The crystal tumbler crashed on the polished marble floor, scattering shards of glass and amber liquid all over the dark, expensive office.
“Say that again,” Cha Sung-won growled, his voice shaking in a mix of rage and sheer disbelief.
“Our abduction mission failed,” Dr.
Yoon said grimly.
“The target was not secured, and the ones who stopped us were not the police.” “Then who?” Cha demanded, stepping forward so fast his chair screeched on the floor.
He was radiating Alpha pheromones in such intense levels it was making the air difficult to breathe.
“Kwon Tae-hyuk,” Dr.
Yoon replied.
There was a deafening silence that stretched unbearably long before Cha let out a mirthless laugh that curdled in his throat.
The room seemed to constrict around him, the air growing thick and oppressive.
He looked at Dr.
Yoon, eyes wide with disbelief, and his hands formed tight fists at his sides.
His lips twitched, a horrible grin spreading across his face before he let out a feral snarl.
“Tae-hyuk?” Cha began, his voice a steady stream of contempt.
“Vice Chairman Kwon, the Prime Alpha, and the golden boy of the industry.” His mind reeled at the very thought.
Cha and Kwon had been upper-class celebrities in the business world for decades, with their father’s golfing together and having dinner parties at the same private club.
The two men had been on good terms ever since, and the media often circulated pictures of them, with both Cha and Tae-hyuk claiming to be childhood friends.
All lies, but the most convenient ones.
“Kwon Tae-hyuk is the last person I want to be related to,” Cha muttered bitterly.
He had hated the man ever since he had laid his eyes on him for the first time.
Seeing Tae-hyuk’s effortless charisma, his charming smile, and his powerful Alpha aura had been a slap to Cha’s pride.
Everyone who had crossed paths with Tae-hyuk knew he was an elite, a Prime Alpha, with a mind as sharp as a blade.
Cha had tried his best to reach the same level as him, and the two men had battled fiercely to gain dominance in the business world.
Tae-hyuk always came out on top, looking down at Cha with a bored expression as if he weren’t worthy of his time.
A disgusting feeling of inadequacy had blossomed in Cha’s chest, growing stronger with each passing day, twisting into a dark, obsessive need to prove himself to Tae-hyuk.
He wanted to show him that he was equal, that he was his rival in everything, including in finding and claiming Omegas.
“He cannot know about him,” Cha said furiously, his voice rising with every word.
“That Omega was supposed to be a secret!
He was a late presenter, and he was off the system!
How did he get his hands on him?!” He slammed his fist on the solid wood desk, making the lamp on it rattle.
“How did Tae-hyuk know about him, Dr.
Yoon?!” “That is what we are trying to find out, sir,” Dr.
Yoon said evenly.
“As I said, logically, there is no way Tae-hyuk should have known about his reclassification yet,” Dr.
Yoon continued.
“However, our contacts at the private clinic that Tae-hyuk owns said that he took the Omega to his penthouse.
The Omega was apparently in a violent heat cycle, and Tae-hyuk kept him there overnight.” Cha looked stunned, his eyes narrowing as his lips twitched into a twisted grin.
He let out a slow chuckle that soon turned into a full-bodied laugh, shaking his head in disbelief.
“He kept him…” Cha said, his voice cracking as he laughed maniacally.
“He kept him right there, didn’t he “Tae-hyuk took him.
He stole my prize.” ?
For Cha, having a late presenter Omega with rare and desirable genes was an opportunity of a lifetime.
He would use him to his advantage and show Tae-hyuk that no matter how superior he thought he was, he was not untouchable.
The Omega was perfect, and as far as Cha knew, there was no one else in the entire country that could have him.
But it seemed that he was just another prize for Tae-hyuk, yet another person trying to prove that he was better than Cha Sung-won.
“Did Tae-hyuk mark him?” , Cha demanded, leaning in until he was almost nose to nose with the quivering doctor.
“Tell me, did he bond with him?!” “Most likely not,” Dr.
Yoon replied smoothly.
“If it were so, you would have been able to smell the scent marker on him by now.
There is no denying the musky fragrance that comes with bond patches, not to mention the sheer intensity of a Prime Alpha’s pheromones that cling to an unsupervised Omega.” He hesitated briefly.
“However, according to our contacts, the Omega walked out of the penthouse this evening.” Cha’s grin widened, something dark and nasty curling at the edges of his mouth.
“He let him go?” Cha asked, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair and chuckling.
“What a disgusting, possessive bastard Tae-hyuk is.” He stopped suddenly, his eyes wide as realization dawned on him.
“He let him walk away, didn’t he?
The brat must have fought him, and he didn’t win.” At that moment, he felt something deep inside of him swell with satisfaction, something that made his skin prickle with excitement and desire.
It was infuriating beyond words how Tae-hyuk thought he could dominate everyone, how the smug bastard acted like there was nothing he couldn’t have.
If there was one thing that had pushed Cha to his limits, it was seeing Tae-hyuk lose or fail in any way.
“Dr.
Yoon,” Cha said quietly, his voice even as he fastened his designer suit.
The words came out smoothly, flowing as if he had rehearsed them.
“Keep an eye on that boy.
Increase the surveillance on his apartment.
If that bastard thinks he can just keep doing this and walk away clean, he will learn otherwise.” Cha gazed out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the dark city skyline.
His gaze was locked on the highest building in the city, the one belonging to Tae-hyuk’s company.
“Tae-hyuk thinks he is unassailable just because he was born a Prime,” Cha whispered to himself, his reflection winking at him from the glass.
“Let’s just see how long he will continue to believe that once I take that Omega from right under his nose.”