Critical Stage

To make matters worse, his manager was nowhere to be seen, likely having stepped out to use the restroom.

The heat was relentless, threatening to overwhelm him.

He needed to leave the party space to gather himself.

More importantly, he had to make sure that no one noticed or smelled that he was in heat.

Although he had found a less crowded area, the ship was a labyrinth, its endless corridors intersecting randomly.

Clinging to the fragments of his rational mind, he scrambled to remember his room number, 202, and realized he needed to move one floor up from the first deck.

‘Can’t let anyone catch me like this.’

Cesare Caruso’s Omega status was his best-kept secret, known only to his personal physician.

Not even his closest friends or the CEO of his agency had any clue he was an Omega.

He had guarded this secret with his life.

The mere thought of it being exposed here, in the middle of a cruise ship with hundreds of people, felt like a matter of life and death for Cesare.

Gasping for air, he kept casting anxious glances over his shoulder, afraid that someone might be on his tail.

But his emotions were a tangled web of contradictions.

While he desperately hoped to remain unnoticed, a primal part of him couldn’t help but wish someone would find him.

Cesare felt an unbearable itch between his legs.

In previous heat cycles, he had relied on his girlfriend to satisfy his desires.

But just a few days before the cruise, she broke up with him.

Even if he wasn’t in this predicament, being on this massive cruise meant finding company wouldn’t be easy.

But perhaps things weren’t entirely bleak.

The theme of today’s cruise was a ‘masquerade ball,’ meaning everyone was hidden behind masks.

As long as he didn’t remove his mask or speak, Cesare could effortlessly blend in with the crowd.

However, the real challenge was resisting the overwhelming urge to take off his mask, which made him feel suffocated.

With immense restraint and sheer willpower, Cesare held onto his mask while he headed for the stairs leading to the second floor.

He needed to get to his room, fast. Damn it all, he thought,

‘I’ll have to barricade myself in the bathroom and take care of... this. I mean, oh God, I need to masturbate!’

In a frantic state, Cesare was nearly consumed by ludicrous ideas until a sudden sound snapped him back to reality.

A thud echoed, followed by the distinct sound of footsteps on the metal stairs ahead.

Cesare’s head shot up, and he saw a man standing just a few steps above him.

His mask, an elaborate butterfly-shaped spectacle, was as striking as the crisp black suit that fit his physique perfectly.

The man’s face, like Cesare’s, was a mystery.

He halted, seemingly noticing Cesare’s distress.

Despite the man’s strikingly tall and slender build, Cesare still couldn’t determine his identity, which left him frozen in confusion.

Sigh...

Cesare’s world seemed to tilt with each heavy breath he took.

The masked figure swayed... or was he moving closer?

Cesare tried to step back, but the moment he did, he realized too late it was a mistake.

CLANG, THUD!

The stranger descended gracefully, deftly catching Cesare by the waist as echoes reverberated from the metal stairs.

Cesare’s near-fall turned into an inadvertent embrace, their bodies pressed close.

‘Ah.’

A soft gasp escaped from Cesare.

The Alpha’s arm assuredly encircled around Cesare’s waist, as their eyes engaged in an intense and intimate clash.

The man’s deep black eyes bore into Cesare’s vivid blues, and as his head cocked with a hint of amusement, he chuckled.

“Well... are you okay?”

He inquired, his voice a husky murmur in Cesare’s ear, articulating the words in flawless Balletan.

The voice was oddly familiar, but Cesare wasn’t sure where he heard it before.

‘Balletan...?’

Cesare’s mind whirled despite the turmoil.

This wasn’t a Balleta-exclusive event.

The party was aboard a grand cruise ship charting the open ocean, hosted by Zahir al-Tamid, an obscenely wealthy Arabian prince known for his opulence.

The cruise was full of world-class celebrities and film tycoons that was directly invited by the prince under the guise of an ‘investment seminar,’ but the real agenda? Sheer extravagance.

Now, as the masquerade ball reached its peak, identities were deliciously obscured.

Yet, this man had spoken to Cesare in his mother tongue as if he knew exactly who Cesare was.

‘A mere coincidence?’

As Cesare grappled with these thoughts, the stranger suddenly pulled him even closer.

Cesare attempted to resist, however, the words flowing from the man’s lips immobilized him.

“...An Omega? I can sense the pheromones.”

Hearing this, Cesare felt his breath catch in his throat, with his heart pounding wildly.

If the stranger could detect the scent of an Omega, it meant that he was either an Alpha or another Omega.

It was also obvious that the mystery man likely realized that the Omega in front of him, Cesare, was in an extremely excited state.

Desperately, Cesare desparately hoped that the man had not realized his status.

However, the eyes concealed beneath the mask gleamed with curiosity.

“It seems you’re in the middle of an utter mess... Am I right?”

“....”