Chapter 41
The first snowfall on this planet lasted three days and nights, accumulating a thick layer of snow that reached mid-calf.
Shi Nuo wore tall black boots, similar to the ones Hugh had worn, only a different size.
He hadn’t noticed before, but while looking for his shoes today, he realized they seemed to be a matching pair, several details mirroring each other.
The snow had stopped, but the wind was biting cold. He wore a thick jacket and pants, the same ones he had worn in late autumn, and a temperature control device on his right wrist.
The device, powered by a small energy crystal, emitted a constant stream of warm air, protecting him from the cold, allowing him to stay outside even without wearing multiple layers.
His hand, as he scooped up some snow, still felt cold despite the device, the chill unavoidable.
The metal giant stood out against the white landscape. Long Xu bent down and packed a massive snowball with its enormous hands.
Shi Nuo was squatting by the front door, making small snowmen, two snowballs stacked on top of each other. He had managed to make two perfectly round ones, which looked cute, the others slightly misshapen.
Undeterred, he had stuck small twigs into each snowman for arms and thin strips of carrot for noses.
The twigs had been broken off a dead tree by Long Xu. He didn’t have a pen or paint, so Long Xu had poured some of its dark gray paint and light yellow hydraulic fluid into small metal containers.
He used the gray paint for the eyes and eyebrows, the yellow for the mouths.
He was attaching arms to the last snowman when—
Thump—
A large snowball landed softly in front of him. Although the landing was gentle, the sheer size of it made the ground tremble slightly.
Shi Nuo, still squatting, looked up. The snowball was about two meters in diameter, a perfect sphere, almost machine-made, its surface flawlessly smooth.
He stood up, walked over to the massive snowball, and touched it. “It’s so round,” he murmured.
“And heavy.” He tried to push it but couldn’t budge it, then his eyes lit up, and he looked up at Long Xu. “Are you making a snowman too?”
Long Xu, in companion mode, replied, “Affirmative. For you.”
It had observed Shi Nuo playing in the snow, making small snowmen, and calculated that a large snowman would likely please him. Its analysis proved correct.
“For me?” Shi Nuo was surprised and delighted. He looked up at the mecha. “Make the head a bit smaller. Smaller than this one.”
He gestured with his hands, his eyes crinkling in a smile.
The Omega’s voice was soft and sweet, his demeanor gentle and unassuming.
Long Xu’s blue mechanical eyes focused on Shi Nuo’s face.
Within its core, Hugh Elvis’s genetic material surged, taking control.
It smelled the Omega’s pheromones.
So fragrant.
After Shi Nuo finished drawing eyes, eyebrows, and mouths on his five small snowmen, Long Xu had completed another snowball. It stacked the two snowballs, broke off two long branches from a nearby tree for arms, and inserted a large carrot for the nose. Shi Nuo couldn’t reach the snowman’s head, so Long Xu quickly finished the face.
The mecha’s drawing was neat and precise.
Shi Nuo, having activated his optical brain’s camera function, was once again amazed. He looked at his own clumsily drawn snowmen, their eyebrows uneven, though the eyes and mouths weren’t too bad.
He hadn’t taken any pictures of himself in a long time. He placed his small snowmen at the feet of the large one, stood beside it, and, smiling shyly, took a few pictures.
He also took pictures and videos of Long Xu and the snow-covered plain.
Long Xu was tall, its functions far exceeding those of an ordinary optical brain. Its camera drone flew around them, capturing the scenery from various angles, the focus always on Shi Nuo.
It sent some of the pictures to Shi Nuo, while the close-up shots, taken by the drone, were silently stored in its encrypted core files.
The part of Hugh Elvis within the mecha was asserting itself, its possessiveness over the images absolute.
With no one to have a snowball fight with, Shi Nuo simply threw a few snowballs into the distance.
He looked at Long Xu. The mecha was so massive that even the snow displaced by its movements was larger than his snowballs.
A snowball fight with Long Xu was out of the question.
He had learned to entertain himself. He threw snowballs, walked around in the snow, disrupting the pristine white surface near the house, then, satisfied, went back inside.
His fingers were numb with cold, and it took a while for them to warm up.
Shi Nuo used the terminal to store Long Xu, the black crystal pendant around his neck pulsing faintly. From being worn constantly, the crystal was now warm from his body heat, its surface faintly scented with his pheromones.
Dinner was warm rice porridge with a small plate of stir-fried vegetables and mushrooms, a light and flavorful meal.
He ate quietly, content after his afternoon of playing in the snow. Even though the snow-covered plain was unusually silent, his mood was good. He watched two episodes of an animated show, then went to the bedroom to shower.
Before going to bed, as usual, he wiped Hugh’s body with a warm towel.
Hugh had been hibernating for forty-five days now.
The first snow hadn’t melted completely when another heavy snowfall began.
Shi Nuo pulled back the curtain and looked outside. The wind howled, the snow swirling, the landscape cold and desolate under the gray sky.
It had been snowing for two days now, and he longed for sunshine.
With nothing to do, and with the heavy snow preventing him from going outside, even standing at the doorway to watch the snow forbidden by Long Xu, he could only stay in the warm bedroom.
He couldn’t concentrate on comic books or even the movies, his mind wandering.
He turned off the projector, lay down on the rug, and, pulling the blanket over them, snuggled close to the sleeping Alpha.
On the forty-sixth day of Hugh Elvis’s hibernation.
Early morning.
Shi Nuo, still half-asleep, heard the howling wind and the relentless snow outside.
It was cold.
He didn’t want to get out of bed, wanting only to stay nestled in the warm, comfortable blankets.
He had grown accustomed to the unconscious Alpha nuzzling his scent gland, to the Alpha’s involuntary responses, and he often slept curled up against Hugh now, either facing him or with his back to him.
It was just a normal morning occurrence.
But this thought was quickly shattered. Shi Nuo’s eyes fluttered open, and he felt a sharp pain in his neck as his scent gland was bitten, tears instantly welling up.
A powerful surge of Alpha pheromones flooded his body, and he gasped for breath, the temporary marking now a torment, waiting for it to end, but the pheromones, like a boundless ocean, continued to pour into him, overwhelming him.
Even when he was entered, he didn’t fully register that Hugh Elvis had woken up, his mind focused only on breathing, on survival.
The air seemed thin, and he gasped desperately, until the sudden, violent rocking of his body brought him back to his senses.
His eyes focused, meeting a pair of deep blue eyes.
He saw a vast, swirling blue ocean, dotted with shimmering starlight, and before he could speak, his lips were captured in a deep kiss.
The sweet scent of tea olive blossoms filled the air.
The wind and snow raged outside, the temperature plummeting.
Inside the house, the lights were bright, the large rug in the living room bearing witness to their numerous passionate encounters.
The rug in the bedroom was damp and stained. Shi Nuo didn’t have the energy to clean it, nor the time. Hugh Elvis, equally preoccupied, simply carried him to the living room and continued.
Shi Nuo didn’t even have a chance to ask if he had recovered, if the beast heart’s energy had been fully absorbed.
The man, after forty-five days of hibernation, was noticeably thinner but even stronger, his muscles flexing and rippling with each movement, his lean, powerful physique undeniably beautiful.
Shi Nuo felt the world spinning around him, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, like being tossed in a stormy sea, one moment thrown high on a wave, the next dragged down into the depths, his voice reduced to broken gasps and moans.
The Omega’s sweet, fragmented cries only fueled Hugh Elvis’s desire.
His body, newly energized after absorbing the last of the beast heart’s energy, was filled with a restless vitality, the turmoil in his heart gradually calming as he was anchored by the Omega’s sweet, intoxicating scent.
He savored every touch, every taste, every sound.
The snow had long since stopped, the sun shining for four or five days now, but the temperature remained low, and the snow hadn’t melted much.
The entire plain was covered in a blanket of white.
The large snowman Long Xu had built was still standing outside, but it no longer held any interest. The awakened Alpha had asked about it, learned it was Long Xu’s creation, and then dismissed it.
Shi Nuo dozed on the sofa, while Hugh Elvis sat cross-legged on the rug, facing him, reading a comic book.
The sofa had originally been beside the rug, but after Shi Nuo sat down, Hugh had pulled it closer, directly in front of him.
Shi Nuo was bundled in warm clothes, clearly wary of him, but Hugh didn’t mind. He had been sated, at least for now, after more than a week of indulgence.
As he read, Hugh Elvis reached out and gently massaged Shi Nuo’s left ankle.
Shi Nuo, startled, instinctively tried to pull his leg back, but the Alpha’s hand held it firmly.
“Sleep. I’ll give you a massage,” Hugh Elvis said, his voice low and husky, his gaze shifting from the comic book.
Shi Nuo stared at him for a moment, then closed his eyes, reassured.
The hand massaging his ankle was warm and firm. The massage extended to his calf, and he gradually drifted off to sleep.
During these days of recovery, Shi Nuo had been wearing long-sleeved pajamas and pants, sometimes even socks.
Hugh had fully absorbed the beast heart’s energy and would no longer lose control during his rut. They could finally be together properly.
Shi Nuo, still slightly traumatized, couldn’t imagine what Hugh would be like during a normal rut.
After hearing Hugh’s explanation, he had simply nodded, acknowledging his words, happy for the Alpha’s recovery but, given their current position and the lingering afterglow of their intimacy, unable to express his congratulations properly.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, warming his skin as he lay on his stomach on the rug, a pair of warm hands massaging his back, the pressure firm but gentle, soothing and comforting.
He hadn’t left the house in over two weeks. After a long silence, he pushed himself up and turned to Hugh, whispering, “Mr. Elvis, I want to go outside for some fresh air. Long Xu said it would take me for a walk after the snow stopped and the sun came out.”
The hand on his waist stilled, and Hugh Elvis looked up, their eyes meeting.
The white-haired man’s expression was calm as he asked casually, “Long Xu wants to take you out?”
