Zoe Pierce really wanted to grab Chase Shaw by the collar and shake him, to make him see what the hell he was doing.

Holding her while telling her to shut up?

A complex mix of emotions flashed across her face.

In terms of strength, Zoe Pierce knew she couldn’t break free from Chase Shaw. She had to find another way.

Fortunately, her spiritual power seemed unaffected by Chase and was still usable. The man’s body tensed, sensing something. The arm holding her tightened slightly as his eyes scanned their surroundings.

Zoe Pierce frowned and froze.

After a moment of confusion, he lowered his head again.

Zoe tried to see if she could use her spiritual power to touch his and make him let go. She couldn’t let him hold her like this every time his spiritual power went out of control.

If he hadn’t just been holding her, with no other movements, she would have lost it by now.

She had no intention of seducing them. On the contrary, they were the ones who kept doing things that could be easily misunderstood.

But this plan quickly disappointed Zoe. Without skin contact, her spiritual power could only either attack Chase Shaw’s spirit sea or envelop it protectively, like she had done for Erin Xavier.

There was no way to soothe him like she could through touch, to untangle his chaotic and frenzied spiritual power.

Goosebumps suddenly prickled her skin. Zoe couldn’t hold back any longer. "Chase Shaw, what are you doing?"

A faint scent of tobacco had appeared in the air at some point. The man’s nose was close to her glands, right over her barrier patch.

He had his head lowered, sniffing the back of her neck.

A strange feeling welled up from deep inside her.

Ever since she woke up in this world, Zoe Pierce had never consciously thought of herself as an Omega.

Because she had no pheromones, she was unaware of the baser instincts of Alphas—their innate craving for Omegas, an urge to mark and possess that screamed from both their pheromones and their spiritual power.

Her mindset was still that of an Earthling. She just found Chase Shaw’s behavior bizarre. ’What kind of normal person goes around sniffing the back of someone’s neck?’

The motion was very much like a puppy sniffing at something. His nose didn’t touch her skin at all, but the feeling of his breath was like a feather tickling her.

"Pheromones..." Chase Shaw said in a low voice.

"There are none..."

Only then did Zoe Pierce realize what Chase was doing. Her slow-on-the-uptake nerves finally grasped the meaning of his actions. Her expression shifted, and she began to struggle violently, forgetting everything else.

Caught off guard, his arms were knocked apart by her struggle, creating an opening. Before Chase could react and grab her again, Zoe seized his hand.

An overwhelming wave of soothing spiritual power forcibly calmed his rampaging energy.

Although it wasn’t fully untangled and pacified, it was enough for Chase Shaw to regain some of his senses.

He suddenly realized he was far too close to the person in his arms.

His canines were itching, but they couldn’t find their target.

"Chase Shaw!" Feeling the strength leave Chase’s arms, Zoe Pierce shouted his name.

It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head, waking his sleepwalking mind.

He moved instantly, putting distance between himself and Zoe Pierce. He pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, barely managing to suppress the itching of his canines.

’His spiritual power going berserk is one thing, but to think he actually wanted to mark Zoe Pierce... Even if it was just a temporary mark, it’s still wrong.’

Zoe Pierce: "..."

One moment, he was as intimate as a lover; the next, he was avoiding her like the plague.

Although she could understand the reasons for both behaviors, seeing it happen in real-time was... hard to process.

She snapped, a little irritated, "Awake now?"

Chase Shaw looked up at her. The young woman’s face was flushed with faint anger, and her tone was laced with sarcasm.

Her spiritual power was rapidly disentangling his knotted spirit sea, as if it didn’t want to linger for a second longer.

Yet her small hand was gripping a fold of his skin so tightly it was as if she were afraid he’d run away. The spot she was pinching and pulling stung painfully.

Noticing where he was looking, Zoe Pierce immediately loosened her grip on his flesh, letting her hand rest lightly on him instead. It wasn’t her fault. When Chase had suddenly tried to pull away, she had been terrified of losing contact and had desperately grabbed onto whatever she could.

’It was an emergency, so I had to grab a handful of skin.’ 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

’And he deserved it, too. Who told him to hold me like that?’

A flicker of guilt had initially appeared in Zoe’s heart, but thinking back on Chase’s actions, that guilt slowly transformed into righteous indignation.

’I just pinched him a little. How dare he hold it against me?’

"Yeah." Fortunately, Chase Shaw didn’t seem to pay much mind to the red mark on his skin. He began to retract his spiritual power, and the unapproachable aura around him slowly dissipated. "Thanks, Zoe Pierce."

The fatigue between his brows was unconcealable, and his sharp, wild eyes held a hint of vulnerability.

In that moment, Zoe found she couldn’t bring herself to pursue the matter with him.

It felt like she would be bullying someone innocent.

Erin Xavier had already crept closer upon hearing them talk. Once he confirmed Chase was back to normal, he strode out from behind the wall.

"You scared the life out of me! With Miles gone, I was really worried something would happen to you."

His words piqued Zoe’s curiosity. Thinking about it, she had witnessed the spiritual power of everyone else on the team except for Miles Sherman.

Nathan Lockwood’s detection, Erin Xavier’s speed, and Chase Shaw’s domain.

’What is Miles Sherman’s spiritual power?’

’For him to be the captain, and for Erin to have so much faith in him, his abilities must be on another level.’

Unable to contain her curiosity, Zoe Pierce asked the question out loud.

Erin Xavier’s perception of Zoe Pierce was constantly being updated. He didn’t see her the same way he used to, so when he heard her question, he didn’t hide anything.

’Zoe will find out sooner or later, so it’s no big deal telling her now.’ "It’s weakening. Miles’s spiritual power can directly diminish the spiritual power of other Alphas."

This ability was practically invincible against any Alpha. Below S-Class, he was unrivaled. Even S-Class Alphas, like the members of their team, would all be affected to some degree.

Zoe Pierce was dumbfounded. No wonder Erin’s first instinct was to find Miles.

And no wonder Chase Shaw could be on a team without an Omega and not completely lose it.

Miles was like the team’s anchor, holding them all together like a spider’s web.

"Chase, your pheromones are so strong," Erin Xavier couldn’t help but say as he got closer. The concentration was even higher in the cave, where the air was still.

He looked at Zoe Pierce. "You don’t feel anything?"

’She’s an Omega, and she’s just standing here smelling it?’

Zoe Pierce looked baffled. ’What is there to feel? It’s just a woody, pine scent. It doesn’t smell bad.’

Erin couldn’t help but fan the air in front of him. Alphas instinctively reject other Alphas’ pheromones, and the scent was starting to irritate him. "Zoe Pierce, not only do you have no pheromones, but are your glands completely numb too?"