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jjungkooksthighs · 10 months

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Claws of Carnality | jjk (m) (15)

Pairing: alpha jungkook x omega reader

Genre: (fluff, angst, and smut) abo/werewolf, fantasy

Rating: 18+/nsfw

Word Count: 7k

Summary: The Duels of the Chosen come to an abrupt end, and the right to lay claim to you can only be won by one.

Warnings: CHARACTER INJURY, LOTS OF BLOOD MENTIONS, GORE, MENTIONS OF BROKEN BONES, MENTIONS OF LOSS OF BODY PARTS (this is the fight you all were waiting for and it won’t be clean), dom!jungkook, alpha!jungkook, alpha!Taehyung, alpha!Jimin, sub!reader, omega!reader, cursing, praising, possessive!jungkook, teasing, dirty talk, marking, manhandling

A/N: This chapter is brought to you by Seven, Jungkook’s new single that was released a few days ago. Jungkook is entirely responsible for my lust-crazed writing of this chapter. I ask that if you enjoyed it, you please let me know in the comments. The chapter that I wrote and posted last month didn’t do as well as I’d hoped, so please show this one some love. The next update will be out faster the more attention the story gets. Without further ado, please enjoy.

Read the rest of this fanfic here.

The shadow that tails the russet-furred wolf darkens as it descends over Jungkook, who turns quickly to face the new threat seconds before contact.

Reflexively, Jungkook’s own claws lengthen and grow out even more from between his very human fingers, his canines sharpening as they too extend so that they push out from under his lips.

Two glinting rows of teeth are coming for him, but he doesn’t think twice before he ducks under the now airborne wolf. Yoongi’s teeth just barely graze the tip of a hair on your alpha’s head before he lands.

“I should have fucking known you were going to do something like this, you bastard,” Jungkook quips as the hairs on his arms darken and spread like arteries across his flesh while he begins to shift. “You never did play fair.”

When Yoongi tries to pounce once more, Jungkook rolls forward and pivots on his heel, the claws that have enlarged and lengthened between his toes catching at the small pebbles nestled between the soil as a cloud of dirt lifts and circles his form.

Jungkook doesn’t flinch even as the mottled mire sullies his sight, but Yoongi is relentless.

The large russet-furred wolf dips his claws into the dirt, and without pause, shirks it up toward Jungkook’s eyes.

Still crouched with one leg bent under him, it’s all Jungkook can do to shield his eyes from the landslide of black dirt coming for him, one of his arms shielding his eyes from the onslaught of dirt that is barraged his way.

Yoongi starts toward him, but the sound of dark laughter penetrates the air through the black particles that fill it, and even Yoongi pauses. Taehyung stills.

“You think you can beat me? With a little fucking dirt? If this is all you have, Yoongi, this match will be over before it even started, you mangy mutt.”

His words set fire to the opposing wolf’s paws, and again, he sets upon Jungkook with a loud, angry snarl.

Jungkook grabs for a jagged, uneven stone the size of his palm whilst the specks of earth still give him cover and taunts, “Come and get me, you fucker.”

Yoongi dashes fast toward him and instead of running, Jungkook steadies himself. He plants his feet in place where he’s crouched, and when Yoongi’s maw lowers and his teeth point toward Jungkook’s jugular, Jungkook waits, his chest rising and falling in even bouts as concentration lines his face.

He’s patient and lets Yoongi come for him. When the russet-furred wolf is but a foot away, that’s when Jungkook strikes. The stone he’d picked up is driven up and into the bottom of Yoongi’s jaw, the jagged edge piercing bone and tongue before lodging into the underside of his chin and then Yoongi barks in pain. He recoils and lobs his head to this side and that in an attempt to dislodge the rock, but his attempts are fruitless and he stumbles around with no particular direction in mind.

“All that, and I didn’t even need to fucking shift,” Jungkook tsks, “You were just as jejune to battle as Taehyung was.”

Jungkook turns his back to the other wolf who growls furiously at him and again his irises hunt for yours until he’s captured you in his sight.

You want to go to him. Need deluges you in its drift and you whine pathetically for him. He must hear it, because he drags a bloody hand through his hair so that he can display the blood marks you had left there, his muscles flexing as he does and his eyes? They not only reflect your desire, but refract it two-fold when they streak against yours.

Your sex clenches around nothing for the umpteenth time.

You look like you’re ready for me to take you away from here, my love. I may be going through these mutts fast, but I plan on taking my time with you. This is but the first round of it. They call it foreplay, pretty girl. Have you heard of it?

As his voice permeates your mind, you make a sound of pure, utter desperation that the silver around your head, wrists and legs tries to drown, but not even it can quiet you.

Your alpha smirks knowingly, not caring about the shaking, trembling mass of limbs that inches toward him. There’s a pained grunt when that mass of flesh slumps over Jungkook’s feet and when he looks down at Taehyung, who has his tongue bitten between his teeth, he simply arches a brow. “I’m surprised you can even move with so many bones being broken. Your determination really is something to be praised even if your fucking motives are wrong.”

“Wrong as they may be, you made an error yourself, Pack Alpha,” Taehyung drawls, “You may have made me promise my fealty to you, but you never said when. You’re so distracted by a little bit of pussy that you can’t even see straight anymore. And that, Jeon, will be the reason you fucking lose.”

Jungkook’s eyes widen, and he easily punts Taehyung onto his back and off of him, but not before the sound of paws thudding against the earth behind him cease. Yoongi vaults over him, the crimson moonlight of the blood moon shirking away from him under Yoongi’s shadow.

Yoongi lands, but both of his hind legs kick upward, the sharp, curved claws of both slicing through Jungkook’s exposed flesh to leave four furious red lines curving diagonally down one side of his chest and another four curling obliquely on the other.

Your throat hurts, but you don’t realize why until your ears start to ring from your own screams.

Jungkook staggers back with the force of the blow, and Yoongi doesn’t let him recover before he has turned and bunted Jungkook with his head so that he’s knocked to his knees.

There’s no time for him to do anything more than that.

Blood spumes and spews forth in a cloudburst of red around the males, and the Pack Alpha’s expression screws up in suffering under the horrible cracking made by the bones of his upper arm that are trapped in the maw of the four legged russet-furred wolf who stands in front of him.

“How does it feel to lose now, Pack Alpha?” Taehyung’s crumpled form on the dirt spasms as he hacks up crimson and snickers cruelly, “Yoongi’s going to bite off your cock, so what will you do then, huh? Is your little rut-mate going to fuck your face the rest of your life? I bet she’ll get tired of your tongue eventually. If Yoongi doesn’t rip that out, too, that is.”

The sharp, pointed teeth that have implanted themselves into Jungkook’s bicep dig further into his flesh and the Pack Alpha groans before he swings with his good arm, his fingers clenching into a fist moments before his hand strikes Yoongi right in the eye.

The russet-furred wolf only lodges his teeth deeper into Jungkook’s flesh as he recoils, and you watch in horror as your alpha’s skin along his upper arm begins to tear and rip from under Yoongi’s unrelenting denticulation.

“I haven’t lost anything, you bitch. The way I see it, this will go one way, and that will end with you both on the fucking ground and me standing over each of you watching,” Jungkook’s voice lowers dangerously, “and relishing in the blood that will leave your pathetic bodies. You can threaten me all you will, but your threats are empty. He bites into his cheek to stave off the pain, “Do not think you can degrade my mate, either. You just earned yourself more fucking pain when I get free from him.” Yoongi growls, and so does Taehyung as he declares through bloodied lips, “My mate will have any part of me she wants when the time comes. It will be her decision when that is. I won’t let either of you take that from her or from me. Not when I’ve waited for her for so long.” Jungkook barks fiercely, “She means more to me than anything you could ever know, not that either of you would understand with how small your fucking brains are. She is the love my life." He scrunches his face in suffering when Yoongi's teeth break more blood vessels. "When she is ready, she will be the mother of my children. I can’t wait for you both to fucking see her when she’s round with my pups. Forever and eternally mine.”

“Bold of you to assume all that seeing as you’re two seconds from having your fucking arm torn off. That arm of yours looks like shit, Pack Alpha.” Taehyung bitterly croaks.

“He could rip my fucking arm off and I still could tear you to pieces, you fucking runt.” Jungkook threatens, his eyes flashing menacingly. “I don’t need two arms to fuck you up.”

Taehyung cowers, his mouth shutting at that.

Jungkook’s eyes fasten themselves to yours and they are quickly cuffed by contrition, his jaw setting and strong masseter muscles flexing to push the sound of pain any wolf would make down as he draws his arm back once again to smite Yoongi in the same place he’d just struck.

Your panic must be souring the air because words knot together in your mind that your mate puts there when he tugs on the bond stringing you to him.

I’m sorry you had to see this, my love. I got distracted. I won’t let it happen again.

In the back of your mind, you know he doesn’t regret anything. Only that you had to witness this.

Never before had anyone managed to put Jungkook on his knees in combat. Not until now.

Yoongi digs his paws into the earth as he swings his massive head back and forth, the action ripping and tearing Jungkook’s flesh like parchment as he continues his assault on Yoongi’s right eye. Crimson pools from Jungkook’s lacerations and, like a waterfall, cascades from the wounds without stoppage.

The world starts to blur, and you only realize you’re crying when a tear falls down your cheek.

In front of you, Jungkook’s chest rumbles and a vibrating sound falls from his lips. Deep, low and dangerous.

He can’t bear the sight of you weeping because of his mistake. It’s more than he can take.

So, he wrests his attention away from you, as difficult as that is, and focuses it on the wolf in front of him.

Any benevolence that had been there is burned away until only malevolence has taken to the hearth of his heart, the whites of his eyes tinging to a violent red as he scathingly narrows his vision on Yoongi with them.

Red begins to taint the world in its color for Jungkook, the anger pounding through his very veins that it was he who had made his omega cry.

“You’re going to regret ever existing by the time I am through with you, you son of a bitch.”

His words are cold as ice, but the heat of a thousand fires roars through his eyes as he stands from his knees, a distorted expression making his lips turn down as Yoongi attempts to jerk and whip his head to one side in attempt to dislodge Jungkook’s arm from its socket.

Pain is melded with fury, and your alpha doesn’t hesitate before he straightens the fingers of his good, free hand, and then impels all five claws between them in the one place that no healer would ever be able to mend.

“Take this, you jackass,” Jungkook snaps.

All five claws plunge into the russet-furred wolf’s right eye and Yoongi bellows loudly in anguish, his maw opening as he falls on his haunches while Jungkook turns and twists his claws harshly through the layers of tissue in Yoongi’s skull, and then the russet-furred wolf is descending to the ground. In the skirmish, he releases Jungkook and Jungkook tumbles to the ground with him.

Crimson rains through the air, and bone now ganders from the open slits and splits in Jungkook’s left upper arm that has rivulets of red that coat and mat the fur that now covers it.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Taehyung, who lies feet away from the Pack Alpha, blanches out blood.

“What I should have done long, long ago,” Jungkook grates out, “Yoongi has never been able to see what a real alpha looks like with his own eyes. With the one that will remain, he will never again look upon me without remembering who took that flawed sight from him. And when others see him, they will never unsee the weakness of one who will never be stronger than me.” Jungkook’s injured arm hangs loosely by his side when he glances from it to the other wolf, fury ringing his irises as he furls his fingers in the pliable, weak tissue that his curved claws cut through as easily as a piece of a meat while Yoongi roars in pain, “who will never be wiser than me,” Jungkook’s unguis sever the last layer of nerves nestled deep in the other wolf’s eye socket when he drives a knee down on the wolf’s ribcage like a hammer, the sound of bones breaking underneath him, “and who will never be better than me.” Jungkook takes his other foot and buries it into the earth to steady himself when Yoongi thrashes violently against him.

Jungkook doesn’t even bat an eye at the wounds that have his lifeblood trickling down over his body. He just huffs in irritation.

You don’t know why, but the sight has heat stirring in your core.

Jungkook pushes down against Yoongi’s broken ribs with a snarl, the other wolf’s breath knocked from him when Jungkook shoves him onto his side using his knee. He unforgivingly thrusts the foot it is connected to into the downed wolf’s stomach, his claws piercing the flesh of Yoongi’s stomach as he does.

Yoongi tries to rise, but Jungkook is stronger, even as wounded as he is.

“You really think that these wounds are enough to stop me? I’ve had much worse in my trainings with my father,” Jungkook mocks brutally. “You really are a fucking dumbass to think you could possibly take me in a fight. You’ve never won against me, and you never will.”

Jungkook savagely plucks Yoongi’s eye from its socket and without giving it even a glare, tosses it behind him where it rolls to a rest next to Taehyung, who screws his eyelids shut in perturbation.

“You are a fool, Yoongi,” Jungkook depravedly arcs his good arm down over Yoongi’s exposed side that isn’t pressed against the earth, and his fur and flesh are clawed off of him as Jungkook goes on, “and fools are meant to follow. I will strike you down as many times I need to do until you fucking see that.” The Pack Alpha draws his uninjured arm in the air once more, his blood-soaked claws curving wickedly when he lashes Yoongi with it over and over again across every inch of him that he can reach from his neck to his hind paws.

Somewhere between the seventy-seventh lashing, Yoongi stills, his flailing arms and legs going limp underneath Jungkook’s brutal ministrations.

“Submit to me or I’ll destroy what little part of you will be recognizable to you after this. Don’t, and I’ll make sure to disfigure your face so every morning when you wake and look at your reflection, you shall know only disgust and revulsion,” Jungkook bristles when Yoongi’s lips curl up to display his teeth, “and you shall be plagued when the sun falls and you go to sleep at night and think of all the women and men who will shriek and scream as they stare upon you say ‘dear gods, what is that ugly thing?’”

Yoongi is still as the stone that is still embedded in the underside of his jaw, the blood that has coated it glinting forebodingly in the moonlight.

Taehyung, who lies on his back a little ways away from the pair of wolves chokes up, “He said before the battle that he’d rather fucking have his jaw ripped off than do that.”

“Oh, we can’t have that…that’s too simple.” Jungkook shakes his head, his vision redder than the blood that pools from his wounds as he lifts his good arm and puts it under his chin to consider, “You both have been very, very bad. I think it would be fitting to make certain you are always reminded of what happens when you don’t fucking listen to me,” Jungkook bends over Yoongi and his claws wedge themselves into the flesh covering his ribcage, his nails sharpening so that his fingers can follow his claws as Yoongi’s back bows inward while he goes on, “so that you can never run from your failures and errs that I tried to warn you never to make,” Jungkook’s fingers find one of Yoongi’s ribs and he pulls it hard so that it breaks in half, the air pushed from Yoongi’s lungs as Jungkook’s own bones shift and shape, the hairs along his arms and head spreading like veins over his entire body, “and so that when you look or think to take my mate, my rank, or my life from me ever again, you will remember that this is what is waiting for you should you be stupid enough to try it.”

The last word moves from him as the last of his bones do, and now, he’s black as the night sky in the fur that has covered his body. Strong, muscled legs and arms hold him up and his teeth are longer and bigger than ever before, his claws also enlarged and especially lethal in their new curvature.

The same soft, downy furs that tuft along the crest of his sternum are there where there is a patch of hair that is arranged in a spherical shape resembling the moon in the whitened color of it that mirrors the youthful beams of midnight moonlight. Blood now cakes that little tuft of fur, and it is red with the blood that coats it. More of it drips from his stomach, and his maimed, damaged arm is kept up and away from Yoongi’s open maw.

The first time you’d seen your alpha fully shift, you’d marveled at his beauty. It is no different this time. He is the prettiest creature you’ve ever seen. You’re sure that the gods took their time with him, with both forms of him. He’s stands tall on three of his paws, and he’s fucking massive. He’s three times the size of Yoongi and two times the size of Taehyung, who you’d seen in the forest many months ago.

Perhaps the gods really had their favor in those they crafted.

He’s like an envoy of the gods, really, with the way that he has his weight in his hind legs with his front leg held down over Yoongi, his claws still entrenched into his abdomen like the defeated wolf is part of Jungkook’s own conquest.

Like this, words can no longer leave his lips. But like this, he bares his serrated, edged canines and a rumbling sound is pushed from his throat as he lowers his head toward the downed wolf’s neck.

Yoongi remains quiet, yet defiant in that silence. Taehyung glowers at the sight of Jungkook knowing his doom is imminent.

For Jungkook to shift was for him to be serious about doling out his vengeance or commands. In his imposing size, there was little any wolf could do to resist him.

You’re so caught in it that you don’t even see the alpha who’d been standing watch over you the whole time steps back into the crowd of wolves around you, his feet stopping him when he stands atop the knoll where the three elders presiding over the battle had remained the entire time.

“The Pack Alpha thought this would happen, so he has given me a message for both combatants. May I relay it now, Jungkook?” The tall male that you know to be Namjoon, Jungkook’s second-in-command, asks.

Jungkook doesn’t look away from either of the defeated wolves around him, but he does incline his head in answer.

Namjoon speaks again, “The Pack Alpha’s message is this: Surrender or be dismembered. Bone by bone. He will make it slow, and he will make it painful. And he’ll make sure that neither of you are allowed to die,” Namjoon pauses, his eyes scanning the two fallen wolves for signs of submission before continuing, “You’ll just be left to suffer again and again without pause until you cede to him. He is through with you both, and now you will pay the price for your insubordination.”

“I already su-“ Taehyung’s raspy response isn’t even completed before Jungkook gnarrs threateningly.

Taehyung splutters through blood, “What do you fucking want from me, Jeon?”

Jungkook’s eyes are splintering when he looks from Yoongi to Taehyung and then back to Yoongi. He seems to decide something when his irises linger a little too long on the stone still embedded in Yoongi’s chin that he’d put there earlier.

Without a word, Jungkook withdraws his claws from Yoongi’s abdomen, and the defeated wolf struggles for air through a heaving chest. When Jungkook’s paw hits the ground, his eyes narrow at Yoongi, a silent command being issued from the Pack Alpha to Yoongi.

Yoongi seems to understand, but remains motionless, his only remaining pupil becoming smaller whilst Jungkook’s become larger before blackening in the Alpha’s Bidding he uses on Yoongi.

Blood gushes from the new, dark holes in Yoongi’s side as he struggles to rise, his arms giving out because Jungkook had cut into them so deeply that even the muscle there had been sheared into shreds. Little fur remained on him, and he looked almost as if he’d been skinned with the lack of it.

His front and hind legs shake with the effort of attempting to move, and though resentment lathers the ground in the blood that falls from him, he cannot reject the order that Jungkook had given. He’d lost one eye already. He didn’t wish to lose the other.

After all, no wolf could ignore the Alpha’s Bidding. No alpha, omega, or beta could ignore the command of one who was stronger than they.

It takes him many attempts to lift himself up and stand on his aching legs, but the once russet-furred wolf comes to a shaky stand and with one final look at Jungkook, who gives a nod of confirmation, he treads forth toward the mangled mess of limbs that is Taehyung.

Confusion addles Taehyung’s features as Yoongi comes upon him, the wolf’s eye glassy and glazed over in the state of subservience Jungkook had put him in. He walks unevenly over Taehyung’s body until his mouth hovers over Taehyung’s face.

He can’t even close his mouth with the stone that has pierced his tongue through his lower mandible, and so his spit and drool spatters atop both of Taehyung’s cheeks from either side of Yoongi’s jaws.

Taehyung turns his head, pleading, “Please, Jungkook. I don’t know what you told him, but-“

“Jungkook will not hear any of your pleas, Taehyung,” Namjoon calls out from above them on the knoll that overlooks the battle grounds, his expression indifferent and unchanging as he tells him matter-of-factly, “He said you’d try to bargain your way out of this like you always do, but that nothing you could say would change your fate.” Namjoon doesn’t even stop talking through Taehyung’s loud shriek as Yoongi’s head comes nearer, “He said your tongue would be a good trophy since you seem to think your face will get you anything you want. But I convinced him to be practical and let you keep it so you can apologize and atone for your sins. So, he’s going to give you a different punishment instead. When you stare upon yourself in the mirrors you’re so fond of, the mark of his victory and your defeat will be the ultimate embarrassment for you.” Jungkook watches with anticipation as Namjoon goes on, “One that you will carry with you for the rest of your miserable life. One that no potential mate will be able to look past without acknowledging your serious lack of judgement and absence of ability in combat.”

“No! NO!” Taehyung screams and tries to flee, but his body can’t bear the effort and all he can do is lay in the puddle of his blood as he cries, “Don’t touch me! Stop, Yoongi!”

Yoongi throws his head back, his blood spraying over Taehyung before his neck veers down and in one quick motion, drags the pointed edge of the stone stuck in his chin over Taehyung’s face. It cuts his flesh like it is water where it is lugged from his upper cheek to his brow where the rock catches on the ridge of Taehyung’s brow and slips from Yoongi’s chin to land with a thwap on the ground beside them.

Taehyung flinches, but can’t even lift his arms to cradle the new wound there as Yoongi proceeds to bite and chomp on Taehyung everywhere from his shoulders to his toes. On each hand, Yoongi bites off one of his fingers. He does the same to each of his feet.

Somewhere during it all, Taehyung’s screams are silenced by the blood that clogs his throat. Atop of him, Yoongi’s muscles spasm and with one final heave of air through his lips, he topples and collapses next to Taehyung in a heap of crimson and spit.

All eyes turn to Jungkook, who stalks banefully and perniciously toward the two wolves. The very dirt beneath him parts for him as he does.

He glances from Yoongi to Taehyung, from Taehyung to Yoongi, and then up to Namjoon, another silent conversation exchanged between their eyes and then Namjoon nods.

“The cost of your disobedience and recalcitrance has been paid. Should either of you attempt to challenge the Pack Alpha again, he has stipulated that you will be locked in cages of silver that he will build himself so that he can see personally to your discipline.” Jungkook’s fur begins to wane from his back where some of it retrocedes into his pores, his claws and canines receding as Namjoon talks, his bones popping and cracking until the last of his fur leaves his body to reveal golden skin and a head of dark hair. He’s bare of any clothes, and even though he’s hurt, the sight still has your mouth watering while Namjoon warns, “Should either of you attempt to flee from the pack, he will hunt you down, and he will make you rue the day you were brought into the world.”

The red tinge that had taken over your alpha’s irises has started to fade and, in its wake, his irises grow until they fill the whole of his eyes as he commands, “Neither of you will do anything without direct approval from me from this day forward, and you will both serve me until your dying breath. The very breaths you take from this point on are a gift from me.” The crimson that had colored his eyes ebbs and they are turned the shade of the deepest pit as he orders, “and I will never hear a word or thought that is out of line from either of you, ever again, about my mate. If you so much as speak her name unless she addresses you, I’ll flay you myself. Breathe if you fucking understand.”

Yoongi gives a deflated huff. Taehyung emits a scared squeak.

That seems to satisfy Jungkook, for the blackness ringing his irises shatters around them.

You whine, the pitiful sound causing your alpha’s attention to light upon you through the night. Without casting his vision away from you, he gives a wave of his hand and utters, “Get Min and Kim to the healers. They’ll die if they’re left to bleed out here, Namjoon.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, the familiar gold of his irises singes through the darkness and warms every part of you in it.

“Very well, Pack Alpha,” Namjoon replies, “I shall see to it that the healers do not attend to any wound that isn’t fatal.” The brown-haired male appraises Jungkook for injuries before adding, “I sent some medical supplies to the bathhouse. I had it arranged for you earlier, so you and your mate will have it all to yourselves seeing as how you will not want to be in the medical wing with the others.”

Jungkook thanks him, but before he can even take more than two steps toward you, the nasally voices of the two elders beside your grandmother speak.

“This battle is concluded. Pack Alpha Jungkook has won the right to claim Omega Y/N as his mate. The defeated combatants no longer hold any ability to challenge him for her.” They quiet when your grandmother steps forward, her arm raised toward Jungkook, “Pack Alpha Jungkook, your wounds must be attended to. By right, you may have your omega clean them and wash you before you and she may mate.”

The word has your cheeks turning red even though the silver numbs them.

“I shall have my omega and no one else. Only she may see to me.” Jungkook declares.

“As you wish, Pack Alpha. You must now make your way there. She will join you shortly.” Your grandmother supplies. “You know the tradition. Once an alpha has won an omega, that omega is allowed a little time to prepare herself for him.”

Jungkook’s eyes dip down your body and then he’s licking his lips. “I know the tradition well. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. Just don’t let anyone touch her. She’s mine now.”

Your insides get hot under the searing heat of his eyes as he says that.

Your grandmother nods, but he doesn’t see it. He only sees you.

You watch him as he turns, desperation clinging to you like a cloak and you whimper in the hope that he may linger a little longer.

His voice caresses you with the leaves that blow against your skin as his beautiful, bloodied lips move for you. “Bear it for me just a little more, pretty girl. You’ll have me all to yourself in only a short while.”

He disappears among the wolves that crowd around you, and then there are gentle hands that lift your diadem from your head. No one dares to touch your skin, and so the movements are careful in undoing the clasps and clamps securing your wrists and calves. One by one those are taken off of you and with each that leaves you, your senses return to you as if they’d never left. The filter that had been blocking sound from your ears dissipates, the blurriness lens that had obscured your vision disappears, and even the invisible plug that had been blocking your nose is removed as the silver is.

Perhaps the most significant of all is that the insensitivity that had numbed your bones and muscles retrogresses, and you are off and bounding away from the sea of wolves surrounding you as the last of the silver pieces your mate had made for you is put back into its box by Seokjin, who smiles at Namjoon when the pair of mates share a knowing glance.

You bolt past the stage your mate had danced for you on and even the fire of the braziers set upon and around it are winded at your speed as he dash without pause toward your waiting mate.

You charge on, your hands gripping the skirt of your gown as you run through the grassy walkways leading toward the schoolhouse you had taught the pups for so many years at, the dining hall you’d frequented rarely in all the studying you’d had to spend your nights doing, the elder’s den that you’d often had to visit your grandmother in to be tested on the codes and edicts of the pack and its traditions. You pass the omega and alpha dens for unmated wolves that are on the adjoining side where you had had to live for much of your life.

You don’t even pay attention to the circular arrangement of shops that range from the clothier to the carpenter’s. You do, however, slow to a stop when you spot the blacksmith’s parlor that is nestled between the leather maker’s store and the trinket crafter’s place.

What little free time you did have when you were younger, you would watch this place from a distance, your sight set on the male that used to work behind the windows. You’d used to get frustrated trying to see him through the females that tried to horde the place, but you’d had Niva to thank for the telescope that she’d given you so that you could.

The blacksmith that worked there…he was now yours. The thought has you running once again, your heart panging with affection for him as your feet carry you through the night.

On the edge of the compound, past all the merchant’s circle you’d just been, beyond the dens and adjacent constructions so critical to the pack, there you find what you had been looking for.

Like everything else in the compound, it is of a wood make, but unlike everything else in the compound, it is a darker wood. There are windows on every side, but bloodred curtains have been pulled together to hide its interior. The small rectangular junctions in the area above it are also bordered with glass and are free of any obstructions to admit natural light within.

Two rows of timber wolves are perched out front and face each other, and above the massive double set of doors, an entire oaken sculpture of a wolf is affixed to the archway above the doors. Like everywhere else in the compound, light hangs from braziers affixed to metal chains that hang from the overhead.

You don’t hesitate before pushing the doors open, the aged wood creaking and groaning from the effort of admitting you before closing behind you as you release your skirts and look for who you’d come to see.

Your feet plop against wood, and unlike outside, the inside is lit by the soft firelight of lanterns of all makes and sizes that are propped against the walls, the dancing flames within covered by glass.

Ahead of you, there are twelve smaller, circular pools cut into the wood that are filled with water clear as crystal. To your left and right, there are two large basins of water ovular in shape that span from the entrance of the bathhouse all the way to the back of it.

You venture deeper into the bathhouse, but don’t see any sign of your alpha. You eye the doorway in the very back, the glow of flames brightening it as it moves and the strong scent of your alpha wafting under your nostrils amidst the steam that fills the bathhouse.

You continue on, your thighs wetting when you let your alpha’s scent drift under your nostrils. You don’t bother calling his name. You know he’s here. You know he waits for you.

You cross under the arch cut into the wall above you and finally you find him.

He’s standing inside a smaller pool of water that has long since turned a deep red from the blood that has tainted it.

He’s got his back to you, one uninjured, but blood-streaked hand rubbing at the flesh along his shoulder where angry, raised skin is torn and ripped open and the arm it is connected to hangs limply by his side.

“Alpha…” You fall to your knees just outside the pool, your eyes burning as tears start to trail down your cheeks as you call for him again, “My alpha. My mate.”

Your alpha turns slow, his eyes attaching to yours quickly as he utters, “Omega,” he reaches for you with his good arm and you lean into his touch as he cups your cheek, “My omega. How happy I am to see you. Did you miss me?”

“You know I did, Jungkook,” You tell him earnestly, your hand covering his as you blink through the tears, “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. If it weren’t for me-“

“I would do it all over again if it got me this,” Jungkook’s thumb slides along the edge of your jaw, “if it brought me to you.”

Your heart throbs at that.

“But… but you’re in pain. You’re hurt because of me.” You cry as your eyes linger on the incensed, inflamed flesh of his chest where he now dons scratches that sob with you. They are not as deep as you had initially thought, but beads of blood collect along it before hurling down his chest. It is his arm that took the most damage, for the muscles there are split and frayed to the point that his bone is visible.

“I have had far worse as I told you before, my love.” Jungkook coaxes you forward, your hands coming down to the edge of the pool to support your weight as he sinks shoulder-deep into the water, “This is nothing I cannot handle. I would take many more scars onto my body if it meant you would come to me. If it meant you would be all mine,” the blood is tugged from his wounds in his movement and dragged about his form through the water as he lifts his chin and brings yours to him. You let him guide your lips to his, not caring that the blood of the downed wolves he’d taken down for you still lingers there. He mouths, “Never forget that.”

He’s gentle with you and so different from the male you’d seen minutes ago. The warmness has returned to his eyes, and looking at them is like looking at the sunrise. Calming. Peaceful. Beautiful.

Emotion swells within you, and you can do little to quell it.

“I don’t,” you sniffle under his lips, “deserve you.”

“You do deserve me,” Jungkook’s pink tongue departs from his mouth to lick at a stray tear that travels down your cheek, “And you shall have me always. I’m yours now just as you are mine, pretty girl.”

“I…I love you, Jungkook,” you whisper against his lips.

“And I you, Y/N,” Sincerity hangs onto his words before he closes the distance between you, “I’m going to show you what devotion is,” he parts his lips, the hot muscle of his tongue pushing against your mouth and you open your own for him as he promises, “I’m going to show you how much deeper than an ocean it is,” his tongue is unhurried in its journey to map out your mouth as he breathes, “And night after night, I will love you right.”

Desire awakens inside you at his words, your oncoming heat making it difficult to think past that now that he’s here in your arms.

He leaves you breathless and gasping with his passionate professions, and when your mouths disconnect in need of air, you nudge at his nose to pant, “Y-you already do, alpha.” You brush your lips across one of his cheeks and then over his nose, and then over to the other cheek. “You have been for quite a while now. Now, I want to do something for you to show my dedication to you. Your mouth caresses his skin as you drag your lips downward toward his neck, his own lips trying to follow yours as he turns his head toward you and then you ask, “Will you let me?”

Your alpha hardens at your confession.

“What is it you want me to give you permission to do, omega? You know I’ll let you have anything in my power to give,” He tells you, his tongue slipping from his mouth to flatten along your scent gland that throbs for him along the side of your throat as he hungrily laps up the oils you produce there. At the sensation of the hot muscle against your flesh, you can’t help but to release the rest of the pheromones you’d been trying to hold in, slick dampening your thighs. The moment you do, he curses, his eyes rolling back, “Fuck…you taste and smell even better than before. Did my brief absence make you yearn for me this much? Or is it your heat? It must be all but upon you now. Tell me what you want and it will be yours, omega.”

“I…I want to take care of you, alpha. Will you,” you swallow, and try again, “Will you let me clean you up so that you can take me away from here?” You nudge at the throbbing gland along his own neck.

Jungkook groans and presses forward toward you, but that little movement has him grimacing from the punctures arcing across his abdomen as he releases you to steady himself by putting each of his own hands along the rim of the pool, a cloud of fresh of blood darkening the water as it pours from his wounds. Suddenly the heat flaring in your belly is chilled by the cold realization that he suffers now.

Suffering that you had been the cause of.

Your omegean instinct kicks in as your omega harks insistently, the need to take care of him overriding your earlier desire and snapping you out of the spell of lust that had briefly taken over you.

You rise to get the metal tray of vials of all different colors and textures, dark bottles of balms and medicinal solutions, wash towels, gauze, and cloth wrappings that had been left on the timbered table that has several lanterns with red, hot flames burning in them.

“Hold on, alpha. I’ll make this right.” You vow as you assemble what you need onto the tray. “I read about how to clean and properly tend to afflictions such as these when I was little. Let me dress your wounds, and then we can go from there, okay? I want to mend you. I want to make you better.”

There’s the sloshing of water as your alpha ascends the steps out of the now blood-soaked pool, and then a strong arm encircles your middle, your breath hitching when warm breath billows over the back of your neck as he offers, “Make it right, then, omega. I’m eager to see how good you are with your hands.” Beneath his hand, butterflies flit through your belly. “Now where do you want me, pretty girl?”

#jungkook #jungkook smut #bts #bts smut #alpha!jungkook #alpha jungkook x omega reader #possessive!jungkook #dom!jungkook #bts writing #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #bts lemon #jungkook x reader #jungkook fanfic #werewolf!jungkook #bts abo

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jwirecs · 1 year

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Recommended BTS Fics of October💖

hello, hello! here are my bts recs of october! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

Auburn Skies || @persphonesorchid💕💔✅💯💯

↳ Everyone knows that if your best friend has a little sister, she’s off limits. That, and the fact that your best friend will probably kill you if you even think about going near his sister. Yoongi knows this. There’s no way he could tell Namjoon that once upon a time you kissed him, drunk in his living room after a break up. So much time’s passed since then, too much time to bring it up now, but Yoongi still thinks about it, he’s still a little hopeful. Now you’re here and you clearly have something you want to say to Yoongi. Namjoon’s gonna kill him.

Sharing is Caring || @97erstan💕🔄💯💯

↳ Your bestfriend is diligent in his attempts at persuading you to let him move into your house. (i feel like this is going to be a best friends to lovers type of au so its going here)

Match Made In Hell || @ughcore🔞💕💔🔄💯💯💯

↳ Yoongi truly can’t imagine things getting any worse than the predicament he has found himself in now. Betrothed to a woman he hasn’t met, career on hold and his parents pressuring him into marriage with a sharp stick, ushering him to walk off the plank into the fiery pits of hell that is arranged matrimony with some poor, foolish girl.

No Kisses || @icedmatchatae🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ It's championship week! The most anticipated week of the school year; however, leading up to the events, you and your council must collaborate with the football team to promote school spirit and pride. Unfortunately, you're forced to work with your number one enemy, Football team captain and fuck boy, Kim Taehyung, known for having a mysterious "no kisses" rule.

Pick of the Patch || @taestefully-in-luv🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ You’re a struggling artist with a strong desire to escape so when your mother suddenly calls and asks you to return home to replace her in this years Harvest Festival dance, you never said yes faster. However, she informs you that you’ll be working with another dancer, Kim Taehyung and upon meeting, you decide you do not like him…but right when you think you could grow up and move past it, Taehyung makes it clear that he does not like you either

Whatta Catch || @aredheadedmess💕💔✅💯💯

↳ One, two, three strikes you’re out. When opposing opinions find you roughing it up with the university’s star pitcher, he makes it his mission to show that you’re wrong about college sports—and maybe your feelings about the player himself.

3:27AM || @untaemedqueen🔞💕💔✅💯💯💯💯💯💯

↳ Request: This time a Yoongi one where he wakes up in the middle of the night to his s/o’s phone ringing like crazy so he checks it and sees it’s her ex. So he answers the phone only to prove that she’s taken by having sex with her with her ex on the phone. Can the s/o be overstimulated as well? (i have no words. clearly the amount of 100s says alot)

Quiet & Qualms || @sugafreeagustd-blog💕✅

↳ Your quiet vacation brings your qualms to the surface.

Drabble: Apple Bobbing || @kithtaehyung💕✅💯💯💯

↳ apple bobbing at an autumn fair, yoongi looks disgustingly hot all wet (part of the three tangerines series and i just need to take a deep breath cause dam. also i didnt have a fckboy section so its going in this section for the time being)

Confident || @h0neypjm 🔞💕💔🔄💯

↳ After giving Jungkook the best suck of his life he’s left wondering if what you said was true. Was it really your first time? ‘Cause Jungkook thinks you might’ve lied.

Pretty Kitty || @sweetheartjeongguk🔞💕💔🔄💯

↳ never in his life would taehyung have expected the shy girl from his history class to be the sex kitten on his computer screen. (brb let me take some deep breaths)

Tears Dry || @codebts🔞💔✅

↳ “he walks away, the sun goes down. he takes the day, but i’m grown. and in your grey, in this cool shade, my tears dry on their own.” (authors note said it might be just one part, but who knows)

Touchdown || @flurrys-creativity🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ Being the club manager of your all inclusive college football team wasn’t always peachy but you loved it nonetheless. Until the new recruits arrived and turned everything you knew upside down. Especially the new star Jeon Jungkook had your mind spiraling

The Deal || @untaemedqueen🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ (there wasnt a summary and i suck at making summaries but like read it when you can! plus i swear i’ve read this but you know, it doesnt hurt to read this again)

Forever, We are Young || @taegularities 💔✅💯💯

↳ How would you imagine BTS to be in 25 years? Despite the fact that their disbandment happened half an eternity ago, there are still deep issues between the now grown-up men. Meeting after decades again, they know it’s time to settle them once and for all - but certainly not without finding each other all over again as well. (i feel like everyone needs to read this at some point, just to like idk mentally prepare them in some sort of way.)

A Year of Sunshine || @herecomesjoon💕💔✅💯

↳ You had always talked about being parents, but you didn’t imagine it would happen like this.

An Affair of the Art || @raplinesmoon💕💔✅💯💯

↳ One rainy day looking at art sets off a spiral of events Namjoon can’t control, leaving his heart for the taking (ngl i can actually picture him taking his kid to the museums. like that sht is cute af)

Daisy || @chateautae 🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ sleeping with your infuriating, unfairly attractive rival in art school? stupid. sleeping with him without protection? even more stupid. when you became pregnant with kim taehyung’s child at 21, your young lives suddenly derailed for the worst. fulfilling your parental roles early on proved difficult, but five years later, perhaps it was time to give your complicated relationship a second chance; not only for yourselves, but for your baby daughter—daisy.

Lullaby || @herecomesjoon💕✅💯

↳ If Yoongi had his way, and he often did, he would stay up every night to take care of his little girl.

Everything Falls (Into Place) || @blog-name-idk🔞💕💔✅

↳ Your new roommates are unbearably nice and unbearably hot. Good thing you're an adult who is fully capable of platonic friendships with the opposite sex, right?

Home || @vyduan🔞💕🔄💯💯

↳ Uh, the OT7 supernatural filth but like cozy and middle-aged with a passel of children that no one asked for. Blame Park Jimin’s Folio Teaser (even though he’s not even in the scene) but like fuck him and fuck me. (the “fuck him and fuck me” part of the summary, i feel you. had me cackling, but i feel you)

Little Do You Know || @yoongiofmine🔞💕💔🔄💯

↳ In a world where idols and actors can’t date, whether it be because of contracts, lack of time, or the dangers that involve having your personal life leaked, the market opened up for a new work field. Playmate Agencies emerged to supply the entertainment world with highly trained companions for hire. Bangtan is looking for new playmates. And you just happen to be the one all of them choose. (cant wait for s2 of this)

Lost and Found || @flowerfangz🔞💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ y/n knew basically living in the woods she was asking for some crazy things to happen but she didn't think the thing to happen would be two hybrids at her door asking for help in the middle of the night while one is injured. (expect a few ongoing fics from this author on this months fic recs cause LORD HAVE MERCY)

The Freak || @flowerfangz💕💔🔄

↳ having been in the fighting ring for years, the night started like any other one but you haven't met a hybrid like him, someone made so different like you. You expected the fight to go like any other but who knew the orange eyed man was your get away?

To Be Loved || @flowerfangz 🔞💕💔🔄💯

↳ after presenting late, your parents were embarrassed by you. In hopes of saving their image they arrange for you to be married to their friend's son, who turns out to make your life hell for years until you can't take it anymore. You'd rather die trying to get away then die not trying at all. As you run under the blue moon you can't help but wonder what is it like to be loved?

Coffee || @crownjimin💕💔✅💯💯

↳ the enemies to lovers social media au where min yoongi refuses to date a cheerleader, but yoon haryun might be able to change that.

The Comforts of Creatures || @interesting-interludes🔞💕💔🔄💯

↳ you’re a prisoner here, but you can’t remember why. you can’t remember much of anything. not where you came from, not who you are, not even what you are. what happens when a pack of terrifying monsters breaks into the facility where you’re being held. not to kill you, but to…protect you?

Caught in the Crossfire || @taleasnewastime 🔞💕💔✅💯💯💯

↳ Taehyung kills people, he isn’t ashamed to admit it (though it’s not something he shouts about). To date he has never found a reason that someone didn’t deserve to die. That the person hadn’t committed some hideous act. That the world wouldn’t be a better place without them in it. But that was before he got sent your information. (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.)

Crimson || @btsstan12💕✅💯💯💯

↳ The time when the wind changes and you can feel poetry in the air is autumn. Autumn is also called fall. This time, maybe literally for Namjoon as he falls for the girl with her nose buried in a book. He navigates his small crush on her with crimson cheeks, crunch of leaves and the changing winds. (i am soft, this is so soft)

Fool for You || @btsgotjams27💕💔🔄

↳ When Jungkook is finally single, you shoot your shot.

Make an Offer || @bangtanintotheroom🔞✅

↳ Money in exchange for companionship and fucking? It was an arrangement that you were comfortably taking part in with your current sugar daddy. But when you lock eyes with a stranger during a night out, you’re approached with an offer that could shake things up.

Bad and Sweet Trilogy || @helenazbmrskai🔞💕💔✅

↳ (no summary, three different one shots. i love)

Do check out all of the other BTS Fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

#bts scenarios #bts fluff #bts angst #bts smut #bts strangers to lovers au #bts best friends to lovers au #bts mafia au #bts hybrid au #bts dad au #bts fuckboy au #bts established relationship au #bts enemies to lovers au #bts fic recs #bts recs #bts werewolf au #bts soulmate au

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chimcess · 7 months

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→ Chapter Six: Beside Him Pairing: Jimin x Reader Other tags: Werewolf!Jimin, Witch!Reader, Shifter!Reader, Shifter!Jimin, A/B/O Dynamics, Alpha!Jimin Genre: Supernatural!AU, Werewolf!AU, Angst, Mutual Pining, Fluff, Smut, Word Count: 17.7k+ Synopsis: Within the four realms of Lustra lay the Bangtan forest home to the Foxglove pack of the north and known as the “land of magic.” It is also home to the Bridd, a powerful witch from a cursed bloodline who is one of the sacred guardians of the forest. Y/N is the newest Bridd, a young girl who was given her position too early. Now a woman, Y/N is revered amongst the wolves as the most powerful witch they have ever known, but hiding under the surface is a woman who has to battle between her duty and her heart. Warnings: Injured characters, death, PTSD, flashbacks, self-hatred, guilt, ANGST, hurt/comfort, strong language, scars, sexism, virginity mentioned, sex mentioned, kissing, groping, arguments, mood swings, emotional outbursts, mentioning of su*c*dial thoughts (in passing and not seriously), toxic views on love, new characters introduced, hospital scene, near death experiences leave people messed up, conflicting feelings, I love writing these characters so much, Callisto is my sweet baby angel, anything else might spoil, let me know if I missed something A/N: Even if there’s not too many people interested in it, this fic is my comfort piece since I know everyone so well. I love writing for this world, and I never want it to end (but it will one day, sadly). Sigh, at least we still have plenty of adventures to go on first.

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Opening my eyes, I could feel just how tired my arms were. Every inch of my body was heavy and weighed down by some invisible force. Looking around me, I knew that I was in some sort of medical setting. Surrounded by bodies, I closed my eyes once more and breathed a sigh of relief.

I was alive. I was free. I made it.

Moans of pain filled the room, but I could not figure out where they were coming from. Everyone else was either quiet or talking in hushed whispers with their loved ones. I opened my eyes again. There was no one at my bedside.

Forcing myself up, I groaned in agony as I did so. My head still had some dull aches, and my bones cracked and popped with each movement I made. Glancing around, I did not see a familiar face in sight. I could only hope it was due to others being too busy to stay holed up in the medical unit with me and not because far more serious tragedies had been met.

Twisting and turning, I slowly stretched and relaxed the tense muscles in my body. The headache lingered, but it became more bearable as the time went by. The woman beside me woke up a few minutes later. Most of her body was scarred from burns. She had been caught in a fire when she was evacuating her children from the village.

“You’ve been here for two days now,” The woman coughed, her voice like crushed cement.

“What happened?” My throat was dry, and I wished I could find a glass of water. “I got back after the elves left,” I rubbed my eyes and stretched my arms a second time, “What’s your name?”

“Do-yun,” She gave me a strained smile, and I asked if she would like for me to help her feel better. “No, thank you. You have done more than enough, Bridd.”

Guilt ate me alive as I eyed her burnt, red, peeling skin. Do-yun was wrong. I had been too cowardly to do everything I could. There was no way she could have known that, and it made my self-hatred grow. What would have happened if I had told Jimin what had been bothering me?

“Bridd?” Do-yun called out, concern written on her face.

I smiled weakly, unable to meet her eyes anymore, “Sorry. I got stuck in my head.”

She nodded at me, and I knew she would understand. Many in the village would be able to feel what I have felt for years. Her burns served to remind me of my own responsibility in this and I wanted to vomit. Disgusted with myself, I came to the horrific realization that their nightmares were my fault. When Do-yun cried, her screams bouncing off her bedroom walls, and her skin covered in a faint sheen of sweat I knew without a shadow of a doubt that their sleepless nights were because of my own failing.

“The elves haven’t come back,” I struggled to hear her small voice. “The Elders said they’ve moved to Northorn and are making their way back south. Alpha Jimin thinks they wanted to weaken our defenses before invading the north, and Alpha Taehyung agrees with him.”

I was glad to hear they were doing well. The last time I had seen both of them they were in one piece, but things could change in two days. The fact that Jimin was well enough to have war meetings only made my heart that much lighter. Do-yun seemed pleased by my reaction and I was afraid I had been caught. The woman winked but did not say anything more.

“That would make sense,” I nodded.

Testing the waters, I went to stand and smiled at my small victory. My body had recovered nicely from the magical drain. It would have taken much longer before. I guessed it had something to do with the power that had been taken from me. I was able to regain it much better now. Looking down at the woman, I frowned.

“Are you sure I can’t help you?” I asked.

She shook her head, “It’s a sign of honor to have lived. I will wear the pain and scars with pride.”

My own scars came to mind, and my frown deepened. I had never thought of them that way. My thoughts then shifted to Shiloh, and it almost brought me to my knees. I never got the chance to say goodbye. Pushing my tears away, I told myself that I would give myself time to grieve later.

“Have you seen Jimin recently?” I asked her, willing my voice to stay calm.

She smiled at me, the side of her face that was burned far too tight and red to lift with the other. She had a beautiful smile once, and I felt rage like I never had before. I wished I could rip apart the elf that had made this happen to her.

“He’s here most of the time,” Do-yun replied. “Taehyung called upon him this morning for an important meeting. He should be back soon.”

“Thank you,” I eyed the woman again and felt the need to ask, “Are your children doing well?”

“Yes,” Her smile widened, and her face tensed making it look more like a grimace, “They’re with their father trying to get our home put back together.”

“How bad is it?”

Do-yun sighed, “Tae-moo says there’s hardly anything left. Apparently, your friends have been talking with other witches in Moland and Syrena to come here and help but Elder Bo has been giving them hell about it.”

I huffed in annoyance. If there was ever a time and place to put your pride to the side, it would be here and now. Those witches would be a Godsend to this village, and I could tell Do-yun was unhappy about this. Taehyung’s word would override the other councilman, but I doubted he would want to cause arguments during a time of war. Jimin would have to put his foot down in order to get anything done and I had a feeling the other alphas would be on his side.

“She’s lost her daughter, so I try to be understanding of her poor decisions,” Do-yun frowned, “But I can’t pretend to be thrilled about them. If witches want to help, then they should- tradition be damned.”

“I guess she is not happy about my being here then?”

Do-yun shook her head, “We are supposed to act like nothing was said, but she was unhappy to hear about you and Jimin’s courtship.”

So, the village knew of our relationship. I sighed and sat down on my cot. I did not believe Jimin would have been happy with the woman right now, and I had to be careful with who I spoke with. I did not know how people reacted to the news or how much faith they had in our connection.

“Most of us can’t understand why she’s so angry,” Do-yun grinned at me. “Truth be told, we are all blessed to have such strong women in the council, but Bo holds onto the belief that wolves cannot love another more than a wolf.”

I hated to agree with Bo, but she was not incorrect. A pair of wolves shared a connection unlike anything else and once mated they felt every feeling one another held. They became one. I did not know enough about different hybrid couplings to understand the complexity of the bonds that were held between them, but I knew from my own experiences that Jimin did not hero-worship me the same way he would have a woman from his pack. It bothered me but I was confident enough in our connection to let the jealousy go.

“So, she doesn’t think our bond is real?” I scoffed with an eye roll.

Do-yun chuckled, “She and a select few but no one is listening to them. All of us are grateful to you and the others for coming here and giving up so much for our people.”

I nodded and made up my mind to go and look for anyone else that could still be in the ward. I asked her about Thelma and Yoongi, but she paid little mind to the witches. They had been gone by the time she had come to. Settling on finding my friends first, I began the treacherous task of walking through the bodies.

“See you soon, Oxur Park,” I smiled weakly and waved goodbye.

Many were badly injured, missing limbs, or burned beyond recognition. Some children had gone blind from spells, others were paralyzed and being worked on constantly by the Quietus in order to reverse it, and some were so badly injured they were only receiving pain relief until they died. It became too hard to look at and so I stopped. Staring straight ahead, I forced myself from looking down at the cots littered around me.

“I’m happy you’re awake,” said a voice from behind me.

I turned with great care and found Cadoc standing there. The shadow surrounding him was gone now and replaced by gentle white smoke that danced. It was shocking just how different he looked when he was fighting. Now, his skin had life and flushed in the sun, the pale color less like marble, and his eyes were the color of sapphires. His hair was still midnight and hung just at his shoulders. It danced in the breeze that surrounded him. He smiled at me.

“Cadoc,” I greeted him, unable to return his enthusiasm. “I’m happy to see you.”

He approached me cautiously and began to look over my body. His hands felt like a gentle breeze in the fall, his fingers as soft as leaves, and I could hardly feel any pressure as he methodically went over me. I was appreciative of the caution, and I belatedly realized that I was unaware of what had happened to me. I could have been injured without realizing it. Maybe I was not free to leave after all.

“You seem fine,” He said, his strange echoing voice all the same. “I would refrain from any and all magic use unless necessary.”

I nodded obediently.

“Thank you again,” I managed a small grin. “I appreciate you coming to my aid in the field.”

He nodded at me, “You saved my life. I thought it was only fair.”

Nodding, I turned away.

“Before you leave,” He called out. I turned back around. “Sam would like to see you. I think she’s quite fond of you.”

This time, I smiled.

“After I see my loved ones, I’ll be sure to make some time for her.”

Cadoc chuckled, “Goodluck. My sister is not known for her patience. My condolences to your family over the loss.”

I nodded, looking at the grass under my feet. Suddenly images of fire and black spots in the grass replaced the fresh green beneath my feet. There was screaming and flashes of white running away from the village. My hands were cold and heavy and when I blinked my eyes, I saw a face before the vision was gone. Gasping for air, I placed a hand over my chest to steady my breathing.

Oh, Wendy would be completely beside herself. I knew I needed to get to them quickly. We should be together right now. Oh my God, Cordelia.

“Was it only the woman?” I asked, sniffling, and hoping he would know what I meant.

“She was the only one who died,” He replied. “Your friend is blind, one was badly injured and is still receiving care, and another was burned on her leg.”

“Who’s here?” I demanded, looking back up. I wanted to see them before I left.

“His name is Tae-jin, I think.”

My eyes closed on their own. I needed to get to Seokjin and make sure he was alright. His mother had to be in hysterics by now. Torn between seeing Tae-jin and going to comfort his family, my body moved on its own to go back into the tent. A hand on my arm stopped me.

Cadoc was pressed very closely against my body, his strange figure formed around my own, and I had to suppress a shiver. He was ice cold. I felt his lips brush against my ear as he whispered, his body far too close to mine. Within a second, he completely vanished from sight.

“They’re here.”

I turned my head towards his mouth, waiting for him to say more.

He elaborated, “I’m not sure who it is, but there’s someone in this village working with the elves.”

“How do you know that?” My voice was hardly audible, lips unmoving.

“I’ll explain later.”

I nodded. We were not in the best place for this conversation. Pulling away from his embrace, I pulled a face to make my pause look less suspicious. It was not difficult to look heartbroken when all I saw was devastation. What felt like fingers grazed my cheek.

“Meet me in your meadow tonight,” He urged.

I nodded my head once. Seemingly satisfied with my answer, the cold chill that surrounded me was gone. Pushing the conversation to the back of my mind, I started walking once more. Whatever the Quietus was talking about would have to wait until I saw everyone alive and well. At least, well enough that they would live.

I found Tae-jin a few minutes later after asking anyone who was well enough to guide me to his cot. He was still asleep, a large gash on his face that was red and raised, but I was happy that his breathing was normal. I was sure he would wake up and be alright, but the scars from that night would haunt all of us forever. Cordelia’s face came to me again and I shivered. I could only hope that would be our only fall- it was the only one the witches could handle. I looked at him for a few minutes more before turning to leave the medical tent. I had a family who needed me right now and I would have to trust that the team here would be enough for Tae-jin.

Stepping into the daylight, I was shocked by the desolation. Everything had been destroyed. Not a single building had been left in-tact and I knew many of the villagers would be unable to fix their homes. They were far too injured. Choking back a sob, I reminded myself of what I needed to do. I could fall apart later, right now my family needs me to be strong.

Eyes followed me with rapt attention as I passed a small group of villagers. I recognized none of them, but I assumed they knew who I was. I never was able to learn the names of the wolves in the village outside of the ones I had helped through the change. The women were older, rounder, and probably no longer shifted if I had to guess. Looking ahead, I pointedly ignored them. I had no time for local gossip.

“They’re in the Park house,” One of the women called out. Looking at the group once more, I straighten my back. None of them were unkind, in fact, I could only find grief in their eyes. I did not know who they lost, but I hoped they would be able to recover. “It’s the only house left down the main road to your right. Be careful, there’s a lot of debris.”

I nodded, “Thank you.”

“No,” Another woman cried, her eyes as red as her sunburnt face. “Thank you. The one called Cadoc told us what you did. We are forever in your debt.”

I smiled at the group sadly before walking away. The praise did not feel nice. It should have, but it did nothing to settle my unease. None of this should have happened. I should have said something. I cringed at that thought and stopped walking to pull myself together. Not here. Not now. Later.

The house was easy to find. Surrounded by ashes and uninhabitable houses, the Park home stood as a shining beacon of hope within it all. Of course, the little house was worse for wear. The entire yard had been scorched by the flames that surrounded it, most of the walls burnt and weak, and there was a hole where you could see straight through into the home. I could see Seokjin sitting at a table with Wendy in his lap. They were talking but I was still too far away to hear anything.

Deciding to use the front door, I frowned at the burnt wood. The house must have been the last one to go up in flames. I knocked and waited. Inside, everything stilled, and a singular set of steps echoed. I braced myself for an onslaught of hugs and kisses from everyone, the never-ending tears, and having to keep myself in one piece. I was expected to know what to do, how to behave, and I would do whatever I needed in order to calm everyone inside.

Callisto answered the door. Her eyes were heavy with bags underneath them and her chocolate hair clipped back messily. Despite her obvious exhaustion, her blue eyes lit up as she took me in. Unexpectedly, she threw her arms around my neck and cried out in what sounded like relief.

“Oh, thank Goddess,” She cried, her voice thick with emotion. “My brother will be so happy to see you. Oh, we were so worried.”

Hesitantly, I hugged the young girl back. She was so small and underweight I felt uncomfortable holding her too tightly. I could imagine her bones were just as frail as she was. She was off of me as quickly as she scooped me into her arms and took my hand in hers as if we had known one another for years. She made my presence known so cheerfully I felt embarrassed. No one had been this excited to see me in my entire life.

“Bridd,” It was Wendy, her eyes wild, who spotted me first.

I ran to her immediately. The sea witch crumbled in my arms, sobs making her entire body shake as she held onto me for dear life. Her hair had been cut, the blonde strands ending at her shoulders instead of flowing down her back, and I could still feel how dirty they were. She was frail, every bit as shaken as I felt, and seemed frenzied in her attack. I did not know if I should tell her that I had been the one to find Cordelia or not. I thought of her face again, her green eyes with their thousand-yard stare, and a flash of red broke through. Her hair had always been ostentatious, frizzled and going every which way with a curtain of bangs that hid a fair amount of her face. That night they were caked in dirt, the orange glowing red under the fire, and stuck to her skin like leather. I shivered and held Wendy tighter. I prayed she had never seen her mentor like that.

“She-she-” She gasped, her pain piercing my heart.

“I know,” I croaked, running my fingers through her hair in an attempt to calm her. “I know, Wendy Byrd.”

Looking over her shoulder now, I was pleased to see the rest of the witches huddled around a small fireplace. All of them looked at us now aside from Yoongi. His eyes were unfocused still and I remembered Cadoc telling me he was still blinded. Whispering to Wendy, I slowly removed her vice grip around my neck so I could go to them all. Seokjin was standing beside us and took her from me easily. He patted my head with his large hand and held the broken woman close. She was falling apart right before my eyes, and I would not be able to comfort her. I would surely fall apart, too.

I went to Hoji first. Her husband was ill in the medical tent, and I was sure she was frazzled. Seokjin would be too busy mourning the loss of our friend to fuss over his father, especially since we all knew it was a matter of time before he woke up. Cordelia would never wake up. She was so heavy. I shuddered and adjusted the shirt I was wearing. I was practically naked still and I frowned at the state I was in. I was still not wearing any undergarments or pants and the shirt Samanya had given me was covered in soot.

Heji reached out to me from beside her sister and smiled sadly. They had always looked the same, their faces virtually indistinguishable, but this moment they were the same woman to me. They were haunted, their eyes dull and sorrowful, and there would be no one to keep the other in check. No sarcastic comments followed by a gentle chastising. Right now, they were one woman mourning a shared loss.

Yoona was at her son’s side and pointed me in Thelma’s direction. Taking a look at Yoongi, he was hurt and sad, but I was not sure what else could be happening inside of his head. His eyes had always been so expressive. I nodded at her and went to the woman beside her. Enver was missing from the group, and she whispered that he was asleep.

“Thank you,” Thelma whispered fiercely, almost like she was afraid of talking any louder. “You kept him away from the brunt of it all.”

I nodded but said nothing. Thelma did not reach for me like the others. She was never one to rely on comfort, but I knew how devastated she was. Cordelia was a good friend of hers, one she had known for many years, and she was not there to help her. Thelma had a self-blaming streak. I would talk with her later but for now I was content with letting her feel however she wanted.

I thought of Shiloh again and sighed heavily. I was so angry with myself for not getting a proper goodbye. I missed her so dearly, so acutely, and I could feel the hole in my heart she left with her leaving. I would again have no closure. Unlike Aldara, however, Shiloh and I had fought together fiercely and made our peace in the forest. She was safe and back where she belonged. It gave me little comfort.

“Y/N?” Yoongi called out, raising a hesitant hand.

I was at his side quickly. He looked so much younger right now. I reached out and took his hand in my own.

“I’m here, Yoon.”

Reaching out his other hand, I took it with ease. Another oddity. Yoongi never offered physical affection like this before. Looking at his face I frowned. I guess he had no choice at the moment. I squeezed them comfortingly.

“Are you alright?” His mother asked, squeezing my shoulder. “We were worried, but Cadoc said you’d be fine with rest.”

I nodded but spoke for Yoongi’s benefit.

“I’m fine,” I whispered. I understood Thelma’s hesitance to break the silence. It could bring more unknowns and that was a frightening idea. “Physically speaking. I don’t really know outside of that.”

Yoongi’s grip on my hands tightened.

“How are you feeling, Yoon?” I asked him.

He shook his head, “I’m scared.”

I inched closer to him. Our knees touched, both of us kneeling on the floor, and I took one of my hands back. I smoothed down his bedhead and caressed his cheek. He reminded me of the little boy from the meadow who cried when he saw bees. I felt the tears falling from my eyes and surrendered to my pain. I could cry, if only a little bit, right now. Yoongi would always catch my tears.

“Me too,” I admitted, voice so soft I was not sure if anyone heard me.

“Thelma told us about your visions,” I heard Hoji say. “We’re all sorry you had to deal with this alone.”

I shook my head, the force of my guilt rearing its ugly head.

“I saw nothing. I knew something bad was happening, but I was blind and stupid. I should have said something. I should have-”

“We are all responsible,” Thelma interrupted. “I take full responsibility for you keeping your mouth shut. It was my choice to do so because of my own misplaced biases. I should have known better than to assume anything.”

“And we all knew you were lying about Aldara’s book,” Yoona chimed in. “All of us knew you were hiding something. If we’re playing the blame game, then you can charge us all.”

“But Cordelia,” I choked.

“It’s not your fault,” Wendy cried, her voice small and weak. “Those things-” she snarled, “-killed her. Not you.”

Turning to look at her, I knew I was doing a horrible job at keeping everything at bay. My heartache was too much, and everything felt like it was closing in on me. I would have to tell Jimin that I lied to him. I’d have to tell him his village was in ruin because of me. I’d have to become a traitor now. Taehyung might as well throw me to the elves because of my mistakes. And yet, I knew they would not. Taehyung would be understanding, his comfort a warm blanket around me. Sol would be happy it led her mate back to her and so things would naturally become alright between us. Jimin adored me, but would he be able to look at me the same way?

“The elves were coming,” Hoji said, her voice frail and hoarse. “They would have attacked regardless of you telling these people anything. It wasn’t like any of you were on good terms. God knows those wolves would have had a fight on their hands.”

I tried to let the words sink in and ease my guilt. It never happened. Having had enough of this pity party, I took a deep breath and readied for my next plan. I had to see Jimin, and he was with Taehyung at the palace.

“I’m going to check on the others,” My voice was stronger than I felt. “I came here straight away, and I think Jimin will worry if he sees me missing.”

Thelma nodded, “Will you be back?”

“I will try to be back tonight,” I assured her. “If not then first thing tomorrow morning.”

“And we will talk,” Jin’s voice was hard, but his eyes only held grief.

He was someone I owed the biggest apology to. I had not given him the benefit of the doubt, and like Thelma, I let my own biases make decisions for me. If I had been more honest with the people around me then maybe I could have come up with a better plan. Maybe Cordelia wouldn’t be dead, a voice hissed at me. I swallowed the bile in my throat and nodded at Jin.

“Be safe, Birdie,” Yoongi whispered, and I sucked in a harsh breath.

It had been years since he had called me that. My lower lip wobbled, and I hugged my friend tightly. Maybe if I had done more than he would be able to see me crying into his neck. His fingers played with the tattered cotton at my neck, and I crumbled when he rested his head against my shoulders.

“You should change before you leave,” I jumped back at the sound of Callisto’s bell-like voice. “Come. Our socrus might have something that could fit you, but if not I’m sure Ji-Hyun will be fine to give up something of his.”

Moving out of the living area, my mood only dropped as I saw how destroyed the house was. It was hardly standing, and I wanted to get it back up as soon as possible. Enver would have fun helping me out, but it would have to wait. I would bring it up when I came back later.

“The water is out,” Callisto looked back at me, “But we live very close to the stream. We will go and wash up there and come back to get dressed.”

I nodded. I admired her tenacity and the brightness her eyes still held. It was impossible to know if I was right or not, but I would like to think that she was stronger than I was. Callisto was so strong she would look in the mirror and only want to get rid of the pests that caused this, and she would never close her eyes and smell smoke sticking to her clothes. I would never ask but if she did, I was sure I would see it in her gaze when she glazed over.

“Pink or blue?” She asked, lifting up two pieces of fabric.

I shook my head, “Whichever your mother likes less.”

“Blue then,” She smiled mischievously. “It’s a good thing it’s my levir’s favorite.”

I did not speak Latin well, but I knew the word for brother well enough. I heard it often in my time at the village and it was enough to make me crack a smile. Leave it to the girl to be thinking about making me presentable to my mate. Seeing my face, Callisto’s smile only grew.

“I’ll grab a set of Ji-Hyun’s clothes just in case. Jimin will hate it but I think he’d hate you walking around in rags even more.”

She was back quickly with a knitted bag around her shoulder and a bottle in her hand. I could smell the floral scent coming off of it and smiled softly. She was really trying to make me feel better even if it was through hygiene. I liked her even more than I thought I would.

We left through the back, and I was saddened at the state of their yard. Everything was dead and whatever memories had been held in this patch of grass was long gone. Callisto grabbed ahold of my hand and guided me in the direction of the rushing water.

“Where’s Jimin’s mom?” I asked.

Callisto shrugged, “Who knows? She left this morning to help some of her friends gather supplies to begin their rebuild but knowing her she’s been all over the place today. You’ll like her a lot.”

I could not tell if she meant it or was trying to convince me. Jimin had been confident in his family’s support of our relationship, and I was happy that Callisto has been so welcoming to me. I had no doubt Ji-Hyun would be equally kind, but a mother’s love could be burdensome. She would want what was best for Jimin, and I was unsure I would make the cut.

“Would she like me?” I whispered, embarrassed.

The girl laughed, “Oh, trust me, she already does. The way Jimin speaks of you is enough for her, so don’t worry about that, okay?”

She had a simple way of looking at things. It was admirable and I desperately wanted to live in her mind for just a few moments. I would do anything to make these thoughts go away. With every fleeting moment of fire taking over my mind, every flash of Cordelia’s disfigured face, and Aldara’s arm under the moonlight I wanted to go back to sleep. Then I remembered I heard the way they screamed when my eyes were closed and all thoughts of that went away. I again fed into the fantasy that Callisto was strong enough to make these thoughts disappear and wished I could live in her mind for a few moments.

“Are you okay?” Callisto asked.

I had not realized I was zoning out again. “No, but that’s the way things are sometimes.”

She cocked her head, “Not if you don’t want them to be.”

I laughed without humor, “It is never that simple for everyone, Callisto. I am glad you seem to be an exception to my rules, though. I would not wish it on anyone.”

Then again, she had not lost those she held dearest. The elves left the humans alone, so her family was perfectly safe, both her mate and his family survived the carnage, and she did not seem to be mourning any friends. Faulting her for not grieving what I have grieved would be wrong.

We walked in silence but Callisto’s grip on my hand tightened. I could already tell she was an overly affectionate person and for once the thought did not bother me. It suited her. The stream finally came into view, and we began to strip once we were at the bank.

“Oh,” I heard her choke.

Looking around, I tried to find what bothered the girl so much, but we were completely alone. Glancing down, I stared at my arms with a withering expression. They were burned and scarred, the skintight and textured with random splatters. The iron had burned me more than I thought it had. My palms were the worst of it and I followed the blobs of scarred skin until I could no longer see my body.

Running a finger down my chest, I followed a few ridges of scarred skin until I found a large, raised gash on my abdomen. Hunching over, I whimpered at the sight. The jagged edges of the stab wound were like rocks against the pads of my fingers. They were darker than the center of the scar and I traced over them over and over again. Callisto called out to me, and I tore my gaze away from the cut.

“I’m sorry for saying anything,” She rushed, forcing her eyes to look at the water. “It was rude.”

“It’s fine,” I answered harshly- far harsher than I anticipated. Taking a deep breath, I made a great effort to soften my tone. “I will wear them with pride.”

The lie seemed to placate her, and her shifting gaze stopped. Stepping into the water, Callisto motioned for me to join her. The water was warmer than I was expecting, and I rejoiced in the feeling against my skin. Using my hands, I wiped at the dirt that was caked on me. I had to clench my jaw to stop myself from voicing the pain the friction caused my damaged skin. I did not want the human girl worrying over me. We used the flowery wash, and I was happy with how clean my body was and refreshed my mind seemed to be.

The dress fit me a bit loosely, but it was an easy adjustment. I was not keen on wearing another man’s clothes even if it was Jimin’s brother’s. Somehow it made it worse. Callisto was excited to help me lace the back up and fretted over it falling down my body properly. I liked the flowy fabric that fell to my ankles, but the top was much tighter than I would have chosen. After helping me into the dress, I helped Callisto into her own muted-green dress before we set back off for the house.

“I’ll wash the shirt,” She offered.

I shook my head, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll replace it later.”

Callisto nodded, took my head, and remained quiet. I noticed how quiet the rest of the forest was as well. There were no birds chirping, no frogs croaking, and no bugs buzzing. I could not hear any deer hooves against the grass or hear the rustling of a rabbit in the shrubs. The forest was as silent as we were, and it was eerie. Bangtan was always swimming with life and now there was nothing.

The house came back into view, and I tensed up once again. I was not ready to face my friends again, and my need to see Jimin was growing. I needed to explain myself before anyone else could tell him about what was going on with me. I stopped walking. It dawned on me then that Callisto had overheard my talk with the others, and she knew more than I thought she had. Stopping with me, the young girl looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

“Does Jimin know?” I demanded, taking my hand out of hers.

“What?”

“Does Jimin know about-” I struggled to find the right words. How do you describe the wind speaking to you without sounding crazy? “Does he know about me?”

Callisto’s eyes softened. Reaching out to me, she took my hand back and rubbed my knuckles. I did not deserve her kindness, but I selfishly accepted it. Her tender gaze was so understanding, so kind, and I almost believed I could be forgiven. I also knew that her silence answered my question for me. Still, I pushed.

“Yes,” She answered, “Jimin knows. The entire family does. Don’t take anything Hyun says to heart, he is not known for being sensitive to others. I promise to keep him on a leash.”

My world momentarily tilted on its axis. I wanted to be the person to tell Jimin. I wanted to be able to be honest without being told on, and now I was facing the reality where that would never happen. Callisto’s warm hand was reassuring but that did not change anything. Even if Jimin loved me, even if he had forgiven me already, it did nothing to stop the all-encompassing guilt that I felt. I almost wished they had turned me away and blamed me for their hardships- that would be far easier to understand. Ji-Hyun’s dislike for me made complete sense.

“Cali!”

Our moment was broken, and Callisto early let go of my hand. She was practically running away from me now and I looked to find who had caught her attention so easily. The brunette ran into the arms of a man who swung her around.

He was huge, towering over the tiny woman, his muscles massive and bulging. He was very tanned, skin reminding me of a bronze medal, that contrasted completely with his light hair. It was a strange mixture of colors ranging from a taupe brown, gentle great, and stark white. Cropped short and slicked back from his face, the man smiled down at Callisto, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. His smile was wide, his teeth perfectly straight, and a small dimple appeared on his left cheek. The way his eyes smiled with him made me want to run as fast as I could toward the palace. I was looking at Jimin’s younger brother who looked everything and nothing like him.

Seeming to notice me, the wolf’s attention snapped to me straight away. Callisto, following his gaze, gave me a blinding smile. Outside, her eyes looked bluer than they had before, and I belatedly realized they were a strange hazel. The man still seemed weary of me but did not immediately question why I was at his house.

“Bridd?” He called out, his voice deeper and rougher than Jimin’s. His eyes were also a light greenish brown that shone prettily in the sun. “What are you doing here?”

I guessed he had little reason to go to the medical ward recently. From the look on Callisto’s face, she was agitated with him and the way he was speaking. I quickly put things together from there. Jimin’s brother had always known about us, even before we had gotten together, but he was used to keeping it to himself. Out here things were much more likely to be overheard. I was filled with gratitude at the small gesture even if I thought it was no longer necessary. Jimin, it seemed, had already made our connection public knowledge. It made me feel even shittier since he did not like me.

“I needed to see everyone before going to the palace,” I replied. “You must be Ji-Hyun, then?”

He nodded, a small, obviously forced smile on his face. He was looking me up and down and I felt self-conscious. I had yet to see myself in a mirror but the once over I had given myself earlier showed me plenty. Ji-Hyun’s eyes stayed on my hands for a second too long and I folded them behind my back. Callisto slapped his chest this time and hissed at him to stop. I chuckled.

“Jimin spoke of you often,” I continued.

Ji-Hyun looked away bashfully. “I’ve heard plenty about you as well.”

“You should be going,” Callisto said, giving her mate a look. “My brother is going to be so happy to see you up and walking around.”

Ji-Hyun laughed at this, and I felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me. Biting my lip, I nodded and started walking again. Callisto again hit the wolf and chastised him for being “such a boy.” I laughed gently and met Ji-Hyun’s melodramatic pout with a grin.

“I swear,” She groaned. “You’re always so unencumbered by the thought process.”

Ji-Hyun laughed, “Don’t start pulling out the Namjoon insults on me.”

She rolled her eyes, “If you were Namjoon, I’d been far more likely to punch you in the face. Broken hand be damned.”

The two of them faded as I got further away. They were an odd couple. Obviously very much in love, and childish to an extent, but it still brought a smile to my face. At least two of us could find a sense of humor right now. At least they still had each other. I hoped their mother was as joyous as they were, but I did not keep my hopes up.

A few villagers were beginning to move debris from the roads and put back together a few small buildings. I saw Namjoon amongst the builders and kept walking. I had little to say to the wolf right now and he was busy. Up ahead, Jungkook was throwing things out. It was a rare occurrence to see the omega outside of the palace’s heavily guarded walls, even rarer still away from Sol’s side, but I could imagine they had some distance now that Taehyung was back home. Jungkook no longer needed to shadow and protect Sol anymore.

I wondered about Hoseok and Hyuna. I trusted Shiloh to heal him, but I had heard nothing about them since I woke up. I doubted the witches would know much with the state our group was in. We had our own casualties so the news of a wolf’s death would die on their ears. My conversation with Da-yun eased my mind slightly. The woman would have said something about Hoseok’s death.

I climbed the hill to get to the palace with great care. I would have liked to use magic, but I was respecting Cadoc’s wishes. No magic unless necessary. It would be for the best. I remembered the conversation the elves were having in the forest and quickened my steps. If their plans were already in motion, I needed to get as much information as possible in order to warn the pack. Whatever the elves were planning, I had a feeling this was just a taste of their power, and I would need all of my strength in order to fight back. Using my magic for things like this would be off-limits.

Halfway up, someone noticed me climbing and came to my aid after asking who I was. The young woman shifted, her gray and brown fur looked pretty in the sun and offered her back to me. The rest of the way up, which would have taken me at least fifteen minutes, was spanned in three. The wolf girl was massive.

She let me down before making her way back down the hill. She had to have been helping the others dealing with the destruction and I felt bad for taking her away from her duties. The girl had not seemed to mind, however, so I decided to let it go. I had far more pressing matters to attend to anyway.

There were a few wolves guarding the outside of the palace. One of them looked at me but paid little attention once they recognized me. I was able to walk inside without a hitch, the doors to the palace heavy and loud.

The air still smelled of soot, and I was thrust into a swarm of people running around the palace floors. I had only been here during the night and never saw the help that shuffled through the halls. Now, that help was busy scrubbing walls, cleaning fabrics, and grabbing documents. Wrinkling my nose, I did not expect the level of disgust I felt. These people should be taking care of their homes- not polishing these stone floors.

“Can I help you?” I heard a gentle voice call out to me.

She was a large woman, three heads bigger than me, and built like a bear. Her body was muscular and broad, and I found her short, silky, black hair beautiful. Giving me a small smile, her lines and wrinkles revealed her to be older than most in the village. I was happy she had survived the fight. Many of the elderly had not.

“I’m looking for Alpha Jimin,” I replied.

The woman nodded, her face grim and evenly set. I had a feeling I would not be seeing him anytime soon. Figuring I would exhaust all of my options before letting her lead me out, I introduced myself as well as my title. The maid jumped, her fear palpable, and a pang of anger hit me. What had they done to this woman?

“I’m so sorry,” She rushed, her eyes pleading. “I did not know.”

I waved away her concerns.

“There’s no crime,” I soothed. She visibly relaxed and I grit my teeth. I would need to discuss this with Taehyung. No one would be made to fear me so long as I had anything to say about it. “Please, I need to see him.”

She nodded, “Of course, Uxor Park.”

“Excuse me?”

Seemingly embarrassed, the woman tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She started walking up the grand staircase and I followed her closely.

“My apologies,” She spoke once we were at the top. She kept her voice low, and I struggled to hear her. “I forgot you have been recovering from battle. Alpha Jimin has announced your bond, and your wedding arrangements are being prepared, Oxur Park.”

“I’m not his wife,” I frowned, “Stop calling me that. What’s your name?”

“Koda, daughter of Ammon.”

I hummed, “Well, Koda, I have a name and I would prefer to be called by it.”

Koda looked scandalized. I was unsure of pack etiquette on this level. I had never cared much about it before. Thinking about Jimin, I recalled the nickname he used for me often and asked the maid what it meant.

“It means ‘loved friend,’” She replied, pleasantly. “We use it when talking of our closest loved ones. It’s a platonic nickname.”

The word platonic was distasteful. I had hoped it meant something more. Knowing Jimin would have called any of the copiae ‘amica’ put a bad taste in my mouth. Seeming to notice my discomfort, Koda smiled my way.

“It is something the Alpha would take seriously. I’ve never heard him use nicknames for anyone outside of his family, and never amica. He might find other words too intense before a bonding ceremony.”

I cocked an eyebrow at the large woman who chuckled fondly. The tension from earlier seemed to be gone now and I hoped she knew I would never raise my voice to her. I would not put it past Ahn to lay hands on their workers. He was a vile little man.

“He’s very traditional,” Koda continued. “He’s been going about your union in the most courteous way imaginable and had refused to publicly announce your partnership until you woke up.”

“Of course,” She grumbled, “That was until Bo decided to throw a fit.”

His hesitance both pleased and displeased me. While I understood his fears about the pack’s reactions I could not act as though it was not hurtful. He had said he would choose me over everybody and yet when faced with that reality he would rather hide. This Bo woman was beginning to piss me off. I would have rather Jimin decide he wanted to publicly claim me as his own not because someone else wanted to cause a political war right after an attack.

“Even knowing how careful he is, I'm surprised the bond has not been completed,” Koda spoke away without much care if I replied or not. I could imagine she never gossiped with people outside of the maids. “He really is such a gentleman. His mother raised both of those boys well.”

“What are you talking about?” I finally spoke again, entertained by the woman. The young wolves always seemed uptight regarding sex and their rituals, but Koda’s age made her less self-conscious.

“I know many wolves,” Koda’s voice dropped even lower now. “Most are dreadful mates. Men are raised to believe they own their wives, but times are changing. Alpha Jimin is one of the best men I know.”

“You know him well?”

“No,” She admitted, “But he’s one of the few wolves who have never laid a hand on me.”

“Why don’t you leave this place?” I breathed, trying to keep our conversation as private as we could.

She sighed, “It’s my duty to serve.”

Instantly, I felt a kinship to this woman. While I was never hit, no one had ever even thought of laying a finger to me, I did understand what it felt like to be trapped. Here she was in her prison, and she could find little solace in her place in society. I thought of Ahn again and wanted nothing more than to kill him myself.

“Is the vermin alive?” I sneered, anger getting the best of me.

“Ahn?” She hissed, her fear palpable. Then just as quickly she relaxed. “No, he’s dead. It is only Kim Yong-Seok, Namjoon’s father, and Bo Ha-Joon. She has been struggling greatly. She lost a child.”

I felt a great amount of guilt again. That poor woman. I tried picking her face out in my mind but could not remember who she was. There were three women on the council table, but Ahn never allowed them to speak. He must have been one of those dreadful mates Koda had been speaking about. I never hated the man, had never really liked him either, but my loyalties to Taehyung would always sway my bias now. If Kim Yong-Seok wanted a problem, then I would be sure he knew exactly who he would be up against. Then again, it had been Bo causing the uproar.

I thought of Namjoon and knew my worries would be unnecessary once things started up again. We had all lost something, and from Namjoon’s apologies I would hope his father would honor his son’s wishes. I would have to thank the alpha for helping me during the fight.

“Taehyung is a good man,” Koda was rushed now, and I assumed we were approaching the others. “A very, very good man. Sol is lucky.”

I could not agree with her more. After spending as much time with the boy as I had there was no denying his potential. What he lacked in aggression he made up for in heart. Sure, he was gullible and prone to random outbursts that led to nowhere, but I knew what he had inside of him. The way he fought was only one facet of his life. When I thought of his strength the way he held Sol in his arms came to mind. She was as precious to him as silk, and he made sure to hold her tightly enough to stop her from regretting hurting another.

“However,” Her voice was practically gone from how softly she spoke now. I had to lean into her and tap into the animal within me to make out everything she said. “His sweetness will be used against him in these coming months. Tell me, Bridd, do you believe in him?”

I answered without hesitation, “More than anyone in Lustra.”

“Even more than your Jimin?”

I smiled, “Taehyung will give your people something Jimin never will.”

“And what’s that?”

I looked at her now. I had a feeling I would be in this place more than ever, and I would want to keep her close to me. She was a comfort that I never had. We understood each other.

“Peace of mind.”

I meant every word. If Jimin had been alpha I was sure this entire village would have been to Northorn by now. The fight would have never ended. Everything would have revolved around war. Jimin would give them strength and hope, but his own desire to end things as quickly as possible would place people in danger. No one would be prepared to do the right thing- wait and plan. I doubted any of the witches would be here either. I would certainly still be in my cottage.

Taehyung was methodical. He always came off as goofy or passive, but I knew better. Those eyes saw everything, and information was precious to him. He listened to your every word and took it to heart. He would want to be sure as many people could be helped, that those who can’t help themselves would be hidden, and look at every avenue of support he could. He was able to get around my love’s vital flaw- pride. Taehyung had plenty of it, but he was as humble as they come. I smiled fondly thinking of him.

I was so happy we had made it through this.

“What happens now?” I asked, a large set of wooden doors coming into view as we turned into a quiet hallway.

“You will meet with the council as a new Oxur,” Koda began, a professionalism in her voice that had faded as we spoke now back. I could sense her nerves as we got closer to the room. “After that you will begin planning your wedding. Of course, with everything going on that may be postponed or rushed. You and Bo will discuss your options at some point.

“You will live in this palace as things play out. You and Jimin will not be permitted to be alone together without a chaperone present. Again, things might be different with the fallout. Ahn made these rules, but Taehyung will likely ignore them. He and the Luna wedded yesterday to establish their bond as quickly as possible. Bo was not happy but understood. Kim just wanted to be sure the Luna was feeling better since being near him once more.”

I nodded, trying to keep up. The strange need for virgins here was odd. I had never met a wolf who had actually waited for their wedding to bond with their mate. Hoseok and Hyuna were inseparable from what I heard. Sol and Taehyung had no choice, but from her reaction to him I was sure they would be on one another the second they were alone. Jimin, however, had kept his distance. I smiled. He was trying to protect what he perceived as “my honor,” even if I thought the whole process was dripping in misogyny.

“Kim is not angry about your union,” She continued, speaking quickly. “In fact, he was quite pleased. He believes your children will be very strong and that will be vital if this war continues.

“You and Jimin must meet with his family to discuss arrangements after the wedding. Oftentimes, a woman will be asked to become a servant to the family for the first year of marriage in exchange for a lifetime of loyalty. Mi-Jeong will not do that to you. She is a very good, strong woman and will be happy you have made her son happy.

“I will say that she can be a wildcard. Quick tempered and straight to the point. I adore her but she can come off abrasive. It’s why she and your sister-in-law get along so well.

“From what I have heard she is already on your side. She dislikes Bo so much that she is your biggest fan. What’s the saying? An enemy of my enemy is my friend?”

I struggled to keep up with the rules. Was this what Sol had been taught her entire life? I scoffed. Taehyung could care less about how “lady like” the girl was, and I was sure Jimin cared even less about my own manners. It was funny to hear about his mother’s temperament, but it still bothered me how little she knew of our bond. The fact that Bo told her instead of Jimin broke my heart.

“The most important thing will be your intentions. You will be one of the most important women in the village now, and everyone will have to trust and respect you for this to ever work. I believe most have seen what you have done for us and were easily swayed. I cannot promise all will be satisfied, but this war is more important than petty things like this.”

I could only pray Koda was right. Reaching the door, Koda gestured for me to be quiet as she knocked. The gentle chatter inside ceased. After announcing my presence, the room exploded. I grinned when I heard Sol’s voice over them all begging to be the one to greet me.

“I need to apologize,” She stated, already deciding she had won this fight. “Besides, you’ve both had her long enough.”

The door opened with a loud whoosh. The heavy doors seemed to weigh nothing under the Luna’s hands. Sol was glowing, her golden skin plump and dewy, and I saw the sun in her eyes. A huge smile on her face, Sol wasted little time running into my body, her arms wrapping around me tightly. I hugged the girl back, my face hot from the attention. Koda stood beside us and did not utter a word. If I was expected to stay locked away in here, then that would be changing rather soon.

“I’m so sorry,” Sol exclaimed, practically shaking in her excitement. She was so happy, so overjoyed that it was difficult to believe a war was happening in Lustra. I wondered just how sheltered she was being in here. “I can’t believe I scratched you.”

I scoffed, “There’s nothing to forgive. That was the least important thing that happened.”

Sol pouted, “I still needed to apologize. You’ve done too much for me to be treated that way.”

I hoped my eyes could convey just how much I understood what she meant. I did not need her apologies, did not want them, and I would never speak of this incident again. I took Taehyung in because I wanted to, and no one would be indebted to me as far as I was concerned. To her I had saved her entire universe. To me I had harbored a fugitive because it was the right thing to do.

“Enough about that,” I waved her off. “I’m here to see Jimin.”

I heard a sharp intake of breath but shrugged it off. I hadn’t said anything wrong according to our relationship. If Jimin had an issue, then we would talk about it. Until then, I was unbothered by the thoughts of others.

“I’d like to be excused now.”

Sol was momentarily forgotten as she clung to my side. He was so tired. His voice was rugged and slow and so, so defeated. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair and kiss his nose. I knew that would be too rude in front of the others, but I did untangle myself from Sol to get closer to him.

“After,” The deep, masculine voice was not to be argued with. “It will only take a few moments, Alpha.”

Finally stepping into the room, I felt better with Jimin in sight. His hair was tied back so I could see his wilted expression with full clarity. There would be no hiding from me right now. I wanted to rush to his side and let him know that I was fine. Catching Taehyung’s eyes, I held myself back. This would be quick.

Raising to his feet, Taehyung bowed to me. I bowed back, knowing that we would not hug again. It was disrespectful to do so, and he would want to be sure his mate would be comfortable with that level of familiarity.

Jimin stayed seated but his eyes never left me. This would be difficult for him. The two of us had gone through hell a few days ago, and I had not held him since. A gentle voice called out to me.

“It’s so wonderful to see you alive Bridd,” An elderly woman, who I could only guess was Bo, greeted. “The Council was beginning to worry.”

I gave the woman a small smile and hoped my expression was neutral.

“I am quite well,” I assured.

“We are grateful for your service,” The voice from before said.

Turning around, I was greeted by an older man. His hair was going gray, and lines had become more pronounced. It took one look to know this was Namjoon’s father. They shared the same mono-lidded eyes, both of them just as serious and stoic as the other, but that was where the similarities ended. I could only imagine how his mother looked and the strength of those genes.

“I don’t believe we have had the pleasure of a formal introduction,” Kim approached and bowed deeply. I returned the gesture.

“I am Kim Yong-Seok, Namjoon’s father. I’ve served this council since the time of the previous Bridd, and I am honored to have fought alongside you.”

“I am Y/N,” I replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Yong-Seok.”

“Elder Kim is quite alright,” Bo’s voice was too sweet, and I resisted the urge to scowl.

The man sat down in one of the many chairs in the room. There was a large table in the middle of it all, but no one seemed interested in the papers on it. I stayed standing. I had not noticed Sol’s return to the room and grinned. She was curled in Taehyung’s lap not listening to a word we were saying. I was very jealous, and my patience was thinning. Jimin had still not said a word.

“I would like to tell you how much I appreciate you for taking Alpha Taehyung in,” Kim continued. “My son was not acting rationally, and he had many voices in his ear, but I tried to make him see reason. Ahn was the one who took the letter you sent him. Ha-Joon found it in his things yesterday morning.”

My jaw clenched. The man was dead, and I would try not to speak ill of him right now. Everyone was mourning and my anger would solve nothing. It still did not sit well with me that either one of these elders lived. They could not shift anymore and would be easy targets for the elves. I had heard little of them before and Namjoon had said everyone was being irrational. Not once had he talked of his father or Bo Ha-Joon. I did not trust these two and I thought back to Cadoc.

We had a spy amongst us.

The conversation the elves had come back to me as well, and I knew I needed to say something. Aldara had said I needed to find Naida, whoever that may be, and hopefully it would lead me to answers. I decided I would need to talk with Cadoc about that later. I glanced at Jimin and bit my lip. Sneaking away may be a challenge.

If Koda was right then it would not be as difficult, but Ahn was the one in charge of these rules. I did not know Kim or Bo well enough to say if they felt similarly. I heard Bo shifting behind me but said nothing. She did not talk very much.

“I understand,” I would keep those thoughts to myself. “All is forgiven. I actually have some things to discuss if that would be alright with you.”

The man nodded.

“I overheard the elves talking when I went to find Jimin’s party out in the woods,” I sighed when I heard Bo’s noise of disapproval. She was uncomfortable with the way I addressed Jimin it seemed. I ignored her.

“They were speaking in Lustrian. Unfortunately, their dialect is different from mine so I could not pick up everything they were saying, but I heard enough. They are moving to attack Northorn and four days after they are going to come back to Bangtan.”

“Four days after what?” Bo’s voice startled me.

I shrugged, “I can’t say for sure, but it would have to be if they were successful in the siege. That’s the only thing that would make sense.”

“So, four days after the take Northorn they are coming back?” Taehyung clarified.

“Again, I can’t say for sure, but it’s what it sounded like. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Finally, he spoke. “You’re not infallible. Thank you for telling us what you do know.”

“Yes,” Kim nodded his agreement. “We will have to prepare. The attack on Northorn began last night.”

Chief Kim stood; his intimidating figure tall enough to reach the ceiling. He looked past me, obviously to the other Chief, and they had some kind of silent conversation. My eyes stayed on Jimin now. I knew this meeting would be over soon.

“I think it would be best if Oxur Park stayed in her own suite,” I heard Bo say.

I did not like that woman.

“I agree,” Chief Kim replied.

I did not like him either.

“They should be separated until their union,” She continued. “The witch needs to learn proper etiquette before touching the Alpha.”

I hated her.

Jimin looked as impressed as I did. With a deep scowl, Jimin disagreed vehemently. Taehyung took his side as well as Sol. They cited the war and bloodshed. Why waste time with these nonsensical rules when we had lived together for two months? I chose to stay quiet.

Kim finally said his peace, “Separating them is not an option. The Luna is right, they have already lived intimately, and I will not break their bonds for the sake of tradition.”

“But they have not completed anything,” Bo argued, sending a hateful look my way.

It was obvious she would be someone to look out for. I could not understand what I had done to make her dislike me so, but I did not care enough to figure it out. Jimin was mine and nothing would change that.

“We both know that it is not the only part of the bond,” Kim scolded. “They will sleep separately but we need both of them present for this war. Forcing them apart will be detrimental.”

I was still weary of them both, but I was far more inclined to like Kim. Bo was not satisfied with his answer but chose to keep her mouth shut. With that decided, the Elder dismissed us so he would have time to think. Taehyung and Sol stayed behind.

“Alpha Jimin,” I wanted to groan in frustration.

Having just stood up, Jimin was still too far away for my liking. Growing tired of holding back, I walked to his side. He reached out and took my hand. Bo frowned at the contact.

“Yes, Yong-Seok?”

“Come back in an hour. We have much to discuss regarding this revelation.”

He nodded, “Of course.”

Just like that, the two of us were cut off from the remaining conversation. Kim wanted to speak with Taehyung about an upcoming fight, and I was sure this would be better with Jimin here. My own selfishness was jumping for joy at being alone with him again, but I was worried how this short break may affect this war.

Again, this Naida came to mind. Aldara had said I would have to find her, which meant she was not in Bangtan. I doubted I would find her in Moland either. Everyone knew everyone in the swamp and the name had never come up before. Naida was in the beyond, someplace within Lustra that I had never seen before, and it scared me. I would have to reference some of my mentor’s old books to figure out who she is.

Jimin led me out of the room, and I was sad to see Koda had already disappeared. She must have left once I went into the room. Wrapping an arm around my waist, Jimin pulled me to his side and quickened his pace. I struggled to keep up, but I pushed my worries to the side. For now, I would allow myself to be happy to just be near him.

“So,” I whispered, forcing myself to smile, “I’m your wife now?”

His ears reddened.

“It’s just a formality,” He replied, voice suspiciously even. I giggled at his flushed face and calmed easily. We were just us right now and that would have to be enough. I would worry about Cadoc once the sun set. “I had planned on proposing properly once this war was over.”

Slowing down, Jimin opened a door and pulled me inside. It was a dimly lit room with only candlelight and a large bed within it. Fresh sheets smelled of cotton and lavender and I was unhappy with how barren it was. Only two pillows and a thin blanket. I was already itching to go back to my cabin and nest in my thick quilts.

Thinking about the cabin made me think about Shiloh. I had never gotten the chance to say goodbye. I knew I should be happy to be with my mate again, but I was so tired of plastering on a face of good health. It was so hard to remain calm when my body kept getting pushed and pulled in every which way. One moment I was angry and the next so sad I did not know what to do with it.

“Come here,” Jimin whispered, hands running down my sides.

Looking at him, I saw something change in his gaze. He looked hungry and for once I was not interested in feeding him. What was the point if he was going to pull away? I tried to take a step back, but he only pulled me closer.

“What’s wrong, amica?” He purred, nuzzling the top of my head.

“I don’t want to be left hanging again, alpha,” I breathed, breath hitching as he fingers grazed the side of my breast. “I know how you feel about my ‘honor.’”

I could not keep the venom out of my voice. I hated that he believed I would somehow be ruined if he took things further. My mind screamed that he would never think that, but his actions proved otherwise. Why else would he be so afraid of loving me openly? Instead, he took me into a dark, damp room in a palace filled with people who would whisper about me behind my back. He was fine with us being separated when I would rather die.

“That’s what you think this is about?” He pulled away abruptly.

“Isn’t it?” I spat, my anger coming back with a vengeance.

Jimin shook his head and cupped my cheek. I turned away and tried to push his body away from my own. I knew I was being irrational. I knew how badly I just wanted to touch him, but I could not stop myself from running. His rejections hurt but today they felt like they would kill me. I felt so inadequate and unwanted. Why was he not talking about my betrayal?

“No, mea columba,” He cooed, “You will always be someone I am proud to be with. No matter what.”

Scoffing, I took another step back only for Jimin’s grip to grow stronger.

“Is that why everyone found out about us because of that vile woman?” I struggled in his grip until he finally let me go. “You’re so proud you’d rather keep me your little secret?”

Confused, Jimin reached for me, “Where is this coming from?”

I wanted to tell him I didn’t know; that I had no idea why I was so angry when moments ago I had been so happy to see him. I wanted to tell him I just needed him to need me. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was for lying and keeping things from him. I wanted to tell him I was waiting for him to yell at me, to reject me for killing his people and my friend, and that was the reason he did not want to tell everyone of our relationship. Instead, I cowered away from him.

“You said you would pick me over everyone and when it came down to it you didn’t,” I spit. “You didn’t even tell your mother! The only reason she even likes me is because of her dislike of Bo!”

Jimin reached for me again and this time did not stop when I backed away. Grabbing my arm, the two of us made eye contact and whatever I had wanted to say died on my lips. He looked fierce and I could see the tears forming in my eyes.

“Stop it,” His voice was scarily calm, “I hate it when you speak of yourself like this.”

Thrown, I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. I could feel myself crying but I was not sure why. Everything felt like it was too much and too little. Was I going crazy?

“I am sorry that they found out this way, but you have to believe me when I say I had every intention of telling them. I just wanted to wait until you woke up, carissima.”

I knew that, hadn’t I? Koda had said that already, and I had believed her. I was supposed to be angry at Bo, but instead here I was taking it out on my boyfriend. Why was I so angry? What is wrong with me?

“You’re overwhelmed,” Jimin pulled me back into his embrace. “I just want to help you relax, carissima.”

I nodded and melted into his chest. I felt so exhausted despite sleeping for two days. Jimin rubbed my back and pressed kisses into my head, but it did nothing to calm my racing heart.

“Amica means friend,” I cried, violent sobs racking through my body, “Is that what I am to you? A friend?”

Jimin chuckled darkly, “Of course you’re my friend, Y/N. My dearest, most loved friend. Is that a problem?”

I nodded, my tears still falling. I felt like a hurricane was raging inside of me and nothing could calm it. My stomach was tied and twisted into knots and I felt like I was going to vomit. Shaking, I closed my eyes and saw Cordelia’s face. Gasping, I flinched away from Jimin but his hold on me was steady. I knew then that I was going crazy. This was just like Aldara’s death all over again. Whimpering, I gripped Jimin’s shirt and sobbed.

“Can’t we be both?” He whispered. “Can’t you be my very best friend and my lover at once?”

I nodded again when words failed me. I could not stop myself from crying and the shaking only grew worse. Outside I could hear people walking around but I could not find it in me to stop. The dam had been broken down now and all I wanted was to run away and hide. I wanted to stay in his arms for eternity. Why had I pushed him away?

“Sweet girl,” His lips brushed my ear, “I’m not upset with you.”

And I could breathe easier. I curled into his body and finally wrapped my arms around him. My hands pressed against his strong back and I felt the muscles twitch underneath them. Jimin let out a large sigh and dropped his head on my shoulder. With his new position, I put my face into his neck and breathed him in. My cries started to calm.

“Fall apart,” He whispered. “I’ll be here to hold you together.”

And for the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to bask in his love and adoration without guilt hanging over my head.

“I forgive you,” He kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry you were hurting.”

“I’m so sorry, Jimin,” I choked out.

He answered me with a kiss on my collarbone and a nip on my jaw.

The moon was high in the sky. Sitting in the faceless room, which I now knew as my own, I stared out the lone window and waited for a sign of Cadoc. It should not be too much longer before I get out of here. The walls were suffocating without Jimin around to hold me.

He stayed for the entire hour and held me. I cried until I could no longer produce tears and then I wailed. I told everything then. I told him about my visions before everything had hit, how I had kept things from him out of fear for his safety, and all of the ways I had gone out of my way to keep everyone in the dark. I stuttered my way through the way I fought off the elf, how much it had hurt to kill myself, and the way Aldara looked like an angel.

He held me tightly when I told him about Taehyung and I fighting our way through the elves to get to Sol, how she had bitten and swung at me like a stranger, and just how tiny she was. I felt him flinch when we talked about finding Yoongi and he cried with me when I got to dragging Cordelia’s body from a pile of the dead.

“She was so heavy,” I blubbered, rocking back and forth in his arms. “So, so heavy.”

He did not want to leave me, but he had duties to attend to. He offered to send someone up to sit with me but I declined the offer. I did not want anyone but him to step foot in this room. This would be my new nest and it was mine to decide what to do with and who to allow. I would make an exception for Koda, but only to keep her away from Bo and Kim’s hands. I doubted my friends would ever come here to find me, not when I was so desperate to get away from this castle.

Finally, I caught sight of a shadowy figure running through the village. Without waiting for a signal or call sign, I shifted. My bird flew around easily and made no noise as it glided through the dark palace. I had to shift back once I reached the main door. I knew it would be impossible to open without alerting someone to my disappearance, so I needed to find another way. The window in my room did not open, but hopefully one of these would. After checking a few, I found that one was completely missing from its spot. They must have been repairing it.

Taking advantage of the opening, I shifted and took off to the forest. It was dead silent tonight and I hoped my friends were safe. Patto would be fine but Delinah could have been injured or killed in the attack. Elves ate deer. I did not want to ponder on the thought any further.

Cadoc was waiting for me in my meadow. The cottage was still destroyed but otherwise seemed completely untouched. Sniffing the air I was sure that no one else had been around here for days. The others must have thought me dead and left the cottage alone once they thought it was useless. Magic and spells were of no use to them, especially my silly little grimoires filled with potions and strange teleports.

“No one’s been out here,” Cadoc shouted once he saw me coming.

I shifted once I was close enough to the ground. The clothing spell had never been more useful to me. Cadoc was dressed in dark clothes now and blended into the trees. That weird translucent quality he had the first time we met was back. I hoped we were safe enough but kept up my guard just in case. I fondled the iron ring I was wearing.

“What do you know?” I asked, cutting straight to the point.

“Not much,” He admitted. “Samanya is suspicious of the female chief, but I believe that is too easy a target. Lorcan is untrusting of humans, but his own bias is affecting his judgment. Both of them are going to our queen living deep in Moland to discuss their theories.”

I pursed my lips. That did not bode well for our case. If none of them can agree on who they think is wrong how could their queen be of use? Why was she still in Moland when the fight was in Foxglove? None of it made sense, but I could not say Bo or the humans had done anything wrong. Even if I disliked the older woman, I could not deny her loyalty to her pack and its traditions. It was hard to believe she would do anything to destroy that or kill her child.

“What evidence is there that anyone was involved?”

“They came in through the cave systems. No army could have gone through them that quietly without knowing where to go. How were no wolves able to pick up on them? It’s too strange for us to ignore the possibilities.”

I hated to agree with him but it was odd. The cave was echoey and loud. There were few things that could be quiet enough to invade without someone hearing something. The wolves would have been ready for a cave ambush if they made a single sound, but they did not. You would have to know where to go in order to take advantage of that vantage point. That would also rule out any humans in the village as they were forbidden from entering the cave. Their two biggest leads were already thrown out of the window and it unsettled me.

“You believe me,” Cadoc always sounded so surprised about my trust.

“You make good points,” I replied. “I just don’t understand why someone would use elves against their own people.”

“The same reason the elves turn on their own: Power.”

Elves were disgusting creatures. Aldara had always said a Quietus kills for vengeance while an elf kills for glory. Their kind believed in mass genocide and hated what they called “halflings” and “hybrids.” Their country of Etelin were the first to attack during the Century War where they stole the land of Korika from the wolves and foxes living there. Lustra had never fallen but those who once ruled these lands had diminished. Quietus were amongst these populations and a few groups had become highly aggressive towards anyone who was not an elemental.

Those were the ones Aldara killed. She always reminded me that there were good people, good Quietus, but it was so hard to imagine as a child. Everything was black and white then, but looking at Cadoc I knew she was right. I had yet to see a shred of mirth from him and he had always given me unwavering support in a fight. Still, I kept the idea of a quietus being involved to myself. I did not want our people fighting one another when the real threat was still out there. Whoever it was would be caught in time.

“What did your ancestor show you?” He asked. “The little witch boy said you would have seen her in the spirit world.”

I frowned, “She told me to find someone called Naida.”

I had no idea who this could be, but Cadoc’s expression told me that he did. The name was familiar but I did not know where I had heard it before. Aldara would always tell me stories of Lustra and the ones that found it, but names were never the focal point of any of them. The only name that came to mind was Keld, the fire dragon who guarded King Omar’s grave in Briar Glen Beach. I wondered if the elves realized they were encroaching on a dragon’s territory and this time their Sarkan friends were not with them. As far as I could tell, the humans were still in their home country while their cousins in Northorn were getting obliterated.

“And she said you specifically?”

I nodded wearily. Cadoc began to pace and mumble to himself. In the dark on the significance of this name, I grew annoyed. I wished he would get over himself and talk to me. I stayed quiet in fear I would say something rude and tried to be patient. My emotional whiplash was beginning to weigh heavily upon my shoulders.

“You’re going to have to go to the Ozryn Mountains,” He finally said. “Finding Naida is impossible without Khione. She’s in the Mountains near Idris and you may be able to convince her to take you to Naida if you tell her of the situation here in Bangtan.”

I scoffed, “What are you talking about? Who are these people?”

“Khione is an elemental who bends. She is Naida’s closest and oldest friend, and will be easier to find.”

I sighed in frustration. I did not like being out of the loop and after the day I had my patience has run dry. I wanted to get back to Foxglove and sneak into Jimin’s house for the night. Bo be damned, I needed to see him. Especially if I would have to leave soon. The thought made me want to cry. Angered by the wave of emotions slamming into me at once, I clenched my jaw and groaned.

“I don’t know who any of these people are!” I shouted. “Talk to me, Cadoc. I’m lost and you’re saying I need to leave Bangtan to go and find some elemental.”

The Quietus paused his pacing to stare at me. I was missing something important, but it was hard to explain how little I knew about the world outside of the forest. I found the politics of Northorn boring and talks of war made me uncomfortable. I knew, however, that these women were not in positions of power within the statehoods. The only woman that came to mind was Queen Elizabeth of Northorn.

“You are too young to remember the age of the dragons,” Cadoc said and I realized he thought I was much older than I was. I wondered if I looked like Heidi or Griselda enough to have him confused, or perhaps he thought I had been the one to come after them. “Naida is the mother of them all. She was the first dragon-shifter to ever live, and Khione is a distant relative born of a dragon and quietus couple thousands of years ago. Their ancestors are the mighty dragons that went extinct during the First War.”

“I didn’t ask for a history lesson, Cadoc,” I grunted.

“It’s important that you understand who you’re dealing with,” He assured.

“There’s no Naida living in Alcona,” I snapped, ignoring his stupid rebuttal.

The Quietus chortled good-naturedly. Disarmed, I realized I was acting strangely again and flushed hot. I smiled sheepishly and scratched behind my ear. Satisfied by my response, Cadoc carried on.

“Naida is a water dragon,” He explained. “Khione is an elemental who cannot shift as her bloodline was diluted by air elemental blood.”

Dragon shifters, as far as I knew, were fire elementals that lived in the Alcona Islands. Aldara had said during the Century War they had been enslaved and used as weapons of war once the elves learned how to force them to their will with the help of Sarkan weaponry. Water and air were far more difficult to control, and we had always assumed they were the only dragons to survive the war. I had never known of these water tribes within Ozryn. It reminded me of the rumors of hybrids living deep in the mountains after the first Quietus Invasion.

“The people of Alcona are familiar with her,” Cadoc continued. “Queen Affra is her godchild but they do not see one another often. Naida mourns the death of her kin and holds a mean grudge against Etelin for what they have done to Lustra.”

I was doubtful I would be able to find this dragon woman. I had hardly stepped foot out of the forest and the furthest I had gone was Moland. I had no maps or points of reference to guide me along the journey. Then there was the very real chance I was not allowed to go. Jimin would fight tooth and nail to keep me in Bangtan, and I would need to find a way around him. Cadoc seemed to be following my train of thought.

“Samanya will have the maps you will need for the journey. She may even offer to go with you.”

“No,” I shook my head. “If I’m not here then I want to be sure all of the strongest fighters are. I will go off on my own and write when I can.”

“I can speak with King Hadeon. He can offer up his consort-”

“No,” I emphasize my point once more. “I will do this alone. I can only choose my own fate. If I die then that will be so, no need to pull anybody away from Foxglove.”

Cadoc seemed upset by my resolve but moved on. I would not budge from this. Another reason I could be denied would be lack of hands and I would be sure mine would be the only ones gone. Cogs turning, I was sure I could convince Kim and Bo to allow me passage so long as I promised to return with help no matter what. I could use the excuse of sending for help from Viridi Gramine, but I knew Taehyung would see through the lie. He was another factor I would need to consider.

“You’re braver than you look,” He finally settled on.

“I don’t feel that way,” I replied.

Ignoring the comment, Cadoc continued.

“You will need to get to Clarcton first. There you can find lodging. The elves are still at the northern tip of Northorn to avoid Briar Glen Beach. Keld resides there and he will alert Affra.

“Pack for the cold, buy some clothes, and try to find a guide to the mountains. No one will give you passage, but you might be able to get some help finding your way. Once you’re in the mountains stay south and find the narrow passageway to Idris.”

“How will I know I’m going the right way?”

“Dwarf caves are all over the place. You would be able to hear them during the day. Do not walk at night. You will die. If you’re lucky, someone will be curious and ask why you’re there. Tell them you are looking for Khione. It’s alright to say it’s elves- dwarves hate them more than we do.

“If not, keep going until you see a light in the distance. That is Khione’s tower where the guiding light shines for travelers. At this point you will probably believe you’re going to die, and you will cry in relief. Ozryn is tumultuous even during this time of year. We are lucky they attacked in summer instead of winter or your journey would be impossible.”

This plan was forming itself already. Tonight I would gather grimoires from inside of the cellar and ask Cadoc to take them back with me. For the next two days I would study harder than I ever had in my life in order to prepare for a fight. I would have to pick two or three books to bring along with me that would be my own companions. I would have to get started soon if I had any hope of sorting through my things before sunrise.

“Stand out here,” I told Cadoc. “I need to gather a few things.”

“Heidi would have better information,” He said. “I remember her well from the war. The little girl with her would be okay, too.”

I walked inside and opened the cellar. I would bring along a few of my knives and craft a new one. Thelma’s order for iron had been made and there were two iron sconces in my room I could melt down. My magic was fickle, and I would have no room for mistakes. I took three feathers I found in Shiloh’s nest on my way out.

“Look,” Cadoc started again once we began the trek back to the village, “I understand why you want to do this by yourself, but at least consider bringing along a friend.”

Annoyed by him bringing it up again, I huffed.

“Do you think I’m too weak to do this on my own?” I challenged.

“Absolutely not,” He sounded so sincere I almost believed him. “I do, however, think you are loyal to a fault. You’re starting to act recklessly for the sake of saving everybody else.”

“Well,” I sighed, “It’s my duty to protect this forest and that includes the people within it.”

It sounded weak even to my own ears. I did not know why the thought bothered me so much, but I had this feeling I needed to go alone. Something was telling me what to do, but I was not sure how to explain this to someone like Cadoc. Elementals were not known for being the most spiritual people out there and I doubted he would understand.

“Tell me, how would your wolf feel about this?”

“He would never allow it,” I replied curtly. “In fact, Jimin would forbid it even if I had an entire army on my side. Overprotective fool.”

“And what does that make you?” Cadoc’s voice had taken on an edge. He was upset with me about this. “A prideful martyr? An overzealous know-it-all?”

I breathed through my nose and tried to keep my temper in check. It has already caused me enough problems. First Namjoon, then Jimin, and now Cadoc? Still, I could not deny that his words cut me more than I thought they would.

“Are you suicidal or something?” He continued to mock me. “I know you have been through a lot of suffering, and I’m sorry you had to see a friend like that, but you don’t mean to die, do you? You’re much more useful alive.”

My face pinched together, and I threw my hands up. The books in my hands felt like boulders, and they came back down quickly. My eyes stung and I was even angrier by the tears.

“Why does everyone treat me like glass?” I seethed.

“Do they?” Cadoc dead-panned.

Glaring at the man, I was not happy to shake my head. I was becoming irrational again and I was not sure how to stop it. It was as if I were watching someone else’s life and seeing the world through their eyes. I did not feel like myself.

“But your wolf does?”

I closed my eyes and stopped walking, “Not exactly. I just… I’m tired of being coddled by him. He’s always so kind and understanding, and it makes me feel like I never have to work for anything with him.”

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, but his eyes remained stony. Cadoc’s eyes were stranger at night than during the day and I was taken aback by the faint shine that came off of them. I could hardly see him once we were in the trees, and I used a flame spell to light our way. The heat felt uncomfortable on my skin, but I tried my best to push through the growing discomfort.

“Does one need to work for love?” He asked.

I pursed my lips, “Everything in life takes work.”

“Sure,” He quipped, “But do you think you have to earn his love? Fight for it or what have you?”

“I-” I stammered. “I thought we all fight for what we want.”

Aldara said anything I ever wanted could only be obtained through hard work. If I wanted to conquer my powers, push my limits, or learn how to make potions then I needed to earn my keep. If I wanted to get better, then I needed to work hard for it. Nothing in life came easy to me, but it did not bother me much. Earning Jimin’s affections would be the same way, and I had plenty to make up for after what happened.

“Do you think Jimin wants you to fight for his love or has he given it to you freely?”

After a beat of silence, I whispered, “He’s always given it freely though I don’t deserve it.”

“Would you like to talk about that?”

I told Cadoc of my nightmares and how the spirits came to me. He did not cut in at any point of my story. When I told him how I cried every night in shame as Jimin held me, he seemed sympathetic, but I hated it. I deserved no one’s pity. This entire situation was my fault. If I had just told my boys, we could have done something. When I said as such, Cadoc scowled at me.

“You can’t seriously believe this is all your fault, can you?” He hissed at me.

“I can and do,” I shot back, my defenses already hackling. “And you can’t attempt to take any of the blame off of my back. I deserve to feel this way, Cadoc. I don’t care what anybody says, if I-”

“You’re throwing your entire life away on a ‘what-if’ scenario?” He growled. “In case you haven’t noticed no matter what you would have done the elves would have attacked. In fact, if they knew the wolves were ready for them it would have been far worse. You can’t change what’s been done, Bridd.”

“But I can atone for it,” I mumbled, the fire within me going out. I was tired again and wanted to fall asleep. I wanted Jimin.

“I will tell your boyfriend,” Cadoc suddenly threatened. “Unless you allow someone to help you.”

Glowering, I used the last bit of strength I had to shout at him.

“Why are you so pushy?”

“You saved my life,” Cadoc reasoned like it was the most obvious thing ever. “I told you that I owe you, and I think a life for a life is the only real trade off.”

I could see I was not going to win this battle. If he told Jimin there was no way I could leave the village, but if I went without someone else then I was putting them in danger, too. Feeling helpless, I nodded and accepted my fate. What was one more death on my shoulders? I trembled at the thought and forced it away.

“I have final say in who goes.”

Cadoc smiled triumphantly. I felt sick. Each step felt heavier and heavier, and I knew I would not make it much further. Luckily, the village came into view.

“You have yourself a deal, Bridd. We will decide in two days.”

“Two days,” I affirmed.

I found his home easily. Even with the bungalow in disarray and heavily damaged, I could see the care people had taken in trying to hold it together temporarily. I did not think it would withstand much of anything, but I could hope it would be enough for Jimin to be safe. Other copiae were in the palace as their homes were too damaged. Bo did not want us sleeping under the same roof, so Jimin had to stay out here.

I went to the bedroom window I had flown to all of those months ago. A lot had changed since then. The thought filled me with both joy and pain. Jimin was at his desk again, quill in hand and hair tied up. I loved the way the candles lit his face.

Cadoc took my things to my room for me. After picking out five of Heidi’s books, one of Griselda’s, and two more of Aldara’s journals, the two of us came back to the village. His powers made gliding soundlessly easy. My bird would never have been able to make that work. Along with the books, I also took my spare trousers, my jewelry box, and my quilts. This room would be mine for a few days and I would make it look as such. I hoped it would bring Jimin comfort in my absence. I knocked on the glass.

Jimin looked at me and stood up. He pointed to the front door, and I walked around the small house. The door was already open and Jimin’s arms outstretched for me.

“You were gone when I came to check on you,” He said.

I walked into his chest, kicking the door closed behind me, and wrapped myself around him. His warmth was nice, and I breathed him in. I would be away from him for so long…

“I snuck away,” I grinned. “I wanted to get some of my things. Hopefully Bo won’t be too upset with me.”

Jimin chuckled, “Ignore her. She’s hurting and trying to distract herself with other feelings.”

“Like hate?” I rested my chin on his chest and looked up at him. “Disgust? Disdain?”

He kissed my forehead.

“Jealousy,” He sniffed my hair and stiffened. “You weren’t alone on your outing.”

I shook my head, “No. Cadoc wanted to meet with me regarding some… issues they were having.”

“Can we talk about it?”

I nodded and forced myself out of his arms. I would never be able to focus on anything like this. I yawned but waved off his grooming. Jimin, like everyone else in my life, treated me like a glass house in a tornado. Normally, I appreciated his pampering, but we needed to have a serious talk and it would make me lose my train of thought.

“They believe there’s a whistleblower,” I started, sitting down on his sofa. “Using caves was a risky choice and they’re talking with their Queen about it now.”

“Taehyung and I were talking about that possibility as well,” He mused, looking over at me. “Was that all?”

Again, I was faced with two choices. I could lie to him again and break the trust we share even more, or I could be honest and deal with the possibility of a fight. I did not have the energy for a good one tonight, but I was sure I could gather up the strength to plead my case.

“I might have to do something in the next few days,” I looked at my hands. “It won’t be fun, or easy, but you need to trust me, okay?”

“You need to give trust to get it.”

Looking at him, I was sad to see the defeat in his eyes. Keeping things from him had made this situation so much worse than they should have been. Even if he never admits it, even if we never acknowledged this fact right now, I knew him. He was hurt by me keeping quiet and not trusting him enough to defend the both of us. All this time I was keeping him safe without ever thinking about the fact that he wanted to make sure I was okay, too. Taking a deep breath, I knew what I was about to say would not ease his mind, but I could hope it would ease his worries.

“I can’t tell you much of anything right now,” I grabbed his hand. “I don’t really know enough about it myself, but when I do, I’ll let you know. There are some things I need to figure out first, okay?”

I saw his heart break. His face dropped and his eyes dimmed, but I knew I was doing the right thing. I wanted us to have a good conversation where I could reassure him. Tonight, would not be the right time. I was too tired and emotional for it to work out. I didn’t even know where I was going or who I was going with. I could not let Jimin’s protectiveness get in the way of my mission.

“I can live with that,” He breathed.

“It won’t be like last time,” I promised.

Jimin looked into my eyes. “You look exhausted.”

Sagging in relief, I allowed Jimin to pick my body up off of the sofa. Setting me down on his make-shift cot, the wolf grabbed my feet and started rubbing my arch. He did not seem to mind the dirt and I was too astonished by his touch to care. It had been so long since anybody had touched me like this.

“I’m sorry for this morning,” I murmured. “I’m just… so tired. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Lifting my foot, Jimin pressed a kiss to the top of it before dropping it back into his lap. The cot was nothing more than a few blankets stacked one on top of the other, the hard floor uncomfortable on my back, and the thinnest pillow I had ever used to rest my head on. Now, though, I could say I had never been more relaxed before bed.

“There’s nothing to forgive,” He grinned at me. “I love you even when you’re angry and frustrated with the world.”

Choking back a sob, I reached my arms out to him.

“Can you please just hold me? Just for a little while?”

We laid on the ground for the rest of the night, talking and caressing one another. I had missed a lot during my slumber, and I was happy to get the rundown. With Koda’s words from earlier I felt less insecure about our snail’s pace. Jimin truly believed he was honoring me this way and I would let him have this.

“Jimin?” I called out, voice hoarse from overuse.

“Hm?” He hummed, half-asleep and barely able to keep his eyes open.

“I love you too.”

He chuckled, the sound deep in his chest and felt through my entire body. With a kiss to my head, the wolf turned on his side and pulled my back flushed against his chest. His warmth was almost suffocating, and I was happy we had no blanket over the top of us. I would surely be sweating by now. With another kiss to the back of my head, Jimin breathed heavily and then his gentle snores filled the room. That morning, I fell asleep as the sun came up and smiled when I thought of Bo finding my room empty.

Translations:

Socrus - Mother-in-law

Levir - Brother

Mea columba - My Dove

Carissima - Dearest

Disclaimer: I can’t speak Latin at all. I try to research as much as I can, but that doesn’t mean I’m always right. I do attempt to keep it as close as possible without relying on Google Translate (it’s not the best source either). The Lustrian language is a made up language based on Old English. None of it is accurate, but I don’t think that matters all that much.

Taglist: @greezenini @adventures-in-bookland @kthstrawberryshortcake-main @zae007live @jimin-neverout @nikkiordonez12 @canarystwin @yamekomz @chimthicc @michiiedreamer @amorieus @mima795 @i-never-post-but-i-am-here

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justimajin · 6 months

Text

House of the Haunted

Genre: Fluff & Comedy

↳ 3.5k / Supernatural AU (inspired from Hotel Transylvania)

[Includes: Vampire! Yoongi, Werewolf! Jungkook, Ghost! Namjoon, Demon! Jimin, Angel! Hoseok, Warlock! Taehyung, Faerie! Seokjin, Human! Reader]

Summary: It's Halloween and the Council of the Haunted have convened together for a very important and highly classified discussion - there's a *whispers* human on the premises.

A/N: I was originally going to post this for Halloween, but it unfortunately got a bit delayed. It's just meant to be a fun story for spooks and laughs. Happy (Belated) Halloween! 🎃

The front door creaks open.

The mansion is nothing short of grand, lined with expansive black marble floors and dark wooden walls. There are ebony crystals hanging down from the dimly lit chandelier, connected right above the old spiral staircase that’s decorated with small oil lamps. The wind ever so whistles against the grey murky windows, echoing through the emptiness of the haunting infrastructure.

Amongst the different doors next to the staircase, only one is brightly lit.

A tall man dressed in lavish purple robes shuffles forward, his eyes darting around. There’s a sudden change in the air, akin to a low draft he feels against his back that his keen senses pick up on right away.

“Taehyung.” A voice whispers into the night and he swivels, robes cascading around him as he does. “You came.”

His lips pull up into a cheeky smile, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The transparent man before him gyrates around, his feet floating an inch off the ground.

“Follow me.”

Taehyung obliges, trailing after him.

“You know, Seokjin will be very pleased to see you too.”

Taehyung deeply chuckles, fingertips absent-mindly playing with the mist that radiates out of them. “I’m sure he will be.”

He’s led into a large dining room, the very one that is brightly lit. In the middle of it sits a long outstretched table that’s entirely covered with a black tablecloth and with candlelight decor. There are seven wooden chairs lining the table and accompanying, seven golden chalices.

It’s a room he’s become very familiar with over the course of the last couple of months. Namely, ever since one fateful day when he was granted a hand-crafted invitation with intricate writing and symbols. At the time, he truthfully wasn’t quite sure to expect, or rather, who to expect.

His answer came without another thought and it took the form of an old, but peculiarly cheery Faerie man – the very one seated at the head of the table and examining a chalice before him.

“Warlock Kim Taehyung has arrived.” The voice booms into the room, making Seokjin look up.

The Faerie man rises to his feet, addressing the transparent man.

“Thank you, Namjoon.” He nods in confirmation, before wafting back into the breeze and exiting the room.

Seokjin spins around with a big grin, “Taehyung!”

“You haven’t changed a bit.” Taehyung remarks, giving the man a swift hug. “Though, your way of sending invites has gotten really interesting.”

He twirls his fingers and a piece of paper emerges, landing in his hands. He envelopes it, eyes focused on the written words. “A call for all supernatural beings to meet, for the Council of the Haunted to convene once more for urgent matters–”

Taehyung snickers, “You write like you’re a hundred years old already.”

“I was trying to be formal!” Seokjin protests, irises glimmering with specks of pink.

Taehyung raises a playful brow, “A Faerie trying to be courteous? Now that’s funny.”

Seokjin shakes his head with a sigh, “Sit down, will you? I’m going to have more guests to tend to.”

Taehyung non-chantently hums, eyeing the wine in the centre of the table with intrigue. The former Faerie hears more footsteps, and he hurriedly leaves the room altogether.

Making his way to the front door, Seokjin is met with the sight of Namjoon surrounded by others.

“Well, well, who do we have here?” He piques, mischievousness brimming in his voice.

Two men appear before him – contrasting like day and night.

One of them has swept violet hair and dark ebony wings sticking out from his back. A dark red beam within his orbs and there’s a soft smile lingering on his lips. The other has a mop of brown hair and a pair of white wings. He holds a deep scowl, arms crossed and his blue eyes stern.

“Demon Park Jimin and Angel Jung Hoseok have arrived.” Namjoon announces from behind, appearing a bit frazzled from the duo’s sudden appearance.

“The Council of the Haunted, huh?” Hoseok remarks, “You haven’t called us here in ages.”

Jimin peers around, “The decor is really nice, did you remodel the place?”

Seokjin merely laughs, immediately engulfing the two into a hug. “It’s been a while, you two!”

Hoseok grumbles and Jimin giggles. “Come on in! Taehyung’s already here.”

He steps to the side, gesturing the two men forward. They enter the grand dining room with Namjoon’s assistance, taking spots at opposite sides of the table.

Seokjin comes up behind Namjoon. “That makes three – who are we missing now?”

“The vampire and werewolf.” Namjoon utters, grimacing a bit. “I was informed today was a full moon.”

“Of course it is.” Seokjin sighs, glancing at his present guests. “We’ll have to wait a bit longer.”

Taehyung raises his chalice of wine with a grin. “M’kay with me.”

“Wait, I have to sit here longer?” Hoseok recoils, “With him?”

Jimin sweetly smiles. “How interesting. I share the same sentiments.”

The Faerie narrows his eyes, “Taehyung, that wine is supposed to be for everybody.” He turns to his ghostly friend, whispering underneath his breath. “Namjoon, can you make sure those two don’t cause a brawl on my dining table?”

He immediately nods, effortlessly floating over to the table. Seokjin turns around with a huff, planting his hands against his waist.

At this point, anyone who will arrive will be considered late. He should have considered this, knowing that some of his members simply had the tendency to be forgetful and–

“Greetings.”

His heart nearly jumps out of his chest at the low voice behind him, wide pink orbs coming into contact with a red-eyed man with midnight hair and long incisors sticking outside of his teeth.

“Oh gosh–” Seokjin presses a hand against his heart, attempting to calm himself. “It’s just you, Yoongi.” He huffs, “For a moment, you had me scared there.”

The vampire looks at him impassibly, “Sorry about that.”

Seokjin shakes it off, “Don’t worry about it.” He stares at him intently, tilting his head to the side in amusement. “I didn’t think you would come. What changed your mind?”

Yoongi seems to hesitate for a split-second, before mumbling the words.

“You said there would be others here….I was curious.”

The corners of Seokjin’s mouth upturn and he watches as the vampire silently trails over to the dining table, carefully taking a seat amongst the table. He was really interesting – that was for sure.

Suddenly, a howl breaks through and echoes into the walls of his home. He swivels around, just in time to catch the faintest blur of caramel brown fur.

There’s an enormous wolf launching itself against him, practically pouncing onto the poor defenceless Faerie man before he has the chance to say anything.

“Okay, okay, I get it!” He scolds, pushing him away. “Jungkook, get off of me!”

The caramel brown wolf whines loudly, as if in utter protest. Seokjin deeply sighs, petting his head rather awkwardly.

“There! You happy now?”

The wolf seems to let out a pleased howl, before its paw hits against the marbled floor. Within a couple of seconds, its bones begin to crack and a young man with crinkled golden eyes and a huge bunny smile stares back at him.

“Hi hyung!” He chuckles and Seokjin grins lop-sidley, “Thanks for inviting me.”

“Thanks for coming, JK.” Seokjin turns to Namjoon, leading Jungkook in. “Everyone’s here!”

Jungkook brightens up, “Namjoon! It’s so nice seeing you again.”

The ghost man stares back at him wide-eyed as Jungkook loudly cackles, throwing his head back. Seokjin ends up pushing at his shoulders to get him to sit down in one of the chairs.

“Haha, veryy original.” He sarcastically retorts, moving to take his seat at the head of the table. Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook get seated on his right side, while Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi remain on the other.

He ushers for everyone to raise their chalices.

Seokjin clears his voice. “We have all gathered here today for a very important matter to discuss.”

Jungkook raises his hand, “Have you finally decided to remodel the meeting room to look less worse?”

He scoffs, “No.”

“Are you considering taking a step down and letting someone with purer intentions take over?” Hoseok remarks.

Seokjin sighs, “No.”

“Is this about the time I accidentally turned one of your workers into a goblin?” Taehyung ponders.

“What? No.”

“Is this when I forgot to turn your goblin back into your worker?”

“Tae, no–”

“Is this when the goblin wrecked havoc on–”

“Okay, then!” Seokjin loudly coughs underneath his breath, a bright smile plastering on his features. There’s a sudden build up of pressure into the room, as if a hazy wave had crossed over everyone’s mind.

His irises tinge with pink and the room is taken aback with a command, all members in his group visibly relaxing more than before.

“This is so cool.” Jimin whispers, specks of pink dwindling in his own eyes.

“Stop trying to toy with us and get to the point.” Hoseok barks, shaking his head with a huff.

Seokjin grins wickedly, “Now that I finally do have your attention, there is something urgent to discuss.” Taehyung raises his hand again, but Seokjin glares at him, causing him to lower it, “This matter is of utmost importance and I believe it will affect all of us sooner or later.”

Six sets of rounded eyes stare back at him.

He drops the ball, “I have discovered….a human in my home.”

A sharp, collective gasp echoes through the room.

Jimin and Hoseok glance at each other wide-eyed while Taehyung presses a hand against his chest. Jungkook stares back at Seokjin with doe eyes as Namjoon shrinks back and Yoongi takes a sip out of his chalice filled with wine.

“You should have started with that!” Taehyung protests.

“Well, maybe you all hadn’t been – Oh, I don’t know – interrupting me constantly, then I would have!” Seokjin exclaims.

“How could you let a human in here?!” Hoseok hisses, aware only the supernatural kind were granted permission.

“This is why I have gathered all of you here.” Seokjin speaks a bit softer, “I would like some opinions about the matter and to frankly, form my own.”

Namjoon floats forward, “We had discovered her a while ago wandering outside around the mansion. She seemed lost, as if she had nowhere to go.”

“And?” Hoseok raises a brow, “You thought letting her in here was a good idea?”

“I don’t think it's too bad.” Jimin objects, “They were just trying to help.”

“Help a human? Out of all people?!”

Taehyung bites his bottom lip, “What if...the human tries to kill us?”

“I wouldn’t take it that far.” Jimin reasons, “Humans aren’t too dangerous.”

Jungkook leans back in his chair, gold eyes flickering as if recalling a fond memory. “My girlfriend used to be human and tried killing me once.”

Hoseok deeply frowns, “That’s not something to be proud of, JK.”

He huffs, “We lived happily ever after, thank you very much.”

“Someone’s a hopeless romantic.” Taehyung chuckles underneath his breath and Jungkook sends him a glare.

“Well, I for one, don’t trust it.” Hoseok states, crossing his arms. “Humans should be monitored because of how fickle they can be.”

Jimin snorts as he sips his wine, “That’s a lot coming from you.”

Hoseok venomously glowers at him.

“You got something to say, demon?”

Jimin smiles wistfully. “I don’t know, it just seems like a lot coming from an angel that’s been notoriously involved with a female demon.”

Namjoon lets out an audible gasp. Jungkook’s doe eyes increase in size and Yoongi spins his head around. Taehyung leans forward with gleaming eyes and Seokjin leans back, taking a sip of his wine.

Hoseok blushes, flustered from all the sudden attention. “T-Then what about you, huh? Why don’t you tell everyone how fond you are of humans?!”

Taehyung revolves his head around, staring at Jimin with amusement now. Seokjin sips more of his wine, intrigued by the direction of the conversation.

“What can I say?” He cheekily smiles. “Humans are very kind and loving. I have no regrets.”

“Why you–”

“H-Hyung!” Jungkook looks at Yoongi in desperation. The poor werewolf is caught sitting next to the bickering angel and demon, their interactions almost making him feel like they very well arguing over his own two shoulders. “W-What do you think about all this?”

Yoongi leans forward, clearing his throat. “Humans can be very violent and destructive, if swayed in the wrong direction. However, they can be compassionate. It’s something can take decades, even years to be able to find the right one–”

“Not all of us wait for our significant others to be reincarnated, hyung.” Taehyung comments with a smile.

“T-That’s beautiful, hyung.” Jungkook whispers while sniffling.

Taehyung looks at Jimin with a grin, mouthing ‘hopeless romantic’. The demon loudly giggles, causing Jungkook to scoff.

“Hey, it is! Do you know how long it takes to find the one you love?” He proclaims, “They could literally be your best friend and you wouldn’t even realize it!”

“Okay, JK’s started to project. Anyone else?” Seokjin looks around the table, growing bored with the conversation.

His dancing pink eyes land on Taehyung. “How about you?”

“What about me?” Taehyung gulps the last of his wine.

“You have a human partner, no?”

Taehyung smiles amused. “Do I? Who knows?”

“Oh, stop being so secretive and mysterious.” Hoseok rolls his eyes.

“I’m a warlock, angel.” Taehyung snaps his fingers, mist sparkling around that Hoseok waves off with a disgusted look. “I don’t let out my secrets so easily.”

“Okay, so Taehyung’s still as hard-headed as ever.” Seokjin glances over at Namjoon, an unamused hand planted against his face. “Any progress?”

“Two members have vouched for the human and two are against,” He looks up with a frown, staring at Taehyung, “and I believe one is undecided…?”

“So it’s a tie.” Seokjin heaves, pressing a hand against his temples, “How am I ever going to make a decision?”

“What’s going on?”

The entire room plunges into an uncomfortable silence.

Everyone slowly turns to the entrance of the grand room, line of sight redirecting to the person attached to the quiet voice that echoes into the chamber.

Your eyes are as wide as ever, taking in the grand table and the chalices of wine in front of the seven interesting individuals. There’s a mix of different coloured eyes staring back at you, paired with intricate features like wolf ears, fangs, mist, and wings. Among them, a human-like man with pink orbs is the only one you recognize.

“Seokjin?” You wonder, “Are these your friends?”

“Y/N.” Although he smiles, it doesn’t completely reach his eyes. You wonder if you interrupted something, especially with how they all stare at you like you were supernatural.

Seokjin glances around, continuing to smile, “Something like that.”

“O-Oh, that’s nice. What were you guys talking about?”

You stare at the pink-eyed man, not noticing how the angel uncomfortably shifts, or how the demon smiles in your direction. You don’t notice the werewolf staring at you naively, or the intrigue the vampire holds. You especially don’t notice the warlock pushing his wine closer to himself, or the floating man that looks at you in wonder.

“Um…” Hoseok warily peers at Taehyung.

“Don’t mind me.” He swipes away at Hoseok’s drink with mist, causing Jimin to laugh.

“Hey!”

“Shhh.” Jungkook chides, accidentally letting out a howl in the process.

“Take mine.” Yoongi offers. “I prefer blood.”

“Y/N!” Seokjin chimes in, stern pink orbs locking onto his table of supernaturals who immediately pipe down. His arm wraps around your shoulder, a charming smile on his lips.

“How about you wait outside, hm? Things are a bit…unearthly here.”

“Oh…okay!” You chirp, “I don’t mind, I hope you have fun with your friends.”

Seokjin nods, smiling unmovingly. He quickly guides you outside, before looking over in Namjoon’s direction urgently, who floats over to your side.

The two of you leave the room and Seokjin continues to smile until the door shuts.

He spins around.

“Would you all calm down?!” He hisses, taking the wine out of Taehyung’s hands and instantly separating the members, “Didn’t I already tell you she’s human?”

“And?” Hoseok retaliates, “You’re the most human looking out of all of us!”

“Yeah!” Taehyung preaches, “You’re biased towards her.”

Seokjin rolls his eyes. “For your kind information, I’m actually half human which is why I don’t look completely like a Faerie!”

He gestures to his ears, which should have sharper pointed ends but take on a human-like appearance instead.

“Biased! I’m calling it!” Taehyung says again.

“Wait hyung, then why do you need our help?” Jungkook questions, “Wouldn’t it be easier for you to figure it out by yourself?”

“I needed opinions.” He states, crossing his arms. “Despite being half-human, it isn’t as easy making decisions regarding them.”

“Well, I think she’s nice. Doesn’t seem too harmful.” Jimin pitches in.

“Yeah, I wasn’t quaking in fear.” Hoseok retorts.

“She’s not a werewolf slayer, I’ll tell you that.” Jungkook states with uttermost seriousness.

Yoongi shrugs, “Don’t think she’ll reincarnate anytime soon either.”

“Can I turn her into a goblin?” Taehyung lets his intrusive thoughts out, but Seokjin frowns.

He regards all of them, “I appreciate the penny for your thoughts,” His voice deepens, sounding borderline threatening “–and Taehyung, no.”

He pouts and Seokjin sighs, standing at the front of the table once again.

“I have made my decision and it will be final – Y/N be allowed to stay in this home until we can recover where she came from.”

A low laugh escapes your lips.

“Is something wrong?” Namjoon wonders and you shake your head.

“Oh, it’s nothing. You just have a really interesting group of friends.”

“Ah, well, we are all quite interesting, aren’t we?” Namjoon chuckles, before fumbling. “Uh, n-not in a suspicious way, of course. In a more human-like way, with human lifespans and human way of livin–”

“You’re all supernaturals, right?”

Namjoon freezes.

“Y-You knew?”

“It was quite obvious from the start.” You laugh, “Also, I heard Seokjin mumbling something along the lines of getting the creatures of the night to gather together just like the good ol’ tales.”

Your laughter grows as Namjoon places a sheepish hand against his temples.

He sighs, “Well, you aren’t wrong about any of that.”

“And what about you?” He turns, only to be met with your curious gaze and warm smile.

He grows hyper aware, “W-What about me?”

“I could hear them talking earlier.” You explain, gaze not leaving him. “Are you like the others? Do you have a human counterpart too?”

Namjoon is taken aback, not quite expecting you to ask. But then his smile diminishes, hints of anguish filling his orbs.

“I used to, but she crossed over not too long ago.” He looks down at his hands, his transparency only becoming more evident by the minute. “I’m just a wandering ghost now.”

Your heart sinks. “Wandering?”

“Regrets.” Namjoon shuts his eyes, “I’m tethered to this world because of my last regret – which had to do with my dead wife.”

“Oh…” Your eyes soften. “I….I hope she’s in a better place.”

“She is.” Although remorseful, you notice the hope that fills his smile. It results in one lifting onto your own lips.

The doors before suddenly come bustling open, startling the two of you.

Seokjin emerges, brimming with confidence.

“There you are!” He boasts, “A final decision has been made!”

Namjoon looks at him eagerly, “Is she staying?”

“She is, but–” Seokjin waves a finger around. “As long as she follows the rules and… accepts our true identities.”

“Oh, I already know you’re supernaturals.” You profess, much to Seokjin’s utter shock.

“She knows?!” Hoseok’s voice pitches out from the table.

“Humans are smarter than you give them credit for.” Jimin snorts.

“Well, that’s my cue to go.” Taehyung snaps his fingers, vanishing into purple smoke.

“I-I guess that answered my concern.” Seokjin stutters, staring at you with a mix of surprise and horror.

“Thank you for letting me stay.” You warmly smile, glancing in Namjoon’s direction. “It’ll be nice getting to know all of you."

He smiles back and Seokjin nods, widening the door and allowing you to enter into the dining room.

“Supernaturals are a bit peculiar around humans.” Seokjin states, placing another chair at the table, “But hopefully you’ll fit in with time.”

You slip into it, taking the seat of the eighth member amongst the large table.

Leaning back into the chair, there are specks of pink dancing within your irises.

“Don’t worry.” You grin wickedly, “I think I’ll fit in just fine.”

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godsprettiestprincess · 1 year

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The eroticism of painful body horror transformations

#on their own obviously but also the werewolf-style scenario of someone getting locked up in the basement or smthin #and someone else sitting with them and bringing them water & stuff #helping them work through it #ramsey barks #anyway a fox Lucifer bts scene w/ him with horns popped up on my instagram and I’m thinking about dragon Lucifer again #industrial strength chew toys etc etc

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telephaaty · 1 year

Text

Exiled: What is she?

✧Chapter 4✧

(Photos retrieved from Pinterest. Credit to whom it may belong. Edit made by me.)

Previous < Masterlist > Next

Genres: Fantasy, Supernatural, Werewolf! AU, angst, hurt, fluff

Series rating: Mature

Summary: I have spent half my life in exile. I woke up in the middle of the forest with no memories. I don't know who I am, how I ended up like this, I don't know if someone is looking for me or even if I have a family. The only thing I know for sure is that I must hide and that when the full moon is at its highest, disaster begins.

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Author's note: Hello everyone! How are you? I'm sorry I've been missing for so long. Last year was a difficult year. Adult life is complicated 🥴

Here I leave the promised chapter, we are still in the introduction of the story so you can probably find it boring but it will improve as the chapters go by (I hope so🤭).

I don't remember if I already mentioned it but all the data that appears in the story as potions or scientific data are not exact, many are inventions and others I tried to investigate to make the story more reliable, but as I mention in this chapter if you are not involved on the subject, it is very difficult to understand.

I hope you enjoy it!

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"I told you! I told you! I told you!” Joohyuk kept repeating to me over and over again as he paced back and forth. "Or didn't I tell her?" he looked at Jisung, who was coming down from the first floor with a bag.

Joohyuk's house wasn't fancy, but it was comfortable and homey. It was a two-story cabin, with two bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen, it also had a garage where he kept tools and supplies. The cabin was located near the lake and had a small bridge that took you to it. I loved spending time at Joohyuk's house, especially on rainy days like today, where I could sit on the porch with a cup of coffee and watch the rain fall. But, now I'm looking at it from the inside, sitting bored on the couch, listening to the scolding of the half-vampire. I had arrived an hour ago, totally soaked, although we had already agreed that we would meet here, I should have taken the most direct route and arrived much earlier, but let's say that Mr Mafia sent his lackeys to follow me, so I had to deviate and mislead them.

"Yes hyung," the omega rolled his eyes. "We already understood that you told her, calm down."

“Calm down?!! You must be kidding, Jisung!! It goes straight to his death,” Hyuk said pointing at me.

“The other option was a direct kill,” I told him, looking at him tiredly, “at least this will give me a little more time to plan an escape plan. Anyway, you didn't want me to get a pack for Jisung? … There it is, the best pack that an omega can be in, a real luxury,” I said ironically, moving my hands exaggeratedly to make my point.

"Yes, but I didn't ask you to crawl after him."

"Oh! Yeah! Thanks for getting rid of me,” Jisung said despondently looking at us sideways.

“No one is getting rid of you on their own, little guy,” Hyunk proceeded to sit in the single sofa next to the fireplace. “If you continue to live in the cave with Girl…” Jisung intended to interrupt him, but Joohyuk stopped him and continued. "Or, if you live here with us, you will die", the sad omega looked down at his feet. “As I very well explained to you, wolves are destined to live in packs, they become crazy and wild if they are alone, which leads them to be eliminated or die of sadness and anguish. You are lucky to find someone like your noona, he even managed to be with you in that pack.”

“When you go into annoying mode,” I told him as I threw the towel off his head, “you're unbearable. Well," now looking at Jisung, "we must agree on our stories so as not to make mistakes if they come to interrogate us, we don't have much time and we must hurry if we don't want them to come to find us."

“That is not important now. What are you going to do with your…with your medicine?” Hyuk made a quotation mark with his hands when mentioning the said medicine.

“I will not have this discussion again. I already told you that I don't need it, it won't be a problem.”

“Don't be stubborn, you know you will weaken. It's dangerous, too."

I sighed. I was tired of always arguing for the same thing, he was not going to understand and I was not going to agree. It was preferable not to answer him and settle the story with Jisung. I needed to prepare him and reassure him so they wouldn't suspect anything, my life now depended on how convincing Jisung was to the royal pack.

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It was already night and the rain had stopped a while ago, but we had to leave the cabin even when it was raining, we took the long way to dispel any trace of Joohyuk's scent. We didn't have many belongings, a medium bag where we had our clothes, many of which we shared, and my backpack where I had a couple of books, my notebook, my mortar and my herbs. While we were walking, we were reviewing what we should say. Obviously, we agreed to hide that we knew Joohyuk and that the things we had, we got from the surrounding villages.

I knew that the one at a disadvantage in this situation was me. Jisung was a weak omega who would instinctively be protected by this pack, instead, I was a strange orphan girl who, apparently, due to the attitude of suspicion and resentment they showed me, was considered a threat. I looked at Jisung who was walking a few steps behind, he was tired and shivering from the cold, if we didn't hurry up, he would get sick. I took Jisung's bag to ease his tiredness so he could walk faster.

We were reaching the border of the pack, I could slightly hear some murmurs, they were already waiting for us. Instinctively, I touched my pants pocket where I had the box that Joohyuk gave me before we left and which I had to keep hidden. It was very likely that they would go through our things, so he had told me that I should keep it with me until I found a safe place to hide it.

As we came into view, the wolves that were waiting for us turned and urged us to hurry up as we were already late. The one who seems to be the leader of the wolf guard warned us that from now on we should use the main entrance and stay away from the borders and that if we wanted to go out into the city or the forest it must be in the company of an alpha. I had to bite my tongue to avoid getting a curse word out about his last comment, I looked at Jisung who was doing everything possible not to appear nervous and was listening carefully to what the alpha was saying. He would adapt easily, I on the other hand was sure that things were going to go south at any moment.

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Here we are, in the office of the alpha of the pack. There were a lot of people here, some I didn't know. I looked at Jisung who was with his head down trying not to look anyone in the eye, I could feel his nervousness and I could also feel the calming pheromones that the alphas in the room were producing to reassure my friend.

“Your name is Jisung, right?” Prince Namjoon asked, and Jisung nodded without looking up. “Taehyung told us something about you, but I would like to hear it from you, what pack did you belong to and how did you get into this situation?” he concluded the alpha looking at me.

“Umm…well, I'm…I was from the Dawn Pack. I was banished for mating with someone I shouldn't and he disgraced me by breaking the mating mark. My family despised me, and the only thing I remember was arriving at one of the human villages near the pack and I fainted, I woke up a few days later and Girl was by my side, she took care of me and let me stay with her,” he concluded holding my hand looking for support.

Prince Namjoon looked at our joined hands and then looked at me raising an eyebrow, then he turned his gaze to Jisung and smiled saying, “Don't worry, you'll be safe here. We'll give you a new identity if you want or can keep your name, but you'll officially belong to the royal pack. And you,” he looked at me seriously, “you will also have a temporary identity until you find out who you really are or until the alpha king decides what to do with you. Well, I'll make the formal introductions. They are the two oldest princes in the family; Crown Prince Seokjin and Prince Yoongi," he said pointing to where they were standing to his left, "alpha prince Hoseok and well, you know prince Taehyung," they were to his right, "and he's our omega Prince Jungkook," he concluded pointing to one of the people who were a few steps behind us.

With Jisung we turned around to see who it was. The guy standing behind us gave us a brief nod, he was the same guy I had crossed earlier. Now, he was dressed in white shorts and a beige long-sleeved shirt, our eyes met again, but he quickly diverted it. Now that he knew he was omega he could make out a trace of a sweet scent, however, the smell of the alphas prevented me from identifying his scent.

“And then we have Mrs Park, the housekeeper, and Miss Choi, one of the employees who work inside the castle,” the prince continued. Both women curtsied to us and smiled at us. “So, tomorrow you will have an appointment with the royal doctor for a general check-up and we will talk about your studies. After they settle in and shower, Prince SeokJin, who has studied medicine, will briefly check on them and ask them a few questions. Mrs Park shows them their rooms, please.”

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Mrs Park gave us a brief tour of the ground floor of the mansion, showing us the living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, and places where we could not enter without permission such as her majesty's office, the laboratory and the basement. Then, she led us to a large white marble staircase with gold details that branched off into two other large stairs. It was located in the centre of a room with a different entrance than the one we had entered. In the centre of the wall that divided the stairs, there was a carved shield of the head of a black wolf about to bite surrounded, on one side, by a crescent, where there were some rare symbols and, on the other hand, some golden figures similar to elongated diamonds that apparently formed the rays of the sun. In turn, he was surrounded by a strange and perfect braid.

"Good. That door you see over there,” I point to the door across from us and diagonally towards the stairs, “is the front door for pack members and guests. It is through that door that you technically have to enter. The entrance through which they passed is only for royalty, even they avoid using these stairs so as not to bother the omegas. Through that large sliding window that you see there,” we both follow the gesture that she made towards the place, “you go out into the garden that is connected to the training ground.”

“By the way, omegas are not allowed to be in the training place. It's for security,” adds Miss Choi, who was accompanying us on the tour.

“What do you mean 'not to bother the omegas'?” I asked Mrs Park as we walked up the stairs.

“As I said, it's a place that members of the pack frequent. The staircase on the right leads to the castle annexe where many of the members live, including underage omegas who lost their families or those who came seeking refuge or protection from other packs. There are also alphas and betas that belong to the royal guard, but many of them use the entrance connected to the training ground. They avoid making the omegas nervous, they don't want them to feel uncomfortable and insecure."

“So, is in the annexe where we'll stay?” Jisung speaks for the first time since he started the tour.

"No. You will stay in the main wing,” she said as we went up the stairs of the left, “on the first floor together with the youngest princes who are not here at the moment. On the second floor of this wing, are the rooms of Prince Namjoon, Hoseok and Jungkook. Also on that floor is the library that is shared with the annexe. On the third floor are the kings' rooms, those of princes Seokjin, Yoongi and Taehyung. I recommend that you don't go peeping around, Prince Yoongi is too territorial.

While she was explaining everything, she was trying to memorize all the way we are walking to our rooms. There were many corridors and doors, not just the rooms she had mentioned earlier. We arrived at a gloomy corridor, there was no light and a strange energy was felt an indescribable sadness; we share an uneasy look with Jisung. Mrs Park flipped the switch on the wall to her right and excused herself by saying that it wasn't a very busy place. She asked Miss Choi to show Jisung his room while she led me down the hallway. We stopped in front of a double white door, it had gold details as I saw on other doors, with the difference that this one had a letter 'M' in a very beautiful and elegant calligraphy made with some type of shiny stone. When she opened the doors, I was amazed, the room was decorated in white, beige and pink tones, in the middle of it there was a large double bed tucked into a slight arch-shaped opening that was illuminated. On both sides of the bed, there were two long shelves, there was a hanging round ceiling lamp that simulated a flower crown, on one side there was a window with two medium-sized armchairs on the sides with a round table; in front was a mirror with a shelf and chair and next to the door was an empty desk.

“This is where you will sleep,” Mrs Park said as she opened the large window, “this is the balcony and over there”, she pointed towards a corridor with two doors, “is the bathroom and the wardrobe.”

I followed her to both doors, she stopped at the door that was on the side of the hall and opened it. It was the closet. Well, calling it a closet was a way of saying it, it looked more like another connected room. It was a two-story room in the shape of a completely white semicircle, it had an old pink carpet that covered the entire floor, and there were many shelves and mirrors in between. It also had a central table that contained many drawers and doors, the upper part was transparent and you could see how it was divided into sections.

"This is a bit much, don't you think?" I said as I walked around the room.

“I would say it's a standard wardrobe. You have to see the ones with Princes Taehyung and Seokjin, those are a bit exaggerated.”

"Even this shelf here is too much for my few clothes."

“Believe me, it will be full in no time,” Mrs Park said in a whisper. "Speaking of clothes, I need you to give me your clothes to wash them."

"It's clean," I said a little indignant.

"Don't get me wrong, please. The princes requested it because they are sensitive to odours outside the pack. You come from the forest,” I was about to refute how stupid that sounded, but she beat me to it, “I know what you are thinking 'it doesn't make sense', but it's hard to explain. Although they are wolves and technically surrounded by forest, she will later realize that each pack has a particular scent. This is why they detect so quickly if someone who is not from the pack enters the territory. All your clothes, although I don't doubt that it's clean, still have a strange smell, so I need to wash them with special products.”

I kept thinking about the words I use to explain, was she trying to get me to give myself away?

“I don't know how I'll find out later if I don't have the developed super sense of smell that werewolves have, but well if it's really necessary. Jisung has the clothes in the bag he has with him. A lot of the clothes, we share.”

“And what about that backpack?” she said, pointing to my back.

“There are only personal things like notebooks and books, no clothes,” I said as I left the wardrobe.

“Okay, then I'll ask Jisung. I suppose you know how to use the bathroom, don't you?", she question pointing towards the last door that was at the end of the small corridor.

"Of course. How wild do I think I am?"

“I just wanted to make sure, I wasn't trying to offend you. When you finish taking a bath, you will find clothes on the bed. I'll tell one of the employees to bring you a change of clothes,” she concluded going to the door of the room.

"If it's not too much to ask, I'd prefer it not be pink at all," I said as she gave the room another disgusted look, "I already have enough pink to burn my eyes."

Mrs Choi laughed at my comment, nodded her head and left, closing the door. I gave a sigh of resignation, took the box that Joohyuk had given me from my pocket and I headed towards the bathroom. I had to find a safe place to hide it.

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Was it so hard to have a normal shower? I almost drowned in there. The bathroom was another room, there was even a jacuzzi in it. When I came out of the bathroom wrapped in a robe and drying my hair, I saw a pile of clothes on the end of the bed. The clothes were neutral and cold colours, mainly black and gray, it had a light scent of vanilla that was comforting. I grab a long-sleeved black t-shirt and matching cargo pants.

After changing and finding a temporary hiding place for my backpack, I headed downstairs to look for Jisung, since I didn't feel his presence. On the way, I met Miss Choi, who was surprised to see my outfit. She wondered me why I was wearing those clothes and I told her that someone had left them on the bed, that Mrs Park asked for a new outfit for me. She explained to me that these were not the clothes that she ordered her to give me, she had even just found the clothes and was about to take it to me. She told me to go see Prince Seokjin who was waiting for me in the lab and after that I change my clothes immediately.

When I got to the entrance hall, I stayed for a while thinking in which direction the laboratory was until I heard someone approach.

"Jungkookie, have you seen my-" I think it was Prince Hoseok who was approaching looking at his cell phone and when he looked up he looked at me confused. "What are you doing with those clothes?" he asked with a frown.

"Um... someone left it on the bed", I said while I was looking at the clothes, what was wrong with it?

"Just change it if you don't want Namjoon to be in a bad mood," he determined, paying attention to his phone again.

"No," before my denial he raised his head suddenly, he was about to lash out, but I interrupted him. “I like it, it's comfortable and the smell of it is comforting, so I won't change it. If you'll excuse me, Prince Seokjin is waiting for me."

I left, leaving him stunned by my answer. I hated that they wanted to boss me around, much less without arguments. It's going to be hard living with alphas, they weren't used to humans or omegas rebelling against them and I wasn't used to them demanding authority over me.

After a few minutes, he had finally found the laboratory. I opened the big metal doors and the first thing I saw was Jisung putting on his shirt and getting off the stretcher. He barely saw me, he smiled at me and spoke to me through the link.

-Noona, don't worry just he i-

-Has he seen the mark?

"Oh! You're here," Prince Seokjin said as he finished arranging some jars on the table, “Take a seat on the stretcher, I'm done with Jisung”.

-No, I covered it with the makeup that Joohyuk gave me, I nodded and walked towards the stretcher. Remember to hide your eyes, he'll check them, Jisung concluded. We cut the mental link and he walked out the door.

I sat where the prince told me, he turned around observing for the first time the clothes I was wearing. He looked at it for a few more seconds and looked at me seriously, then he gave a forced smile and told me to raise the sleeve of my shirt. He tied an elastic band to my arm and prepared a syringe, when I saw what he was trying to do I jumped and pulled my arm back.

"Wh-what are you going to do?" I asked.

He laughed softly. "Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you. I just need a blood sample,” seeing my look of suspicion, he continued. “It's for the pack's database. So if something happens, we can act quickly. It won't hurt, it'll just be a prick."

After analyzing it a bit, I held out my arm. He drew the blood sample and began filling the tubes with it. He continued to listen to my heart and my lungs, he measured and weighed me, checked my eyes with a small flashlight and asked me to follow the light. Luckily, I put on the special contact lenses that Joohyuk had given me, I no longer had the strength to hide them myself.

The prince began to make me medical questions, which had the answers the same, 'I don't know'. He gave me a pitying look and told me that we were done, he asked me to go eat something and then go to sleep because tomorrow was going to be a long day.

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Seokjin' POV.

It was already quite late in the early morning and I didn't know if what I was seeing was correct or if I was too tired to see clearly. I had never seen anything like it and the fact that it was now in our pack I didn't know if I should be relieved to find something like this before others or worry if it was a threat.

The door opened startling me, I didn't realize Namjoon was getting closer.

“Here I am,” he said, stopping near the desk where he was analyzing the results. "What do you have?"

"I called you an hour ago, where were you?"

"I'm sorry, hyung. I was wit-”

“It doesn't matter anymore. Look, I found something weird,” I transferred what I was seeing on the computer screen to the large TV on the wall. "That you see there is Marian's DNA and it-"

"Marian? Are you so comfortable already with her to you call her that?” he questioned crossing her arms.

"Please, not now. focus. Now, as I was saying, this is the girl's DNA, it's super weird, I've never seen anything like it. The gene is different from an average human, even from a werewolf,” I added two more images: one of human DNA and Jisung's then got up and walked over to the TV to give Namjoon a good explanation of what he was seeing. “This second image is of a human and the third of Jisung, an omega werewolf. The difference between the two is that in the first, the nuclear genome is smaller than the mitochondrial genes present in werewolves. Furthermore, werewolves do not have the same nucleotide base pairs as humans. But if we look closely at Marian's and zoom in a little more we can see that instead of being a double helix DNA, it is a triple helix. The nucleotide bases are the same as humans but it has others that I cannot identify at this time. This will definitely go into my thesis.”

When I looked at Namjoon he was looking at the screen thoughtfully. He is very intelligent but this could be too much for someone who is not dedicated to this. I was about to explain it again in other words, when he decided to speak.

"So you're telling me that she's not human, but you can't tell what kind of being she is either?"

“Exactly,” at least he got the point.

"Can you find out that is she?"

“Yes, but it will take me a while. I cannot promise a specific time, there are many new things that I have never seen."

"We must keep her in our custody in the meantime."

"Do you think we are doing the right thing to let her stay in the pack?" I was the crown prince, I should know well what is good for my people, but since it is something we had no information about, it is not something to be taken lightly. I needed more opinions.

Namjoon knew my internal conflicts very well and understood them. This was our agreement, to consult the decisions of the pack together, we would both be the leaders in the future and if we disagree it would bring problems.

"Don't worry, hyung. I will take care of moulding her and if she becomes a threat, I will eliminate her with my own hands.”

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If you want to be part of the tag list, let me know😊

I hope you have started the year well and I know it is late but I wish you much success this year.

Feel free to comment or ask me anything 😊 See you soon!👋

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jiminiesfavouritecolourisblue · 2 years

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Hollow moon - Taehyung wolf au Part 2

Ft Jimin who’s appearance nearly messed up the whole plot 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ 2.6k words of longing and angst

Prev / Next

“Will she be there?” His closest friend asks as Taehyung buttons his dress shirt. The quarterly gala for the local packs was tonight, it was Taehyung's first one as lead alpha. He shrugs in response to Jimin’s question, trying to appear unaffected but his face gives him away.

He always wore his heart on his sleeve, unable to hide it if he wanted to, no matter the circumstance. The quality never affected him before, until he met and was rejected by you, now it was a part of himself he hated. Actually, since the encounter, slowly he was beginning to hate more and more of himself, because this was the body, the man, you rejected. He could feel himself apologise to his wolf a thousand times over, for not being enough for their mate.

“Isn’t that what you want?” you had said to him that night. “The freedom to choose?”

He looks over to his best friend, his platonic soulmate since birth, who shared the same values as you did. Jimin had voiced his disagreement with the moon’s bonding more than once, to the point that the elders of their packs grew weary of the other alpha. The Moon’s choice was absolute, they had no qualms accepting the matter. But Jimin was young when he fell in love with someone who wasn’t his mate, the issues he had with the laws were deep and traumatic… which is why Taehyung was so afraid that you had met someone else before him.

“She reminds me of you,” Taehyung says out of the blue, after his train of thoughts the sentence makes sense to him, but to Jimin it’s another one of his random outbursts. He frowns at the rejected alpha but does not question his words.

“I know you said you would do the same Jimin,” Taehyung says solemnly. “But I just want you to know, for your mate the rejection feels like you’re being shredded apart, like gravity disappears and your soul tries so hard to latch onto something solid it grabs onto everything but tears itself into pieces in desperation for anything to hold onto. I don’t feel here, I just feel lost.”

There’s silence between them as the words hang in the air until Taehyung elaborates further, the blank despondent look on his face makes Jimin feel for this friend.

“Even if I were to hunt all the parts of myself down, I would never find them all, I’ll never be whole again.”

They say nothing as he turns away, both of them ignoring the tear that slipped out of the alpha’s eyes.

—

He tried to swallow down the bitter feeling as he walked through the grand entrance of the estate, the neighbouring packs were hosting this gala, and every eye was turned to the rejected alpha, and behind each gaze was an agenda. It was no secret Taehyung was the most eligible bachelor amongst the packs, and now word had spread that he was mated to the deranged Luna, the opportunity presented itself in their eyes to forgo the Moon’s wishes.

The hypocrisy of these wolves, Jimin thought beside his friend, only obeying the Moon’s wishes when it suits them.

The amount of well wishers that visited him since the day of his rejection were beyond that of sympathy. The business between mates was a private matter, the disrespect towards the bond was thinly veiled as every wolf that arrived brought their daughter or daughters as if to say ‘take your pick’, as if numbers would play into their favour. Jimin had to hand it to Tae for not losing his cool, although at times it seemed he was close to. Instead of taking it out on the suitors and severing valuable ties, he visited Jimin’s pack and vented to the shorter alpha.

He watched now as Taehyung subtly searched around the room with a desperate hope in his eyes, evident to those who knew him, like Jimin did, he was looking for you. Even Jimin scoured their surroundings, but he noticed, you were nowhere to be seen.

“She's not here,” Taehyung absentmindedly breathes as his gaze searches on.

“Maybe she decided against coming,” Jimin suggests but the alpha shakes his head, rejecting the idea.

“I heard that her pack weren’t taking the news too well,” Taehyung sighs in worry for you. “I’ve heard rumours about how they treat her.”

His wolf wants to whine, wants it to rumble out of his chest to call for you.

“Cavemen,” Jimin rebuffs with a scowl. “You’re talking about this very casually,” he notes as he looks up and down at his friend, admiring the fact that despite the rejection he was still behaving as the gentleman he knew. He looks Jimin in the eye with a pressure of intensity behind the gaze that, despite all their years together, he can't decipher.

“I don’t hate her,” he confesses. “I just hurt.”

—

He's here, you feel your wolf stir in the confines of your chest, like the light of your soul started burning again, rousing it from a cold barren sleep.

You bore the whispers and looks of distaste sent your way, took them with your held head high but you wanted a breather, a break from the onslaught of their disapproval. Mates were rejected, it was a rare possibility but it happened, so why were you alienated for it? The passage you walk down is empty, and you’re thankful.

The wolf inside of you grew more and more restless as you begged her to return to her slumber, even if it made you feel empty again, but pleading with her was fruitless when what she wanted was so close yet not within reach. You could feel your being summersault inside your chest repeatedly while you searched for a place of calm, away from judging eyes and the presence that was making your muscles atrophy the more you moved further away.

As you stumbled in your heels, in the unfamiliar estate, the corridors grew darker, but you welcomed it when the distance meant you could no longer hear their taunts and whispers. The air was still, quieter, you were left to your thoughts, only having to fight the voice that begged you to find him. You didn’t give in, instead you walked to the hollow arched window in front of you, a sense of deja vu washing over you.

Light flooded through, sent from the crescent moon illuminating the night sky with a tint of blue. She looked like she was losing herself, like someone had taken a huge chunk out of her being but she still radiated light better than any star. You could deny it all you wanted, but with your gaze on the moon you knew why you were hated for your decision. You were torturing your wolf, and his, the purest parts of yourselves, your souls. It was unforgivable. You knew that, but you had done unforgivable things before and lived to tell the tale.

“I don’t deserve him,” you whispered to the whining wolf inside of you as if it would placate her, closing your eyes as you stubbornly stood by the statement.

“Deserve who?”

You turn to the alpha that crept up on your hiding place, heart pounding from the shock. How did he sneak up on you like that? You inhale through your nose deeply, meeting his amused grin with a confused one of your own. He smelled like- your alpha. Wafts of his scent stuck closely to this stranger. You shake away the thoughts as fast as they come, you didn’t need to wonder about Taehyung, he wasn't yours.

You eye the newcomer carefully, not wanting to trust him just because he brought a familiar scent with his foreign one.

“It’s rude to sneak up on someone,” you chastise him bluntly.

“Deserve Taehyung?” he ignores you, continuing his question, although seemingly talking more to himself than you. His hands are in his pockets as he walks closer to you, not helping the fact he already put you on edge. “Well if you’re anything like me like he seems to think, you probably don’t.”

He lets out a humourless breath of laughter, again more so at himself.

“Look, I don’t know who you are but it’s really none of your business.”

He looks at you then, meeting your steady gaze with a burdened one of his own. His eyes were aged beyond his years, not in wisdom but in scars. He doesn’t seem surprised to see similar ones in yours, different shapes, different stories, but they weighed the same as his.

“I’m not here to convince you to give my best friend a chance,” he scoffs, those heavy eyes never leaving you. “That would make me a hypocrite.”

You stay quiet, cautiously watching his movements, trying to figure him out, trying not to indulge in that stupid faint smell that lingered on him.

“The Moon knows the day I meet my mate I will cut the cord,” he mutters. “After seeing the number it's done on Tae, for their sake I hope we never meet.”

He stands beside you, hands still in his pockets, looking out at the moon the way you were but with such distaste you could feel the hate radiate off him.

“Not that I care anyway,” he admits with a hollow smile. “Whoever they are, I already despise them…”

“I don’t hate Taehyung,” you recoil from the alpha, brows furrowing again at the unsettling feeling his words evoked. “I don’t know him, how can I hate him?”

“How can you be expected to love him?” he scoffs again bitterly, meaning every word. “How can he expect it?”

His statement ran true, echoed everything you had been saying but his tone of voice made you dislike him instantly… Was this how people reacted to you when you preached the same philosophy? But you never said it with such hate to the individual, to your mate, only the ideals.

“It's not his fault,” you mumble to your unwanted mate’s defence. “We grew up with these beliefs instilled in us, and they're not all wrong…”

His eyes snap to your form then in surprise or disgust, you don’t know, ready to argue with you.

“What’s wrong is the expectation to follow them without thought, without choice,” you explained, not letting him interrupt. “Why should the Moon decide whom I belong with? Why can’t that be my choice?”

He doesn’t speak but you hear him swallow down whatever it was he wanted to say. The silence is stifling, you don’t want to stand in it for much longer.

“Excuse me,” you make your leave, going back the way you came and leaving the alpha to ponder to himself in your absence.

Your wolf settles, sitting calmly inside your soul without complaint, as if for once she agreed with your decision, lulling you into a false sense of security. You should have realised she was leading you to a trap.

You catch yourself before you stumble into the figure as you walk through a doorway, the both of you caught in shock on either side of the arch between you.

“Taehyung,” you breathe, caught in his gaze, your wolf inside of you leaping towards him but you hold her back, imprisoning her behind the bones of your ribcage.

His hands are balled into fists beside him, tightening when you called his name, did you realise you were drawing him in? Those eyes staring at him so wide he could see inside your soul, he swore he could hear your wolf whining for him. He was fighting every fibre of his being by not taking the steps he wanted to close the distance. The weight in his chest as it pulled was making him lose his breath, the absence of you since that night made his wolf desperate.

Mate, Luna, Love, could you hear his wolf call out for you in the confines of his soul the way he could hear yours? Trapped in your respective human body unable to reach each other. The thought has Taehyung souring, you can see it on his face as he looks away, he wanted to tell his wolf there was no point in pining, no hope, not when you rejected the bond.

“Are you okay?” You ask, a light whisper despite the heavy guilt burdening your body.

How do you manage to simultaneously break his heart and mend it back together? He was caught in a paradox in your company, empty and full, cold and warm, his body was unsettled as his soul spiralled within it. He manages to nod but it’s a lie, it takes him longer to find his voice, a light awkward atmosphere lingering between you, and yet the silence was so loud.

“I was looking for my friend Jimin,” he explains, avoiding an actual answer to your question, trying to smile, trying to behave like he was fine, not for pride’s sake but because he was afraid. You already saw him at his most vulnerable, he openly bared his soul and it got him hurt, he didn’t want to do it again. He wouldn’t be able to bear it a second time.

He should walk away, he should leave you just as you wanted him to, but he glances over your sunken form. The way your shoulders that were held so high the last time he saw you were slumped and defeated has him speaking before he can stop himself.

“Are you okay?” he repeats your words softly, feeling your pain mirroring inside of him. As hurt as he was, he didn’t want you to be. You were the cause of all his heartache, but he still wouldn’t wish you any sadness.

He can see the surprise in your features at his question for your wellbeing. He knew of the way you were treated in your pack, he wanted to tell you how strong he thought you were for being so resilient against them, for standing up for your beliefs, but he didn’t know how it would sound coming from him.

He can see your eyes glisten in the fire from the torches on the wall, the way it illuminated you to him despite the distance. He itched to stand closer to you, take you in his arms, hold you for a moment. You both needed it, that much was clear, but he would have to wait for you to take the first step. All he could do was extend out his hand and wait.

You glance down at his open palm before looking back up at him questioningly.

“Let’s go somewhere,” despite his earlier conviction he wasn’t going to make himself vulnerable again to your rejection, the look in your eyes compels him to. His wolf inside of him takes over, even if he was putting himself in the firing line, it was instinct to protect you, to make sure you were okay. You could stampede across his chest, and he would let you if it was what you needed.

“I’m no good for you Taehyung,” you whisper, and the way you said his name gripped his heart in a way that made him realise where he lost it, why he was feeling like his chest was so empty in the first place. He left it with you that night, and a part of him didn’t want it back.

Who says? He wanted to challenge but he doesn’t, you didn’t need that right now.

“I’m not trying to convince you of reconsidering,” he says, not needing to elaborate on what, “but I don’t want to be here, and I suspect, neither do you.”

He reaches out to you, and you don’t know what compels you to do so, but you take his hand.

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Taglist: @nlost21 @pb-n-juju @needyomnivore @lvpersona @marvelfamily3000 @love2lovesworld @halesandy @dreamamubarak @deepseavibez @mikymouse0729 @barnesrogerslover @itismochirice @mwitsmejk @minswife4life @seagulljk @blaaiissee

#bts au #bts fanfic #bts x reader #bts fic #bts angst #bts scenarios #bts fluff #taehyung x you #taehyung x reader #bts werewolf au #wolf!au #taehyung au #taehyung angst #taehyung werewolf #taehyung wolf au #taehyung imagine #taehyung fanfic #bts writing

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lokisasylum · 2 years

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So if Jimin were a werewolf and sat down to howl at the moon...do you think his beak would stand out?

#I MADE MYSELF SAD AGAIN #jimin #park jimin #bts #bts jimin #jiminie #tiny lovely jiminie #PJM #pjms #bts au #bts scenarios #werewolf jimin

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sailoryooons · 3 months

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Red | KNJ | (m)

☾ Pairing: Werewolf!Namjoon x f. reader

☾ Summary: For as long as you can remember, your village has been relatively normal. But when people begin to turn up dead right after a group of newcomers arrive, pieces of your past start to fall into place, and something feels familiar - particularly the quiet man who can't take his eyes off of you.

☾ Word Count: 21,148

☾ Genre: Supernatural, thriller, smut

☾ Rating: 18+ Minors are strictly prohibited from engaging and reading this content. It contains explicit content and any minors discovered reading or engaging with this work will be blocked immediately.

☾ Warnings: Fantasy violence, light depections of murder and animal attacks, mentions of gore, discussions about community displacement and violence, Yoongi is an asshole, animal attacks, depictions of blood, tbh reader and Namjoon don’t know each other THAT well when they fuck so idk, implied protecting from a far but not in a stalker way, explicit language, intense sequences of fear and anxiety, reader is attacked by a wolf, there is a mention of animals being hurt/killed but not in explicit details, dead bodies, arson, sexually explicit content invluding vaginal fingering, nipple play, vaginal penetration, a little bit of mention of fluids but not really.

☾ Published: Sunday, January 21 2024

☾ A/N: I wish I could explain to you how this got to be so long. I wrote it over several weeks and each day I picked it back up, I just kept adding dialogue and scenery and setting. Like half of this isn’t even Namjoon and reader reacting - what was I doing? I wish I knew! I hope you like my spin on Red Riding Hood anyway! I tried to do this in a way that it doesn’t seem creepy that Namjoon was silently looking out for reader but like… I could understand if someone finds it creepy I am so sorry lmfao. I did read through this to edit but I 100% missed stuff because I'm a rougher editor and this is unbeta'd.

☾ A/N 2: This is a Red Riding Hood Retelling that is similar in vibe to the 2011 Red Riding Hood movie directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

Disclaimer: All members of BTS are faces and name claims for this story. This is entirely a work of fiction and by no means is meant to be a projection, judgment or representation of real-life people. Any scenarios or representations of the people and places mentioned in works are not representative of real-life scenarios.

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Father always said not to go into the woods at night. Like him, though, the woods have always called to you, feeling like a second home. You’ve never been able to explain it, and you’ve stopped trying to.

It’s a little chilly outside, the first breath of harvest air nipping at your skin. In a few weeks, it will be freezing outside, forcing you into cloaks and furs.

Grass crunches beneath your feet as you slip through the small yard and toward the tree line. Your house already sits at the edge of the village, the dark trees stretching high above the rooftops. Soon the trees will be dusted in snow, but for now, they sway gently in the autumn breeze, turned silver by the moonlight.

You’ve always loved the woods. The sounds of the crickets singing and rabbits dashing underfoot are calming, the smell of sticky pine and fresh air invigorating. You especially love them at night, hidden beneath boughs and walking through the shafts of moonlight that slip through the trees.

The best part is that you don’t feel so alone out here. There is a feeling you cannot place each time you enter the woods, like you’re a little closer to discovering yourself. You’ve been chasing that feeling since you were a little girl, hungry for finding whatever it is that drives you out here.

Hands tucked into your pockets, you walk the same route you always follow. It isn’t deep into the woods - you aren’t silly enough to believe you’re safe alone in the dark - but it’s enough of a walk to clear your head.

Howls echo up into the night, a wolf pack on their hunt. The sound of them makes the hair on your arms stand on end.

The wolves don’t come very close to the village anymore since the vicious wolf hunts when you were barely old enough to remember them. The relationship between the men of your home and the wolves in the wood is violent, a chill cooling your skin every time they’re mentioned by one of your neighbors.

A terrible howl splits the night. You feel your body go cold with fear, warmth leaching out of you as you press yourself against a tree, heart in your throat. The sound is something like a howl laced with utter anguish, chilling you down to the marrow. It tapers off into a whimper before falling silent again.

Pressed against the tree, you wait. Your heart is beating so harshly that it feels like you might vomit in fear. Soft whimpering drifts on the wind. You hold your breath and strain your ears. It almost sounds like an injured dog.

It tugs at your heartstrings. You bite your lip, weighing your options. The noise sounded like it came from the south a little off of your path and toward the ravine that splits the part of the woods that is relatively safe from the deeper part where the animals are more lethal and more frequent. You could easily find your way back if you made it to the ravine, and as the whimpering vanishes entirely, you can’t help but imagine an animal in pain.

The most difficult part about working with Dr. Kim at the veterinary clinic is always the animals that he can’t fix. You’ve held the hands of loved ones who couldn’t save their aging dogs, and you’ve hushed lame horses as Dr. Kim prepared draughts to send them to sleep and then to death.

Pivoting, you turn and march toward the initial sound. It may perhaps be the single worst idea you’ve ever had, but you suddenly don’t care. You’ve worked with Dr. Kim enough to know how to triage animal wounds, and the thought of leaving something alone and suffering replaces any sort of fear you originally had.

You’re careful not to lose your footing as the ground slopes steadily as you get closer to the ravines and canyons of the south side. Leaves shift underneath your feet as you go. It feels overly loud in a forest that is suddenly so quiet, only filled with the softest sound of labored breathing.

A small dip in the ground catches you off guard. You gasp, a scream stuck in your throat as you lose your footing and slide down the slope, your back and ass hitting the ground hard as you slide, leaves hissing underneath you. You scramble to grab a hold of something, but the hill isn’t very high and you hit the bottom of it quickly.

Heart pounding, you lay in the damp leaves for a second, panting, hand pressed to your heart as it rattles under your palm. Just as the fear settles down, a growl makes your blood run cold. Slowly, you begin to turn your face toward the left. You realize you’ve slid down a dell, and a few yards from you is a large, shivering form covered in fur.

You blink. Once. Twice. You realize that the large mound of fur is a creature - a wolf. It lays on the ground shaking, a ride of jet black hair standing up on its spine, hackles raised. The wolf’s ears are pinned back and its yellow eyes are wild, nearly consumed by the dark pupils drinking you in. Its teeth are bared, foam and drool lining pink gums as it snares, nose twitching.

It’s the biggest wolf you’ve ever seen. You can’t move. You can only stare at it, wondering why it continues to snarl and stare at you, but not move. Your eyes rove its trembling form from maw to tail, and you realize its front leg is wet and held at an odd angle.

“Oh,” you gasp, realizing that the wolf’s foot is stuck in a claw trap. “I’m so sorry. I… can I help you?”

The wolf stops growling for a moment as if it understands. You stare with wide eyes, not daring to move as it assesses you. It leans toward you and sniffs, the sound of snuffing loud in the silence of the dell. For a few moments, you just watch as the beast regards you.

Then, it chuffs and looks at its own foot, whining. You sit up slowly in amazement. The creature watches you with what you can only describe as a caution. You get up carefully and make your way toward the wolf. It watches your every movement. It can surely smell your fear as you get a few feet away, crouching down with your hands held out to let it know you’re not going to cause harm.

You pause, waiting for permission to examine the wolf’s foot. It gazes at you and for a moment, you lose yourself in that burning, golden gaze. The wolf’s eyes are so human that it’s hard to see it as a simple beast. There is something alive and intelligent there.

As if sensing that you’re waiting for the all-clear, the wolf chuffs and lowers its head toward its foot, gesturing. You smile a little at that, marveling at the communication skills. Carefully, you look at the trap around the wolf’s foot. It’s a metal contraption that is pressure-engaged, with metal teeth. You cringe seeing the red on matted fur and metal.

“You must have stepped on the pressure plate,” you tell the wolf, though it probably doesn’t understand. You gesture to the round plate at the center of the trap. “It would have been in a circle and when stepped on, snapped closed like jaws.”

The wolf whines and bows its head. You wince. “They’re really strong,” you admit, chewing on your lip. “I don’t think I can pull it apart all the way, but I might be able to open it enough just for a moment for you to pull out your leg. Can you do that?”

A huff. Somehow, you think if it could, the wolf might roll its eyes. Your mouth twitches in an almost smile as you get onto your knees, wiping sweaty hands on your pants. This close to the beast, you realize just how large it is.

“This is going to hurt,” you insist. “Please… Please don’t bite me, okay? I want to help you.”

The wolf lowers its head until it's lying on the ground, gold eyes watching you. Its muscles are tense and the hair along the ridge of its back is still standing, afraid and alert.

“Okay. I’m just… I’m just going to touch the trap and try to get a grip first, okay?” The wolf doesn’t answer. It blinks at you, waiting. Licking your lips, you whisper, more to yourself than anything, “Okay, I can do this.”

Slowly, you reach out toward the wolf’s injured foot. You flick your gaze over to the wolf looking for a reaction. It just watches you, though you feel tension. The metal is wicked cold to the touch. You hiss and the creature flinches a little, a whistle-whine escaping its nose. You mutter an apology, fingers pressing to the ridges of the cold metal.

It’s slippery with blood. You chew on your lip, prodding your finger in the space between the metal teeth on the edges where it’s not clamped around the wolf’s paw. You wiggle your finger a little, testing the strength of the closed jaws of the trap. It doesn’t budge and you curse.

Sweat beads on the back of your neck, freezing in the cool air. You lift your other hand, very carefully trying to find a good grip on either side of the jaws to pry them open. The movement jostles the trap a little, the wolf snarling in pain. You flinch and rip your hands away, looking at it. Gold eyes burn and the wolf huffs, as though telling you to be more careful.

“Sorry,” you mutter. “I’m nervous and it’s hard to get a grip on it.” The wolf snorts. You glare at it. “I’m sorry, do you want to do this instead?” Your only answer is a rumble as it looks the other direction. “That’s what I thought.”

Sighing, you turn your attention back to the metal. Anyone a little stronger and older could probably pull it open. Seokjin for sure could - even Hoseok who is as old as you are, but plenty stronger. You try not to think about how weak you are, and instead wiggle your fingers through the gaps in the teeth.

The cool metal stings your hands. It’s not a great grip and your fingers are placed in bad positioning due to the teeth of the trap. Taking in a big breath, you try to pull the metal jaws apart.

Nothing happens and you let your breath out, panting lightly as you stop trying to pull. The wolf flicks its tale but makes no other sound. With the way you’re gripping the jaws, you realize that pulling it apart is going to be difficult. It would rely on your forearms to peel the metal jaws backward… But if you were to push down and push apart, you could use your body weight as an extra boost. It would be pushing the jaws apart from above instead of trying to pry them apart with sheer strength.

Leaning high on your knees, you position yourself straight over the trap, your weight settling in on your forearms. You take another deep breath and this time when you pull, you push your weight down on the trap. For a second, it seems like it’s not going to give. You hiss through your teeth, muscles clenching, fingers burning as your skin presses against the metal as hard as you can stand it.

Then, the jaw opens a little. You grind your teeth harder, the ache in your arms growing as you push as hard as you can. Your forearms are trembling. You feel the vein throbbing in your neck and forehead. Just when you think you’re going to fail, the jaws give way again. You growl, feeling a surge of energy go through you at the small victory and you shove your body weight down on it hard. The springs creak a little and open more.

Little by little, the trap opens up. Your vision pulses red as you pant, strength waning. And then it’s like you hit the let-off point of the contraption, pushing it enough that the rest of the way it just falls open. You let go of the trap and the wolf yanks its leg from it. It now lies open and bloody as you collapse on the ground next to it, breathing hard, breath misting the air.

Your heart beats in your ears, pulse thrumming in your neck wildly. For a second, you forget all about the wolf. You laugh up to the dark trees, a giddy feeling shooting through you. You did it, even though you didn’t think you would be able to.

A dark presence alerts you. Slowly, you turn your head to face the wolf. It’s standing almost above you, looking more imposing than it did before. You swallow hard, mouth going dry as it blinks down at you. It favors the injured leg, but stands nonetheless, watching you.

“Please don’t kill me,” you whisper, limbs trembling not only with exhaustion but fear.

The wolf doesn’t kill you at all. Instead, it leans its head down and presses its cold, wet nose to your arm. You flinch, squeezing your eyes shut for a minute. Then the beast chuffs, making you peak at it. When you meet its gold eyes, you get the sense it is vaguely amused.

“Oh,” you breathe, relief sagging your aching body. “Cool. You’re not going to kill me.”

Standing, you realize that the wolf is still taller than you. You tilt your head upward, staring. There’s no way this is a normal creature, but you don’t know what else it could possibly be. You recall the legends of werewolves and dire wolves told by the men of your town, but you’re unsure if those are real.

“Let’s take care of this,” you mutter, grabbing a branch and jamming it into the pressure plate of the trap. It snaps shut with a loud clang, snapping the branch, but otherwise ineffective now that it’s re-sprung. The wolf flinches and whines at the sound, no doubt remembering the feeling of the instrument on its leg. “Sorry.”

Silence stretches out over the woods, the night growing deeper and cooler. You shiver, rubbing your hands up and down your arms as you turn to the wolf, which watches you keenly.

“Will you be okay?” the question comes out as a whisper. The wolf huffs and steps forward, pressing its snout to your head. It’s cold and wet, making you shiver as it snuffs against your skin. “Good. I um - should start climbing this hill.”

It swivels its head and turns, waiting. You grin, realizing it will accompany you back up, at least. Though injured, the wolf is able to walk with three legs, the wounded leg lifted off the ground. Its gait is awkward and hobbled, but the two of you make it up the hill together, your breathing labored.

At the top, moonlight shines through the trees and you both pause. A series of howls goes up in the night, startling you. The wolf looks up, ears twitching as it tilts its head, listening. Slowly, it turns to look at you, gold eyes sparkling.

“I guess you have to go, huh?” it bows its head once. “Stay safe, okay?”

The wolf steps forward. Presses its muzzle into your temple and huffs, making you grin. You smell pine and bergamot, pleasant and calming. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

Slowly, the wolf clambours off, vanishing into the dark woods, leaving you to hurry home yourself.

“Wear this at all times for protection, especially in the forest,” you murmur, holding the neatly scrawled note. You frown and look down at the fine cloak folded on the dresser. It had appeared overnight as if by magic, a funny feeling flipping your stomach. “Where did you come from?”

The cloak, of course, has no answer. You lift your hand to feel it, breathing out a dreamy sigh. The inside is lined with soft bear fur. Outside is some of the finest cloth you’ve ever seen, gentle but sturdy to the touch and dyed the most delicious shade of scarlet.

Carefully, you lift the cloak. It’s a little big for your size, but not unwearable. You slip it over your sleeping gown, loving the way the material ripples like blood over your shoulders, the fur lining keeping you warm. It smells like pine and bergamot, making you pause.

Certainly, a wolf did not bring you a cloak. Still, the timing is quite odd. You don’t know who else could possibly make a cloak so fine in the village, and the smell… you shake your head. A wolf did not bring you a cloak, but it did seem perhaps you had a secret admirer.

THIRTEEN YEARS LATER

“Boo!” You scream and drop the collection of logs in your hands, whirling around. Hoseok bursts into laughter, doubling over as he slaps his hands against his knees, hot breath misting the air. “You should see your face!”

“You rotten bastard!” You growl, picking up a log and throwing it at him. It doesn’t hit him, but he jumps away from it anyway, careful not to let it drop on his toes. “That isn’t funny!”

“It’s a little funny.”

“It’s not!” You crouch down and start picking up the timber. Hoseok at least has the decency to help you, starting with the log you threw at him. “There was another animal attack last night, in case you didn’t know.”

That makes him pause. “There was?”

“Yes,” you hiss, snatching the last log and standing. “So stop lurking around corners and scaring me. It isn’t funny.”

“Well, an animal isn’t going to attack you in the village. Unless you’re talking about Mingyu’s fiancee, anyway. That one is feral indeed.”

You level Hoseok with a look and he gives you a grin. His nose and ears are red from the cold - and maybe a little guilt for scaring you - and he offers to take the timber from your arms. You let him, shoveling it over to him and marching around the front of your house.

Wind howls between the houses, ripping at the ends of your red cloak. It catches your hood, throwing it up over your head as you shiver and tuck your hands into the fur lining. A shiver rattles up your spine as you kick the snow from your boots and rush inside, Hoseok quick on your heels.

“So what happened?” Hoseok asks, following you to your room.

“The Matheson Family,” you mumble. “They were attacked. San went down to collect new saddles his father ordered and found them slaughtered - their hounds too.”

“They have hunting hounds - what the hell can kill those?”

“Perhaps it’s the wolves again. Dr. Kim was going with the city council to investigate.”

Hoseok sighs. “The timing isn’t good. It’s about time the traders arrived. What if they bypass us entirely if the road is too dangerous?”

It’s a thought that has been plaguing everyone in the village. Because of the remote location on the north side of the woods, your small spec on the map relies on traders at the beginning of every winter for things that you’ll need to make it through: salt, extra grain and fruits, tools too advanced and large for the local smithy, repairs on houses and wagons.

Arrival times of traders fluctuate every year. Sometimes there’s a cold snap, burying roads in heavy snow that are unnavigable. Other times, there is unrest in the woods when a rogue band of thieves gets the idea to rob travelers and hide in the woods until the city council sends a team of men to deal with it.

Now, though, it’s getting into the late period of their arrival. The entire village holds its breath waiting for them, people looking out the open gates down the snowy road hoping to see a courier come ahead to announce the arrival of wagons and troupes of people.

“Do you really think it’s wolves?” Hoseok asks. “I don’t think I’ve heard of wolf attacks like this since…”

Hoseok winces. “It’s fine,” you assure him with a smile. “It’s not like I remember that time, much less remember my dad.”

It’s true. Early memories of your childhood are murky at best. You remember being happy and loving your dad. You remember a period of fear and general uneasiness in the town, wolf attacks rampant and frequent. There had been plenty of men and women who died during that period, including your father.

That was a long time ago, though. For the most part, life in your small village is uninteresting. Some winters are harder than others, like the current season, but you’ve always managed to get by.

“Do you remember much of that time period?” you ask him quietly.

“Not really. Just that everyone was afraid. It was a really harsh winter and it drove wolves down from the mountains. I remember it being strange.”

“Strange how?”

You chew your lip and shake your head, trying to encapsulate the thread of memory you have. Of feeling the tremor of fear in the air, the cold feeling of dread… like something violent was in the village. Something wrong.

“I don’t know. I was so young.”

“Hmm.”

The talk of wolves makes you think about your wolf. Your lips curve at the memory of how gentle the wolf was, the somber eyes, and the smell of pine and bergamot.

It would be a lie to say you had not gone out to the woods several times since that night to try and find the beast again. You haven’t seen him since, but you’ve always had a feeling he’s there somewhere. Watching. Waiting.

“Either way,” Hoseok sighs. “Dad seems worried this winter will be like that time. He’s been doing a lot of will and testament papers at the office. He works late every night and is gone early in the morning.”

“Really?”

“Want to hear what Mr. Hillshire is leaving for his kids?” Hoseok leans forward, conspiratorial. “You won’t believe it.”

The bell over the door rings as someone enters the salon of Dr. Kim’s veterinary practice, drawing your attention. You straighten when you see San walk in.

“Hi, San,” you greet. “Here to pick up Maple?”

“Yeah, is that alright? Mom is busy at the shop.”

“Of course.” You wipe your sweaty hands on your skirts and gesture behind you with your thumb. “I’ll go fetch her. Dr. Kim is on an errand but she’s ready to go.”

The back of the building with the kennels is quiet. The Choi family cat and two other sleeping dogs are the only occupants of the practice, making it an easy day. Maple is dozing in her kennel, chirping in protest when you open the cage and scoop her into a carrier. She’s a lazy thing, a calico with pretty eyes and a newly stitched ear.

Carefully you carry her up front. San is standing patiently in the lobby, hands behind his back as he looks around nervously. You raise your brows as you come around the counter, handing over the carrier. “Everything okay?”

“Hmm?”

“You look nervous. It’s just me and the Lowells’ hounds back here.”

“Oh, yes.” His ears blush pink as he accepts the carrier and steps back. “Just a nervous energy in general. I have been since um…”

Oh. You had forgotten that it was San who discovered the Matheson family disemboweled by some kind of animal. The constable had thought that maybe it was a pack of wolves but was concerned by how big the claw marks and destruction were.

“I’m sorry,” you blurt.

“For what?”

“That you had to see that, I guess? It must have been terrifying.”

“A little,” he admits, looking at his shoes. “I walked the path to the Mathesons all the time. I don’t ever recall seeing something that could… do that.”

“Was it that awful?”

He nods. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I go on hunting parties. We’ve seen the leftovers from bears and wolves. This was something worse. It felt like…” He shakes his head and looks up at you. “It felt angry.”

“Angry?”

“Yeah. I know that doesn’t make sense. It was probably just a beast coming down from the mountain because it was starving. You know how harsh winters are.”

You hum in agreement.

San dismisses himself, thanking you again for helping with the family cat and throwing a wave over his shoulder. You return it half-heartedly, already distracted with thoughts of what the animal attacks could mean.

You think about your wolf and how kind and intelligent it was. You don’t remember ever feeling a sense of impending doom like you do now, a heaviness to the air as you stand idly behind the counter.

Dr. Kim's return startles you at the counter. You press your hands flat against the top of the desk, leaning up on your tiptoes as you see his son Seokjin enter behind him. Your heart flutters a little at the sight, still overwhelmed by his handsome face.

Seokjin is tall and broad, with dark hair and a beautiful face. His sharp eyes find you and he gives you a half smile, though there seems to be something on his mind as he follows his father into the backroom, Dr. Kim barely saying hello as he goes, his brows furrowed in deep thought.

The two of them disappear and you watch the door swing shut behind them. Curious, you trail around the counter and softly walk over to the door, pulling it open a smidge.

It’s difficult to pick up on their words, but you can hear Dr. Kim’s timbre speaking in low tones from somewhere in the backroom. You hold your breath and wedge the door open a little more, pressing your ear toward the gap between the frame and the door.

“... again. They’re going to want to start hunting parties again soon.”

“So what do we do?”

Silence. Then, “Send a message….”

“... brought it on themselves… it’s time to make things right.”

Behind you, the bell rings at the door. You gasp, letting go of the door to the back room and spin around, heart hammering in your chest. Hoseok stands at the door, raising his brows in question.

“What are you doing here?” you demand, suddenly angry that he’s startled you and ruined your sleuthing.

“I promised your mom I would walk home with you at the end of your shift, remember? Dangerous out there.”

You blink and look out the window, realizing that the heavy gray of evening is setting over the road. You hadn’t realized it was so late.

Nodding, you grab your cloak in a hurry. You pop your head into the back room, both Seokjin and Dr. Kim looking at you as you do. “I’m leaving for the evening, sir. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, thank you for watching the place while I was gone. Tomorrow we have to make a house call to the Marrow farm. Lame horse.”

Seokjin frowns. “Do you think that is wise?” Dr. Kim looks at his son under heavy brows. “With the current conditions.”

“We’ll be fine.” Something passes between them, son and father locked in a heated gaze. You stand there awkwardly, glancing between the two.

Seokjin breaks his stare from his father and flashes you a grin. “You have someone to walk you home?”

“Yeah, Hoseok is here.” You hug the cloak tighter to your chest and Seokjin’s eyes drop to it. An unreadable expression passes his face before he nods. “Have a good evening!”

“You too.”

Leaving them behind, you head to where Hoseok waits for you, examining drawings of animal skeletons and anatomy. You pull your cloak on, feeling safe and warm under the red material. Hoseok looks up at you, thrusting his thumb at one of the drawings of a horse. “I don’t look like that, right?”

The red cloak tied around you wicks the sweat from the back of your neck. Your fingers work quickly as you tie it, knowing you’re already late to meeting Dr. Kim. Thankfully, you don’t make a habit of being late and you’re sure he won’t mind too much.

Strange dreams had plagued you all night. Images of wolves, blood and mist. Echoes of howling, screaming and thunder. Now as you hurry out of your home and into the wicked wind of winter, you cannot shake a sense of premonition.

Dr. Kim is already on the doorstep when you arrive at the veterinary office, a heavy coat on his shoulders and a bag of tools in his hand. He nods when he sees you and comes down the steps, turning toward the south exit of the village.

Neither of you speak. Beyond the fact that you don’t think you’d be able to hear Dr. Kim over the howling wind, it doesn’t feel like the kind of trip that requires speaking. The evergreens on either side of the road loom over you, bows heavy with snow. Every so often, a branch cracks with the weight of frozen icicles, making you flinch with the sound.

It feels like you’re being watched. Every so often, you swivel your head this way and that, glancing at the trees. The trunks are too close together and the branches to tangle to see beyond them on either side of the road. Still, your skin tingles from something beyond the cold, you just don’t know what.

The Marrow farm is only a little over a mile from the main village, but the snow covered roads make it slow going. As you near the edge of where their acres begin, your boots are already heavy with melted slush and your calves and thighs burn from dragging your feet through the path.

Perhaps it was not a good day to do a house call.

Passing white-covered gates, you’re thankful that at least the wind has died down as the morning turns into midday. The sun is hidden by clouds, but there is a hint of warmth in the air. The Marrow farm is made up of three buildings: the small house in front, the large barn to the back left where they keep their animals, and a giant silo for grains.

As you near the house, a loud banging reaches you. Both you and Dr. Kim pause, listening as the sound carries on the wind. It doesn’t sound like hammering, but rather like a door slamming over and over again.

“Barn door?” you suggest, looking up at Dr. Kim. His dark eyes look at the house, expression grim. “But why would they let it slam relentlessly?”

“Keep your wits about you,” he murmurs, ignoring your question. “Go to the main house. I’ll go round to the barn. Perhaps they’ve forgotten the appointment.”

No smoke comes from the chimney. No snow is cleared from the footpath to the door. The shutters are closed, which makes sense to keep the cold out. As you approach the steps leading up to the porch, you note that none of the hounds are baying. The Marrow’s have several bloodhounds, all of which keep noisy providence around the threshold of the door.

Spine tingling, you lift your hand and knock. There’s no answer. You strain your ears, leaning forward for any hint that the Marrow’s or one of their two sons are coming to the door. Not even the dogs alert them of your presence.

You think about San finding the Mathesons butchered and your stomach drops. You knock again, knuckles stinging with cold as they rap harshly against the wooden door. Tucking your hand back into your cloak, you wait.

Nothing comes.

Taking a deep breath, you reach for the door and twist the handle. It opens easily, swinging inward to a cold, empty home. Inside, the air is still and dead. Behind you, the breeze brushes the edges of your cloak and the hood on your head.

Silence hangs. Licking your lips, you lift a foot. It hands over the threshold, fear making you pause. There is nothing inside the home, and yet you find that you’re utterly terrified of stepping inside. Your stomach knots and for a few moments, you just stand there with your foot in the air, staring with unseeing eyes into the dark interior.

You step into the room and pause. Nothing happens. The air inside the home is stale, like the doors and windows have not been opened for a few days. The cold is bone deep, clinging to the undisturbed air. You scan the room for any sign of life, but see nothing that stirs.

Everything looks lived in. There are knitted blankets tossed across the backs of old arm chairs, boots by the door, unlaced and soft with age. Mugs have been turned upside down and placed on a towel near the basin for drying, and there are dice on the kitchen table.

Navigating slowly, you move to the hall with bedrooms. Doors hang open, revealing unmade beds and clothes on the floor. Here too, the air feels undisturbed. You hear the breeze outside and the soft creak of the house, but nothing else makes a sound, save for the loud beating of your own heart.

Shivering, you make your way to the front of the home. Something foul hangs in the air and you want to be rid of the feeling, quickening your steps to leave through the front door and-

Fear stabs deep into your stomach when you see the wolf standing in the doorway. It stands half in the home, half out, only the front two paws over the threshold. The beast barely fits in the door frame, wide as two men standing side by side and tall as a horse.

You don’t move. It stares at you with bright, burning eyes. Its fur is dark, though there is a jagged ring of light fur around the right, front paw. You swear you smell pine and bergamot. Something nudges at the back of your mind as the two of you stand off - and it clicks into place.

“You,” you breathe. “You’re the wolf I helped!”

For a moment, the bright yellow eyes stare at you. They’re unreadable, and yet… emotive. Intelligent. Understanding. The wolf dips its snout in a nod.

“What are you doing here? Where are the Marrows?”

The wolf’s ears flicker. Slowly, it backs out of the house. Throwing caution to the wind, you rush after him, nearly tripping over a wolfskin rug in the home.

Outside, the wolf stands below the porch. You step on the porch and pull up short, heart racing as you see the pack of wolves standing in front of the home.

The wolves are a variety of colors and sizes. You dare not move your head, but you scan them with your eyes, drinking in the different creatures. The only thing that they have in common is that they are freakishly large.

Your wolf - for in your mind he’s yours - stands in front of you. He growls, hair on his spine raising as he regards the other wolves. There’s a silent standoff of sorts, the wolf you saved facing the others. You cannot understand their body language, but the air seems charged.

The smell of smoke is in the air. You don’t dare look for the source, too afraid to do anything to disrupt the standoff. Breathing in deeply, you think you smell cedar. Oil. Something else that you can’t identify.

Footsteps crunch the snow. You whip your head to the side, a warning on your tongue as Dr. Kim rounds the house, a haunted expression on his face. He stops abruptly, looking at the display in front of him behind frosted glasses. He says nothing - does nothing but glance between you, the wolf in front of you, and the others.

Finally, one of the other wolves chuffs and shakes, dispelling snow. It has an all white coat and intense, dark eyes that look at you with… annoyance, if wolves can look annoyed. It turns to leave and the others follow - all five of them - as the white wolf leads them at a loping trot toward the silo and the woods beyond.

Your wolf turns to peer at you, ears flicking before it breaks off into a run, trailing after its pack to leave you and Dr. Kim standing in silence, watching them go.

Slowly, you turn to Dr. Kim. He scrutinizes you, eyes squinted. “Where did you get that cloak?”

You look down at the rich, red cloth. “I… well it just appeared, one day when I was younger. I don’t know.”

He regards you suspiciously. “I see. Come. We must leave right away.”

Dr. Kim begins walking at a fast pace back toward town, clutching his tool case. “Wait! Where are the Morrows?”

Instead of answering, Dr. Kim continues on. You scramble after him, careful not to slip on the icy stairs. The wind picks up and you smell a fire again, making you turn back as you try to catch up. You almost stumble over your feet, eyebrows shooting up as you see orange flames consuming the barn.

“Dr. Kim!”

Again, he says nothing. You stop and stare, watching as the fire eats away at the barn. The smoke burns black. Fueled by oil, you think. Looking over your shoulder, you watch Dr. Kim’s retreating back and wonder what exactly it is that he’s done.

“Did you set that fire?” you demand, chasing him. He gives you a withering look. “What is going on?”

“Speak nothing of this,” he snaps. “We arrived here to make a housecall and discovered that the barn was on fire. We suspect that Mr. Marrow was burning to melt the snow around the barn and that the barn caught. The Marrow family died inside trying to put out the fire.”

“But the wolves-”

“Do not mention the wolves, girl.”

“Did they kill the Marrows?” His jaw works but he doesn’t answer. “Did they kill the Mathesons?”

“This village has a complicated history,” he says finally. He pulls his coat tighter. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I do expect you to stay out of it. Say nothing of the wolves and stay away from them. You’ll make it through winter.”

Two weeks pass, the secret heavy on your tongue. You work with Dr. Kim as though nothing happened, and when people ask about the Marrow farm, you recite vague details. You don’t know why you do it but… the image of the wolf - your wolf - floats in your mind each time you spit out the lie.

Thoughts plague you as Hoseok lounges on the porch of the office that belongs to Hoseok’s father, who acts as the town’s scribe and legal affairs recorder. A sudden warm day has brought everyone outdoors, lounging on their porches and trying to take advantage of the melting snow around the buildings. The streets are muddy and murky as kids run by, feet splashing.

A group of men prowl around the outskirts of the village. Sun shines through the slats of the overhang in front of the inn, warming where you lean on the porch railing. Hoseok rattles on about gossip he’s heard from his mother’s tea parties and his father’s work on will and testaments with the growing fear of death in the village.

“Plagues, serial killings, blood feuds and animal attacks,” Hoseok sighs, staring up at the ceiling where he lies. “Good for father’s business. Bad for my cramping hand trying to help him.”

“Hmm,” you hum noncommittally, thoughts lost as you stare out into the street with unseeing eyes.

Shouts make you flinch. You stand rod straight, gripping the railing as you look for the source of the disruption. Hoseok stands up immediately, joining you at the railing as the pair of you lean to look toward the entrance to the town.

At first, you think that it’s about another wolf attack. People rush into the street, looking toward the commotion. Then you see it. Gleeful cheers spring up to the buildings closest to the town’s entrance as the first few traders enter the road. Your heart soars when you see donkeys pulling a cart behind them, followed by more people carrying packs and towing small carts.

“The traders!” You breathe, feeling a sigh of relief sweep through you. “They’ve made it!”

Excitement ripples through the village. People come flocking from the buildings to welcome cart after cart full of people. Some traders tow full carriages with riders at the front, the shutters on their carriages tied shut, hiding their wares inside.

Hoseok lounges back down, letting out a sigh of relief. You feel the same, leaning on the railing again to watch as the carts are towed down the road, pulling down different streets to set up shop and find accommodations.

Most of the traders look vaguely familiar to you - you see the Robin’s with their cloth cart and Morty with his towering carriage of unusual wares and charms. The Yang twins set off small, popping fireworks from the back of their cart, making the children squeal.

Something catches your eye. “There are more traders than usual,” you tell Hoseok, frowning as your eyes settle on the large men who walk among the carts, all of whom wear weapons belts and look from side to side as they walk. “I think they’re warriors, Hoseok.”

“Warriors?” he laughs. “Strange.”

“No really, there are several men with blades at the hip and bows on the back. They look… guarded.”

He tilts his head, eyeing where your eyes flit from person to person. “Perhaps the road is as hard as we suspected this year.”

You hum in agreement, watching as the caravans stop and unload, the muddy streets filling with people and chatter and bubbling with excitement. It feels like the bubble of anxiety looming over the town has popped - at least temporarily - relieving the pressure that had been building with every passing day.

Leaning against the rail, you’re content to observe. All manner of people and things are pulled from carts. Vendors start setting up right away, people forming lines for ingredients, cloth, and wares. The largest line of all is for weapons and metal tools, Old Man Heo barely has time to park his cart before the men of the village ask how much for iron arrowheads and blades.

A shiver goes through you as your eyes sweep back toward the town entrance where more people pour in. Fewer caravans come through - now it’s just people with pack mules or bags over their shoulders.

The hairs on your arm stand up when you see him. Wind lifts the edge of your cloak, making it flutter around you. You watch as he walks down the main street with the other travelers, eyes flicking around as he drinks in the buildings and the crowd of villagers coming to welcome the traders.

As though he senses your staring, his head snaps to you. You feel frozen to the spot, your fingers tightening on the rail as you meet his eyes. They’re unfathomably dark and yet… a tingle of familiarity slithers up your spine.

He stares at you in turn. You’re sure he’s looking at you, paused near the cart he stands next to, dark gaze focused on where you stand on the porch.

You’ve never seen him. You’re sure of it. You’d remember a handsome face like that anywhere. His long, dark hair is pushed back from his face, revealing a sharp jawline, a strong nose, and intense eyes. His lips are red from the cold - pretty against tan skin.

He’s tall. Taller than most men in the village and broad, with strong shoulders and thick arms, though it’s hard to tell underneath his tunic. Like the other hardy men accompanying traders, he has a weapons belt snug around his waist and the bulk of his frame implies that he knows how to use them.

The man doesn’t break eye contact. His mouth begins to tilt in what you think might be the start of a smile when Hoseok sits up abruptly, startling you. You break eye contact, looking at Hoseok who bites into an apple, offering you one.

“You frightened me,” you snap, a little irritated at being distracted. When you glance back up at the man, his attention is elsewhere.

“What were you staring at anyway?” he asks, crunching bits of apple.

“Nothing,” you murmur, eyes on the flexing back of the man as he helps unload a wagon near the inn. Something niggles at the back of your mind. I know you. “Nothing at all.”

“Want to visit the vendors later when they’re all set up? I would love to get some spiced wine and listen to Marla’s stories tonight.”

“Yes,” you answer without hesitation. “Let’s do just that.”

Every minute that passes by feels like an eternity. Incurable energy simmers under the surface as you wait for the day to fade to evening. You clean the entire house, you collect wood from outside, you dress and then change into something else, and you ultimately end up pacing back and forth in your room while you wait for Hoseok to arrive.

Your thoughts are consumed by the mystery man you had seen earlier. His handsome face swims in your memory. The clear image of his face is accompanied by some feeling you cannot identify, something that almost feels like nostalgia. How can you feel nostalgia for someone you don’t know?

Hoseok finally arrives, letting himself into your house cheerily. The brief respite from winter is already bleeding away, the wind carrying a painful promise as it lifts your hood outside. The traders, it seems, arrived at the perfect time, the cloudy sky promising snow in the morning once more.

Energy sizzles in the air. It’s as though the momentary fear of the wolf attacks is momentarily forgotten with the arrival of the vendors and travelers. The noise echoes from every street, torches, and fires lighting up the alleyways and down as people hang lamps in the windows and carts string up tea lights.

Though you’re nervous, you are temporarily distracted as Hoseok pulls you through a tangle of carts toward Sal’s Sweets. Your stomach grumbles when you catch the scent of melting sugar and sweet confections, joining the line at Hoseok’s side to pick up hot, sticky sweets.

With hot, sweet rolls drizzled in honey in hand, you and Hoseok explore the vendor carts. It is an explosion of color and lights, glittering jewelry hanging from displays, hot meats sizzling in pants over fires, the flash of powder and light as the Yang twins set off more fireworks, and the smell of spices as you pass by herb carts and tents.

Everywhere you go, you see the men from before, looming near carts with weapons and steely expressions. But not even the eerie sight of them can bring down the spirits of the villagers, kids running with new kites and jars full of fireflies.

As you stand in line with Hoseok who wants new inkwells, you listen to passing chatter. From what you gather, it was a hard trip this way on the caravans this year. The winter was just as harsh on the road as it was in the village, and the traders' voices become quiet when they talk about thieves and monsters in the woods.

You exchange a glance with Hoseok and he nods. Wolves.

Wordlessly, you wait as Hoseok points out the inks that he wants. You begin to crane your neck, looking for the familiar stranger that you had seen before. The square is crowded and packed tight with people, making it nearly impossible to make out much beyond a few feet in front of you.

You spot Dr. Kim walking next to Seokjin, both of their heads bowed as they speak to one another. You narrow your eyes, remembering the way Dr. Kim had silenced you at the Marrow farm. You watch them as they head toward the road that the veterinary practice is on, pausing as a man pushes off the wall to join them.

It’s him you realize. You recognize the broad shoulders and the dark hair as he turns his back to you, walking with the Kims down the road. You don’t even have to think twice.

“Hey,” you tug Hoseok’s sleeve. “I’m going to go see Dr. Kim about something really quick. I’ll meet you at the inn?”

“Sure.” He frowns. “Is it safe to go alone?”

“With all of these people?” You’re already backing away and shrugging. “Definitely.”

Without waiting for Hoseok to respond, you turn on your heel and rush into the crowd. The bodies of people immediately swallow you. The sound and sights and smells become a blur as you push through the crowd, shouldering people aside. You get some nasty looks from the force at which you move, but they immediately forget you as more people press in.

Less people pass you by as you walk up the street, pulling your cloak in tight. The lights in front of the building are off. You creep up the stairs and try the handle, finding it locked. It doesn’t matter, you sneak around the back of the building to the rear entrance and press your ear to the door. When you hear nothing, you try the handle and it twists.

Victorious, you open the door and slide through. The hallway is narrow with four doors on the right leading to examination rooms and two doors on the left. The first door leads to the kennel area where you hear voices. The second leads to the front lobby and desk.

The front lobby is the safest option, lest you get caught eavesdropping in the hallway when they leave. Carefully, you creep by the door, holding your breath and praying the floor doesn’t creak. Your heart pounds as you inch past the door, hearing deep voices on the other side as you go by.

Clearing the door, you hurry into the lobby and to the door behind the desk that leads to the kennels. Crouching down low to hide yourself from anyone walking by the windows, you carefully pull the door open, unwilling to open it any further than the width of your index finger. Pressing your ear to the open gap, you listen.

“We talked about discretion,” Dr. Kim says, his voice frustrated. “This isn’t discretion. This is harassment and fear-mongering.”

“I told you,” a deep, smooth voice answers. You assume it must belong to the stranger and you shiver, eyes fluttering as the sound of it washes over you. “It isn’t my decision to make. I do not lead. Yoongi made it very clear how he wishes to proceed.”

“Yoongi is a lunatic.”

“He’s the alpha.”

You frown. Alpha? You’re familiar with the concept of alphas in packs of dogs and herding animals, but you don’t know what that has to do with people or who Yoongi is.

“The hunts will begin tomorrow.”

You think Dr. Kim means the hunting for the wolves. It makes sense now that the traders are in town and they can stock up on weapons.

“As is the way of things,” the stranger answers with a sigh. “You know why Yoongi has chosen this path.”

“Is revenge worth it?”

“Perhaps your kind do not understand.” The stranger’s voice hardens. You wonder what he means by your kind. “You have one foot in the forest, one in the village.”

“We understand, but we’re also not reckless.” Charged quiet hangs in the air. You hold your breath, your heart thundering in your chest, waiting for the sound of footsteps at the end of a conversation. “Why are you here, Namjoon? You came alone.”

Namjoon. The name washes over you, a warm feeling like the first spray of summer rain. It must be the stranger's name.

Namjoon answers, “There is… a protected here. But I still fear for them. Yoongi and the others are angry - I wish to further keep them from harm.”

A frown twists your mouth. This Namjoon is here to protect someone from Yoongi. You wonder what this has to do with Dr. Kim. Could… Perhaps someone is using the wolves as tools? You’ve certainly seen a hunter train wolves or wolfhounds before, though it’s a dangerous business.

Dr. Kim sighs. “That is the only saving grace of you being here, I’m afraid. Seokjin and I cannot help you. Not without exposing ourselves. I’ve already done what I can.”

“You have my greatest thanks for that. You and yours will always be safe. And not just because of your blood.”

Shuffling makes you lean away from the door immediately. You slowly drop it back in place before crawling over to the desk and hiding under it, straining your hearing as the footsteps go into the back hall and out of the back door. You remain there long after you hear the back door shut, waiting just in case they’re still outside.

When you’re sure they’ve gone, you crawl out from underneath the desk and hurry into the hall and out the back door. The alley is empty when you stick your head out, sagging with relief. You hurry out and close the door behind you, spinning around and-

“You know, most people who don’t want to be seen don’t sneak around in a red cloak.”

The man - Namjoon - looms over you, looking down at you with an amused expression. Your scream is cut off when he winces and cups your mouth with his hand. “Well don’t scream! You’ll summon Giho and Seokjin back this way. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Namjoon waits for a moment, your chest heaving as you nod, signifying that you won’t scream for help. Maybe it’s silly, but you trust him not to hurt you. At the least, he is there to protect someone in the village, so he doesn’t seem like he’s there for nefarious reasons.

When he drops his hands, you press yourself against the door, trying to put a little distance between you. Namjoon’s presence is demanding, a tickle prickling at the base of your spine as you look up at him, mystified.

He’s so beautiful. Up close, you can make out his features far better than earlier that day. His eyes are dark and framed by beautiful, silken lashes. His nose is broad and his jaw is sharp. A dimple appears when he gives you a lopsided grin, dark eyes sizing you up.

The same sense of familiarity from earlier comes back to you, and though you’ve never seen his face before, you swear you know him. Warmth radiates from him, the delicate smell of pine and bergamot reaching you. He feels like… yours. Like some part of him completes you. It is the strangest feeling.

“You okay, Red?” he asks, tone earnest. You furrow your brows at the term and he grins - genuine and warm. “Your cloak. It’s a very bright red. Pretty, though.”

“Thank you?”

He raises a brow. “Are you asking me?”

“I’m… you’re awfully close.”

Namjoon takes a few steps back from you. You suddenly regret saying something as his warmth vanishes, replaced by the cool wind. “Sorry,” he says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “Didn’t mean to freak you out.”

“Why didn’t you alert Dr. Kim if you knew I was snooping.”

“You don’t seem to be a threat. Plus, he’s a bit of a grouch. It didn’t seem worth it to hear him chastise a pretty girl.”

You flush. “How do you know the Kims?”

“Family friends.”

“What were you all talking about?”

He cocks his head to the side. “Just because I’m not chastising you for listening to our private conversation doesn’t mean I’m going to divulge the details of said private conversation.”

You divert your gaze, feeling flushed. He has a point, but if he’s put out by your line of questioning or your eavesdropping, he doesn’t show it. “Come on,” Namjoon says. “Let’s go back to the square. I need a drink and it’s dangerous to walk around right now.”

“Because of the wolves?”

He stares at you. “Because it’s dark and there are a bunch of strangers in your town, and you’re a woman alone. In the dark.”

“You’re a stranger in my town.”

His grin spreads and his dimple deepens. Your stomach flutters. You’re not unaffected by him, a little dizzy and nervous when he sticks out a hand. “Namjoon. I’m a part of the Kim family.”

“Like… Dr. Kim?” you ask, reaching out your hand and giving him your name.

“We’re related, in a way. Pretty name. I think I’ll stick with Red, though.”

Namjoon takes off walking. For a second, you just stand and stare at him. He shoves his hands in his pockets and doesn’t look back. You lick your lips, heart pounding. You cannot shake the sense of something peculiar about him, something familiar. He’s a Kim - perhaps you know him.

Determined to find out, you take off after him, scurrying to catch up. You fall into step with him and look up to find him smirking down at you before focusing back on the growing noise and lights of the main square.

“Have you been here before?” you ask, watching him from the corner of your eye. He shakes his head and you frown. “I feel like I know you.”

“Perhaps I have one of those faces?”

“No, I’d remember a face like yours.”

Namjoon turns to you, arching a brow. “A face like mine, huh?”

Multiple fire pits dot the streets, groups of people clustered around them to keep warm as the chill seeps back into the village. The inn is bustling with people, the door propped open with a chair as people walk in and out with platters of food and tankards in hand. Multiple villagers have pulled out tables and chairs from their homes, setting them up in the street.

It feels good. The air hums with euphoria and the promise of better days ahead, like suddenly there are not several families mourning their loved ones. The atmosphere reminds you of a festival, and you suppose it kind of is a festival.

The smell of burning fat and ale hits your nose as you walk into the inn. Voices roar over one another and the workers are busy behind the bar. A fireplace crackles in the far corner where you spot Hoseok guarding an extra chair.

“I fear this is where we part ways,” Namjoon announces over the din of voices. “Try not to do any more eavesdropping tonight.” You hesitate, wanting to protest. There are a million burning questions you have for him. He must see it in your face, because he smiles and says, “We’ll run into one another again. Don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t worried.”

You were actually, and you know he knows by his smirk. “Goodnight, Red.”

You watch Namjoon go. He moves toward where the innkeeper stands at a podium looking over reservations, blending into the crowd. Just before he reaches the podium he glances over his shoulder at you, catching you watching. He shoots you a grin and you scowl, pivoting on your heel to charge toward Hoseok.

Hoseok raises his eyebrows when he sees you storm over to him and yank the chair out from the table, sitting down in a huff. Without a word, you snatch his tankard of ale and take several, cold gulps before setting it on the table, letting it wash through you.

“Who was that you came in with? And then stormed over here after speaking to?”

“Some relative of the Kims,” you mutter. “I find him very… frustrating.”

“He’s very handsome.”

You glare at Hoseok and see the beginning of a wicked smile. “And frustrating.”

He lifts his cup, shrugging. “Cheers to being frustrating.”

A scream wakes you up in the middle of the night. You lurch up from bed, head spinning as you try to gather your wits about you. Blankets tangle your limbs as you try to peel them from sweaty skin. Another scream makes you stumble out of bed, the world tilting on its axis as your body tries to catch up with your sudden lucidity.

In the main room of your home, your mother is stumbling through the kitchen too, lighting a candle and grabbing a holder. You feel relief as you realize the screaming isn’t coming from your home, but your neighbor’s.

Together, you and your mother rush out into the cold in nightgowns, not bothering with shoes or coats. The cold is bitter, immediately stinging your skin as the Liang family joins you in running to the Hutch family home where it sounds like Mrs. Hutch is screaming like a wild animal in her house.

“It’s Leanne,” your mother breathes, words turning to steam in the air.

“Come on,” you urge, pulling your mother as you go, driven by the shrieks.

The front door hangs open as Mr. Liang enters the home first, an ax in hand. It occurs to you that neither you nor your mother have weapons, but Mrs. Hutch has always been kind to your mother, making the both of you charge into the darkness of her home empty-handed.

A metallic tang hits you immediately. You recoil, recognizing the stench of blood immediately. Villagers spill into the home behind you, alerted to the wailing coming from the bedroom. With torches and candles in hand, you spot the red on the dark wood floor in the hallway.

Mr. Liang stands in the doorway of the bedroom, staring with a haunted gaze at what he sees there. Your mother pushes through the people in the home to look over his shoulder, her hand flying to her mouth as she gasps.

“Oh Leanne,” she murmurs in horror, shoving by Mr. Liang.

You don’t go to the room. The smell and the weeping coming from the bedroom give you an inkling of what lay inside. You stand in the living room as people fill the hall, gasping and murmuring. Someone shouts to wake the constable.

“Why?” Mrs. Hutch screams in her room, the despair in her voice rattling your bones. “Why?”

“His throat has been cut,” someone murmurs from the hall. “Murdered in bed.”

Murdered? That throws you for a loop. You had assumed somehow it was an animal attack but… you shiver. Murder is different.

Mr. Liang begins shooing people out of the house. You slink out into the cold and hurry to your own home, bare feet freezing in the cold, wet earth. Your mother stays with Mrs. Hutch, leaving you alone.

The dark presses in on you, every creak of a floorboard making you jump. The shadows seem menacing now and you’re quick to find and light a candle, orange light flooding the home.

Cloth and candle in hand, you return to your room to wipe the cold mud from your feet, skin still burning from the frigid air. Voices carry in from outside, the entire town waking and gathering as the shock of murder ripples through the streets, a stone in a pond.

With sleep nowhere near possible for the remainder of the night, you get dressed. You pull on thick woolen pants, a tunic, and multiple socks, sticking your feet in your boots. Your cloak goes next, fastening it around your throat as you look out your bedroom window.

Your home sits at an angle in a row of houses that circle the village like a ring. You can see the wall of the home next to you, and a sliver of the backyard as well. It’s that tiny space in the backyard that catches your eye, watching as someone moves from the edge of the home out of sight.

Heart in your throat, you grab a candle and run outside. The crowd in front of the Hutch’s has grown, but you ignore them, skirting around your house to the alleyway between you and your neighbor. Nothing catches your eye as you run to the backyard, swiveling as you search in the darkness for the shadow you saw.

The wind howls, drowning out the voices in the street. The treeline behind the houses is dark. You squint your eyes and lift the candle in your hand, the flame barely flickering as the wind makes the trees sway. There is nothing in the darkness and you begin to turn when you see a shadow in the tree line.

It’s barely there - perhaps a trick of the light, even. You take a step forward, boots crunching in the snow. A gust of wind makes your cloak snap at your ankles, candle going out and leaving you without a source of light. You had not realized how dark it was without it, the shadow vanishing from your line of sight.

Fear nestles in the pit of your stomach. Your breath gets stuck in your lungs as your limbs lock, realizing how stupid it was to come outside if there was a killer among the trees. Soft snow crunches somewhere close to you. You squeeze your eyes shut, tucking your chin to your chest as panic makes you shut down, unable to move and-

“Red.”

Namjoon’s voice makes you spin around. He holds a torch level with his head, the flame casting an eerie glow on his face. For a moment, he looks lupine and terrifying, your heart nearly stuttering to a halt.

Then his face twists in concern. “What are you doing out here alone?”

“What are you doing?”

“Dr. Kim sent me over to check on you. No one answered the door so I came around back.”

“Why?”

Namjoon seems confused. “Why did I come around back or why did he send me?”

“Both.”

“I could see the light of your candle and because a murder has just happened.”

You relax a little at the logic in his answer. Snow begins to fall from the sky. You look up at the moonless black, thick clouds floating as the bits of snow drift on the breeze. You shiver and look back to the trees, seeing nothing but tightly packed pines. Still, there is an instinctual sense of trepidation that sits heavy in your gut.

“Come on,” Namjoon says gently. “Let’s go inside. I’ll wait with you until your mother comes home.”

Reluctantly, you follow Namjoon. Eyeing him, you realize he is dressed differently than previously that night. Now, he’s in black breeches and a black linen shirt. The weapons belt is gone and he’s without a coat.

You frown. “Aren’t you freezing?”

“I run warm.”

It’s the only answer that he gives you as you walk back into the street which is filled with people and torches. In the distance, you hear the baying of hounds. It chills you, goosebumps exploding up and down your arms as you watch a cluster of firelights gather far off down the road.

“The constable is leading a manhunt. They’ll come to question us too.”

Wordlessly you gesture for Namjoon to join you inside of your home. He closes the door firmly behind you and strides to the fireplace, using the torch to coax the simmering logs to a full flame. Cedar pops as he adds the torch to the fire, orange embers drifting up the chimney.

Rubbing your hands together, you offer him tea and he accepts with a soft smile. It doesn’t meet his eyes as he looks around the only place you’ve ever called home. Suddenly shy of your less-than-luxurious surroundings, you clear your throat and gesture to one of the mismatched armchairs by the fire as you grab a kettle.

Namjoon hardly fits in the chair. You press your lips to keep from laughing, which feels inappropriate with a man dead just a few yards away. With careful hands, you hang the kettle next to the fire, the flame close enough to heat the water as you scurry back to the kitchen and fill tea bags with herbs.

“What kind of tea do you like?”

“Yarrow, if you have it.”

“I do.” You grab the jar, popping the top. “Are you in great pain, Mr. Kim?”

“Call me Namjoon. Mr. Kim feels far too formal.”

“Well, we are strangers, after all.”

Namjoon certainly doesn’t feel like a stranger. You cast him a sidelong glance as you say it, looking for his reaction. He turns his head from the fire, meeting your gaze head-on. His lips curve in a secret smile, making your nerves dance.

“I suppose that’s true.”

Is it? You wonder. You’re not so sure.

Instead of asking him, you bring the mugs with bags of tea over to where he sits, handing him one. Steam rises from the spout of the teapot. With a thick towel, you lift it off of the hanger. Namjoon holds out his cup and lets you pour carefully into his mug, the smell of yarrow and mint wafting toward you. After pouring your own cup, you set the kettle down and sit across from him.

Your cold hands leech the warmth from the mug. You settle comfortably in the chair, relaxing and inhaling the chamomile in your cup. After a few moments of silence, you realize how comfortable and safe you feel with Namjoon, though you’ve only known him for a few short hours.

“Why have you come to the village?”

Namjoon watches the fire as he answers, “You were eavesdropping at the veterinary office. I’m sure you heard me.” You look down at your steaming cup and Namjoon chuckles, raspy and deep. It’s a nice sound.

“You said there was a ‘protected’ here. And something about a Yoongi.”

Namjoon’s face darkens at the mention of Yoongi. You chew on your lip, worried you’ve pushed him too far before you’ve even started to ask him real questions. His jaw works as he contemplates what you’ve said, sipping the tea a little.

“A protected just means someone under protection by my family,” Namjoon says finally. “My extended family is… large. We are a very close group and we consider those in our community blood.”

“It is… not always like that here.”

“Your mother assists Mrs. Hutch, though. That seems like family, in a way.”

“Mrs. Hutch is kind. Not everyone is.”

Namjoon nods. “It is not like that where I am from. We bear the sins of our neighbors and we share the responsibility of keeping everyone safe.”

“That must be nice.” You sip your tea and scald your tongue, hissing and setting the cup down. Namjoon leans forward as though to help you, alarm on his face. “Tea is too hot. I don’t know how you drink it.”

He smiles and shrugs. “I run warm.”

“So you said. How are you related to Dr. Kim?”

“He’s my uncle. He’s my father’s brother. His wife was best friends with my mom.”

“Oh.” You blink in surprise. “She passed away when I was very young. She… died the same winter as my father.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Namjoon frowns and cocks his head. “What did your father do?”

“He was a hunter.”

One of the logs pops in the fireplace, making you flinch. You give a nervous laugh and glance at Namjoon, who has gone stone-still. The firelight dances on his face as he peers at you. Your smile falters a little at the gravity you find there.

“He only hunted fowl and deer,” you find yourself explaining. You don’t know why you say it, only that suddenly that feels important. “He didn’t like to hunt bigger game or predators. Mother says that he believed they were best left alone and that a true hunter knows his betters when he sees them.”

Namjoon hums. “Smart man.”

“I don’t know. He died in an animal attack when I was very young.”

“You must resent the woods.”

“Not at all. I think…” You bite your bottom lip, trying to find the right words. “I think that he wouldn’t blame the animals. The woods are their home. My mother says he was always very adamant about that. They don’t usually attack villagers, though.”

“Usually?”

“There are animal attacks happening. I’m sure Dr. Kim told you…?”

“Ah, yes. You think they’re without reason?”

“Perhaps hunger? I don’t know. It does not happen often.”

“Wolves are not known to hunt people.” Namjoon’s fingers drum against his mug, a steady tap. He seems thoughtful as he regards you. “They’re intelligent creatures and their packs are important to them. They take the threat to their land and their family seriously.”

“Like your family?”

He laughs. “Like my family.” Namjoon sips his tea again. “This land used to belong to several packs of wolves, you know?”

“Really?”

“Yes, until settlers drove them out. Not that long ago there were hunting parties for sport. They slaughtered entire packs, destroying bloodlines and nearly wiping out the wolves here entirely.”

“I always found that incredibly sad.”

“Why is that?”

“They’re incredibly important to the ecosystem here. And I guess I always agreed with my dad. I don’t remember him much, but I like to remember that he was good at heart.”

Namjoon hums but says nothing else. You sit in silence for a while, enjoying the warmth of the fire. Namjoon’s presence is steady, keeping out the cold and the fear just beyond the door. You wonder how he does that by just sitting in a chair, or how it feels so natural.

Outside, the world begins to turn gray. You yawn as exhaustion begins to set in and you feel yourself sagging. Eyes burning, you rub them with the back of your hands, blinking a few times to fight the explosion of colors in your vision.

“You can sleep,” Namjoon says softly from where he sits. You glance at him. “You can trust me.”

A hint of pine and bergamot drift toward you, making you drowsy. Namjoon grabs a blanket from the back of his chair and stands up, bringing it to you. He takes your mug and you watch him with sleepy, round eyes as he places the blanket over you.

“Sleep.” His voice is soft, distant. “I will be here.”

Your eyes flutter shut and you drift to sleep, remembering the warm sound of his voice. It… reminds you of your wolf.

Gentle voices pull you from the clutches of sleep. You wake slowly, a cramp in your neck making you reluctant to get up. You smell the fire and the hint of pine and bergamot. You hear a low, raspy voice that you instantly recognize as Namjoon.

How swiftly I know his voice, you think.

“You must wake her,” a male voice says. You recognize it as Dr. Kim. “The constable is coming for questioning.”

“She’s already awake,” Namjoon answers, a smile in his voice. Your eyes snap open at being caught, meeting his dark gaze as he smirks from near your door. “See?”

You scowl at him. How did he know that? Sitting up and stretching, you appraise the two men lurking near your door. “Is my mother still with Mrs. Hutch?”

Dr. Kim nods and steps swiftly into the room around Namjoon. Namjoon reaches out a hand, catching Dr. Kim with his arm and stopping him from entering the room properly. You watch in puzzlement as there’s a silent exchange between the two of them, Namjoon’s face dark as Dr. Kim raises a brow.

Then, Namjoon lets him go. You cock your head to the side, wondering what that’s about. Ignoring Namjoon, Dr. Kim approaches and says, “The constable will be here shortly. Say nothing about the farm.”

The farm. The memory of the wolves brings a chill to your arm, the smell of smoke and burning oil. The confusion and Dr. Kim’s refusal to answer your questions.

“What is going on?” you demand, eyes flickering from Dr. Kim to Namjoon. “Animal attacks, murders, you covering up something at the barn. I’m being lied to.”

“Say nothing about the farm,” Dr. Kim says again, voice firm. Namjoon makes a noise that startles you. It’s almost like a growl, your eyes going wide as he glares at Dr. Kim. “I told you this village has a complicated history. I’m looking after your safety.”

Heavy footsteps sound on the porch. There’s a loud knock on the door, the constable announcing his presence on the other side. Namjoon opens the door for him, standing back to let him in. The constable looks him up and down with confusion before looking at you, a question in his eyes.

“They came to check on me,” you offer. The constable has known you since you were a child, it’s no wonder he’s confused at the presence of a stranger in your home. “How can I help you, constable?”

“I’d like you to answer a few questions about last night. Mr. Liang confirmed you were one of the first people to Hutch’s last night.”

Dr. Kim walks to your kitchen and busies himself making tea. Namjoon moves to sit in the chair across from you, his warm presence from the night before replaced with something mildly threatening. You cut him a look but his dark eyes are focused on the constable as though he’s a threat.

The questions are easy enough. When did you wake up? Did you notice anyone around your home when you came home? Did you notice anyone outside? When did you come home?

You leave out running into Namjoon behind your home. You don’t know why, but you feel the need to not draw attention to him. You also leave out the strange incident at the farm, glancing sideways at Dr. Kim when he brings you lemon tea.

When the constable is finished, he eyes Dr. Kim. “Be at the station at four,” he instructs. “We’re splitting hunting parties. One to look for the culprit, the other to get rid of the damn wolves.”

“The wolves were there first, you know?” Namjoon speaks up, looking at you and not the constable. “Have you ever tried figuring out what they want?”

“And who the hell are you?”

“Please ignore my nephew, constable. He likes to insert himself in conversations he doesn’t belong in. Come, let’s look over the hounds before you send them out tonight.”

Together, the constable and Dr. Kim shuffle out. Before he shuts the door, Dr. Kim levels the pair of you with a heavy gaze. You don’t know what that gaze means, but you know that something is going on in this village and that he and Namjoon seem to have some idea about it.

As soon as the door shuts, you turn to Namjoon and demand, “What is going on?”

He sighs. “Would you listen if I just said to wait it out?”

“Do you know who murdered Mr. Hatch?”

Namjoon hesitates and shakes his head. You narrow your eyes, unbelieving. “I really don’t know who did, Red.”

“Why are you really here? Why all the secrets?”

“I told you, my family protects those who belong to their community.”

“What did you mean about asking what the wolves want?”

“I told you last night. There were wolves long before this village existed. Seems to me that if the wolves are suddenly killing the townspeople, perhaps it’s because they want their land back. Or maybe they’re angry from years of being hunted.”

That shuts you up. You can’t argue with that, exactly. But… “Are you saying that the wolves are capable of revenge?”

Namjoon stands and gestures to your cloak. “How often do you wear that?”

“Every day. It’s… sentimental to me.”

His eyes lighten and he offers a half smile. “Good. Red is a lucky color.”

“Where are you going?”

He opens the door, cold wind hissing past the opening. “Your mom is coming. I’ll see you later, Red.”

Without another word, Namjoon slips through the door and shuts it firmly behind him. You stare after him, openmouthed and confused. As promised, you hear your mother come up the steps, light feet scuffing before she quickly lets herself in, shutting the door firmly behind her.

You offer to make your mother breakfast, happy to help as she dozes in the chair. It isn’t until later that you wonder how Namjoon had heard her coming at all.

Little Lucy Larkin

In a little wood

Little Lucy Larkin

Up to no good

Little Lucy Larkin

In her little hood

Little Lucy Larkin

Ware of the woods!

Little Lucy Larkin

Stole a little bread

Little Lucy Larkin

In the woods of dread

Little Lucy Larkin

Is a little thief

Little Lucy Larkin

Die by wolf’s teeth

A sense of unease slithers up your spine as you pull your cloak closer. The voice of the children playing the Little Lucy Game echoes down the street and you pause to watch as the little boy playing Lucy steals the rock from the middle of the circle and the little boy playing the wolf gets up to chase him.

The other kids scream and giggle as the boys give chase, the sound of their laughter eerie in the cold gray of twilight. Shaking it off, you turn and duck your head as you walk up the steps to the Tall Tales Inn.

Warmth and the scent of food greet you. It’s a thinner crowd than the day before but still more people than you’re used to without the traders in town. There is a clear divide in the dining room with traders on one side and townsfolk on the other, the murder quick to make the locals distrust the new people in their streets.

Tense conversations hum in the gold light. You navigate around tables until you find Hoseok sitting with Seokjin. The sight of Seokjin gives you pause. He seems to sense your presence, glancing up and meeting your questioning stare. He gives no reaction, though, turning his attention back to Hoseok who is murmuring quietly.

“I didn’t expect to see you here, Jin,” you say by way of greeting. Hoseok gives you a look at your clipped tone. You ignore it, sitting down and leveling the older man with a stare, his father’s mysteriousness weighing on you. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

He narrows his eyes a fraction. “Just enjoying the company of friends.”

“Shouldn’t you be helping the constable?”

“I’m on the late-night shift.”

Grinding your teeth, you sit roughly. Hoseok just watches you, brows raised. You say nothing as you order a drink and a meal, picking at the splinters of the tabletop, eyeing Seokjin. If he’s put out by your rudeness he doesn’t show it, drinking heartily from his tankard and watching you with dark, even eyes.

You know Seokjin knows whatever it is his father and Namjoon have been talking about. You yourself have not been able to work out what’s going on in the village, but you’re sure the Kims know. And if Dr. Kim asked you to lie to the constable… well perhaps Seokjin is leading him astray as well.

Hoseok pipes up, steering the conversation everywhere he can to avoid the tension building between you and Seokjin and the topics of murders. You participate as little as possible, mind trying to put together the puzzle pieces of the blooming mystery in your home.

An uncomfortable thought starts to take root in your mind. Is it possible that the Kim family is behind the murders? Dr. Kim has plenty of weapons at his disposal, and they had been talking about revenge, and Dr. Kim had covered up what happened at the Marrow’s farm… but what did that have to do with wolves?

You’re not sure. But you do know that the Kims are purposefully hiding things, that there is a murderer somewhere in the town or near it, and that there is a sense of doom that you cannot shake, a dark itch like stinging nettle in your bones.

Seokjin excuses himself to take an afternoon nap before his hunting party heads out for the evening. Your eyes track him as he goes. Seokjin certainly doesn’t seem evil, but there’s no telling what’s behind his pretty face.

“What is wrong with you?” Hoseok asks, leaning over the table and whispering harshly. “You’re behaving rather odd.”

“Something is going on.”

“Yes, your attitude.”

You turn and glare at him. “No, Hobi. Something is going on with the Kim family. I don’t know how to explain it.” You grip your cup tighter. “But I intend to figure it out.”

Hoseok questions you about what that means. You keep your answers vague, not wanting to rope him into your plan. Too often as children did you lure Hoseok into trouble, and with how dangerous night is becoming in your town, you know it’s a bad idea to endanger him too.

T sun sets over the village. You stand at your bedroom window, watching through the frosty window as the sun turns the sky into a smear of blood. The clouds have cleared away just for this sanguine sunset. It makes your stomach turn, a sense of foreboding heavy in the air.

Still, it doesn’t deter you. Red fades to gray-blue and gray-blue fades to black. Wind rattles the glass in the window pane. Turning from the window, you find your thickest pair of pants and fur-lined tunic. The fabric feels scratchy on your skin.

Dressed, you look at your red cloak folded on the bed. Any other night you would take it with you. It has become your safety net, something that keeps you warm and keeps you safe. You cannot recall a day you haven’t worn it since it mysteriously showed up thirteen years ago, but tonight, you need obscurity.

Instead, you reach for an old, thick cloak that used to belong to your father. It's dark brown and worn at the edges, a little too big for you as the hem brushes the ground. It will serve its purpose in keeping you hidden in the dark of the woods, though.

All you grab is a hunting knife that you don’t know how to use, a wax candle, and a solid piece of flint and sharp rock to light it with. The candle and flint are for emergencies only. You hope it won’t be so dark that you cannot see, but you’re unsure what the clouds are going to do.

Outside, the wind is sharp. Your nostrils burn as you breathe it in and duck away behind your house. No new snow has fallen during the day, which is a good thing. You don’t have to worry about dragging your boots and tiring your calves. It also helps that the sky is clear tonight, the moon a sliver of sharp light.

Baying hounds echo through the village and the forest as the hunting dogs lead the men into the woods. You’re quick on your feet, dashing into the woods and heading north. You don’t want to run right into the hunting party, but you do want to find their burning torches and keep them in your line of sight.

They are easy to find, hovering like orange fireflies in the distance. Careful to make your way in the dark, you follow them. Your breath mists in front of you, hands shaking more from the adrenaline than the cold.

The torches spread out. You chew on your lip, unsure which group would belong to Seokjin. You take a gamble, heading after the group closest to you.

Everything feels too loud. Each snap of a branch under your foot and crunch of dry leaves feels like it’s going to give you away. Still, you’re good at sneaking for the most part, having spent plenty of time skulking through the village to take nightly strolls in the woods.

Voices carry to you. Through a system of running a few steps forward and dodging behind a tree, you manage to follow the men at a distance. You think that you hear the constable’s voice, which is a good sign. If he’s around, perhaps Seokjin is too.

The deeper you go into the forest, the colder it gets. The ground beneath your feet slopes. The evergreens are packed tighter here, needles tickling your hands as you keep your hands held out from your sides as you slide downward.

This is near where I saved that wolf, you think.

It’s true. You recognize the slope of the land and the general area. You cannot tell if it’s exactly where you met the wolf, but it’s close enough that your senses tingle and your eyes sweep the land, expecting something to happen.

A sense of foreboding trails you as the men move deeper into the wood. You turn around and look for the other torches and see nothing but a dark, compact forest. Your stomach flips uncomfortably but you continue, unsure now if it’s safer to turn back or to keep going.

Ahead, the group of men decide to take a break. The hounds sniff the area around them, pulling at the leashes as they go. Crouching low, you watch as the hounds go in circles, following the scent of something that seems to confuse them.

The men take long droughts of water, making you wish you’d thought of that. Mouth dry and hands cold, you huddle against a tree, bark digging into your back.

A few minutes pace by. You close your eyes, resting your head against the tree, breathing cold air in deeply. You don’t know what you expect the group to lead you to, only that you-

Something snaps behind you. Your eyes fly open and your limbs lock. Heart beating like a steady drum, you hold your breath and strain your eyes. For a moment, there’s nothing but the dim voices of the men taking a break. You think it’s nothing until you hear something again, a gentle susurration of leaves.

One of the hounds lifts its head, ears twitching. Your eyes scan the surrounding area back and forth, searching for what you know is there.

It happens so fast that you don’t even see the wolves enter the ring of torchlight until they’re there, snarls rattling the trees. You clamp your hands over your mouth to mute your gasp as the sounds of screams and tearing flesh explode in the night. Hounds screech, their growls savage and choked as the wolves descend.

You don’t know how many there are. Torch lights go down and drown you in darkness. Squeezing your eyes shut, you curl in on yourself, panting through your hands as the sounds echo in your ears. A new fear has stabbed its way between your ribs, making it hard to breathe.

Time moves slowly. Or quickly. You cannot tell which. One moment the sounds of a nightmare turned real are just a few hundred yards away. The next, an eerie silence blankets the dark forest.

You don’t want to open your eyes, but you have to. Very slowly, you crack an eye open. At first, there’s nothing. Your vision swims with flashing colors, your eyes trying to adjust. Then, there is the vague outline of trees. Ahead of you, where the men had been, lay shadowed piles.

Shaking, you glance around. You see nothing - hear nothing. You stand slowly. Each inch you gain feels like you’re being too loud. Sweat gathers on the back of your neck. The cool air makes it feel like an icy finger brushing down your nape.

When you’re sure that there’s nothing else around, you take a step toward where the attack happened. Leaves crunch beneath your feet. You stop breathing, waiting for signs of anything. Nothing happens and you let out a trembling breath, taking one more step. Again, you wait to see if your footfalls will trigger something.

You repeat this to the edge of the slaughter - for that’s what it is. A slaughter. Bile rises in your throat as you reach the first body and stamped-out torch. The constable and his hound lay in tatters, only recognizable by the batch on his cloak.

It is carnage. You don’t dare breathe through your nose for fear of breathing in the scent of death, circling the scene with weak knees, hand pressed to your mouth to keep in the whimpers. You see the faces of men you’ve known since you were a child. Ripped, bloodied, gored.

Finally, you lean over and empty the contents of your stomach. It burns on the way up, choking you. Pressing a hand against a tree, you breathe raggedly. The adrenaline coursing through you makes you twitchy and unstable, each nerve feeling like it’s on fire.

Leaves crunch a few feet away. Your head snaps in and you zero in on the source of the noise, mouth hanging open when you see Seokjin standing amongst the trees. He stares at you, frown on his face.

“Who are you?” he asks, voice gentle. You realize he can’t see your face under the cowl of your hood and you’re not in your traditional red. He sighs. “Doesn’t matter.”

You hear shuffling behind him before you see a white wolf. The white wolf from the Marrow farm. There are others, then. You don’t know how you missed them, the darkness of their fur blending in with the darkness around them.

The white one is spotted in red, muzzle matted, teeth slicked. Your stomach lurches. It isn’t hard to guess where it’s from. You take a step back and the wolf growls, lips pulled back. You freeze, looking amongst the pack of wolves that fan out around Seokjin, desperately looking for your wolf with the kind, intelligent eyes.

You do not find him there.

With a growl, the white wolf steps forward. Your instincts kick in and you turn and run, letting out a wild shriek as you do so. If Seokjin recognizes your voice when you scream, you cannot tell. The wolves are after you and you’re barreling through the trees with no hope of outrunning them, especially uphill.

A wolf nips at your ankle and you scream, tripping over your feet in your terror and going down hard. You’re jarred as you hit the ground, bones rattling as pain shoots up your limbs from the impact. Before you can scramble, there are teeth around your ankle, not biting down hard enough to snap, but hard enough to drag.

Your scream is wretched even to your ears. It is a curdling, nightmarish sound. You feel the scrape of leaves and sticks against your skin, cloak picking up dirt and twigs as you go. Your nails dig into the ground but the soil is frozen solid, fingers scraping bluntly against it.

With a surge of self-preservation, you kick your free leg backward as hard as you can. You hit the wolf in the muzzle, making it cry, and let go of your foot. You manage to crawl to your knees, slipping in the foliage as you try to stand before it’s tearing at your cloak, determined to drag you one way or another.

Sliding again as it drags you by the cloak, you try to undo the ties at your throat with shaking fingers. It comes away and frees you from the hellish drag to your death. This time, you’re faster to your feet, turning and running in the opposite direction. You don’t know where you’re going, just that you want to get away.

Your foot slides on the incline and with a shout you go down. This time, your head hits the ground hard. Your ears ring and your vision pulses. Blinking, you roll over and stare up at the canopy of dark trees. The world spins dangerously and you feel nausea churn deep in your stomach.

“Yoongi!” you hear the deep voice but it sounds warbled like you’re hearing it through water. Your head lolls to the side, the ringing in your ears still going as you see feet pass you. “Enough!”

Your field of vision narrows to a sharp point, edges pulling with black. You realize you’re about to pass out, oddly just thankful that you’re already on the ground. Just as your world begins to face, the face of the person in front of you appears.

Namjoon.

“Hey,” a gentle voice calls to you. There are soft hands on your head, brushing against your forehead. It smells like pine and bergamot as you snuggle into them. “I hate to wake you, but you need to wake up every few hours.”

The memory of the wolves comes to you. Your eyes snap open and you blink a few times before your vision adjusts to see Namjoon leaning over you. Cringing away from him, you press yourself into a warm, soft mattress that isn’t your own.

“Easy,” he cautions, holding his hands up. “You smacked your head very hard. I think you have a concussion.”

“Where am I?”

The room isn’t so much a room as it is a shack. There is a single fireplace in the far corner, a pile of logs, and the bed that you’re in. Despite the tiny space, it looks well-built and it’s warm, your heart slowing down as Namjoon leans to sit further from you and give you your space.

“Random shack in the woods near your village. I think it used to be a hunter’s stead for the winter.” He jerks his thumb toward the fireplace. “Hasn’t been used in a while. The wood has rotted.”

“Seokjin - you - what is going on?”

Emotions spill out of you like a broken dam. You don’t know which to acknowledge first: anger, fear, curiosity, gratitude.

Namjoon’s sigh is heavy. He visibly looks wearing, running a hand through his hair. You wonder how soft his hair is, followed immediately by feeling ridiculous for the timing of said thought.

“Just…” he winces. “Try to lean back and take it easy, I’m worried about how hard you hit your head. I promise I have no intentions of hurting you or letting anyone hurt me.”

“You called that white wolf Yoongi. Who is Yoongi? Why was Seokjin in the woods - those people - they’re dead.”

He nods slowly. “They are.”

You lean back carefully. The bed is comfortable and Namjoon keeps his distance, worried eyes on you. “I will try to explain the best I can. It will require a little bit of faith that I’m not lying to you and that I’m not insulting your intelligence by telling you things that will sound insane.”

“Like what?”

“Like werewolves exist.”

You stare at him. He doesn’t laugh, crack a grin, or do anything to make you believe he’s joking. Your first instinct is to blow him off. Werewolves were a tale for children and a way to help the children of the village cope during periods of wolf violence.

Thus far, all Namjoon has done is protect you. Strange as it seems, you know that fact to be true. He didn’t tell Dr. Jim you were eavesdropping, he kept you company after Mr. Hatch’s murder, and he stopped the wolves from taking you.

Namjoon is… there is something between you. You know it.

Hesitantly, you say, “Alright. Werewolves exist. Keep going.”

He is visibly relieved that you’re not questioning or berating him. You don’t exactly believe him yet, but you want to hear his story.

“There were communities of werewolves who lived here long before humans did. When people migrated to this area, they drove them out and forced those communities to become smaller and smaller. When the werewolves asked for their land back or to share resources, they were hunted and slaughtered.”

Namjoon’s throat bobs and emotions flicker across his face. His features settle on pain, and you stop yourself from reaching out to take his hand. “What you vaguely remember as wolf attacks and wolf hunts as a child was those families being exterminated. There are a few families in the village who remember that werewolves exist. They took it upon themselves to remove the problem forever.”

This village has a complicated history.

Dr. Kim’s words float through your mind as you chew on what Namjoon has told you. He lets the information settle, giving you a few moments to think. You don’t recall anyone seriously ever talking about werewolves but…

“They’re angry,” you murmur, remembering how San described the massacre at the Mathesons. “The wolves now - those aren’t wolves. They’re werewolves who are getting revenge. You spoke of revenge with Dr. Kim. Is that why the animal attacks have been happening?”

Namjoon nods grimly. “There is a very small concentration of people in the village who keep the secret about the massacres and the knowledge of werewolves. Those families have been… targeted recently. They still hunt werewolves when they can.”

“Who is Yoongi?”

“Ah,” he lets out a humorless laugh. “He leads the last remaining community of werewolves. His family was murdered by your constable when he was a child.” You blanch. “Yoongi is angry, vengeful, and very influential. When he was voted pack alpha, he decided to eliminate the last remaining threats.”

“He’s the white wolf.” Namjoon raises his brows but nods. You think that makes sense, remembering the white wolf at the Marrow farm and the one who dragged you in the forest. “Why was Seokjin there? Did he lead the constable to-”

Namjoon hesitates and nods. “The Kim family are wolf friends. It’s largely the reason Dr. Kim is a veterinarian. They’re what we call one foot in the forest. There were two others in your village that were wolf friends. Your neighbor was one.”

You twist your fingers in the blanket. “Did Yoongi-”

“No. I believe he was murdered by one of the men who knows what Yoongi and his people are.”

“So that’s why Seokjin led them to Yoongi?” Namjoon gives a curt nod. “This is…. A lot to take in.”

“It is. Sleep a little more and we’ll talk about it more when you wake up. Your head is already swimming enough, yeah?”

Namjoon’s grin is gentle and you shoot one back. “Do you promise to tell me why you’re really here? And why it feels like I know you?”

“Of course. Sleep, Red.”

Namjoon wakes you again a few hours later. This time, it’s with water. It’s cool and fresh, soothing your aching head and waking up your sleepy senses. He lets you drain the entire thing, sitting thoughtfully at the end of your bed.

This time, you feel more alert. Sitting up carefully, you cross your legs and examine him. He’s dressed in simple clothes and a jacket, the fireplace throwing an orange glow on his face. Again, you’re struck with how much you could swear you know him, like his eyes are something you know and love.

He waits for you to get settled, placing your hands in your lap. You fiddle with the edge of your tunic, drinking him in. Strong shoulders, rough hands, tawny skin. Your heart does a flip before you shove away thoughts of how pretty he is to think about what he’s told you so far.

“I have questions.”

He smiles and it’s as warm as the fire behind him. “Of course you do.”

“Did the werewolves kill my father?”

You get the tough one out of the way first. It was a thought you had just before you slept, wondering if your father had been someone who helped the constable murder Yoongi’s family. Though you have decided to dislike the white wolf very strongly, you can’t help but pity him.

“No,” Namjoon says vehemently. “After you told me about your father, I did some asking around. He was a wolf friend. That’s why he didn’t hunt big game, Red. He knew about us.”

A tight feeling works its way up your throat. The relief and anger you feel is a double-edged sword, happy that he didn’t contribute to the displacement Namjoon is speaking of and angry that you know with every bone in your body that he was murdered. The instinct speaks to you the same way it tells you that you know Namjoon.

You look up at him sharply, realizing something. “What do you mean ‘he knew about us’? Us?”

Namjoon’s eyes are dark. He regards you intensely, making you shiver. Slowly, Namjoon begins to roll one of his sleeves. Your eyes drop to his hand as he does, long fingers meticulous. He bares his skin and holds his hand out to you, displaying the jagged, white scar that lopes around his wrist.

Without thinking twice, you reach out to him, pulling his hand toward you. His skin is warm, sending a tingle through your fingertips. His palm is large and rough, your fingers delicate as you flip it to face the ceiling, eyes glued to the scarring around his wrist.

You move your fingers over his palm gently, scraping the calluses as you go. He lets you do what you want, touch stopping at his wrist bone before glancing up at him. His eyes are impossibly dark and he nods, urging you forward.

The scarring is rough. Thick, ropey lines encircle his wrist like his hand was ravished by teeth. It makes you faintly think of Yoongi’s teeth around your ankle or -

“You,” you breathe, eyes meeting his. They are the same warm, intelligent, and welcoming eyes of the wolf you’d saved all those years ago. The wolf who had stood between you and the others at the Marrow farm. The wolf you dream about every night. “I saved you?”

His throat bobs. “You did.”

“I… that’s why it feels like I know you.” Your fingers trace his scar, almost fondly. Namjoon’s eyes flutter. “I do know you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

He smirks. “‘Hi, my name is Namjoon and I can turn into a wolf whenever I want and you saved me a few years ago and I’ve been thinking about you ever since’ is not exactly a great opening.”

“Better than ‘you know most people who don’t want to be seen don’t wear a red cloak’.” He scrunches his nose. Cute. “I don’t know what to say.”

“That’s alright. I’ll talk if you’re willing to listen?”

You nod, not letting go of his hand. Now that you know who and what he is, any residual fear is gone. You scoot toward him, wanting to be closer. “I want to know.”

“Giho is my uncle like I said. He’s not a werewolf, though. That trait passed through my mom’s side of the family. Still, he was family and he knew about the werewolves that my father married into. He's a wolf friend and does what he can to help us, including making house calls and stealing us goods in harsh winters.”

“Huh. I always just thought he was a quiet, grumpy vet.”

“He is very much that, but he has also been a lifeline. He helps Yoongi far more than he should. It puts him in danger. His wife was killed for being a wolf friend. Giho was left alone simply because he is useful to the village.” Your fingers squeeze his hand at the hurt in his voice. “That night you found me… I was pretty young then. Fourteen, to be exact. I was nosing around the village that everyone was so afraid of and never saw the trap. I cannot emphasize how much you saved my life.”

“It seemed like the right thing to do. I was afraid but you were… hurt. And your eyes were so kind. I don’t regret it.”

“What a relief.” You smile, genuinely happy. “I was worried you might after finding out my family were sort of… killing people.”

“When you put it that way,” you wince. “But I do believe you. That humans drove you out. That people are hurting you and your people. You don’t deserve it and I… don’t think I am in a position to offer moral arguments to what you’re doing.”

“I knew I liked you.”

“You barely know me.”

Namjoon turns his hand and catches yours, lacing your fingers. Your heart skitters as he pulls you a little close and leans, eyes narrowed playfully. “Hmm, sorry. I wasn’t really allowed to come hang out around your town, Little Red.”

“Why did you finally come? Is it to help Yoongi?”

He shakes his head. “I only have one goal.”

“Which is?”

“To keep you safe.” That quiets you. Namjoon doesn’t meet your eyes when he continues, “You showed me such kindness, I just wanted to repay you. I liked to keep an eye on you when I could, always from a safe distance. You might not know me, but I grew up knowing you.”

Your mouth goes dry at his words. For someone who poses such a threat, Namjoon is gentle. Soft. Kind. You swallow past the lump in your throat. “Did you give me the red cloak?”

“Yeah. It was to mark you as a friend. We give them to those who are under our protection.” He narrows his eyes. “Which is why Yoongi swears he didn’t know it was you in the woods tonight. Seokjin’s eyesight is too piss poor to realize it was you. Idiots.”

“Well if you know about me, tell me about you. What’s your favorite color? What do you like to eat? What's your favorite thing about being a wolf?”

So Namjoon does tell you. You both end up sitting on the bed next to one another, arms touching as he traces the lines on your palm. Your backs are pressed against the wall, feet dangling off the edge of his bed as he tells you about his childhood.

It is fascinating hearing about the dynamics of his community but it’s also sad. Hearing how they live in fear, hearing how so many of the people he knows are gone. Realizing that the things he tells you match up with things you realize about your own community.

Sadness sinks to the bottom of your gut like a rock. It isn’t pity that you feel, but something far more profound. It’s regret that you didn’t know any better. Frustration that he has suffered. A radical feeling of anger and desire for justice knowing you lived in comfort while Namjoon and his family suffered.

There are good parts, too. Namjoon recalls happy moments and blushes when he recalls seeing you a few times. It doesn’t feel weird or strange, knowing someone was looking out for you. It feels comforting, like old friends catching up.

Namjoon’s eyes sparkle as he tells you about his favorite books. You don’t know when you stop listening to him and start staring, but it’s inevitable. You love the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles, dimple making an appearance as he recalls a story about putting Yoongi in the dirt with his brother, Taehyung’s help. You love the way he gestures wildly with his hands, every word evocative and enthusiastic.

He’s the kind of person you would have been friends with had he grown up with you. And maybe a little more, you think, watching Namjoon watch you. His gaze is even and heated, making you squirm. His mouth twitches and you’re so sure that he knows he makes you nervous.

“I never thanked you,” you mention. He hums in question, letting you go back to tracing his scare delicately. He twitches and you grin. Good. “For saving me from the jaws of Yoongi.”

“Ah, that. I think he knew it was you. There’s a reason he dragged you instead of killing you on the spot.”

“Huh. Well, that’s very rude.”

“He’s good at that.”

“You sound fond, still.”

He nods. “I love Yoongi. Is my brother, in a way.”

“Well still. Thank you.”

You look up at Namjoon. You’re sitting so close, shoulders pressed against one another. He smells like pine and bergamot, your favorite scent. It’s heady, awakening a foreign ache in you. Your heart speeds up as you lean into him just a little more, watching him through your lashes.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” he rumbles, voice deep.

Your toes curl. “Like what?”

“LIke you wanna do more than just thank me.”

“Maybe I do.”

“I know.”

Ah. You start to pull away and turn your head, realizing that he’s not interested, but Namjoon catches your chin with his other hand, tilting you back toward him. Your heart stalls when he looks down at your mouth, then back up to your eyes. “I’ve known you for all my life. Not how I wanted, but I’ve known you nonetheless. But you haven’t had the chance to know me.”

“I want to. I feel like I have known you. Like I knew you were always there.”

“Is this what you want?”

This. Namjoon. Whatever is crackling between you. The thing that has sparked since the moment he caught you eavesdropping. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to make sense.

Namjoon makes sense though. The way his gaze softens when he sees you. The way he looms on the edge of your life, a silent protector. The way he could do so much damage but is soft instead. The way everything about him feels like the sun on a summer day, like a field of wildflowers in spring.

He must sense you tipping over the edge. His grip on your chin becomes firm and he tilts your face toward him, leaning down to press his warm, full mouth against yours. The effect is instantaneous. You melt into him, sighing as a feeling of belonging slots into place.

The kiss is chaste. Namjoon pulls away and your lashes flutter. You hadn’t even realized your eyes closed. His gaze is dark and half-lidded, his face close enough that you feel his breath. His lips have stoked a fire in you and you want more, you want to spill out the years of longing for something you didn’t know was there, for the sudden confirmation that he’d been there all along.

Surging forward, you press your lips to his again. This time, it’s searing, your mouth fierce as you push up off of the bed. Namjoon falls in your rhythm easily, hand leaving your chin to grab you by the waist and pull you into his lap.

Knees slotted on either side of him, you pour everything you have into the kiss. Your fingers card through his thick hair, silky strands sliding between them like you knew they would. His lips are soft on yours, mouth warm as you break the seal of the kiss with your tongue.

Namjoon lets out deep, throaty sounds. It coaxes the flame inside of you to a roar, tongue tangling with his. It’s wet and messy and a little impractical but you don’t feel embarrassed or nervous. It’s Namjoon. It feels like home.

Pleasure tingles down your spine. Namjoon grips your hips, fingers digging into your flesh. It feels hot and your skin is burning up, static trapped between your chests where they’re pressed together. Your hips twitch, tentatively seeking friction in his lap. Namjoon responds immediately, pulling your hips toward him and letting you roll.

Your mouths part but Namjoon doesn’t stop kissing you. You pant while he presses his mouth to your chin and jawline, tongue tough against the softness of your skin. “I’ve wanted you for so long,” he growls. You tilt your head back, letting him pepper your throat. “You have no idea.”

“I always felt like something was missing. I think it was you.”

Namjoon moans at your admission. The heat between your legs is almost painful. One of Namjoon’s hands goes from your waist to between your legs, cupping you. You gasp back bowing as he presses firmly, deft fingers providing mind-numbing pleasure.

“That feels good.” You fist the collar of his shirt and squeeze your eyes. You feel tense, color exploding behind your closed lids. “Don’t stop.”

“Whatever you want,” he whispers. He pulls you in close, fingers curling. Your hips buck and you realize it isn't enough. You need the barrier of clothes gone. You want it more than anything. “You know I’d do anything for you.”

“Yes.”

You do know. It’s second nature. You knew even that day in the street when you’d first seen him. Just like Namjoon knows what you want and need, land leaving the apex of your thighs to help you off his lap and onto the bed under him.

There’s a confidence in his movements that makes the room spin. Long forgotten are the wolf attacks and Yoongi’s teeth around your ankle. Here, it’s only the rasp of your pants against your skin as Namjoon pulls them down. It’s only the heat of his skis as you yank on his tunic, desperate to feel him.

Namjoon does run hot. His skin is burning up as your hands explore his firm chest. He captures your lips again, sucking your bottom lip in his mouth as he spreads your legs open with a knee. You shake under his touch, equal parts eager and stimulated.

He’s so, so gentle as he caresses your inner thigh. When he brings his fingers to your sticky center, you let out a pitiful whine. Namjoon pauses, fingers pressed to your swollen kiss as he laughs and breaks the kiss, forehead pressed against yours.

“Don’t laugh at me,” you pout, leaning your head up to bite his chin. “It feels good.”

He gives you a quick kiss. Once. Twice. “Good. I want to make you feel good.”

Namjoon circles his middle finger lazily around your clit. Your feet press into the bed, hips pulling up off the sheets. It feels amazing, pleasure sparking in your stomach. “That,” you gasp. “I like that.”

He dips his head down, attaching his mouth to your neck as he teases your cunt. You don’t have to say anything else, Namjoon’s inquisitive fingers learning what makes you squirm and sigh. You’re a mess beneath him, chest heavy, beats of sweat making your shirt cling to you.

You claw at it, pulling it away from you. Namjoon leans up and lets you take it off, eyes dipping as he smiles appreciatively. He combines the efforts of his fingers with his mouth, bending low to catch a pert nipple with his teeth.

“Shit!” you squeak, making him chuckle again.

His fingers circle your clenching hole, pussy leaking onto his fingers. He presses a finger in and you let out a long, quiet whine. The feeling of his finger pressing against your walls is perfect, your cunt clenching as he shallowing thrusts the finger.

Everything he does is perfect. He sucks at your nipple hungrily as he fingers you slowly, making sure to press up inside your cunt in a way that has you seeing stars. Your fingers tangle in his hair, unable to think about anything except his teeth scraping your sensitive bud and your pussy clenching around his finger.

Namjoon is attentive. The heel of his hand presses to your clit and he eases another finger in, slower than the last. He looks up at you, mouth slick with spit to watch your mouth fall open. You nod, urging him further, sound stuck in your throat.

The wet squelch between your legs as he fucks you with his fingers is obscene. You like it though, driven by the fact that it’s Namjoon doing it. Namjoon who you saved. Namjoon who watched over you.

You open your eyes and look up at him, cradling his face in your hands. His forehead is damp with sweat from the heat building in the little shack. His skin is flushed and his hair hangs in his face. You pull at his bottom lip with your thumb and he gazes at you, hungry and wild, pupils blown.

Greedy, you pull him to you. The kiss is more teeth than lips, the two of you panting. Your leg hooks around his waist and you nibble his bottom lip, hips rolling to meet his thrusts, an orgasm starting its ascent.

“I want you,” you breathe against his mouth. Your lips are sore from arduous kissing. “Please.”

He kisses you. “Okay.”

It’s that simple. You ask for it and he gives it to you.

Namjoon retracts his fingers from your cunt. You feel the sudden loss, fidgeting as you wait. He makes quick work of his pants, kneeling on the bed and bringing his hands covered in your juice to pump his cock. You feel your eyes bulge at his thick length.

He notices and grins, slowing his movements. You watch as his hand smears precum down his shaft, twisting lightly as he gets to the top, his thumb brushing over his dark tip. “You can take it,” he pants, grinning wolfishly. “I know you can.”

Instead of answering, you nod, lifting your hips eagerly. He hums, pleased as he lets go, cock bobbing heavily while he shuffles over and leans over you. He places his hands on either side of your head, arms flexing as he holds his weight to bend down and steal a quick kiss.

You kiss back feverishly, one hand traveling between your sweaty bodies to grip his length, trying to stroke him the way he did. He sighs, breaking the kiss and dropping his forehead against your chin as a shiver ripples through him. You smile, continuing to pump him.

“Want to be inside,” he mumbles, barely coherent.

You open yourself up more, gently guiding the blunt crown of his cock toward your trembling entrance. You hold your breath as his hips follow your hand, breaching your ring of tight muscles and pushing in.

Immediately your muscles spasm and resist, overwhelmed by Namjoon’s girth. You blow out a long breath as he enters you so, so slowly. It’s heaven and it’s hell, it’s pleasure and it’s pain. Namjoon presses his mouth to you, tongue distracting you as he bottoms out, stuffing you full.

Nothing has ever compared to how stretched you are. He doesn’t move, letting your cunt twitch around him. He holds himself up with one hand, the other brushing up and down your side, squeezing bits of flesh comfortingly as you try to still your beating heart under him.

The pain fades. You get greedy, wiggling your hips back and forth experimentally to feel the way Namjoon’s cock rubs against your walls. He blows out air sharply, a half laugh before his hand drops down to your hip, pushing you down into the bed with his weight as he slides backward.

“Ohhhh,” you sigh, head lolling to the side. The pressure of Namjoon pressing you down as he sets a slow pace of fucking into you is just right. You close your eyes, letting him set a slow pace in silence. “Yeah.”

Namjoon’s breath is unsteady. Every little sound he makes sets you on fire. You’re pliant beneath him as he picks up his speed, properly fucking into you. One of your hands reaches up to grab his bicep, nails digging in, the other shooting to his hand on your hip, squeezing his wrist.

Everything feels right. Connected. Overheated. The air is so thick you think you might suffocate, sheets sticking to your balmy skin, toes curling as Namjoon’s cock hits that spot inside of you that drives you mad.

Nothing but this matters. Nothing but knowing your wolf isn’t really a wolf at all, and that he’s been there all along. Just like you’d hoped.

“Fuck,” Namjoon pants. “I never dreamed I’d have you.”

“I dreamed of you,” you gasp on a particularly hard thrust, your nails dragging down his arm. “I just didn’t know it.”

His mouth crashes to yours. “Mine,” he growls. “My savior, mine to protect.”

Your orgasm spins like an out-of-control spool of thread, winding tighter and tighter. Namjoon can tell, chasing your orgasm with reckless abandon, throwing his gentle movements out the window and fucking you hard into the bed.

The sounds and words coming out of your mouth are useless babble, your thoughts turning murky as that spool tightens so much inside of you that it bursts, unspooling and spilling out of you around Namjoon’s cock.

You can’t even breathe as you come, feet kicking, nails digging into his skin, teeth clenched. Your heart beats in your ears, the only thing you can hear for a few seconds as you spasm, eyes clenched shut. You are vaguely aware of Namjoon coming shortly after you, your name ripping through clenched teeth as he does.

There are a few minutes of nothing punctuated by your stilted breathing and rapid pulse. Finally, you blink, stars swimming in your eyes as you look at Namjoon, who hangs his head on your chest. You reach a hand up and run your fingers through his sweaty hair.

Your wolf. Somehow you’d always known it. Even when you thought you were crazy.

Gently, Namjoon pulls out of you, fluid spilling between your legs. You don’t care, limbs too heavy to move. Your skin is still burning up from exertion and you roll your head to the side to watch Namjoon as he lays next to you, pulling you toward him.

For a little while, it’s quiet. You listen to the beating of his heart, closing your eyes and breathing deeply. You’re content just to lay there feeling whole just for once.

After a while, Namjoon sighs. “You have to go back eventually.”

“We.”

“Hmm?”

“We have to go back.”

Namjoon pulls away and frowns at your tone, eyes reading your face. Your mouth is set in a firm line and you look at him with all seriousness. “We’re not letting them get away with what the humans did to you and your family.”

“You want to help?”

“Yes.” You pause. “I think it’s what my father would have wanted. It’s what I want. Even if Yoongi bit me.”

“Yoongi will never bite you again,” he vows fiercely. Then, a little more gently, “But he… would be glad to hear your sympathetic stance. I’m glad to hear it, Red.”

“Good.” You snuggle closer. “You’re mine to protect too. And I will make them pay.”

For Namjoon. For your father. You’ll paint the village red.

#namjoon smut #kim namjoon smut #bts smut #namjoon fic #namjoon fanfic #kim namjoon fic #kim namjoon fanfic #namjoon x you #namjoon x reader #werewolf namjoon #collab

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moonlitinks · 2 years

Text

what fate decides [taehyung x reader] [part 2]

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summary: You're a beta in love with your best friend, alpha Kim Taehyung. Except you know that you can never fulfill his dominating urges, so you draw a line between the two of you. Cherish his small kisses and embraces until an omega has to come along.

Until one day, you're not a beta anymore. Now, it's nearly impossible to resist the protective, endearing alpha in front of you.

pairing: taehyung x reader

chapter tags/warnings: angst, self-depricating thoughts, fluff, alpha/omega, a/b/o dynamics, best friends to lovers, slow burn ish, smut, mature, swearing, car accidents

tags: @theblueslytherin @tatyhend @tinyoonsblog @vsmith0099 @midnightsora @cupcakesxdomjoon @likeshatteredrainbowglass @scuzmunkie @kookiwu @xjiminsthighsx @dreadity @lovelytaes-blog @noooodlllleeee @ggukkieland @namjoonshug

You remember how he used to creep through your window and curled up next to you. Your bed creaked as you let him settle, but every sound—as he took off his shoes, chucked off his jacket, ran a hand through his hair, all this illuminated in the moonlight—shattered your heart. It’s as fragile as glass whenever he’s around, and wonder how many more times you’d have to mend it together until it’s just not possible.

“What’s it like?” You had to ask. “Being an Alpha?”

You’re sure that your memory is different from his. All you remember is coming home one day, ready to throw the kid out the window because he annoyed you all day, placing pranks for you around the school and sticking his tongue out. It’s not fair that the sunbae’s loved him too, and that he got away with everything if he smiled wide enough. The boxy smile and crinkling in his eyes were enough to melt any girl’s heart, including yours. Though you expected to confront him about that and skipping classes, his mother confronted you—telling you he was an alpha.

He was sixteen then. You seventeen. But by then, you were well-aware of the impacts of designation. Enough so that you left without asking questions.

His arms went around your waist. Mouth near the back of your neck, him burying his face in your shoulder. Legs tangling up with yours. As a beta, senses weren’t as heightened, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t smell someone else on him. Mijun. And it made you want to throw up. Because it’s all too clear what he spent the night doing—calming his urges down.

Well, not urges, but… yeah. It was mutual for the two of them, and you liked Mijun as an acquaintance. She was one of the few people who treated you nicely and hung around Taehyung at the same time.

“What’s it like?” He asked in return. “Being a Beta?”

“Dull,” you responded. Hopeless. Beta’s and Alpha’s don’t go together. They just don’t. Biology demands for an Omega to be with an Alpha. Same with the other way around. You, you were like the leftovers the world created. The followers—the secretary in the movie that cleaned up after everybody’s mess, but was never given credit for it.

At least, that’s how it felt as a teenager.

“Uncontrollable,” he told you. Added, “The only time I feel like I’m in my right mind is with you.”

Yeah, because you’re logical. There’s nothing more to this exchange except that you two will be friends. And it only made the bitter taste in your tongue get worse.

That part didn’t change.

There are certain telltale signs—other than the additional signs of aggressiveness, stronger scents that even you can pick up, and constant growls—that accompany Taehyung when he’s about to go into rut. For one, the idol becomes impossible overbearing, becoming attached to your hip and hovering over you like you’re either pregnant or weak.

This is one of the many reasons I didn’t come to Korea, you think, as the alpha comes in with several grocery bags. Like come on, you are a Beta. Capable of carrying both an Alpha and Omega on your backs, which is why usually you had positions where you were the mediator. It’s a talent, multitasking—doing jobs and calming down both so called levels simultaneously.

“Did you want to eat something?”

“No,” Taehyung mutters, scowling at the string of hoodies on the ground. In your defense, you were entranced in a scene, and refused to be sucked out of it. Cleaning up after yourself would cause you to lose all the ideas you came up with plot wise. “I’m cooking tonight.”

“You learned how to cook?” You laugh.

He scowls. “Of course I learned how to cook. Who’s going to take care of you? All you do is order to-go food.”

It’s not just the food that’s annoying him—you can tell. It’s the fact that the two of you fought over where you would stay. Taehyung kept arguing that his apartment was available, but you didn’t want to take advantage. And yeah, you understand that it’s stupid not accepting a free space where you don’t have to pay rent, but then when you think about how the media would portray it, it all sounds wrong. So you reside in a small apartment a bit larger than your studio, and let him come over.

“Hey!” The protest rings loud and clear. “I can cook a great ramen, where the noodles aren’t overcooked and there’s just the right amount of broth. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“No, because ramen isn’t healthy.”

“If you’re going to be like this, find an omega to spoil, Taehyung ah,” you joke. Your heart clenches, but you force the smile to remain on your face. It’s better this way, to create distance. Now that you can’t do that by land or ocean, you have to do it through words.

Yes, it’s painful, pushing Taehyung away. But you’ve lived with the fantasy of a beta and alpha being compatible for years, only for it to be crushed whenever he slept with another girl, or snapped at you through his ruts. Just like the alpha could be gentle, he could be vicious, too. And it wasn’t—isn’t—your job to calm him down in that area.

It’s his omega’s.

98% of marriages between an alpha and beta end in divorce, you tell yourself when the idol clenches his jaw. Taehyung and you won’t be any different, not that he’s even interested in you in the first place.

“So, what are you going to cook?”

“Curry,” he mumbles, running a hand through his hair. The other hand is placed on the small of your back as he kisses your shoulder, then your forehead. “Go rest, love. You look like you’re about to topple over.”

Yeah, because the mattress that you bought—one of the cheaper ones—isn’t as great as the one in America. And as you’re getting older, your back is only annoying you more. So you lay on the sofa as Taehyung cuts the green onions and starts chopping the carrots in silence. When he started cooking, you can’t even recall. All of a sudden, he just starting to grow taller than you did, and take care of you like you used to take care of him.

It’s unsettling, really.

You want to scream.

In joy, of course.

Heading home from a cafe, you’re beaming, nearly tripping over the sidewalk as you run home. You managed to finish plotting your novel, and are finally—finally—satisfied at how it would turn out when you start writing it. And today is the day—it has to be. You’re running home when the idol himself calls.

“You have a meeting today with the PD?” You ask. “Or do you not have anything better to do than annoy me?”

“Ha,” Taehyung mutters. “Funny. I was wondering—” That’s when you spot him. Wearing a coat and dress pants, along with a pair of sneakers by the streetlamp. The wind’s blowing, sending the December snow scattering into your eyes, but you squint through it to get a better glance at him. Your nose is cold, and your teeth are chattering, and you should be home. But here you are, picking Taehyung up. There’s a scarf around his neck, but you know it’s not from him. It’s not his. Shivering, your hands are too numb to press the end call button.

Taehyung’s eyebrows knit together, but then he glances up. His eyes are smiling already when he steps forward. And you don’t think. You run.

Stupid, stupid mistake. The light might be green, but the snow’s heavy. And your timing has always been terrible. Your legs ache, but then you slam into something. Lights—yellow? white?—flash in front of your eyes, and you don’t know what happens. You’re just on the ground. Your bones feel like they’re shattered, and you whimper. It’s more than numbness you’re feeling now.

Fire. Fire is spreading all throughout your body, and it’s like something has knocked out your voice, making it impossible for you to do anything.

Then fear. It sets in like the ice pricking your skin. You want to thrash, but you can’t.

“Love? Love. Love,” he repeats. First with the nickname he gave you, then your actual one. Hovers above you, calling your name, voice hoarse and throaty, panic laced in the edges. Just like always, you’re drawn into Taehyung, your senses tunneling in to focus on nothing but him. Even the sirens drift into the background, along with the other hands that are grabbing you, checking your pulse, making sure you’re alive.

“Stay with me!”

BONUS (cause I was bored and wanted to stay in this drabble for a little longer):

Providing for you pleases Taehyung. You don’t know it, of course, but the way you unconsciously react to him—eyes brightening, lips curving upwards, and head tilting back—it tells his alpha that you’re submitting to him, eager for his return. Sometimes, before he can think better of not ruining the friendship the two of you established, he’ll lean in and wrap his arms around you, burying his nose in the crook of your neck.

Fighting the urge to mark and bite it. Leave hickeys around in the area so everyone—including you—can know you’re his. For now, he has to provide indirectly. Making sure that you have a nice apartment, one that isn’t blocked by other buildings and has the right amount of sunlight. You also like the garden balconies, so he gets you one.

Anything you want, anything you need, it’s yours.

“We could sleep. It’s just the same bed,” he protests. “We’ve done it since we were kids. Fuck, we take naps together even now with you and top of me.”

“That’s on the sofa.”

“And what’s the difference of it being on a bed?”

“There is no difference,” you hesitate. “But you are in rut, Taehyung.”

“Noona,” he sighs. “I’m not a teenager anymore. I’m in tune with my alpha, and I know when my rut will hit me hardest. I promise I’ll be out by then, but I just want to cuddle with someone who’s not my members at all. So come upstairs, okay? I’ll be waiting.”

He’s not wrong—he is comfortable. Legs tangled together, you let him play with the strands of your hair, arms wrapping around his waist. You can hear his heartbeat, head laid directly over it. That, along with the soft coos his alpha makes, causes your eyes to grow drowsy. So when Taehyung pulls away for a second, you mumble incoherent words, something about your heating pad disappearing.

And then the alpha hears it—the soft whines that settle when he molds himself to you again. It subsides in an instant, and his eyes widen when he takes in your closed eyes and parted lips. If anything, your beta is calling out to him, and though the two pairs—alpha and beta—aren’t usually mated, this itself shows that you’re attached to him.

More than attached. Attracted.

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jjungkooksthighs · 10 months

Text

Claws of Carnality | jjk (m) (14)

Pairing: alpha jungkook x omega reader

Genre: fluff and angst, abo/werewolf, fantasy

Rating: 18+/nsfw

Word Count: 8.8k

Summary: The Duels of the Chosen begin, and the alphas battle the right to take the omega as their own.

Warnings: CHARACTER INJURY, LOTS OF BLOOD MENTIONS, GORE (this will not be for people who are squeamish with blood/gore), dom!jungkook, alpha!jungkook, alpha!Taehyung, alpha!Jimin, sub!reader, omega!reader, cursing, praising, possessive!jungkook, teasing, dirty talk, marking, manhandling

A/N: Hello, all! It’s been some time, but we are back again with another update! I have been very busy with work and school, so that was one of the reasons this took so long. The other reason was that I knew a lot of you were waiting specifically for the long-anticipated fight, and so I became overly critical of myself and didn’t like anything I wrote. This is a chapter that was one of my first ideas for this story, so I wanted it to be as perfect as I envisioned it in my head. Nothing I wrote could match that, and finally I became resolved to just writing without stopping or editing until the end. I hope that you all find this to meet your expectations, given that it is over twenty pages long. Oh, and let me know what you think about that cliffhanger at the end (or anything about this chapter because comments are like the bread and butter of writers), yeah?

Series Masterlist

It is as if time itself has grown tired as the seconds slowly tick by, the silver circlet twining itself around your head becoming heavier the longer it stays nestled there.

It saps your senses and strength away to leave you entirely incapable of movement and thought. In some cases, it even dulls emotions. It was why the substance was forbidden to be used except in ceremonial rites like the Duels of the Chosen.

Soon, even managing a thought becomes a challenge in how the silver intertwists you in numbness in your own head. Even your eyelids fall lower over your eyes in how leaden they have become.

The sound of something distinctly metal comes from somewhere near your feet. It takes a moment for you to drag your irises down your mate’s body to where his hand is fiddling with the bolt holding the first latch closed on the brown wooden box at your feet. The box, like its counterpart that has yet to be opened, is bigger than the one your diadem had come from.

His long fingers easily flick up on the last latch to the second of the three wooden boxes that are of a sepia, umber, and burnt sienna make. It is the second largest box of the three. What your alpha reveals is on a bed of white velvet and you see not one, but two pieces laid under one another that shine in the moonlight.

They are identical and appear to be a kind of cuff for your wrist in their size. They, like are your diadem, have twisting and tangling silver strands that root from the bottom of the piece to the top, and interspersed throughout the bevy of liana-like tendrils, you can make out small, intricately forged flowerets not unlike the curtain of vines that flowers of all colors and sizes cling to along the stony wall hiding the creek that you used to habit.

It's a task to summon the memories of that place with the circlet that siphons away your cognition. Every time you try, what you are searching for seems to swim away from you in the sea of darkness that has swept your mind in its sway.

“Forgive me, my beautiful flower,” your mate’s voice lifts your very soul as you watch him undo the clasps of the first piece, his digits working the hook with ease and, from his knees, he reaches for your arm while he says, “the tradition is that you must be bedecked in silver before I am allowed to go fight. I fear I may not even make it that far if I do not do this now.” His calloused fingers wrap around your forearm and he turns it so that the underside of your arm is extended to him as he lifts the silver cuff toward it with the other. He doesn’t release your forearm, but instead curls his fingers tighter over your bare flesh as he says, “But gods, you test me so.”

Trying to put together words or sentences is like trying to fish in a dark, murky river. As for your emotions, even they have begun to grow dormant under the waters of dullness that try to quiet them.

It's all you can do to let your head fall to the side in question, the leaf-shaped crystal hanging from the middle of your diadem reflecting the light of the moon.

Attuned to you as ever, your alpha grins, “All I meant is that you have a very, very powerful effect on me, my love.” He guides your arm forward until the back of your hand rests on his shoulder. Then, his fingers are gone and he fits the adornment over your wrist as he hooks the first of the five blossoming fastenings along the undersurface of the bracelet over one another while he confesses, “I wanted to keep kissing you,” he closes the last of the fastenings over your wrist before bringing it to his mouth and placing his lips over your bloodied palm before he turns your now limp arm back over so that you can put your dead weight on his shoulder. Then, he’s grabbing your other so that he can adorn it, too, as he tells you, “I wished to keep tasting you,” a pink tongue glides along his lip where your blood now coats it, a groan slipping from him whilst he secures the fixing on the other wrist cuff as he admits, “And I wanted to keep exploring your body.”

You can only whimper in answer, but even that sound is now muted to your own ears as if you have cloth stuffed in them while the silver sifts out the energy from your body like a drain where the metal touches your flesh. It is heavy as a rock, and your wrist is trapped within it as you whimper.

Your alpha’s eyes soften at that, and still on knees, he reaches for the third and largest of the ornately carved boxes. Somehow, his digits work even slower now on this one.

You do not think about why. All you can do is sit and watch as a tethering torpor climbs up your arm like a fungus from where the silver cuffs bind them.

“You probably have already realized it by now, omega,” his eyes are locked on yours when his fingers find the hem of your gown behind your ankle and then he’s balling it in his hand, “but it gives me no pleasure to bind you up like this. I am very well acquainted with what silver does to our kind. I made this silver for you, but I also had to make it for myself, too.” He’s careful to lay both of your hands on your lap, “the only reason I am still capable of basic movement while touching it is because I seem to have made myself somewhat tolerant to it with how much I’ve had it on me during my ruts,” golden irises find yours when he adds, “ruts that I could not spend with you until you had accepted me.”

Your heart gives a weak pang against your ribcage at that.

“I’m almost done, sweetheart. Bear with me.” He tugs up on the ovular clasp on the third, final and biggest of the wooden boxes–this one the length of your calf in its size–before pushing inward, and then he’s lifting up the top of the box to reveal two grandiloquent adornments that you’ve never seen anything the likes of before.

It takes some time to process what they are, but you cannot ignore how wondrously they glint in the firelight that makes them sparkle bright as the stars.

With his hand still gripping at your skirts, your alpha coaxes your knees apart so that he can resituate himself and put one of his knees between yours.

It is a strange thing to be so silent, but you know if you didn’t have this silver on you right now, you would be begging.

Your alpha must know it, because he chuckles when he coaxes your left leg up and onto his so that your foot rests on his thigh, and gods, the sight of him on his knees for you has familiar heat stirring between your legs as your sex cries for him.

The wind chooses that moment to wind around you, and then your alpha is cursing under his breath, his fingers tightening in your skirt as he cusses, “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, omega.”

His movements hasten then, and his eyes dilate in desire. You feel your skirt ascend and climb along your leg until he’s got it bunched up atop your knee, but it is a blur after that the muted sound of a clink. You don’t even realize that he’s fitted the piece over your calf and pulled together the three clamps only with one hand along the back of your leg before he’s heaving a heavy breath and leaning forward to utter, “It is a good thing I am touching this silver and that it deafens my senses to an extent, because if it didn’t,” his lips brush the inside of your knee as he mouths, “I’d have likely been unable to stop myself from standing and taking you against this fucking tree you sit on.”

You have half a mind to tell him you want it, that you want him, but words do not come. Every time you seek them, they bury themselves in the silt of your brain and no matter how hard you try, the silver circling your head hides them from you.

All you can manage is a stuttered,” Ah..al…alpha.”

At the sound of your voice, your alpha’s irises contract from between your thighs as he looks up at you. “Here, my love. I am here.”

You wish you could speak more to him. You wish you could touch him. You wish he would-

“I can hear your desire as much as I can smell it, my love,” your alpha tells you as he brings his lips over to the other side of your knee and he presses his mouth to your skin, “your pre-heat is making you fucking needier as the seconds pass, pretty girl.”

You make an effort to make your thighs meet, but the leg that he’d just wrapped silver in does not heed your mind or your instinct.

You pout. It’s all your body has energy left to do.

You hadn’t noticed it before now, but the usual softness, warmth and wetness of his mouth and fingers was gone. Stolen by the silver that drew sensation away until little to none remained.

Suddenly, there’s something hard gliding along your upper shin, and when your alpha’s mouth leaves you, two fresh, new punctures dot your skin along the base of your knee.

You had not felt him bite you. There had not been any pain due to the dulling effect of the silver just beneath his mark.

Crimson now lines his mouth and he lets it descend from the middle of his lower lip and down his bare neck. You lick your lips as you watch it, your tongue dense as a stone.

Jealousy hangs low in your gut over you in how your own blood gets to trail down his body and you can only watch. Your alpha’s mouth curves up at that, and two canines, each red with your blood, protrude from under his lips.

“Worry not, my love,” your alpha’s fingers find your other ankle and he guides it up so that your foot rests on his leg, his head dipping between your thighs while his digits tug the ball of fabric of your skirts higher so that he has more access to you, “I will satisfy every single one of your fantasies, every single one of your dreams, and every single one of your cravings,” his mouth finds the tender flesh of your inner thigh as he angles his head to the side, your own lips parting as his tongue slides from between his to lick you as he says, “I’ll let you have me anyway you wish, my love. Anything to make you happy, pretty.”

You latch onto that word. You try to follow the line he’s thrown you in the river of languor, and you can manage through the current of listlessness, “Y-yours…w-want to-“

You try again, but attempting to get your head above the water of stupor that has settled around you is too much.

Your alpha coos, “Oh, my omega. I hear you. I see you,” He suckles at your flesh before lightly biting down the same time you hear that clinking sound again, his freed hand placing the other silver adornment along your shin only for the sinking of all of his teeth into your flesh to feel as if he were only nipping you. “I feel your very blood trying to give itself to me like this. How badly I want to give in to you, my little vixen.”

“Pack Alpha Jungkook,” your grandmother’s voice sounds in the distance from where she stands on her place at the edge of the timbered stage, “It is time. She is more than ready for you to go to battle.”

“Give me a moment,” your alpha declares.

You do not hear her at first. The sounds and vocables mix together and you can only discern bits of pieces of it.

Not…not ready…alpha…

They are the only words that you can remember long enough to think them.

In front of you, your alpha’s tongue drifts to and fro over the wounds he’d left on your thigh.

I must, my love. I must.

His voice finds you even though his mouth doesn’t move.

You attempt to reach for him, to get closer to him, but it’s as if a weight has been attached to your arm and no matter how much you attempt it, it is too heavy to move. As if to soothe the frustration you let out in the form of a shaky sigh, he gives you featherlight kisses anywhere and everywhere that he can along your thigh before he turns his head inward toward your other and opens his mouth to mold it against you, his tongue laving at you ardently.

The attention has your core clenching around nothing.

Before he departs from between your legs, his digits finish their work in securing the clamps along the back of the other piece of silver he’d put over your shin.

Like the air, his fingers are ever present and wind over the silver etchings he’d forged for you until they roam to the front of the adornment he’d just attached to you. The knuckles of the hand he has tangled your skirts has gone snow white in the tight grip he has on the thin fabric.

He’s holding it like it is a lifeline, and honestly, it just might be. He’s all that is grounding you right now.

“Stars above, my love, you charm me even when silence and stillness have stolen what is only mine to have,” he gently helps you to put your feet back on the grass, his golden irises sowing themselves deep into yours as he does, “I used to think about what you might look like all tied up and bound for me, but none of my imaginings could ever be as good as this.” He rises to stand above you and it only takes two of his fingers under your chin to lift it enough so that you can keep your gaze on him, your bare neck exposed for him as he inspects his handiwork while he goes on, “You haven’t any clue just how seductive you can be when you aren’t even trying, omega. Look at yourself.”

Distantly, relief trickles over you at how fucking responsive your alpha is to you. You wouldn’t have otherwise been able to move your head so that you could look upon him given that the rest of your body isn’t responding to what the apex between your legs has been sobbing over this entire time.

Your wolf sluggishly stirs at his command, and you do as you are told with your head empty of everything except the need to satisfy him.

It takes some effort. Drawing your eyeline away from him is like towing an anchor through a muddy seafloor. The red paint of your own blood that you’d etched all over him has darkened even more in its dryness across his muscled arms and corded chest. Lighter trails of it have swept themselves down his neck from where it drips from his lips from his earlier ministrations, and with the hooded look in his eyes and wild black hair that curls around his chiseled face, he looks like he wants to devour you.

You know that you’d let him. In the back of your mind, the image of him with his head trapped between your legs, your ankles thrown over his shoulders and his lips wrapped around your pussy flashes. It sends wetness between your already slicked folds.

“Lustful little thing,” your alpha groans when your scent reaches his nostrils, “Stop thinking about getting fucked, pretty girl. I told you I would take care of that when this is over. Now look at yourself,” he orders.

His fingers that he’s kept under your chin lower your head so that you have no choice but to look ahead where he wants you to. You don’t have the strength to move it on your own anymore.

The first thing you notice is that he’s still got your skirts rolled up between his now snow-white knuckles. The second thing you notice is the skin of your thighs is now painted in bloodied trails of your essence that circle and tread toward the very bindings that your alpha had just put on you. The third thing you notice is that just below your knee, rivulets of silver run along your shins and calves. Like they have dripped from the rocks of the creek you often played in as a child and found respite in as an adult, the silver drizzles down your leg until it pools around your ankle in the thick band of metal that encircles it.

“C-creek?” you let the heavy, rolling tide of that thought bring the word forth from your lips.

“Yes, sweetheart. I had hoped to capture the essence of the places you love the most in all of the pieces I made by hand for you,” his fingers loosen around the clump of your skirts under his fingers, and slowly, it descends down your knee, your shin, and then finally your ankle as you both watch. “It’s not a perfect replication, but a lot of silver passed through my hands in my mission to make something only you would be able to wear and bear.”

Affection courses through your veins as steadily as the blood that runs through your body at his words.

“Pack Alpha Jungkook,” the sound of wood rattles against the platform she stands upon when your grandmother strikes the timbered stage with a staff of oaken bark to announce, “With your preparations complete, you must now head to the battle grounds you have chosen where your challengers await your arrival. If you have anything else you wish to say to your intended or to the pack, you must do so now.”

Without taking his eyes off of you, your alpha answers, “I do have something to say.” He coaxes your chin upward with the fingers he still has planted there, and then sunlight in the form of irises finds yours. His voice is carried only to you in the small breeze that blows over you. “I want you to know, omega,” his thumb slides along the cleft of your chin, “that I love you. And this fight…I do it for you. Everything I do and have done up until now has all been for you, my love.” He tilts his head up, his lips finding the spot between your brows just under the crystal that hangs from your circlet and then mouthing, “Be a good for me until I come back to you. I will return shortly.”

You bite at the log he’s thrown you, only a few words leaving you because the rest had sunken under the murky waters of thought in your head.

“Good,” you can’t even scrunch your brows together in consternation anymore because of how leaden even those have become. Your jaw hardly even moves when you speak, because doing so is impossible with the muscles that refuse to respond to you as you say between parted lips, “b-be good for…for y-you. R-ret…return shortly.”

That seems to satisfy the alpha, for he rumbles against you in response. “That’s my girl.”

His mouth leaves you, and though you can’t really feel their warmness or softness anymore because of the silver, you miss them already.

He gives you one last glance, and in those eyes of his, and compassion clings to them as they cross over you.

You want to reach for him. You want to feel those arms of his around you. You want him to stay with you. That thought sinks away from you even though you try to swim after it.

Stay… alpha.

Your alpha steps back, shaking his head as he does.

I will never have to leave you once this is over, my love. Trust in me. I will not fail you.

With those words he sends through your bond, he turns away from you. Panic somehow worms its way into your gut as you watch.

Your alpha’ voice is firm as a tree stump and sturdy as the bark of one when he speaks again as the grass crunches under his feet. “To any alpha here-mated or unmated-do not go near the omega. My omega,” he adds. “Get within in one foot of her, and I will hunt you down.”

Before him, the males put an arm over their front and pound their fist into their chest one by one.

The sea of alphas and omegas part like a river for him, and no one stands in his way as he walks, his shoulders set proudly as he moves with confidence cording his muscles.

You try to whimper, but the sound is lost somewhere in your throat.

The other wolves cluster to one of two sides so that you have nothing blocking your sight from him as he treads on through the grass that catches his feet, the firelight of the braziers set every few feet bathing him in a golden glow. The red paint of blood he wears like a second skin, and it is a dangerous warning to the three that stand several paces apart from each other in the distance ahead.

The continual crunch of grass under your alpha’s feet continues until the grass yields to the dirt of the plain by the old knoll that had stood since the old times.

Your alpha halts, resolve now set in those eyes of his.

Before him to his left, Taehyung stares with a sneer on his face. In the middle of the field, ahead of your alpha is Yoongi, the russet-haired male that has his arms crossed over his chest. To his right, Jimin bares his teeth.

Your alpha reveals his own teeth to them all.

“Pack Alpha Jungkook,” the voice of your grandmother descends over the plain as she ambles, with two other elders, down the stage toward the mound before the plain, “As you have been named the Omega Y/N’s champion, you have been granted the battle rights and so you may choose the terms of this battle.” She peregrinates still, the thick furs around her shoulders unmoved even in her shaky footfalls, “No one may contest your decisions, and your choices are final once given. If any wolf breaks these terms, he will be disqualified and deemed unfit to take the omega as his own. Do you all understand?”

“Yes,” your alpha, without missing a breath, answers.

The other three males nod.

“Very well. Chosen one, do you wish to take on all of your opponents at once, one at a time, or in any sequential order?” She makes it to the top of the knoll, her knees popping as she does.

“I will take on Yoongi alone. The other two I will fight together. It matters not to me which I battle first.” Jungkook asserts.

Yoongi rolls his eyes. “Scared, Jeon?”

Taehyung laughs under his breath. Jimin cringes at the sound.

“Keep dreaming, Yoongi. I know how dirty you play,” Jungkook picks an invisible fleck of dust off his shoulder.

“Will you fight in your human form, or will you shift to your lupine form?” The elder in grayed, wiry furs is unphased.

“The first battle I will fight as a human. My second I will fight as a wolf. The others will do the same.”

“Will you be using any weapons in your first fight?”

“Hands, teeth, and claws,” your alpha decides.

“Will this be to the death or to the surrender of the fallen combatants?”

“To the surrender. I do not wish to lose any of my alphas. Even if they are a pain in the ass.”

“Are there any other conditions you would like to set, Pack Alpha Jungkook?”

Your alpha’s eyes harden on each of the males before him. “Any wolf that falls in combat will bear those marks for the rest of his life. I will allow no healers or menders to their side unless the injury is life-threatening.”

“Those conditions will be met. Anything else?” The elder beside your grandmother asks.

“Yes. One more thing,” your alpha is unwavering as he takes a step forth, “No challenger may leave the perimeter of these grounds we stand on until the victor has been declared.”

“As you say,” the aged wolf on the other side of the lead elder says.

The rustle of trees sweeps over the land from the woodland around, and the fire of the braziers circling the arena of dirt is swept with the wind until all is quiet again.

Your alpha keeps his back to you, and so fixated on him, you do not see your grandmother lift her hand, the sound of horns filling the air as the two elders beside her blow into the wooden tusks with holes cut into them that they’d produced from the folds of their furs that cover the whole of their body.

“I will remind you, Jeon Jungkook, that as you are the current Pack Alpha, your title and rank will be stripped from you should you lose this battle. The victor will take your title, rank, and your intended should you be unable to beat them in combat,” The two elders at your grandmother’s side speak together, their voices melding into one, “Do you understand and agree to these terms?”

Your alpha doesn’t even flinch at the prospect. “I am aware of what will happen should I fail to be victorious. I consent to those terms.”

“Should any alpha fail to comply with these conditions, they will be exiled, and if it is the victor’s decision, he may decide to exile or end the lives of those he defeats.” The elders wait for all four males to acknowledge this with affirmations before: “Now, with the terms and agreements that have been given,” the elder in gray from atop the knoll who stands as the intercessor of the four alphas below voices, “Let the battle begin.”

For a few moments, all the males do is stand and stare between one another, no one willing to make the first move.

Your alpha is patient, so he waits. He has spent a long, long time waiting for you.

Worry snakes around your chest, its slithery movement slow and lazy as you watch your alpha’s muscles in his back tense as if he’s preparing to be attacked.

As if he can smell your concern, he turns his head to the side, his irises softening as they silently seek yours.

Worry not, my love. Just watch me. This will all seem like a dream in only a short while.

“The hell with this,” comes a dry remark from Taehyung, who shrugs off his black rabbit furs, the bones cracking from between his knuckles as he claws at his black linen shirt so that it falls in shreds at his feet, “I’ve been waiting for a chance to get revenge for what you did to my fucking shoulder, Jeon,” Taehyung covers the five circular wounds in his flesh, his eyes boring holes into your alpha, “and I will finish what I started with the female and make you grovel while I do it.”

“Oh, shut up already, Taehyung,” Jimin throws off his own furs, his eyes narrowing on the brown haired wolf who had just spoken, “I should destroy you first for what you did to my sister. To me,” he rips his own shirt from his body, “You fucking asshole.”

“Can you both just come at me already? I’m getting bored over here,” Your alpha stretches an arm behind his back, “Unless you’d like to let Yoongi have a go at me first?”

“Fuck off, Jeon,” Yoongi picks at his nails, “you two had better start ripping into some limbs, or I will.”

“No,” Taehyung pushes off his haunches and is off, “he’s mine.”

Jimin is on his tail the second he moves. Your alpha is still even though there’s a male running toward him and another behind that one. Taehyung’s arm lifts, his claws in the air and then he’s upon your alpha.

Fear constricts your stomach at the sight.

The brown-haired wolf draws his arm down in an arcing motion as if to slash at your alpha’s chest, but before it can make it there, your alpha’s hand, fast as lightning, races through the air and he grips Taehyung’s wrist with force, each of his nails sinking into the alpha’s wrist as if it were water. The brown-haired alpha barks in pain, his eyes unseeing of the other alpha behind him as he does.

Jungkook smirks, and with no effort, he swings his other arm back, his fingers clenching into a fist and then that fist makes contact with Taehyung’s stomach. Hard. The brown-haired alpha is flung like a pebble into the air and the impact of the throw has his head colliding with Jimin’s so that there’s a loud thud as Taehyung’s skull hits the other’s that is hard as a stone.

“Surely you both can do better than that? I’m a little disappointed. I wasn’t expecting much from Taehyung considering he’s never been that great a fighter,” your alpha wrinkles his nose in disgust at the fresh blood that now coats his hand as he looks down at it, “but Jimin? You usually are faster than that. It’s unlike you.”

“Basta-“ Jimin is silenced when Jungkook impels his foot down on his abdomen to knock the breath out of him.

Your alpha’s tone is devoid of any warmth when he chides, “I thought I told you not to address me with such disrespect.” He stomps on the downed alpha’s chest again, the rib beneath it cracking like a twig as Jimin yips in affliction.

Taehyung gets to his feet and swings, but Jungkook uses the body of Jimin like he’s a stepping stone to jump to the other side so that Taheyung misses and your alpha tuts, “Ah, ah, ah, Taehyung. It is rude to try to punch someone when they’re looking.”

“Like I give a fuck,” Taehyung curses, and when he swings again, Jungkook jumps back with inhuman speed. Across from him, he just narrowly misses Jimin who had rolled to his belly and pushed off his hands to get up.

Jungkook flicks his bloodied hand toward the ground as if to get it off and red dots the ground before he taunts, “You know, I’ve always thought you smelled absolutely rancid, Taehyung,” he wipes the remains on his trousers, “but I didn’t think it was possible for you to smell worse than the bottom of a fucking bog.”

Taehyung responds by yelling out the Pack Alpha’s name, and then he’s making another dash for him. Jungkook isn’t even phased by it. He just steps sideways so that the alpha’s claws and open maw miss him completely. Jimin comes for him next, but he dives toward the ground and rolls when the other alpha tries to swipe at his side from below.

Yoongi, the passive bystander, stays where had been since the beginning and files at his nails using a rock he’d picked up.

Meanwhile, Taehyung scampers like a wild man toward Jungkook. Anger has turned the whites of his eyes red, and his movements only grow more erratic the longer he battles.

When Jungkook rises to his feet once more, he grins at the sight. “Always so quick to anger,” he spins when the brown-haired alpha’s arm descends downward, “and always so easy to defeat.” He rotates the other direction when Taehyung’s attempts to uppercut him, “I knew you would not be difficult to defeat from the moment I threw you against that tree in the fucking forest when you talked back to me. When you dared to disrespect and defile my intended with your tongue,” Jungkook’s fist ascends toward his maw, but the brown-haired wolf holds up both arms in front of his face to block. The force of the blow knocks his arms away from his face, one of his elbows pushed up into an area of his arm that it doesn’t belong as he curses loudly and the wolf staggers backward away from Jungkook, who mocks, “I should take your tongue for all its slander, but taking that ego and pride from you will hurt you more than that ever could.”

Jimin sprints so that he’s waiting on the opposite side of your alpha, but before his outstretched foot can make contact with Jungkook’s stomach, his calf is caught by Jungkook’s fingers. Your alpha keeps that leg in his hold, his claws elongating and puncturing the flesh there so that Jimin winces and cries out.

Momentarily seized by the pain, Jimin grabs at his leg while Jungkook reprimands, “and you, Jimin…You used to be such a good friend to me. I have missed your presence and friendship.” He headbutts the male, “Were you not distracted by Taehyung, you might have actually made me break a sweat.”

The scraunch of dirt sounds from behind him, and Jungkook crouches as Taehyung catapults himself toward him. He hurls Jimin to the ground, and Taehyung’s teeth embed themselves into Jimin’s chest as the two tumble to the ground. In the scuffle, Jungkook’s claws that had been lodged in Jimin’s thigh had cut through his flesh like it was fluid, and blood sprays all around them before Jimin lands with a deafening thump on the dirt that is stirred up in a cloud around the males.

When it clears, a motionless Jimin is lain under Taehyung, who extracts his claws from around his heart and rises without even glancing his direction. Crimson gushes from the downed alpha’s wounds, his skin torn and mangled from his thigh all the way to his foot where his lifeblood flows out of him like a red sea. Bone peeks from beneath the five angry incisions that sever his skin from itself along his leg and his chest heaves with labor where the blood pushes itself out from the five punctures around his heart.

Agitation dots your alpha’s face where Jimin’s blood does not, his entire chest now speckled with crimson that you had not put there.

He had not wanted this to end in death for any under his charge.

“This is your fault, Jeon,” Taehyung spits, “If you had just fucking stood still, you would be on the fucking ground right now, and your little bitch would already be mine.”

That has your alpha’s irises lifting to his. They are colder than ice as he narrows them, “First you defile Jimin, who became your friend because I told him to, and then you insult my intended. Tell me, Taehyung, whose fault is it that you can’t even use your fucking shoulder where my claws severed some of the nerves there when the sun was setting?”

“Hmm,” Taehyung puts a bloody hand to his chin, “I would say it was the she-wolf who is to blame. I wanted to fuck her, and she didn’t want me to. You got in the way.”

“You will never touch her,” Jungkook lifts his lip so his teeth are on display, “and you will never have her,” your alpha growls, “not as long as I live and fucking breathe. I’ll break every bone in your body starting from your toes to your ribs if that’s what it takes to make you understand that.”

“Just as long as it’s not my face. I need that,” Taehyung’s sarcasm is loud, “the bitches I screw love it too much.”

With that, Jungkook roars so even the mountains beyond shake, and he rushes forward toward the brown-haired alpha. He moves with such speed that even the wind cannot blow past him, and it is over in seconds.

One second, your alpha is in front of the older wolf. The next, he’s sliding along the ground under Taehyung’s parted legs, the dirt scattering around him like the bones of prey after a hunt. Jungkook puts one arm out to steady himself before he turns off his heel and rises so he’s stood

behind the unexpecting alpha, and there’s no time for Taehyung to react before both of your alpha’s bloodied claws cut through the air like daggers and he’s dug them deep into the other alpha’s shoulders. Taehyung wails in pain as his freshly dressed wounds are reopened next to five new wounds on his other shoulder where red drips slowly from both shoulders down his bare, naked chest.

He thrashes in your alpha’s hold, but your alpha is stronger, and he knocks Taehyung’s knees out from under him so that he falls onto them in the black dirt.

“You’ve lost once again, you fool,” Jungkook utters, his claws tearing at the other’s flesh every time he thrashes, “now you can atone, at least a little, in your defeat.”

As they are, they both face you, and your alpha’s irises pierce yours when he orders, “Tell my intended that you’re sorry for debasing her with your speech and your actions. Tell her you will never do it again. That you’ll never pursue her again.”

Taehyung snaps, “This isn’t over yet.”

“Oh, but it is,” your alpha decides with derision, “It very much is.”

Taehyung attempts to wriggle out of his hold. Jungkook punishes him, his flesh tearing and ripping where Jungkook twists his claws deeper into him. Taehyung bellows in agony. More blood scatters down his back.

Jungkook huffs, only to extricate his claws from the male’s shoulders and kick him square in the back so that he falls to chest, his arms giving out on him with the way that the nerves had been cut and rearranged in the gory mutilation of his shoulders where flabs of skin barely hang on by a thread.

“Say it,” Jungkook orders as he stands tall above him. “I’m growing weary of waiting. I don’t want to have to use Alpha’s Bidding on you, but I will if I must.”

Taehyung remains silent minus the coughs where more blood spews forth from his lips. He must have bitten his tongue in the fall.

Though he can’t use his dislocated arm, he can still use his other one. That, and his legs.

Before he can even get his first foot on the ground, Jungkook’s hand darts out and his fingers project themselves over and around Taehyung’s neck so that he is held up under Jungkook’s digits. The Pack Alpha squeezes with enough force that Taehyung’s face begins to turn red, his breaths stuttering as his arms unsuccessfully attempt to pull the raven-haired alpha off.

“You’re weak, Taehyung. You always have been, and you always will be. Now give the fuck up already.” Your alpha urges him, the bite in his tone making the wolves around you shudder.

“I’d rather be fucking exiled.” Taehyung attempts to throw his only remaining good arm behind him, but Jungkook seizes his bicep in an iron grip.

Your alpha sighs with exasperation, tsking, “You really should know when to give up, you motherfucker.”

“You don’t say,” Taehyung goads.

Jungkook’s eyes narrow, his golden irises flickering as he mulls it over. Those irises settle on yours, and then your alpha’s lips set in a thin line before he acts.

There’s no hesitation when he twists Taehyung’s arm into an unnatural angle, the crack of bones filling the air in warning as the wolf on his knees hisses and howls in agony.

“No,” Jungkook determines, “that would be too easy.” Jungkook’s teeth sharpen and shift so that they are pointed like blades as he growls, “Running would let you forget. But suffering, “ his canines elongate until they extend below his lower lip, “your suffering will haunt you as a wraith for the rest of your life.”

The word has hardly left his lips before Jungkook wrenches Taehyung’s thin arm up, his teeth flashing menacingly before they disappear into Taehyung’s hand, the sickening crack of bones breaking under his teeth as he bites down hard enough that his teeth penetrate the opposite side of his appendage. The male screams, his fingers twitching uncontrollably as blood bursts forth into Jungkook’s mouth.

It is fetid as bile. It is putrid. It is gamy, and Jungkook blanches at its disgusting tang so unlike the sweet sugary taste of your own.

“As much of a thorn in my side as you’ve been, I do not want to see any of the males under my watch be killed. However,” Jungkook throws his head back, his teeth dislodging from around Taehyung’s palm so that an ovular junction of dark holes arc over and under both sides of his hand and then Jungkook’s hoicking crimson spit from his mouth, “that doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you for what you’ve done.” He releases Taehyung’s deformed arm that is now bent at an odd direction, his jaw clenching as he says, “It doesn’t mean you are not due for discipline since you seem to have forgotten basic respect and decency.”

“I’ve got plenty of th-“

Before the downed mall can finish, Jungkook slices his serrated claws once across the brown-haired alpha’s back, his expression hardening even though the captured male yelps through the stinging sensations left in his wake, “Silence. I will not hear any more defiance or disrespect from you. You will give me your fealty, or I will make you hurt so much that you’ll never even remember what it was like when you could wake up in the morning and use all of your fucking limbs,” he yanks back on Taehyung’s neck, four of his fingers pricking crescents on one side and his thumb pressing tightly in on the other, his claws dangerously hovering over his nape. Like this, your alpha presents the fallen male to you as he continues, “and you will beg for forgiveness on your hands and knees for daring to deflower my mate in mind and in body, “with the hand that does not hold Taehyung captive, Jungkook’s long, curved claws shear the fallen alpha’s back along the unmarked half, and Taehyung’s eyes go white at that, blood bubbling in his throat as the will to fight falls from him with his blood while Jungkook finishes, “and you will bear these marks I’ve scarred you with for eternity, so that not even the gods may forget your faithless acts of lies and licentiousness with the unknowing omegas you defiled.”

It takes until his cheeks begin to turn blue for him to give a choked sound of defeat, his arms falling loosely at his sides as Jungkook tosses him to the ground as if he were nothing more but a piece of meat next to Jimin, who is still as a corpse next to him.

You grow wetter between your thighs at the display of your alpha’s power. You’d always known he was capable and that he was formidable, but seeing him reduce the pack’s strongest to nothing…it was arousing.

Your alpha bends over between both of the fallen wolves, and then grabs a fistful of hair atop both of their heads and lifts their chins up so that you can see both of their faces.

Taehyung’s face is almost untouched save for the dirt and blood that have caked themselves onto his chin and cheeks. Jimin’s lids are slow to open and close, crimson dribbling from both sides of his stained lips. He is still lain on his back with pieces of his flesh hanging from his leg, the white of his bone peeking through small sections down his leg while his pectorals rising up and down heavily as he heaves air out of his system. His life essence trails sadly down the sides of his ribs.

Taehyung has not fared any better. The bones in both of his arms have been shattered and moved to areas that bones didn’t belong, and his back is marked in several puckered, open valleys of red, angry skin joined by rivers of crimson that make an ‘x’ shape down his back. His limbs are thrown about him where he is prostrate in the dirt next to Jimin.

“This battle is over.” Jungkook states with finality. “Neither of you can continue.”

“I,” Jimin weakly rasps through the blood that bubbles up his throat, “I yield to you, Jungkook. You have beaten me.”

Jungkook’s fingers unthread themselves from Jimin’s hair, his skull landing softly on the ground as Jungkook guides it down. Despite everything, Jimin had once been his friend. Seeing him like this…it was not easy even for the Pack Alpha.

“Get him to the healers. He will bleed out if he’s not tended to immediately.” Jungkook commands, the emotion in his voice held at bay because he knows Taehyung, like a hound, can sniff weakness and prey on it.

Two males depart from the crowd of wolves around them. They do not question your alpha as they lift him carefully off the ground and onto a mat of grass that is attached to a set of wooden poles on each end for them to hold. Before they can walk away, Jungkook holds his only free hand out.

The two males stop immediately.

“You will answer to me from here on,” Jungkook’s eyes blacken in the eclipse from light to dark, his words deep as he spills them, “voice to me your regrets before I have you removed from my sight.”

Jimin can hardly keep his eyes open anymore, his throat aching from wailing too much. Drowsiness from loss of blood makes his eyelids droop, and it’s all he can do to incline his head downward, his eyes closing as he manages, “I have many regrets. One of my biggest,” he hiccups,” was that I thought I could win against you.” Remorse shakes his voice as he lets Jungkook know, “The other was letting Taehyung manipulate me and losing not only our friendship, but the female, too, because of it.”

With that, he’s carried away into a dreamless sleep and the two males extricate him from the battlefield.

“Pussy,” Taehyung hacks up more blood.

“I don’t recall telling you that you could speak. Perhaps I need to give another demonstration to you of just how weak you are,” Jungkook’s other arm raises up, but before it can go near him, Taehyung cringes and buries his face into the dirt.

Taehyung shrieks, “No! Not my face!”

Jungkook lowers his arm, “You’re pathetic, Taehyung. Now give up.”

“Fine. Just don’t ruin my face,” he screws his eyeballs shut, “I was bluffing about what I said before, alright? Alright?”

“I have tried to be a reasonable male,” Jungkook’s fingers bend inward where he still grasps the other male’s hair, and Taehyung’s expression twists in discomfort as your alpha cautions, “But my patience with you is at its end. Yield to me before I break some more bones.”

Taehyung bites down on his tongue, but he has no other options. He knows he’s lost and that he now has no choice but to swallow his pride.

“I…I yield.”

“Good. Now tell her you’re sorry for everything. You had better mean it, or I’ll hurt you even more than I already have.” Jungkook warns.

“Like hell I’ll apologize to a woman.” He defiantly counters.

Your alpha growls, and he stomps with force down on the back of Taehyung’s knee, the bone shattering as he does. “I didn’t ask for your fucking opinion. Do it. Now.”

Taehyung shakes his head into the ground, his trembling digits digging into the dirt as the threads of pride that remain in him all but sever.

“Gods, that pride of yours is really something. Perhaps by losing it, you’ll finally gain some sense again.” Jungkook provokes before his heel bears down powerfully on Taehyung’s other knee, the ligaments beneath fracturing and splintering upon impact.

Taehyung groans in torment, and what little of his pride had been left is torn from the very base of his being as Jungkook whips Taehyung’s head back so that his spine is curved up at an odd angle.

A little while away, some alphas observe Taehyung with expressions of disinterest, disgust, and dismay contorting their countenance for his misconduct toward their leader. The others watch their leader with delight dancing in their eyes. As for the omegas, many cling to another at the gory spectacle. A few glare with hatred toward Taehyung, but many more look in awe at your alpha.

“Cough up the last of your pride, you imbecile, because none will be left after this. If you will not submit of your own accord, I’ll just make you.” Jungkook tosses him to the ground as if he were nothing but a ragdoll, his irises darkening like the night, his words cloaked in the veils of shadows. “I command you to get on your hands and knees. You are to beg my mate for her forgiveness for any time you so much as looked at, thought of, or treated her in a way you knew I would be unhappy with. Then, you’ll pledge your loyalty to me.”

How anyone could refuse Jungkook would never be anything you could comprehend, but under Alpha’s Bidding, no wolf could disobey he who was the strongest of them all.

Taehyung grunts as the wolf inside him moves, and despite the unbearable pain that it causes him, he cannot help it.

He bows his head and his mutilated arms, maimed back, and disfigured legs all fold under him as he bites out between blood, “Forgive me, my lady.”

Words do not find you with the silver dampening all thought in your head. And in your gut, you can’t find it in yourself to care what this male thinks, says, or does.

All that matters to you is the one who stands behind him. All that fills your vision is him, and soon, he was going to fill you.

“The days of your disobedience are over. You obey and you serve me. Tell me this is true.” Jungkook demands, his eyes black as ash and his voice gravelly.

Taehyung can’t even pick his head up, for he’d landed on his nose in the dirt. With his dilapidated arms, he’d not been able to break his fall. It’s a struggle for him to speak between sputtering out the dirt, but he cannot ignore the male standing above him even if he wanted to.

His wolf speaks for him, his defiance dripping out of him with his blood onto the ground at the victorious wolf’s feet. “You are true in what you say.”

Jungkook considers him before bidding, “You will never seek my female ever again, and you will do as I say when I command it of you without question, or I will sever your fingers, your toes, your legs, and your fucking arms from your body with my own hands if I have to. Is that understood?”

Taehyung’s skin crawls at the order, fear setting its teeth on him.

The last of his resolve slithers away from him, his muscles slackening as he concedes, “Understood, Pack Alpha.”

“What does it feel like?” Jungkook cocks his head to the side.

“What does what feel like?” Taehyung’s shoulders slump weakly.

Your alpha’s grin is vicious when he reveals rows of sharp teeth, his canines protruding from under his upper lip, “To lose.”

Those golden irises of his land on you and then they’re scaling over you as in a silent journey to appraise you of injuries even though he’s the one in the middle of the battlefield. They grow brighter the longer they are set on you, and with his attention deposited only on you, he doesn’t hear the pounding of paws against the dirt behind him.

All the veins in your body run cold, panic stabbing you through like an icicle. You are frozen in place under the numbing silver, but don’t care about the throbbing in your head from under your circlet that threatens to drag you into dark unconsciousness. Not even that can snuff out the scream that cuts through the air as a shrill sound rifts through your throat in the pitch of it that leaves the ears of every wolf in the vicinity ringing.

Those golden irises that are bright as the sunrise go dim as the dusk under the shadow of russet fur and snapping jaws.

#alpha!jungkook #werewolf!jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook smut #jungkook #bts smut #jungkook fanfic #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #dom!jungkook #alpha jungkook x omega reader #jungkook x you #bts abo

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jwirecs · 2 years

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Recommended BTS Fics of September 2022💖

hello, hello! here are my bts recs of september! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

Anti-Romantic || @sxtaep🔞💕✅

↳ you could come across as the number one hater of the male species, but not when it came to jimin.

Cat-astrophe || @kofisips🔞💕✅💯

↳ Request: Hello! I love your work, could I ask you a request about Jungkook strong/intimidating aura but soft towards the reader who is shy, inexperienced and shy?🥺it turns him on but at the same time he feel protective towards her innocence. I would love to read a smut interactions between this two 🥺✨

Go Ahead and Cry || @jeonverselol🔞💕💔✅

↳ jungkook has commitment issues when it came to love and you are always ready to fall in love. you two want to be loved, and you’re ready to attach yourself but that’s what scares jungkook and he finally confronts all his fears.

Lost & Found || @l0mljeonjungkook🔞💕💔✅

↳ eight years beside him were nothing but a roller coaster ride. Being a single mother wasn't easy, but your best friend, Kim Namjoon made your way smooth. You never knew you felt something for him until you read his diary, which you weren't supposed to read ever. What will you do, if not only you but Hyeon, your baby, and your best friend Namjoon, wants the same, what you desired for so long?

Only Love || @koostarcandy💕✅

↳ over 5 months of domestic bliss with your best friend turned roommate turned lover gets you thinking, alot. alternative? a fluffy, domestic morning with koo 🥰

I Hate You, I Love You || @borathae🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ “You are marrying Kim Taehyung, heir to Kim Enterprises, one of South Korea’s hottest bachelors and a total pain in the ass. You do not want to marry him and neither does he want to marry you. But in families likes yours’, marriage does not come with love.“

Office CEO || @jiminiesfavouritecolourisblue💕💔🔄

↳ you work for seven CEOs who have called you into their office due to a complaint (link is to their entire masterlist, author does not have a separate masterlist! which means that you should also check out their other fics too!!)

Sugar || @zehakoo 🔞💕💔✅

↳ desperately in need of sugar to make coffee in order to ease down your headache, you find yourself knocking on a strangers door who happens to be your best friend’s friend and the finest man you’ve ever encountered.

But We Loved Too Young || @jl-micasea-fics💕✅💯💯

↳ Jungkook is everything you’re not, the ying to your yang. Your tight knit friendship nurtured from childhood survived the major life events that most don’t, and to that end, you suppose you’re fated to be together. until unrequited longing is eventually noticed, and boundaries are forever crossed.

Better Than The Fanfictions || @hobisonlyhope 🔞💕💔✅

↳ When your boyfriend of two years catches you reading a FanFiction in front of him, you somehow end up getting exactly what you’ve been wanting this entire time.

Buzzer Beater || @yoon2k💕✅💯💯

↳ at the end-of-the-year college fair, your boyfriend wants to win you a prize, and he's chosen the perfect game to play—or so he thinks. (lord basketball yoongi is chefs kiss. shoot your shot masterlist)

Seven With You || @e-cm 🔞💕✅

↳ It’s nearly Namjoon’s birthday and with you by his side, he’s never been happier. But, with Tae waltzing you away more frequently day by day to work on your group project, Namjoon starts to notice your absence in more ways than just one…

Streams & Sheets || @kofisips🔞💕✅💯

↳ Nobody expected famous twitch streamer JJK to trend online when his mysterious girlfriend accidentally makes a cameo in one of his livestreams. The chaotic problem in question? You streamed a live sex tape.

Animal Lovers Hybrid Collection || @helenazbmrskai 🔞💕💔🔄💯

↳ (masterlist of all of the fics that falls under this fic)

Cat’s Cradle || @longtimenospooning-luci💕✅💯💯

↳ After five years of back-breaking work under your hardass boss Min Yoongi, you can finally step back and live your life well with your son and his rowdy uncles. Opening a Cafe with your eldest brother Seokjin after so many setbacks was euphoric, but what happens when your ex-boss finds his way into your cafe? Will everything fall apart again or will your life finally piece back together?

Home || @rileytwenty💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ Houses are made, homes are built.

Little Bear 2.0 || @xddaengx💕💔🔄💯💯💯

↳ You never thought you would see your ex again... especially not at your front door with his hybrid. (did i want to throw hands at hobi’s new boo? yes, yes i did)

Loved By Seven || @imaginebeautifulworlds💕💔🔄

↳ Hiking was just an activity to get you out of the apartment, the last thing you imagined was ending in a whole different world by touching a jewel. That not being enough you end up meeting seven hybrids, and they all claim you shared the Connection with each of them making you their partner for life. (ahh cant wait to read more!)

Tiger Boy || @joonbird 🔞💕✅

↳ “You, a docile rabbit hybrid, have been waiting a long time to meet the mysterious tiger hybrid, Kim Namjoon.”

Welcome Home: The Series || @xddaengx 🔞💕💔🔄

↳ (there was no specific summary for the series but i still recommend you to give this a read!)

Crumble || @purpleyoonn🔞💔✅💯

↳ You had decided to make a change, not realizing your men would notice. The consequences bring to light your own insecurities, with which the boys decide it’s time you realize how precious you are to them.

Eye Of The Beholder || @purpleyoonn💕💔✅

↳ As you begin to notice minute details unseen to you before, you start to realize that what you thought was the truth, was anything but. The people you thought were acquaintances had different ideas of their meaning in your life, and needed to show you who they really were to you. (love all of their poly fics istfg)

The Serendipity of Things || @oh-so-scenarios🔞💕💔✅💯💯

↳ Who has time for soulmates? Jung Hoseok is too busy being the head of his mafia network. He won’t let the serendipity of his soulmate move him...right?

You Need Us: The Buried Secret || @littlenoona🔞💕💔🔄

↳ Asking for protection comes at a big price and you’re more than ready to pay it, but betraying the ones that provide it, is a big mistake.

Belong || @ratherbefangirling💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ Imagine you a sweet smelling omega are neighbours with BTS.

Fake Love || @jellifysh💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ “What was she even doing in that sicko’s car?” Jungkook growled, finally letting Yoongi go roughly and turning around to bang at the wall. “I swear to God if he wasn’t already in a coma, I’d knock him into one myself.” (i literally have ch1 in my likes right now to read and i cant wait to read it!)

Regretful Choices || @justcallmenikki7💕💔✅💯💯

↳ You get into an argument with your boyfriends, and you decide to take matters into your own hands.

Soulmates || @smaubts💕✅💯

↳ in which jungkook and y/n are soulmates and the random thoughts that occur in y/n's head are actually jungkook's thoughts, where he sometimes sings the weirdest songs.

The End Is You And I || @yonkimint💕💔✅💯💯

↳ Everyone has always considered y/n a wise soul. Her whole life, everyone, even her older brothers, have come to her for advice so when her psychology class requires a creative final project, she decides to create an anonymous “advice column” on Twitter. What she doesn’t expect is a DM from her long time crush and best friend, Kim Taehyung: “How do you know if you’re in love?”

Class Act || @jvngkook97💕💔✅

↳ in which Namjoon is the popular jock and you’re just another girl in the bleachers. OR what happens when the gentle giant takes notice of the introverted, yet dedicated fan?

Discord Discourse || @joheunsaram💕💔✅

↳ Kim Namjoon likes to spend time in a discord server… dedicated to him. With new friends and a budding crush, will he ever be able to truly be himself without revealing who he is?

Feel Your Touch || @jimilter🔞💕💔✅

↳ You have always known yourself to be a sexual switch in bed, flipping between exercising and submitting control according to different situations and partners. And this camboy you are addicted to, one that seems to kinda reciprocate your interest, submits so beautifully that you just want to command him. But when things progress to levels you never anticipated, you end up discovering pleasant surprises that might just change your life.

Helping Hands || @euphoricfilter🔞💕✅💯

↳ Yoongi always had a knack for fixing things, and with producing getting him nowhere, he ends up working for the school his long-time friend Seokjin, teaches at. With his new job, he meets you, and although your first encounter hadn’t been the best; at least not in Yoongi’s eyes, he could have never guessed how your relationship would bloom. And Yoongi gets to show you his hands can do more than fix your faulty heating. (bob the fcking builder yoongi.)

Oh, Honey! || @yoongiofmine🔞💕💔✅💯💯💯

↳ Namjoon never wanted a Sugar Baby, no matter what Yoongi and Hoseok said. You never wanted a Sugar Daddy, despite the insistence from Jimin. Until your life takes a turn and you really need the money, fast. What was supposed to be a one night thing, a birthday present for a big time rapper and producer, turns into so much more when you find in each other what you never thought you had been looking for.

Time || @bts-trash-blog💕💔🔄💯💯

↳ Time. It's always passing by, always changing things that you wish stayed the same. It brought the good and it brought the bad, hell it brought the down right best time in your life. The best thing in your life came with time. It came with some stumbled steps, tough spots...it came with time.

Do check out all of the other BTS Fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

#bts scenarios #bts fluff #bts angst #bts smut #bts werewolf au #bts mafia au #bts social media au #bts strangers to lovers au #bts hybrid au #bts ceo au #bts friends to lovers au #bts best friends to lovers au #bts childhood friends to lovers au #bts gamer au #bts established relationship au #bts fic recs #bts recs

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star-my · 10 days

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BTS Fic Recs ☆ Tumblr (i)

These are all available on tumblr as of April 2024. Some are likely crossposted on ao3 as well.

~Ao3 RECS HERE~ ~Recs (ii)~ ~Recs (iii)~

Almost all are complete works, those with “+” after WC are incomplete. Most are BTS x (F!)Reader.

Most of these are Mature or Explicit (usually because of smut) ~ mdni ~ italicized titles rated G or T ~ Please read responsibly

If any authors tagged here wish to be removed/untagged, please lmk! | Shoutout to @ggukkiereads who does an amazing job creating rec lists, which helped me find many of these fics

OT7/Multi

☆ BTS Reactions by @dreamescapeswriting | SFW + NSFW |

☆ BTS Scenarios by @btsjfans | SFW + NSFW |

☆ BTS Scenarios by @bulletproofwhalien | NSFW + SFW |

☆ BTS Scenarios by @salvejoon | SFW + NSFW |

☆ BTS Scenarios by @sunshine-and-bangtan | SFW + NSFW |

☆ Desperado Series by @heartbeatan | Mafia AU | PJM + JJK + KTH (in progress) | 60-160k(+) each

☆ The Company series by @btsmakesmehappy | Agent AU | 25-37k(+) each (in progress)

☆ Mafia BTS Reactions by @ninetailedfoxmanchi | Mafia AU (+Yandere AU) |

☆ #CodeBTS series by @yminie | Mafia AU | 1-12k each

Kim Namjoon

☆ The Ghost in Apartment 1403 series by @notsoguiltykpop | Ghost AU, Supernatural AU, Roommate AU? | ?k

☆ beauty & the bookworm by @jungshookz | E2L Library AU, Uni AU | 20k

☆ la vie en bonsai by @jungshookz | S2F2L Neighbours AU, Baker AU | 38k

☆ The Seven Nights series by @theunknowncryptid | SMAU, Mafia AU | 13k

☆ real magic by @heretobbtstrash | S2F2L Single Parent AU, Coffee Shop AU, Coworkers AU | 17k

Kim Seokjin

☆ {Unavailable}

Min Yoongi

☆ Take One by @untaemedqueen | Pornstar AU | 24k

☆ The Deal series by @untaemedqueen | Mafia AU | ?k

☆ suit & tie by @jungshookz | CEO AU, Office AU, Coworkers AU, PA AU | 21k + drabbles

☆ hellish by @jungshookz | E2L Demon AU, Roommate AU | 22k

☆ strike a chord by @snackhobi | S2L Pianist AU, Bar AU | 16k

☆ straight shooter by @snackhobi | F2L/E2L Cyberpunk AU, Dystopian AU | 14k

☆ devil with the mint hair series by @theharrowing | E2FWB Brother's BFF AU, Stoner AU | 11k+

☆ a wager of lords and love by @hisunshiine | S2L Historical AU, Arranged Marriage AU | 7k

☆ daechwita by @chemicalpink | Daechwita AU, Assassin AU | 10k

☆ stay by @luffles424 | Daechwita AU, Assassin AU | 3k

☆ daechwita by @se0kie | Daechwita AU | 4k

☆ make me proud by @moonscriptsx | Established Relationship AU, Canon Idol-verse | 6k

☆ by its cover by @kittae | S2L Cat Dad AU | 2k

☆ misfortunately, yours by @sor-vette | S2F2L Dark Fae AU, Dark Fantasy AU | 32k

☆ mixtape by @jungblue | F2L Uni AU, Radio AU | 15k

☆ cyberslut by @kimnjss | SMAU, Uni AU, Fboy AU | ?k

☆ alive aha fxck by @softyoongiionly | F2L Neighbours AU, Vampire AU | 43k

☆ a brew of wings by @inkedtae | S2F2L Dragon AU, Witch AU | 10k

☆ fury of their scales by @kpopisthereasonihavenolife | Dragon AU | 18k

☆ inheritance series by @jincherie | Hybrid AU | 21k

☆ tuxedo series by @whatifyoulivelikethat | Cat(-shifter?) AU, Roommates AU | ft JJK | 49k+

☆ Assuage series by @btsqualityy | Omegaverse AU, Werewolf AU | ?k

☆ show by @httpjeon | Pw/oP ft BTS | 2k

☆ drip by @here2bbtstrash | Pw/oP | 5k

Jung Hoseok

☆ midnight confessions by @snackhobi | BFF2L Coworkers AU, Office AU, Buzzfeed Unsolved AU | 27k

☆ the bride of ashmedai by @jeonggukingdom | Demon AU, Arranged Marriage AU | 13k

Park Jimin

☆ The Bird Cage series + The Lion's Den series by @untaemedqueen | S2L Mafia AU | ?k

☆ Set It Off series by @btsqualityy | Mafia AU | ?k

☆ the hunt by @httpjeon | Shifter AU, Fantasy AU | 8k

☆ lovebug by @httpjeon | Hybrid AU | 12k

Kim Taehyung

☆ Pied Piper by @untaemedqueen | Mafia AU, Established Relationship AU | 10k

☆ maybe i do series by @chateautae | Arranged Marriage AU, Chaebol AU, CEO AU | 410k + drabbles

☆ kinda hot by @kimnjss | BFF2L SMAU, Uni AU, Fboy AU | ?k

☆ nip it in the bud by @opaljm | Brother's BFF AU, Piercing AU | 10k

☆ heatwave series by @curly-bangtan | F2L Roommate AU | 12k

☆ under the covers by @jessikahathaway | Agent AU | 23k

Jeon Jungkook

☆ heavy lifting by @snackhobi | Coworkers AU | 13k

☆ Miss Vagabond by @bubblesuga | F2L Gamer AU | 8k

☆ blizzard by @curly-bangtan | S2L Roommates AU | 16k

☆ Sparkle by @btsmosphere | F2L Roommates AU | 3k

☆ Hands-On Learning series by @ladyartemesia | Uni AU | 5k

☆ kiss it better by @jincherie | Uni AU, Sports AU, Cheer AU | 12k

☆ ghosts just wanna have fun by @sugaxjpg | Ghost AU, Supernatural AU, Uni AU | ft MYG + KTH | 20k

☆ tell me your secrets (i'm all ears) by @jinpire | Uni AU, Hybrid AU | 7k

☆ under the bridge by @jincherie | Hybrid AU | 11k

☆ Swipe right by @ppersonna | BFF2L Tinder AU | 9k

☆ overtime by @cupofteaguk | CEO AU, Office AU, PA AU, Coworkers AU | 12k

☆ I won't stop you series by @imsarabum | Vampire AU, Fantasy AU, Office AU, Coworkers AU, CEO AU, PA AU | ?k

☆ life eternal by @jungkookiebus | Fae AU | 9k

☆ hotter than hell series by @chateautae | Demon AU | 136k

☆ Hellblazer series by @jungkookiebus | Demon AU, Constantine AU | ?k

☆ agent of love series by @ppersonna | SMAU, Agent AU | ?k+

☆ strawberry kisses series by @kimnjss | SMAU, Brother's BFF AU, Tinder AU | ?k

☆ drag me down (to hell) series by @kimvtae | Mafia AU, Single Parent AU | 58k (abandoned)

☆ Concealed Weapon by @gimmesumsuga | Mafia AU, Husband AU | 10k

☆ hate sex by @yeoreos | FWB Pw/oP | 4k

Overall Favourite Authors (If I recc'd all their works like I want to/more than I have, I'd have to make this series even longer >.<)

☆ @bonvoyagenoona

☆ @chateautae

☆ @flowerwrites06

☆ @here2bbtstrash

☆ @hollyhomburg

☆ @icyhobi

☆ @jjungkookislife

☆ @jungshookz

☆ @justcallmenikki7

☆ @kpopfanfictrash

☆ @ladyartemesia

☆ @luxekook

☆ @magicalsalamander

☆ @yminie

☆ @yoonia

#bts fic recs #group: bts #type: fic #i think i did a pretty good job of hiding my yoonkook bias if i do say so myself :]

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yoongsisbae · 2 years

Text

Bon Voyage: Into the Sea - Chapter 4

A storm capsized your boat and looks like you were the only survivor. Somehow you made it to shore, but where? Stranded, you suddenly find out you are not alone, and now you’re stuck in the middle of a centuries old conflict between 7 monsters.

BTS fantasy AU. OT7 x reader. werewolf!Namjoon x werewolf!Hoseok x werewolf!Jungkook x siren!Yoongi x vampire!Jimin x vampire!Jin x whatis?Taehyung.

Has it really been a whole mf year since the last update? I wish I could freeze time I'm so sorry for making you wait 💔

Warnings: blood, nakedness but mostly fluff

Word count: 4.3k

---

You drag your legs to the water wanting to wash the blood off of you. The salt against your cuts makes you scream as you fall into the waves. You see a figure bobbing in the distance of the ocean, illuminated by the rising sun. Hoseok is running towards you in human form.

Hoseok is pulling your broken body into his arms, your dress hangs off of you in rags. “What happened?!”

You try to tell him, but the safety of his arms is already pulling your exhausted body under sleep. The last thing you see is Yoongi’s dark piercing eyes full of concern. Your clenched fist goes limp and the amulet you held all this way falls into the sea.

---

Yoongi had been debating on whether to step on dry land ever since he spoke with Jimin. Yet Yoongi remained in the sea, suffering in silence as his mind replayed the sounds he heard through that cursed magical seashell, the distant echoes of your voice contorted in pain from Jimin’s torturing, and he could only blame himself, his only means of communication with you now severed. Yoongi had heard you say you weren’t scared of Jimin and he worried what the young vampire would do to prove you wrong. His thoughts spun out of control, imagining the worst, most vile scenarios now being inflicted upon you.

Why does he care so much? Why couldn’t he stop thinking about you? He reasoned there wasn’t much else to do on this damned island to preoccupy himself. He spent his nights swimming around the island restless. So his thoughts always drifted to you as his body drifted under the water circling the shoreline. Your eyes were haunting him, your gaze had pierced him and he felt wounded and vulnerable thinking about you.

Should he go speak with Namjoon? He had a feeling telling the wolf pack what had happened with the shell would not go over well for Yoongi at all. There wasn’t much he could do, except try to bargain a deal with Seokjin. How many other humans would it take to get you back? Would they even agree to a trade? Could you forgive him if he tried?

He swam faster, trying to leave those thoughts behind him, finding irony in the way your eyes entranced him in the same way his voice entranced others, pulling him in, stinging him like an arrow to the chest, building regret inside him with every passing moment...

No! He didn’t regret letting you leave, he didn’t! So why couldn’t he stop thinking about your eyes!

Your eyes so full of wrath, heating up his insides, accelerating his heart rate even now. Your glares, playful one minute and resentful the next, annoying him to no end. Your eyes sparkling with wonder when you looked at his mermaid form, not with disgust or fear, but bright and genuine, an expression that Yoongi could only describe as beautiful...

Yoongi blushed at the memory. No, this wasn’t worth it, whatever you were going through, he had to put an end to it. Right now he could only remember how you clinged to him for help with pleading eyes- Enough!

‘Stupid human girl,’ Yoongi cursed. You always fought, you needed to learn how to pick your battles. Now, someone needed to rescue you, Yoongi needed to rescue you.

‘Y/n, I’ll rescue you.’

---

Hoseok had stayed away from the pack den since you left, scouting the vampires home every day instead. The protection magic designed to keep his species out wouldn’t allow him to get close. Sometimes he looked at the window of his old room, wondering which room you were in, wondering if you were in there, in his old room, trapped.

He replayed all the moments he had with you, the arguments you wouldn’t back down from, the way you clinged to him like a lifeline when he found you with Jimin, the trusting look in your eyes when he leaded you through the island jungle to the waterfall, the way you looked so beautiful asleep in his leader’s bed…

Hoseok did not want to admit he had felt drawn to you when he and the youngest found you, he did not want to admit he had felt anything for you knowing the dangers outsiders like you could pose, and yet now he was here, unable to stop worrying for you, an outsider, a thorn in his side, a stubborn woman who made his packmates happier than he’s seen them in years, why couldn’t you just listen to him!

He wanted to howl in despair, he instead circled the island, tiring himself out so he wouldn’t do something irrational.

Hoseok hadn’t seen the eldest vampire being thrown out the window, but he smelled his familiar scent instantly, finding him face down in the amaryllis bushes with the merman’s blade sticking out of his wide back. He kept a distance, hiding, impressed a mere human girl somehow had bested his old comrade. You must have done it, you must have really done it. Sadness and relief washed over Hoseok. He could never get to you now. If you’re smart you’ll never come back, he thinks and his consciousness weighs heavily with guilt as he hopes you prove him wrong.

It was time to go home.

---

Yoongi wanted to save you, Hoseok wanted to be with you. Now they were together, watching as you fought for your life.

“I’ll take her.” Yoongi’s tone is urgent, pleading. “Hoseok!”

You feel lighter in Hoseok’s arms. You’re bruised, bleeding, practically lifeless in his arms. It rattles him, he doesn’t know what to do. He knows the merman has powers, can heal not exactly like the vampires but help you nonetheless.

Yoongi is about to use his persuasion on Hoseok when he nods solemnly, walking towards the merman.

Yoongi looks towards the path to the vampire’s lair, your body limp in his arms, being jostled by waves. He holds you closer and tries to wake you, but you’re too weak and too hurt to answer back.

“Hoseok, meet me at the cave…you remember it?”

Hoseok nods, unable to properly answer him with words, and quickly transforms back into his wolf form. He doesn’t even think to alert the rest of his pack, he just barrels down the beach, kicking up a trail of sand straight to the old forgotten hang out.

Yoongi waded in the water close to the tiny island waiting for Hoseok. Your body felt cold in his arms, your blood mixing with the water around him, streaks of red branching out within the clear blue swirling around him. Your head fell back and the sunlight from above shone down on both of you, giving yoongi a clear view to the extent of what you’ve been through.

Your wounds weren’t healing like normal wounds, even when Yoongi breathed some life back into you. He let your body sink lower into the water, cradling you to his frame. Holding your head above water, he is reminded of the first time he brought you to this place. The merman presses his forehead to your own, wishing for you to wake up.

He brushes his lips softly on your mouth, hoping to rouse you awake. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud splashing.

“Don’t touch her!” Hoseok yells, glaring at the merman, doggy paddling erratically towards you. He was not used to the jump into the cave anymore, it’s been years since he visited this place.

The merman glares at Hoseok, annoyed by the water he kicks up with his horrible swimming.

“How the hell am I supposed to heal her if I don’t touch her, idiot!”

“Call me an idiot again and I’ll rip off your fin!”

“Shut up before I drown you,” the merman whispers, deathly serious. Hoseok bares his teeth, growling low and menacingly.

You whine in your sleep, halting their standoff.

“Why haven’t you healed her then?!” Hoseok hisses, swimming clumsily to your side.

“Something is wrong,” Yoongi mutters, looking down at you, “I think she was hurt by magic,” he says as he moves you to lie afloat atop the water, assessing the cuts across your body, taking note of the looping lines.

“Help me get her out of the water.” Yoongi reluctantly hands you over to Hoseok who carries you to shore.

Yoongi, now on two legs, hurries into the old hut. It is much less littered with things since your last visit, and he throws off the remaining knicknacks on his table to make room for you. There was a time where he treasured those golden and glittery things, now broken and discarded on the floor, so inconsequential, he feels nothing kicking them aside to make room for you.

He quickly dresses while Hoseok tends to you, pulling out clothes for you and Hoseok to change into as well.

“Get her out of those rags,” Yoongi commands. Hoseok splutters, turning red in the face and the merman rolls his eyes, shoving him out of the way. Hoseok can only comply, pulling on Yoongi’s spare pants.

Your clothes were so tattered and torn, wet and cold, barely covering your frame. What had happened to you? The blast shaking the island had caught Yoongi’s attention at first, but he had not expected to see you running towards the ocean in this state.

“Move her to the bed,” Yoongi tells Hoseok, looking around for anything in his treasure trove that might help you.

Suddenly Yoongi remembers something deep at the bottom of the sea floor at the heart of the island that might help you. “Watch her, I am going to get something for her, to heal her wounds,” he says, pulling off his shirt again.

Yoongi leaves before Hoseok can argue back, slamming the door shut on the confused werewolf.

The chaos of finding you has become painfully stilted. Hoseok is left alone with you, alone with his thoughts and your soft erratic breathing, trying to catch his own breath as well. He watches your sleeping frame as your wounds bleed through your new dress and he feels utterly helpless.

Hoseok kneels at your bedside, unsure of what to do. You’re back. In the worst possible way you’re back with him and Hoseok worries the few seconds you fell into his arms were going to be the last he shared with you.

Where the hell is that damn merman? It feels too long, even though Hoseok knows it’s only been minutes. It doesn’t matter! Yoongi is supposed to be the fastest swimmer of them all. Where is he?!

Hoseok lies his head against the edge of Yoongi’s mattress, building up the courage to hold your hand. Until he finally grabs it in both his, placing your palm to his forehead, the warmth of your hand calming him down.

His jaw clenches as he thinks of what happened to you. This was the last straw for the vampires, Hoseok should have killed them the first time they betrayed the pack. With fire in his eyes, he vows to finish them off for good.

“Where the hell were you?!”

Yoongi whips his head to the side, water leaving his hair, dragging a large bundle of seaweed through the door.

Magical seaweed to be precise, a healing plant he had cultivated a long long time ago. He pulls your dress down, working quickly on covering your cuts with the slimy plant, focusing on his work rather than your nakedness. Hoseok however is nowhere near as comfortable with so much of you, turning to look at the far corner.

“Get over here, I need help! Hold her still while I cover her back.” There were so many deep cuts on you and healed over scars. The amount of times the vamps had to bite you to cause scarring like this makes Yoongi sick inside. Or maybe it was purposeful, a way to make no mistake that you were now theirs.

“Stay with her,” Yoongi says, getting up again. “Keep her warm.”

“Where are you going now?!”

“I have a meeting with Jin tonight,” he says, with anger in his eyes, yanking a drawer open to pull out a knife.

---

You laid quietly by him, Hoseok pressed to your side, holding your head delicately to his shoulder. You looked so calm sleeping, was this what his pack members felt when they had you in their beds? An overwhelming need to take care of you…

You shift against him, eyebrows furrowing, a soft whimpering noise leaving your lips. What were you thinking about? What were you dreaming about? Hoseok had so many questions.

Hoseok couldn’t stop thinking about how Yoongi was the one to save you, heal your wounds, had bandages to give you. Yoongi kissed you! What was Hoseok doing here, when you didn’t need him? But he couldn’t leave you, not now.

Hoseok needed to warm you up. He brushed his lips against your forehead, one quick bold move before transforming again, his furry body wrapping around yours, instantly warming you.

The house is destroyed.

Yoongi stood in front of the debris, shocked. The merman hadn’t expected Jin to come to their usual meeting spot, instead heading with purpose towards the vampire’s lair, only to find it in complete shambles. The lawn was covered in broken artifacts and the bodies of humans he had long since brought to them, now dead.

The pair of vampires were nowhere in sight.

Yet there was a foreboding presence, so strong even Yoongi felt it, traces of a fight and scorched magic all over the place.

As Yoongi pieced together the scene, he realized a horrible truth.

It was him, Yoongi thought, Taehyung has escaped!

---

Yoongi yanks the door to his hut open and the auburn furred wolf lifts his head from your stomach, ears quirked to the side at the outburst.

Yoongi runs through the small dwelling. Hoseok watches him, head following him back and forth, snout sniffing the hints of fear and panic coming from Yoongi.

Nothing, Yoongi thought, there was nothing strong enough that could protect them against Taehyung if he decided to come for them, punish the pair for their part in his captivity.

Hoseok yips, asking the merman what he was doing. Yoongi takes a seat, finally taking a deep breath. He runs his hand through his wet hair, wipes his hands off his pant legs, working through what he witnessed.

He couldn’t find the vampires, he only found death and destruction. Everything was destroyed, even Jin’s portal, with red glowing burns fissured through the wood.

He rests his chin on the back of his hands, thinking. Hoseok impatiently slaps his tail down against the bed, finally barking a question once more.

Yoongi glances over to the wolf and your sleeping form. “It was Taehyung. Taehyung did this.”

“Fuck,” Hoseok curses, leg tapping anxiously. “What are we going to do?”

Yoongi thinks, teeth nibbling at his nails in worry. “Is there anything we can do? It looks like whatever they had keeping Taehyung bound has been destroyed,” Yoongi huffs.

Yoongi and Hoseok sat across from each other. The pair were sitting at the small table trying to put the pieces of the puzzle of Taehyung’s escape back together while you slept, one crucial piece they unknowingly rescued.

“No sign of Jimin? Jin?” Hoseok asks. Bastards, this is their fault, he thinks. Namjoon should have never trusted Seokjin, especially with Taehyung…

Yoongi shakes his head no, agitatedly tapping his finger on the table. “Aren’t you going to go warn your pack, dog?” Yoongi was becoming annoyed with his presence in the tiny hut and the way Hoseok kept looking over to you longingly.

Hoseok couldn’t help a low growl erupting from his throat. “I’m not leaving her alone with you.”

“I didn’t think you would fall for her, but I guess it must be a pack thing,” Yoongi goads.

“That’s not how it works, stupid.” Hoseok growls, grinding his teeth in anger.

The merman’s eyes narrow on Hoseok. “So you don’t deny you fell for the human.”

“I did not!” Hoseok yells.

“Then leave, I’ll be here when she wakes up,” Yoongi crosses his arms.

“So you can touch her with your scaly paws?” Hoseok scoffs. “I’ll take her back with me,” he says, standing up.

Yoongi steps between him and the bed. “I’m not the one with paws here, mutt.”

“Move,” Hoseok warns. “If you hadn’t convinced her to try to leave the island in the first place, none of this would have happened! I told you all how dangerous Jimin is!” Yoongi stays quiet, becoming more upset in his shame. “And we can protect her better than you-”

“Jimin…” The pair turn to you as you stir and murmur the vampire’s name in your sleep, both shocked at the name leaving your lips. What was the young vampire doing to you in your dreams? Or were they nightmares?

Hoseok falls back in his chair, crossing his arms, tapping his foot impatiently once more.

“You smell like wet dog,” Yoongi sneers.

“You smell like old tuna,” the werewolf says, scoffing.

Yoongi rolls his eyes, debating on telling the hard-headed werewolf to go take a walk on the bottom of the sea floor with his persuasion.

A whole day has passed as the pair of men stubbornly refuse to budge. It’s night time again now, so the vampires should be roaming the island if they made it out alive...

“Why hasn’t she woken up?” Hoseok grunts, sulking in his chair. Yoongi stands up. The movement rouses Hoseok up as well, and they glare at each other. Yoongi goes to your side, with Hoseok stubbornly on his heels.

“Give me some space, goddammit,” Yoongi grumbles, pulling away a bit of seaweed. Your wounds are healing, but you still aren’t waking up. “I’m going to take her back into the water so I can-”

“Like hell you are!”

“Do you have any better ideas? She’s healed now, it might work now-”

Hoseok bares his teeth and Yoongi sighs, chuckling. “I know it’s been a long time since we’ve been around one another,” he says, “but Hoseok, can you not trust me at all?” Yoongi asks, “Are you willing to let her stay like this?” Yoongi stares down the shapeshifter. “She can be…aggravating…” Yoongi sighs, “but personally, I would much rather see her awake…” He reaches out to stroke your cheek before pulling away quickly.

Hoseok stands his ground, “You helped Jimin and Jin, even after what happened to Taehyung.”

“Taehyung chose-”

“HE DID NOT!” Hoseok barks.

“Stay, Hoseok,” Yoongi sings reluctantly.

The werewolf’s eyes glaze over, his body relaxing, and Yoongi takes the opportunity to lift you in his arms, leaving with you before Hoseok regained control of his senses.

You were covered from head to toe in the green sea plant, the magic laden leafy ropes glowing with aqua illuminessence under the moonlight as Yoongi entered the water with you. Yoongi planned to swim out to sea with you, but when he pulled you to the pool’s depths, once your feet reached the sandy floor your body shook violently.

Yoongi held onto your floating body, breathing air back into you, and that’s when he felt it, far far away, he felt something of yours, tied to you, buried at the bottom of the ocean floor, calling out to both of you. Something powerful and dangerous that did not belong in Yoongi’s sea. He could feel it lying there in the sand, the shape of the object he felt clearly as though he were holding it in the palm of his hand...

He knew he had to go find it.

Hoseok, who had been paralyzed by the merman’s command, felt his limbs move with purpose as the cave filled with a low rumbling call coming from the depths of the water. He hadn’t heard that sound in so long, Yoongi’s siren song calling out to him with such a sad pleading melody.

He dove head first into the water.

He swam through a flurry of bubbles, catching your body floating up to him. He wasn’t a fluid swimmer, but he was quick and had a better lung capacity than humans, he pulled you up to the surface quickly.

You both gasped for air as he broke the surface. You held onto him tightly, coughing.

“Y/n!”

You felt dizzy, sore, cold. You hugged Hoseok close to you as he clumsily waded in the water. “You’re awake?” he asked in disbelief and you nodded against his shoulder, trying to catch your bearings.

Hoseok. Hoseok has his arms around you, treating you with such care. That’s right. It was Hoseok who you found, right after you ran. You ran from Taehyung. Taehyung! Where is he? Where are you?

You looked around as Hoseok carried you to shore. This was Yoongi’s tiny hut, you remembered it. He let your feet drop to the ground, but your legs buckled, and you both fell to the sand. You looked at your body, covered in shiny seaweed.

“Whoa...” The sparkling plant reminded you of a certain merman’s tail, so shiny it seemed to be glowing. You pulled one of the plants away from your arms, the cut underneath was healed over, you admired its sheen not caring how unclothed you were. You looked up at the tired, weary and wet werewolf and grabbed him in a hug.

You cried. You were happy, Hoseok might be argumentative, hot headed and stubborn, but his arms felt safe, and you felt protected. You leaned into him for comfort, burying all your fears and worries in the sand beneath you for now, only thinking of him and the rest of wolf pack now that you were reunited.

Hoseok decided he would be angry at your actions later, he hugged you back, finally letting himself smile in relief.

“What was that?” Hoseok murmured.

You and Hoseok both turned at the flash of red light emanating from the water, letting each other go. You looked around at the blue illuminated pool, you were sure you saw it pulse red, but it happened so quickly you were afraid you were seeing things. But Hoseok looked across the water on high alert, and you knew it wasn’t just your imagination. Before you could confirm with Hoseok, Yoongi’s head peeked above the water.

“Yoongi?!”

You stumbled back into the water and swam clumsily over to him, limbs still stiff and hurting.

“Let go.”

Even though his arms were securely wrapped around you, his cheek pressed tightly against your own, Yoongi could feel the shapeshifter’s glares piercing the back of his head as you hugged him close.

You shook your head. Yoongi expected you to argue with him, but you just said, “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“The shell… the dagger… they’re gone. I’m sorry.”

Yoongi wanted to tell you he didn’t care about those things, he was just relieved you were awake again. But his words came out in a jumble of hums and flustered clicks.

You blink. “Oh! Is that mermaids talk to one another-”

Yoongi drops a handful of seaweed on your head. “Get back on shore, you’re naked.” Yoongi was right, all the remaining seaweed had floated away from your body. You yelp, pulling in your legs and wrapping your arms across your chest.

---

Yoongi holds the red gem necklace an arms length out, in front of you and Hoseok. The red gem dangles and catches the moonlight, the red color reminding you of another piece of jewelry, reminding you of blood. He places the necklace on top of the table. “What’s this?”

“It’s dangerous-”

“I know that.” Yoongi stares at you. “What is it? It’s yours, isn’t it?”

You cross your arms and legs, looking at the pair of men. It was the most clothed you’ve ever seen Hoseok, he wore a dark clothed shirt and pants, matching Yoongi’s attire. Yoongi had given you a deep teal dress with gold accents woven into the fabric, it looked flowy and regal, you were grateful the merman’s tastes were much more colorful than the vampires.

The details are fuzzy to you, you know you should remember what it it, but the harder you think about it the more difficult it is to come up with an answer, like a dream slipping away as soon as you wake up. “I found it on the other side of the portal… Taehyung...we have to hide it from him.”

“You went through the portal?” Yoongi asks surprised.

You nod, thinking of all the time you had spent away from the island, it was all lost now. Now all you could think of was the explosion, Taehyung…and Jimin!

“What’s wrong?” Hoseok asks.

“This necklace, there’s something…about it…” you begin to reach for it but stop yourself.

“We should just destroy it,” Hoseok grunts.

“No,” Yoongi looks at the red stone, “Trying to destroy it won’t be as simple as crushing the stone or melting the gold. It’s holding power. I can feel it.”

“Me too,” you shudder. You could feel the energy around it pulling you in, and you had a feeling the last thing you should do is get near it. You kept your arms held tightly to your body, trying to ignore its pull.

Hoseok picks up the gem, inspecting it. Then he takes it by the chain and whacks it onto the wood.

“Hoseok!” you gasp.

“Haven’t you learned anything?!” Yoongi yells.

“It’s fine.” Hoseok huffs, disappointed. “I’ll hold onto it, if Taehyung wants to take it, he’ll have to kill me first,” he says, pulling the necklace over his head and hiding the red gem under his shirt.

“Oh, my watch!” you remember. You reach for the pocket watch but it was no longer around your neck. “No!” you cry. Where could it have gone? You had two watches at one point and now you had none. You rub your temples, ugh, why does everything have to hurt! Why do you feel so lost!

“Do you remember seeing a watch around me?” Hoseok shakes his head, if the vampires have Namjoon’s watch then the situation is becoming dire.

“You need to explain everything to Namjoon,” he looks at you, his leader will know what to do.

“We need to find Jimin-”

“What?!”

---

Hi lovelies, this is short I know, but it's actually the next chapter broken into smaller parts because I realized I am never going to mf post anything if I don't do it this way cries. I am doing it this way so this will push me to update BV:ITS in the next coming weeks :D more cave shenanigans coming up! Next chapter will be less disappointing, I swear! <3

#bts fantasy au #bts hybrid au #bts fanfic #bts fanfiction #bts werewolf au #werewolf bts #hoseok x reader #yoongi x reader #ot7 x reader #bts ot7 #yoongi fanfic #hoseok fanfic #bts horror au

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