PHEROMONE BLIND

PHEROMONE BLIND

STARWRITES

CHAPTER 3: PHEROMONE BLIND

Lucas didn't sleep.

Every time he closed his eyes, crimson eyes stared back at him.

"Omega."

"Run."

"Lucas Bennett."

His heart lurched each time he remembered those words.

He had expected fear to linger after what happened in the restroom.Instead, what haunted him most was Eric .The image of the Alpha repeatedly driving his fist into the wall refused to leave his mind. Eric had looked as though every instinct was urging him to come closer, yet he had chosen to hurt himself instead.

Lucas turned onto his side with a frustrated sigh, “...Why am I thinking about him?"

Yesterday morning, Eric Carter had simply been the campus heartthrob—the basketball captain, the top student, the Alpha everyone admired from afar. Now he couldn't get him out of his head .His wrist still seemed to remember the warmth of Eric's hand.None of it made sense.

He had spent three years quietly liking Sophia. Yet one brief encounter with Eric had left him more unsettled than any confession ever could.

Then another question surfaced.How did Eric know his name?Lucas was certain they had never introduced themselves .At least...He couldn't remember ever speaking to Eric before yesterday.The thought followed him until dawn.

The next morning, Lucas sat outside the hospital's Endocrinology Department, nervously tapping his foot against the tiled floor. The prescription bag the doctor had given him the previous day rested untouched in his lap.

His phone buzzed.A message from his classmate appeared. ‘Why didn't you come to school? Are you okay?’ Lucas stared at the screen for a moment before locking it again. School was the last thing on his mind.

The consultation room door opened.

"Lucas Bennett."

He stood immediately. The doctor looked mildly surprised ."I wasn't expecting you back so soon." Lucas managed a weak smile before taking the seat opposite him.

"I have questions."

The doctor nodded.

"I thought you might."

The room fell silent for a moment.Lucas drew a slow breath.

"Yesterday... I met an Alpha."

The doctor's expression remained calm.

"And?"

"He acted strangely."

"In what way?"Lucas hesitated, trying to put the experience into words.

"He looked at me..." His voice faltered. "Like he wanted to come closer... but was terrified of what he might do if he did."

The doctor listened quietly.

"He kept saying he could smell me," Lucas continued. "Then he told me to run. He even injured himself to stop himself from getting any closer."

For the first time, the doctor's brows drew together.

"Did he touch you?"Lucas nodded.

"He grabbed my wrist."

"And then?"

"He let go almost immediately."Lucas frowned.

"I thought Alphas were supposed to lose control around Omegas."

The doctor folded his hands together. "They can, especially if an Omega has only recently manifested."

"Then why was he trying so hard to stay away from me?" The doctor considered the question for a moment.

"Not every Alpha gives in to instinct."

Lucas lowered his gaze.That answer should have reassured him.Instead, it only made him more confused.After a brief silence, he spoke again.

"He also said he could smell me."

"That's expected." Lucas looked up.

"But I couldn't smell anything." This time, the doctor became noticeably more attentive.

"What do you mean?"

"I smelled disinfectant... soap... and the rain outside."

Lucas shook his head.

"That's all." The doctor's expression gradually turned serious.

"You couldn't detect his pheromones?"

"I don't think so."

Without another word, the doctor opened Lucas's medical file and began typing rapidly.

"When you were younger," he asked, "did you ever notice classmates reacting to Alpha or Omega pheromones?" Lucas shook his head.

"No."

"What about heats or ruts?"

"I've only heard people talk about them."

"Did crowded places ever make you uncomfortable?"

"No."

The doctor leaned back thoughtfully.

"...Interesting."

Lucas's chest tightened."Doctor... is something wrong?"

Instead of answering, the doctor stood and walked to a nearby cabinet. He returned carrying several small glass vials filled with colorless liquid.

"I'm going to conduct a simple test."

Lucas nodded uncertainly.

The doctor uncapped the first vial.

"Tell me what you smell."Lucas inhaled.

"...Nothing."

The doctor made a note before opening another vial."And this one?"

Lucas tried again."...Still nothing."

A third, a fourth, a fifth.Each answer remained exactly the same.Nothing.By the end of the test, the doctor's brows were deeply furrowed.

"This..."

He murmured under his breath.

"It shouldn't be possible."Lucas felt his throat tighten.

"Doctor?"

The older man looked at him gravely.

"I believe your sense of pheromones is severely impaired."Lucas frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"It means your body doesn't process pheromones the way most people do."Lucas stared blankly.

"So...?"

The doctor folded his hands together.

"Simply put..."

"You are pheromone blind.”

The words settled heavily between them.Pheromone blind.Lucas repeated them silently, trying to make sense of something he had never even known existed.

"...Pheromone blind?"

"It's extremely rare," the doctor explained. Turning his monitor toward Lucas, he pulled up a medical diagram. "Most people unconsciously detect Alpha and Omega pheromones from childhood. It's part of how secondary genders interact."

Lucas stared at the screen, but the charts meant nothing to him.

"You couldn't," the doctor continued. "That's why you never realized your secondary gender. While everyone else instinctively recognized pheromones, your body simply... didn't."

A strange feeling settled over Lucas.Everything suddenly made sense.Whenever classmates complained that a dominant Alpha's pheromones were oppressive, he had felt nothing.Whenever Omega students described floral or sweet scents drifting through the halls, he had assumed they were exaggerating.

He'd even laughed once, teasing Ryan for claiming he could tell an Alpha had entered the classroom before seeing him.Now he wished he hadn't."So..." Lucas lowered his eyes to his hands. "I've been different all along."

The doctor nodded sympathetically.

"I'm afraid so."

Silence settled between them.Lucas couldn't remember a single moment in his life when he'd questioned why everyone else seemed to experience the world differently. He had simply assumed they were being dramatic.

Instead...He had been the one living differently all this time.The doctor was about to close Lucas's medical file when something caught his attention.

His brows knitted together.

"...That's strange."

Lucas looked up.

"What is it?"

"I'm reviewing your childhood medical records."The doctor clicked through several files, his frown deepening.

"There are inconsistencies."Lucas's heartbeat quickened.

"Inconsistencies?"

The doctor didn't answer immediately. Instead, he compared multiple records on the screen, his fingers moving quickly across the keyboard.The longer he looked, the more serious his expression became.

"...No."

He whispered the word so quietly Lucas almost didn't hear it.

"Doctor?" Lucas leaned forward. "What's wrong?"

"I need to verify something first."

The doctor opened another database and entered several passwords.The room fell silent except for the rhythmic tapping of the keyboard.A loading icon spun across the screen.Seconds felt like minutes.

Finally, another file appeared.The doctor stared at it without moving.The color slowly drained from his face.

"...Impossible."

Lucas stood up instinctively.

"Doctor."

The older man didn't respond.

"Doctor!"

He finally looked over, disbelief written plainly across his face.

"Lucas..."

His voice was unusually careful.

"Your birth records don't match your school records."

Lucas felt his stomach sink.

"What does that mean?"

The doctor hesitated before answering.

"It means someone altered your secondary gender classification years ago."

The words struck harder than the diagnosis itself.The room fell completely silent.Lucas could hear nothing except the pounding of his own heartbeat.

"No..."

His voice barely rose above a whisper.

"That's impossible."

"I wish it were."

The doctor rubbed his forehead before turning the monitor toward Lucas.

"According to your school and government records, you were registered as a Beta."

He opened another document.

"But according to your original neonatal records..."

His voice trailed off.Lucas unconsciously held his breath.The doctor's eyes met his.

"You were never classified as a Beta."

Lucas's mind went blank.

"If I wasn't..."

The doctor answered quietly.

"You were born an Omega."

Everything around Lucas seemed to tilt.Someone...Had changed his records.Someone had erased the truth before he was old enough to remember it.

But why?

Who would go to such lengths just to hide the identity of a newborn child?The doctor slowly closed the file.

"I'm sorry, Lucas."

Lucas didn't answer.

His thoughts had already drifted somewhere far beyond the hospital room.If his records had been altered...Then yesterday hadn't been the beginning of this nightmare.

This secret...Had started the day he was born.

Across town, the basketball court was empty.Practice had ended almost an hour ago, yet Eric remained alone beneath the hoop, lazily spinning a basketball on one finger before letting it fall.His bandaged hand throbbed with every movement.He barely noticed.His thoughts were somewhere else.

Lucas Bennett.

He closed his eyes.The scent that had nearly driven him mad yesterday still lingered in his memory.No...It wasn't just the scent.It was Lucas himself.Most Omegas shrank back when confronted by an Alpha during rut.Lucas had been terrified.Yet even then, his first reaction hadn't been to scream.He had looked at Eric's bleeding hand and asked,

"What are you doing?"

Eric gave a quiet, humorless laugh.

"...You should've run."

Instead, Lucas had stayed.For a few precious seconds.Long enough for Eric to realize something impossible.Lucas hadn't reacted to his pheromones.Not even a little.That wasn't normal.

Every instinct told Eric there was something different about him.Something hidden.His phone vibrated.

His best friend, Daniel, had sent three missed messages asking where he was.Eric ignored them.Instead, he opened the school directory.His thumb hovered over one name.

Lucas Bennett.

He stared at it for several seconds before locking the screen again.

"No."

He muttered.

"If I start looking into him now..."

"I won't be able to stop."

Outside the gym, someone quietly lowered a phone.The camera displayed a freshly taken photograph.

Eric Carter.

Alone.Looking unusually distracted.

The stranger smiled.

"So..."

"It really has started."

He slipped the phone into his pocket and disappeared down the hallway.