Chapter 43

It was incredibly hard to believe, but Rhys seemed to be an Alpha. The way he became dangerously excited by the scent of another Alpha’s pheromones—which Dante, as a Beta, could not smell at all—and the way he had entirely lost his mind at the mere idea of Dante meeting an Alpha could all be perfectly explained by that one single truth.

Rhys Elliott was an Alpha.

His refined, elegant speech, his demure, perfectly composed behavior, and his face so staggeringly pretty that Dante felt no one else in the world, regardless of gender, could ever be more beautiful—these traits did not merge easily with the word Alpha. It took significant time for Dante’s brain to fully process and accept the reality. No, realistically speaking, how could anyone easily accept that a man they had believed was a Beta for four entire years—a man they had intimately shared their body with—was actually an Alpha? Dante had never once, even in his wildest dreams, imagined it.

“I thought Dante was the type to date Alphas.”

Mateo must have intrinsically recognized that Rhys was an Alpha wearing heavy scent-blockers. Since Mateo had also mistakenly assumed Dante was an Alpha, Dante hadn’t placed any real meaning into those words at the time. But now that things had reached this chaotic climax, the scattered pieces of the puzzle began to fit perfectly, one by one. Mateo had mentioned that high-grade blockers could make someone completely impossible to identify. Perhaps that was why, even though Dante had lived with Rhys all this time, he had never once heard anyone refer to Rhys as an Alpha.

“Ah, hng!”

Lost in the whirlwind of his thoughts as he gently stroked Rhys’s hair, Dante suddenly frowned at a sharp, prickling surge of pleasure radiating from his nape. Wondering what Rhys had just done, he lowered his gaze and found Rhys staring straight back up at him.

Those darkened, violet-tinted eyes locked entirely onto Dante, and with their gazes intensely welded together, Rhys began to move his lips. He pressed sticky, heavy kisses to Dante’s stinging nape, mouthed hungrily beneath his jawline, and then slowly climbed his way up until he was firmly sucking at Dante’s lower lip.

“Ah… nn.”

The sensation of his lower lip slipping completely between those soft, familiar lips was purely electric. A violent shiver ran straight down his spine, prompting Dante to hurriedly cup Rhys’s damp cheek and pull him down closer. It had been so long since they had shared a real kiss that every lingering thought, conflict, and piece of confusion from before vanished entirely.

Right now, kissing Rhys was the only thing that mattered.

Rhys kissed exactly the way Dante remembered: pressing his lips against Dante’s with an inexperienced intensity, resulting in an awkward, unpracticed sort of kiss. Yet even that simple friction was enough to flood Dante with happiness. The reality that the Rhys he had longed for so desperately was right here in front of him finally sank in. He had wanted to kiss him like this. During the two agonizing months they had been apart, he had nearly gone mad craving it.

Heat gradually bloomed where their lips met. Dante had forgotten just how absurdly soft and plush Rhys’s lips truly were. He barely restrained the urge to suck them wetly, part them, and tangle their tongues together. Yet he knew that even if he did, Rhys would likely just pull back and turn it into a series of birdlike pecks anyway.

But habits were truly helpless things. Without realizing it, Dante parted his lips, about to slip his tongue inside, when he suddenly flinched. Oops. Mistake. He began to quickly pull back before Rhys could grow uncomfortable, but his jaw was suddenly caught in a firm grip.

“Mmph…!”

A tongue pushed inside before he could even blink. Slipping between Dante’s startled, parted lips, it began exploring his mouth with a fervor that suggested an intent to devour him whole. As Rhys wrapped around Dante’s stiffened tongue and tangled with it in a slow, wet rhythm, Dante faltered for a moment, entirely losing his footing.

“Mm, nnh.”

As Dante began to gasp, stripped of any chance to breathe, Rhys pressed his advantage without pause. He coiled around him all the way to the root of his tongue, mixing their saliva so slickly that obscene, wet sounds filled Dante’s mouth. The pleasure was beyond description, prompting Dante to grip Rhys’s cheeks tighter. Their faces pressed close as though they meant to swallow each other whole, losing themselves in a mutual frenzy.

To the point that Dante wondered if the person kissing him right now was truly Rhys, the man certainly knew how to kiss the soul straight out of him. When Rhys tilted his head to an angle that let his tongue push in deepest, rubbing the tip against the sensitive center of Dante’s palate, a moan escaped Dante entirely on its own.

This. Yes. Ah, this feels so good. His mind filled entirely with excitement over what they were doing, and before he knew it, his body had pressed tightly against Rhys. It was a truly incredible kiss—so thrilling that he felt as if he might come from the sheer intensity of it alone.

No sooner had he thought that than Rhys’s other hand, which had been pinning his wrist, moved up onto his chest. Dante’s chest muscles—acknowledged even by Lazzaro—were perfectly symmetrical. Usually firm, they softened enough when he relaxed to be easily gathered in a single hand. When he crossed his arms, his chest swelled enough to create a distinct valley, its crowning points marked by his pale pink nipples. The small protrusions, contrasting slightly against his healthy skin tone, had a strange way of stirring the viewer for no reason at all.

Dante flinched as that hand caressed his chest—a place Rhys had never touched before. When his tongue, previously engrossed in the kiss, paused in surprise, Rhys rubbed against it as if scolding him, then tangled with him even deeper.

“Mmm.”

By the time Dante was drawn back into the pleasure swirling on his tongue, Rhys was leading him completely, his other hand rhythmically gripping and releasing his chest. The touch, kneading him almost like a woman, bothered him initially, but before long, the shallow pleasure made Dante let out a soft “ah” and twist his waist.

As the kiss continued, Rhys’s scent filled the room without Dante even noticing. Each breath brought the fragrance, mixed with air, deep into his nose and mouth. If the scent had been this thick under any other circumstance, it should have been unpleasant; instead, it only made him feel better. His mind grew hazier as heat rose through his entire body. The more he breathed, the more it felt as though every single vein was being dyed in Rhys’s scent.

Ah… it feels good. So good it’s… strange.

His consciousness blurred. In contrast, Rhys’s weight and body heat pressing down on him, alongside the sensation of their tongues tangling wildly, grew incredibly vivid. Dante’s mind emptied of everything but pleasure. As he clung to Rhys and kissed him like a man who could see nothing else, the strength entirely left everything below his waist. He could feel his cock, which had been rigid for some time, leaking clear fluid, but everything else felt vague, as if lightly anesthetized. It seemed as though only the nerves wired for pleasure had awakened in his body.

While they kissed in that frenzy, Rhys had already settled himself between Dante’s legs. The hand that had been gripping and kneading his chest slid down his firm abdomen. Rhys nudged Dante’s thigh open with his knee and slowly brought the kiss to a halt, drawing back his lips. Dante stared up at him, his eyes loose and unfocused, his face so soaked in arousal and heat that it had taken on an erotic flush.

Rhys gazed down for several seconds at Dante, who lay atop a robe that had come undone at some point. Unable to tear his eyes away from Dante’s wet-black hair spread across the pillow, or the sight of his handsomely masculine face undone by pleasure, Rhys slowly lowered his hand and took hold of Dante’s cock.

The moment a large, hot hand wrapped around his erection, Dante parted his lips—reddened and wet from their sticky kiss—and let out a sharp gasp. As Dante’s dark brows arched obscenely and his eyes squeezed shut, Rhys watched him without even blinking. Drunk on Rhys’s scent and the clinging kiss, Dante lifted his upper body slightly at the powerful pleasure blooming below.

“Haah, ah, nnh…!”

His hazed mind returned a little, as if he had briefly visited another world. He had never kissed like that in his entire life. It felt so good that he wanted to do nothing but this all day, and the fact that Rhys, of all people, knew how to kiss like that seemed like a dream. Dante could not understand why Rhys had acted so modestly until now when he was this skilled. But at the moment, solving that question mattered far less than losing himself in that incredible kiss again.

“Haah… Rhys, more… let’s do more…” Dante pleaded.

When Dante reached up and wrapped his arms around Rhys’s shoulders, Rhys frowned and bent down over him. He seemed to yield easily, but just before their lips could touch, he braced his upper body and stopped. Dante looked up at him with a desperate face. Seeing Dante’s expression, which seemed to demand, Why? Why won’t you?, Rhys pressed his mouth shut so tightly his jaw tensed. Then, he cursed under his breath and cupped Dante’s cheek.

“I’m holding back, so don’t act this pretty,” Rhys muttered.

His tone was rough, but the words themselves were not. Dante stared blankly at the beautiful face above him, his thoughts racing. Was it because he now knew Rhys was an Alpha? Even that pale face, currently flushed with arousal, felt very different from his memories. With Rhys’s elegant golden-brown brows drawn together and his gleaming eyes filled only with Dante, he looked like a predator about to flay him alive and eat him. As someone who had always imagined himself as the predator and never the prey, Dante found the feeling entirely unfamiliar.

He really might… devour me.

The thought brushed through him unconsciously, and his toes curled as a sudden shiver went through him. It was an irrational thought without any basis, followed immediately by a dark desire to be eaten just like that. At that instant, an immense heat gathered in his lower belly. A sensation as if his whole pelvis were filling with something hot came together with a sharp ache inside his ass. His hole clenched on its own. The floral scent grew even stronger.

My body… feels… strange. Am I feeling something where I shouldn’t be feeling it?

His heat-blurred mind turned slowly. The fact that he kept smelling Rhys’s scent so strongly, the unknown feelings he held toward the man, and the heat pooling in his lower belly were all unfamiliar. He had had sex with Rhys countless times, but this was the first time he had ever felt like this. The more he thought, the less he understood, so Dante chose to simply do what he wanted instead. He pressed his lips to Rhys, who had stopped after being pulled closer, and pushed his tongue in.

No sooner had Dante kissed him than Rhys pushed him down and tangled their tongues again. The long, thick tongue reaching all the way toward the back of his throat made it difficult to breathe, but even that breathlessness felt like pure pleasure. When Dante let out a low moan and clung tighter, Rhys cupped the back of his head and pulled him in deeper.

Meanwhile, Rhys began touching Dante’s cock again. His hand felt much larger and hotter than usual. Somehow wrapping that single hand around Dante’s considerable size, he moved his pale fingers up and down, pumping as if milking him.

Each time Rhys moved, Dante’s cock felt as if it were melting in his grip. Dante moaned, “Nnh, ah, mm,” and the instant Rhys rubbed his tongue against the flat of Dante’s palate, his whole body stiffened and he came. His jaw tipped back reflexively, breaking the kiss.

“…! …Hah, haah, haa… ha.”

As Dante gasped, his throat stained red, Rhys slid his hand beneath Dante’s cock. After so long without a proper release, Dante’s cock continued spilling semen. Rhys began pushing the thick, cloudy liquid flowing down in strands directly into Dante’s hole. At that sensation, Dante flinched and lifted his head, the climax having cleared his mind just a little.

“Rhys, are we… doing it right now?”