what horrors she faced. The labs, the experiments… he couldn’t even begin to imagine what that did to her.

And now here she was. Clinging to him like a drowning woman.

“I love you too,” Shao Ye said quietly, stepping closer, trying to pull her into a comforting hug. “But what I feel for you is different. It’s blood, family. Not the same as what I have with Lu Zhanxing. You don’t have to be jealous, alright?”

Shao Lan buried herself in his arms, muttering, “I’m sorry. I was being immature.”

Her voice was calm, but her eyes—hidden from him—burned with hatred. Her mind raced with regrets. She should’ve pulled the damn trigger. That Alpha should’ve been left rotting in the dirt.

Dead.

Lu Zhanxing gone? Perfect.

No one else siphoning her brother’s affection. Anyone who dared take her brother’s love deserved to vanish. Permanently. And if she ever got the chance, she’d make sure that Alpha begged for death.

“Brother, we’re the closest ones, aren’t we?” A twisted smile played on her lips. She wasn’t letting him go. Not to anyone.

Under Shao Lan's watchful eye, Shao Ye didn't have to sweat any serious danger.

He was holed up in a room that, while basic in its décor, had all the essentials you could ask for. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done.

Still, despite the cushy setup, his mind was a mess. The unease gnawed at him—he couldn’t shake the feeling that shit could hit the fan at any moment, especially with the chaos brewing back on Lu Zhanxing.

Shao Ye didn’t know it, but in her world, Shao Lan was on a warpath. Her coup in the rebellion was swift and bloody.

With a look that was a mix of exhaustion and worry, she shot Shao Ye a glance that said "don’t worry," then bolted off to deal with the shitshow that was the rebel army. No time to slow down, no time to hold back.

A few days later, Shao Lan came through with a ruthless purge, cutting down anyone who was breathing wrong in the rebel ranks.

Alphas who questioned her authority? Tortured until they lost their minds.

She didn’t just break them—she shattered them. The once-mighty were reduced to empty shells, babbling and broken.

And anyone foolish enough to try and take her out? Well, their deaths were a gallery of horror. Blood-soaked, disfigured, unrecognizable.

Even Betas, trained to resist Alpha dominance, couldn’t touch her. Her reflexes, her strength—they weren’t just superior. They were lethal. In the end, everyone learned to obey her every word, trembling in fear of her wrath.

Over time, nobody even thought about offing themselves in front of her anymore. Everyone fell in line, knowing that one wrong move, one slip-up, and they’d be staring down the barrel of their own doom. They were scared shitless, and with good reason—she had the power to make their lives a living hell.

But around Shao Ye, she was a saint. She made time to sit across from him at meals, her eyes soft and warm like she wasn’t a demon tearing through the rebellion. She curled up in his arms like a fallen angel begging for forgiveness, asking him to hum her to sleep like when they were kids.

Yet even in those moments, Shao Ye noticed. She was too alert. No matter how deep she seemed to sleep, the tiniest sound would snap her awake, eyes sharp and ready to strike. It killed him to see her like this—haunted, restless. He stroked her hair, guilt and sorrow gnawing at his chest.

This was his fault, wasn’t it? He’d abandoned her, and she’d had to fight through hell alone.

He tried to ask her about Lu Zhanxing, desperate for any news, but he was trapped. Every attempt to reach out was blocked. The guards, the maids—everyone avoided his gaze like he was invisible. No one spoke to him.

It wasn’t until he pried the truth from a trembling maid that he realized the depths of his sister’s madness. She whispered about Alphas who had dared glance his way—eyes gouged out as punishment.

Shao Ye was horrified. Was this really his sister?

The little girl who used to cling to him during thunderstorms?

The Shao Lan he remembered would never… could never…

He’d always had a few nagging doubts, but deep down, he knew his sister’s obsession with controlling him wasn’t just some quirky sibling behavior—it was downright disturbing.

But, damn, he never saw it spiraling into something this insane.

But this wasn’t about memory. His sister was different now. Twisted. Consumed by something dark. Her possessiveness, her need to control him—it was far beyond normal. And worse than anything Lu Zhanxing had ever done.

When he confronted her about it, she dodged his words, stubbornly sticking to her beliefs. He couldn’t get through to her. The next day, all the maids who’d served him were replaced. The new ones? Tongues cut out. Mute.

That was when Shao Ye realized just how far gone she was. Every move he made, every word he said—someone else paid the price. And for the first time, he felt something icy settle in his chest.

Fear.

This wasn’t the sister he’d left behind. This was something else entirely. And he had no idea how to fix it.

Too bad for him, he started feeling all kinds of miserable, like no appetite, not even for food.

Hell, sometimes he'd even dry heave for no reason.

And, of course, his sister noticed. She wasn’t blind to his little meltdown during one of their meals when he just up and puked everywhere.

She didn’t waste a second. She snapped an order to gather all the top doctors from the rebellion.

Her orders were loud and clear: If they couldn’t make it in an hour, cut off their legs. If they didn’t figure out what was wrong, just cut their damn heads off.

Turns out, though, the doctors couldn’t find anything physically wrong with him. After their thorough check-up, they came to one conclusion.

The guy wasn’t sick.

He was pregnant.