It was quiet for a moment, just the soft hum of the city behind the glass and the faint sound of Alliyah's purring against Krishna's skin.
Then Krishna opened her eyes.
"I learned something," she said. Her voice didn't rise, didn't shift, just slid clean through the room like a blade dipped in honey. "About my scent."
Lucius didn't react, but his fingers curled slightly against his thigh.
The twins both raised their heads, blinking in sync. Aaron turned just enough to glance up at her.
"I thought it was just instinct. Hormonal." She looked ahead. "But it's not. There's something more. A structure. It follows a pattern, triggers reactions, anchors. It's not random. It's mine."
Allyssa frowned. "What do you mean structure?"
Krishna looked at her, then at Alliyah. "Do you remember what happened after I played with you both that first time?"
The twins froze.
Alliyah's face darkened with a blush so quick it looked like rage. Allyssa groaned and pulled the blanket over her head.
"You humiliated us," Allyssa muttered. "Publicly."
"You made us crawl," Alliyah added, her tone less bitter, more breathless in retrospect.
"And then?"
"…We went into heat," Allyssa said through the blanket. "Repeatedly."
"For weeks," Alliyah growled. "We thought we were broken."
Krishna tilted her head. "And when did it stop?"
The room quieted.
"When we stopped running," Alliyah whispered. "When we… stayed. When we accepted it."
"When we settled," Allyssa said, peeking from under the blanket now. "When we chose to be yours."
Krishna nodded. "Exactly. Your cycle didn't stabilize because of biology. It stopped because I let you feel me. All of me."
Alliyah blinked slowly. "And since then…"
"You haven't gone into heat again," Krishna finished. "Not once. Not unless I allow you to."
The silence was thick, not from discomfort, but understanding. Connection. Truth pulling into place like a lock clicking shut.
Aaron spoke next, voice quiet against her lap. "That's what happened to me too."
Krishna looked down, hand still in his hair.
"I thought I was just losing my mind," he said. "When you first touched me. When you… dominated me. I couldn't sleep. Couldn't breathe. I followed your scent like a starving animal."
Allyssa made a soft sound, almost sympathetic.
Aaron kept going. "It drove me insane. Until I stopped fighting it. Until I gave in. And you let me stay."
His eyes met hers, raw and without shame. "That's why I stalked you. Why I kept coming back. You weren't just my Alpha. You are the leash keeping me sane."
Krishna's fingers paused in his hair.
Alliyah pressed her face back to Krishna's neck and exhaled. "So it was never just about heat."
"No," Krishna murmured. "It's about control. Grounding. I'm not just triggering your instincts. I'm rewriting them."
Lucius finally spoke, slow and deliberate. "That kind of influence… isn't just power."
Krishna met his eyes.
"It's ownership."
And none of them disagreed.
"How is this even possible?" Lucius finally said, his tone clipped, more frustrated than curious.
Krishna didn't look at him. Her hand kept stroking Aaron's hair like she needed the rhythm to speak.
"It was Bella," she murmured. "She's the one who figured it out. Or at least… spilled it."
Lucius narrowed his eyes.
"She said I have a scent," Krishna continued, slowly. "A unique one. She said that's why Aaron and the twins are…" she paused, glancing toward the girls draped over her like worshippers, "obsessed."
Aaron made a soft sound, half-proud, half-feral.
Lucius's jaw clenched. "But that's not possible."
Krishna finally looked at him. "Why not?"
"Because you're a Beta," he said flatly. "You're not supposed to have one. That kind of scent, that kind of trigger response, is Alpha or Omega exclusive. You know that."
Krishna's lips twitched. "Bella said the same thing."
She reached for the teacup on the side table but didn't drink it. Her voice cooled. "But here I am."
"A Beta anomaly," Aaron said, smug and content in her lap.
Krishna smiled faintly. "Apparently."
Alliyah shifted, propping her chin on Krishna's shoulder now. "But… then why isn't Lucius affected?"
That question stopped everything.
The room stilled again, but this time with a different weight, something uncertain. Unsettled.
Krishna looked at Lucius.
Her brows drew together.
"Wait," she murmured. "That's true. I never thought about it."
Lucius said nothing, but his eyes were sharp, watching her with unreadable intensity.
Krishna's gaze drifted upward, unfocused, as she thought back.
"I've touched him," she said aloud. "We've argued. We've shared space. But… not intimately. Never skin to skin. Never with intent."
"You've never let him feel you," Allyssa said quietly.
Krishna's eyes flicked to Lucius.
"Do you smell anything from me?" she asked.
Lucius didn't answer right away. He studied her, slowly, deliberately, as if checking himself.
Then, curtly: "No."
"No faint undertone? No trigger?"
"Nothing." He looked irritated, like the absence itself was offensive.
That, somehow, made Krishna's breath catch.
Not because she needed Lucius to fall. But because she needed to understand.
The edges of her calm cracked, just slightly.
"Then I need Bella," she said, more to herself than anyone. "I need to find her. Soon."
Aaron lifted his head. "Why?"
"Because she knows more," Krishna said. "She helped me realize what I'm doing without even meaning to. And if Lucius can't smell it at all…" she paused, staring off, "then that means something's different. Something deeper."
Alliyah shifted closer. "Do you think he's immune?"
"No one's immune," Krishna murmured, voice growing darker. "Not if I want them."
Lucius's gaze sharpened. "Try it," he said, soft and dangerous.
"Not now. Eventually, I'll let you have your way with me." Krishna smirked, but only with her mouth. Her eyes were already somewhere else, racing ahead.
Not lust. Not conquest.
Desperation.
She needed Bella.
She needed answers.