Parfait

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Hoseok woke up in the wee hours of the morning with his body on fire, burning with need. Hana took him into her embrace again, the musk of his rut heightening all of her pleasure, but once he was spent the feeling faded. She kept him awake long enough to drink and made sure that she hydrated herself as well, wondering if the next time she would fall into the fever as well.

More than a day passed this way.

While her alpha slept Hana took an old cooler into the hall and found the new one already waiting. Instead of picking it up right away she made a quick trip to the bathroom. Someone had already returned her toiletries to their rightful places after Miyoung left, and she gratefully scrubbed her teeth and washed her face while she had the chance. Only then did she return to the hall, and before she could pick up the fresh cooler to take inside, a familiar face poked around the corner from the living space. "Ah, I thought I heard you," Jimin said. He looked nervous, unwilling to step too close. "You're still okay?" You're not in heat was the implication, of course. There was nothing else for him to worry over.

"I'm still okay," she replied, offering him a smile. "Hobi-oppa is doing alright, too."

"Good, I'll let the pack know. They all went to do some work, they'll feel better after an update." Jimin lingered, even though that could have been a natural place to end the conversation. Although Hana was tired, and needed to be close to Hoseok soon, she could afford to wait a moment longer to see if he had something more to say. "I'm sorry again for wishing you'd react to him," the alpha finally said. "Now that it's a real possibility, everyone is on edge. We want you to stay."

Her heart melted a little. "I know, alpha. And I want to, too. But even if I do go into heat, that doesn't mean I'll be automatically kicked out, okay? You need to stop worrying so that you can rest well."

"We'll try." He forced the corners of his lips up, but it didn't hold the cheer of his usual smiles. "Now go on, you shouldn't be comforting me right now. Take care of yourself and hyung."

Hana returned to Hoseok's bed, and when she saw how drenched with sweat he had become in her short absence she took a moment to grab a towel and pat him down. He had been frowning in his shallow, fevered sleep, but her gentle touch seemed to relax him. She wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that she had not yet succumbed to a heat. Sure, it made things easier for her job- thanks to the fact that one of the common reasons for heats and ruts to sync was courtship or mating, there would almost certainly be an inquiry to make sure she was not trying to lay claim to the alpha if she did go into heat. Their case would not be entirely hopeless if it happened; she could surely argue that it was medical, thanks to all of those annoying tests, and she didn't think that the alphas would say that she neglected any of them or played favorites. She treated them all as equally as she could, because she felt for them all equally.

But therein lay the other problem. She cared about these men. Hana thought she was prepared to leave them when the time came because she had already accepted how much it would hurt her. She had survived that before. What she had not stopped to consider was that she might hurt them, too. That was not normally part of the equation. She was supposed to be mild, boring, forgettable even, without enough presence or power to leave scars behind. No alpha had ever said they loved her before. Well, none old enough to mean it. Maybe Hoseok would have wanted her to sync with him; maybe he would be disappointed if she didn't. And then there were six other alphas who might have their own feelings about the whole mess. Their pain scared her far more than her own.

When she was satisfied that her alpha was more comfortable, Hana stripped herself of her robe and laid down beside him. There was no point in clothes when he could wake at any moment needing her. And indeed, when her weight shifted the mattress it roused him, and despite being half asleep still he rolled over and pinned her down. She had wasted her opportunity for rest on worrying instead. Thankfully being drawn into his euphoria was a better balm for her spirit than any attempt at sleep would have been. There were so many things she could not give to her pack, but in that moment she was enough for Hoseok. She wanted that feeling of 'enough' to last and last, though, and she didn't know if it could.