Afraid of Alphas, but Pregnant with an Alpha’s Child - Chapter 1

The Clear Brightness Festival had just passed, but the spring rain lingered, drizzling on without pause.

In front of the Lu Group’s headquarters, Jiang Qiu stood silently under an umbrella. He was tall and lean, dressed in an old-fashioned suit that was a bit too large for his frame. The fabric hung stiffly off his thin body, giving him an air of meticulous, cold detachment.

Raindrops slid down the edge of his umbrella, kicking up tiny splashes at his feet.

Jiang Qiu looked up toward the top of the building before pulling a small card from his document folder. It was a business card with a deep blue background and minimalist lines. It contained only two lines of text:

Lu Mingshen, CEO of the Lu Group.

Address: 367 Jiangcheng Road.

The address was right. The name was right.

For the eight-hundredth time, Jiang Qiu adjusted his collar in the reflection of the glass wall, ensuring it was perfectly straight.

…It had been five years.

Five years!

Jiang Qiu’s face remained expressionless, but he gripped the business card so hard his knuckles turned white while he screamed internally.

He had been standing there for twenty minutes. He had expected to feel fury or perhaps a deep, aching pain, but now that he was actually at the front doors of the Lu Group, his heart was as calm as dead ashes.

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Qiu walked toward the silver-clad, opulently minimalist building.

“Hello, sir. How can I help you—”

The receptionist was perfectly made up. Her voice sounded like a pre-programmed script; sweet, polite, and practiced. When she didn’t receive an immediate answer, she looked up at the visitor.

The man before her looked to be around thirty. His skin was pale, and his light-colored lips were pressed into a thin line. He looked as though he might fade away or melt into the rain, save for his eyes; clear, bright, and startlingly sharp.

He wasn’t wearing any accessories to block pheromones, making him, in all likelihood, a Beta.

The young man offered a gentle smile. “Hello. My name is Jiang. Could you please put me through to President Lu? Thank you.”

The receptionist had seen it all. The line of people wanting to meet Lu Mingshen stretched all the way to France, and many dressed far better than this man. Most were job seekers. However, Mr. Jiang had a refined, scholarly air about him—a soft kind of handsome. Despite the ill-fitting suit, everything about him screamed “decent person.” It was refreshing.

She smiled back warmly. “Certainly. Please wait a moment while I check the President’s office for your appointment.”

Jiang Qiu raised a hand, looking hesitant.

“Mr. Jiang?” she prompted.

“…I don’t have an appointment.”

“I see.” She expertly swiped her tablet. “Would you mind telling me the nature of your business? I can register you and notify the President’s assistant so you won’t have to wait too long.”

Jiang Qiu nodded understandingly. “Of course. Thank you for your help.”

He handed over his ID card. “My name is Jiang Qiu. I am the father of President Lu’s child.”

The receptionist: “……”

Jiang Qiu gave an embarrassed smile, seemingly unaware of how terrifying his words were. “It’s an urgent matter, and I truly didn’t know I needed an appointment. If it’s inconvenient, I can come back another day.”

Holy crap, the receptionist screamed internally, her mental alarms blaring.

At the Lu Group, regardless of an employee’s competence or how well they knew the company, everyone was intimately familiar with Lu Mingshen’s relationship status. The young tycoon seemed to intentionally keep his private life under a spotlight—despite immense family pressure, he had no relationships, no scandals, no fiances, and no interests. He took pheromone suppressants daily and always wore a blocking ring.

In his presence, you wouldn’t even find a stray hair from an Omega, let alone a secret child!

The receptionist stole a glance at Jiang Qiu. He immediately returned a polite smile and a small blink, his bright eyes making her face flush.

She sighed inwardly. She had only worked here for a year, but in that time, she had turned away countless suitors. She looked at Jiang Qiu with a touch of pity; he still had that gentle smile on his face, looking entirely unlike the type of person who would come here to cause a scene.

“Mr. Jiang, please wait a moment,” she said, finally making the call. After a few brief words, she hung up and looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, Mr. Jiang, President Lu is currently in a meeting. It might be a bit of a wait. You’re welcome to sit on the sofa in the lobby; I’ll bring you some water.”

Jiang Qiu nodded. “That’s fine. Thank you.”

He walked over to the waiting area, pulled a pair of glasses from his inner pocket, and took a book out of his document bag to pass the time.

People moved back and forth through the lobby, nearly everyone wearing a suppressant ring on their wrist.

He waited for two hours. By the time Jiang Qiu reached the afterword of his book, it was noon, and the lobby had mostly cleared out. He had stood up once to check, but the receptionist had only given him a sympathetic shake of her head.

As he finished the last page, the receptionist brought him a fresh glass of water, momentarily blocking his view of the private, transparent VIP elevator in the distance.

The elevator descended. The young CEO leaned against the railing, his suit jacket draped over his arm. His eyes were half-closed, a lingering sense of exhaustion etched between his brows. His wrist, resting on the rail, looked lean and sharp, the low-profile blocking ring partially hidden by his cuff.

Beside him, an assistant was speaking in a low voice, reporting on the afternoon’s schedule.

As the elevator approached the ground floor, the assistant’s eyes caught sight of the man sitting on the sofa. Definitely not a Lu Group employee.

Here for the air conditioning?

The assistant dismissed the stranger and continued detailing the meeting schedule.

Lu Mingshen listened with a listless air, giving non-committal hums as he stared blankly out at the lobby. Beyond his assistant, employees on their lunch break were streaming out of the building. Because the VIP elevator was soundproof, the lobby looked like a silent film, crowds of people laughing, frowning, or looking bored as they surged toward the exits.

He withdrew his gaze apathetically, but then his pupils suddenly contracted as if he’d been pricked.

A familiar, slender figure stood up from the sofa. The man walked to the front desk and said something to the receptionist, offering a polite, gentle smile before waiting quietly as she picked up the phone.

The man seemed enveloped in a quiet stillness, as if separated from the noisy surroundings by an invisible barrier, though a flicker of anxiety crossed his face for a split second.

Assistant Xu noticed his boss had gone silent. He looked up, catching the storm of suppressed emotion brewing beneath Lu Mingshen’s cold expression.

“President Lu, lunch has been prepared—”

The elevator reached the second floor, still descending slowly, when the phone suddenly rang. The receptionist’s voice came through the headset, asking if the meeting was over because there was a visitor.

Assistant Xu glanced at Lu Mingshen. The CEO’s face was as cold as ice, clearly at the limit of his patience. It’s lunchtime, for heaven’s sake! The boss is hungry and needs to eat!

“President Lu just finished his meeting and is about to—”

A faint, ghostly scent of sandalwood brushed past Assistant Xu’s nose.

Lu Mingshen stepped out of the elevator with a stride of his long legs, cutting the assistant off mid-sentence.

Assistant Xu: “…” Is he really that hungry?

*****

Jiang Qiu rubbed his aching eyes and checked his watch.

He had rehearsed this several times at home this morning, then left in such a rush he’d forgotten to eat breakfast. He was starving.

He stood up and walked to the front desk. “Excuse me, could you tell me when the lunch break—”

The receptionist started to smile at him, but her expression shifted instantly into one of profound respect. “President Lu.”

Jiang Qiu froze. “Hm?”

He heard a very faint click, like something being unlocked.

The next second, a familiar scent suddenly surged over him. Someone grabbed his wrist with startling force. The stranger’s palm was warm and dry; as if sensing Jiang Qiu’s icy skin, the grip tightened.

A chill raced up Jiang Qiu’s spine to his very brain. His body felt as if it had been pinned to the spot by a curse.

He turned around stiffly, meeting a pair of pitch-black eyes.

The man holding him was looking down at him, brows slightly furrowed. His dark pupils were like unmoving mist, hiding a turbulent flow of emotion.

Lu Mingshen stared at him, as if trying to read something from his face, but he said nothing. The silence made the hair on the back of Jiang Qiu’s neck stand up.

“Mr. Lu… do you remember me?” Jiang Qiu whispered.

The receptionist and the assistant, who had never seen their CEO lose control like this, stood as still as statues, staring at their feet and barely daring to breathe.

Lu Mingshen’s face was dark, and though he looked displeased, there was also a hint of disbelief in his eyes. The man before him was just as thin and tall as he remembered, his current look of distress overlapping with the numb, vacant face from five years ago.

…The only thing that felt wrong was that he couldn’t smell the man’s pheromones.

Jiang Qiu tried to pull away, but the man’s hand was like quicksand, the more he struggled, the tighter it became. Eventually, he gave up.

He bit the tip of his tongue hard, the sharp pain forcing a shred of clarity through his mounting panic. “Mr. Lu, please let go…”

Before he could finish, something was shoved into his hand.

The “approachable” President Lu removed his blocking ring and shoved it into Jiang Qiu’s hand, his other hand still clamped firmly around the man’s wrist.

Engraved clearly on the ring were Lu Mingshen’s name and the last four digits of his ID.

Jiang Qiu, however, was in no state to read them. A tidal wave of pheromones had instantly flooded the lobby. His vision swam, and the world tilted; he couldn’t have made out the words even if they were twice as large.

Lu Mingshen frowned, clearly not in the mood for small talk. “Follow me.”

He began pulling Jiang Qiu toward the elevators, reaching out with his free hand to steady him. “Open the lounge. Postpone the afternoon meetings.”

“No,” he corrected himself, “cancel them.”

Assistant Xu’s instinct was to step in and help support the guest, but his hand retracted the moment he saw the President’s protective posture. His feet pivoted toward the elevator with practiced speed while his other hand tapped the button on his watch to summon the logistics department.

As his mind raced, a stray thought surfaced: The President has never allowed a stranger into his private lounge. After this, his OCD is going to kick in, and he’ll have the cleaners scrub every inch of that room five times over…

Jiang Qiu was still repeating himself like a broken machine. “Mr. Lu, please… let go…”

“If I let go, you’ll run away again!” Lu Mingshen barked.

His voice was thick with bottled-up resentment.

Jiang Qiu froze for a moment, blinking in confusion. The statement didn’t quite track with reality; in his current state, he didn’t have the strength to run even if he wanted to.

Lu Mingshen. He silently repeated the name.

The scent was familiar, the face was familiar, the voice was familiar. The information matched. He hadn’t found the wrong person.

He struggled to stand straight, only now realizing that his shirt was soaked through with cold sweat. Fortunately, his oversized suit jacket hid the evidence.

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Jiang Qiu.”

He nearly bit his tongue saying it.

Memories flickered like a spinning lantern, and the scene before him began to warp. During his years of treatment, he had undergone desensitization training with various Alphas. It had been effective. He had reached a point where he could share a room with a stranger without much issue.

But he hadn’t expected that the wild, frigid pheromones from his memories would still humiliate him to this extent.

Before Lu Mingshen could respond, Jiang Qiu closed his eyes, the words forced through gritted teeth: “I have something to tell you. But for us to communicate effectively… please put your blocking ring back on. Thank you.”

You’re suffocating me.

Behind Lu Mingshen, the receptionist was nodding in silent, desperate agreement.

If you two are going to fight, take it outside or to the office. These pheromones are drowning the lobby. It’s almost lunch break, don’t we regular employees deserve to eat in peace?

Lu Mingshen took a deep breath, his dark eyes fixed on the man in front of him.

The initial surge of adrenaline began to ebb. As he slid the blocking ring back into place, the overwhelming pheromones receded slightly, though the air remained heavy. Noting Jiang Qiu’s ghostly pallor, he slowly released his wrist. He kept his arms in a loose, protective circle around him but consciously stepped back to give him space.

Lu Mingshen was half a head taller than Jiang Qiu. The latter was swaying on his feet; even with the small gap between them, from a distance, it looked as though Jiang Qiu was collapsing into his arms.

From this vantage point, Lu Mingshen could see the soft crown of the young man’s hair and his ears, which were tinged a faint, stressed pink.

“Jiang Qiu,” Lu Mingshen said softly. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

The man in his hold flinched. The set of his shoulders screamed stubbornness, and he looked up with an expression of pure disbelief.

Jiang Qiu’s face was grim, as if he were facing a monster. A fine sheen of sweat stood out on his forehead. The man before him was handsome, yes, but he carried an undeniable pressure that felt as though it were physically crushing Jiang Qiu.

It’s fine, Jiang Qiu thought with a touch of self-mockery. I’m twenty-five now. I can handle this. I brought protection this time to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. I’m not in heat, so the chances of pregnancy are low… and if anything happens here, surely someone will call the police.

Lu Mingshen sensed his unease and instinctively loosened his stance. “Let’s talk somewhere else,” he murmured.

But to Jiang Qiu’s ears, the voice sounded distorted, rising and falling until it dissolved into a deafening roar of tinnitus.

His world became a blur. The man in front of him seemed to split into multiple overlapping shadows. The scent made his temples throb with a sharp, agonizing rhythm. Finally, unable to fight it any longer, he pitched forward.

Lu Mingshen caught him firmly, his hands naturally steadying Jiang Qiu’s shoulders.

The Alpha’s scent enveloped him entirely, absolute and inescapable.

“Gah—urgh—”

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