Fear coursed down Noah's spine as he read the text. He recalled passing through the park across from his work a few days ago and the familiar pheromone that was in the air. He had to get out of there. He looked at Lucas' confused face and a wave of self-loath washed over him, then anger. Anger towards the bastard who sent that text. The beta was talking to him but he wasn't listening. Too many questions were rushing through his head. He slowly began to back away from Lucas until he found himself in a full on sprint, ignoring the stabbing pain in his ribs. This only filled him with more self-loathing. Typical Noah, running away from his problems yet again, he thought in disgust.
By the time he reached his dorm he was shaking, barely containing all the emotions threatening to burst out of him like a dam that had been rotting away for years. However, when he opened the door he felt all of this vanish as he saw the tears streaming down Penny's face.
Concerned for the omega, he immediately examined her for injuries. "Penelope, what happened, are you hurt?"
She looked at him through her teary eyes in surprise and quickly used the sleeve of her sweater to dry her face. "Noah," she sniffed, "I thought you had class right now."
"Was kicked out," he grinned sheepishly.
This earned him a little chuckle, "ah." He must have still looked worried because she added, "it's nothing, really. It's just, you know how I finished my heat a couple days ago?" Noah nodded. "The company is threatening to terminate my internship if I can't finish the week's worth of work that I've accumulated from taking the time off within the next two days. TWO. I mean I get they're busy but they're being completely unreasonable! The rumor is that they had to hire me because it was good for their image, but they must have changed their mind or something and are looking for an excuse to fire me. I need this job though, it pays for my tuition Noah! I have nothing without this job."
All of Noah's previous emotions came flooding back in and his fury grew. "You work for Nae Joon Electronics right?" Damn that company, damn the bastard who texted him, and damn every fool who had prejudice over their kind. He played it off nonchalant as he asked, "what's that boss of yours look like anyway?"
Penny looked at him as if he were stupid, "you don't know him? He's been all over the new for months!" When all he did was pull out his phone she continued, "he became CEO of the company straight out of university and has an insane mastery over his pheromones. I heard that people from across the globe are trying to recruit him for experimentation so they can develop some sort of drug that'll help others control their pheromones as successfully as he can." She looked at him when he didn't respond. At least that's what she would have done if he were still there. He was gone. "Shit."
It wasn't too hard for Noah to find the massive skyscraper, nor to look up the CEO's image once he realized Penny was about to go on one of her tangents. He glared at the glass building, taller than a small mountain—the symbol of everything wrong with this hierarchical world—and peered through the glass double door. Just his luck, a man about six foot three with sleek black hair and a sharp jawline emerged from an elevator with what appeared to be a very over-worked beta secretary behind him. It was none other than Adonis Baek himself.
Fired up, Noah charged in and made a b-line for the man who made Penny cry. Before the CEO could process what was happening, Noah got in one good blow to the stomach—seeing as he was at too much of a hight disadvantage to sock him in the face. Noah's own ribs felt like they were on fire from the exertion but the alpha appeared to be more shocked and furious than in pain.
Two security guards down the hall saw the commotion and tried to take hold of Noah. Like hell he was going to let that alpha off like that.
As the two security guards tried to wrestle him to the ground he shouted in anger, "you bastard! Who do you think you are trying to fire someone because they're an omega? You all should rot in hell!"
A rush of pheromones overtook the air like a tidal wave, causing Noah to gasp for breath. The thick air made it difficult to breath and left all the omegas and even a few betas in the area trembling in fear, including himself. With each gasp he felt a sharp stab of pain in his ribs.
The alpha calmly crouched down to where Noah was collapsed on the ground and whispered in Noah's ear, "how dare you accuse me of such a thing."
With fear still coursing though every cell of his body, he forced himself to make eye contact with the alpha. "You're *gasp* all *gasp* the same," he managed to muster, deep loathing seeping into each word.
The air suddenly cleared and Noah could breath again. The CEO casually strolled back to his secretary as though he didn't just cripple every omega within a 100 foot radius and ordered, "Mrs. Kim, look into this matter immediately." Noah snapped his head up in surprise.
"Sir," one of the security guards called, "what would you like us do with him?" The guard gestured to the now struggling Noah.
He barely glanced at Noah before replying, "release him."
"P-pardon? Are you sure, sir?" The alpha said nothing and left. The security guards hesitated before letting go of Noah's arms. Then, they too left. One muttering, "how dare an omega hit the CEO," leaving Noah utterly confused.
However, it wasn't the release that left Noah sitting there frozen on the floor—the alpha had appeared genuinely confused when Noah told him off for trying to fire Penny. In fact, it almost looked as though he was displeased when he heard this information. He couldn't actually care...could he?
"'Course not. Don't be stupid, Noah." Noah scolded.
Upon returning to the dorms a wide eyed Penny greeted him. "Don't tell me you—"
Noah grinned sheepishly and scratched his head, "sorry."
"At least tell me what happened," she sighed in resignation.
Noah recalled the humiliation of being taken down by the alpha's pheromones. "Er, I punched him but he didn't really say any—"
Penny's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets, "YOU DID WHAT?"
"Are you stupid?!" She shouted. "You need to get over your freaking alpha complex, dammit. Great, just great, if I wasn't fired before I am now." The tiny omega began to repeatedly hit his chest in frustration, and he winced as the impact reverberated into his increasingly tender ribs. She must have caught the wince and assumed she had hit too hard because she immediately retracted her hands.
"Pen, I'm sorry," Noah said in earnest.
She put her hands up as if to stop him from continuing and to refrain from hitting him again. He pressed his lips together and waited for her to speak. She didn't. She simply closed her eyes and pressed her hands together as though to pray and held them up to her lips. Then, lowered her head and took a deep breath. "I'm angry. No, furious. I seriously need that job, Noah. We will talk once I have calmed down. For now, I need you to leave. I'm sure Lucas will let you crash for a night."
He bowed his head in regret and whispered, "I'm sorry," as he left.
He ended up renting a hotel room a little ways off campus as to not bother Lucas and to avoid receiving the scolding he knew he would get once Lucas found out how bad he had messed up.
As Noah entered the elevator to go to his room on the eleventh floor, a familiar scent caught his nose. Lavender.