Afraid of Alphas, but Pregnant with an Alpha’s Child - Chapter 13

When Jiang Qiu pushed the door open, he was met with the overpowering scent of air freshener. Mingled within it was the faint, sharp smell of suppressants it was a bit stinging to the nose.

Lu Mingshen seemed to be intentionally avoiding him, practically tucking himself behind the open door. Jiang Qiu poked his head around to find him. “Mr. Lu?”

When he finally saw Lu Mingshen, he froze on the spot.

Lu Mingshen was wearing a muzzle.

It was the common type of wire-frame muzzle Jiang Qiu often saw on large dogs when he walked in the park at night. Cold and made of black iron, the cage-like device sat flush against his face. Rather than weakening his aura, it served only to emphasize an… indescribable sense of oppression and raw power.

Lu Mingshen’s eyes were calm, his voice level. “I didn’t expect you to come. Come in and sit.”

This villa wasn’t like the one they shared; the decor was sparse, the furniture minimal, and there were no ornaments. It looked like a temporary landing spot.

“Do you need something?”

Jiang Qiu: “…”

Actually, he didn’t. He had just wanted to see Lu Mingshen with his own eyes. Seeing that both his physical and mental state seemed normal, Jiang Qiu felt relieved.

Lu Mingshen waited patiently for an answer, his gaze uncontrollably drifting over Jiang Qiu.

He wasn’t sure if it was a hallucination, but he smelled a… profoundly sweet scent. It was a cloying sweetness, like overripe fruit; one taste and you’d feel a subtle, intoxicating tipsiness.

Lu Mingshen looked away. He felt an aching numbness deep in his bones, a persistent itch that felt like it could only be stopped if his flesh and bone were ground to dust. More than an itch… it felt like hunger. A burning hunger in his gut that demanded he tear something apart and consume it.

The culprit remained entirely oblivious. “Mr. Lu, I didn’t realize you were in your rut, so…”

“If you had known, you would have stayed far away,” Lu Mingshen looked up, his voice cold. “For your own safety, go back. I’ll have Assistant Xu drive you.”

Jiang Qiu started to say something, but Lu Mingshen cut him off. “Apologies, I shouldn’t have let Xu bring you here. My mood is even less stable now than it was before. Please leave immediately.”

Jiang Qiu was a bit dazed. His own heat hadn’t arrived yet, and he had just taken a booster shot of suppressants. Logically, he shouldn’t be causing any discomfort for an Alpha.

“Then… I’ll go.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Before he could finish, a violent pounding erupted at the door. A flicker of impatience crossed Lu Mingshen’s brow. He checked the video peephole on his phone but saw no one.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The pounding continued.

Jiang Qiu stood up. “I’ll go get it.”

“No need,” Lu Mingshen said. “It might be a prank.”

But the person outside didn’t give up. After another round of knocking, it suddenly stopped. Then the doorbell rang, and Assistant Xu appeared on the screen.

The most impossible thing to ignore was the small child clutched in his arms. Jiang Cheng was practically pressing his entire face against the peephole, shouting, “Daddy! Uncle! Open the door for baby!”

Assistant Xu quickly explained, “The young master wouldn’t stop crying; he insisted on finding Mr. Jiang and Mr. Lu…”

Jiang Qiu looked back at Lu Mingshen. The impatience on the man’s face vanished, replaced by an expression of pure helplessness.

The front door slid open automatically. Little Chengcheng had his right arm around “Uncle Xu’s” neck, while his left hand tried—unsuccessfully—to hide a damp patch of drool on Xu’s collar.

Once he was transferred into Jiang Qiu’s arms, the boy whispered, “Uncle Xu fell asleep on the way here. I definitely didn’t drool.”

The falsely accused Assistant Xu stood stoically beside Lu Mingshen.

Lu Mingshen glanced at Jiang Qiu, and Assistant Xu immediately walked toward him. “Mr. Jiang, Mr. Lu has asked me to take you and the young master home.”

“No!” Chengcheng grabbed Jiang Qiu tight. “I want to sleep with Daddy and Uncle.”

“But you already learned to sleep by yourself, didn’t you?” Jiang Qiu asked.

Chengcheng didn’t answer, he just buried his face in his father’s chest. “But… but I just want to.”

Jiang Qiu felt helpless. “Uncle Lu isn’t feeling well. He might not be able to join us—”

Chengcheng pouted, looking utterly dissatisfied. “Daddy isn’t well, Uncle isn’t well… then baby is going to be not well too!”

He patted the spot next to Jiang Qiu. “Uncle, come sit!”

Lu Mingshen shuffled a tiny bit closer to Jiang Qiu. Chengcheng reached out and tugged at his clothes. Lu Mingshen had no choice but to move closer still, allowing Chengcheng to climb onto his lap. The boy tapped the muzzle, letting out a gasp of wonder. “Whoa, so cool.”

Lu Mingshen scooped the little guy up and wiped his red-rimmed eyes. He asked him what was wrong and why he suddenly needed them both to stay the night.

Chengcheng fidgeted for a moment before asking in a tiny voice, “Daddy… am I a kid who doesn’t have a mommy?”

The question nearly broke Jiang Qiu’s heart. He immediately denied it. “Who told you that!”

The boy looked piteous. “But the kids at preschool say they all sleep with their daddies and mommies at night.”

Jiang Qiu: “…”

Chengcheng: “I don’t have a mommy. Can I sleep with Daddy and Uncle instead?”

Jiang Qiu: “So that was your real motive for following us here.”

Chengcheng blinked rapidly. Yes, yes!

Jiang Qiu was conflicted. So much had happened tonight, and he wasn’t confident he could handle being around Lu Mingshen’s pheromones…

Then Chengcheng dropped the hammer. “My desk-mate said his daddy and mommy hold him every night to sleep and tell him stories!” His voice dropped to a whisper. “All the other kids have a daddy and mommy to sleep with. Only I don’t.”

Hearing that, Jiang Qiu couldn’t find the heart to refuse. He just told himself he’d have to take extra suppressants when they got back.

Since Jiang Qiu had caved, Lu Mingshen naturally had no choice but to follow suit. Under the hopeful gazes of the two, he gave a helpless nod.

And so, Assistant Xu had to drive the three of them back.

The little one’s energy was spent; the moment they got in the car, he fell fast asleep on his father’s lap. Lu Mingshen sat beside them, eyes closed in rest. In this house he didn’t have many clothes, so he wore a deep-blue cashmere sweater. The flickering light from outside made his facial features appear even sharper and more defined.

Jiang Qiu silently looked away. After such a long night, all three of them were exhausted.

The car drove smoothly back to the villa in the west of the city and pulled up to the gates. Neither of them moved to get out.

The night was still. The streetlights outside cast a dim glow, while the interior car light provided the only illumination. Chengcheng seemed to be dreaming of something tasty; he smacked his lips, using Jiang Qiu’s hem as a makeshift bib, his little bottom sticking up in the air.

Jiang Qiu couldn’t help but reach out to pat him, but his hand stopped mid-air when he heard Lu Mingshen ask softly, “That ‘desensitization therapy’ Dr. Chen mentioned… how exactly does it work?”

“Um… actually, we’ve been using a form of it all along,” Jiang Qiu explained. “Basically, it involves exposure to Alpha pheromones at regular intervals. Since Alpha pheromones have different grades, each exposure is a slightly higher grade than the last. You upgrade and test it bit by bit. If there’s one that’s hard to adapt to, you repeat the exposure. Now, I can handle most Alphas.”

“There’s a question I’ve wanted to ask, even though we both know the answer,” Lu Mingshen said softly. “Your fear of Alphas… is it because of me?”

“…Yes.”

“And after all that treatment, you still can’t adapt to my pheromones?”

“No.”

“Can I help you?”

Jiang Qiu didn’t expect the offer. He gave a dazed nod. Lu Mingshen raised his hand, his long fingers lightly pressing against the tips of Jiang Qiu’s fingers.

Lu Mingshen’s eyes were a deep, swirling black, reflecting a tiny point of warm yellow light. Jiang Qiu could see his own reflection in them clearly.

“Is this kind of touch acceptable?”

Jiang Qiu froze for a moment, then answered, “…Yes.”

The cool pads of Lu’s fingers slowly pressed against the back of his hand. “And this?”

“That’s okay too…” A little tingly.

Their fingers slowly interlaced. “And this?”

The little one in his lap shifted, and both of them froze, not daring to move. Once Chengcheng’s breathing evened out, Lu Mingshen asked again, “Is it okay?”

Jiang Qiu took a deep breath. “…I think… it’s okay.”

He heard Lu Mingshen’s breathing grow heavier. After a moment, Lu’s fingers slipped past his index finger, hooking it gently before folding his whole hand into his palm. Lu enveloped Jiang Qiu’s hand, then squeezed his fingertips, one by one.

Jiang Qiu closed his eyes nervously. He felt Lu Mingshen watching him in the darkness, his gaze searching his face—a look so deep it felt as though the man were trying to see past his skin to the very structure of his bones.

“Mr. Lu…”

“Sorry,” Lu Mingshen whispered, his voice thick with restraint. “I think this is the limit of the touch I can handle right now.”

Jiang Qiu had learned about Alpha ruts in biology class. They were more frequent than Omega heats, though equally grueling. Some Alphas lost their minds during a rut and needed to be restrained to prevent them from hurting others. For an Alpha as powerful as Lu Mingshen… resisting the rut must be even harder.

Suddenly, Jiang Qiu felt a surge of empathy for Lu Mingshen’s situation. He nodded understandingly. “It’s okay, Mr. Lu. Is there anything else that’s bothering you? Or anything I can do to help…”

Lu Mingshen’s gaze darkened as he looked down at their joined hands. He spoke slowly, his tone rising slightly at the end. “To help?”

“Yes,” Jiang Qiu said, oblivious to the change in the air. “Ruts are hard to get through. We both have our struggles. I shouldn’t have said what I did earlier, so I want to make it up to you if I can…”

As he spoke, he felt the gaze on his face grow more intense. That innate fear of submitting to an Alpha began to radiate from every pore, causing his voice to get smaller and smaller. “Is there… anything I can do…”

“What if I said I wanted to kiss you?” Lu Mingshen asked calmly.

Jiang Qiu felt that scorching gaze settle on his lips.

Jiang Qiu: “…………”

“T-that…”

“Is that a no?”

“…”

Jiang Qiu didn’t know how to refuse, but then he heard Lu Mingshen let out a soft chuckle. The man reached out and switched off the interior car light. The car plunged into darkness. Jiang Qiu sat frozen, unsure of how to react.

“I was being impulsive,” Lu Mingshen said.

In the darkness, his voice was low and close, yet it felt miles away, sending a tingle through Jiang Qiu’s ears. “Take Chengcheng inside to sleep. Explain things to him for me.”

With that, he released Jiang Qiu’s hand, his fingers seemingly brushing against Jiang Qiu’s palm by accident.

“Goodnight.”

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