(TW: narcissism, dubcon, twisted obsession)
At first, it had been fun. He'd enjoyed watching his Jaemin conduct, conjuring those beautiful waves of melodies, just like he had always known he could. His little omega had grown so much in their time apart. He'd smiled fondly as he saw the shock on Jaemin's face when he'd spotted him, and laughed as his little prank bouquet had made its way onto the stage and into his arms.
But the heartwarming scene in his imagination of their glorious, tearful reunion had vanished as the First Chair of the SPS, Kang Do-hyun, had picked his Jaemin up and whisked him away, out of sight. All that was left behind was the fragrance of cherry blossoms that filled his senses, and with it, a memory, a phantom promise of a life that should have been his; the scent of an omega, sweet and forbidden, and it sent a searing heat through Choi Seungcheol's veins.
His omega. Seo Jaemin.
In the next few moments, the world had dissolved into a haze of white noise. All he could see was Kang Do-hyun's mocking smile as he had led his Jaemin away from him, and the betrayal in that one moment had triggered a primal rage he hadn't felt since Jaemin vanished.
He had to get out, had to find a place to unleash the raw, untamed fury that was threatening to consume him.
He had slipped away from the press, from his team, from the entire world, and had stormed back to his hotel suite, where Hana, a beta he had been seeing for a few weeks, had been waiting for him.
She had been his anchor before, a gentle, soothing presence that he had clung to in the past. But that night, she was just another body, a warm, yielding form that he could bend to his will.
"Please, Seungcheol, you're hurting me!" Hana pleaded, her voice on the edge of a whimper as he ploughed roughly into her.
He didn't hear her. All he could feel was the hot, consuming fire in his veins, the primal need to possess, to dominate, to mark. He let loose a furious growl, pinning her down harder by her neck. His fingers dug into her flesh, and his fangs closed wildly on her shoulder.
Her cry of pain rang out, sharp and sudden, but it was just another sound in the chaotic buzzing of his mind. He wasn't with Hana, he was with Jaemin, and he was taking what was his. The delusion was a potent drug, and he gave himself over to it, losing himself in a maelstrom of violent pleasure and possessive fury.
It wasn't until a few hours later, when the madness had finally subsided, that he looked down at Hana, her face pale and tear-stained, a fresh bite mark blooming crimson on her shoulder, and felt a flicker of something akin to shame, but it was fleeting, gone almost as soon as it had arrived. He wasn't the monster here. The monster was Kang Do-hyun, who had stolen his omega. The monster was Jaemin, who had abandoned him.
He was the one who had been wronged. And the world would soon see it.
...
Days passed since the gala, but for Choi Seungcheol, time had ceased to have any meaning. He watched Hana as she moved silently about the suite with a robe wrapped around her slender body, her movements efficient and quiet, the perfect picture of a beta's service.
He had to give her credit; she was good at what she did, a calming presence he could summon at will.
But she wasn't the one who haunted his dreams.
Meanwhile, the fresh wound on Hana's shoulder throbbed with a dull ache, a constant reminder of the night her lover had lost himself. He had apologized, in a distant, offhanded way that only made her feel more like a disposable object. He never looked at her when he talked about it, his eyes lost in a distant haze as he spoke about that omega.
She had put up with his obsessive moods whenever they took him, but this was different. He had hurt her, and he hadn't even seen her. That was the cruelest part of it all.
"Do you ever think about anything else?" she asked quietly. She looked at his face, so handsome and cold, and a flicker of resentment burned in her chest. She was right beside him, but he was still searching for something, someone, else.
Seungcheol's head snapped toward her. His eyes, usually so sharp and calculated, were now clouded with a raw, untamed fury.
"What else would I think about? I would have given him everything, everything we needed to succeed. And he threw it all away." He looked at her, his lips twisted into a cruel parody of a smile.
"He left me. He betrayed me. He didn't just walk away from me; he ran into the arms of some mongrel called Kang Do-hyun. What do you expect me to do, Hana? Just let him go?"
Hana's eyes widened, her hand reaching out to touch his arm, but he yanked back with a growl of irritation just before she could make contact.
"You can't force people to love you, Seungcheol," she coaxed. When he ignored her, unresponsive, her voice sharpened. "He left you because he didn't want you. There's nothing you can do about it."
A cold, dangerous calm descended on Seungcheol's face. He didn't raise his voice, but his words were like shards of glass.
"Love? What does love have to do with this? This is about destiny. This is about what is rightfully mine." He leaned back in his chair, a flicker of mad ambition in his eyes as he sighed. "You don't understand, Hana. You can't. I don't expect you to. You're just a beta, you couldn't possibly understand the bond between an alpha and his omega.
"But that's alright… because soon, he'll see." His lips twisted into a derisive smile, a flash of anticipated triumph in his eyes.
"I'm going to make him see that his talent, his success, it's all because of me. The world will see what I've always known, that without me, he's just another common omega. And once he understands that, he'll have no choice but to come crawling back."
He laughed, a harsh sound filled with his own brand of tenderness and affection. "Jaemin-ah, Jaemin…"
Hana watched him, a chilling clarity washing over her. This was less about Seungcheol wanting to break Jaemin's will and destroy his confidence. That was only the method. What he really wanted was to get Jaemin back.
A cold, quiet anger settled in her bones, a resentment so potent it tasted like dust. She felt the throb of the fresh bite mark on her shoulder and knew it wasn't a mark of Choi Seungcheol's love, but a testament to her being a second choice, a stand-in for the man who was now the source of her hurt. He had seen Jaemin, and now she would see to it that Jaemin saw her.