"Mom! Dad, please! He's not a doctor!" Fourteen-year-old Qixian shrieked, his small heels skidding against the linoleum as a nurse dragged him toward a heavy door.
His father didn't even look back. "It's for your own good, Qixian," he'd said, his voice a distant, hollow echo. "They're going to cure you. You're just scared. We'll come back when you're better."
"Dad! Dad!" Qixian's voice broke as he fought against the nurse's iron grip, but the door clicked shut, severing his last connection to safety.
An hour later, the world was a drugged, sluggish haze. He couldn't move, couldn't scream, and when his eyes finally fluttered open, his wrists were bound tight to a cold metal table.
"Let's begin, kid," a man's voice rasped. Qixian thrashed, his small body a knot of panic. "Relax. We're just testing your pheromones. Actually... we're going to strip them away. Say goodbye to your second gender, Qixian."
In a final, desperate act of survival, Qixian's body erupted. His scent—A skunky, herbal, and musky fragrance that smells like a mixture of crushed green stems, wild mint, and a heavy, salty musk. It has a "feral" quality to it, a scent that feels like a deep forest at the height of summer. It is vibrant and earthy fragrance of Cleome—flooded the room, it was meant to protect himself.
But he was just an Omega child, and the man standing over him was a predator, an Alpha.
White-hot pain surged through his nervous system with every twitch of his muscles. His "feral" scent began to wither and fade, his strength draining into the floor. He was fading out when he felt a touch—not the doctor's. The nurse from before was there, her face a mask of urgent terror as she ripped the IV from his hand.
"Let's go," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Don't make a sound. I'm getting you out of here." She scooped his limp body into her arms and slipped into the shadows of the hallway.
The night air was thick with the scent of the surrounding forest, but Qixian was too weak to notice. He was a dead weight in the nurse's arms as she sprinted, her breath coming in ragged, panicked gasps. A shout echoed behind them—they had been spotted.
After a long run, exhaustion finally claimed her. She skidded to a halt beneath the skeletal branches of an ancient tree, gently lowering Qixian to the mossy roots. Her hands trembled as she pulled a syringe from her pocket. The liquid inside was a vibrant, predatory red—a red serum.
"This... this will save you," she whispered, her voice breaking. She looked at him with unbearable pity. "It will help you recover by morning, and then you can run. You can finally be free."
She paused, her eyes filling with tears as she hovered the needle over his skin. "But it comes with a price, Qixian. It will warp your pheromones, turning them into something toxic... something lethal. It will make you strong enough to survive, but the metamorphosis will be agony. You have to endure it, okay? Just for a little while."
She plunged the needle in.
A second later, a searing, white-hot fire exploded through Qixian's veins. He let out a blood-curdling scream, his back arching as if his very bones were being reshaped. It felt as though a foreign organ was forcing its way into his chest, clawing for space.
Desperate to quiet him, the nurse released a wave of soothing Alpha pheromones, trying to wrap him in a blanket of calm even as the red serum began to rewrite his very nature. "I'm sorry, I should've saved you sooner..." With that Qixian fell unconscious.
"No... No... Don't go." Qixian reach and hold Yichen's sleeve, clutching it firmly. "Don't go...please..." Qixian finally begged but then he let go of Yichen's sleeve, as he continued to sweat from his nightmare.
With Yichen's conscience he tried to wake Qixian by shaking Qixian's hands. Yichen tried until Qixian finally opened his eyes as he breathes unevenly, with that Yichen let go of Qixian's hand as if touching Qixian while he's conscious is a crazy thing.
"Haoran!" Yichen called Haoran as Hairan came immediately.
"You're awake!" Haoran said in relief. "I was just making medicine, I haven't check on you yet, you should lie down there for a while, I'd check on you."
Qixian is trying to remember what happened he immediately stop his thoughts for a moment after Haoran's words. "No. I'm a doctor I could take care on myself, no need to check on me." Qixian tried a reassuring voice, 'If he did, he might find out about me, since he is a doctor, he might discover the scent blockers or the truth about my glands... I can't let that happen.'
While Qixian was lost on his thought, Sihan showed up and handed Haoran the medicine he was holding.
As Haoran handed Qixian the medicine, Qixian remembered and took the medicine. "Thank you... But what happened to the..."
"Ah the guy who hurt you?" Qixian nodded. "The police took him, but why did he hurt you?" Haoran tried to predict.
"I don't know..." Qixian lied. "Maybe the fact that he failed to kill me seven years ago—" Qixian stopped himself as he realizes that he slipped.
"He did what?!" Haoran yelled, shocked. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you somewhere should we go to a hospital instead?" Haoran said in panic with a sense of protectiveness.
"He...tried to steal away from your clinic..." Qixian lied "I'm sorry about the plate..." Qixian apologizes.
"You almost died there, can't you see he almost—" As Haoran started complaining, Qixian cut him off.
"But even though I almost stopped him since I'm still stronger than him." Qixian said in confidence.
"Stronger? You were knockout by him!" Haoran stated the fact.
"It was because you're getting closer!" Qixian defended.
"What does that have to do with me huh?" Haoran raised his brow and crossed his arms.
"My... My pheromones are... dangerous..." Qixian stammering.
"Dangerous? How so?" Haoran said disbelievingly.
"It's toxic. Like a spider lily..." Qixian admitted.
"A spider lily? Mine's like a nerine, it's also toxic. So how is it dangerous?" Haoran glared.
"Well you never told me that information!" Qixian glared back.
"Well you never asked me?" Haoran reasoned.
Qixian opened his mouth to protest but chose not to instead he chose to drink the medicine and not say anything more, making Haoran the winner of the argument.