Chapter Text
Chan
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The blood was still fresh on the cuffs of his shirt when Chan found him.
The scene was bloody, with red splatters all over the hangar, while corpses lay on the floor. Chan decided to settle this himself, too fed up with the situation to hand it over to others. He took only Changbin and Minho with him, and together they killed almost twenty people, mostly betas. Not bad. He felt proud of himself and his two most loyal guards. They'd been together for quite some time, and he liked to think that the trio was invincible when fighting side by side.
The alpha he was after was the son of a CEO; he owned a few buildings and had asked Chan for a loan for reasons he couldn’t let anyone know about, but Chan knew it was to sustain his gambling addiction. He had spent all of his money, along with the company's, on games and goods, and, unfortunately, he lost most of it. Chan was tired of excuses. He learned that the alpha was plotting to murder Chan to own him. He was too naive, though. Did he really think Chan, boss of an important mafia pack, wouldn't know anything about this plan? He wouldn't survive much longer in this world anyway.
He didn't even know Chan was planning his murder for an even longer time than that.
While supervising his employees as they cleaned the area around the hangar, he smelled a faint strawberry scent. It was almost imperceptible, too faint. He turned around and, right behind the many corpses, next to a wall, there was a small body. It was curled up, a blanket covering it, but it was not dead. Chan frowned, tightening the grip on his gun as he walked over to the person. He was alone. Changbin and Minho were on the other side, cleaning up, but he didn't need help; he could take care of himself.
When he reached the person, he realized their body was fragile and frail, trembling. He stared at them, but the person didn't move, didn't look up— just trembled and looked at the floor. There were freckles scattered all over their face, prominent and charming. Their skin was a bit pale, as if they hadn't seen sunlight in a long time, and long curls of blond hair fell over their shoulders, messy, disheveled, and a little grimy. Chan raised his gun, pointing it towards the person.
When they finally looked up, Chan's grip on the gun loosened a bit.
It was a boy. He had round brown eyes, and, even with no sparkle, they were still the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. The boy was naked under the blanket. On his neck, a black leather collar sits as a sign of ownership. He could read the name of the alpha he had just killed, engraved on the tag —Kang Hajoon. That must've been an omega slave of his.
"Are you finally gonna kill me?" the boy asked, his voice deep and scratched.
Chan lowered his gun, looking him in the eyes. Being a mafia gang leader, he couldn't pity anyone in this world. And unlike the man he had just killed, he knew how reality worked, and that he could never trust anyone easily. However, he still believed not everyone deserved to die so heartlessly just for being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. He was once in the same situation. He would never kill an innocent person. Despite how bad humanity could be, Chan believed there were still some good people—he chose to believe in this so he wouldn't go mad.
The boy looked tired, not just physically but mentally as well—his eyes were a testament to this. Chan felt his alpha growl low inside his head, looking at this almost ruined omega. Something that usually didn’t happen, as his wolf wasn’t one to get agitated.
"What's your name?" Chan asked.
"Do you need to know it? Will you even use it?" The boy's voice was too hoarse, as if he was wounded—and he probably was. "Master only called me omega, and you're going to be the same as him if you don't kill me right now."
The strawberry scent was getting fainter, almost disappearing, as the boy's will to live got thinner by the second. Chan could only imagine the terrors he must have suffered from the state he was in. The world was just too cruel, and some people got dragged into this awful reality sometimes against their will. He knelt right in front of him, stained in blood and sweaty.
"What's your name?" he insisted.
The boy's eyes barely moved, but Chan understood he was studying his face and emotions, trying to understand what the man was doing, not being shown mercy so often. Chan's own scent of dark chocolate was hidden behind a layer of scent blocker, so the boy couldn't read it. He scratched his scent gland, trying to take a bit of it off. The richness of his scent was faint, but still perceptible. The boy's nose sniffed very lightly. Sincerity and determination, these were the emotions Chan wanted to convey through his scent. He knew the boy could smell them. Something along the lines of "I want to help you." It was his wolf talking, the creature restless at the sight of the omega in that state.
After a beat, they heard again the boy’s deep voice echoing.
"Felix."
Chan grinned and extended his hand to the boy, who stared at him for a moment before he took it. Felix got up on shaky legs. He was trying his best not to show any type of weakness, but it was clear he was debilitated due to the kind of treatment he had under the alpha's orders. Chan held him as he tried to walk, but he noticed he wouldn't be able to do it for long without falling. Thus, the man reached for his knees and pulled him up, holding him under his torso and the back of his knees. The omega frowned, his faint scent of strawberries getting upset, barely noticeable.
"I can walk," he says, his voice hiding an undertone of anger. "I'm not a fragile omega like y'all think".
The boy's pettiness seemed to be a trace of his personality that even being an omega slave couldn't erase. Chan smirked as he tightened his grip on the boy's small body. He walked forward, the boy crossing his arms over his chest under the blanket he still carried.
"I'm not saying you are, but you can't walk," Chan answered.
"I've been worse, and I walked just right," Felix answered in a hushed voice, but he stopped talking right after, his eyes blinking heavily as his body visibly succumbed to exhaustion.
Chan felt the alpha inside him growl once again, but he still suppressed his wolf, trying to shut him down for a moment. His alpha was a rightful creature, too good for this rotten world, and sometimes Chan had to silence him in order to take control of situations and analyze what he needed to do with precision. This time, it was difficult to stop him and calm him down. The creature seemed too agitated to be silenced.
He held the boy in his arms, his figure already asleep. His face was delicate and sweet, even if he hadn't been taken care of. His wolf got calmer as he took in the figure of the boy now resting, as it'd finally been sated by seeing the omega sleeping so soundly.
When he reached his two guards, Minho was the first one to notice the state of his wolf. The omega was too perceptive for his own good; he knew when anything was wrong with Chan, too aware of his scent. Minho was the first one to work with him. They met on the streets. Chan wasn't the leader of a gang yet, just a man with dreams crushed by the reality he was thrown into against his will. Minho seemed to be just like him, a lost boy in the streets, beaten up and almost dead by the sidewalk. He recruited the boy right there, asking him if he wanted to live longer. The boy was weak, but he used his last breath of determination to accept the offer of help.
His eyes drifted to the boy asleep in his arms, and he raised his eyebrows in question. They were already done with moving the bodies, waiting for Chan to come back, a line of other employees right behind them, awaiting orders. Changbin also turned to him, his eyes questioning. Chan just shrugged.
"Another one?" Changbin asked, his eyes back to the man after he took a look at the boy in his arms.
Chan walked past them, not even sparing them another glance, tightly securing the omega in his arms, the sweet, dull scent of strawberries making his wolf growl low inside him. He couldn't understand yet what the creature was feeling, but Chan let his instincts guide his actions for now as he took the boy to the car waiting for them. He could hear Changbin chuckle amusedly behind him. Minho, however, wore a serious expression, his face somber. As soon as Chan laid Felix on the bench, Changbin entered the passenger seat, and Minho grabbed Chan's arm, turning him to face him.
"You can't take every person you find in the streets," he said, his voice demanding. Chan chuckled at the man's presumption. "I'm serious, Chan. I know you think it is the same as when you picked me up, but it's different now. Many people want you dead, you cannot take risks like this anymore—"
Before Minho could finish talking, Chan shook his arm off, his wolf growling inside him, angry at the other man for suggesting he should leave Felix behind. His alpha was acting weird around the boy. Chan knew he couldn't disobey his instincts when he was acting like that.
"I know what I'm doing, Minho," he said, his expression just as serious as Minho's was before.
For a moment, the omega studied his face, his eyes looking around his features. He sighed as he understood Chan was really determined in his decision. The alpha knew why Minho was anxious. Chan was busier every day, trying to control everything about the group, not asking for help from anyone. More and more people threatened them, and Chan had to deal with them more quickly every time. The alpha smiled softly.
"Thank you for your concern, Minho-yah," he reassured the omega, squeezing his shoulder. "I know what I'm doing, it's okay," he said, even if he didn't actually know what his wolf was thinking; the beast was only growling and anxious inside him.
Minho didn't smile; he just nodded before getting into the SUV. Felix was resting in the back seat, and Chan entered to sit next to Minho as Changbin was in the passenger seat, giving instructions to their driver. Soon, the car moved, and Chan let himself fall into thoughts about what he was going to do with the omega in the backseat, the faint strawberry scent making his wolf relax a bit after such an exhausting night.
He should decide what to do with the boy. He was not the first person Chan picked up from the streets or situations like this; when he picked up Minho, Minho was difficult to deal with. He would not trust Chan nor anyone else, too used to living by himself—he was even more skeptical because Chan was an alpha, nonetheless. It took the man a lot of effort to earn Minho's trust. He remembers the nights he spent trying to talk to Minho, and the omega would just ignore him most of the time, the alpha cooking for both of them, using the little money he had at the time.
They met Changbin a while after that. The other alpha had just escaped from the house he was caged in, bought from a human auction. That's when Chan decided he would recruit others in the same situation to help him make the world just a little bit better by finding rotten people's secrets so he could destroy them from the inside, blackmail them, and kill them. He would help the misfits find a place in the world—and that's how his group started. His actual pack was small: only seven people, including him, all of them picked up by Chan at some point. All the other employees were only that: drivers, security, housekeepers. The alpha built an empire with his misfits, and he was proud of it. He glanced at the boy in the back, sleeping soundly.
Maybe he could fit one more in his group.
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"Now that Kang Hajoon is dead, we can keep the documents with his secrets and blackmail his family so they stop participating in illegal auctions," Chan said while he was reading the report from Seungmin, who was sitting on a chair, right in front of his desk.
Seungmin was an omega from Chan's pack. He gathered information from targets and their families to use against them. He was the one who found out that Hajoon was in desperate need of money and sent Chan to him, as if it were fate that they met. He was looking into the alpha for a couple of months, then just waiting for him to have a small slide.
"We can hold this over their heads, indeed," the omega replied as he tapped on his own tablet. "It's better if we wait, though. It's still recent; we also have to check our system's security. That won't stop them thoroughly, but it's a start. If he hadn't been so careless, we could have had easier access to his father," Seungmin clicked his tongue.
"We can get to that later," Chan said as he raised his eyes from the papers on his desk and put them aside. "It's one less to deal with in the end, and we've already saved someone directly from him".
The sound of clapping from the back of the room caught their attention, both of them turning their heads to look at the other person who was listening to the meeting: Changbin. He came with Seungmin, his mate, but he didn't contribute much to the conversation—he liked to listen and take in what the others said. That was why seeing him get up from the sofa and walk to the desk was actually surprising.
"Y'know, I've been meaning to ask, hyung," he spoke up, a smirk on his lips. "What are you planning to do with that little omega you brought back?"
That sparked Chan's wolf's interest. The creature, calm and collected before, rose to the surface, growling low at the depiction of interest from another alpha on the omega. Chan raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you ask?" he inquired, his tone a bit harsher than necessary, which the other two in the room didn't let slide. Seungmin was a bit taken aback by Chan's behavior. Changbin, on the other hand, just huffed a laugh.
"You think I didn't notice your alpha getting a little weird back there, hyung?" Changbin threw himself on the other chair, right next to Seungmin. "So, spill. What happened back there?"
"Nothing happened," Chan answered, keeping his face as stoic as he could, even if his wolf was indeed a bit agitated inside him since he brought the omega with them. "I just helped the boy because he was a slave and he didn't deserve to die".
"You could still let him go; you didn't need to bring him back with you." Changbin raised an eyebrow, confronting Chan, who was starting to get upset with the other alpha.
"He was hurt and exhausted." The man's eyes turned into slits as he stared at Changbin.
"Um…" Seungmin caught their attention, clearing his throat, as he put his tablet away, reports long forgotten after Changbin's interruption. "What little omega?"
Chan turned his attention back to the other man in the room, realizing he didn't tell Seungmin about Felix. He explained to him that the omega had been found in the hangar, along with Hajoon's men, wearing a tag with his name. He was probably a slave. Quickly, Seungmin unlocked his tablet and started tapping away, opening documents and archives. His eyes scanned every page while Changbin and Chan waited, brows furrowed in confusion.
"This one?" Seungmin raised the screen of his tablet to show the men the picture of the cute omega. He had a serious expression on his face, his eyes dull and unfocused, his blond hair a bit shorter than it was at the moment. His freckles were still prominent, beautiful, constellations on his cheeks that probably missed the shining of his eyes.
"Yeah," Chan breathed out, grabbing the equipment from Seungmin as he stared at the picture. "Do you know more about him?"
The omega took the tablet back and tapped the screen a few more times, then shook his head. He turned to show the others Felix's document, which had only his name and age written, along with the sentence: "Previous owner: Park Sanghoon. Sold on April 29th, 20XX to Kang Hajoon". Fury boiled inside Chan's veins as he read the names written on the boy's file. It was that scumbag, Park Sanghoon.
He was one of the CEO's of the Park-Choi conglomerate, the very one who destroyed Chan's family's business and dirtied the world with their corruption and nasty acts. They were behind almost every illegal human auction in Seoul, their disgusting paws buying omegas and alphas from poor families that couldn't deny it to sell them under the rugs to other distasteful alphas and omegas from richer families.
Chan hated every single one of those disgusting people.
His parents worked in business before; they owned a small company that sold innovative, creative toys, most of them related to music, such as small musical instruments and devices that helped develop rhythm. Chan loved every product his family sold, and he absolutely loved his parents and their ideas. They made beautiful songs to sell their products, and Chan was studying to follow their footsteps.
However, their sales were going down, and they couldn't understand why. After some research, they found that the Park-Choi conglomerate had started selling products like theirs, with only minor differences that made it impossible for them to claim ownership of the idea, and they were mass-produced. It was cheaper for customers, and the wealthier parts of families preferred to get what the conglomerate was putting out, rather than from a small company.
Park Sanghoon was the one who showed up at their doorstep, asking them to sell him their ideas, their company, their marketing. At first, Chan's parents denied. But the man's advances were getting more aggressive by the day. Chan remembers looking at his parents, trying to figure out how to pay the rent after their products stopped selling.
Then, at some point, it got too much. Chan's parents sold their ideas, their music, their marketing, their products, and their minds until they were no more. Stress built up. His mother fell sick, and his father followed right after. They died, and Park Sanghoon got all of their ideas for himself. Chan was left with nothing but memories of his happy days.
That was when he decided he would destroy this rotten system from the inside. That was how he started to build his own empire. It was nothing like his parents'. He knew his own method was as rotten as the people he despised. But it was the only way to have access to them. He got money through illegal means, and he used it to lure the people he hated to befriend him, connect with him, and trust him. Only to be stabbed from behind.
Chan didn't even notice how strong his grip on his pen was until it broke under his fingers. Changbin was shocked by the display of strength. He read what Seungmin showed him and whistled.
"Now I see why he got so angry, Park Sanghoon sold the omega to Kang Hajoon," he voiced Chan's motives.
"That's why he is so exhausted and hurt," Chan's voice was dark. "He was treated like scum from the very beginning under Sanghoon's administration. Seungmin, I need you to talk to Jisung. Tell him to come to my office as soon as possible, please".
Seungmin mumbled a "yessir" as he took out his phone and sent Jisung a message. Chan's scent of dark chocolate was making both Changbin and the omega wrinkle their noses, burnt and rotten, a disgusting smell only their pack alpha could emit when he was furious. Seungmin sent Chan the file with Felix's name and date of birth and said his goodbyes while he dragged Changbin out of the door with him, the alpha still saying he wanted to talk to Chan about the omega in the other room, but Seungmin was adamant in getting out of there, his mate in hand.
Chan, left with his thoughts for a moment, couldn't calm down. His legs bounced under his desk as he bored a hole in his table, thinking about what the omega must have suffered in the hands of those bastards. He knew Park Sanghoon had many slaves ready to be sold in the market, and the police wouldn't do a thing due to his influence in the world. He was a powerful man, but Chan was sure he would end his empire one day. He would save the people who needed saving. People like Felix and his pack members.
A few minutes later, a knock on the door brought him back to the present. He answered with a dark "come in", and the person opened the door very slowly, like they were afraid of bothering the alpha. The boy who entered the room was petite, his figure hunched over himself, as he walked in on shaky legs. It was probably due to Chan's pheromones, strong in the air. The boy was an omega, his cheeks round and eyes wide.
"Jisung-ah," Chan called out, trying to contain a bit of his scent, which made the boy sigh in relief. "You may come in, sorry if it stinks in here".
"Hi, hyung, it's okay," he answered, sitting on one of the chairs. "Seungmin told me you needed to talk to me urgently. Did something happen?"
"Nah, everything's fine, Jisung-ah, sorry to bother you when you’re ready to go to sleep".
"It's okay, Minho-hyung is waiting for me so we can go to our room together," Jisung told him with a smile. Chan couldn't help but smile back at him.
His wolf was a bit calmer now with Jisung's presence, as the alpha liked to see his pack members happy. He knew Jisung and Minho were happiest when they were together or when they talked about each other, so he was happy for them too. Jisung's own scent of pudding really helped, too, sweet and caramelized, a member of his pack.
"So, Jisung-ah, I need you to do something for me," Chan started, pulling his own tablet from a drawer and unlocking the screen. He tapped on it until he found the file Seungmin sent him. He clicked on the photo and showed it to Jisung. "This is Felix. We brought him from our mission today. He was a slave, and his scent was really faint when I found him".
For a moment, Chan noticed Jisung's eyes go unfocused, memories probably flooding his mind as he told him about Felix's dull scent. It was a trauma for most of the pack, especially for Jisung. The omega nodded in agreement.
"I need you to check on him in the next few days," he said as he put his tablet away. "Check for fever, check his scent, and he has wounds around his body, so you can take one of the medicines to apply. See if you can talk to him, or make him talk, okay?"
"Okay, hyung, count on me! I got it!" Jisung's enthusiasm was back, and the alpha knew he could trust the omega with this type of work.
Jisung wasn't a fieldwork guy. Mostly because Minho would never allow his mate to do field work, but also because of his traumas. When they rescued Jisung, he was practically dead—his wolf was hidden somewhere deep inside, inaccessible to anyone, even to the omega, who was just a shell of who he once was. It took a lot of work to get him back to reality, and the omega had stayed in the house since, tending to the wounded ones they brought back and helping out in the kitchen and with the cleaning staff. Jisung was gentle and kind, a sunny smile bathing his face at all times. But Chan knew the boy still had wounds deep inside him that didn't heal. He was glad he had Minho to take care of him.
"Thank you, Jisung-ah," the alpha smiled at him, his wolf finally sated from the need to care for the omega in the other room. "Felix is currently resting in the vacant room on the guest side of the house. We've already applied medicine to his wound today, and he has a light fever right now, but it's nothing to worry about. You may go to sleep and check on him in the morning".
The omega nodded and excused himself from Chan's office.
The alpha was once more left alone with his thoughts. He glanced at the clock. It was past midnight, exhaustion starting to crawl up his bones. He stretched his limbs and turned off his computer, deciding it was already time for him to rest. The other members of the pack were all getting ready to sleep, so Chan took careful steps down the staircase that connected their offices and bedrooms to the other side of the house, meant for employees and guests.
Passing the indoor garden, he reached the corridor full of empty rooms, except one. He opened the door lightly, trying to hide his scent as much as he could. Inside, the omega they rescued was resting, sleeping soundly. His face was a bit scrunched up, like he was having a nightmare. Chan stepped into the room and, carefully, released calming pheromones. Dark chocolate floated in the air until it reached the boy's nose. Felix's expression calmed down a little; the frown wasn't that deep now. Chan smiled to himself.
He hoped everything would be better for the boy. He still didn't know what he would do with him, whether Felix would choose to stay or go. But he hoped that whatever he chose was the best for him. His alpha inside him vibrated with the sight of the omega's pretty face, so relaxed, even if he couldn't smell much of his strawberry scent to satiate the wolf's needs of reassurance.
He still needed to figure out why his wolf was so attached to the omega. He had never felt like this before; his wolf was actually calm and behaved, never once demonstrating interest in others. This behavior was very off for the creature.
After some time, Chan went back to his own room. He took a bath, changed clothes, and threw himself on his bed. With his wolf now calm and collected, Chan slept soundly, his dreams overpowered by the strong scent of strawberry that he hoped he would be able to smell one day.