“Major General, the nerve link still shows no sign of repairing itself.”
Martin stared blankly at the ceiling, which he in fact, could not see, and said with exhaustion, “The border is still waiting for me to return, I can’t delay any longer, let’s operate as soon as possible.”
The middle-aged Beta doctor looked at the Alpha Major General in front of him, who had done so much to defend the Federation’s borders, and sincerely felt sorry for him, “You won’t be able to go into battle if you have surgery.”
“I can fight just as well on a command ship.” Martin said, “Prepare for the operation ba.”
The doctor didn’t agree with him immediately, he hesitated for a few seconds and decided to try that legendary method: “That…I heard from Lieutenant Nightingale that the Major General has a 90%+ genetic match with an Omega?”
Martin frowned slightly, mentally calculating that he would go back and dock Nightingale’s salary for three months first, “Yes there is such a thing, what’s wrong?”
The doctor moved a stool and sat down in front of him, looking as if he was going to start from the beginning of the universe: “A thousand years ago, human beings mutated and split into Alpha and Omega, you know the process, right? Alpha pheromones nourish the Omega’s body, while Omega pheromones contribute to the Alpha’s emotional and neurological stability. There has just been no authoritative experimental proof of this, and I can’t guarantee that it will work.”
Martin looked as if he had heard some absurd and bizarre joke: “So the reason my neural links can’t repair themselves is because I haven’t made the final mark on an Omega?”
“Given the current social situation where there are more Os than As, it has become a consensus that Omegas who have been completely marked by an Alpha with a high genetic match are generally physically better than Omegas that are unmarked and marked by an Alpha low genetic match. Theoretically, it should also be true, especially if the genetic matching rate reaches more than 90%. It’s just that under the wartime Omega allocation policy, all Alphas have completed the final marking with Omegas in the past two hundred years, and the functioning of the Alphas nervous system is also difficult to observe, so there are no tangible research results. And you may be the only Alpha who has been single until the age of 30 in a hundred years……”
“Why don’t you go back and give it a try? General Grey has also instructed us to try not to operate if possible, it’s also for your own good.”
Uncharacteristically, Martin fell into deep thought, but in the end he didn’t immediately refuse, thanked the doctor and went home on his own. He had always felt weird about Eno’s sudden question that day, so he went back a little earlier than usual today. He had a strange premonition in his heart, and he had no doubt that with the personality of this ancestor, he might be able to find an Alpha to go home and have sex with.
He silently pushed open the door of the two-storey house, and just after entering the door, he heard a few vague moans, like catcalls. A subtle anger suddenly rose in Martin’s heart, he rushed to the lift to the first floor and pushed open the door of Eno’s room.
Omega’s sweet pheromones surged towards him and Eno’s cries came to an abrupt halt, and only the buzzing sound of the vibrator remained in the room, which seemed extraordinarily awkward in the weird atmosphere.
A flicker of happiness that it was luckily a vibrator flashed through Martin’s mind, and then he felt really stupid and turned his anger on Eno: “What are you doing?!”
Eno was on his knees on the bed, a flesh-coloured vibrator deep in his rear hole, exposing half of its round, thick root. He was just getting into it when Martin interrupted him, the flush still on his face, his voice soft and urgent: “Weren’t you coming back only at five? It’s only three o’clock!”
In his haste, he hadn’t managed to turn off the vibrator, and now it had touched one of Eno’s sensitive spots, evoking a soft, sticky grunt that made Martin’s anger rise: “So you can take advantage of my absence to do such a thing?!”
Eno pressed the vibrating vibrator to a halt and stubbornly said: “I want it, can’t I? It’s not like you’re willing to touch me.”
Martin was furious: “Are you that horny? Can’t you live without being fucked? Can’t you keep to the O’s way?”
Eno looked at his angry expression and instead pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile, not a hint of amusement on his calm face.
He said softly, “What’s the O’s way? I listened and understood and obeyed my Alpha in everything, but my Alpha and his family never liked or respected me either.”
“If I listen to you now, will you like me?”
Martin choked on his words, and the two men confronted each other in silence for half a moment before Eno sighed and slumped back on the bed.
“You’re still not leaving? Then I’ll continue, I don’t mind if you stay here and listen.”
“I mind.” Martin said morosely, “Your pheromones make me feel uncomfortable.”
Unsatisfied lust screamed through his body, turning to inexplicable fire that rose. Eno said impatiently: “You shouldn’t have come straight in. I bought a pheromone freshener and I’ll spray the house with it inside and out after I’m done. Are you going to leave or not?”
Martin turned his head and left, the door to Eno’s room slamming heavily behind him, and there was no sound after that, wondering if he had hidden himself under the covers. He returned to his room, the smell of Eno’s Omega pheromones lingering on the tip of his nose, already ripe and sweet and cloying, no matter how hard it was to resist, making the Alpha pheromones in his body tingle.
It’s so absurd that he obviously likes Leia, but the genetic match with Eno is so high that it can break through the restraint of reason and trigger the resonance of pheromone that brought out a physical desire.
He went downstairs to pour himself a glass of water, and the house was terrifyingly silent without Eno’s laughter. The doctor’s words echoed in his head again and again, making him feel irritable. One moment he thought it was okay to talk to Eno directly since he is so flirty anyway, and the next he thought that was his brother-in-law, not to mention that Eno shouldn’t be a victim to be his treatment. Ultimately marking and then surgically removing the mark is both physically and emotionally damaging to Omegas. Eno had already had one mark removal surgery before he was imprisoned, and he had promised himself in his heart that he would take care of Eno and couldn’t bear to put him in harm’s way a second time. There was also a deeper hidden emotion growing inside him that Martin didn’t dare to think about and fled to his bedroom, crawling into bed with his palms supporting his body.
His mind was in turmoil. Ever since he had joined the army he had been the calmest and most self-possessed one, and rarely had his mind been in such turmoil as it was now. He went to the bathroom and poured cold water over his face to calm himself down, then lay back down in bed, exhausted, and fell asleep.
The fragments of youth in the dream flashed by like an old movie tape, and the picture was finally frozen on a white bed, where he was tossing and turning with an Omega. Then the scene kept zooming in, from the white ankle all the way up, passing by the flat belly and pink nubs, passing through the swan-like slender neck, and finally stopped on the Omega’s stunning beauty, so clearly seductive in its amber pupils.
It was Eno.
Martin awoke immediately to find his back covered in cold sweat and his underwear so wet and slippery that the slightest movement could shake the thick, sticky bodily fluids inside. The room was swollen with an incredible concentration of Alpha pheromones, and more were escaping from his body in a steady stream.
His pheromones had gone berserk.
Martin hammered the head of the bed in chagrin, the burns on his hands still not fully healed and the pain brought out between the collisions managed to clear his head a little before he heard a thumping at the door: “May I come in?”
Martin’s heart fluttered, he could never let Eno in, such strong Alpha pheromones would send Eno into an immediate pseudo-estrus, Eno’s inhibitors would be useless with such a high pheromone match between the two, things would get out of hand and he would never get his old life back.
“Get lost.” The fear in his heart made him shout out sharply, “I don’t want to see you.”
“I just wanted to see if you were all right…”
“I don’t need you to care.” He said coldly, “You’re too dirty1why he gotta be so mean 😭😭😭.”
The knocking on the door stopped for a moment, and Eno’s footsteps faded away. Relieved, Martin took a tube of Alpha pheromone inhibitor from the bedside table and gave himself a shot in the arm, then opened the window and waited for the pheromone smell to dissipate from the room before opening the door and going downstairs.
The cupboard was full of his nutrient solutions, as if it had been so long since he had drunk them that Martin had forgotten whether they had expired or not. He casually took a bottle and poured it down, the taste was as bland as water for washing pots. The personal terminal told him that it was already 6:30 in the evening, and he didn’t hear any movement from the kitchen. The room is usually already filled with the warm and strong aroma of food at this time on normal days.
The sound of soft, slow footsteps appeared in his hearing and came to the cupboard as well, and left after drinking. Only the incoherent wheezing of the nose gave the hint, and Martin said: “Hey.”
The footsteps paused only slightly, then immediately walked away.
Eno doesn’t care about Martin anymore, and Martin finally had the peace he had wanted when they first married, but found himself not at all as happy as he had thought he would be. It was as if something was always missing and life had become uninteresting, the silence that used to be the norm was completely unbearable and it was always better to have someone around to laugh at. It was like a swarm of ants crawling over his heart, and every time he walked past the living room, he heard the increasingly familiar sound of footsteps, but there were no more warm greetings from Eno.
Even the passage of time had become unbearably long, and he was distracted by the slight sound of the second hand on the wall clock as it turned each time. Dreams of Eno’s magnificent, flamboyant face were always present, accompanied by some unspoken emotion festering in loneliness.
Eno only drank the nutrient solution for a day, and he couldn’t take it anymore, so he went back to the kitchen to cook for himself. Because the kitchen is open plan, the hood is turned up to its maximum power and cannot completely block the oil and gas, so every mealtime, the living room inevitably fills with a tantalising aroma.
But he doesn’t call Martin over for dinner anymore, he cooks for himself and washes the dishes for himself and is happy to live in peace. Although he couldn’t leave the house without Martin’s company under the rules of the prison, if he is lonely, then let him be lonely. At worst, he will volunteer to work overtime at night to tease his lovely Julia.
Finally, one day, as he was entering the kitchen, Martin called out to him: “Eno.”
Eno replied coldly: “What is it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, you said the truth.”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that.” Martin’s tone sounded very sincere, “You are what you are, and you shouldn’t be judged by any standards. I apologise for what I said.”
Eno thought to himself that that sounded like a human thing to say and softened his tone a little: “I forgive you. Is there anything else?”
“……Can I have a bite to eat? I’m dying for it.”
Eno snorted, then the kitchen rumbled with the sound of the range hood, the spatula clattering pleasantly against the iron pan, and the rich aroma of sweet and sour pork came to his nose with a splintering sound as the hot oil burst.
Martin’s mouth watered reflexively and he waited until the kitchen had died down, only to be handed two soft, steamed carrots that smelled like healthy food.
Eno sat next to him with the ribs, gnawing on them, and when he couldn’t eat, he said nonchalantly: “If you don’t want to eat, drink the nutrient solution.”
Martin smiled bitterly with the carrot in his mouth: “I was the one who made the mistake, so you can take it out on me all you want. Can we make up?”
In fact, what he said made him feel a little funny. He didn’t know when he had been ‘good’ with Eno. It was Eno who had come into his life so forcefully and roguishly, turning his ordinary life upside down, and then made him so uncomfortable when he left.
Eno grunted in satisfaction at this and took a piece of deboned meat and shoved it into Martin’s mouth. The ribs were braised so softly that they almost melted in his mouth with the sweet and sour sauce, and Martin was so moved by the taste that he could call it happiness that tears came to his eyes, turning the piece over and over to savour it, refusing to swallow it.
“Carrots are a staple.” Eno laughed, “Not to spite you deliberately. It’s good for your eyes to eat more carrots.”
Martin nodded his head with a whimper as he chewed on his ribs, a bit of a teenage child, and Eno couldn’t help but laugh. He ate his own food first, picked up the rest of the ribs with chopsticks and deboned them, and fed them to Martin piece by piece, saying as he did so: “My body’s been given so many aphrodisiacs that it’s broken down and I’m always wanting more.”
He said it lightly, but the words stuck in Martin’s heart like an awl and hurt like hell. He said in a rush: “I’m wrong.”
“I don’t blame you.” Eno said softly, “I know I’m annoying.”
Martin was about to say something when he heard him say: “But I like myself very much, I made up with myself a long time ago.”
Martin, for a moment envious of his spontaneity, murmured: “I feel like you don’t need an Alpha at all…”
“I do, I do.” Eno said solemnly, “I feel like an Alpha should be better than a vibrator when done properly.”
Both men laughed and the atmosphere became cordial again. Eno fed him the last bite of his ribs and sighed long and hard, “Am I too easy to coax.”
“……”
His charming peach blossom eyes were half narrowed and his slightly red eyes were filled with laughter: “Because I’m afraid you won’t have the patience to coax me if I’m not.”
His words were so heartbreaking that Martin sighed in surrender and said: “I’ll never say anything like that to you again, I promise.”
He added: “And I don’t actually hate you, I’m just more resistant to contact with Omega, nothing personal. You’re very cute.”
No sooner had Martin said that than a warm body burrowed into his arms, sending the fragrant scent of roses. Eno smiled and said: “Then I declare us reconciled!”
A hand caressed the top of his head and rubbed helplessly at the smooth blonde hair. Eno got up when he’d had enough hugs and cleared the table. After dinner, he sat on the sofa and exchanged a glass of beer with Martin.
With a couple of clicks, Eno pried the cap off the bottle by the edge of the marble coffee table and shoved it directly into Martin’s hand: “Have a drink with me.”
Alpha’s natural capacity for alcohol is not bad, and it wasn’t enough to make Martin make any irreversible mistakes when he was drunk, but he was more worried about Eno: “Can you drink?”
“Yeah.” Eno cocked a bottle for himself and tilted his head to take a sip, “I snuck out to the fence to drink alone the night before my wedding and I didn’t get drunk on a bottle.”
Martin’s heart thumped: “What else have you had to drink besides that?”
“No more ah.” Eno found him really baffling, “I’ve proven myself.”
“……”
Martin hesitated for a moment before finally raising the glass bottle in his hand to mid-air. With a crisp crash, he downed the small half of the still-swaying bottle. With the prohibition of alcohol in the army and the multitude of things on his mind all the time, he hadn’t actually drank so freely in a long time.
“A plate of fried peanuts with a sprinkle of salt would be nice.”
“Then I’d have to feed you one more grain.” Eno said, “You wish.”
Martin laughed twice and, without dwelling on it, drank dry with Eno, sip by sip. The evening news was still playing on the television, the old commander of the military was retiring and several of the incumbent commanders were due to have internal campaigns soon, one of them being the first to be exposed as a vote-buyer and being taken straight away by the tribunal for investigation, much reported on the evening news. In addition, the new gender equality bill is being hotly debated in parliament and once passed, Omegas will also be able to gain a degree of access to spousal choice by earning merit points. Finally it was time for the customary Drake time. There was still no news of the Major General and the Federation would launch a fifth round of search and rescue, continuing to expand the search to bring the living Major General to the Omega masses as soon as possible.
Eno muttered darkly: “…Can’t really be dead ba.”
Martin, who heard it with his keen ears: “……”
He suddenly asked: “You said earlier that there was someone you wanted to see, is it really Drake?”
“Yeah, why?”
“That persistent? What do you want to talk to him about?”
“Not saying anything ah.” Eno said, “Just look from afar, knowing he’s not dead is enough.”
Martin sounded odd: “You like him so much, but he doesn’t know it.”
Eno had a wistful look on his face: “At that time I’ll stand in a crowd screaming with a ‘Drake I love you’ banner…he’ll be able to see the banner!”
He speaks of Drake with such a relaxed tone and look, as if they had never met and Drake was really just his dream lover, no different from some other vulgar hobbies. These ambiguous words made Martin uncertain as to what he was thinking, and with trepidation he dared not pursue the matter further, but said in a roundabout way, “Okay, I’ll take you to see him one day if he’s alive.”
This was true, without him, Eno could not go anywhere.
Eno gazed deeply into his empty but black and white eyes, smiled silently and raised the bottle to hold a glass with him.
He said: “Okay ah. Just talking about me, why don’t you talk about yourself?”
“What do you want to hear?”
Eno asked curiously: “Is that Omega of yours beautiful? Is that why you can’t forget about it?”
Martin’s wine bottle suddenly stopped in mid-empty, and after a long time, he poured the remaining half of the bottle into his mouth, and said: “He is not the most beautiful Omega I have ever seen. ‘Like’ this kind of thing, can’t be decided by who looks good, you are too superficial.”
“Then he must be very cute?”
“Very sunny.” Martin nodded, “You feel happy with him, you want to spend time with him when there’s nothing to do, happy.”
Eno sighed in a small voice: “So nice ah. You don’t want to touch other Omegas either because you can’t get over him?”
“Can’t talk about forgetting ba, after all, having someone like that in your life is something you can never forget.” Martin said, “I actually don’t think I’m that affectionate, I just…don’t think I’m ready to start a new relationship, maybe I haven’t met the right person yet.”
He couldn’t get over Lea and didn’t have the confidence to love an Omega with the same passion again, so he might as well not look for one, shut himself off completely and wander around licking his wounds in memories forever.
He laughed to himself: “If I hadn’t been unlucky enough to meet you, I’d still be single at this point.”
“No way.” Eno gloated, “Even if you had rejected me, the Federation would still be persistent in sending you a new wife.”
Martin laughed out loud, “There’s a policy at the top and a policy at the bottom, do you know how many Omega’s out there who don’t want to be assigned are waiting for a negotiated marriage? Spend merit points to bring home a random one and he’ll consciously disappear from your world forever.”
Eno froze: “There’s even such a good thing…why didn’t you look for it?”
Martin thought painfully, because I can’t be Martin for the rest of my life, after being in a coma for six months, repairing broken muscle tissue should have taken a year, who knew this damn neural link could drag on for as long as two years. He had three chances to refuse the assignment in this capacity, and he thought he could delay it until he was well, but his genetic match with Eno was over 90% and his fertility rate was generally so high that the mastermind would not allow him to refuse without a very specific reason.
After a thousand calculations, but in the end it was a bad move, a really bad mistake, so that they could live under the same roof and absurdly sit together and drink.
“Lying in the treatment cabin all the time, there’s no time to find.” He said casually, “If it’s not bad enough to find someone like you.”
Eno laughed when he heard the words, and drank the rest of his beer in one gulp as well. The beer gradually spread to his cheeks, steaming his pale skin pink as he staggered up from the couch and shouted to Martin: “You’ll find the Omega that will bring you a new life!”
Martin laughed bitterly: “I’ll borrow your auspicious words.”
“I have to go to teach Julia…” Eno slurred a little from his drunkenness, “Tomorrow… tomorrow morning I will give you roasted pork floss bread.”
“Sober up before you go, don’t harm other people’s children!”
“I’m…I’m not drunk!”
“Forget it, there should be some sobriety pills in the cupboard, see if they’ve expired…don’t go, come back!”
“I’m not drunk!”
Martin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and said sternly: “Quickly come here!”
The fading footsteps became clearer and Eno turned back with a smoky smell of alcohol. Rummaging around in the cupboard to find what looked like a sobriety pill and poured it down his throat, passing Martin’s wheelchair on his way back and leaning over to plant a strawberry beer-flavoured kiss on his cheek.
He slurred: “I’m really happy today.”
melon: why the chapters gotta be so long 😭