"I'll give you another option," Krishna said, tone steady. Controlled.
Bella leaned back in the booth, arms crossed. "You're not going to blackmail me again?"
"No," Krishna said. "This one's cleaner. You get what you want, or I do. No dirt involved."
Bella lifted an eyebrow. "Try me."
"You smelled my scent in Michael's hotel room," Krishna said. "Back in Country M. You knew it came from me."
Bella's smirk didn't reach her eyes. "You're late to your own secret, darling. I figured out that scent was yours the moment I stepped inside that room, under the moonlight, crawling inside the window."
Krishna gave a single nod. No surprise. No denial.
"I've played with scents my whole life," Bella said, voice soft now. "Twisted them. Amplified them. I know what an Omega smells. But that…" Her gaze sharpened. "That wasn't anything I've known before. That scent, yours, it did something. Not to my nose. But to something… deeper."
Krishna let her speak.
Bella's voice lowered further. "And I hated not having control over it."
"Then this is your chance," Krishna said. "Full exposure. Uncut. You get to face it directly."
Bella didn't answer right away.
She didn't need to. Her body was already leaning forward.
"If your scent doesn't affect me now, here, raw and deliberate," Bella finally said, "you'll stop pushing Aaron back into Triton Holdings. You'll leave me to the throne."
"And if it does?" Krishna asked.
Bella smiled. It was wicked and wired with heat. "Then I'll help you. We'll burn through every lab, every file, every genome if we have to. Until we know what the hell you are."
Krishna didn't blink. "Deal."
Bella's breath hitched. Not from nerves. From anticipation.
"Book the hotel."
~~~~
The hotel room was quiet when they stepped in.
Krishna walked to the edge of the bed and peeled off her black jacket, folding it with care before setting it on the side table. She didn't say much. She never did unless it mattered.
Bella closed the door behind them with a soft click and locked it. No one needed to hear this. No one needed to know.
Krishna sat down. Legs uncrossed. Shoulders straight. Her back kissed the headboard like she wasn't preparing for anything, just resting.
"Can you smell it?" she asked, calmly.
Bella sniffed once.
"No," she said flatly. "There's nothing."
Krishna nodded, thoughtful. Then she tapped the mattress beside her. "Sit here. Close."
Bella didn't hesitate. She moved with the grace of someone who already half-knew what was coming.
When Bella settled beside her, Krishna tilted her neck slightly and used a finger to point at the space just beneath her ear. "Try here."
Bella leaned in. Closer than she needed to. Her lips nearly brushed skin as she exhaled once, deliberately, before taking in a breath.
Nothing.
Then, just a flicker.
"There," Bella whispered. "It's faint."
Krishna didn't react.
Bella inhaled again, deeper.
"It's growing," she murmured. Her hand gripped the sheets, tightening. "You don't know how to release it, do you?"
"I'm a Beta," Krishna said simply. "I was born thinking I didn't have one."
Bella's nose ghosted along Krishna's jawline. Her voice grew tight. "But it's here. It's not some mimicry or lab-made coat. It's real."
"I don't feel anything," Krishna admitted.
Bella exhaled sharply, nostrils flaring. "I do."
The scent was shifting. Not like an Alpha's commanding musk or an Omega's honeyed pull. This was... alien. Clean and sharp at the edges, but deep underneath, like warmth trapped in marble. Like stone breathing.
Bella swayed slightly. She didn't realize how close she was until her lips were just beside Krishna's skin, and her body was reacting before her brain could name it.
"I've studied hundreds of scent profiles," she muttered. "But this… it's not like anything I've cataloged."
Krishna stayed still. "Does it make you want to run?"
Bella looked up at her, something darker in her eyes. "No. It makes me want to drown in it."
Krishna blinked. Her body was still a calm landscape. But something behind her eyes flickered.
The silence between them thickened, just like the scent curling now, dense, slow, unshakable.
Bella leaned in again. This time not to analyze.
Just to breathe.
Bella pulled away again.
Her curiosity peaked.
She stepped back toward the door, not to go out, but to inhale from a distance. To see if it lingered.
But there was nothing.
No scent.
Just silence.
Yet the way Krishna's scent made her feel, that remained.
Heavy.
Unshaken.
She glanced at her hand, then back at Krishna. "It's not there anymore," she said plainly. "But I still feel it."
Krishna didn't answer.
Bella took a breath, slower this time. Measured.
"It's interesting," she added, eyes narrowing a little. "Because even without the scent in the air… it doesn't leave."
She leaned her shoulder against the doorframe, gaze pinned on the spot where Krishna's neck had been so close.
"Now I really want to know what that is."