Johan’s POV

The moment I stepped off the plane, I knew something was wrong.

The air in Chiang Mai was thick with humidity and incense. Sweet and smoky. But beneath all that, something else cut through like lightning through storm clouds. My senses sharpened. My wolf snapped awake in my chest, alert, prowling, hungry.

I paused in the middle of the airport corridor, ignoring the humans that brushed past me with impatient looks. My men waited behind me—two lieutenants from the Redcrown Claw Pack, nervous and tense. They knew better than to speak when my wolf was this still.

I inhaled again.

There it was.

Scent.

Not just any scent—the scent. One that didn’t belong here, not in this city, not in any pack I recognized.

It hit me like a blow to the chest.

Wild moonflowers crushed beneath rain. Sweet citrus and cold steel. Unmarked territory. Untouched.

Omega. Fated. Hidden.

I clenched my jaw.

This wasn’t just some heat-drunk unmated wolf. This was something ancient. Forbidden. The kind of Omega that should have never existed without protection, let alone walked free among humans.

My wolf rumbled, deep in my chest.

Mate

We were in Chiang Mai on a diplomatic errand—at least, that was what I told my pack. A meeting with a rogue faction from the old mountain tribes. Nothing more.

But I had come for another reason. I’d been feeling it for weeks now—restlessness in my bones, dreams of moonlight and flame, the quiet whisper of a mate I had never met.

I didn’t believe in fated bonds. I thought they were a weakness. That was what I told myself as I built the Redcrown Claw into the most feared pack in the Eastern territories. Love made you vulnerable. Mates made you reckless. I’d seen alphas lose control because of it—ripped apart by desire, blinded by obsession.

And now, here I was. Standing in a human airport. Scenting him like my lungs would collapse without another breath.

Pathetic.

I turned to my men. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

“Alpha, the meeting—”

“Later.”

They didn’t argue. One look from me, and they knew better.

I followed the scent. Through the city. Through the streets. Across temples and alleys and food stalls. It came and went like mist, but I followed it like a hound on the trail.

Then, at sunset, I found him.

He was in a garden.

I saw him before he saw me.

He was sitting on a stone bench beneath a tree, staring at nothing, fingers curled tight in his lap. Short black hair, a narrow frame, but something about him glowed. Like moonlight had been sewn into his skin. He looked like the world hadn’t touched him properly—like he didn’t know the power of what he was.

And gods, his scent.

I had never smelled anything like it. My mouth went dry. My hands clenched into fists to stop from grabbing him right then and there.

He stood suddenly, like he felt me watching. His head turned, eyes scanning the garden.

I stepped back before he could see me.

I wasn’t ready.

Why wasn’t I ready?

I’d taken Omegas before. Mated with them in blood ceremonies. Claimed territory, claimed bodies. But this… this was different. This was primal. My body wanted to drop to its knees and worship. My wolf wanted to tear out the throats of anyone who had ever laid eyes on him.

This wasn’t about desire.

It was need.

I didn’t approach him.

Not yet.

I followed.

I watched him through the day. In the university halls, he looked like just another quiet student, hoodie pulled up, hands buried in his pockets. But I could see it now—the way his eyes darted, the way he was bracing himself.

He knew something was wrong.

He didn’t know what he was yet. But he felt it. The shift. The pull.

When I stood across the courtyard from him, hidden in the shadows of a pillar, he turned suddenly and looked straight at me. Those eyes—gray and sharp like storm clouds.

Recognition.

My chest thudded.

He felt it too.

That night, I walked to his apartment building.

I had memorized the route by scent, each alley and streetlamp. I stopped beneath his window. I didn’t know which one was his at first—but when I looked up, I knew.

There. Fourth floor. The window cracked open. His scent was pouring out like the city couldn’t hold it in anymore.

My claws ached beneath my skin.

Suppressants. Weakening. He was nearing his first true heat. And no one had claimed him.

What kind of pack lets something like him walk unguarded?

Unless… unless they’d hidden him. Deliberately.

Something clicked into place.

He wasn’t just an Omega. He was that Omega. The hidden child from the Silverpine pack. The one who vanished eighteen years ago the night of the blood moon. The one with the moon-marked scent.

I had been hunting myths for months.

And here he was.

Real. Breathing. Mine.

He looked down.

We didn’t speak. Didn’t need to.

I let my eyes tell him what I felt.

I see you.

You belong to me.

You won’t run.

He didn’t look away. He stared like he was trying to make sense of something that had always been just out of reach.

Then I smiled.

And walked away.

Back at the hotel, I stood on the balcony with my shirt off, letting the moonlight wash over me. My wolf pulsed just beneath my skin, closer to the surface than it had been in years.

My beta, Tiger, knocked once before stepping in.

“You disappeared,” he said carefully.

“I found what I was looking for.”

He went quiet. “The Omega?”

I nodded.

“Is it him?”

“Yes.”

Tiger exhaled, visibly shaken. “If he’s really the Luna… the one with the silver scent… you know the others will come for him. The elders, the rival packs, even the humans will notice eventually. He’s a threat to the blood order.”

“No,” I said. “He’s not a threat.”

I turned slowly, eyes glowing gold.

“He’s mine.”

Tiger swallowed hard. “What do we do now?”

I looked back toward the city.

“I claim him.”