Chapter 2
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
One scent was as warm as an amber sunset, while the other was as crisp as pine needles in morning frost.
One drifted upward, the other settled down.
They intertwined in the air, blending into a fragrance I'd never known before.
"Alpha..." Ethan breathed.
Ethan's eyes widened in disbelief, tears still streaking his cheeks as his expression shifted from aggrieved to utterly stunned.
"You lied to me for three years?" Ethan choked out.
"Look who's talking," I shot back.
I kept my face completely blank.
"You lied to me for three years too, didn't you? Weren't you supposed to be a Beta?" I asked.
Ethan blurted out, "I didn't know. I swear I didn't. When I presented, I got tested three times, and every single time it said Beta.
"Who would've thought I'd go through a second presentation at thirty?"
He was getting more and more worked up, but then he suddenly stopped.
His eyes suddenly lit up, like a spark had been ignited behind them.
"Wait, you're an Alpha? Does that mean our mental bond could be even deeper? Does that mean I could leave my mental mark on you too?" Ethan asked.
Without a second thought, I grabbed my phone and dialed emergency services.
I said, "We have a newly presented SSS-level Alpha here, and he's extremely agitated.
"Suspected neurological disorder, severe cognitive impairment."
"I'm not sick." Ethan was getting anxious.
"He said he wanted to leave a mental mark on another Alpha," I continued.
The operator was silent for three seconds.
"Sir, Alphas have extremely strong mental barriers. There's no way another Alpha could leave a mental mark on them. Are you sure you're not imagining it?" the operator asked.
"I wish it were just my imagination," I replied.
After hanging up, I looked down at him.
He was curled up in a ball, his face buried in the pillow, with just his tear-filled eyes showing.
The spark in his eyes was gone now, replaced by a look of raw, frightened awareness.
"So I can't leave my mental mark on you?" he asked, his voice trembling.
"It's impossible for one Alpha to leave a one-way mental mark on another Alpha. That's how it works," I said flatly.
Ethan suddenly burst into tears, bawling even harder than before.
The ambulance arrived.
Three fire trucks had gathered outside the apartment complex.
James was sweating bullets as he tried to explain to the firefighters. "It's not a fire. An Alpha presented, and his pheromones set off the security system."
"What kind of situation would set off an alarm this serious?" one of the firefighters asked, clearly skeptical.
The firefighters didn't buy it.
"SSS-level," James looked like he was about to cry. "This is the first time I've ever seen something like this."
The paramedics came up and gave Ethan a sedative.
After running the full isolation protocol, they barely managed to get that warm, amber sunset scent out of the room.
One of the doctors remarked, "A second presentation in an adult Alpha is almost unheard of.
"His pheromone profile is totally unique, it's not even in the system.
"The impact on Omegas is nearly 400 percent higher than a typical SSS-level Alpha's."
The doctor looked up.
"Where is his Omega mate? It is best for them to keep their distance. This concentration could easily trigger a chain reaction," the doctor said.
I stood off to the side and cleared my throat. "I'm his wife."
The doctor turned to look at me. "You're an Omega?"
"Alpha."
The doctor dropped his pen.
"*****
Ethan was kept in the hospital for observation."
I spent the whole night with him in his hospital room.
The doctor said his vitals were stable, and he'd just need a few days of monitoring.
But I could not leave. Every time I tried to get up, he woke.
It wasn't a coincidence. It was like some kind of bond between us.
The scent of sunset would suddenly grow stronger the moment I tried to leave, like an invisible hand tugging at my clothes, holding me back.
"Don't go," he whispered.
He said nothing, but his scent silently begged me not to leave.
It was a silent SSS-level plea that simply could not be refused.
I tried three times, but every single time, I failed.
I, Vivian, the infamous "Mr. Johnson" everyone in the industry feared, was stuck in a hospital chair by a newly presented Alpha, all because of his damn pheromones.
If this ever got out, I'd never live it down in this industry.
"*****
The next morning, my assistant called."
"Mr. Johnson, your husband is trending online," she said.
"Go on," I said.
"A gossip account posted at night, saying the sprinklers went off in some apartment complex because the security system got triggered. Rumor has it a top celebrity Alpha had some episode, and they even posted a photo of the fire trucks outside.
"The comments section is going wild. Someone said it happened on the eighteenth floor and that the owner's last name is Cooper.
"Ethan's fans are swarming in. Some are digging up your wedding photos, insisting he's a Beta so there's no way this could happen to him. And someone even caught you on camera carrying him out of the building last night."
She paused for a moment.
"It's trending as: [Ethan Carried Out of the Complex by a Mystery Alpha Late at Night]," she said.
I was speechless.
I logged into Twitter.
Ethan's name was right there at number three on the trending list.