Forcibly Marked by My Fiancé’s Best Friend - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Give birth? By what right do you claim that?” Lian Xu questioned coldly.

He nipped at his earlobe, his palm tightening around his waist. “Yin Zhuo is the Prime Minister of the Cabinet. His father would never allow him to take an Omega from the Command Center as a partner. But I am different. Marrying whoever I want is a matter of a single word.”

“Is that so?”

Yin Zhuo’s father wouldn’t let him marry someone from the Command Center, but that depended on exactly who it was. Now, it wasn’t a question of whether they wanted Lian Xu, but whether Lian Xu was willing to cooperate.

An Imperial Prime Minister, a physically formidable Alpha, actually lacked any sense of smell for pheromones. Without that, he couldn’t release pheromones normally to bond with an Omega. As an only son, this defect was not just a disgrace to him as an Alpha, but a shame upon his entire lineage.

To cure this defect, Yin Zhuo’s father hadn’t hesitated to slaughter innocent humans across the planet just to find the “medicine” they spoke of. If the medicine was gone, he would have to live out his days in lonely imperfection.

Hope was slim, but then came Lian Xu—an Omega with a pheromone compatibility so high it was miraculous. Yin Zhuo couldn’t smell anyone’s pheromones, but Lian Xu was the exception. He could not only smell the Cedar, but he would even enter his rut under Omega’s influence.

At the banquet, Yin Zhuo had been drugged and had mistaken Lian Xu for the Omega from the black room on the ruined planet. Once he sobered up, his first instinct was to kill Lian Xu to eliminate the threat, but his father stopped him, insisting the two should marry.

Lian Xu was already struggling to find a way to get close to Yin Zhuo and his father; this development meant he didn’t have to waste time plotting. He might as well play along.

Who knew he would charge in halfway?

Lian Xu’s back was pressed against He He’s chest. He tilted his chin up, his watery eyes staring at the Alpha with a look of complaint.

He didn’t show up early or late; he showed up right after the banquet.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked. “Want me to kiss you?”

With that, he dropped a kiss on Lian Xu’s forehead.

As he pressed against Lian Xu’s feverish brow, the Cedar scent suddenly spilled out uncontrollably, merging with the White Camellia. His shoulders shook; he felt a sharp ache in his lower abdomen.

He gripped the Omega’s waist, hoisting him up and repositioning him on his lap so they were face-to-face. Their breathing was scorched, their pulses chaotic.

He suddenly grabbed Lian Xu’s hand and buried his face in the Omega’s heaving chest. “Help me.”

Lian Xu tilted his head back, taking a deep breath as he pushed against the Alpha who was pressing his full weight onto him. “Get up! Stop rubbing!”

The Alpha undid the buttons on Lian Xu’s chest, pulling aside the undershirt to take a fierce bite. He pinched the button—the one that had been chipped earlier—and ripped it off with force.

“What was that blonde guy doing leaning so close to you?”

“What?” Lian Xu asked, confused.

He smirked. “Before you left, a blonde man was squeezed into the craft with you, leaning right against your chest. What was he doing, hmm?”

The blonde man was Prince Lan Jia, but the two had done nothing. At the time, the Prince had pointed out that Lian Xu’s button was different from his. Lian Xu hadn’t cared then, but now it seemed the button was a problem.

“A bug?”

He gave a light huff. “Mhm. Smart.”

“Did he touch you?” His voice was thick and heavy as he guided Lian Xu’s hand in a rhythmic motion.

Lian Xu’s palm felt scorched from the friction. He wondered what this Alpha had been fed growing up—he was practically superhuman. If his skin were any more delicate, a layer would have been rubbed off by now.

“You think everyone is like you?” Lian Xu snapped.

He didn’t deny it, his lips pressing against the Omega’s collarbone to suck gently.

Outside, the temperature plummeted to sub-zero levels on the craft’s display. The two were thinly dressed; without the climate control, they would have frozen solid by morning.

The system showed the cabin at 20°C, but pressed tightly together, their body heat far exceeded the norm. The corners of Lian Xu’s eyes were damp, his shoulders flushed red, and his chest was mottled with red and purple marks from the reckless Alpha’s teeth.

“Are you a dog? I told you not to bite!”

He was deaf to the protests, continuing his ministries until the craft was completely saturated by their dual pheromones. Only when they were both drenched in sweat did he finally stop.

“My rut is coming.”

Lian Xu pushed him away and pulled his clothes together. “If it’s coming, stay at the base! Why did you come out here to act like a maniac?!”

He gritted his teeth. “It was for you!”

The Alpha was genuinely angry. If Lian Xu hadn’t insisted on running to this hellhole, he wouldn’t have risked a rut in the field to track him down.

“Lian Xu, come back with me.”

“I’m here to complete a mission, not for a stroll.” Lian Xu turned his head coldly, buckled the Alpha’s belt, and curled into the corner wrapped in his coat. “You go back. If you die here during your rut, I won’t be able to explain it to your brother or the Yin family.”

His parents were dead; before they passed, they entrusted the two brothers to Yin Zhuo’s family. The Yins had always treated them as their own. If something happened, it was hard to say if Yin Zhuo’s father would protect He He or the “medicine” that could cure his son.

Lian Xu didn’t want to risk testing those boundaries.

“You really are…” He brushed the hair back from his forehead, donned his leather gloves, and pulled the Omega into his arms. “Let me hold you for a bit.”

They fell silent. The craft was so quiet only the rhythmic beep of the system could be heard.

After a long while, he pulled out a new button and pressed it into the Omega’s palm. “This is your original button.”

Lian Xu inspected it closely but found nothing unusual.

Seeing his suspicion, he smiled. “I didn’t tamper with it. I only made that one, and I already broke it.”

“You sound quite aggrieved?”

Lian Xu was baffled. Clearly, he was the one who had acted with ill intent, yet he sounded like he was the one who had been wronged.

He didn’t speak, but he truly did feel a bit wronged.

“What did he ask you to do? I’ll help you. Let’s finish early so you can come back with me.”

“Find rare earth,” Lian Xu said.

Rare earth? In this dump?

Wasn’t it more likely that “Dead-Face” (Shen Zaizhou) just wanted to separate them?

He licked his lips, deciding not to waste time guessing the Commander’s motives. He just wanted to find the resources and leave.

“After we go back, can you break it off with him?” He retreated further, feeling he was almost demeaning himself. He had made his feelings so obvious; Lian Xu surely wouldn’t trample his heart again.

In fact, he was wrong.

Lian Xu was exactly the type to do just that.

Lian Xu squeezed He He’s restless hand, his expression flat, lying without a hint of a blush. “Marrying him is my dream.”

With such a blunt rejection, he only hoped the Alpha would stop wasting time on him. After returning from the Desolate Star, they could go their separate ways. He wouldn’t provoke He He, and it would be even better if he could be transferred away from the training grounds.

“Rest. It’s almost dawn.”

With that, Lian Xu closed his eyes.

In the darkness, He stared at Lian Xu’s face, his gaze deep and inscrutable.

…

At dawn, Lian Xu returned the coat to He He and opened the hatch. The dense pheromones that had occupied the sealed space all night needed to dissipate.

The man they had brought up yesterday was still unconscious. Lian Xu walked over to the other flight craft and asked the girl, “We’re leaving soon. Where is your home?”

The girl stared at him with wide eyes and slowly extended her arm. On the crook of her elbow was a faint blue mark, a pattern that looked like a symbol.

“My name is Fia.”

Lian Xu froze, then gave a kind smile. “Hello, Fia. I’m Lian Xu. Shall we take you home?”

The girl tilted her head, looking at him with some confusion. A few seconds later, she said, “Weren’t you looking for me?”

He looked up sharply, meeting Lian Xu’s gaze. Both were stunned.

“Fia has no home, but Fia owns the only research base on the Desolate Star.”

A research base?!

“You’re just telling us? Aren’t you afraid we might be bad people?”

Fia shook her head. “Brother Lian Xu isn’t a bad person. I can feel it.”

She reached out tentatively to touch the deep wound on Lian Xu’s arm. She then glanced at He He—whose eyes were filled with danger and warning—and smiled. “Will you come back to the base with me, Brother? There is medicine there that can heal your wounds.”

There was anticipation in her eyes, but also anxiety. The two conflicting emotions were so jarring they were hard to parse. Was this an invitation or just a formality?

Before Lian Xu could ask, Fia pulled out a badge attached to a gold chain, shaped like the mark on her arm.

“I can offer the base key as my bargaining chip.”

Lian Xu’s heart skipped a beat.

He suddenly understood where the jarring feeling came from.

The girl looked about ten years old, but her level of composure far exceeded her age—especially when she offered a key as a “bargaining chip” to invite him to the base.

Any other child her age would likely still be speechless from trauma, crying for their mother.

He supported Lian Xu by the waist to help him down, then stepped up to the hatch and took the badge from Fia.

He pointed his gun precisely at Fia’s forehead. “Don’t play tricks, or you’ll end up just like those corpses from last night.”

Lian Xu pinched He He’s thigh and whispered, “Don’t scare her.”

He caught the hand pinching him and licked his lips, his finger clicking the trigger into place while his eyes remained fixed on Fia. “She’s much braver than you think.”

Fia ignored his threat entirely, leaning past him to look at Lian Xu.

“Brother, the base isn’t easy to enter. You’ll have to go in disguise.”

Compared to the Alpha who only knew how to use force, Fia preferred the cold-looking but soft-hearted Lian Xu.

“So what?” He said. “We’ll just blow it up.”

“If you do that, Brother Lian Xu’s wounds won’t be treated, and there’s a high chance of infection,” Fia said.

Thinking of how the Omega had spent the night shivering in the corner of the craft, He He suppressed his irritation. He would have to follow Fia’s plan.

But the plan… was a plan born of desperation.

“Brother Lian Xu,” Fia said, “Can you pretend to be my mother?”