Defy The Alpha(s) 2: Rebel Beast

A blackish viper with the smallest hint of deep emerald slithered through the foyer of House Ophidian alongside the other students, yet no one seemed particularly bothered by the sight of it.

This was the home of serpents, after all. A snake moving freely through the halls was hardly worth a second glance, and this particular viper was none other than Venus Crotalus.

The First Fang had successfully made it out of House Therion without getting caught, which was already one problem taken care of. Keeping close to the edges of the corridor, Venus began making his way up the broad, winding ramps that connected the different levels of the House. He continued like that until he finally reached his floor.

Caelis was undoubtedly waiting for him, and while Venus already had about a million questions to answer, there was no way in hell he was going to face his prince reeking of Brittney. Even now, he had no idea what he was supposed to tell Caelis.

The prince would undoubtedly be disappointed in him. What the hell had he been thinking, sleeping with a human when he was one of the loudest voices against getting attached to them in the first place?

But even as he beat himself up over it, Venus couldn’t lie to himself about one thing. That had been the best sex of his life. Nothing he’d experienced before came remotely close, and that only made the situation worse. Why the hell did Brittney have to be human? If she had been a serpent, there would have been nothing stopping this from continuing between them.

The instant Venus reached his door, he shifted back into his human form, completely naked. The few serpents passing through the corridor barely spared him a glance. Nudity wasn’t considered particularly scandalous among shifters who regularly lost whatever they were wearing whenever they transformed. Everyone had seen everything at some point, and eventually, there was nothing interesting about it anymore.

Venus unlocked his door and stepped inside. His apartment was exactly the way he’d left it, not that anyone would have been stupid enough to break into the First Fang’s quarters. Venus might have looked harmless enough when he wanted to, but he was still a viper, and the venom in his fangs wasn’t there for decoration.

Venus didn’t bother inspecting anything further and headed straight for his bedroom. Once inside, he went directly into the bathroom and turned on the shower. For the first time in his life, Venus found himself wishing he had Caelis’s ridiculous collection of bathing products.

Most beasts might not know it, but Caelis didn’t joke about his hygiene. The prince had separate products for practically every part of his body. There were shampoos and conditioners for his hair, cleansers and moisturizers for his face, body washes, exfoliating scrubs, oils, and Goddess knew what else Venus had never bothered learning the names of.

He used to joke that Caelis could put half the women in Bestiaris to shame with the amount of products lined up in his bathroom. Now Venus desperately wished he’d taken a page out of the prince’s book because Brittney’s scent was all over him.

He could smell her on his skin, in his hair, and every time he breathed deeply enough, that damn orange and peppercorn scent filled his senses and made his head reel. Goddess, she smelled divine. Even standing beneath the running water, some traitorous part of him wanted to close his eyes and breathe her in rather than wash every trace of her away.

"This is bad," Venus muttered as he grabbed the two bottles of body wash he thankfully owned, one sandalwood and the other bergamot.

If he’d had ten different scents available, he probably would have poured all ten over himself. Better to come out smelling like a chaotic mixture of every fragrance known to mankind than walk into Caelis’s quarters wearing Brittney’s scent like a fucking beacon.

In the end, Venus became desperate enough to use his shampoo on practically everything, scrubbing himself thoroughly until his skin nearly protested and Brittney’s scent was no longer overwhelming his senses.

It was still there, though. Venus could detect the faintest trace of orange and peppercorn beneath everything he’d used, but surely that was only because he knew exactly what he was looking for.

Someone would have to get ridiculously close to him to notice it now, and Venus chose to believe he was simply overthinking the whole thing. Besides, no one was going to lean in and smell him—he hoped.

Venus stepped out of the shower stall and began drying himself. He was in the middle of rubbing the towel through his damp hair when something in the bathroom mirror caught his attention and made him pause.

There was a bite mark on the area between his neck and shoulder.

"What the fuck?" The words slipped out of Venus’s mouth before he could stop them.

He leaned closer to the mirror, angling his body until he could see the mark properly. Venus remembered exactly how it had gotten there. Brittney had bitten him hard in the heat of passion, her teeth sinking into his skin while she’d clung to him.

But it should have healed by now. Serpent shifters had a much faster metabolism than humans, and minor injuries rarely remained visible for long. Yet the imprint of Brittney’s teeth was still there, standing out clearly against his skin as though his body had no intention of getting rid of it anytime soon.

"Fuck!" Venus muttered as he rubbed his fingers over the mark.

Had this been a different world where Brittney was a serpent shifter, Venus might have worn her mark proudly. But serpents didn’t mark their partners like this. They certainly didn’t sink all thirty-two teeth into someone like an overenthusiastic human trying to take a bite out of them. Their marks were made with their fangs instead.

How the hell was he supposed to explain this? His situation kept getting worse by the minute.

Yet even as Venus stared at the evidence of what they’d done, an inappropriate thrill ran through him. Goddess, he really enjoyed his time with her.

There was no other choice. He needed to cover the damn thing until it completely faded.

Venus headed into his bedroom and immediately got to work. He applied deodorant generously beneath his arms, adding another layer of fragrance to whatever remained of Brittney’s scent, then went through his wardrobe until he found a black turtleneck with long sleeves and paired it with casual jeans.

Good thing serpents were cold-blooded. No one was going to question why a snake shifter had suddenly decided to wear a turtleneck this late at night.

Once he was dressed, Venus grabbed his perfume and practically doused himself in it. One spray became three, three became six, and by the time he finally stopped, the cloud of fragrance surrounding him was so thick that he inhaled at the wrong moment and broke into a violent coughing fit.

Fuck. He smelled like he’d robbed an entire perfume store and then detonated the evidence on himself. Not even Brittney’s scent could have survived the chemical warfare he’d just unleashed.

Only then did Venus feel confident enough to leave his bedroom. Except the moment he walked into his living room, he discovered Caelis already seated casually on his sofa, waiting for him.

Venus halted midstep.

"There you are..." Caelis said casually, lifting his eyes to him. "I was beginning to think Maverick had killed you, but apparently, I was wrong."

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