Chapter 1

My name was Fang Shuyang, and I was a Beta.

I had a friend named Shen Junze. He was a top-tier Alpha.

He did have one medical problem, though: pheromone overload.

If he didn’t release the excess pheromones in his body, his life would be in danger.

Ever since he’d differentiated at eighteen, he’d spent one day every month shut in a room, letting the surplus pheromones out.

When Shen Junze came out, he’d complain to me about why he had to have this condition. Suffering through it all alone in there was awful.

Eventually, I went to the hospital to ask a doctor about it and discovered there was an easier way to deal with the problem.

He could release the excess pheromones by marking someone else.

Great, a solution! But Shen Junze was an Alpha. He couldn’t just go around biting random Omegas to treat himself. That would be incredibly irresponsible!

Then I had a brilliant idea. Why not let Shen Junze bite me?

I was a Beta anyway. An Alpha’s pheromones wouldn’t stay on me for long.

I’d lose nothing, and I’d be able to help Shen Junze.

Perfect! I was a genius.

When I told Shen Junze my idea, he agreed without hesitation.

And that was how we came to an arrangement: every week, I’d go over and help treat his condition.

It was Friday, the start of my first weekend helping Shen Junze.

The idea behind having him mark me once a week was to let him release a little at a time, so he wouldn’t have such a miserable time at the end of the month.

I was sitting in Shen Junze’s off-campus apartment, waiting for him to mark me and release more of his pheromones.

His parents had rented the place mainly so he’d have somewhere to stay on his own and release his pheromones every month.

I hadn’t visited much. Sure, Shen Junze and I were childhood friends, but we were both adults now. What if he wanted to bring someone over to stay? It would be pretty awkward if I turned up.

For the foreseeable future, though, I’d be spending my weekends here with him.

The main reason was that, apparently, when an Alpha marked a Beta, the Beta carried the Alpha’s pheromones.

They faded quickly on a Beta, but someone with a sensitive nose might still pick them up.

Shen Junze and I had a strictly medical arrangement!

If people found out I smelled like an Alpha, it could seriously interfere with my love life!

To avoid that, we decided I’d stay at his place for two days after he marked me on Friday night.

That would give the pheromones on me just enough time to mostly fade before I went back to class on Monday.

We had it all worked out.