Chapter 47: Almost marked me
Kayden
I knew exactly what to expect when Rhys called me into the lavatory. I could have stayed back in my seat, still stroking the Starlight’s head, but instead, I followed him.
I wanted to see exactly how he’d react after seeing the way Leo had been touching me.
It was something Leo had come up with—wanting to test Rhys’s reaction, wanting me to pretend I didn’t care.
"Don’t say anything and let me rage-bait this Captain," Leo had whispered into my ear.
I’d followed along, pretending to be indifferent to Rhys being right in front of me. Surprisingly, our plan worked.
Rhys looked like he wanted to murder Leo on the spot, and seeing him react that way got me thinking—did he see more to our relationship as I did, or were we still just fuck-buddies after all?
And so, when he pulled me in for a kiss in the lavatory, my body responded immediately, kissing him back.
I let myself go, pouring all the emotions I’d been bottling up. The fear of my secret, the exhaustion of the game, the hunger for his touch—into the way I opened my mouth for him. For a moment, it was perfect because it was Rhys.
But suddenly, the air shifted into something paralyzingly potent.
My legs went weak immediately, and if Rhys hadn’t been holding me, I would have fallen to the floor.
I felt a physical weight on my shoulders; it felt like a dark mist had seeped through my skin and began to drag my consciousness under.
I groaned in the middle of the kiss and tried to pull away, my head tilting back against the plastic door as a massive wave of dizziness hit me, turning the fluorescent lights above us into a hazy, shimmering blur.
What the hell was happening to me? I thought, blinking as I struggled to keep my eyes open.
"Rhys..." I muttered, but my voice could barely be heard.
My vision grew more hazy, and everything around me split into two. It felt terrifying to want to bare my neck to Rhys, to want him to mark me.
It was as if I was under his spell and he was taking over my body, forcing me into submission.
Why? All I did was kiss him, and I was still on suppressants. There was no way a single kiss could make me react that way, I thought—until I smelled it.
His overwhelming pine scent. He had released his pheromones on me intentionally to claim, to dominate, and to mark me as his.
What the hell was he thinking?
I gasped into his mouth, my eyes flying open as panic surged through me, overriding the submission.
I planted my hands against his chest and shoved with everything I had, staggering back until my hips hit the small metal sink.
"Stop!" I screamed, my voice trembling as I spoke. "Have you gone insane?"
I turned away from him, gripping the edge of the counter so hard my knuckles turned white.
If I hadn’t noticed, if I had let him continue releasing his pheromones on me, the suppressants wouldn’t even matter. He would find out, and so would everyone else on the plane.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed, spinning back to face him, my chest heaving. "Why the hell are you releasing your pheromones like that?"
Rhys just stood there, staring at me as if he hadn’t done anything wrong. He had almost forced me into submission—not that he knew it—but there was no reason at all to release his pheromones.
"You smell like him," Rhys growled. "He was trying to put his scent on you. I’m erasing him, Kayden. I’m making sure that when you walk out of this room, the only thing anyone smells on you is me."
"And then everyone on the plane would also smell you on me! Isn’t that insane?" I asked him, running a hand through my hair. "Rhys," I groaned. "Leo is a Beta! He is scentless!" I shouted as quietly as I could, my head spinning from the pheromones that were still lingering in the air.
"He was rage-baiting you, Rhys. That’s all! He knew exactly which buttons to push to get this reaction out of you, and you’re falling for it—which would have been cool if you didn’t release your fuck-ass pheromones on me!"
I took a shaky breath, trying to steady my racing heart. Part of me—the part I hated was glad to see that Leo affected him; it showed that he wanted me more than just the "fun" part of it.
I loved that he was so consumed by the thoughts of me that he’d risk a scandal on a team jet just to stake a claim. But the biological reality of it was too dangerous.
"I like that you’re possessive," I admitted, my voice dropping to a whisper as I looked him in the eye. "I do. But I don’t like this. You can’t just... blast me with pheromones because your ego is bruised by Leo’s teasing. I can’t breathe, Rhys. You’re making me dizzy, and for what? To remove Leo’s scent when he is scentless? You almost marked me!"
"That’s not what this is about. We are both Alphas; I can’t mark you and—"
I stopped him with a raised hand before he could finish. "Enough," I groaned. I pushed myself off the sink, leaning against the wall for support as my legs were still shaking from the aftermath of his pheromones.
"You’re acting like a territorial animal, and we are thirty thousand feet in the air with the entire team outside that door. If you want me, you have me. But stop trying to drown me in your scent just to prove a point to a doctor who isn’t even in the room."
Rhys lowered his head, heaving a deep sigh while looking down at his hands. "I am sorry," he muttered. "It’s just..." He slowly raised his head to face mine. "I want you so badly it’s making me lose my goddamn mind, Kayden. I hate it. I hate the way he was touching you, like he had some secret right to your space."