The Beta Wife Claimed by Competing Alphas - Chapter 11

A somewhat familiar number flickered persistently on the phone screen, clearly determined not to stop until the call was answered. Lu Chong hesitated before finally picking up.

“Are you busy?” Lu Zhi’s familiar voice came through.

“I am not busy. Is something the matter?”

After Lu Chong’s father divorced his mother, he had quickly remarried and had a younger son. Lu Chong’s relationship with his father was strained, leaving Lu Zhi as the person he was closest to in the family.

“Can your sister not call you unless something is wrong? You have been away from home for so long; it is time to come back. Dad misses you.”

Lu Chong remained silent for a long while. Lu Zhi, knowing her brother’s temper, softened her voice with a persuasive tone. “Stop fighting with him, okay? Life is hard out there, and you have no money. Are you not just looking for trouble for yourself?”

“Where did you get this number? This number is not under my name.”

Lu Zhi had not expected him to ask that. “A friend of Jia Yan told me. A-City is only so big. Even if he did not come looking for me, did you really think I could not reach you?”

At the mention of Fu Jia Yan, Lu Chong frowned. “Fu Jia Yan’s friend… Shang Qiyue, or Meng Sixiao? A bunch of profligate sons who loiter around and do nothing productive.”

“Do not say that,” Lu Zhi said, caught between her fiancé and her brother. “Jia Yan is a good person, and his friends are good, too. Do not talk about them like that. He called me because he was concerned about you.”

“Chong Chong, stop being headstrong, okay? Come home. You have been pampered since you were a child. When Auntie Zhang went home for a few days, you threw a fit and refused to eat anything cooked by anyone else. Now Dad is so angry he has frozen your bank cards; how can you possibly get used to living outside?”

“Dad wants to send you abroad to study; there is nothing wrong with that. Jia Yan and the others all went abroad for a few years before coming back to take over their companies.”

Hearing her mention her idle fiancé, who spent every day playing mahjong or drinking, made Lu Chong even angrier. “Am I the same as them? If Fu Jia Yan and the rest did not go abroad to donate buildings and get a gilded degree, they would be functionally illiterate.”

“You should not speak of them that way,” Lu Zhi said softly.

In the circle they grew up in, someone like Lu Chong, who relied on his own efforts to get into a top domestic university, was the exception. Donating a building for a degree was still a degree. As for the lifestyle Lu Chong despised—drinking and playing with Omegas—compared to gambling, racing, or losing money on startups, those were considered thrifty hobbies.

However, she would not argue with her brother. She continued to coax Lu Chong to come home in a gentle voice.

“If there is nothing else, I am hanging up. I have work to do at the studio.”

“Why bother?” Lu Zhi sighed helplessly. “Even if that small company of yours succeeds, so what? Dad is not actually trying to kick you out.”

Not actually trying to kick him out.

His stepmother had said the same thing during their argument.

“Not actually trying to kick me out?” Lu Chong had felt his skin crawl with disgust back then. “You sent my sister abroad the moment you divorced my mother. What, are the two of us just that much of an eyesore?”

“Xiao Chong, do not talk to your father like that. He planned this path for you after much consideration.”

His father had eventually signaled the women to leave. In that house, no one defied the head of the family except Lu Chong.

“You do not want to go to Country S? Is it the location, or are you just being difficult on purpose?” His father’s tone was cold. “You are in your twenties; stop being so childish.”

Looking at the documents already signed and stamped, Lu Chong had felt a surge of anger. Everything had to follow his father’s arrangements. He could not even decide where to go after graduation.

“The papers are already signed,” he had said sarcastically. “If going abroad is so great, why don’t you send Lu Xingquan abroad to be groomed as well?”

His father had frowned, treating the situation like an investment. “Your brother is still young. You are the eldest son. I place weight on you because I have high expectations for you.”

“High expectations for me?” Lu Chong had sneered. “So, you planned to send me far away so the three of you could live as a happy little family?”

“I never meant that. The company holds shares from your maternal grandparents; it is impossible for me to give the entire industry to your brother even if I wanted to. If you have an issue with Auntie Xing or your brother, I cannot help you. I am an adult, and I need to have my own marriage and life. I cannot remain unmarried forever because of you.”

His father’s frown deepened. “You think getting into A-University makes you special, but everything you have was given to you by this family. Away from the Lu family and the path I have planned for you, you are nothing.”

That day, Lu Chong had slammed the door and left.

Lu Chong sat in his office chair, staring at a financial report. He knew Mu Yan had suffered a lot following him.

His sister was right; his temper was not good. His friends were either overly patient like Yi Zhuo, or they were sycophants. He did not know how to be good to people. Before meeting Mu Yan, he had never been in a relationship.

During university, his way of showing affection was spending money on Mu Yan. Yet those gifts were the very things Mu Yan had sold to fund Lu Chong’s startup when he thought Lu Chong was bankrupt.

Lu Chong felt a rare flicker of guilt. He checked his chat history with Mu Yan. The last message was his own: “My rut is coming. Can I skip the suppressants?”

Mu Yan was a Beta; he did not have an Omega’s biology to accommodate an Alpha, nor could he release pheromones to soothe him. Every rut, Mu Yan was even more resistant than he was.

Suppressants were uncomfortable, and Lu Chong preferred having sex with Mu Yan. Even though Mu Yan’s reproductive cavity was narrow and the process was difficult, the sight of Mu Yan’s watery eyes and trembling lashes as he begged for mercy gave Lu Chong a pleasure that made his scalp tingle.

Mu Yan knew Lu Chong hated suppressants, especially the cheap ones they could afford now, but his body simply could not take it. If he stayed through the entire rut, he would be unable to work for days. Eventually, they reached a compromise: Lu Chong would use suppressants for the beginning and end, and Mu Yan would stay with him for the most difficult middle days.

Mu Yan rarely asked for anything.

Half an hour later, Lu Chong was in a pharmacy, asking for Alpha suppressants.

“Sir, your rut is near. Your pheromones are already very strong. Do you need a scent-blocking patch?” the clerk asked. The clerk was a low-level Alpha and was already feeling uncomfortable under the pressure.

“No, I am going straight home,” Lu Chong refused. The cheap patches in these pharmacies were even more uncomfortable than the injections.

Before going home, Lu Chong decided to stop at a fruit shop. Last week, as they walked past, Mu Yan had noticed some white strawberries. He had been curious and looked at the price.

“These white ones are a new variety. They are very sweet,” the owner had said.

Upon closer inspection, they were actually a pale pink, looking beautiful and plump under the lights. Mu Yan had smiled and shaken his head. “Nearly seventy yuan a pound? That is a bit expensive. Sorry, we won’t be buying any.”

Mu Yan had felt no shame in saying that. He had grown used to refusing things due to poverty. The owner had then suggested the regular ones for forty yuan.

“Can it be a bit cheaper?” Mu Yan had asked naturally.

The owner had looked troubled. “Strawberries are this price this season. No matter, come back next time!”

Lu Chong had felt embarrassed, his face darkening immediately. He couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed because he couldn’t afford the fruit, or because Mu Yan was being so “crass” and practical. A-University was a utopia that brought people from different worlds together, but Lu Chong was realizing Mu Yan was used to haggling—even more so than the housekeepers Lu Chong grew up with.

Mu Yan had sensed his displeasure and didn’t dare hold his hand. Near their home, he had asked if Lu Chong disliked what he had done.

Lu Chong knew that poor people had their own way of living, and it was foolish for him to cling to his “young master” habits while struggling. But he wasn’t truly poor; he could go home to a life of luxury at any time. He couldn’t truly empathize with Mu Yan.

“I am not unhappy,” he had said. “If you want them, buy them.”

Mu Yan was easy to please. “I do not want them. I just hadn’t seen white ones before. If they were cheaper, I would have tried them.”

Mu Yan had very few material desires. Even before the “bankruptcy,” he never expressed a craving for anything in front of Lu Chong.

Lu Chong applied a scent-blocking patch outside the pharmacy and decided to buy the strawberries for Mu Yan. The first shop was sold out, but he found another that sold them for an even higher price. He bought two pounds and went home.

He threw the bag of suppressants on the coffee table. He was a bit afraid of needles and wanted to wait for Mu Yan to give him the injection. When Mu Yan did it, he would stand between Lu Chong’s legs, gently tell him to look away, and comfort him until it was over.

Mu Yan was not home yet. Lu Chong washed a bowl of the strawberries and sat on the sofa to wait. The soundproofing was poor; he could hear any movement in the hallway. He knew Mu Yan’s footsteps.

Footsteps approached, but there were two people.

“Honestly, we were laughing so hard. I asked my friends in the Engineering school, and they said that professor is always like that in class. Then I realized wasn’t he your and Brother Yao’s thesis advisor?”

“Yes, he is a very kind man, and quite humorous. Would you like to come in? I can pour you some water. I am truly grateful for your help today.”

“I shouldn’t come in,” He Fan said, sounding hesitant. “Isn’t Brother Lu Chong’s rut coming soon? It must be uncomfortable for him to smell another Alpha’s pheromones. I do not want to cause trouble for you.”

Just as Mu Yan was about to respond, the door in front of them was pulled wide open.

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