Weak White Sheep in a Fence

Chapter 8: The Scent

At last.

Ian has failed again.

He risked his reputation just to finish this one and only desire that keep echoing in his mind.

All Apex members who joined the mission were caught by surprise as they saw a man who was not what they thought he would be, being inside the battle aircraft together with them when they were about to pass through the barrier. This man was not just any simple man in the city, but a very unwanted individual.

Known for his controversial background, Ian had stolen everyone’s attention. None of their eyes ever looked away, because the scene was such a delight to them.

Ian was not happy with their stares. While he was looking down with a sad, frustrated expression, he would sometimes glance around him and see all eyes enjoying how they gave him withering looks.

“What the hell? The great Ian Velen is here with us. Talk about being crazy!”

“This is already too much. Why is he here, though? Is he still aiming for the Commander? Is he this crazy just to get the Commander’s attention?”

“Crazy bastard.”

He could hear all their whispers.

It was noticeable that Kael looked at Ian, then back at Axel. “Wait. H-how?” He came closer to the middle of the two and glared at Ian. “How did he manage to get in here? How about the inductee who’s supposed to be here?”

Axel simply crossed his arms, his eyes cold and heartless as he threatened Ian with his stares.

For Ian who already read the man’s face, his expression became even more sullen. A hint of sadness and anger coming together in the form of a pure, unmasked frustration.

“The man who was supposed to be here… I used a stun gun on him, just enough for him to sleep for a moment. Then I used his keycard to get in,” he answered, his expression being a bit honest that he doesn’t want to answer their questions, but he still answered. “He’s probably awake by now. He’s at the Apex base… Hidden in a… locker.”

Axel turned to Kael with an obvious, readable glance of what to do. Kael immediately opened the comms device on his ear, trying to get in contact with their men who remained at the base.

While Kael was trying to speak with the people from the other line, Axel turned to Ian with an obvious look of showing his authority.

“Do you know what will happen to you after this?” he asked.

“Perhaps my career as a Hunter might end?” Ian answered. Not that he minds the worst thing that might happen.

“Do you know what will happen to this entire mission now that you’ve made quite a trouble not only t one of our inductees but to all of us?”

“…”

Ian’s expression was first confused, though he’s not fully showing it. Then he tried to change the subject. “Commander, I’m not here for whatever reason there is that you or everyone is thinking of. I just—“

Ian was about to continue speaking when Kael disturbed their conversation. “Axel, they have already found the inductee in one of the rooms, being tied while locked up in a locker. They were also about to contact us before I tried contacting them.”

“Then that guy must be brought here and this…” Axel looked at Ian from head to toe. He just saw a small head and a body that could be mistakenly perceive as big due to the size of his battle suit. “… troublesome bastard must be brought directly to the HQ. Make sure his punishment is done immediately.”

Axel ordered his men to bring Ian out of the armor he was wearing.

“Hey, I simply want to go outside! I’m not intending to do anything bad!” Ian began to complain as Axel went to his other men to dismiss the crowd and the other inductees who were lined up.

All along, this entire scene he created was just to expose one odd sheep among wild wolves.

“Commander, can’t you just allow me to stay here, please?” Ian was begging so hard. “I won’t do anything or cause a scene that might disrupt everyone here!”

He was already outside the armor with two Apex seniors locking his wrists with a locking device.

“I think you should just stay quiet.” The man who locked his wrists spoke. “You’ve already caused a scene. You think halting this aircraft from moving did not cause a time to be wasted? Better think of the possible consequences of your action, Ian Velen.”

Ian had no words to say, but instead of just allowing them to drag him away, he immediately shoved away the man holding him using his elbow and ran in a hurry towards Axel. Everyone saw how he acted which caught Axel surprise the moment the young man came in front of him, both eyes so close while staring at each other.

The unique scent of pheromone began to appear once again.

“Someday, I will leave the city and no one will know. You’ll regret what you did to me,” Ian announced, his words promising and his fierce brown eyes looked at Axel with solid determination.

After a few minutes of preparation, a smaller aircraft came out from Valfang-33, and flew back to where it is intended to go. Ian is inside that aircraft with a face full of frustration.

From the window at the upper deck of the battle aircraft, Axel stood staring to the small vehicle that just left. He couldn’t remove the memory of what Ian just did earlier, especially the scent that appeared as Ian came closer.

A scent so rare. He knew he had smelled something almost similar to it before, but it was not in the city.

Aside from the scent, Ian’s voice and his promise still linger in Axel’s ears.

“Our base already contacted the HQ regarding this unseen disruption in our flight.” Just when Axel was busy thinking, he heard Kael speaking as the man came closer to him. “They will handle the problem when Ian arrives.”

“They better lock him so that he can’t get out, somewhere where the sun can’t give him light to hope.” Axel crossed his arms as he started making unnecessary comments.

Kael was quite surprised since a heartless Commander like Axel is not a good talker when the topic is the people around him.

“You think that’s the best punishment to impose on him?” he asked while smiling. He started to feel entertained by his cold friend.

Senior Officer Evelyn is simply following Kael with a different agenda in mind, waiting for the two men to end their discussion so that the could continue their flight, but she decided not to interrupt after listening to them.

“By the way,” Kael started with a thought that just hit him. “I figured out that you’d already sensed something odd earlier during our flight since you seemed to be restless. You even ordered Evelyn to visit the inductees and asked them for possible… Omegas that might not have taken suppressants or stabilizers. So, I assumed that your keen nose smelled an Omega in heat among them…”

Evelyn is just silent as she stood behind the two, but her eyes focused on Kael, her ears on Kael’s words.

“But then later, you exposed a man who wasn’t part of this mission. Does that connect to you feeling uneasy with a possible Omega in heat?” Kael continued with a question he was confused about that he wanted an answer.

Axel turned to him with the same look of confusion. “Did you not smell it?” he asked, remembering the scent when Ian got so close to him.

The Commander knew that his friend was also an Alpha with almost the same sharp senses as him. Surely Kael would react to any Omega pheromones when exposed. Now, Axel was confused since his friend never asked something strange about any scent earlier.

“Smell? What smell?” Kael asked, starting to doubt something. If Axel were pointing to an Omega’s scent, he was sure he would smell something, but no. He never sensed any pheromone since earlier.

“The smell of trees, grass, and fresh air.” Axel turned to the window, looking at the view of the great city underneath them. “It was so unique that I believe I only experienced smelling them once…”

“You mean that one worthy discovery by our old men in this division…” Kael was trying to recall an event they had back when they were still juniors in their field. Something happened back then when they were brought to a strange place by their seniors being just inductees at that time.

So, it wasn’t an Omega’s pheromones? This time, Kael was even more confused. Maybe there is something more to the problem that he forgot to connect, but then an idea came to him after thinking about it…

“Are you saying that there’s an Omega with that kind of smell?” Kael asked, but a questioned still remained in his mind.

How does it relate to Axel exposing an odd guy?

If Axel were to be honest this time, he couldn’t fully identify that smell to be coming from an Omega just because his Alpha instincts reacted. It was too faint for him to get fully excited especially because he’s not easily swayed by Omega’s pheromones.

“I just believed it’s an Omega’s scent because…” Axel tried to explain his initial, raw observation, but he couldn’t be honest to the fact that his body made a reaction.

This made Kael and Evelyn to wait for his words until he come up with a not-so-obvious answer…

“… Alphas smelling the same scent as them felt dizzy especially when exposed too much. Sometimes, the scent of the other Alphas is perceived as toxic to their bodies.” He was trying to give a reasonable answer without giving up his pride. “I sensed a scent coming from Ian back then, but it wasn’t nauseating.”

“Wait, you mean that had a scent of a pheromone?!” It was Kael’s confusion together with his surprise that made Axel thought that Kael was already in sync with him

“I got the idea that he brought an illegal pheromone perfume somewhere in the city,” Axel responded, trying to hint Kale of any possible problem in the city. “He must be interrogated properly.”

It didn’t look visible to everyone’s eyes, especially to the normal people who are living inside the walls, but the Hunters who were supposed to be working outside the walls were exposed to the harsh truth of some of the high people in their society.

“Excuse me, Commander.”

The two men were busy with their conversation, but as Evelyn got the right moment to speak, she began to ask them. “The aircraft are already preparing to leave by now, but we missed one thing when we sent Ian back.”

As soon as the two men heard her, they turned to her, confused. Evelyn had to answer the question on their faces.

“Ian’s only belonging he brought here was left behind.”