“Think of it like… you breathe, right? It’s as simple and natural as that. With every breath you take in, you draw a little more of your nature into your body, and every time you breathe out, you share it with all of us. It’s an endless cycle, and that’s what we all call ‘pheromones.’”

To illustrate Malik’s explanation, the artificial intelligence created a diagram. It showed a silhouette surrounded by wisps, and they did indeed flow from the body with every breath in the simplest way imaginable. It looked as easy as being alive, yet somehow, I still struggled. Malik demonstrated it for me, and I could sense his pheromones without any difficulty, but that was true for all the Greys. The problem was me.

“In prison, I couldn’t sense any pheromones. We were all deprived of that, and since I’ve never known anything else, I think that makes things complicated.”

“Of course. That’s normal. Oren says you’ll need time to acclimate, but the fact that your body triggered a false heat is a good start. It means things should settle into place soon,” Malik reassured me.

His hand settled on my shoulder, stroking it with a sincerity that made me smile. He was patient. We’d been at this for hours now, and honestly, this was the simplest metaphor he’d given me so far. So I tried to reproduce what he had described. Breathe in… I was an omega. It was in my nature. Breathe out… share it with everyone else. I could feel something swelling inside my chest, but before I could release it, it faded away.

Malik gave me a slightly apologetic smile and shook his head. I had failed. The simplest, most natural thing in the world for all of us… and I couldn’t do it.

“You’d probably have an easier time if Oren or Ravenne were here. It’s no coincidence that Ravenne triggered your heat, or that you threw yourself into Oren’s arms when he came to soothe you.”

I raised an eyebrow, a mocking smile on my lips.

“I can admit they’re sexy. It’s a slightly terrifying kind of charm, but I think I like danger. And they smell fucking divine.”

Malik seemed to blush, though it was hard to tell against his grey skin. Still, he cleared his throat awkwardly. That part was obvious enough!

“You could let them establish more physical contact. It would soothe you. And with that kind of stimulation, it would probably be easier for you to control your pheromones.”

“How many omegas get that kind of contact with Oren and Rabbit Mask, huh? You let them sniff you too,” I teased with a smile.

The moment the words left my mouth, I realized they could sound like jealousy. Truthfully, it was nothing like that. I was just curious. I remembered what had happened. I hadn’t exactly been lucid during my supposed “heat,” but I had wanted everything I said, and I had meant every word. That was precisely the problem—I had meant them. I had wanted Oren’s and Ravenne’s fangs in my nape, wanted to be bound to them, wanted them to mark me. Now that my mind was clear again, I could reconsider it, but the idea didn’t disgust me.

Quite the opposite.

“Oren and Ravenne are the ones who saved us. We naturally turn to them because they’re our protectors. For the omegas in the gang, that’s even more true. Every omega needs a protective figure, whether that’s a friend, a father, a brother…”

“Or prison companions,” I realized. “Oren and Ravenne are what Ivan and Break are to me. You don’t feel desire. Just safety.”

That made things clearer. Sure, I always liked saying that if I’d ever had to spend my heat with anyone, it would have been those two, but did I really mean it? Ivan and Break had always known exactly what to say at the right moment. They were probably the only people I could have surrendered myself to without fearing they would take advantage of me, but that was trust—not desire.

What I had felt with Oren and Ravenne…

I had desired them.

Maybe because they had been the first ones there for my heat.

Or maybe because it was specifically them.

“Oren and Ravenne took me under their wing when I arrived. How am I supposed to tell the difference when it comes to desire? I mean, how do I know I wanted them because I actually wanted them—specifically them—and not just because they happened to be the ones who found me on my first day?”

Malik answered without the slightest hesitation.

“Have you seen the state of your throat and neck? They covered you in marks and pheromones. You were ravaged, and you let them do it.”

I raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to continue. But the door opened, and the artificial intelligence shut down at the sudden intrusion. I wasn’t surprised to find Oren standing there. Wherever I was, he always ended up there eventually, no matter how long it took him. The room quickly filled with his pheromones, as sweet as syrup, and I closed my eyes for a brief moment. I could still detect traces of Ravenne within them, fizzing across my tongue as always.

“I don’t smell any progress. Your pheromones aren’t greeting me.”

I looked up at him, and his steps came to a halt as his smile blossomed into something even more delighted. His yellow eyes seemed to shine brighter as he erased the space between us. He crouched in front of me, and my body shivered against my will beneath the increased strength of his scent. I genuinely felt as though I were drowning in it; as though his fragrance were too thick for me to ever claw my way free; as though the harder I struggled, the deeper I sank.

“Or at least, not deliberately. Are you trying to suffocate me, my little bunny?”

His fingers stroked my throat, and I gave him more room with a barely controlled tilt of my head. Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.

“An alpha is still an alpha,” I teased. “Hard to stop admiring your handiwork, huh?”

He made no attempt to hide it. It was as obvious as the nose on his face that he was admiring the state Ravenne and he had left my throat and nape in. No one had failed to notice it and, just as Malik had said, I had been ravaged—covered in bites and purplish marks that, I had to admit, looked spectacular against my skin. I had taken pleasure in running my fingers over them without even seeing them while touching myself, my nose buried in the jackets he and Ravenne had left me.

I had spent twenty-one years never feeling the need for it, yet now it seemed difficult to go even an hour without wrapping my hand around myself. And whenever one of those two was nearby, it was worse.

Oren’s presence…

“Ravenne enjoys admiring it too, whenever your back is turned and your nape is exposed. An alpha is still an alpha,” Oren confirmed with a laugh.

The sound sent a cascade of shivers down my spine while heat bloomed deliciously in my lower stomach. As Malik had explained to me—as one might explain it to a child—pheromones reacted to emotions and changed along with them. Considering how thoroughly arousal was overwhelming me, I imagined mine must have made that more than obvious, because Malik stood up, cheeks flushed, under Oren’s gaze and mine before quietly slipping away.

“You’ve been here for more than a week now. How do you feel?”

I didn’t particularly want to talk about it in my current state, and Oren seemed to understand, because his nose pressed against my throat when I tipped my head back to offer it to him. There it was again—that intoxicating, delicious feeling; the sense that I could surrender myself to him and discover every meaning behind the words “desire” and “pleasure.”

I wanted to know all their secrets.

So I breathed in deeply until I overflowed with his pheromones.

Their sweetness almost stung my throat.

“For every question I ask, I’ll expect an answer. And for every answer you give me, I’ll give you a reward.”

His breath was scorching. I nodded vigorously, making him laugh. His fingers closed around my nape, and he guided me until I was lying on the floor, face down.

“How have you felt since you arrived?”

His voice was nothing more than an amused whisper against my ear. He wasn’t touching me, but I could feel the warmth of his body hovering above mine; his breath against the sensitive strip of skin exposed by my clothes; the overwhelming presence of his entire being; his scent enveloping me far beyond reason.

“I like being with the Greys,” I sighed contentedly. “When I arrived, I… hated all the scents outside. I don’t really care where I am, and I honestly don’t feel the need to climb. Not the way you do…”

His tongue swept generously across my nape, and I raised my hips in search of more contact. I couldn’t stop the moan that escaped me.

“Continue,” he ordered.

“I care more about who I’m with, and who I should bring up with me if I’m destined to climb like you believe. And if I have to choose who I surround myself with, then for now, it’s you, Ravenne, Malik, and the people who matter to you.”

He began pressing languid kisses into the hollow of my shoulder. I could feel his damp lips moving back and forth, coating me in a wet desire that aroused me and probably would until the day I died. I arched beneath him.

“‘For now’?”

“I tend to go… wherever the wind takes me. Wherever gives me the best chance of surviving. I… I don’t take any real pleasure in being alive, and I don’t have any true wishes, but I don’t want to die. And ‘for now,’ I like what I’m discovering with you and Ravenne, and I like Malik’s gentleness… and I like what it feels like to be around the Greys.”

His body pressed against mine, and I thought I had to learn how to breathe all over again. The relief of feeling his thighs fit against mine was overwhelming; of feeling his chest press against my back; of feeling his cock pressed against my ass. Just like the previous times, I could feel a slick fluid gathering between my cheeks as my own cock hardened.

“And what happens when Jill gets here? What if your friends from prison show up before you reach the top?”

“Jill is a guard. He’s always been a guard, and I’ve always been a prisoner. There’s always been this…”

My voice died in my mouth for several long seconds as I lifted my hips, pressing my ass harder against him. Desire made his pheromones even sweeter, so powerful that they made my head ache.

“There’s always been this distance between him and me… He’ll never understand what I went through, and I’ll never understand him either, but… he’s my friend, in a way. When he gets here… it won’t be for long.”

“The wind won’t carry you to him,” Oren realized, his eternal amusement still present.

He nibbled at my nape, and I trembled beneath his mouth. Judging by the sound that escaped his throat, he particularly enjoyed that.

“And Ivan and Break… they got life sentences. I’m counting on… on the advantage granted to number one. I want to use my wish to ask that those two… be allowed to climb to the next level with me. It’s one of the only things that could motivate me.”

Oren remained completely still for several long seconds, and without being able to see his face, I had no idea what was happening or what he might be thinking. His hands settled firmly into the hollows of my hips before he began rocking against me, and that simple movement alone made me see stars. I threw my hands backward, my fingers tangling in his hair as long moans escaped me.

“That kind of wish isn’t allowed. You can’t ask for other players—or future players—to climb with you.”

I shook my head, unable to form a sentence for several seconds.

“They’re probably already trying to find me,” I finally managed.

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I would do the same.”

Oren’s hand settled over my cock through my clothes, and it only took a few strokes before I came against his palm.

“Then good luck to them, my little bunny.”