Pheromone Blocker Patch

That Monday was sunny, and the temperature had even climbed two degrees.

Warm afternoon sunlight streamed through the company's glass windows, making the office feel cozy. Anyone who had just finished their lunch break shouldn't have looked tired, but Lin Meng was slumped over her desk like a wilted flower, brows knitted in gloom.

Liu Yun had noticed something off about Lin Meng since that morning. Lin Meng was usually quiet and reserved, but she was the most driven and ambitious person on the team. Today, though, she had made several mistakes while revising the proposal.

So Liu Yun walked over to Lin Meng's workstation, concerned. “Mengmeng, are you all right? Are you feeling unwell?”

Lin Meng slowly lifted her head at the sound of her voice and forced a smile at Liu Yun. “Oh, it's you, Team Lead. I'm fine—I just got up too fast this morning and now I have a bit of a headache.”

Concern crossed Liu Yun's face. “Does it still hurt? Want me to drive you to the hospital?”

Lin Meng quickly waved her hands. “No, no, I'll just lie down here for a bit.”

She was only a little uncomfortable. If she took leave now, she'd lose this month's perfect attendance bonus. It wasn't worth it.

Seeing how insistent she was, Liu Yun didn't push further. “I have headache medicine at my desk. It works really well. I'll bring you some in a bit.”

Lin Meng dipped her head in gratitude. “Thank you, Team Lead.”

The moment she lowered her head, a small section of her neck showed beneath the edge of her black turtleneck. Liu Yun caught sight of a patch on the back of Lin Meng's neck that closely matched her skin tone. Puzzled, she asked, “What happened to your neck?”

A flicker of guilt crossed Lin Meng's eyes. She instinctively touched the patch on the back of her neck. “Oh... this? I just slept on it wrong.”

Liu Yun was actually a B-rank alpha herself. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she thought she caught a faint whiff of omega pheromones on Lin Meng—and not just any pheromones. These belonged to an extremely high-grade omega.

“A-rank?”

“No, even higher.”

Just as she was growing suspicious, a message popped up on Lin Meng's phone. Lin Meng glanced at it out of the corner of her eye, and her face immediately fell.

Liu Yun saw it too. It was from a contact saved as ‘Landlord.’

It was a message urging Lin Meng to pay her rent.

At the sight, Liu Yun dismissed her doubts. S-rank omegas always had extremely high standards, after all. How could an ordinary beta like Lin Meng possibly get close to someone like that?

She must have imagined it.

As Liu Yun turned to leave, she patted Lin Meng's shoulder as if to comfort her. “Don't overwork yourself. If you're really not feeling well, don't push through it—make sure to tell me. I'm not an unreasonable boss.”

Lin Meng snapped back to attention. “Mm, thank you, Team Lead.”

Liu Yun might be reasonable, but Lin Meng's salary wasn't. Taking leave would still cost her pay. So unless she had a fever of thirty-nine degrees, Lin Meng wouldn't take a day off.

......

After Liu Yun left, Lin Meng let out a breath of relief. Truth be told, she'd been terrified Liu Yun would realize what was on the back of her neck wasn't a medicated patch at all, but a pheromone blocker—a patch that masked omega pheromones.

The reason Lin Meng had been so listless all day was that the events of that night kept replaying in her mind.

That night, Yun Huaizhu had used her as a human body pillow and held her all night. Exhausted from being tossed around, Lin Meng had unknowingly fallen asleep too.

Since she had to go to work every day except her rest days, her unfailingly accurate biological clock woke her at exactly eight in the morning.

The heat period of a newly differentiated omega generally lasted three to seven days. Lin Meng only dared to get up carefully after confirming Yun Huaizhu was sound asleep. But she didn't dare leave the hotel room easily, afraid Yun Huaizhu would appear silently behind her like a ghost again.

Who said omegas in heat were delicate, soft, and gentle? Yun Huaizhu was the kind of omega who could scare a person to death!

Lin Meng ordered omega heat suppressants online, along with a pair of pants. Same-city delivery for the pants was outrageously expensive—the pants cost a hundred yuan, and the delivery fee was fifty-eight. Add in the mid-quality suppressants she bought, and her wallet was really hurting.

While Yun Huaizhu was sound asleep, Lin Meng gave her the omega suppressant.

Before using it, she had checked the instructions several times over. Only after confirming that the suppressant she bought wouldn't harm Yun Huaizhu's body did she administer it.

Because the suppressant contained sedative ingredients, her movements didn't wake Yun Huaizhu.

Only after everything was done did Lin Meng get fully dressed, bundle herself up tightly, and leave the hotel.

Though the execution of her plan had been a bit bumpy, the result was perfect. As Lin Meng headed home with dark circles under both eyes, she was so happy she didn't feel tired at all.

But on her way back, many people kept looking at her strangely—even... whispering among themselves. She caught a few of their words.

“Why is she giving off such a strong omega scent?”

“How can she just walk around reeking of pheromones like that?”

Realizing something was wrong, Lin Meng immediately got off the bus and ran to a nearby pharmacy for a pheromone blocker, which she applied over the spot where Yun Huaizhu had bitten her.

She'd thought that would be foolproof, but when she was about to lie down in her rental apartment, the stinging pain on the back of her neck reminded her—it really hurt!

Lin Meng was just an ordinary beta. She couldn't smell Yun Huaizhu's pheromones, but Yun Huaizhu's S-rank omega pheromones could be detected by other alphas and omegas. As long as those pheromones hadn't dissipated, they could affect the people around her.

Lin Meng had no choice but to pass the blocker off as a medicated patch on her neck.

She told herself that once the wound healed, Yun Huaizhu's pheromones would naturally dissipate too—right?

......

She didn't know how long she had slept. When she opened her eyes, aside from a slight dizziness, she felt no discomfort. Sunlight streamed through the gap in the hotel's partially closed curtains, falling across Yun Huaizhu's slightly flushed face.

Yun Huaizhu rubbed her forehead, then seemed to sense something was wrong.

Alarm flared in her heart as she began scanning her surroundings with wary eyes. This seemed to be some hotel... What had happened? How had she ended up here?

Then she looked down and realized her clothes were gone.

Anger and fear intertwined within her.

A possibility immediately came to mind.