I knew that rabbits could be discreet, but these two were on an entirely different level. Their steps made no sound at all, yet they weren’t slow—quite the opposite. Oren and Ravenne were charging ahead. I followed without too much trouble, less silent, but Oren easily corrected my trajectory whenever it grew too noisy. He did it effortlessly, as if he were used to it. This certainly wasn’t his first time here, nor the first time he’d had to adjust a newcomer.

We had climbed up to the eighty-seventh level. What Oren had called “elevators” had taken us up quickly. They only existed from the upper half of the levels onward. Thankfully, my legs had been strengthened by all those stairs I’d had to climb just to reach my prison cell. It had been exhausting—but those two looked like they were made of titanium. Not once did they pant or tremble.

All of this led us “here.” We were standing on the roof of a large factory, and while Oren and Ravenne were fiddling with something, I leaned forward to look at the height we were at. Unsurprisingly, it was dizzying. Falling from there meant certain death, and yet we had climbed without fear. Oren said this was where we’d find what was needed for heats and pheromones. I had no trouble believing him. Pawns guarded the main entrance of the building—the only real one. Or almost.

Oren called out to me, and I turned toward him, stepping away from the void. He had opened some kind of hatch hidden in the roof.

"The outside isn’t very well guarded, but the inside? If those meds are important, couldn’t we end up seriously screwed?"

"If we get caught, we’ll have a bad time," Oren said, wiggling his stitched fingers. "But we just have to avoid that. We ‘pay’ the guards at the beginning of every month so they’re a bit more… lax during their rounds."

Still, my gaze stayed fixed on his fingers. Fuck—why had he wiggled them like that? I looked down at mine, so beautiful and precious. He wasn’t implying that the punishment for getting caught was having your fingers cut off, right? Hey, I desperately needed those! To eat, to punch, to grab things, to piss—and even to jerk off once I had a libido! I swallowed hard as Oren laughed freely. Ravenne, still silent and emotionless, handed me a rabbit mask. Oren put one on as well.

"Come on! We’ve got omegas to pamper—and a general orgy to prevent!"

He let himself drop without hesitation. I stared at the height before sighing. My heart briefly stopped when I saw him disappear like that, but there were only a few meters between us and a metal platform. Even then, he made no sound. Ravenne the mute followed him, silent as his shadow, and then it was my turn. I was a little worried about my landing. I was going to make one hell of a racket. Not that I weighed much—but still, come on.

Oren apparently agreed, because before my feet even touched the ground, he caught me. His hands around my waist received me as if I weighed nothing. He set me down gently, and I noted that his mask didn’t serve much purpose. Even with the top half of his face hidden, I could easily recognize his wide smile. And that was without even mentioning his pheromones. They were so… thick?

It felt like a generous layer of syrup wrapping around me—serene, undisturbed, impenetrable. I thanked him, and he stayed there for a few long seconds, watching me without saying a word, still smiling. Yet his piercing eyes seemed to speak for him. Unfortunately, they were unreadable to me. A faint metallic sound finally drew his attention away. Ravenne had started pulling on a chain.

"Wait here with Ravenne, my little bunny. All right? I’ll go down, grab what we need, and we’ll leave."

I nodded. I didn’t really understand my importance here in that case, but if this was better, then yeah. A platform littered with scraps of metal was lifted by Ravenne, and Oren climbed onto it while the mute lowered it back down. That’s when I realized the hole in the roof hadn’t been made by them. Looking closer, there was construction work underway. I doubted it was a coincidence—those two had known exactly where to look.

The building was fairly dark, and above all, deathly silent. I crouched to try and see Oren, but he was already gone from the platform. And then I saw all that light. No—the place wasn’t dark at all. Quite the opposite. I saw a vast expanse of machines whose precise, millimetric movements created and assembled pills and liquids. It was a massive production of suppressants—and many other things besides. It was impressive.

I shifted slightly to take in more of it. The regular, calculated motions were… hypnotic. So was that white light. I crouched lower, without making a sound, and closed my eyes to listen to the machinery. It was so subtle it blended into the silence. I had never known such calm, and it went so well with the pheromones Oren was giving off. No matter where he was, I could feel him. Even their scent wasn’t aggressive.

"I regret not knowing more scents and colors."

That confession—unexpected, at least to me—made me open my eyes. I regretted it. I regretted it simply because what Oren was giving off soothed me. I shook my head, rolling my eyes at my own softness, and my gaze fell on Ravenne, who was still firmly holding the chain. Calmly, he avoided meeting my eyes for longer than necessary, and it deeply irritated me. What was his fucking problem? Did he even know how to talk?

"Does my handsome face really bother you that much?"

No answer, but his jaw tightened. So I was annoying him on top of everything else. What an idiot. That was even worse—letting me know I annoyed him. It made me want to keep going so badly.

"I really look like I piss you off."

His pheromones hit me full force. A loud “shut the fuck up” would’ve had the same effect—and yet I’d barely whispered. His were electric. And that wasn’t just a figure of speech. That asshole literally seemed to have electricity running through his damned identity. And hell, it was really cold when it hit me. His scent wasn’t unpleasant—but his presence was. Throwing that fucking warning in my face pissed me off to the highest degree. I stood up, intent on insulting him and warning him back, but Oren’s laughter cut me off.

"Run! There was an unexpected guard!"

And it made him laugh. I mean—truly. He was laughing. He was completely insane, and maybe I was too, because it made me smile. I mean… his laughter was contagious. And when he shouted, “I took the stairs,” with such obviousness that it even pulled a laugh out of me. It was absurd, and shit—I didn’t want to lose a finger! I saw him coming at full speed, the bag stuffed and slung over his back, while Ravenne sprang up in a sharp, agile leap onto the roof. He grabbed the edge and hauled himself up.

So yeah, I wanted to do the same, but first—I wasn’t his fucking ground kangaroo, and second—I wasn’t a giant compared to those two! I tried to jump, failed miserably, and Ravenne—that… thing—finally showed his first expression toward me. A deeply mocking, satisfied laugh briefly curved his lips, and I had the urge to tear them right off. Bastard. I jumped again, putting all my strength into it, and Ravenne reached out at the same time Oren wrapped an arm around my waist to haul me up.

Ravenne, despite his appalling personality, helped and pulled me to the surface. Oren needed no help at all, and his amusement showed no sign of fading.

"They’ve got firearms!"

I shot him an indignant look as the two of them took off running. I did the same, a second or two behind, but the distance was already widening. Behind me, I saw guards climbing up through the opening, their weapons emerging with them. I didn’t want to end up like Swiss cheese! When the first gunshot rang out, I prayed to be invisible. I would’ve gladly ripped out his throat, but bullets didn’t pass through me. Ahead of me, Ravenne and Oren leapt. Literally, those rabbits jumped straight onto the opposite rooftop.

But once again, they overestimated the distance I was capable of covering. Even they had to cling to the edge of the neighboring roof. And damn it, I was far from forgetting the height separating us from the ground! Still, Oren’s voice rang out, cutting through the gunfire as their arms stretched toward me. Fuck—those lunatics really wanted me to—

"JUMP!"

And their damned yellow eyes were locked on me. They were really waiting for me to do it. Okay. Okay. I took a deep breath, my foot touching the very edge of the roof.

I launched myself into the void, with the sole hope that these strangers would catch me.

And just as my heart gave out under the weight of imminent death, they caught me. Both of them dropped at once, killing my heart with the sudden sensation, and clung effortlessly to every small corner of the buildings. I was thrown into Ravenne’s arms, clinging desperately to his clothes. They hadn’t let go—not once. And yeah, we’d fallen together, but it had saved us.

They descended like that all the way to the ground. We had climbed using proper paths through buildings like restaurants or shops—but not by doing… something like that. And yet, we’d survived. The gunshots weren’t even audible anymore. Oren touched down first, and Ravenne let go of me into his arms before joining us. All three of us looked up toward the rooftop where the guards had given up. No doubt they’d come looking for us—but not right now.

I let my head fall back into the void while my body was supported by Oren.

"Shit, I can’t feel my legs anymore," I admitted as they trembled. "I really thought I was going to die."

Oren’s laughter, which had faded until then, returned.

"That means you want to survive, my little bunny. That’s a good thing."

And I let myself be carried, without protest. I hadn’t done anything, but I was exhausted from the rush of emotions. I mimed fainting as we took the elevator. I only agreed to walk again once we reached our floor—the ninth. We returned to the hideout, where life had gone on as usual. But when Oren and Ravenne came back into view, everyone gathered around, and we took our place at a table. You didn’t have to be a prophet to understand that those two were considered leaders.

And more than that, there was a strong sense of familiarity around the serene one and the mute. I mean… you only had to look. An omega came to wrap his arms around Oren’s shoulders, and children hurried over to cuddle Ravenne. No one paid any special attention to my presence anymore, and that was… refreshing.

"Okay, okay," Oren began, stroking the omega’s hand. "So, I’ve got your contraceptives, sweetheart."

He handed them to the omega clinging to him, who rewarded him by offering his throat. I recognized the scene from Break and Ivan. That boy trusted Oren blindly. More than that—he waited patiently for intent. I met the alpha’s attentive gaze. An unreadable smile curved his lips as he removed his mask, set it down on the table, and finally pressed his nose against the omega’s throat. The shivers rippling across the younger one’s skin went unnoticed by no one.

Then Oren focused back on the meds. He made four piles, one of which he pushed to the far end of the table, where everyone immediately gathered. The omega remained draped over his shoulders, and the same went for the children around Ravenne. Three piles remained. No one spoke loudly in the hideout. Everyone simply went about their quiet little life.

"Your channelers. Your contraceptives. Your inhibitors."

I raised an eyebrow.

"It’s a bit different here. Suppressants aren’t like they are in prison. Whether you want it or not, your pheromones will take over again. Here, these meds are meant to channel them."

"So many fancy names for our meds," I mocked.

Oren and the omega laughed softly.

"You take one channeler every morning. During the week of your heat, you don’t take any, and you resume the day after your cycle ends. It’s not a very harsh treatment. It’ll just regulate your pheromones. You’ll be able to stop once you’re used to them and know how to use your pheromones—but during your heat, it’ll just make you suffer."

I nodded as he pushed the pile toward me.

"The contraceptives… I think you know how to use those, but… you take one on the day your heat starts, and the other at the end of it. That is, if you plan on having sexual relations."

"I feel like you’re talking to a kid."

He shrugged with a smile and handed me the second pile.

"And your inhibitors. You take one if you don’t want any sexual contact during your heat. As soon as you feel it coming, you inject this syringe by pressing here," he showed me. "But be careful. It hurts."

I had enough to last quite a while with everything he’d given me. I didn’t need to worry about any of that anymore.

"It’s been a long day. You should go take a bath. Come back and join us for dinner in two hours."

"A bath?"

Oren nodded, and I frowned.

"I can?" I double-checked. "I mean… maybe others need it more than I do? I’m not saying they smell or anything, but I took my last shower a few months ago. I’m used to the small toilets."

Oren’s smile vanished. In fact, everyone’s smile did. The atmosphere grew heavy—especially when the leader’s once-serene pheromones became as crushing as a thousand men. I struggled to breathe.

"Go take a bath."

It was more of an order. His voice, now as dark as what he was giving off, turned to the omega on his shoulders.

"Malik, take care of him."