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Chapter Text

Mobei-jun hated hosting banquets for the demonic elite on a good day. And this was decidedly not a good day.

His heat was about to start any day now, and yet here he was standing petulantly in the corner watching Shang Qinghua scurry back and forth across the banquet hall, bossing around the busy servants. In his personal opinion, this much preparation was unnecessary, but Shang Qinghua seemed to take offense whenever Mobei-jun had told him in the past to just leave event planning to the head servants. So instead of entertaining Mobei-jun with his presence, the man had been micromanaging every step, because apparently diplomacy hinged on choosing the correct table cloth.

Trying to get his attention had been near impossible this whole week. Even his attempts to order him to attend to him were ineffective. He would pop up for a moment before inevitably catching sight of a demon lugging a vase of flowers in that would then send him squawking after the demon about how it would “incite an war” or something.

Mobei-jun probably hadn’t even had a full hour of Shang Qinghua’s full attention since preparation started. It was driving him crazy. Not to mention his pre-heat symptoms were kicking in. He was normally irritable during this phase, but after experiencing week long Qinghua deprivation, his bad mood was unmistakable. The household’s servants had been giving him a wide berth and trying to hide how they wrinkled their noses whenever they had to get within smelling distance. Of course, Shang Qinghua didn’t notice though. That stupid beta had been with him for years and yet never seemed to pick up on his pheromones. He had to have the least sensitive nose in the world with how any and all scent based social cues went over his head. Even the beta demons working in the palace had more awareness. But no, Shang Qinghua just went on ignoring his king to fuss over table arrangements.

At this point, Mobei-jun had given up on trying to get Shang Qinghua to look his way. He just crossed his arms over his chest and stared at that little man run around. Staring didn’t help alleviate the pit in his stomach, but it eased the panic that swept through him during preheat, when he had no clue where his human was. So he just leaned more resolutely against the wall and gazed after him.

Shang Qinghua’s hair was a frazzled mess with curls sticking up awkwardly where he had shoved his calligraphy brush. It was still dripping ink, marring that light blue outer robe he wore. He didn’t seem to notice, wholly engrossed in gesticulating with his hands as he discussed the menu with one of the cooks. The cook had brought over some samples of a sweet local delicacy harvested from a fruit tree native to the Northern Desert. Shang Qinghua took the frosty yellow fruit from the demon with his graceful fingers. Mobei-jun glared harder, watching as he stuck out his pink tongue to tentatively lick the soft fruit before sucking it into his mouth. He made an appreciative sound and licked the juice that had dripped down his hand from the sweet melting fruit. He then clapped the demon on the back enthusiastically and babbled about approving the dessert, but Mobei-jun could barely hear over the blood roaring in his ears. His heat had surged suddenly and he didn’t need to turn his nose to the air to know that the bitter acrid scent he had been giving off all morning just spiked with sweetness.

Whipping his fur coat around he swiftly marched out of the hall without a look back. His omega status wasn’t a secret among the staff, but being caught being pathetic over Qinghua was too much for his pride to handle.

Storming to his private quarters, Mobei-jun gnashed his teeth in frustration. His fangs had gotten more tender and prominent from his hormones spiking, and all he wanted to do right now was use Shang Qinghua as a chew toy in retaliation for ignoring him.

Once he was safely in his bedroom he strode over to the nest he had constructed carefully once his pre-heat started. For a brief time, he had been teleporting around the palace grabbing items for the nest in the same meticulous way that Shang Qinghua had been preparing for hosting. Reclining into the soft furs and silky sheets finally brought him some relaxation. Albeit the effectiveness of his nest at soothing him was likely due in large part to the handful of robes he had discretely snatched from Shang Qinghua and woven into the fabric of his nest. The light scent of the beta interspersed with ink, parchment, and melon seeds gave the illusion that the human was near. Luxuriating in feeling comfortable for the first time all day, Mobei-jun stretched his back like a big cat and curled up in his nest for a nap, banquet be damned.

The demon realm didn’t have a hierarchy based on second gender. Power was all that mattered. That being said, in traditional courting, omegas were supposed to demonstrate that they could overpower their prospective mate. Shows of strength were integral to displaying that the omega was capable of protecting the family and yielding strong offspring. Scent blockers and suppressants were virtually never used by high level demons, because hiding scent was viewed as an overly weak, deceitful, human thing to do. Mobei-jun didn’t quite understand how human second genders worked, since they seemed to hide their instincts with medicine and odd social customs whenever possible. It was strange. Most human cultivators that he fought were noticeably alphas or betas, while most human omegas in the cultivation world were usually steeped so deep in pills that their scent was indistinguishable from that of a beta. Much like most things with humans, they dealt with second genders by hiding away true intentions.

If not for having spent decades with Shang Qinghua fielding failure after failure to court him, Mobei-jun would gladly go on ignoring the silly rules humans have. But he was starting to feel a bit desperate. His human had stayed with him loyally for so long without once straying and yet he still has to spend his heats alone! Not to mention that the longer this ambiguous relationship had gone on for, the more painful his heats got. Upon waking up from his nap, he could already feel cramps curling their claws into his stomach in preparation for what was undoubtedly going to be an agonizing heat.

At this rate he was going to have to get some counsel on how the hell human omegas get a mate, because clearly Shang Qinghua had been unreceptive to his attempts to show that he is a powerful provider through his battle prowess, being able to beat him up, and his high status within demon society. Luckily, Sha Hualing and Luo Binghe would be attending the banquet. They, of all demons, should have some insight on how to get into the sheets of human cultivators, although their advice is likely to be delivered through snide comments.

Chapter Text

When Shang Qinghua was writing Proud Immortal Demon Way, omegaverse webnovels started filling up the ranking charts. He was several hundred chapters in by then, but figured sliding in a retcon to add the trope into his world wouldn’t hurt. Oh, how wrong he was. Who knew throwing in a few lore threads to make Luo Binghe the most alpha of alphas, just so he could slap the omegaverse tag onto his work, would result in Shang Qinghua, himself, having to deal with the hormonal nightmare of the Cang Qiong Mountain sect.

He only wrote it in for a few papapa scenes and to help elevate Luo Binghe’s OP-ness, so he didn’t really consider how secondary genders would affect the world of PIDW. Not to mention, that he hadn’t bothered choosing classifications for most characters beyond a few omega flowers for his male lead to pick. If not for running An Ding peak, he probably would still have no clue what most of his characters’ secondary genders were. Instead, he became way too intimately aware of his martial siblings designations. After all, he handled shipping suppressants, scent blockers, and general stocking up on supplies for ruts and cycles. A certain “scum villain” was particularly bad at being discrete in how he was breathing down his neck whenever supply runs ran late or how suppressants and scent blockers for omegas went missing whenever Shen Jiu barged into the peak, waving some order around as if it was urgent. Learning that his antagonist was an omega shook his world view a bit, but he kept his mouth shut about the pilfering. At the very least Shen Jiu hadn’t given him as much work to do as Liu Qingge, who seemed to constantly be wrecking the buildings he would spend his heats in. Though that matter of Liu Qingge being an omega was also intended to be kept under wraps, so he had the thankless duty of trying to rebuild in the dead of night without the aid of other disciples. Just thinking back to it made Shang Qinghua want to cry. Back then his dark undereye circles worsened in sync with the Bai Zhan head disciple and later on peak lord. The various alphas on the peak also gave him trouble with the frequent territorial battles that happened between disciples. Unlike the omegas, many alpha cultivators seemed to disdain the use of scent blockers and instead flaunted their scents around, which just resulted in more teenagers triggering each other into a fight. There were oh so many hormonal dick measuring contests that led Shang Qinghua to being run ragged across the peaks trying to keep the whole sect from falling into disrepair.

Perhaps if it didn’t always get made his problem, Shang Qinghua could’ve lived his second life in ignorance… The original Shang Qinghua turned out to be a beta and the difference between living in the old world and this one ended up being negligible. Betas were pretty similar to the regular old humans he had been used to being, but they did have the ability to pick up scents if the pheromones were strong enough. Technically betas have some capacity to pick up on the emotions behind particularly potent smells, but that had never been his strong suit. It all just smelled like faint perfume to him. He couldn’t distinguish alphas and omegas from scent alone either. In short, this nose of his was pretty useless when it came to navigating the messy application of omegaverse to the PIDW world.

Cucumber-bro wasn’t quite so lucky.. He really tore him a new one for causing him to become an omega, when he found out his identity. Though even to this day, Shen Qingqiu uses his fate as an omega to win arguments or just to cuss him out when feeling particularly wronged. That being said, his complaining about his designation had definitely decreased after essentially eloping with Luo Binghe. Bet he’s appreciating the magic of self lubrication now!

Shang Qinghua, on the other hand, was finally freed from doing damage control for the hormonal teenagers (and peak lords) of Cang Qiong, and could ignore the omegaverse mechanic for the most part in his day-to-day life. For all of the problems that Shang Qinghua had with being the only human in the Mobei-jun’s palace, at least the demon servants didn’t regularly make big messes for him to clean up because of heats and ruts. Maybe they were just too afraid of Mobei-jun to step out of line or these servants just kept a better handle on their biology than his martial siblings. Either way, it was nice to not have to deal with the constant reminder that there was a whole level of interactions and social dynamics he wasn’t privy to.

That being said, he knew enough about alphas and omegas to avoid causing a war to break out, unlike certain servants. These idiots seemed to have an uncanny ability to select flora that would induce heats or ruts as decor for the banquet hall. At this point, he was ready to rip his hair out of frustration after the fiftieth time chasing down the same gaggle of demons in charge of decorating. Hormonal demons were absolutely not what he wanted to deal with during this event. Not to mention, some of these plants were guaranteed to cause fighting between alphas.

It seemed like the palace household was fairly unqualified to host the wide variety of demons and kingdoms that were going to be attending. He had been busy preventing diplomatic incidents left and right this past week. The whole point of this event was to negotiate treaty agreements between as much of the demonic realm as possible. Yet, before he got his hands on it and reworked it, the seating arrangements placed tribes with blood feuds at the same table and other horrific combinations. After several of these heartattack-inducing moments, Shang Qinghua decided that he needed to get his grubby hands on this entire event lest the tenuous truce between the humans and demons crashed completely.

His son’s protagonist halo may extend to conquering the demon realm, but getting all of the various major demon factions to suddenly stop killing humans and come to an agreement with the cultivation sects requires some negotiation beyond the original imperial decision. Once Luo Binghe can get the reins on them and establish a long lasting agreement that is upheld by more than just brute force, then maybe, some peace can be brokered.

If demons ruled by Luo Binghe continued preying on humans on a large scale then it would get especially awkward. Cang Qiong only recently started to tolerate Shang Qinghua and not call him traitor every other word. Thankfully, the stakes were high for Luo Binghe too, since dissenting demon factions would require him to battle and spend more time in the demon realm, which would cut into his Shizun time. That simply wouldn’t stand, so he is likely to fight quite hard to iron out the agreements. However, Luo Binghe’s silver tongue and motivation would mean little if the Northern desert fumbled the ball that badly on arranging the event. So Shang Qinghua had no choice but to take over event planning if he wanted everything dealt with smoothly and quickly.

He had gotten so absorbed in the minutia of micromanaging every detail of the diplomatic banquet, that he only noticed that Mobei-jun was nowhere to be found a few hours before the first demons were set to arrive. He hadn’t seen him all day. And well, now that he was exiting the fugue of event planning, Shang Qinghua couldn’t recall the last time they spoke. Everything in the banquet hall should now be ready and baby-proofed for any incident causing items, so now he needed to hunt down his king.

Shang Qinghua ran around the palace checking everywhere until finally arriving at the door to Mobei-jun’s quarters. It was starting to get close to time, so he really hoped that his king would be there and ready to host half of the important nobility and leaders in the demon realm. He raised his fist to knock.

But before he made contact with the door, it swung open.

Chapter Text

Shang Qinghua’s surprised gasp halted in his throat as the door swung open to reveal Mobei-jun’s perfect rack right in front of his face. He buffered for a moment, letting his eyes be blessed with the sight of those beautiful blue orbs. Ah, wait. Speaking of orbs…. Shang Qinghua wrenched his gaze up to meet Mobei-jun’s to see that he was glaring down at him.

“Ah haha, my king…” Shang Qinghua scratched his head nervously and continued, “I was just coming to report to you that preparations for the banquet are complete and that demons will start arriving in a couple of hours.”

Mobei-jun just let out a discontented huff in lieu of a reply.

Now that he was no longer mesmerized by a certain ice demon’s exposed chest, Shang Qinghua could take account of the rest of his appearance. He was given a nasty shock, because of how disheveled Mobei-jun was looking. He was absolutely not fit to entertain the demon hordes on their way! His long black hair was in slight disarray as parts were clearly bunched up from being slept on. He wasn’t even wearing a proper robe! The reason Shang Qinghua had gotten such an eyeful moments ago was because he was only wearing an untied coat and pants. All in all, he clearly just rolled out of bed. As if to prove this point, Mobei-jun suddenly tipped his head back and gave a big yawn that showed off his sharp teeth. It evoked the same emotions as a giant leopard showing off its maw as it yawned would. Not cute! A very threatening reminder!

Shang Qinghua tried not to cower. Although, he never wrote what secondary gender Mobei-jun had into PIDW and lacked the ability to distinguish based on scent, it was obvious that he had to be an alpha! This was his favorite character, his protagonist’s right hand man. Of course, he had to have a secondary gender connoting power. Mobei-jun never spoke about any matters related to his presentation, but even without favoritism and bias clouding his guesses, it was clear that he wasn’t a beta like Shang Qinghua. After all, he had seen Mobei-jun react to scents during confrontations as if he clearly understood their meanings. Those teeth of his were certainly proof enough. Only alphas and omegas had such pointed teeth, primed right for leaving mating bites. That being said, lower level demons that were barely humanoid didn’t follow these metrics as their biology was distinctly other.

Mobei-jun had to be an alpha. There was just no other way, he was such a magnificent specimen of a powerful demon. That being said, for as beautiful and powerful as his king was, he didn’t seem to have a rut companion or spend his ruts with anyone. Shang Qinghua would know. Having worked for him for decades and being a glorified secretary in charge of the Northern Desert palace gave him a very thorough picture of his king’s actions. Mobei-jun wasn’t terribly interested in his finances or how the household was managed, so Shang Qinghua had long ago ended up picking up the slack to try and justify his value to his king. Mobei-jun did take time to himself every few months, as would be customary for non betas. However, Shang Qinghua would keep an eye out during those periods, and knew that his king just spent them alone, cooped up in his bedroom or some other remote hideaway.

Shang Qinghua had a realization. His king was quite the eligible bachelor now, with being the right hand man of the Emperor of the demonic realm. And tonight there would be all sorts of demons looking to social climb or establish political partnerships. This might just be the event that Mobei-jun finds an omega mate at. And yet… here he was looming over Shang Qinghua looking like he just tumbled out of bed.

Suddenly, Shang Qinghua felt a bit frustrated as he looked at Mobei-jun’s sleepy expression. He had just the barest glimmer of droplets at the corner of his eyes from his yawn. He never seemed to cry, but for a split moment, Shang Qinghua could imagine how he would look teary-eyed.

Shang Qinghua shook himself out of his daze and started to nag, “My king, you need to get dressed. You’re going to have to entertain guests soon and you’re standing there outfitted for sleep. Move aside, move aside. I’ll help grab your robes for you.”

Shang Qinghua pushed past Mobei-jun to get inside. The tall demon seemed to hesitate for a moment, while blocking the door frame before giving in and stepping aside. Without paying mind to the state of Mobei-jun’s quarters, this lowly servant beelined to his wardrobe and started rifling through the various fur trimmed coats and robes.

Mobei-jun had wandered over and just stood behind his back. Shang Qinghua finally settled on a dark blue robe, that he remembered being tight and trim on his king, as well as leaving a deep V to better show off the goods. It also had exquisite silver embroidery that gave it a feeling of nobility. He turned around to face Mobei-jun and thrust the robe into his arms, ordering him to “Go change into this.”

Mobei-jun furrowed his brows and proceeded to shuck his sleeping coat off onto the floor, leaving him completely shirtless for the whole world to see. Shang Qinghua’s eyes swept over his broad muscled shoulders before following the planes of his body down to ogle his abs and stomach. His king was often exposing his chest, but his robes usually neatly covered his metaphoric soft underbelly. His washboard abs were sharp enough to cut your hand on as expected, but Shang Qinghua was momentarily mesmerized by the slightest pouch of fat below his navel. Mobei-jun was, of course, an ideal picture of masculinity, yet Shang Qinghua couldn’t help but wonder if biting his softer parts would feel like biting mochi.

Shang Qinghua’s moment of indulging in looking at eye candy was quickly broken when Mobei-jun tugged his robe closed. Spinning back around, Shang Qinghua grabbed a random fur trimmed coat and thrust it behind him. Shaking his head to clear his wayward thoughts, Shang Qinghua went over to the jewelry dresser and vanity to haphazardly grab at a pair of earrings and necklaces. They were essentially all silver with blue precious gems, so he didn’t really worry about coordinating an outfit. Once sufficiently loaded with sparkly bits and bobs that were likely worth more than An Ding peak’s budget, he beckoned the ice demon to sit down in the vanity chair.

Mobei-jun complied easily and just sat and watched him through piercing blue eyes as he fussed. Before beginning to decorate his king like a Christmas tree, Shang Qinghua grabbed a comb and started fixing the tangles in his glossy black hair from sleeping the day away. Shang Qinghua might have spent more time than necessary running his hands through Mobei-jun’s hair. There was something nice about feeling the silky strands slip through his fingers. His king’s hair smelled like fresh snowfall and the meditative action lulled him into relaxing for the first time in a while. He had been busy running around preparing for the banquet, so this might be the first time he felt calm all week.

When he scratched his fingers lightly through his king’s scalp to loosen an imaginary knot, he thought he heard a low whirring noise and paused. The noise ceased quickly, so Shang Qinghua shook himself out of his stupor and grabbed some pieces of jewelry to thread and clip into Mobei-jun’s hair.

He then grabbed a pair of earrings with large cerulean tear drop gems and lightly grabbed Mobei-jun’s ear to help slide the metal in gently. Once he finished and pulled away from his focus, he realized that Mobei-jun was once again looking at him from under long feathery eyelashes, but this time their faces were mere inches apart. Shang Qinghua felt a bit flustered at how intent the man’s gaze was, so he backed away to grab a several layer necklace that he knew made it look like his king’s chest was just dripping with jewels.

A new problem quickly arose when he went to clip the necklace on.

“Just one more piece and you’ll be ready to go. Please be patient, ah.” Shang Qinghua babbled to assuage his discomfort as he moved Mobei-jun’s hair aside and exposed his nape. He started sending prayers to the system that Mobei-jun doesn’t attack him for daring to brush his hand against the side of his scent glands. It was a necessary sacrifice to finish adorning his boss before Mobei-jun is paraded around in front of most of influential demonkind! Your humble servant was totally not being presumptuous and making a move or dominance play! He swears! This one is just a beta!

Surprisingly, he got away without losing a hand and Mobei-jun was left covered in shimmering metal and jewels.

Satisfied with his work, Shang Qinghua took a moment to appreciate the view, before planting his hands on his hips and proclaiming his king ready to receive guests.

Chapter Text

Waking up from his nap, feeling like hell, Mobei-jun couldn’t have asked for a better balm for his aches and pains. He had felt so unbearably uncomfortable and irritated that when he noticed a presence by his door, he was itching for a fight. However, instead of some nosy servant getting caught in his cross hairs, he had thrown open the door to see just the person he had been rolling around in his nest yearning for. It felt like the pain from pre-heat receded instantly, once he met Shang Qinghua’s honey-brown eyes.

Things only continued to get better, because Shang Qinghua ended up barging in and going deep into his quarters as if he belonged there. Mobei-jun’s heart had thrummed when he saw how close Shang Qinghua was getting to his nest. Seeing his human surrounded by his possessions made Mobei-jun’s omega instincts very happy. They were singing with joy and making him want to just lock the door, wrap up Shang Qinghua in his arms, and place him in his nest like its crown jewel.

Mobei-jun was able to keep a handle on his urges by just focusing on the joy and relief he was feeling from simply having Shang Qinghua in his space. At this point, he was feeling a bit delirious and still sleepy, so he just let Shang Qinghua boss him around without fuss.

Once Shang Qinghua started brushing his hair though, he started to get overwhelmed. Going from barely any interaction with Shang Qinghua to suddenly getting his full attention and hands on him was making Mobei-jun feel a bit intoxicated. Having his human so close as he carded his hands through Mobei-jun’s hair was making him lose his ability to think. So he just let himself be lulled into satisfaction from getting his hair played with while surrounded by that lovely calming scent of a relaxed beta. He got a bit too uninhibited, however, because a purr built in his chest causing Shang Qinghua’s hands to still. Mobei-jun quickly suppressed it and didn’t breathe a word, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

Purring felt presumptuous in a way that Mobei-jun couldn’t allow himself to be when Shang Qinghua continuously ignored or shot down his advances. He didn’t want to pressure him or scare him off with how big his feelings for the man were. Mobei-jun knew that Shang Qinghua was it for him and that he wasn’t going to want anyone else this much. But ever since their big fight about Shang Qinghua leaving, he no longer felt like he could assume that Shang Qinghua still meant what he promised about following him for the rest of his life. He may have come back that time, but the fear of him leaving again remained. Not to mention how obvious Mobei-jun has been about his feelings and Shang Qinghua has done nothing about it!

After getting his physiological reactions under control, Mobei-jun allowed himself to be pampered and adorned in jewels by Shang Qinghua. For as little as he wanted to go out in public right this moment, at the very least, he was going to be able to show off how his human dolled him up. Mobei-jun let himself grow still and pliant as he drank in the sight of Shang Qinghua fussing around him.

He froze when Shang Qinghua leaned in particularly close to slip in an earring and tried not to twitch at the sensation of his earlobe being lightly pinched between Shang Qinghua’s fingers. To avoid staring at what he knew was a set of plump rosy lips so close to his face, Mobei-jun just stared harder at Shang Qinghua’s eyes. This seemed to disconcert Shang Qinghua a bit, because he sprang away quickly to return to the dwindling treasure pile on the vanity.

Shang Qinghua returned to his side with a necklace and stood behind him saying, “Just one more piece and you’ll be ready to go. Please be patient, ah.”

Mobei-jun didn’t think anything of what Shang Qinghua was doing behind his back or with his hair, until what felt like a current of electricity rushed through his body. The culprit: Shang Qinghua’s inner wrist making contact with the scent glands on his neck. His whole body seized up and he could barely breathe. No one had ever touched the scent glands on his neck so brazenly, much less Shang Qinghua. Mobei-jun could’ve almost thought he imagined it, if it wasn’t for how his scent gland throbbed from that fleeting touch.

Shang Qinghua never seemed to notice when Mobei-jun would indirectly scent him in the past, such as through giving Shang Qinghua his large fur trimmed coats that he had scented prior, nor did he ever scent him back. Now that he had finally done so, Mobei-jun didn’t know what to think or do. So he just held still, inhaling deeply, and feeling himself get lightheaded from the heady scent of sweet melon resonating from his scent gland. Was it intentional? Was Shang Qinghua finally making a move or offering him sort of comfort? He couldn’t tell, but his pre-heat symptoms immediately got washed away for a moment. The absence of low level pain and elation from feeling soaked in Shang Qinghua’s scent made him feel delirious and unable to think hard about anything.

He didn’t even notice when he was done getting dressed and had no thoughts as he followed Shang Qinghua out of the room in a daze. Mobei-jun trailed after him like a large shadow while completely zoned out.

His higher functioning faculties only barely returned to him once he was seated on the throne with Shang Qinghua standing at his side. Some random demon guest was in the middle of babbling something in greeting from where he was kneeling below the dais. It seemed like Mobei-jun had been sitting there and receiving this formal greeting for longer than he had been awake for. Not that it would matter. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to have a cold neutral expression and glare silently. It was only that this time he truly hadn’t been paying attention to any of it.

He continued tuning out the demon speaking, to peep at Shang Qinghua out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to be listening carefully while fidgeting with a calligraphy brush as he was oft to do. Mobei-jun watched his deft fingers twirl and tap the brush on his hip. The human seemed to focus better when playing around with something. Well, if Shang Qinghua was paying attention, then things were probably handled, so Mobei-jun faced the front again and committed to continuing to tune out the demon’s words.

After several low level demon clan leaders introduced themselves and allegedly—for Mobei-jun continued half-listening—discussed their treaty negotiation goals, an actually relevant demon strode in.

A tall demon with large curved ram horns framing his face approached the dais.

Mobei-jun vaguely remembered hearing about this demon ruling a fairly affluent clan in the South during the debriefs Shang Qinghua had kept giving him. His compliance at the diplomatic banquet was important for ensuring the treaty agreements were actually effective. His territory extended into the Borderlands and thus had proximity to the human realm. Additionally, the other neighboring rulers in the South could be swayed if he voiced a dissenting opinion, as his clan was fairly influential within the fragmented Southern territories.

“I am Gongyang-jun from the Southern territories. Greetings to Mobei-jun. Thanking you for your hospitality.” The man said, with curved eyes, before bowing politely. When he straightened, he gave Mobei-jun a long once-over with his deep-set gold eyes. His horizontally slitted pupils lingered on the shimmering cerulean gems hanging off of Mobei-jun.

Mobei-jun preened at seeing his human’s work getting appreciative looks. Getting pampered by Shang Qinghua and now being shown off to admiring audiences was making him smug. Shang Qinghua should surely see the value of this king and how Mobei-jun was still all his.

He saw movement in his peripheral vision. Shang Qinghua had placed his hand on the top corner on the throne. As Gongyang-jun moved to join the demons that had already completed their introductions with his retinue, Mobei-jun turned his head to look at Shang Qinghua. The human startled at getting Mobei-jun’s focus.

“Shang Qinghua, what are you doing?” Mobei-jun inquired. He half wanted an excuse to talk to Shang Qinghua after enduring the stream of demons and half was checking if he needed his attention for something.

“Oh, uh. I’m just.. uh.” Shang Qinghua stammered, as if just realizing that standing next to Mobei-jun might be inappropriate. “Hiding from all of these scary newcomers! You gotta let me seek protection by taking cover by you. Half of the demon realm elite is here. I don’t want to get eaten!” He might’ve started his explanation with wide startled eyes, but he found his stride once he got into his cute and pathetic performance.

Mobei-jun doubted that Shang Qinghua wouldn’t be able to handle himself among the demons, unlike what all of his dramatic cowering would suggest. But he was perfectly willing to go along with the act and reap the benefits of Shang Qinghua clinging to his side. So Mobei-jun hummed in acknowledgment and turned to the next awaiting demon.

At Mobei-jun’s acceptance, Shang Qinghua seemed to have gotten bolder and pressed his body against the throne, bringing with him a wave of the light scent of fresh sweet melon. In return, Mobei-jun momentarily lost control of his pheromones and the scent of a delighted omega swept through the throne room for a split second. Several alpha demons swung their heads up with flared nostrils, including the ram horned demon.

Chapter Text

The throne room was cleared once everyone finished greeting Mobei-jun, since Luo Binghe’s arrival meant they needed to go pay their respects to their emperor. A temporary seat that rivaled the throne was set up in the banquet hall, and the visiting demons had long left the throne room to announce themselves to the true leader. Shang Qinghua was giving last minute instruction to the palace servants. Mobei-jun didn’t need to greet Luo Binghe with quite as much deference, so he hung back with Shang Qinghua. Once things were mostly settled, Shang Qinghua sent away the straggling servants to go deal with the crowd. It was going to have to be an all hands on deck situation, besides the minimum demons needed to do surveillance on the rest of the palace for security. Having finished with business, he finally turned to his king to check what he was up to.

Mobei-jun was just standing there with a neutral expression, seemingly waiting for Shang Qinghua to wrap up. Shang Qinghua rushed over to his side.

“Thank you for waiting and not leaving me alone with all of these dangerous guests! Being able to hide behind you is the best protection.” Amid his hand-waving dramatics, Shang Qinghua peeked at Mobei-jun and saw a faint flicker of smugness grace his face.

“Of course, you probably just didn’t want to suffer boredom while watching Luo Binghe get greeted, huh?” Shang Qinghua nudged him lightly with his shoulder. Mobei-jun’s expression fell and he got sulky, Shang Qinghua chuckled to himself. Seems, he hit the bullseye. If his king was forced to watch a repeat of the greetings he received earlier, but even more flowery and subservient, then he would probably be unable to stop himself from dozing off.

They slowly started walking to the hall trying to drag their feet as much as possible to not have to listen to hundreds of demons singing their ruler’s praises. Halfway through their stroll, Mobei-jun stopped and clamped a heavy hand on Shang Qinghua’s shoulder.

“My king?” Shang Qinghua squeaked in surprise and confusion.

Mobei-jun just hummed and patted his shoulder a few times, before turning around with a swish of his robes to continue striding down the empty corridor. Shang Qinghua was left bewildered, though now he swore he could smell the pleasing fresh scent of a cold winter breeze. He shook himself out of his stupor and chased after his king before he got too far.

The moment they entered the banquet hall, demons swiveled their heads in synchrony to stare at them. It was eerie how they seemed to react instantly without any announcement of Mobei-jun’s presence beyond him stepping through the archway. The dozens of glinting eyes on them made Shang Qinghua gulp nervously. It was akin to being faced with the gazes of a swarm of sharks. Their gazes were setting off prey instincts in him, and those were nothing if not well tuned after living in the demon realm for years. There was a certain hunger in their eyes. It was unsettling.

The tension in the room broke when several high profile alpha demons walked over. The flood gates seemed to have opened as the staring onlookers surged forward to join them. Shang Qinghua panicked as a large group of demons flocked to Mobei-jun. However, he didn’t have much time to react or fear for his life, because he was jostled away from his king by the approaching demons. Despite how intimidating the situation appeared seconds ago, the worst injury he received was an elbow to the face. Now that he was no longer getting pushed like a leaf in a rough river current, he realized that the alpha demons that had approached had completely encircled Mobei-jun and pushed Shang Qinghua outside.

Unfortunately, demons, especially high level demons, were on average quite tall. Shang Qinghua was used to always being able to spot his king in a crowd, but now that what seemed like most of the tall alpha demons in the hall were surrounding Mobei-jun, Shang Qinghua’s view was almost entirely blocked. He wasn’t really sure how to react to what just happened. The rest of the hall seemed to continue their conversations as normal, while ignoring the disturbance of the writhing mass of demons shoving at each other as they tried to talk to Mobei-jun. They didn’t seem excessively aggressive to the point of starting a fight, but his anti-social king has got to be irritated by all of this attention.

After a few minutes, the stragglers that failed to push their way into close quarters grumbled and shuffled away to return to their retinues. Only around ten demons were left and they were all high ranking ones that were on Shang Qinghua’s “Do Not Offend” list. Needless to say, he was still hesitant about intervening in whatever odd interaction was occurring. Now that his vision was no longer impeded by a sea of heads and bodies, he looked at Mobei-jun to try to gauge what was happening.

Mobei-jun usually kept a wide berth from strangers, but a few of these demon lords were putting their hands on him. Shang Qinghua felt heat rise to his head. A few of them were pawing at Mobei-jun’s coat and flicking its jewels. Others were boldly leaning over his shoulder from behind. They all seemed to be saying things to Mobei-jun, but quietly enough that Shang Qinghua’s cultivator ears could only pick up snippets of “—need some help?”, “—take care of—“, “—treat you—“, and “—pretty thing”. His hand clenched beneath the over-sized sleeve of his robe. He wasn’t sure why the demon lords’ actions were pissing him off so much. Maybe it was the utter lack of respect. They were all invading Mobei-jun’s space to a degree that Shang Qinghua had never seen anyone else do. Usually anyone that got too close and bothersome was met with Mobei-jun’s sword or his fists—if they weren’t worth the blade.

Shang Qinghua yanked his eyes away from all of the offensive points of contact to look at Mobei-jun’s face and was alarmed. His king’s face was going a bit green. His dark brows were pinched and his eyes looked slightly pained. All of Shang Qinghua’s concerns about causing offense went out of the window. He strode over to the swarm and bodily pushed away the clinging alphas to grab Mobei-jun’s arm.

“If you would please pardon this servant’s intrusion, my king Mobei-jun is being called by Junshang to discuss important matters. Please continue your discussions at a later time, for the emperor takes priority.” Shang Qinghua kept a polite subservient tone while tugging Mobei-jun away and ignoring the protests of the group.

Throwing Luo Binghe’s name around seemed to help shut down their objections, and he was able to escape with Mobei-jun in tow, who followed along so willingly that it felt like dragging around a rag-doll. Shang Qinghua blew air out of his nose to try to clear his sinuses from the heavy scent still lingering from entering that little circle of alphas. It had smelled like someone tipped over a shelf of perfume bottles and just left the shattered bottles to mix and taint the air with simultaneously strong and discordant scents. He had no clue what sort of alpha discussion was being had through pheromones, but it was unpleasantly disharmonious.

Shang Qinghua finally stopped weaving through the hall with Mobei-jun in tow, as if he was trying to lose someone, to duck into an alcove. They were sufficiently far away and hidden enough that he felt like he could check in with his king and try to figure out what was going on.

“That should be far enough... My king, are you okay? I hope I didn’t overstep in getting you out of that discussion, but it looked like they were bothering you.” Shang Qinghua spoke as he alternately examined Mobei-jun and peeked back out into the banquet hall to see if they were being followed.

“…” Mobei-jun stayed silent.

His king still had that pained pinch to his brow. Mobei-jun’s unresponsiveness was starting to seriously worry Shang Qinghua, when the ice demon suddenly pulled Shang Qinghua away from the alcove entrance. The momentum caused his back to crash into Mobei-jun’s chest. Shang Qinghua was ready to leap away and apologize for giving away their position by lurking in the archway, but unexpectedly two strong arms wrapped around his front. Mobei-jun tugged him more securely into his arms and pressed his body against Shang Qinghua’s back. Mobei-jun dropped his forehead onto Shang Qinghua’s shoulder and just stood there breathing deeply.

Shang Qinghua felt like a mouse caught in the clutches of a snake. He didn’t dare move and any higher thought fled him. He didn’t know what his king was getting out of this, but slowly Mobei-jun’s arms relaxed. He had been held by Mobei-jun for a near ten minutes before the ice demon finally released him. Shang Qinghua turned around dazed. Miraculously Mobei-jun’s expression was improved. He no longer looked to be in pain and instead seemed recharged. His crystal blue eyes stared down at Shang Qinghua intensely. Mobei-jun’s mouth parted and he was just about to speak when—.

A small white haired demon bounded into the alcove and immediately dropped into a deep bow. Without raising his head, the demon began pleading.

“Your highness, I am sorry for intruding, but I am desperately seeking an audience with you. I know it is inappropriate for this lowly one to be asking this of you, but I don’t know where to turn. Please just a moment of your time would be enough.” The small demon rushed through a clearly rehearsed speech as if fearing being thrown out before he could say it all.

With his head still held bowed and looking down at his feet, the stranger missed the awkward way Shang Qinghua hovered, still semi-surrounded by Mobei-jun’s bulk. Shang Qinghua heard a growl near his ear and internally lit a candle for this unsuspecting little demon. The white haired boyish demon had clearly upset Mobei-jun. Bye-bye went his chances of getting an amenable audience to whatever woes he had to share. Normally, Shang Qinghua didn’t care too much about any old demon that drew his king’s ire, but given the weird tension before he burst in, maybe it would be better to jump on this excuse.

Before Mobei-jun moved to kick the bowing demon and send him flying into the hall, Shang Qinghua walked over and asked him to elaborate, “Hello, who are you and what have you come here for?”

Not getting immediately beat up and tossed out seemed more than what the demon was hoping for. He hesitated as he straightened up, while opening and closing his mouth to try and start speaking. It was quite the opposite of his initial speech that had left no room for interruption. Eventually, he got himself together and spoke to Shang Qinghua while glancing at Mobei-jun.

“Um.. My name is Eight Cubes. Uh.. I’m from a small clan on the outskirts of the Northern Desert. I came to this banquet, because I really need your help. My clan is in serious danger and we have nowhere to turn. The surrounding clans have been taking bit by bit of our territory for decades, but its gotten to the point that they are trying to chase us entirely out or accept surrender. I know you don’t take on charity cases and I wouldn’t have the face to ask that of you, but I came here, because I want to make a treaty agreement.”

The snowy haired demon started out stuttering, but once he got in the swing of things he became impassioned and his face held a slight flush after he stopped talking. Shang Qinghua felt mildly intrigued about what this little fellow could possibly be offering for his side of the treaty, after he had the audacity to demand an audience with Mobei-jun. Not to mention, Shang Qinghua still didn’t know how to process or deal with Mobei-jun holding him for so long earlier. A fun treaty negotiation with a pretty unassuming demon felt like a welcome distraction.

“A treaty, huh? That’s awfully bold. What do you have to offer that would be worth my king’s attention?” Shang Qinghua needled him a bit.

Eight Cubes brightened up after not getting a dismissal and continued, “My clan may be small and lacks fighting power, but we have preserved a valuable unique tradition for centuries. Our primary asset doesn’t lie in our combat, but in our livestock. We have been breeding and care-taking for a unique demonic beast that our ancestors developed. We fear that if we lose all of our lands, then this tradition and our long history will be destroyed as well. The beast of burden we raise are called World-Hopping Bunnies. They have the appearance of giant arctic hares and are capable of carrying more goods than horses. They also possess short range teleporting abilities and are able to cross the entire Northern Desert in one shichen. That’s how I was able to travel here so quickly and risk leaving my clan with one less defender.”

Shang Qinghua’s face lit up in interest after hearing the specs of the bunny. Shen Qingqiu would probably be on his case for not knowing every single creature in PIDW existence, but he wasn’t here right now to mock. Getting access to a herd of teleporting beasts of burden would enable so much improvement in their transport and trade capacity. On a logistical level, it would be a dream to rework the system with the new addition of these bunnies. Moreover, the demon’s clan was clearly desperate and seemed eager for protection. For as quickly as Eight Cubes gave his sales pitch, he didn’t seem particularly equipped for diplomacy either. It would probably be pretty easy to fleece an uneven deal from him. Shang Qinghua wasn’t planning on being that much of a bully, but it was always nice to know that negotiation power laid in his hands.

“My king! I’m going to go quickly investigate this offer further. I will come back soon and let you know if it’s worth it.” Shang Qinghua spoke to Mobei-jun, whose mood had evidently plummeted back down again. Turning back to the white fluffy haired demon, Shang Qinghua slung his arm around his thin frame and said, “Now let’s go check out that giant bunny of yours. I gotta inspect the goods for my king, before any further discussions after all.”

Shang Qinghua walked off with Eight Cubes in tow. As they made their way out of the hall, Shang Qinghua checked that Sha Hualing was still in the vicinity of the alcove. As much as he was half running away half chasing a deal, Shang Qinghua was still a bit worried about whatever was going on earlier and would feel better if Mobei-jun had someone nearby. Now that he verified that he wasn’t leaving his king entirely alone, he skipped off to hopefully stick his face into the fluffiest bunny fur in the world.

Chapter Text

Mobei-jun felt ready to end it all. The event just started, and he had already been surrounded by handsy alphas—all aggressively releasing pheromones as they propositioned him. If his heat hadn’t made him so sensitive to scents, he would’ve probably kicked their asses, diplomacy be damned. Alas, instead the smell and touches felt so disgusting that Mobei-jun got nauseous. He was left momentarily incapacitated from disgust and the struggle of rejecting alpha pheromones. The alphas couldn’t have done anything too egregious in public, considering the circumstances, but they had clearly been trying to pressure his heat into breaking and lay a temporary scent claim, if possible. Rejecting pheromones took a heavy toll, especially when there were so many alpha pheromones being pushed onto him. Thankfully, Shang Qinghua had saved him right when he was becoming too ill to stand.

Shang Qinghua always had a way of being a light in the dark when Mobei-jun least expected it. His heart had warmed from being tugged around by the wrist to escape the vile alpha scents. Even so, pain and discomfort continued to wrack his body. Once they had stopped and hid, he could no longer control himself. He needed to cleanse his body from all of the scents.

Betas didn’t have strong pheromones nor were they able to control their release, but with close proximity, alphas and omegas could pick up on their special scents and even understand broad emotions if they were attuned to that beta. Mobei-jun had a good grasp on Shang Qinghua’s scent, but it was too weak to pick up unless they were in touching distance. He wanted so badly to be enveloped by his human’s natural scent and shake off the unwelcome foreign pheromones.

In their temporary hiding spot, Shang Qinghua stood with his back to him and nape exposed. Mobei-jun gave in to temptation. He forcefully brought the beta into his arms to begin scenting. Dropping his forehead so close to his humans neck allowed him to finally breathe easy. It felt like Shang Qinghua’s nice gentle familiar scent could cure all ailments.

Releasing his pheromones so heavily gave him a reprieve, and helped flush out the alpha scents still lingering. Additionally, his omega instincts thrilled at being able to hold Shang Qinghua and mark him as his. The nausea in his gut settled, the longer he buried his nose in Shang Qinghua’s shoulder. For his part, his human barely twitched during the entire process and simply allowed himself to be scented. No part of Mobei-jun wanted to go back out into the hall and deal with people. He just wanted to hole up in his nest with Shang Qinghua. Alas that wish was unlikely to happen even if he were to forsake his duties. After all, Shang Qinghua had never tried to share a heat with him before, no matter how obvious Mobei-jun had been in the past. But… maybe if he came right out and asked…? Maybe Shang Qinghua would be more amenable to an explicit invitation?

With his hormones surging after the scenting session, Mobei-jun unwrapped himself from around Shang Qinghua and was on the edge of being blunt. Even if Shang Qinghua didn’t want or wasn’t ready to be his partner for life, he might be willing to entertain an omega. He was only a man after all, and Mobei-jun knew that Shang Qinghua found him attractive.

Mobei-jun looked down at Shang Qinghua’s flushed and shocked face as he turned around to look at him. Right when he was about to open his mouth, a random lower-class demon burst into their private space. On a purely instinctual level, Mobei-jun’s hackles rose. He had just finished scenting his human, and some random omega comes running in without a care to make demands of him. He couldn’t help but let out a growl. Only for Shang Qinghua to halt his advance to get rid of this pest and leave his side to approach another omega. He restrained his ire so as to not go against Shang Qinghua in front of strangers, but he continued glaring at the demon.

The strange demon’s sales-pitch might have been more interesting, if not for how threatened he felt. Pre-heat hormones raged at him about his human leaving his side to chat with another omega. Mobei-jun brought his spiking pheromones under control so as to not scare off the demon too badly that it upsets Shang Qinghua. His pride as the former, and recently partially reinstated, An Ding Peak Lord, meant that he would sulk around in frustration whenever treaties or important deals fell through. So despite his discomfort with the situation, Mobei-jun didn’t want to undermine or upset him. Especially, when Mobei-jun was aware of how out of it he was from his heat.

And yet, he felt like he had been punched in the gut when Shang Qinghua put his arm around the omega and walked back into the crowd.

Shang Qinghua didn’t need to always be by his side—though that was of course preferred—but seeing him give so much attention to others was upsetting. Particularly, because Mobei-jun was about to start his heat and was feeling increasingly sensitive. The back and forth whiplash from satiating his instincts to reeling from rejection was exhausting. Hormone turmoil and exacerbation of emotions was so much easier to handle when only the residents of the palace were present. Mobei-jun could just arrange a nice nest, cash in on some Shang Qinghua time to tide him over, and burrow away in his chamber to ride it out. Instead, the palace was infested with strangers and his human kept getting preoccupied with others.

Mobei-jun let out a frustrated breath and collected himself to leave the alcove. He was royalty after all and this was his palace. He didn’t need to be hiding out. If he just bottled up his weak reactions and got through this evening, he would finally be able to curl up in the safety of his nest. Having given himself a pep talk, Mobei-jun returned to the banquet hall.

The attendees were politely mingling and keeping the fights to a minimum. The alphas that had gotten up in his business earlier seemed to have given up for the time being and were discussing among their own personal alliances. A few demons looked up when he returned, but continued on with their own conversations. No one approached him until a servant of the Northern palace came running over to hand him a drink. The little guy discretely gave him a low down about the proceedings thus far, before retreating to continue handing out drinks while eavesdropping.

Mobei-jun deliberated on the information he received while taking a sip of the drink. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of red and the jingling of bells approaching.

Sha Hualing waltzed over to tease. She let out a tinkling laugh. “Well, well, look at our host finally deciding to show up.”

Mobei-jun grumbled out a greeting before preparing for the inevitable onslaught.

“Were you trying to start a brawl earlier? I heard you were getting your preheat pheromones everywhere.” Sha Hualing needled him in a disapproving tone. “Why are you even running around half in heat? These alphas were really eyeing you up like meat. You can handle yourself sure, but can you try not to cause an incident? Luo Binghe’s going to have my head, if there’s drama that causes the negotiations to take longer than expected. He’s already been grumbling about being away from the Qing Jing Peak Lord.”

He didn’t really have much to say in response. Hosting events while smelling like heat was ill advised, but using suppressants was antithetical to demon culture. Sha Hualing helped Luo Binghe out with a lot of the minutia of running the demon realm, whereas Mobei-jun pitched in more for brute strength situations. So, she had to deal with his moods more often and more directly. Mobei-jun could spare some pity for her, but she seemed to enjoy working hard in her position. That type of ambition eluded him and seemed a bit tiring, to be honest.

Sha Hualing leaned in to sniff him. Apparently, her going out of her way to touch base with him included an inspection. “Why do you smell like jealousy? Don’t tell me.. Is that little hamster of a man still cruelly leading you on?” Much like she often got when Shang Qinghua was brought up, she got incensed.

“Why that little beta brat…” She snarled out.

“Watch it.” Mobei-jun retorted. He wasn’t about to listen to her insult his human.

“Oh, don’t get offended. It’s just hard to watch. Look at all those alpha demons, in this hall alone, that would do anything to get a second glance from you, and instead you’ve been chasing after a weak little beta human for decades. So much fuss and all he does is lead you on.” Sha Hualing huffed and puffed. She never had the best impression of Shang Qinghua, but seeing Mobei-jun pining after him tended to set her off more.

“Just how many heats are you going to spend alone? You need to get more proactive or go hook up with literally anyone else. See if I were you and pining after a pathetic human, I would show up outside their bedchambers while in heat and challenge them to a fight. Subtlety is human nonsense and even then they seem too dense to get it.” Her nagging took a turn. She seemed to get frustrated at something entirely different from Shang Qinghua.

Mobei-jun prepared himself to listen to her woes, tilting his head to suggest she continue.

Sha Hualing glanced around to make sure the demons around them were outside of hearing distance. She began to whine, “These human cultivators… You can practically throw yourself at them and they still don’t get the hint. During my last heat, I marched up to Liu Mingyan’s place to ask for a fight, but guess what she did!? We barely exchanged blows before she got all red and swiftly tied me up with demonic qi suppressing rope. What’s the point of fighting an omega in heat and using such dirty tactics to end the fight. Even worse, instead of enjoying her disappointingly quick victory, she delivered me to the heat spending quarters on Xian Shu Peak and locked me in a room! She only came to get me out after a week. Ugh.. Never again. I think I would prefer moping around a banquet hall like you’re doing now compared to getting locked up alone. I haven’t spent one alone like that in years! It still pisses me off.” She stomped her feet while out of breath.

Mobei-jun hummed with sympathy. Seems like they shared some solidarity in suffering from fickle humans.

She sighed and lamented, “These human cultivators are ridiculous. Demon royalty is throwing themselves at their feet and nothing? No response? No respect.”

Mobei-jun patted her lightly on her exposed shoulder. Unfortunately, they happened to both glance at their boss. Luo Binghe was seated on the throne, fidgeting with a braid woven into his hair that had been tied by a green ribbon. His subordinates expressions soured. He was far more agreeable and tolerable now that he was in a relationship with Shen Qingqiu, so normally Mobei-jun and Sha Hualing had little to complain about. But in this moment seeing him happily married to a human was aggravating. They both turned around to face the more welcoming sight of the carved stone wall.

Having released some steam Sha Hualing resumed her inspection. “You look like a mess.” She gently straightened some of his garments and hair that had gotten messed up by the presumptuous alphas earlier. While fixing the fur trim of his robe, Sha Hualing wrinkled her nose. “They really drenched you in pheromones, huh?” She stretched out her wrist slowly, telegraphing her movements. Mobei-jun just lowered his head in assent, so she platonically rubbed her scent gland against the particularly strong patches of alpha pheromones.

Mobei-jun relaxed a bit after her scent overrode the unfamiliar alphas’ pheromones. His scenting session with Shang Qinghua was helpful in flushing out most of them, but the beta didn’t have strong pheromones that would be able overpower an alpha’s scent mark. Getting a fellow omega that he mostly trusted to help him combat them was sadly more effective.

“You know, you’d feel better if you just found a respectable alpha here to spend your heat with. There’s no need to torture yourself over your pet human.” Sha Hualing implored again.

He just shook his head, but appreciated the attempt at looking out for him. Sha Hualing held his gaze for a moment before sighing and walking off to carry out Luo Binghe’s orders.

Mobei-jun did a few halfhearted rounds to demons he had alliances with, so as to address some of the list Shang Qinghua had been mumbling about them needing to take care of, while everyone was easily accessible at the banquet.

During his journey around the hall, he was approached by Gongyang-jun. The ram-horned demon, clad in orange and gold, gave another polite bow before requesting a moment of Mobei-jun’s time. Considering this alpha hadn’t been part of the swarm of demons earlier, he figured a conversation wouldn’t undo the recovery efforts of the forced scenting. Nonetheless, even with the demon keeping his pheromones on a civil level, Mobei-jun’s nose still itched from their spicy scent.

Gongyang-jun proceeded to discuss his clan’s position in the Southern border in greater detail. The more he spoke the clearer it was that if fighting was to be avoided, Luo Binghe needed to make a deal with this man. Gongyang-jun’s clan had swallowed up much of the Southern Border territories, but many loud opposers of Luo Binghe controlled the pockets of land that had yet to be taken over by Gongyang-jun. If they were to horrendously offend this man, then Mobei-jun getting sent to fight at the Southern Border was near guaranteed. Just thinking about it made Mobei-jun annoyed, he had done some battles there for Luo Binghe before and it was unpleasant to fight in such a warm place. Mobei-jun had confidence in his battle prowess and Luo Binghe’s power, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be uncomfortable and unpleasant. Especially, if their enemy was a consolidated power and not divided clans.

Gongyang-jun, for his part, didn’t belabor the precarious political situation, and moved on after asserting his qualifications for approaching him for a private conversation. Alas, the large broad shouldered demon didn’t keep things strictly business for long.

“Your Majesty is very beautiful, if you would forgive my presumptuousness for saying so.” The alpha had seemed to move on to flirtatious comments.

Mobei-jun’s focus on the conversation was broken, when he saw Shang Qinghua entering from one of the large doors. He tried to avoid staring directly at him as Shang Qinghua approached, but from his glances he could tell that he was coming straight to him. Preoccupied with tracking his human’s movements, Mobei-jun mostly tuned out the compliments and comments about the benefits of them having an alliance.

Until, right as Shang Qinghua entered earshot, Gongyang-jun proposed, “We would make for an advantageous match. If your majesty is amenable I would love to have the honor of courting you for marriage. An alliance between us would be beneficial to us both…”

Mobei-jun’s eyes jolted in surprise, away from where he had been staring in empty space while trying to discretely watch Shang Qinghua out of his peripheral vision, to look the ram-horned demon dead in his eyes. Out of all things, a formal marriage proposal was the last thing he was expecting. Being an omega actively in heat did make the numerous propositions for sex earlier make sense and regular treaty discussions continued this evening, but marriage? When he was a kid, different potential marriage matches had been mentioned to him, but all talk of that died out after he took over the Northern Desert and didn’t have others to report to. With Shang Qinghua being a constant in his life, he hadn’t sought out alliances through marriages as a concept either. All in all, this was the first time someone directly asked for a long term commitment like a marriage partnership.

Not seeing an immediate refusal but rather a wide eyed blank look, Gongyang-jun proceeded to ramble off various courting gifts he would offer and other benefits this deal would have. The ice demon wasn’t seriously considering accepting the proposal, but he felt very out of his depth on how to delicately turn it down without causing a diplomatic nightmare for everyone to deal with. Additionally, he started internally bemoaning the ease with which the alpha proposed marriage given the alliance argument. He wondered if things would be different if he somehow came up with a diplomatic excuse and just asked Shang Qinghua to marry him. Maybe if the argument was rooted in politics and logistics, the cultivator would accept easily?

For as much as Mobei-jun felt like he was throwing himself at Shang Qinghua, he did know that he struggled to verbally articulate much of his feelings. His words just never came out how he wanted them to, in a way that clearly showed Shang Qinghua how important he is to him.

He really wanted to give Shang Qinghua a permanent seat by his side in his court. And to let him know how badly he wanted him to stay in his life and never leave. Mobei-jun wanted to be able to kiss his cheeks when they’re all puffed out from stuffing melon seeds in his mouth. He wanted to stick his face in the crook of Shang Qinghua’s neck and just inhale. He wanted to bundle him up in his nest and not let him escape. With his heat rippling through him, he wanted to feel Shang Qinghua buried deep within. He wanted. He wanted and wanted so much.

Chapter Text

Shang Qinghua froze. Mobei-jun married? He left his side for one moment and he was getting proposed to? Somehow, the idea of Mobei-jun being married, wasn’t something he ever thought about much before.

While writing his favorite side character, he avoided giving him any romance drama. It felt impossible to even imagine the ice demon with some other person. Yet, now he was witnessing an attempt at romancing his king… A vision flickered across his mind of Mobei-jun kissing this random demon, before Shang Qinghua shook his head to clear it. He blanched at the thought. What man even had the audacity to ask for Mobei-jun’s hand? Just the image alone of Mobei-jun married to someone, sharing the throne dais, kissing, and siring heirs made Shang Qinghua sick to his stomach.

Then again, the story was over. Mobei-jun could do what he wanted. Maybe, his real happy ending contained love. He had never expressed strong desire for romance or relations with others before, but… things change. Shang Qinghua couldn’t help but wonder, where that would leave himself? When his parents had remarried, they no longer had time for him. If acquiring shiny new families was enough for them to virtually cut blood ties, then what stopped the same from happening with Mobei-jun. They might be close enough friends that Mobei-jun chased him down when he ran away, but would their bond stand up in the face of a husband or even a child? Mobei-jun didn’t really need him much anymore either. He had done a good job serving by his side for decades, but things were pretty settled now. Cang Qiong even offered him to come back to An Ding. He technically had somewhere to go. For all that Mobei-jun had thrown a fit about him leaving before, would he really feel the same if he got a partner? Even Cucumber bro was hard to reach when he was deep in honeymoon bliss, and they were fellow Earthlings. There was a real possibility that Mobei-jun might not want him around all the time anymore, if he found someone to be with to put above all else.

Mobei-jun wasn’t immediately turning down the demon either. He was usually quick to show his displeasure with others. Yet he was just standing still, seemingly in contemplation. Shang Qinghua felt the frayed thread of his emotions—at the idea of Mobei-jun abandoning him—snap, and before he knew it, he was standing between them holding his king’s sleeve. He wasn’t sure what expression was on his face, but Mobei-jun reacted instantly to seeing him with faint alarm.

His king, held hostage by the fingers curling into his sleeve, steeled his face and told the tall horned demon, “Apologies. Thank you for the offer, but I am not available for a marriage alliance. I need to attend to something urgent. We can discuss a partnership between our kingdoms with more acceptable conditions later.”

Inclining his head in farewell, Mobei-jun walked off with Shang Qinghua, and didn’t say anything until they were a good distance away. “What’s wrong?” He ventured in a low soothing voice.

The immaturity of his reaction earlier slammed into him, causing Shang Qinghua to feel flustered. He didn’t even have a response. “Uh… nothing, my king.”

Mobei-jun grunted in response. They continued wandering the banquet halls, until Mobei-jun broke the silence again, “Did you make a deal with that omega?”

Shang Qinghua appreciated that the conversation was steered to what felt like solid ground. He proceeded to give details about the new transport system that they will be able to develop in exchange for protection and land set aside for the small clan. Politely listening, Mobei-jun reached over to hand Shang Qinghua a drink from a passing server.

Once Shang Qinghua took a sip, Mobei-jun reported, “I spoke to the clan leaders on your list about updating agreements.”

What a pleasant surprise! Shang Qinghua quickly praised Mobei-jun for being proactive and getting so much of their agenda done while he was gone. His king responded well to compliments, as always, so his mood visibly brightened.

They finished their rounds and hashed out treaty agreements as they proceeded around the hall. The rest of the evening was full of working on alliances. With them both participating in the diplomatic discussions, things went smoothly, as Mobei-jun had the authority and Shang Qinghua remembered the minutia of what needed to be altered or talked about. Luo Binghe later descended his throne to join the fray by winning over the leaders that weren’t yet his subjects. The banqueting portion of the evening went smoothly as well, with a menu blissfully free of rotting flesh. All in all, the night’s proceedings went off without a hitch. That is, until the very end, when visiting demons were being escorted to sleeping quarters.

The night was wrapping up as people filtered out of the main hall, when Mobei-jun’s complexion took a rapid turn for the worse. His face looked both flushed and pale, with sweat beginning to bead. Shang Qinghua discretely eyed him with worry so as to not set off alarm. His king held himself stiffly like an ice statue, as the stragglers departed. But once the last stranger left, Mobei-jun collapsed. Shang Qinghua had been watching him closely so he was able to react in time, just barely catching him.

“My king!” Shang Qinghua yelled while holding Mobei-jun’s momentarily boneless frame.

Mobei-jun got his strength back not long after and pushed away from Shang Qinghua. He was horrified to see how heavy his blush was. He got back up in his space and pressed the back of his hand to Mobei-jun’s forehead. Sure enough, he was feverish. As an ice demon, being cold was the natural state, so him being warm was an instant indicator that something was seriously wrong.

Mobei-jun smacked his hand aside and growled out, “Leave it.” Without looking back, Mobei-jun rushed out of the hall.

“What do you mean “leave it”? My king, come back! What’s wrong?” Shang Qinghua yelled after him as he ran following Mobei-jun’s unsteady steps. He chased him all the way until they ended up at Mobei-jun’s bedchambers. His king wrestled with the door before flinging it open. He stumbled in and failed to close it on Shang Qinghua’s face—as he so clearly wanted to, because Shang Qinghua slipped in through the door before it slammed shut.

“Do you not feel well? Let me take a look, maybe I can help.” Attempting to fuss over Mobei-jun was now like wrestling a slippery eel, compared to the easy pampered house cat that he had dealt with earlier in the day.

Mobei-jun kept trying to shake him off, until he had enough and started ripping his coat and accessories off. Precious jewels clinked onto the floor. In his frustration, he hadn’t bothered to try to unclip his jewelry, so several pieces broke even before they hit the floor.

Shang Qinghua got even more alarmed and couldn’t help but call out, “Wait! Wait, let me! You’re going to hurt yourself.”
Mobei-jun finally halted, panting from frustration. His chest heaved and sweat dripped. But he let Shang Qinghua reach up to slip his earrings safely out and save a couple other pieces of jewelry from joining their sparkling brethren below. He seemed to momentarily calm down, until Shang Qinghua gathered up the sharp glittering remains and attempted to set them on the dresser across from his king’s bed.

Mobei-jun snarled, “Get out!” But it was too late.

Shang Qinghua froze, as he let the broken jewelry tumble from his grasp onto the dresser. There, on Mobei-jun’s large crystal bed, was unmistakably a nest. He stood in shock staring at it while everything clicked into place. He felt his world view shatter as he finally grasped a truth that he had missed all signs of. Mobei-jun… He was… Since he finally had an understanding of what was happening, Shang Qinghua inhaled deeply. He didn’t focus much on scents normally, but now that he knew what he was looking for, the sickly sweet scent of an omega in heat was palpable. There was the faint aroma of cold winter breeze in the air that always accompanied Mobei-jun, but at the moment, it was drowned out by a deeper more carnal scent.

Face flushing, Shang Qinghua didn’t know what else to say but, “Oh. I see.” And he turned around to try to bolt only to run smack dab into Mobei-jun’s chest.

Mobei-jun growled, “Where do you think you’re going?” Shang Qinghua attempted to run again, but a hand was wrapped around his wrist.

“Sorry! I didn’t realize! You told me to get out.” Shang Qinghua tried to tug his hand out of Mobei-jun’s grasp again, but he held tight.

He didn’t feel capable of thinking. All that was looping through his brain was “my king is an omega”. Filled with an intense buzzing energy, he didn’t know what else to do, but run out. So when Mobei-jun’s grip went slack, he was halfway to the door, before he heard a thud behind him. Mobei-jun had fallen to the ground groaning from a sharp spike of pain. He was clutching his stomach and squinting his eyes shut. Instantly, Shang Qinghua was back at his side asking if he was okay and what hurt. He instinctively rushed back when he realized Mobei-jun was suffering. Even now, as he crouched with an arm around his shoulders, Shang Qinghua couldn’t bring himself to just leave his king in pain despite him knowing that he really shouldn’t be here.

Omegas in heat needed space, and a degree of pain was normal for them. There was nothing he could do here to help and he just needed to get up! Leave! An omega wouldn’t want some beta man waffling around when a heat is starting. Nevertheless, he couldn’t bring himself to move, and just rubbed circles on Mobei-jun’s shoulder while babbling questions like “are you hurt?”.

“Qinghua..” growled Mobei-jun under his breath. He brought his arm to clasp Shang Qinghua’s again, letting his claws dig in each time the human tried to tug it away. “Either you get out now or you help me through it. Make your choice.”

Shang Qinghua’s body flashed with heat. He stuttered, “You don’t mean…”

“Fuck me or leave,” responded Mobei-jun with exasperation. He was looking at Shang Qinghua through a curtain of dark hair that obscured the blue feverish flush painting his skin. After a moment he let go and pushed himself off of his knees from where he had collapsed.

Shang Qinghua stayed crouching on the floor reeling. He ventured, “Uh.. um.. do you want me to get someone for you?“ He was unsure how genuine the request was.

Mobei-jun scoffed, “I’m not presenting to those impertinent demons out there. Who do you think I am?”

“Oh.” Shang Qinghua felt a lump in his throat. “But you just told me that I could…” He trailed off.

Mobei-jun gave him a dirty look without responding. Right… Shang Qinghua was technically different from those alphas. He had Mobei-jun’s trust. Still on the floor, Shang Qinghua fidgeted with his hands in his lap. He worried his lip under his teeth. A loud sigh echoed through the bedchamber as Mobei-jun got impatient. His king pulled him up and plopped him on his feet.

“Qinghua. If you want to help, you can stay. But if you don’t..” Mobei-jun winced as another wave of cramps rolled through his body. He continued through gritted teeth, “Then you need to get out.”

Shang Qinghua’s heart thumped in his chest and he swallowed harshly. “Um.. I guess.. I could give you a hand? If you’re sure?” Bros can help each other out right? Right?

Mobei-jun was taking ragged breaths while looking down at where his hands were still clutching Shang Qinghua’s robes from when he tugged him up. But at Shang Qinghua’s words he looked up with wide-eyed shock, as if agreeing to stay was completely unexpected.

“I mean! If you were serious, that is!” Shang Qinghua waved his hands, starting to panic that he was overstepping and that it wasn’t a genuine request.

He didn’t have long to overthink, because Mobei-jun dragged him to his large sparkling crystal bed—piled high with luxurious furs and silk arranged lovingly into a nest. His king seemed a bit feral now that he got the go ahead. He pushed Shang Qinghua until the backs of his knees hit the bed and he was forced to sit. Shang Qinghua could’ve sworn smoke was coming out of his ears from how unexpected these developments were. He nervously glanced around the nest that he was on the edge of. It was mostly the same level of decadence that he would expect from Mobei-jun. Truly befitting of a spoiled prince. Except for a discordant streak of light blue robes that were of a clearly rougher texture. There were several of these robes—that were bereft of the opulence of the rest of the nest—threaded throughout the construction. He inhaled sharply when he inspected one closer and verified that it was indeed one of his.

“My king…” He whispered while running his hands over it.

Seems like Mobei-jun truly considered them to be close since he was using Shang Qinghua’s items for his nest. Shang Qinghua felt a bit awestruck. Omegas surrounded themselves with soothing comforting scents and only used items from those they were deeply interested in or regarded so close as to be family. Someone easily disposable would never be included in a curated nest. He felt his eyes well up for a moment before he blinked the wetness away. This was truly an honor. He knew Mobei-jun cared about him, but proof of their bond being that strong from his king’s perspective made him feel overwhelmed.

He was shaken out of his emotional stupor when he made eye contact with Mobei-jun and saw how his pupils were shot. Only a sliver of blue was showing. Shang Qinghua gulped. He felt like prey all of a sudden. Mobei-jun crowded into him, until the ice demon was kneeling on the edge of the bed over him. Shang Qinghua felt his “little airplane” stir, as he started to internalize what they were about to do, while Mobei-jun loomed over him. Then his king let himself drop.

Shang Qinghua grunted from the heavy weight of Mobei-jun’s body settling on top of his thighs. He had to start channeling qi into them to prevent his circulation from cutting off. He took a brief moment to be thankful that he was a cultivator and could at least make an attempt to take on this beautiful demon. If he was back in his original body, his legs would’ve already given out and he couldn’t have hoped to be able to handle Mobei-jun. There appeared to be some benefits to transmigration after all.

Shang Qinghua could feel so much of Mobei-jun’s body pressed to him. He couldn’t help but want to put his hands on him. He never dared to touch his king’s lovely behind before, because courting death didn’t appeal to him. But considering Mobei-jun is asking him to fuck his heat away, then surely, a little shameless groping would be allowed? Feeling brave, he brought his hands to Mobei-jun’s ass and gave it a squeeze. A soft puff of air was forced out of Mobei-jun’s mouth at the action. Shang Qinghua was instantly enamored. They were such an amazing stress ball texture. Full and thick with muscle. Shang Qinghua ignored Mobei-jun’s glare to continue massaging the globes. Finally, Mobei-jun let out a growl of impatience, so he changed his tune by grabbing hold of Mobei-jun’s thoroughly fondled ass and tugging him forward to sit squarely on top of his lap.

Having plopped Mobei-jun fully on top of his clothed dick, Shang Qinghua blue-screened. The knowledge of whose weight and warmth was pressing on him would’ve overwhelmed his virgin senses alone, but any remaining brain cells left him in that moment as well, because he could feel how damp Mobei-jun’s undergarments were. If he had any doubts about Mobei-jun’s presentation before, they were fully squashed now that he could feel him getting soaking wet through his pants.

Mobei-jun experimentally rocked himself on his lap, as if getting himself acquainted with the terrain, until he wiggled to arrange himself so that Shang Qinghua’s quickly hardening bulge was prodding the wettest part of him. Once comfy in this position, he quirked his brow at Shang Qinghua in challenge. Seemingly, taunting him about why he wasn’t doing anything.

The gravity of the whole situation hit him like a truck. Shang Qinghua was entirely unprepared to deal with the emotional gravity of what was happening and shoved most feelings into a box in his mind with the label “Do Not Touch”. He was left with just his tangled up emotions about sex. The fact that he was a virgin of two lifetimes and had never actually gotten this hot and bothered with anyone before, was making him feel lost about what he was supposed to be doing. He had written so much mindless porn in PIDW, but now he couldn’t remember a single step of the formulaic papapa scenes? How was he supposed to please his king?

Shang Qinghua started to panic. What was he even doing here??? There’s no way he was worthy of sleeping with this gorgeous man. He was just a beta for crying out loud. He didn’t have even half of the alpha instincts that omegas needed during their heats, much less having the knot that would actually satisfy Mobei-jun’s heat instincts. Oh god, there was no way that Mobei-jun couldn’t feel how average his dick size was. Shang Qinghua is going to be such a disappointment.

Not to mention, there were countless alphas that had attended the banquet, and were now staying in the guest wing of the palace, that would be able to satisfy an omega and had showed their interest to Mobei-jun. Albeit, many of them were rude and forceful, but there were definitely others that had eyed Mobei-jun up like a piece of meat and maintained cordiality. Hell, that ram-horned demon offered a very advantageous political marriage, surely he would be down for helping his through a heat. Mobei-jun hadn’t seemed as disgusted with him as he’d had with the others either… Shang Qinghua may not have noticed at the time that so many alphas were salivating over his king due to him giving off strong fertile omega pheromones, but now that he knew what Mobei-jun was, it re-contextualized everything. Then again, Mobei-jun probably only extended the offer to Shang Qinghua when his heat began hitting hard, because he could trust that there would be no back-stabbing or forced mating unlike if he asked someone else. A beta wouldn’t be able to establish a forced bond and Shang Qinghua had proven his loyalty over the years, so he was definitely a safe option. If not for an underwhelming one.

Shang Qinghua had thought himself into such a stupor that his erection started to flag alerting Mobei-jun that something was definitely wrong.

“Shang Qinghua,” growled Mobei-jun. “What in the world are you muttering to yourself about. Is your king not the priority here?”

Mobei-jun forcefully grabbed Shang Qinghua’s hands, which had started to clutch his own face in horror and anxiety, and placed them on his chest.

Shang Qinghua instinctively squeezed that ample bosom that had lived rent free in his head for decades before realizing what just happened. Mobei-jun was still glaring at him, though this time with a trace of hurt in his brows. There was also an almost imperceptible souring to the scent in the air. Shang Qinghua started. The fact that he was actually able to notice a change in the omega’s scent meant that he was genuinely upset. All of his Cang Qiong training of dealing with hormonal omegas flashed through his brain making him start to panic in a new way. Omegas were really sensitive to rejection during their heats, and the backlash from feeling that could bring them more pain while generally worsening their symptoms.

“I’m sorry! My king, I didn’t mean to get distracted. I was just questioning whether this servant is the right person to aid you through your heat. Sorry, sorry.” Shang Qinghua babbled as he patted his chest in a hopefully reassuring way.

He didn’t dare remove his hands, because that was where his king placed them. He couldn’t imagine what else Mobei-jun could have wanted by placing his hands there, other than having his chest groped, so Shang Qinghua comfortably carried out that action.

“You-” Mobei-jun cut himself off. He still looked displeased and angry. “Just… get on with it.”

Ok! This servant can obey that instruction! This wasn’t happening for him, but for Mobei-jun, and the last thing he wanted to do was cause Mobei-jun to feel hormonal rejection backlash during a heat. Who cares about being worthy, he was here and all of those alphas weren’t. Turns out, decades of job loyalty had some particularly juicy benefits like getting to fondle your boss’ tits.

Massaging them for a while had brought some blood flow to the area, and they started to feel heavier in his hands. Shang Qinghua watched fascinated as a light blue flush spread across his chest. He experimentally swept his thumb across one of Mobei-jun’s nipples and was rewarded by the dark blue bud swelling up. He proceeded to do the same motion to the other one. That caused Mobei-jun to shift a bit, but he didn’t make a sound. Shang Qinghua couldn’t help but think that they looked overwhelmingly like blueberries. Still absentmindedly kneading his chest, Shang Qinghua’s mouth started to salivate. He felt like he could almost smell the scent of the fruit.

He looked up to Mobei-jun’s face. His king had closed his eyes and there was a small furrow in his brow. Seems like he was still hanging on to his composure. Shang Qinghua was very willing to take on that challenge. Time to make past daydreams a reality. He leaned down and swiped a tongue across a dusky nipple.

That earned him another squirm from Mobei-jun. While one hand played with the other nipple so it wouldn’t get lonely, Shang Qinghua brought his mouth around the one he had already tasted. He lightly sucked it in, before swirling his tongue over it. Drawing back, he clutched it teasingly between his teeth and let his teeth lightly scrape it as he pulled off. He gave the bud a consoling lick, before nibbling again. Mobei-jun twitched more dramatically this time. The ice demon seemed uncertain about whether he want to shrug away or push his chest further into Shang Qinghua’s mouth and hands. So, the ensuing action ended up being more like a roll of his hips.

Shang Qinghua switched sides, bullying the still wet bud by pinching, rolling, and tugging on it, while he licked, sucked and bit the other. Through it all, Mobei-jun only let out quiet huffs, but his hips were more honest. He couldn’t stop squirming in Shang Qinghua’s lap. His slick was dripping heavily and Shang Qinghua’s pants were soaked through by now. Shang Qinghua tried to resist rolling his hips up into the wet hot heat that he could feel through layers of cloth.

By this point, Mobei-jun was fully rutting against Shang Qinghua’s stomach. He could feel the large heavy hardness pressing on him. He gulped at the size of it. Truly inhumane. It was supposed to be smaller than the heavenly pillar, and yet feeling its length through cloth gave him a new found respect for Cucumber-bro. He felt like he dodged a bullet by getting ordered to put it in by Mobei-jun instead of the other way around. If his king had been an alpha in rut, there would be no way that his beta chrysanthemum would survive. Lucky break aside, having this beautiful large powerful man dry humping him was a religious experience to be thankful for in of itself.

Grinding up to meet Mobei-jun, Shang Qinghua pinched and tugged both nipples at the same time. That finally got a gasp out of the ice demon. His mouth fell open for a split second to pant, and all Shang Qinghua could think about was how badly he wanted to stick his tongue in. Shang Qinghua shook his head and tried to not think about kissing Mobei-jun. That felt like a line that he might not want to cross. This was just a bro helping another bro out. Or well, more accurately, a servant servicing his king, but kissing felt… like crossing a line.

So, Shang Qinghua just took out his slight frustration on the poor bullied breasts. Back when they had their big fight, he wouldn’t have imagined that there was something more satisfying to pinch than Mobei-jun’s face, but now he knows better. His puffy nipples were starting to get quite sore, with even the slightest brush causing the omega to roll his hips hard. Things were getting a bit dire for Shang Qinghua, as well, because his king’s grinding was bringing him dangerously close to coming. As good as it felt, he had to tap out. If he came so prematurely, he would completely fail his whole purpose here. His refractory period was not short enough to compete with an omega in heat. If he was going to satisfy Mobei-jun or even attempt to ease the aches and pains of the heat, then he needed to stop before he came in his pants.

He gave a nipple an apologetic lick for the bullying, before lightly pushing Mobei-jun away and holding him at arms distance. Naturally, his expression look annoyed.

“Ok, ok. You need to get off, my king. I’m getting close and won’t be able to help you out much if you make me come now.”

Mobei-jun gave him a long look before swinging one leg off of his lap and flopping onto his back with a disgruntled sigh. Now that the constant physical stimulation was stopped, Shang Qinghua had to fight off the visuals. His heart stuttered a bit in his chest from looking at Mobei-jun sprawled on luxurious furs. His robe was down by his elbows and doing nothing to hide his still heaving chest. Mobei-jun’s pants left little to the imagination too, with his erection straining the fabric and there being a prominent wet spot where his core was dripping. His beautiful face was framed by his long dark hair that was strewn across the white snow leopard adjacent demon pelt. He didn’t move and just stared up with crystal blue eyes from under his long lashes.

Aiyah, his king was truly too good at seduction. Having his ideal man laid up like a feast was making all of the blood leave Shang Qinghua’s head and journey to more important places. The Mobei-jun of right now with clothes in disarray and all stretched out on a bed, was a hundred times prettier than the bejeweled Mobei-jun of this evening. Even more so, because he was the only one getting to see this sight.

Chapter Text

Mobei-jun couldn’t believe this was really happening. He knew that he had asked Shang Qinghua for help, but he didn’t imagine that he would say yes. Was all that he needed to do all this time to get his human in his bed, was just to directly ask? Shang Qinghua seemed plenty eager, now that he got to business. Could they have been doing this years ago? It felt almost insulting to think back to all of those heats he spent alone having to console himself with cold unfeeling jade.

That being said, Shang Qinghua still looked nervous. He seemed to not know where to start. Mobei-jun didn’t really want to help him, though. He focused on trying to be as appealing of a meal as possible. Letting his thighs fall open slightly, he slow blinked at Shang Qinghua. The beta was still not jumping his bones, even with all of the pheromones swirling around the air, but he did set his hand on Mobei-jun’s knee and slowly moved it up his body. Stilling himself so as to not spook the human, Mobei-jun laid there trying to let Shang Qinghua take the lead. The hand feeling up his thigh felt good, but it was difficult to not get impatient. Shang Qinghua eventually reached the top of his pants and slipped his fingers slightly under them to press hands to the hot skin underneath. Compared to how badly Mobei-jun was burning up from his heat, Shang Qinghua’s touch felt almost cool and soothing on his feverish skin.

“Could I..?” Shang Qinghua squeaked out, while fiddling with the ties on his pants.

Mobei-jun grunted his assent and Shang Qinghua rushed to try to untie them. In his hurry, he fumbled the knot a couple times, before finally undoing them. Now faced with taking them off, Shang Qinghua quite unceremoniously tugged them off while looking anywhere else but the skin that was being revealed as he pulled. A flush was staining his cheeks and his facial expression looked like he kind of wanted to die. Instead, Shang Qinghua fidgeted with the undone pants in his lap and started folding them—of all things—rather than getting to what was important. Mobei-jun tried to stop himself from being impatient so as to not scare him off, but it was difficult with how horny he felt right now from the hormones running through his system.

After what felt like a lifetime, Shang Qinghua set aside the folded pants and finally took his fill of looking at Mobei-jun. The wait was worth seeing how hungrily Shang Qinghua’s gaze roved over his body. Less self conscious now, Shang Qinghua crawled forward in between Mobei-jun’s thighs and reverently stroked the exposed skin. Relaxing into the exploratory touches, Mobei-jun let the human between his legs get his fill. He got perhaps too relaxed to the mostly innocent touches, because when he was too busy staring at Shang Qinghua’s face, the touches took a turn.

Shang Qinghua had trailed his fingers up the underside of Mobei-jun’s dick. The sensation was almost ticklish in its unexpectedness. His member pulsed from the rush of blood the touch brought. Even worse was when Shang Qinghua leaned down—with a look in his eyes like a man possessed, and gave a testing lick to the weeping head. Mobei-jun’s breath punched out at the feeling of a hot warm tongue swiping across.

Drawing back, Shang Qinghua let out a moan and mumbled to himself, “It tastes like ice cream…” He rolled the taste around in his mouth to savor it.

Shang Qinghua splayed a hand on Mobei-jun’s stomach to brace himself, lightly stroking the skin there with his thumb. Then he wrapped his other hand around Mobei-jun’s cock to hold it up and dipped his head down to lick up all the trailing pearlescent precum. Mobei-jun gave a full body shiver from the treatment. After all, he had never had someone’s mouth on him before. Once finished cleaning up his cock, Shang Qinghua straightened up with lips glossy and pupils so wide that his eyes were akin to a doe. He licked his lips and shuffled to lay down between Mobei-jun’s parted legs.

Surrounded on both sides by Mobei-jun’s thighs, his human pumped his dick with long slender fingers that just barely wrapped around its girth. He enveloped the head with his warm wet mouth and swirled his tongue over it. His mouth was stretched taut over it. Still holding the tip in his mouth, Shang Qinghua hollowed his cheeks and sucked. Mobei-jun had to bite his lip to keep a whine from slipping out at the sensation and view. Through it all, Shang Qinghua kept making muffled “Mmmmm” noises.

While taking a break from suckling, he turned to the side slightly and the head bulged out of his cheek. Mobei-jun could feel his dick throb at the sight. Shang Qinghua pulled off and gave his jaw a stretch before attempting to take more length inside of his mouth. Cheeks flushed and lips pulled tight over Mobei-jun’s cock, Shang Qinghua slowly sunk down onto it. He stroked what he had yet to put in his mouth, using the spit from licking it up earlier and drool from trying to deep throat as lubrication. His small human was able to get halfway when his throat spasmed. For a brief moment the vibrations felt incredibly good, but Shang Qinghua pulled off quickly to cough.

“Sorry! Sorry, let me try again.” He asked apologetically and dived back down without waiting for a response.

Instead of attempting to fit the length down his throat immediately, he tongued the slit—almost meanly—causing Mobei-jun’s hips to jerk. He gave a couple consoling licks and tried to take it into his mouth properly again. Slowly bobbing up and down. Taking a little bit in each time. Shang Qinghua reclaimed surrendered territory, only to choke a little again, but he stubbornly kept Mobei-jun in his throat. Trying to take measured deep breaths through his nose, he looked up with reddened eyes from the strain.

Mobei-jun couldn’t resist bringing a hand up to tuck the stray strands of hair that had escaped Shang Qinghua’s bun behind his ear. Shang Qinghua leaned into his hand before he could pull it away as the man’s eyes got teary. In shock that this was really happening—that Shang Qinghua was really sucking his dick right now, Mobei-jun stroked his thumb over the cuff of the beta’s ear. In response to the consoling touch, Shang Qinghua let out a rumble that sounded vaguely like “My king”, but left Mobei-jun groaning from the stimulation. Mobei-jun petted Shang Qinghua’s head in gratitude.

Shang Qinghua swallowed around him—sending tingles up his spine, and bobbed his head before pulling off with a pop. He looked unbearably irresistible breathing heavy with shiny red lips and drool still dripping down his chin.

Mobei-jun wanted to tug Shang Qinghua down until he could wrap his arms around him so they were snugly fit against each other. He wanted to cuddle him badly like he hadn’t been able to do before. But after a few moments of Shang Qinghua catching his breath and Mobei-jun laying untouched, his heat came back with a vengeance. He still hadn’t come and felt painfully empty.

His eyes drifted down to stare at Shang Qinghua’s bulge. Oh how badly he wanted that in him. He felt like he was starting to lose his mind from how much he needed to be filled right this moment.

“Qinghua..” growled Mobei-jun. He couldn’t bring himself to directly ask out of embarrassment, so he spread his legs even more to try to direct Shang Qinghua’s attention to his hole. He hoped he would get the hint that for every moment the human was sitting up away from him and not trying to get inside, he was torturing him.

Shang Qinghua seemed to catch on as his eyes snapped back into focus in time to watch a glob of slick drip out of Mobei-jun’s core. Something dark flashed through his eyes and he surged forward, scooping his arms under the ice demon’s thighs. He lifted them up and propped them on top of his knees. The shift in angle gave him a better view of Mobei-jun’s pulsing hole. Mobei-jun’s heart beat faster at how exposed he was and how hungry Shang Qinghua looked.

Wrapping one hand around his dick to resume stroking, Shang Qinghua traced a path with a finger over Mobei-jun’s perineum and down to his core where he drew a circle around where the omega wanted touch the most. Mobei-jun felt flustered at how out of it Shang Qinghua seemed. The human was trembling and very clearly not out of fear. Mobei-jun would’ve thought that as the omega and the one in heat between them that he would’ve been the one completely gone, but at the moment Shang Qinghua looked enraptured.

Suddenly, Shang Qinghua spit on his hole, making Mobei-jun jolt in his arms when he felt it strike. His human rubbed it in, finally finally touching his opening. The spit was a bit redundant from how wet he was already, but whatever his human wanted to do was completely great with him. Shang Qinghua rubbed his rim in rhythmic circles before sinking in a digit. Mobei-jun immediately clenched around the intrusion.

Sweeping a thumb over the head of his cock to distract him, Shang Qinghua soothed, “Shhh… It’s okay. You’re doing good. Just relax.”

He pulled the finger out before pushing it back in. Pumping it a few times, he massaged Mobei-jun’s walls until the muscles finally loosened a bit. Then he slipped in another. Mobei-jun had only ever had his own fingers and a small cold jade dildo in there, so feeling someone else probing his walls felt strange. Shang Qinghua scissored his fingers to spread him open more. The more that he was opened up, the emptier his insides started to feel.

Shang Qinghua pumped his fingers in and out creating an almost ticklish but arousing friction. Their thrusts finally hit their target when Shang Qinghua drove his fingers in deep only to hit a spot inside him that made Mobei-jun clutch at the sheets.

Mobei-jun gasped out, “Ah!”

Meanwhile Shang Qinghua watched in interest as more slick gushed out and he felt the omega’s insides give a small spasm. He teasingly questioned, “Oh? Was that the spot?”

Shang Qinghua dragged his fingers out—rubbing them against the walls, before thrusting them back in and putting pressure on that spot. He repeated the motion, interspersed with crooking his fingers over it. Mobei-jun’s thighs shook as they tried to move together, but were met with Shang Qinghua’s frame between them and couldn’t escape the lovely torment. Shang Qinghua started to bully the spot, causing Mobei-jun’s spine to arch off the bed even more, in lieu of a way to escape the pleasure. His body continued to twist as he battled with wanting the feeling to stop and also never end.

Mobei-jun’s claws were tearing holes in the sheets from how hard he was holding on to them while getting fingered. His slick was starting to froth from the force of Shang Qinghua’s fingers going in and out. He let slip a small yelp, when his human curled his fingers particularly hard over the spot at the same time as he pressed his thumb into the slit of his cock. Shang Qinghua looked delighted as more slick gushed out in response. He scooped out some slick and brought it to his mouth—sucking those lovely fingers between his plush lips.

Shang Qinghua hummed “Mmm…” and looked longingly at his twitching entrance.

Mobei-jun suddenly felt thoroughly debauched as he looked up at him. He was laid bare in Shang Qinghua’s lap, dripping precum onto his stomach and completely wet. Whilst Shang Qinghua was still fully dressed! He found himself feeling like he looked like Shang Qinghua’s needy concubine in this moment.

Oh well, shame can go die in a hole, he needed Shang Qinghua’s dick inside him—nuzzled all the way up to his womb—now.

Chapter Text

Shang Qinghua felt delirious. The air was thick with the scent of an omega in heat and the sweet taste of Mobei-jun lingered on his tongue. Mobei-jun was truly a vision—acres of soft skin spread out on furs. Absentmindedly, while ogling Mobei-jun’s body, Shang Qinghua stroked over his hole. This caused Mobei-jun to squirm more and his wronged expression to intensify. Shang Qinghua gulped at how bullied Mobei-jun looked. Seemed like the omega should be ready, but just in case… Shang Qinghua dipped his fingers in and spread the tight ring of muscle to check that he was prepped enough.

He was stretched out enough, but when Shang Qinghua tried to pull them out, his hole sucked his fingers in an obscene manner. He winced at the throb that the sight and sensation brought. Struck with urgency, Shang Qinghua fumbled open his robes, in a rush to free himself. The cold air of the room stung his skin, but his king was blissfully warm for once.

Shang Qinghua grabbed his dick and hissed at the feeling. He had been ignoring it the entire time he was taking care of Mobei-jun, so the sudden touch felt overstimulating. Bringing it out of his half removed robes, he lubed it up by dipping his hands into the sticky fluids covering his king’s bottom. He was too scared to come after getting this far, so he coated it with slick in a perfunctory manner.

Right when he was about to try to enter, he was hit with a realization. In this world, men could get each other pregnant. Even beta men could still impregnate omega men, just with a low success rate that led people to use fertility plants to ensure it. But even with the low chance, Shang Qinghua couldn’t just dive in raw. All the safe sex PSAs he saw in the modern world were flashing through his head. He didn’t want to be like an irresponsible teenager telling his high school girlfriend that it would be fine to not use condoms.

“Wait! My king shouldn’t we…” Shang Qinghua burst out in a panic, but only got a quizzical eyebrow from Mobei-jun. “What I mean is that, don’t we need contraceptives?”

Mobei-jun seemed affronted and replied in frustration, “Shut up, I don’t care.” Then, he pulled Shang Qinghua forward by grabbing the back of the human’s thighs.

Shang Qinghua yelped as he overbalanced and fell on his king’s chest, their faces inches apart.

“But my king, you’re most fertile right now! Even if I’m a beta, there’s a risk.” While pleading for Mobei-jun to see his concerns, Shang Qinghua’s hand was pressing down on Mobei-jun stomach from how he fell. They were chest to chest, so he could feel how Mobei-jun’s large dick stiffened between their bodies at his words.

Mobei-jun ground out, “I’ll take medicine after my heat, so just get in me already.”

“Right, right. On it boss.” Looks like demonic magical Plan B was the solution. That’s good enough for Shang Qinghua’s conscience.

Instead of rushing to follow his king’s commands, he couldn’t bring himself to move. Their faces were so close that they were exchanging breaths and their eyes kept flicking to each other’s lips. Bodies pressed flush and Mobei-jun’s large hands were still heavy on the back of his thighs. He couldn’t resist rubbing himself against the omega’s belly once, only to accidentally rub against the soft velvet skin of Mobei-jun’s cock. Shang Qinghua couldn’t help but let out a groan at the sensation. Now that he started, he couldn’t stop grinding against him. The precum and slick coating their cocks made frotting in between the tight confines of their pressed together bodies intoxicating.

Mobei-jun opened his mouth in a gasp when Shang Qinghua thrust particularly hard against him. Seeing those dark plush lips fall open almost bowled Shang Qinghua over with the desire to slip his tongue in and kiss that mouth. He managed to keep hold of his senses, because no matter how fantastically good Mobei-jun had tasted earlier, it was still probably a faux pas to kiss after that. Instead, when his king rutted up in reciprocation, he slipped a hand around both of their lengths to try to rub them together.

Mobei-jun, on the other hand, seemed to have no qualms about his concerns, because he took matters into his own hands and closed the few inches between them to press his lips to Shang Qinghua’s.

Oh! Ok! Looks like he was allowed. Shang Qinghua lost any restraint and kissed Mobei-jun back like he was starving for him. When their tongues entangled, everything got impossibly wet. He groaned loudly when Mobei-jun’s dark blue tongue wrapped around his. Shang Qinghua traced the ice demon’s sharp teeth as they explored each other’s mouths, all while they were frotting together.

Mobei-jun was doing his best with the kiss, but it was clear that it was his first time. That being said, no matter how clumsy and uncoordinated it was, Shang Qinghua’s heart thrilled at getting wet and messy like this with Mobei-jun. Bringing up a hand to hold the back of Shang Qinghua’s head as they continued making out, Mobei-jun played with his hair in an almost gentle sweet manner—in sharp contrast to their desperate actions everywhere else.

Shang Qinghua had to pull away to steal a breath. He was surrounded by so much soft supple flesh. He couldn’t help but tremble as he panted, trying to get control over himself before he came. Returning to kissing Mobei-jun, he tried to slow the pace. He stopped stroking their dicks and drew back his hips. Wrapping a hand around himself, Shang Qinghua tried to blindly direct his cock into Mobei-jun’s hole. Only to miss. He tried again causing Mobei-jun to whimper as it caught on his rim.

Shang Qinghua had to stop sucking on Mobei-jun’s tongue to back up and look at what he was doing. Mobei-jun let his arms fall to his sides, giving himself over to Shang Qinghua. Lining himself up, Shang Qinghua pressed forward, pushing past the still tight rim. He had to squeeze his eyes shut the second he felt the rim give way, so that he wouldn’t come instantly from seeing how hot his king looked while he entered him. Taking a few deep breaths, he pulled himself away from the edge enough to crack open his eyes again. Despite opening up Mobei-jun earlier, he was clearly still unused to being penetrated, so Shang Qinghua very slowly sank in inch by inch. When he finally bottomed out, they just laid still both breathing heavy.

“Mobei… can I move now?” Shang Qinghua asked, while being constricted by his king’s tight pulsing walls.

Mobei-jun still didn’t relax. His brows were furrowed in frustration at not being a natural at taking it despite how badly he wanted it. His scent spiked with some sort of negative emotion that Shang Qinghua wagered was irritation at himself.

He leaned down to kiss Mobei-jun on his forehead over his demonic sigil and soothed, “It’s okay. Look how well you are taking me in. We can wait until you’re ready.”

Mobei-jun’s scent got less upset, but he still couldn’t relax his muscles. Shang Qinghua tried to stay cool, calm, and collected, but he really couldn’t hold out much longer. All the patience in the world wouldn’t stop his physiological response from happening if this continued. Groaning, he ducked his head into the crook of Mobei-jun’s neck. He only belatedly realized that he was pressing his brow to Mobei-jun’s scent gland when strong pheromones—straight from the source—filled his nose.

At this, Mobei-jun clenched impossibly tighter, cutting off sensation in Shang Qinghua’s dick. The vice grip was genuinely painful.

Shang Qinghua mumbled into Mobei-jun’s neck, “My king, please… I’m crying uncle here!” Tears sprang into his eyes. “Relax please, baobei please…” he pleaded while stroking Mobei-jun’s flank.

All of Mobei-jun’s muscles were truly too OP. This was so unfair, even his insides could bring a man to tears. Shang Qinghua’s nose was pressed to the scent gland, breathing hotly on it, when Mobei-jun mustered the ability to slowly unclench and relax his muscles. Exhaling in relief, Shang Qinghua pulled out most of the way and attempted shallow thrusts to try and loosen him up.

Shang Qinghua untucked himself from his king’s neck to look at him after several minutes of slow careful thrusts. Mobei-jun still looked uncomfortable. Like he was trying and failing to not be.

“Does it hurt?” Shang asked worriedly, and stilled when he got no answer. “I’m not moving until you answer”

Mobei-jun stubbornly turned his head away.

“Mobei.” He demanded sternly.

“You… can go deeper,” Mobei-jun forced out, seeming a bit embarrassed.

Shang Qinghua grinned, “Oh? On it boss!” And drove deep into him.

With every thrust, he minutely adjusted the angle trying to hit the prostate. Finally, he got the right one causing Mobei-jun to clutch at his shoulders. Shang Qinghua really wanted this to be good for Mobei-jun, so he gave hard deep thrusts there to elicit more reactions. Plus he really needed to quicken things up and get Mobei-jun to come at least once, while he was still able to fuck him. He marveled at how perfectly they fit together. His cock was the ideal length to fit all the way inside and still long enough to reach the back of Mobei-jun’s cavern.

Every time he hit deep inside Mobei-jun, the omega dug his claws into his shoulders. While pounding into him, Shang Qinghua went to tweak a nipple and licked a stripe up his neck to catch a trickle of sweat. Mobei-jun started to make loud noises that he couldn’t restrain as he tried to gain purchase from clawing at Shang Qinghua’s back. Shang Qinghua used to hate when the ice demon would beat him, but the sting from his claws right now just brought him closer to coming.

Looking at Mobei-jun’s beautiful face as he was lost to pleasure made Shang Qinghua’s heart hurt. He felt like he could die happy having experienced this.

System, this is absolutely not an invitation!!!

How did he go so long not knowing how soft Mobei-jun’s insides were or what his expression looked like when he was falling off the cliff of an orgasm?

He could feel himself start to thrust more erratically and knew he had to bring things to a close. Shang Qinghua thrusted up deep into Mobei-jun’s core just as he enveloped the head of Mobei-jun’s cock with his hand to force him to come from dual stimulation. Mobei-jun’s body seized. Shang Qinghua stroked him through it as he spilled inside of his king from the aftershocks.

He flopped panting on top of Mobei-jun. After a moment of catching his breath, he pushed himself up and pulled out, watching his spend spill out of Mobei-jun fluttering hole. Mobei-jun laid there dazed.

Shang Qinghua pushed the sweaty strands of hair out of his own face and retied his hair into a simple ponytail. Looking down at his ruined robes—that he hadn’t taken off his legs completely and were now soaked with all sorts of fluids—he figured more stains wouldn’t hurt and used it to wipe the cum off his hand. He gently wiped off Mobei-jun’s dick and cleaned up the mess of slick that was all over them both. Mobei-jun just stayed on his back letting himself be cleaned up, until Shang Qinghua tried to scoop out his cum.

Mobei-jun was suddenly alert and grabbed Shang Qinghua’s wrist. He hit Shang Qinghua’s hand away and pushed the cum deeper into himself. Only once it was all back in was he satisfied.

Shang Qinghua’s face flamed. “Ok, ok. At least, let’s get these sheets changed.”

Patience seemingly gone, Mobei-jun growled and wrapped his arm around Shang Qinghua’s neck in almost a headlock. Shang Qinghua squawked and hurriedly tossed the soiled robes off the bed so he wouldn’t get the mess all over him again, as he was tugged back down on top of Mobei-jun.

Mobei-jun’s chest let out a slight rumble and he grabbed some furs to wrap around them. Soon they were cocooned together in the nest. Shang Qinghua was practically trapped. His king’s arms wrapped around him in a full blown cuddle. While clutching Shang Qinghua’s head to his chest, Mobei-jun rubbed his face against the top of his head—scenting and smothering him.

Shang Qinghua gasped out, “My king, I can’t breathe.”

Mobei-jun barely loosened his grip. Just enough to stop completely suffocating his human. Then he started unmistakably purring. It was like laying on a loud lovey dovey engine. Shang Qinghua laid there overwhelmed by how happy Mobei-jun seemed. His big cuddly cat continued affectionately holding and petting him. It was almost unbearable how comfortable and loved Shang Qinghua felt in this moment. He hugged back and buried his teary face into the crook of Mobei-jun’s neck.

Tired from the long day and what they had just done, Shang Qinghua felt too sleepy and cozy in his king’s arms to stay awake. Lulled by the warmth of Mobei-jun’s body and his rhythmic purring, Shang Qinghua fell asleep.

Chapter Text

The heat was stifling and sweat stuck uncomfortably to Mobei-jun’s skin as he woke from sleep. A sharp twinge of pain in his stomach made him groan. Everything felt feverish and awful. His stomach muscles kept clenching involuntarily. He dug a fist into his soft middle to futilely stop the painful spasms. In his half awake tormented state, he couldn’t help but think that stabbing himself would stop the pain. Course he has been stabbed before and knew that would just lead to a new bed ridden problem, but the urge remained.

Darkness blanketed the room. It had clearly not been many hours since Shang Qinghua and him went to bed. Mobei-jun could still feel an arm slung over his chest, but his fidgeting seemed to have caused the beta to roll off of his body. Shang Qinghua was sleeping soundly. Cute little puffs of air left his nose as he slept on. Mobei-jun really didn’t want to disturb him. He buried his nose in his human’s hair and trailed his fingers down to the one place that he knew would be able to quell the ache. The best way to overcome cramps was just to fuck himself through it. He moved his body away from Shang Qinghua’s to not accidentally wake him, but kept inhaling his scent like it was a drug.

Wetness coated the insides of his thighs. Jamming his fingers inside without much preamble proved to be much easier than normal. His hole was still molded in the shape of Shang Qinghua. Mobei-jun was still uncomfortable and hurting, but rocking himself on his fingers brought a blissful relief. However, the action soon became frustrating, as it felt nowhere near as good as when Shang Qinghua was taking care of him. He kept probing his walls, but couldn’t find the spot that had brought him to climax earlier.

The cloying heat under the blankets became unbearable. He threw them off, accidentally uncovering Shang Qinghua in the process. The fresh air was like a balm on his overheated skin, but did nothing to bring him closer to pleasure. The endorphins from indulging in touching himself seemed to only worsen his heat pheromones and make him tremble with the need to be filled on top of his initial discomfort. He felt his sanity start to slip and desperation take over.

His fangs descended, as heat pheromones raged through him. The instinct to claim and be claimed by his mate tormented him. His teeth started to ache. Crawling away from Shang Qinghua to collapse nearer to the foot of the bed, he placed distance between the human’s fragile neck and his teeth. Continuing to fuck himself without satisfaction, Mobei-jun clamped his teeth onto his arm to assuage the pain and urge to bite. He chewed on his forearm in frustration. He paused only to try pinching his tits in attempts to replicate Shang Qinghua’s actions earlier, but it just wasn’t enough. Rolling around on the bed in agony, Mobei-jun rubbed his sore nipples against the bed sheets while thrusting fingers inside and trying to jerk himself off with his other hand. Nothing seemed to help. Pain and frustration continued sweeping through his body.

His haphazard mindless movements seemed to have brought him back to Shang Qinghua’s side. Lost in the haze, Mobei-jun seemed to forget all his thoughts of not wanting to wake Shang Qinghua up with how needy he was being. So instead of pushing himself away again, Mobei-jun collapsed his head on Shang Qinghua’s upper thigh. He laid there miserably clutching his stomach and rocking back on his fingers, while he breathed in the heady scent between Shang Qinghua’s legs that heralded what Mobei-jun knew he needed. Unconsciously, he inched forward chasing the intoxicating scent until he was nosing Shang Qinghua’s cock.

Sanity snapping as he rubbed his nose up the tender skin, Mobei-jun began humping Shang Qinghua’s leg and fingering himself faster. While burying his face in his mate’s crotch—trying to get high off of his scent, his bottom lip accidentally brushed against one of Shang Qinghua’s balls. Mobei-jun compulsively stuck out his tongue to give it a kitten lick. The salty taste and musky smell made him unable to help but lick more. He wrapped his lips around it, making a “Mhmmphh” noise. He could feel how heavy they were with exactly what he, as an omega in heat, needed right now. Suckling it harder, Mobei-jun was too lost to the world to pay attention to how Shang Qinghua was starting to twitch. Sucking had made him feel better, but everything still hurt. Mobei-jun spat out a ball and bit his human’s inner thigh in frustration. The soft flesh felt nice to bite and soothed his aching teeth even more than his own arm had. Mobei-jun nibbled and bit all over his inner thighs, deaf to Shang Qinghua whimpering underneath him.

With his brain entirely offline and instinct alone left trying to stop his suffering, Mobei-jun grabbed Shang Qinghua’s semi-hard dick and placed it in his mouth. It was hard to protect it from his teeth with how descended his fangs were, so Mobei-jun mostly used his tongue and didn’t swallow it in too deep. He stuck to stroking, licking, and sucking kisses on it to get it to harden up. He drooled more on it purposefully before he drew back to kneel over Shang Qinghua’s thighs. Heat drunk, Mobei-jun started positioning his dripping hole over Shang Qinghua’s dick. He was getting ready to sink down when hands shot up and gripped his hips, halting his movements.

“My king?! What are you doing?” Shang Qinghua shouted, blinking sleep out of his eyes. His wide eyed shocked eyes seemed to be frantically trying to compute all of the stimuli. Mobei-jun could hear Shang Qinghua’s heart jack rabbiting in his chest from the sudden wake up call.

“Sorry. It hurts. Need you.” Mobei-jun pleaded.

Shang Qinghua’s cock stiffened in his hands where Mobei-jun had been holding it up. With just centimeters between them, Mobei-jun imploringly rubbed his core against Shang Qinghua’s member. Shang Qinghua cursed as he felt it drag.

“Ok. Ok. You can put it in.” The reply barely finished leaving Shang Qinghua’s mouth before Mobei-jun dropped himself.

Breath left Shang Qinghua in a rush as tight warm wet walls enveloped him. Mobei-jun finally finally didn’t feel pain. He rocked himself back and forth with Shang Qinghua still buried deep in him, letting the head of his cock rub against his cervix. Gravity kept it deep, pressing up with constant pressure. He lifted himself just a tiny bit, before letting gravity punch it against his womb again. Chasing his pleasure, Mobei-jun bounced on Shang Qinghua’s cock. Shang Qinghua fell apart underneath him and started thrusting his hips up, but Mobei-jun kept full control over the tempo. Unable to take charge of the pace, his mate gripped his love handles. Shang Qinghua stroked the sensitive skin underneath his hands, while holding on for dear life.

The darkness of the room crowded them into intimacy. Mobei-jun leaned over, letting his long black hair cascade down to curtain their faces off from the outside world. An awed expression graced Shang Qinghua’s face. Mobei-jun was overcome with cuteness aggression from gazing at his sleep mussed curly bangs, wide alert eyes, and cute little nose. He couldn’t resist giving his nose a little peck causing it to twitch like a hamster. While still lording over his treasure, Mobei-jun rolled his hips back and pressed a kiss to Shang Qinghua’s lips. He provocatively bit Shang Qinghua’s bottom lip between his teeth. That did the trick. Shang Qinghua surged forward to properly kiss him.

Shang Qinghua grabbed his hips more forcefully to get better leverage and thrusted up into him. Mobei-jun enjoyed the treatment for a bit. Then he drew back up and pushed Shang Qinghua down with a hand splayed on his chest when he tried following him. Teasingly dragging himself up, he clenched around the intrusion. He milked Shang Qinghua’s cock, relishing in the sweet friction of it rubbing against his walls. Putting his strong legs to work, Mobei-jun continued bouncing on it. The fast movements caused his own dick to slap against his belly bringing an additional source of pleasure. Going up and down on Shang Qinghua’s cock vigorously was clearly bringing the human closer as he kept making high pitched keens underneath him.

It became too much for Shang Qinghua and warmth finally flooded Mobei-jun’s insides. The feeling of cum painting his walls pushed Mobei-jun over the edge. He let out a satisfied rumble as the cramp spasms in his belly eased away. Shang Qinghua’s cum was a cure to his suffering. His senses seemed to return a bit too, no longer so clouded by the haze of a heat. Mobei-jun hummed as he stayed seated on what was clearly the best throne in the palace. Unlike the night before, he wasn’t ready to be done with just one fuck. His heat was fully in swing and arousal gripped him. Shang Qinghua’s heart rate and breathing seemed to steady out again. He still looked vaguely gobsmacked as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, but he no longer seemed so overwhelmed that he couldn’t think. Mobei-jun tried to be good and not clench while his mate was sensitive, but he refused to budge. Realization seemed to dawn on Shang Qinghua’s face that he was trapped. Staring up from underneath him as if unsure what to say or do, Shang Qinghua suddenly chuckled to himself.

“What is it?” Mobei-jun growled.

Shang Qinghua replied nervously, “Your- your boobs look very heavy, my king. Let me hold them for you...” Upon finishing stuttering through the sentence, Shang Qinghua briefly cupped his breasts and burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

Mobei-jun had no clue what was leaving him in hysterics and felt mildly offended. It was nice when Shang Qinghua laughed, but he really had the most incomprehensible taste in humor. Mobei-jun clenched in retaliation hoping to bring Shang Qinghua’s focus back to important things.

Shang Qinghua choked at the movement and his dick hardened a bit. Mobei-jun sighed in relief as it plumped up within him. This time, he didn’t move to take charge. He had done his part and his thighs were now a little sore. He was ready and eager to let Shang Qinghua dominate him again. He just needed to goad him into it a bit more.

“Well? Are you going to let your king do all the work?” Mobei-jun arched an eyebrow in taunt.

Shang Qinghua shivered as Mobei-jun patiently sat in his lap cock-warming him. After a few minutes of a stalemate where neither moved but both steadily got harder, Shang Qinghua pushed him off of his lap and followed him down. He didn’t break the connection between them and just switched their positions so Mobei-jun was the one on his back. Mobei-jun didn’t know what to do to make himself more alluring to get Shang Qinghua to lose control. But doing nothing seemed enough, because Shang Qinghua started to fuck him properly. Being in control and bullying Shang Qinghua was fun, but it didn’t beat feeling his human chasing his own pleasure within him.

Every thrust was deep and hard. Almost punishing. Being fucked hard by the love of his life made Mobei-jun’s fangs hurt. And Shang Qinghua’s shoulder was right there… He started salivating. On a particularly brutal thrust Mobei-jun couldn’t help but bite down hard on Shang Qinghua’s shoulder.

Shang Qinghua yelped and the thrusts instantly halted. His mate pushed at his face and made him unclamp his jaw. Now that he was forced away, Mobei-jun could see that he mostly missed the mating gland, and only one incisor dug into it. It felt like cold water was dumped over his head. Shang Qinghua had pushed him away. He just tried to bite his mating gland. Shang Qinghua didn’t want him like that. He couldn’t control himself. Panic seized him.

Shang Qinghua had calmed down a bit after running his hands over the bite. But he got alarmed again when he smelled the negative pheromones flood the air.

“Hey! Hey! Snap out of it!” Shang Qinghua pinched Mobei-jun’s cheek to try to get his eyes to focus again. “It’s okay. You just barely grazed me. It’ll take more than that for an omega to claim a beta. It takes a few repeated bites right on the gland for it to take on a beta. Don’t worry. You haven’t claimed me. I know it’s just instincts, but we should really be careful from now on. I don’t want you doing anything, you’ll regret during your heat. Here how about we flip you over and you can bite the pillow instead if your teeth hurt.”

Shang Qinghua gently maneuvered his stiff body until he was on his stomach. He comfortingly stroked his skin trying to get him to relax and calm down. Mobei-jun couldn’t articulate what was making him feel sick with himself in the moment. Shang Qinghua was being gentle and forgiving with him, but he still had no clue where the line was. Being in heat lowered his inhibitions, made him more sensitive, and eager to possess his love. He just needed to know how Shang Qinghua felt about him. Being so close and being allowed to do things he hadn’t even tried to dream about before was making him greedy. And he didn’t have the power to stop himself from trying to take more while in this state.

“My king. It’s okay. You’re okay. Please calm down for me. I don’t want you getting rejection backlash.” Shang Qinghua leaned over his back and nuzzled his nape. “I’m happy to be here with you. Please let me help. I know it hurts.”

Shang Qinghua rubbed his dick on Mobei-jun’s ass as if to prove that he wanted to be here and was ready to help. Panic receding, Mobei-jun felt alarmingly aroused from the feeling of Shang Qinghua’s hard length and heat from Shang Qinghua against his back. His omega instincts took over and he dug his knees into the bed to lift his hips up. Finally getting a response from the frozen ice demon, Shang Qinghua backed away to give him room. It seemed like he was about to speak, but his words halted in his mouth when Mobei-jun settled into a new position.

Mobei-jun was presenting himself. He pressed his chest into the bed and lifted his hips up in the air over his knees. His back was arched to a degree he never stretched it to normally. He knew his hole was in full view and winking as it lay woefully empty. He held the position, but there was no movement behind him. It was as if Shang Qinghua had gone perfectly still.

Then he heard an audible swallow behind him. A graceful hand ran over his backside and traced the column of his spine until it reached his nape, where it rested giving a firm squeeze. Mobei-jun shuddering and felt slick drip out. The hand on his neck left, but was replaced by the full length of Shang Qinghua’s body. Everything was silent as if neither of them dared to make a sound. Mobei-jun pressed his hips impossibly higher to try to grind against Shang Qinghua’s erection.

Shang Qinghua finally slipped in. Mobei-jun let out a low groan at being filled again. Starting out careful, Shang Qinghua’s thrusts soon devolved into him trying to go as deep into the omega as possible. The position alone was putting Mobei-jun into a primal omega head space. Shang Qinghua could reach so much deeper like this and hit all of his sensitive spots easily from this angle. Maybe the human was upset about the interruption earlier or extremely turned on from the position, but he set an unbearably quick tempo that had Mobei-jun’s insides convulsing every other thrust. Part of him wanted to try to crawl away while another part of him thrilled at the rough treatment. Mobei-jun took Shang Qinghua’s advice earlier to heart and bit a pillow as he was pounded within an inch of his life. He still really wanted to claim Shang Qinghua, but he was able to release that frustration by tearing holes in the pillow while his cervix was being abused.

It didn’t take long before Mobei-jun was coming hard. Slumping boneless over his forearms, he endured Shang Qinghua’s thrusts against his overstimulated walls for a bit longer before the human came as well. He could feel Shang Qinghua’s hot breath panting over his neck and shivered. Logically, he knew that Shang Qinghua wouldn’t bite him after the debacle earlier and that even if he did, the bite wouldn’t take because only claimed betas could claim that omega back. But still… Instincts couldn’t be reasoned with. Similarly, Mobei-jun swears he doesn’t need an alpha or a knot, but when Shang Qinghua started to pull out, he mewled pitifully and clenched.

Shang Qinghua hesitated. It took a moment, but he seemed to think it through and asked, “Do you need me to plug you up for a bit?”

Mobei-jun frantically nodded.

“Okay.” Shang Qinghua let out a deep sigh and stayed put. He ran his hands along his sides for a bit before offering, “Here, how about I braid your hair, while I’m back here.”

Relaxing his muscles, Mobei-jun laid still. Shang Qinghua wasn’t leaving. He was still here. His mate—no he can’t think that—the human was still taking care of him and not abandoning him. His nerves felt stretched taught and his body was exhausted. He needed to calm down. The more that he got swept up into the emotions of the heat, the more he risked losing everything if Shang Qinghua didn’t want him back. He had just been fucked good from behind. That was the important thing, and what he should focus on. He should wait to tell Shang Qinghua how he feels until his heat was over. Saying something in the heat of the moment or putting pressure on him like that again was disrespectful to the deep feelings he had for him.

He let Shang Qinghua’s hands—carding through his long hair as they undid tangles and wove together a thick loose braid—lull him into a fitful sleep.