Like the first breeze of spring after a long winter, her faint breath swept across his skin in the darkness, making Erin Xavier freeze in place.

Goosebumps crawled over his skin. He desperately wanted to throw Zoe Pierce off and leap away.

But she was clinging to him, mumbling something under her breath that made his mouth go dry.

"Zoe Pierce!" he called out nervously. "Zoe, what’s wrong with you?"

Before long, the roles were completely reversed.

He reached out and touched Zoe Pierce’s neck. Her skin was far hotter than normal—she felt like a ball of fire. Beads of sweat were already seeping from her neck and hairline.

Erin Xavier kept calling Zoe Pierce’s name, but she didn’t respond at all.

Her temperature was alarmingly high, and so was her spiritual power. Her defensive spiritual power was flickering on and off.

’I have to get out of here.’

Erin Xavier glanced around, but then he felt a pair of soft arms snake around his neck.

His hands hovered hesitantly over her waist. His Adam’s apple bobbed as his palms began to sweat.

"Zoe Pierce, I’m telling you, you’re seducing me right now. And just so you know, I’m not above hitting an Omega," he rushed out, lowering his head to look at her face.

Instead, he saw that the rims of Zoe Pierce’s eyes were flushed crimson as a tear quickly slid from the corner of one eye.

"Don’t..."

"Don’t..."

She was shaking her head.

The sight was a shock to his system. Erin Xavier had never seen Zoe Pierce look so vulnerable.

What’s more, they had never been so close—so close that her entire body was pressed against his.

’Don’t what...?’

’Don’t I push her away?’

Erin Xavier unconsciously licked his dry lips. Every second he spent here felt like torture. Zoe Pierce was definitely not herself...

She clutched her head again unconsciously.

She curled into his embrace, only kept from collapsing because he was holding her up.

The contact sent a jolt of heat through Erin Xavier. ’I’m going to lose my mind,’ he thought. ’What the hell is Zoe Pierce doing? Is it a problem with her gland, or something else?’

He grabbed Zoe Pierce’s arm and finally heard the words she had been muttering: "Dad... don’t go... please don’t..."

Erin Xavier opened his mouth to retort, ’Who are you calling Dad?’ but then it suddenly dawned on him why Zoe Pierce was acting so strangely.

He remembered that Zoe Pierce had gotten amnesia during a mining accident.

This situation was no different from a mining accident—the same dark, enclosed atmosphere, the same dim light and stuffy air...

At this thought, Erin Xavier’s brow furrowed. He began to lightly tap Zoe Pierce’s face. "Zoe, wake up. We’re getting out of here."

He simply scooped Zoe Pierce up in his arms and sprinted over to her Mecha.

His Mecha was damaged, but Zoe Pierce’s was still operational.

Seated at the Mecha’s controls, Erin Xavier glanced back at Zoe Pierce’s face. Strands of her hair were stuck to her forehead. With her eyes squeezed shut, she was nestled quietly beside him, like a little rabbit.

’She’s kind of cute.’

But at the same time, the sight was indescribably heartbreaking.

’Her fever is too high.’

’Fuck. Even if we get out of here, there’s nowhere to find a reliable Beta doctor for her.’ Erin Xavier thought of the doctor they’d just let run away and cursed under his breath.

He reached out to feel her forehead, but just as he was about to pull away, Zoe Pierce’s hand shot up and held his in place. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Hot..."

It was as if Zoe Pierce was trapped in a dream.

Standing in a place buried layer by layer in rock, memories from deep in her consciousness began to surface. She saw her parents. She saw the three of them running through a collapsing mine.

She saw the rocks pinning her father, saw how he used his own body to shield her and her mother, fighting for their survival.

The scenes were hazy, as if veiled in gauze, yet so vivid they felt as if they were happening all over again.

She didn’t know what was happening. She only knew her spirit sea was in turmoil, and her body was growing hotter and hotter, a scalding heat that threatened to drive her mad.

Suddenly, something cool pressed against her skin, as refreshing as a cold drink on the hottest day of summer.

It tried to leave, but Zoe Pierce wouldn’t let it.

She grabbed the cool thing that was trying to escape and rubbed it against her face, but the agonizing heat remained, seemingly impossible to soothe.

The hottest part of her wasn’t her face, but the nape of her neck.

The nape of her neck burned like a branding iron, making her restless to the point of agony. No matter how she tossed and turned, the feverish heat remained.

She pressed this cool thing to the nape of her neck. Then, following the coolness to its source, she found more. Her arms wrapped around it, her body drew closer, and her eyelashes fluttered wildly as she let out a sigh of comfort.

She didn’t know what the cool thing she was pressing against was, only that she was moving against it out of pure instinct.

The one who was suffering was the one who was still conscious.

In the already cramped Mecha cockpit, Zoe Pierce had used her petite size to squirm onto his lap, her arms wrapped tightly around him.

She had even pressed his hand onto her gland.

Erin Xavier knew now. The problem was almost certainly her gland. The only reason Zoe Pierce would suddenly press herself against him like this was that something must have happened to it.

But for him, the position was far too intimate, far too suggestive.

He didn’t dare move.

His body was rigid, as stiff as a statue, letting a beautiful serpent entwine herself around him.

The training suit was supposed to automatically regulate body temperature, but right now, it couldn’t control Zoe Pierce’s fever, nor could it control his own rising heat.

Erin Xavier was so tense he felt like he was going to lose his mind. His heart was hammering in his chest.

With the slightest twitch of his fingers, he could tear off the patch covering her gland.

’She’s been marked by Miles, so it should be fine to peel it back and take a look... right?’

Erin Xavier thought, though he wasn’t so sure.

He felt he was acting too strangely. He should have been piloting the Mecha to get them out of there, but he couldn’t move. It was as if his body was no longer under his own control as his arm tightened around the waist of the woman in his embrace.

Or he should have just shoved her aside and listened to the Omega curse him out, just like she always did.

Not this... this inexplicable desire to help her.

’How could he help?’

’How was an Alpha supposed to help an Omega with a gland problem?’

’Just one look.’

’Just one look, and I’ll know what’s wrong with her...’

Erin Xavier’s fingers moved. The pad of his thumb rubbed the edge of the barrier patch, slowly rolling up a small corner. One more gentle tug was all it would take to see.

His hesitation lasted only two seconds. Then, as if moved by some unseen force, Erin Xavier’s hand acted on its own accord, ripping off the suppression patch.

A rich, intoxicating scent, now completely unobstructed, washed over him.

Erin Xavier couldn’t smell any trace of Miles’s scent. The entire Mecha was filled with nothing but the scent of Zoe Pierce.

Her gland was emitting a scent capable of making any Alpha submit, captivated in an instant.

At that moment, her eyes, shimmering with unshed tears, stared intently at him.

The last thread of his reason snapped. No Alpha could possibly resist such an overwhelming temptation.