Chapter 343

Daphne

I’ve never hated myself more for consistently taking my pheromone suppressants than I do in this moment.

Every day, without fail. A small pill, swallowed with my morning coffee. A shield against the biology that could make me do things I didn’t want, feel things I didn’t choose.

Now she’s everywhere. Her scent, her pheromones, begging me to knot her.

But the suppressants sit in my bloodstream like a locked door.

No matter how much I want to I can’t. I invested in these suppressants. Made them myself, through my company.

Designed them to be effective, reliable, impenetrable. They were supposed to protect me from this world, from biology that wasn’t mine, from losing control.

They’re working too well.

"Please knot me." Her voice breaks on the words.

"Daphne, please."

System.

A pause. Then:

[Host. I thought you didn’t want me around when you are... copulating?]

The world freezes. Color drains to black and white. Her scent vanishes. The weight of her against me becomes something distant, frozen.

Shut it.

The system store.

The holographic interface materializes in front of me, glowing blue in the frozen world.

I scroll through it frantically, looking for something that can fix this.

[What are you looking for?]

Something to counter the suppressants. A neutralizer. Anything.

The System is quiet for a moment. Then:

[There is a neutralizer. It’s designed for poisons and foreign substances. Suppressants are technically a drug. It would work.]

I find it. 50 SP. How expensive.

Buy.

A glowing syringe materializes in the air. I grab it. Stab it into my neck before I can think about what I’m doing.

Ow.

The sting is immediate. Sharp. Spreading through my veins like ice water.

You fucking—

"Daphne?"

The world snaps back into color. Her voice. Her scent. Her skin under my hands.

And it’s a lot.

Everything tastes good. Her neck, her shoulder, the salt-sweet skin behind her ear. I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop. I lick from her neck to her cheek, slow and deliberate, and she shivers against me.

It’s so tasty. Like honey. Like something I could consume forever and never be full.

My time as the panther may have done permanent damage to me.

***

Vivienne

This is what I wanted. I want the line that separates me from Daphne to blur.

And then it does. It doesn’t just blur; it dissolves.

I love her pheromones so much, I love drowning in the canvas that’s her.

Her grip on my neck tightens, no longer just restricting my air but branding me. Her other hand slides down my stomach, her fingers digging into my hip as she pulls me closer than I already am.

My head falls against her shoulder.

I could die like this.

"Knot me." I ask again.

More like beg.

For a second, there’s nothing. Just the frantic pounding of my own heart in my ears.

Her hips snap forward, a brutal, possessive thrust that forces a sharp cry from my lips. The rhythm changes, becoming erratic, desperate.

The scent of her pheromones thickens, becoming an almost physical weight, pressing down on me, filling my lungs until I can’t think, can’t breathe, can’t do anything but feel.

And then I feel it.

At the base of her, a swelling pressure that wasn’t there a moment ago. It pushes against me with each desperate thrust, a tight, impossible stretch that borders on pain. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

With every thrust, it grows, stretching me, filling me, it’s making my head spin.

My body goes rigid, a string pulled taut. "Daphne," I gasp, my voice breaking. "Yes... yes..."

It all goes black.

*

I ended up actually going on the activities Daphne planned.

It’s exhausting, but it’s so fun.

The dolphins were everything she promised—sleek and curious and impossibly graceful. One of them let me touch its snout, its skin smooth and cool under my fingers, and I laughed so hard I nearly swallowed half the ocean. Daphne was beside me, treading water, watching me with that soft look she tries to hide.

I pretended not to notice. Let her have her secrets.

Then there was the snorkeling. The reef exploded with color—fish in shades I didn’t know existed, coral that looked like something from another world. Daphne kept pointing things out, grabbing my hand to show me an eel hiding in a crevice or a turtle gliding past. Her grip was warm even through the water, grounding.

We ate at a little restaurant on the beach, the kind with plastic tables and string lights and the best grilled fish I’ve ever had. Daphne ordered for both of us, in a language I didn’t understand, and the owner’s wife kept coming out to check on us, pressing more food into our hands, pinching Daphne’s cheek like she was a favorite granddaughter.

"She adopted me," Daphne explained, shrugging. "A few years ago. She says I don’t eat enough."

I looked at the spread of food—rice and grilled fish and vegetables and something sweet I couldn’t name. "She might be right."

"Don’t start."

I laughed. She smiled. The lights swayed overhead.

Now we’re on the deck of the villa, the sun long since set, the stars coming out one by one. I’m wrapped in a blanket, still damp from a last swim, my hair drying in tangles I don’t care to brush. Daphne is beside me, her arm around my shoulders, her thumb tracing circles on my skin.

"I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy," I say.

"Really?" She tilts her head, pretending to consider. "I have."

I shove her with my hand. She laughs, pulling me closer, and I let her. I let myself be pulled, be held, be here.

My eyes catch on the side of the boat, still tied to the dock. Chinese characters painted in dark blue, slightly faded, the kind of thing you’d miss if you weren’t looking.

"What does that say?" I ask.

She follows my gaze. "What? Oh." She’s quiet for a moment. "It means something like... rain...hope."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Her voice is softer now. "Jiang Yuxi."

I look at her. "You sound like a native with that pronunciation."

She laughs, but it’s not her real laugh. It’s the one she uses when she’s hiding something.

"Well." She shrugs. "Daphne Han."

I don’t laugh. "The Hans have been in the city for five generations."

She laughs a little.I look at the characters again. Rain. Hope. They sound like something else. They sound like a name.