His body angled downward, legs swaying lazily. Then firm hands clamped his shoulders. The Alpha hauled him back, gripped his arms, and lifted him gently to the surface. Fresh air flooding his lungs felt divine. Wen Yan knew his limits. After a few seconds, he plunged back down, but Liang Shijing was already rising with the sea star in hand.
They crossed paths in the water. Liang Shijing extended a hand; Wen Yan reached for the sea star, but the Alpha just pinched his toes with wicked playfulness… Wen Yan planted a foot on his shoulder and shot off in the opposite direction. He didn’t want the Alpha’s company—he needed to find Liang Wangyou. This time, Liang Shijing trailed silently, no antics. But when they reached the coral, the boy was gone.
Panic seized Wen Yan. He streaked toward the yacht’s stern propeller. The engine was off, but what if the massive blades caught the boy’s curiosity? Liang Shijing matched his worry and outpaced him, arriving first and shaking his head. They shared a wordless glance and split up. A full sweep turned up nothing.
Splash—they broke the surface.
The Alpha supported the omega as they clambered aboard. No time to catch their breath; they raced up the stairs, shouting Liang Wangyou’s name. The lower deck was empty—no answer.
“Why are you always sticking to me?!” Wen Yan snapped. Liang Shijing had been right there with the boy, so he’d dared to leave. But the Alpha had followed him, and now the child had vanished!
“I’ll check the top deck. You take the middle.” Liang Shijing’s voice lacked conviction.
Blame could wait. Wen Yan wheeled around. Empty game room, empty arcade room, empty bar, empty bathroom. No sign on the fore or aft decks. Then footsteps pounded from above—he rushed out. Not Liang Wangyou. Liang Shijing.
…
The boy had slipped away right under their noses.
“We scanned this area before coming—no aggressive fish, no riptides per the marine report,” Liang Shijing said soothingly. “Don’t panic. He’s probably still on board or swam off somewhere. Stay on the yacht; I’ll search again.” He turned to go. Wen Yan hurried after him. “How’s his swimming?”
“Excellent.”
“How long can he hold his breath?”
“Max forty-five seconds.”
Wen Yan willed himself to stay calm. “If we don’t find him in two minutes, we call rescue. How long till they get here?”
Liang Shijing said, “I called for them. Ten minutes ago.”
Splash—the alpha plunged into the sea.
Wen Yan kept searching the yacht, checking room after room as his heart sank lower and lower. This time, when footsteps echoed closer, Liang Shijing called out loudly, “It’s me!” Wen Yan felt like he was on the verge of collapse; in that moment, his heart ached far worse than his gland. Just then, the metal wall behind him slid open with a rush of cold air, and Liang Wangyou stepped out holding a tub of ice cream. His cheeks and body were smeared with chocolate, and he held out the ice cream toward them. “Want some?”
Wen Yan shuddered and let out a long breath of relief, while Liang Shijing smacked the back of his head hard. He looked like he wanted to throttle him, but in the end, he just gritted out through clenched teeth, “All you think about is eating.” His tone was harsh, but it carried an unmistakable lightness of relief.
“Hey!” Liang Wangyou yelped, stumbling forward from the blow and burying his entire face in the chocolate ice cream.
It turned out that this wall concealed a walk-in freezer, so seamlessly integrated that neither the omega nor the alpha—who weren’t exactly kitchen regulars—had any idea it was there.
“You didn’t respond after we called you for so long?” Liang Shijing scolded coldly.
“Did you call me? What for?” Liang Wangyou looked baffled. The walk-in freezer was extremely airtight and soundproof; it was no surprise he hadn’t heard a thing.
Liang Shijing’s face darkened.
“And I haven’t even complained about you two ditching me to have fun without me!” Liang Wangyou muttered under his breath. Then he stuck out his tongue to lick the chocolate sauce off his nose. Watching his comical motions finally made Wen Yan feel like he’d returned to the land of the living. He leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. At that moment, the roar of a military helicopter thundered from the horizon. Liang Wangyou looked up curiously. “Dad, why’s the army here?”
“To put a bullet in you,” Liang Shijing replied coldly, tapping his wristband as he headed out.
“Pfft, if you dared shoot me, Wen Yan would kill you first.” Liang Wangyou darted over to Wen Yan. Now that he was starting to feel the cold, he shivered in just his swim trunks and clung to Wen Yan. So when Liang Shijing returned, he found Little Alpha—covered head to toe in chocolate—perched on the omega’s lap, getting chocolate all over him and even feeding him bites of ice cream.
“Get up. Time for a bath,” Liang Shijing ordered, his expression icy.
The three of them headed to the open-air shower area on the deck. Liang Wangyou was still hanging off Wen Yan as Liang Shijing shoved them both under the showerhead and unleashed a torrent of water on Liang Wangyou. Little Alpha, dangling from Wen Yan’s arm with his face like a kitten’s, licked his lips and asked, “Wen Yan, was the ice cream good?” Then he let out a string of sneezes.
Wen Yan figured he’d probably made a beeline for the walk-in freezer the moment he climbed aboard from the sea—or more likely, he’d planned to hide in there from the start and devour ice cream for hours. No wonder he was coming down with a cold.
Liang Shijing hosed him down extra thoroughly, then sent him out bare-assed to sunbathe without even letting him get dressed. Liang Wangyou protested, but Wen Yan told him he had to do it. Since he was scared of Wen Yan, he immediately complied.
Once the kid was gone, the hot water shifted to Wen Yan.
“I’ll do it myself.” Wen Yan reached for the showerhead.
Liang Shijing must not have heard him. He gripped Wen Yan’s shoulders and methodically washed the chocolate from his chest, then his waist. He even crouched down to scrub his calves and the tops of his feet. Looking down, Wen Yan silently watched Liang Shijing on his knees, the top of his head right there—and suddenly, a wave of sadness washed over him.
As the massive sunset sank below the sea, they returned to shore. Servants waited at the gangway with hot towels. The three of them dried their hands and strolled across the warm white sand toward the vacation house. It was an exquisite wooden villa with a slanted triangular roof, expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, and coconut palms draping over the eaves.
Dinner was all fresh seafood, laid out impeccably even without the chefs present.
The seafood was incredibly sweet and fresh. Liang Wangyou loved it, and so did Wen Yan. He peeled a bunch of shrimp for the boy, only to look down and find one in his own bowl… Liang Shijing sat across from him, stone-faced, head down as he kept peeling. Soon he’d filled half the bowl. Wen Yan didn’t touch them; instead, he picked out all the shrimp and fed them to Liang Wangyou.
Then Liang Shijing stopped peeling. The atmosphere at the table turned strangely serene…
After dinner, Wen Yan kept Liang Wangyou company while he played video games. Waves crashed rhythmically outside, while inside, the characters on screen battled furiously amid the rapid clicks of controllers. Before long, Liang Shijing returned, now in a crisp casual white tee that matched their parent-child outfits, making them look even more like a family.
“Eat this.” He tossed a bag of medicine onto the table and settled into an armchair.
Wen Yan saw it was cold medicine. “Little You, take your medicine and then we’ll keep playing.”
“No.” Liang Wangyou was glued to the screen, deep in the heat of battle.
“We can pause the game. Take it, and we’ll play after, okay?” Wen Yan coaxed softly.
Liang Wangyou was too immersed to respond. As Wen Yan leaned in to persuade him further, the unmistakable click of a gun being chambered sounded in his ear. He whipped around to see Liang Shijing, face like thunder, setting a handgun on the table. Liang Wangyou instantly dropped his controller and flung himself at Liang Shijing, fawning at his leg. “Dad, can I play with it? Just for a sec?”
“Take your medicine,” Liang Shijing said offhandedly.
Wen Yan’s heart pounded wildly… He’d thought for a second that Liang Shijing was about to shoot the boy for refusing…
What an ingeniously “brilliant” way to get a kid to take his medicine.
Whether it was brilliant or not was debatable, but it worked. Liang Wangyou tore open the packet without a word, popped a pill in his mouth, and forced it down. Then he slunk back to Liang Shijing’s leg like a groveling puppy.
Unfortunately, Liang Shijing let out a cold chuckle, picked up the gun, and walked out…
Liang Wangyou chased after him, only to slink back dejectedly a moment later.
Wen Yan couldn’t help chuckling; Little You must have gotten an earful. He had no idea whose personality the kid had inherited—carefree and quick to sulk, but always bouncing back in under three seconds. Like now, grabbing the controller without a care. “Wen Yan, let’s play all night!”
Of course, all night was out of the question. He didn’t even last half an hour before he slumped against Wen Yan and dozed off. Back in Oak Bay, he was usually in bed by eight-thirty; it was nearly ten now, so no wonder he was wiped. Wen Yan carried him to his room, wiped his hands and face clean, then headed to his own.
Because he’d taken so many painkillers today, the only sensation from his gland was a faint ache. But the moment he peeled off the barrier patch, blood and fluid came pouring out in a rush. He turned to the mirror and beheld a gruesome scene: his pale, emaciated back was crawling with what looked like sinuous red snakes trailing downward. The skin over his gland had stretched translucent, and no matter how he wiped, the bleeding wouldn’t stop. Wen Yan had no choice but to press down hard for a good ten minutes. Though his sense of smell was gone and he couldn’t detect any scent, he knew full well that his gland’s blood contained no pheromones whatsoever.
His gland was utterly destroyed… No matter. It was bound to happen eventually…
Night deepened, the moonlight caressing the shadows of the trees.
Soon after drifting off, in that hazy border between sleep and wakefulness, he faintly heard a weak sob…
