It didn't take long for the pack to notice the omega.
Some looked at Noah with curiosity. Others with hunger. And a few—like Logan, a particularly aggressive beta—looked at him with open contempt.
"You don't belong here," Logan sneered, stepping too close, his scent cloying. "Omegas without a pack are nothing. Just weak little things waiting to be claimed."
Noah didn't back down. Instead, he leaned in, smirking. "Try it, and I'll make sure you regret it."
A low chuckle. Then, pressure. Logan let his dominance roll off him in waves, the kind that would send most omegas to their knees. Noah gritted his teeth as his body instinctively reacted, trembling at the edges. But he refused to fall.
A shadow loomed behind them.
And then—a growl.
Low. Dangerous. A warning that sent a ripple of fear through the air.
Logan barely had time to react before he was yanked back, slammed against the nearest tree by an unforgiving grip. Theron's grip.
Noah's breath caught.
The alpha's golden eyes burned, locked onto Logan with barely restrained fury. "Touch him again," Theron growled, voice rough and edged with something lethal, "and I'll tear you apart."
Silence.
The pack watched, stunned. Because Theron was protecting him.
An alpha doesn't do that for an omega who isn't his.
Noah exhaled, slow and measured, as Theron's grip loosened and Logan scrambled away. But when those golden eyes turned to him—filled with something unreadable, something possessive—Noah realized one thing.
He had just become a problem for Theron in more ways than one.