Chapter Text
While Jungkook lays dying, he thinks already of his next life. A better one, a kinder one. One that he might actually miss.
Enough snow has fallen over him to actually weigh something. His tail is buried completely, as are his left fore and back legs. The chill of it feels good around the ache in his wrist, the joint sprained badly. He caught it in the loop of a wily vine while fleeing from the wild bore that nearly impaled him.
Its tusk barely grazed his side, just enough to rip him from hip to armpit without sinking deep enough that his organs were at risk of spilling out. The scrape is pouring enough blood to lure a dozen predators to finish him off, but so far, Jungkook is only at risk of the cold killing him, and it has long since stopped biting. The cold is killing him.
Jungkook cuts his eyes westward, where the sun sunk low and disappeared long ago. His night vision is impeccable. He watches the two wolves come upon him quick but does not move.
They are omegas, no doubt. Small-bodied and short-fanged. Those canines are still sharp enough to kill, Jungkook thinks as the white wolf shows his, if an omega really tries. And he will try. That much is clear. Such a fierce snarl doesn't belong on an omega, but a strange alpha doesn't belong on another pack's land even if he is dying, so nothing about the world is right today.
Then the most out of place thing happens of all.
The silver wolf shifts.
In its place stands a short but muscular man. He is remarkably beautiful, so much so that Jungkook is grateful to see such a lovely final sight before dying. When he blinks, his eyelids are very heavy. He forces them open to look at the man again.
The omega stares at him hard, with enough force to raise the fur on Jungkook's neck if he was on guard. As it is, Jungkook is not on guard. Because he is dying.
"If you move, he will kill you," the omega says, as if Jungkook does not know.
One glance at the white wolf is enough to see that he is a killer. His expression is so horrible Jungkook would think he's feral if he couldn't see the clarity in his eyes. His lips are curled back to show every inch of his canines. He's drooling, perhaps in anticipation of all Jungkook’s blood in his mouth.
"Shift," the man orders.
Jungkook wants to die with big teeth, even if he won't be able to use them. He does not shift. The disobedience unnerves him, but he supposes there is no punishment that can touch him now. Because he is about to die.
"If you die on our land," he adds, "the stink will scare game away for weeks. Shift, and we will help you."
Jungkook's eyes drift to the white bed he is sunk into. He feels no pain anymore. He is unafraid. Yet even now, shame remains constant in the back of his mind. Guilt consumes him at the thought of inconveniencing these strangers. A lifetime of trying to stay out of the way sticks with him to the end.
Unable to be a burden even in death, Jungkook shifts.
He promptly passes out but does not die.
˚⟡˖ ࣪
Jungkook wakes in the bedroom of a log cabin. The room is small, only big enough for a bed and side table. The quilt spread over him is sewn with uneven stitches and mismatched patches. He can smell omegas strong in his nose. Their scent covers everything, even the wet herbal smear over his scrape.
Two omegas, he remembers. One strong even as a man and the other so fierce he was half-feral with bloodlust. Their alpha is surely a monster to have claimed them both.
Jungkook traded a peaceful death in the snow for a violent killing by an alpha, just to avoid dying as he lived.
He has no time to dwell on this bitter thought, for as if they know he has awoken, the door creaks open a sliver. The man peeks in with the white wolf at his side. They look no more at ease here in their home than they were in the woods. Because of him, of course, Jungkook thinks miserably.
When they see that he lies motionless, not attacking, they enter. The man is carrying a pitcher of water. The wolf is showing his teeth again.
Jungkook decides to plead first thing, before they can waste further effort on him.
"I don't want to be a burden on your alpha. Please, let me go before they return."
The thought of it makes his heartbeat quicken, his eyes go afraid. It should be mortifying for omegas to see him this frightened, but Jungkook had never felt how he should about things. That, and he is far too familiar with humiliation.
The omega turns to the white wolf. They share a wordless look that long-time mates sometimes do. Jungkook carefully does not breathe as the omega is turned away, lest the wolf see the movement and goes for his throat.
The omega looks back at him and says, "a burden."
Jungkook barely holds back his flinch even if the omega isn't calling him that, just repeating his own words back to him. He knows what he is. He doesn't need it said. Hearing it never did stop him from being one.
"Even if I go now," he frets in a weak voice, "the stink of me will make your alpha sick. You never should've brought me here. You'll be punished so severely."
"You're saying we should've left you to die?" the omega asks.
"I'll die anyway when your alpha gets here, don't you understand? The snow would've been better. I felt like I was falling asleep. Your alpha will not be so kind to me or you."
The omegas communicate silently again. He wonders if their alpha forces them into silence. If that is indeed the alpha's preference, they are lucky to still have their tongues.
"There's no alpha coming," the omega says at last. "It's just us here, and that's how we like it."
This is barely a relief, because the white wolf shows his teeth and snarls so loud it must tear his throat.
Unperturbed, the omega says, "you will do good to remember that we don't need an alpha to kill you. Omega teeth cut just as deeply."
They leave on that note, right after the omega replaces the pitcher on the bedside table with this fresh one. When the door closes behind them, Jungkook realizes he smells cooking meat, fresh flowers, and the unmistakable scent of two other omegas coming from the rest of the house.
˚⟡˖ ࣪
Jungkook does not touch the water even if his throat burns, nor does he go out the back door and walk to the outhouse. He doesn't even look through the window, really, lest they think he is spying.
It's only when the omega warns him not to piss in the bed that he dares go. Jungkook nearly relieves himself the moment he is out the door, but the omegas may see that as marking their territory as his own. His bladder aches awfully from how hard he holds it on the long walk across the yard, but thankfully he makes it.
After, he goes straight back to bed. He doesn't even look around the property. He doesn't want them thinking he is up to something.
A meal is brought not long after he wakes. Of course they don't starve him and ruin the healer's hard work, but he cannot believe the sight of meat on his plate. The scent is distantly familiar. He wonders if it is the very same boar that nearly ended his life.
They must have been cooking it a long time, because the flavor is indescribable. Smoky and tender, perfect. The potatoes are like silk, creamy and buttery and too good for him to be allowed. Even the vibrant mix of roast vegetables is delicious, every one. He hasn't eaten so well in his entire life. It doesn't make sense that the omegas brought this extravagant meal to their ward.
Jungkook hardly moves and certainly does not make a peep the rest of the night. When the sun rises the next day, he has been awake for a long time before the door opens.
The white wolf and two men enter.
The new omega is quite a bit taller than the other, but he is more willowy and every bit as beautiful. His features are rounded prettily, and his lips look plump as red cherries. Under his soft sweater hides no muscles, Jungkook can tell, and when the wolf growls at his staring, this omega winces at the harshness of it.
Jungkook looks at the quilt over his lap, head bowed low in shame.
"Your wound has soaked long enough," the healer tells him. "I must sew the skin together now."
Jungkook quietly thanks him, for the process will surely be cumbersome. He would suggest the healer not bother, but they've already wasted so much effort on him already.
The omegas are quiet for a moment, but Jungkook does not dare look up. He already made the grave mistake of ogling; if he messes up again, the wolf will shred him to pieces right here in their back bedroom. It would ruin the quilt. That would be a tragedy.
"This is going to hurt, so we didn't feed you in case you vomit," the healer says.
He nods in understanding.
The omega continues, "If you squirm, I could make a mistake. He's going to help hold you down."
He, as in the new omega, of course. Jungkook tries not to let his scent spike in distress, but a faint whiff of it escapes. He waits for the wolf to punish him stinking up their home, but he does not move. Jungkook is testing his luck, but he must speak.
"He doesn't have to," he dares whisper. "Really, it's alright. I won't move."
"It will hurt very much."
"I know how to handle pain," he promises. "I know how to take it. He doesn't have to bother."
This does not seem to reassure them. He cannot tell who it comes from, but one of the omegas' scent sours. Jungkook hears the floorboard groan just outside the bedroom door, and he thinks it might be the fourth omega checking on things. Making sure their alpha intruder hasn't lashed out, surely.
Jungkook keeps this thought in his mind as a needle pierces his tender flesh over and over. They must be terrified of how he will react, but there is no reason for that. He would never hurt an omega, especially not these who have been impossibly kind to him already.
It is the third omega whose name Jungkook learns first.
The healer asks for an instrument and he must receive the wrong one, because he says, "no, Seokjin, I said—"
The wolf's growl cuts him off.
Jungkook cannot help but look up, needing to see his death coming. But the wolf is responding to the healer, who realizes his mistake a moment later. His mouth makes an o. He looks very apologetic and a little scared as he glances at Jungkook.
"Knowing our names won't hurt us," Seokjin lightly admonishes, seeing the omega's distress.
Without any malice, the wolf snaps his teeth twice.
Seokjin seems to realize something at the gesture. His scent goes positively rotten, and he looks at the wolf in genuine regret.
Seokjin's eyes settle on Jungkook, and he says, "the alpha won't repeat what he hears here. Not ever. Right?"
It is an ineffective threat, for his voice is more sorry than intimidating, but Jungkook nods so fast it makes him dizzy. Then, he thinks of a way to give them something in return for the secret.
"M-My name is Jungkook," he offers.
They startle just barely. He wonders if they thought he didn't have a name at all. In truth, Jungkook is lucky to have a name. Useless things like him are often called curses and nothing else.
"Jungkook," Seokjin repeats, tasting it. He seems to decide, "that fits you better than 'the alpha.'"
Jungkook nods again, very tiny, even though he knows he should be ashamed. He really isn't a good alpha at all. He's simply a no-good anything. The omegas relax, and the moment passes.
The healer finishes sewing him up, and Jungkook mentally praises himself for not flinching the whole time. He wasn't any extra trouble. Now, they can send him back into the forest, and he will never darken their doorstep again. He’ll go back to wandering the wilds, all alone.
But the healer does not seem impressed with Jungkook's restraint. In fact, there is a disturbed pinch between his narrow brows.
"Your scent didn't change at the pain," he comments. "You barely have any scent at all."
"I know that it's good to be unobtrusive," Jungkook says.
If he felt such a thing as pride, Jungkook would be pleased that the omega recognizes his effort. He really did try very hard not to react at all.
"It's good to not be a burden," the omega guesses, clearly repeating their words from yesterday.
Jungkook flinches at the word. He casts his eyes low and nods.
He misses the look the omegas share. They leave the room without another word.
Jungkook waits for them to come back and tell him to leave, but that doesn't happen. Seokjin returns with a tray of food, freshly made and as extravagant as before. Before he leaves, he tells Jungkook to shout if he needs anything. That will never happen even if Jungkook is dying, but he nods anyway and says thank you because he is very polite.
Three days pass like that. Jungkook thinks every opening of the door will be the last one he hears, but it is just Seokjin bringing a meal or the healer coming to check his stitched wound. The unfamiliar omega takes to sitting right outside the door, his scent coming through the narrow crack at the bottom. Jungkook wonders what he could be doing there.
The white wolf peeks inside the bedroom often, and Jungkook sees him prowling through the backyard as if on patrol. They said there is no alpha in this pack, but he thinks the white wolf might be their version of one.
Jungkook eats delicious food and rests in a comfortable bed, and he feels guilty all the while. He doesn't understand why they don't order him away now that he is on the mend. The heavy weight of knowing he is a burden settles on his shoulders and threatens to sink him into misery.
Once, after he goes to pee, Jungkook realizes he can just... leave. On his own. He can remove the onus of his care himself.
So Jungkook plans to go back outside, walk past the outhouse, and keep walking until he can go no further on two legs. Then, he will shift and run until the memory of this place is but a lovely dream.
It's a good plan, but the moment he opens the back door, Jungkook freezes and inhales deeply.
Then he turns right around, crosses the bedroom, and opens the door to the rest of the house for the first time.
Jungkook does not look around the den. He doesn't eye the full bookcases or massive nest covering the floor. He doesn't look at the kitchen, where a pot of soup is boiling over and burning. He doesn't even look at the three omegas peeking nervously through the curtains to the yard.
The front door is wide open, and a slight man hardly fills it. He is standing completely still and staring hard at something outside. From the pure malice pouring out of his pores, Jungkook knows without a doubt that this is the white wolf.
His feet carry him across the floorboards on instinct until he is as close to the white wolf as he can be without actually touching him.
Jungkook is tall enough to see over the omega's head, and he knows he'd broad enough for the alpha at the tree line to see all of him.
It is a female wolf with claw marks raked across her snout, long since healed. She has seen violence and survived. She’s a killer.
Jungkook can see the stiff cock hanging between her legs. Next time he breathes, he recognizes the twinge of desire darkening her alpha musk. This is what he caught on the breeze. The scent of four ripe omegas lured her here. She came to be sated sexually. From these omegas, Jungkook knows she would have to take it.
Jungkook looms, half in shadow, and stares.
He could shift before he's off the porch. They would meet in the yard, biting and tearing and scratching. He was bigger than her. Or, at least, he was before he nearly died. His wrist is still tender and weak, but that wouldn't matter. Jungkook would have to lose much more than an arm to let a threat onto these lands. He would have to be dead to let this alpha take from these omegas.
Perhaps she understands that her death is imminent, because the alpha backs away until the trees swallow her up.
Her scent fades with every drift of new wind onto the property. Her shadow does not lurk on even the most distant reaches of his vision.
Still, the white wolf keeps watch, so Jungkook does, too. They breathe in sync.
"Will you see that she goes?"
The voice is low, unfamiliar, and spurs him to action immediately.
The white wolf doesn't move out of the way despite asking, so Jungkook flattens his spine to the door frame and squeezes his way outside, careful not to brush against the omega.
Once he's on the porch, he shifts. Jungkook launches himself toward the forest and runs as fast as he can after the foreign scent trail.
He is loud. Jungkook does not dodge fallen branches or brush, just shoots through it. He wants her to know he is coming. There is a predator nipping at your heels, he thinks. Run, rabbit, run, run, run. You made a mistake coming here. You wanted the wrong omegas.
The trespassing alpha does not run fast enough, in the end. Jungkook catches her. The white wolf tells him to bury her just past the tree line in front of their house. It'll be a good warning, he says. It'll tell others that this house has a guard dog.
˚⟡˖ ࣪
Jungkook's race through the woods strains his already compromised wrist, and there are new scratches over his stomach to match the tear up his side. He is very grateful that the stitches did not pop open in the struggle; he might have let her kill him as punishment for wasting the healer's hard work.
The omega tends to him with practiced ease. It makes him wonder how frequently he patches up the white wolf, for he does not suspect that the other omegas do any fighting at all. Clearly, the white wolf was prepared to fight the alpha today.
"You're allowed to speak, you know," the healer says. He must've noticed the question burning on Jungkook's tongue.
"Are alphas often a problem for you?" he whispers.
"Ones like that female, yes. Sometimes. Ones like you, no. You're the first alpha to step foot in our house."
Problem. Jungkook. Problem for you.
He does not use the word 'burden,' but Jungkook hears it anyway. He definitely has stayed too long, he thinks, and now the omegas are having to take care of him again. He encroached upon their territory, entered their den. He really is a problem for them. He should be ashamed—
The healer sighs through his nose, then plainly says, "I meant that you're a problem because we're starting to like you."
Jungkook's heart jumps to his throat. He’s never heard something so bizarre in his life.
"W-what? What?” he asks, disbelieving. “What’s there to like?”
"Your insecurity, for one," the healer says, and it sounds like he's teasing. When Jungkook doesn't smile, he gets serious. "You don't leer at us. You haven't tried to take charge one time. You are respectful. I think you could be sweet if you let yourself."
Jungkook shrinks smaller as the omega names all the ways he fails to be an alpha. His defects. He looks so utterly humiliated that it is plain on his face for the omega to witness.
"Jungkook," he breathes, and it is the kindest he's ever heard his name said. "That is a good thing. All good things. Other alphas might not think so, but I never want to think like an alpha. Do you?"
"No," Jungkook says, and it's the truth. He doesn't want to be like other alphas at all. He doesn't want to be himself, either, but he wants to be them even less.
"I didn't think so," the omega says. "That's why we like you."
That's the last thing they say as the healer rewraps his wrist. It barely hurts, or maybe it's just that the healer's touch is so gentle he can't imagine anything hurting right now. Jungkook feels strangely calm. He thinks it has been years, maybe a lifetime, since he has felt so settled.
Before he goes, the healer pauses at the door and says, very casually, "my name is Jimin."
Jungkook stays awake the whole night thinking about Seokjin and Jimin and guard dogs. A white wolf and a wolf he didn’t look at when he had the chance. Graves. The taste of blood on his tongue. The smell of omegas in his nose. Home.
It's then, in the dead of night, that he hears the whisper.
"Hello?"
Jungkook startles so badly he nearly falls out of the bed. His head snaps to the bottom of the door, where he sees a sliver of wobbling orange light, surely from the fireplace. It casts a long shadow of the figure sitting outside his door.
"They don't want me to meet you," the unfamiliar fourth omega says sadly.
His voice is deep and rich. He sounds so lovely Jungkook thinks it's why they hid him away. People would probably line up just to hear him speak. Jungkook certainly would.
"I wouldn't ever hurt you," he promises through a suddenly tight throat.
"They don't think that," the omega says quickly. "That isn't it at all."
"It's just..." he trails off. "I had a pet possum once. He bit me, and my hand swelled up purple. Then I had a pet baby owl. I cried for two weeks when it flew off. Then there was my pet centipede. Jinnie screamed when he saw her, and I had to put her back outside."
That's all the explanation he gives. Perhaps it makes sense to the omega, but Jungkook does not dare believe his initial understanding. Surely the others do not think this omega will grow attached to him. Impossible!
"Are you gonna bite me, Jungkookie?" the omega asks in a small voice.
JungkookieJungkookieJungkookie.
"Never," he swears.
"Are you gonna fly off?"
"Not," Jungkook's voice breaks. "Not 'til you make me."
"Seokjin already saw you and didn't scream."
No, he didn't scream. None of them did.
"I'm going to bed now," the omega says, then promises, "I will see you tomorrow. Sleep well, Jungkookie."
The shadow doesn't move, and he wonders if the omega means he is going to fall asleep right there.
But then, Jungkook hears "you're supposed to say sleep well, Taehyungie."
When Jungkook tries to speak, his voice comes out a dry rasp. Still, he repeats the wish and gets a pleased omegan chirp for the effort. The shadow shifts, and all he sees is faint orange firelight.
Jungkook doesn't sleep a wink that night, though his body aches from the chase and struggle and digging. How could he, when his mind is so jumbled?
He stares at the glow under the door until enough light streams through the window to overtake it. That morning, the sunrise is pink and purple across the sky. Instead of thinking of a bruise, Jungkook's mind goes to flowers.
The fourth omega's promise comes true before too long.
Seokjin opens the door to deliver his meal, but... it isn't him. It is Jimin, and his hands are empty.
"Would you like to eat breakfast at the table with us?" he asks. "We all extend the invitation, but it is up to you."
All four omegas want Jungkook to eat with them at the kitchen table. We're starting to like you. Jungkook doesn't think he's ever been liked before, so he doesn't know what to do now that he is. Accepting invitations seems like a good place to start, so he says yes.
Jungkook tries to hide behind Jimin as they leave the bedroom, but the omega is too small. Or, rather, Jungkook is just too big. Jimin is perfect.
They pass through the den, where the omega pack's nest is sleep rumpled. The bedding is probably still warm from their bodies, Jungkook thinks, then casts his eyes away.
Jungkook stares at his toes until they reach the kitchen. He doesn’t dare snoop on the intimacy of their home any more than he already has.
The wooden, rectangular table has two chairs on either long side, and a fifth sitting at one end. Jimin takes a seat beside Seokjin, and Jungkook sits at the end. He looks at his place setting and cannot believe his extreme fortune.
He stares very, very hard at the plate to avoid staring at the omega who is staring at him.
Taehyung is not ignored for long.
"Sleep well, Jungkookie?" he asks in that honey-rich voice.
The temptation is too great. Hearing his name spoken so beautifully pulls Jungkook’s head up, and he sees a man lovely enough to match the other two extraordinary omegas. Of course he is gorgeous, their hidden treasure.
Taehyung looks warm as summer and sweeter than anything Jungkook has ever known. There is open kindness in his eyes that even Seokjin did not show on their first meeting. Perhaps he has grown to know Jungkook indirectly for as long as he’s been here. Perhaps… he truly has found another strange pet he wants to keep.
Jungkook nods though it is a lie, then remembers the manners lesson from last night.
"Sleep well, T-Taehyungie?"
The omega beams a brilliant smile in answer, and it doesn't waver as there is a displeased sound at the stove.
Jungkook realizes too late that he is not supposed to know the name he has just spoken.
He winces at the mistake and glances over to the stove, where he finds himself staring at the white wolf, who is very much not a wolf as he is frying strips of bacon in a giant pan.
Jungkook had returned to the house yesterday with his snout nearly dragging the ground, tail between his legs. He did not dare look further than the bottom step as the white wolf told him what to do with the intruder, and when he came back, the pack leader was gone.
Now that he is seemingly free to look, Jungkook sees that the white wolf is the smallest man of them all. Short as Jimin yet not nearly as muscular, he must make up for it with pure ferocity, as there are several healed scars on his face. The most prominent of which is a long strike through his right eye, surely made by a claw.
Jungkook very determinedly does not think that the white wolf is cute. That cannot be allowed, even if he has a button nose and feline eyes and pink lips and —
“Been sneaking, Taehyung?” he asks, but there is no heat in the words. It isn’t even a proper scolding. Still, Jungkook feels guilty.
“Yes,” Taehyung answers easily. He is unafraid and not embarrassed at being caught. “Can you make mine extra super crispy, please?”
The white wolf grumbles something about was going to anyway, of course, I know how you like your bacon, but he says nothing else until breakfast is finished cooking.
The omegas converse all through the meal, though Jungkook and the white wolf stay silent. Still, the mood is calm and even welcoming. Jungkook does not feel out of place as they talk around him.
It's when all the serving dishes have been emptied and their plates scraped clean that the white wolf speaks.
"I think Jimin and I come from a pack much like the one that raised you."
Jungkook startles so violently his knee knocks into the table. The dishes rattle and his bone smarts, but Jungkook is too busy sinking into a panicked spiral to care. His scent sours so foul it makes his full stomach churn.
The white wolf must not care, because he doesn’t stop his story.
"The alpha was the biggest man I've ever seen," he says softly. "He killed any alphas he came across and took omegas he liked the look of. He didn't like the look of fangs in their mouth, so he knocked their canines out, not caring if they lost other teeth. I have small teeth, so he didn't bother to take mine. He did take me, though. He took me in every way."
A mistake, Jungkook thinks. This is the wrong omega to steal, the wrong one to let keep his canines. Surely he tore this monster's throat out. Surely the alpha is dead. Please say he is dead. Please, please be dead.
But the omega says, "our Jiminine does not have small teeth. When the alpha brought him home a few years later, something about him called to me. We escaped in the night and ran for weeks. We wanted to be on the other side of the world from him. We came all the way to this mountain, where we found a cabin with an omega living all by his lonesome."
Taehyung whines, clearly the once-lonesome omega. The white wolf slips his hand around the back of Taehyung's neck at once. The warm press of it over his most vulnerable spot must make Taehyung's bones turn soft, because he slumps into the smaller man a second later.
"His alpha mother had been killed four years before. He lived here ever since, scared and alone. It was a miracle no alphas came upon him. We stayed together, and Seokjin found us soon after. Or, rather, we found him, lost in the woods with no memory. I like to think we've given him a lot of good new memories."
Seokjin blushes, pursing his lips. He does not seem to mourn the life he does not remember. Jungkook can see that he very much cherishes the one he does.
"If our names carry on the wind, we could be in danger from our past. We're already in danger just living together. It is a serious thing for us to trust any alpha. It is a serious thing to trust anyone at all, with anything."
Jungkook understands now. This is their parting meal. The white wolf allowed him this in his endless kindness, as one final gift. The story is an explanation that Jungkook doesn’t even deserve for why he’s being sent away. He understands, of course. He has something precious to protect.
But when the white wolf speaks again, his voice is different. It is soft.
"My name is Yoongi."
˚⟡˖ ࣪
Several days later, Jungkook sits on the kitchen counter while Jimin inspects his side wound through a looking glass. It makes his eye look very big.
When he first saw it, Jungkook giggled before he could stop himself. Jimin matched his laughter instead of scolding him, and Jungkook was so happy he felt like he could burst.
Jimin hums at whatever he sees and places the instrument back in his kit.
"All healed up," he says in approval, smiling. "Good to go, Jungkookie!”
Good to go. To go to go to go to go.
Jungkook is on his knees before he realizes it. The thud of him hitting the ground draws a crowd immediately. Yoongi comes to stand at Jimin’s side, and Jungkook bows at his feet.
"I can— I can— I can be your dog at the door," he gasps wildly. "I can be your hound. Just don't make me go. Don't send me away. Please. Please!"
"Jungkook," Yoongi says.
"Please! I'll be good. I'll— I won't— I'm not—"
"Jungkook!" Yoongi says, voice raised. The volume silences him, so Yoongi says, softer, "I know you're not."
Despite the assurance, Jungkook remains crumpled on the ground. Nimble fingers push through his hair and gather up a fistful. Yoongi raises Jungkook’s head himself.
The pack leader looks him in the eyes and says, "I know you're not. That's why you're ours."
When he hears those words, Jungkook bursts into tears immediately.
He sobs loudly once, and then there is a rush of tears pouring down his cheeks as he gasps for breath. He cries noisily like he has never been allowed to ever, even when he was a pup.
No one shushes him, but he hears someone sadly say “oh, Jungkookie.”
Jungkook doesn't need to consider whether the words are true, if Yoongi or the others really mean it. Just hearing it said aloud shakes something loose inside him that he has tried for a very long time to keep pieced together.
Ours ours ours. You’re ours. He belongs. He’s theirs. Ours. Ours.
He weeps freely until it becomes hard to catch his breath. Yoongi’s grip tightens in his hair then, and when he pulls, Jungkook’s sobs cut off with a choke.
"You're a part of my pack now,” Yoongi says, full of intention. “That means you aren't going anywhere. Not ever. This is your home, understand? Even if you wanted to leave, I wouldn't let you."
Yoongi says this easily and without any force, but Jungkook whines low in his throat. Yoongi wouldn't let him. Yoongi is in charge, he says what's allowed. Yoongi is— he is—
Jungkook tilts his chin up until he can submit no further. He bares his throat to the man whose name he has just learned, allowing him to do anything he wants. He could kill Jungkook right now, and the alpha would let him. Because Yoongi is his omega.
When the center of his world crouches down and leans in, Jungkook remains in submission. He does not move to protect the vulnerable expanse of his throat.
He doesn’t need to, in the end, because Yoongi doesn’t bite or scratch or hurt. No, of course he doesn’t. Not Jungkook’s omega.
Yoongi kisses Jungkook right in the middle of his throat. The alpha doesn’t flinch. The kiss is sweet and gentle and as eternally claiming as a brand.