However, his heartbeat accelerates even more. Though I’m pretty sure it’s not from stress. His body is hot and firm under my touch, his pulse vibrating beneath my lips. I breathe him in, and I already know it is not cologne or shower gel. It is something subtle and natural, barely there, an intoxicating blend of fresh kiwi and yuzu that makes my head spin.
"What do you want?" he murmurs, his voice sounding rough near my ear.
"A claim on you," I answer in the AO sound language, fully aware he cannot understand a word, but I’m pretty sure he would not approve.
I slowly pull my mouth away from his neck, and suddenly we are face-to-face. His hands rest against my chest, still bound in cuffs. The cigarette is gone, dropped somewhere when I yanked him toward me.
Up close, Salt looks younger and more vulnerable than he does from a distance. My gaze lingers on his soft mouth for a second too long, and those lips twist immediately.
"Talk normally, not in those animal growls of yours. What do you want?"
"Nothing special. But from now on, you’re mine. I won’t let anyone lay a hand on you."
"Wow. Is this that famous alpha possessiveness?" he says, but his voice is strangely uneven, breathy, and his heart keeps pounding.
Looks like he likes it.
Suddenly he lifts his hands higher, gripping the T-shirt fabric at my chest. He pulls me down toward him slowly, and when he tilts his head, I know he is not aiming for a kiss.
I let him draw me closer, and then he does something completely unexpected.
He drags his tongue slowly along my temple and brow, licking away the blood seeping from the cut one of the alphas gave me.
The sensation is strange, especially because I only now discover that Salt has a small piercing at the tip of his tongue.
He pulls back slightly, tilting his head, and I see my blood on his parted lips.
He laughs like he’s crazy, then shoves me away with a sharp push and takes a step back.
"That alpha mating crap won’t work on me. You’ll need a different strategy," he says, then bends down, picks up his cigarette, and sticks it back in the corner of his mouth like nothing happened.
And yet, despite his words, I know exactly what I felt when I pressed him against me. The hardness against my thigh. So the alpha mating crap worked after all? I exhale slowly and fight the urge to adjust myself, because I am dealing with the same unexpected reaction, which feels absurd given how bizarre this entire situation is.
I lean back against the bus, and only then do I notice Gross staring at us with his mouth hanging open.
"Yeah, I know how it probably looks to a beta, but I can’t help what I am." I shrug.
"How did you manage to stay on your feet after a taser hit? I’ve never seen anyone take that and still move."
I let out a dry, slightly pained laugh.
"Like all my brothers, I’ve got a metal rod installed in my body. My uncle put it there so he could shock us when he decided we were being disobedient." I glance up at the sky, fully aware that Salt can hear every word.
"Over time, you build a certain tolerance. Maybe more mental than physical. Electricity is still electricity, but it’s enough to make a difference."
"Well," Gross mutters philosophically, "sometimes a curse comes with a blessing."
Salt stays quiet, but I catch his eyes flicking toward me from the corner of my vision.
He keeps smoking in silence, drawing in deep breaths, his heart still racing. Interesting. Maybe he is only tough on the surface? Underneath, his body reacts like anyone else’s would after an attempted rape.
"Are you okay?" I ask, keeping my gaze fixed on the distance, on the buildings lining the side of the state road, not wanting to push him.
"What should I expect from alphas? You’re animals. That never changes. I’m not surprised."
He does not answer how he feels. He only talks about his attackers. Evasive. So I don’t answer. What would I even say?
It’s true. Alphas have much higher testosterone levels than the humans who lived before ABO society, whose hormone ranges were closer to those of betas. Both alphas and omegas function at far higher hormonal extremes, which means our instincts run deeper and often overpower reason. For alphas, learning control can take time and usually requires firm guidance during their teenage years, ideally from a strong alpha, to prevent enteringMusth. If those early energetic patterns are weak or flawed, instability later on is almost inevitable. I owe my own energetic structure to Uncle Albert, who was a mature and stable alpha.
