Junho’s POV

My chest rises and falls with rage as I watch Minjae hold Seoha in his arms.

Minjae had been yelling at me some seconds ago now he’s with his friend.

The omega that had been teasing me just an hour ago now looks angry, his face is set in a deep frown and the playful tease I knew is gone.

The two omegas whimper in pain, Minjae presses his friend’s face into his neck, trying to comfort him with his scent.

My eyes are burning from not blinking as I watch them.

Did Taesan do this? How can he lay his hand on an omega when all we do is fight to protect omegas? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Taesan did this?" I ask, breaking the silent conversation between the omegas as my voice comes out ragged and rough.

"Alpha?" Seoha asks, he doesn’t sound like himself, it’s his omega speaking and it feels painful that he still calls a man that hurt him ’alpha’.

"Alpha?" Minjae yells.

"Taesan? Who the hell is this Taesan?" Minjae asks, he is growling at me with his eyes blue and his teeth bared.

"Damn it" I say under my breath and Minjae tries to get out of the bed, "you knew about it and you have been supporting a monster?" he yells.

"Seoha would have been killed!" Minjae’s voice grows louder and Seoha grabs his friend’s shirt.

"Minjae" Seoha whimpers his friends name, and I take a step backwards, horrified by everything.

The smallish omega looks even smaller in Minjae’s arms, his eyes are blue and glassy, his lips are quivering as if he’s fighting back tears.

This is messed up, this is fucked, years of comfortably killing men doesn’t dull how horrifying this is.

The amount of blood the omega has lost before Minjae found him, the way he has slipped into omega space...I am going to kill Taesan.

I turn around and run out of the small apartment.

I can’t be here, I don’t even put my shoes on properly as I run out, dragging it all the way to my car.

Once I get in, I start the engine, I can smell the blood that has soaked up the seat, metallic and stomach churning.

’Why is he bleeding? It’s the back of his head!’ Minjae had shouted in panic as he rushed out to pick up his friend.

Our date turned into a mess as Minjae goes to his friend and I sit in the car.

My hand stayed glued to the steering wheel as people gathered to see the dying man, it was strange, Taesan never joked with the safety loved ones.

If he was really the one that hurt Seoha, I don’t know what I would do to him.

I drive to his house, driving carefully and keeping my focus on just getting there, I need to know what the hell is going through his head.

"Sir Junho" the guard greets and bows once he sees me, opening the gate as wide as he can.

I don’t give a response; I just go into the house and meet silence.

The whole place is eerily quiet as the house maids clean quietly, they are all focused on the floor, not conscious of my arrival.

"Oh, Junho-ssi is here" one of them says when she notices me and the rest immediately turn their attentions to me, bowing in greetings.

They keep their heads down and I take in the sight of the mop and the bucket containing water, dirty water that is mixed with blood red.

"Where is Taesan" I ask calmly, and they exchange looks, "where?" I ask again and one of them points down the hallway.

I follow her direction, already sensing that he will be in his private study, tucked away in the space like the bastard he is.

"This bastard" I say under my breath as I pull out my gun and cock it, getting ready to fix whatever the hell this is.

I push the wooden door open and find him slumped in his seat.

The alpha is behind the desk with his eyes half open, his hands are hanging down the sides of the chair and there is blood on his finger tip.

Seoha’s blood.

"You son of a bitch!" I snarl before rushing at him, going around the table and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.

"Is this what you’ve become? Huh? What excuse do you have for this now?" I ask and he doesn’t say a word.

The silence feels like a slap on my face.

"You bastard, how dare you put your hands on an omega?" I ask, shaking his body violently, but he doesn’t flinch.

He doesn’t even meet my eyes, he looks dead drunk, the way he looked when he found out about his mother’s death.

"Kang Taesan" I roar his name and punch his face, the alpha doesn’t speak, he just shuts his eyes and I do it again.

"Fucking answer me you dog!"

"Dad?" Sooin’s voice makes me pause, and I turn around to see his daughter standing there.

I let out a hard breath, grateful that my frame and the table are hiding what I’m doing.

I let go of Taesan slowly as the pup comes in.

"Uncle Junnie" she says and enters the room.

Sooin looks half asleep as she climbs into her father’s lap, curling into him and pushing her thumb into her mouth before whining about how sleepy she is.

My throat closes up when he doesn’t hold her, it’s like he’s half dead, just holding up.

"Sooin needs you" I say bitterly and he moves his hand to hold her properly...almost the same way Minjae is holding Seoha right now in that small apartment.

Damn it!

My body is tense as I grab my hair, my head feels too heavy, I don’t know what to make of this.

When Sooin’s soft snores fill the room, Taesan gets up with her in his arms, carrying her out of the study.

I know he is going to put her down for a nap and I wait for him, when he returns, he stands at the door.

Nothing about him right now feels normal, not the lack of light in his eyes, not the way he is holding himself like this.

"I contacted Ghost" he says and I freeze.

For the past one year, the name Ghost being mentioned in a conversation with Taesan only means one thing. His parents’ death.

Haseul and everything relating to him meant the world to Taesan, Haseul was his mother...his only comfort.

"I told you to let it go" I say, I can still feel the weight of my gun in my hand, but it doesn’t matter, I can never hurt Taesan.

Especially not when he’s hurting like this.

"Seoha’s parents did it" he says and I completely stop all movement.

What?

"Seoha’s...the Kangs are responsible for your parent’s death?" I ask and Taesan nods, he doesn’t look like the man I know.

He looks like he has gone back in time, to the boy that couldn’t talk for three weeks after his mother’s death, the boy that I bathed and fed.

"Taesan" I call his name.

"I want to kill him" Taesan says and I shake my head, "he doesn’t know, he couldn’t have known about it, he’s..."

He’s not listening to me, he’s here but he isn’t, he just walks past me and takes his seat.

"Get my targets, I want to judge tonight" he orders and I bow, clenching my fists as I give him a once over, he won’t listen now.

Taesan’s POV

Control.

I control lives, I chose who gets to live and who gets to die, I am the mountain tiger.

Stable. Sane. In fucking control.

Something in my veins pulse as the tied up man screams and I push my sword down his last partner’s throat.

"Eat the sword, it’s longer than the cock you forced the girl to suck" I growl.

Everything is red, my vision is red, the floor around me is red and covered in the blood of the sex offenders.

The man I am feeding my sword to sputters and gurgles blood, the blade is tearing him from inside, and I like the growing smell of desperation.

He is hoping to survive this, hoping to come out alive, but I want him dead and I will have him dead.

I pull the sword out all at once and he coughs twice, spitting blood, his eyes are wide and unseeing as I smile down at him.

This makes me feel alive, the smell of their blood, their need to survive and yes...fear.

His body falls forward as he dies, falling on his cut off dick, mouth open and gushing out the red liquid.

"P-please sir! I will change! Captain please!" the last man screams as I take the first two steps towards him.

"Today...is your judgement" I whisper and raise my sword but freeze at the sharp pain in my neck.