When Lukas bit into the marked neck of the omega, his intention had really only been to piss some people off and coerce Jin into staying by his side. What he hadn't expected was the pain.
His fangs had barely pierced the tanned skin when he felt the heat in his own neck, causing him to retract immediately with a loud groan. His knees were on the ground and the blue-haired beta was screaming at him louder than he thought a wolf could ever be. Jin was on the ground in a similar state an arm's reach away, cupping over his turtleneck and tears racing down his flushed red cheeks.
Taehyung had no idea what was happening, his mind trying to form plausible theories amidst the adrenaline encouraging him to fight or flight. He was worried about Jimin, his brother slumped unconscious in his chair and bleeding from an angry bite; he was worried about the pack doctor who had finally risen with the loud commotion; he was confused about the apparently mated duo clutching their necks as if they were the ones in pain. He faintly heard the call of an alpha above his own screaming, only silencing himself when the doctor beside him grimaced and groaned with a look in Taehyung's direction.
He didn't mean to bombard the man with questions as soon as he woke up. He was clearly malnourished, clearly beaten up and most likely not in any condition to answer. But his anxiety was shooting through the roof. If he didn't get answers within the next few seconds, Taehyung thought it was highly probable he could combust right there, tied up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
"What happened to them?" he demanded in a rush. "Is Jimin gonna be okay? Are you gonna be okay? How long have you been here? What the fuck is going on?"
The doctor opened his mouth to speak, blinking to clear his blurry vision and getting his first look at the scene before him. A blue-haired beta who, all things considered, seemed relatively okay despite messy hair looking like it had been pulled; a tied up omega with similarly messy hair passed out with blood coming from his mouth and neck; a purple-haired omega crying and writhing on the floor; and the kidnapper himself sporting bloody fangs, crouched and dry-heaving beside the chair.
"I... I don't--"
The doctor was interrupted by the cabin door slamming open, the smoky scent of agitated alphas thickening the air and becoming near-suffocating. Taehyung, as a group of relievingly familiar faces began to untie his ropes, could make out the sight of Namjoon in the distance shifting to his human form, someone offering him a set of trousers that he tugged on so fast he almost fell over before dashing inside. In a blur, the three victims were untied, Jimin and the doctor being carried out while Taehyung remained inside the cabin with Namjoon to deal with Lukas and the purple-haired omega.
The pack leader let out a fearsome growl that had the omega whimpering, offering his neck in submission. Taehyung tensed at the sound, only withstanding the need to submit because he was mated to the alpha. Lukas, already on the ground, flinched from the head alpha and retreated towards the wall where he looked up, visibly intimidated and shaking.
With a sickening crack, Namjoon's foot connected with his jaw. Lukas could barely let out a cry as he was rendered unconscious, falling to the floor. After calling for two alphas near the door to tie up the criminal and take him to the basement of the pack house, Namjoon's eyes landed on the omega.
"Tie him up," he ordered the men, his eyes never leaving the purple-haired's sight. "I don't know where he stands in this mess, but he'll be undergoing questioning until we find out."
The room cleared and the Luna was finally left with his mate, allowing himself to break down when faced with the sudden quiet. He jumped into the Alpha's arms, squeezing him tight enough to prevent Namjoon from getting a full breath. He silently cried, only realizing how much his throat hurt when he began trying to tell his mate about everything he could. But the Alpha cut him off hastily, greedily allowing himself to forget about everything outside and everything around them for just a few moments to embrace his beloved in peace and rid himself of all the anxiety that had accumulated in the past week.
"Now that we have Lukas in custody, we can get the full story later," he murmured to Taehyung. He deeply breathed in the beta's scent, forcing himself to pull away and manage his responsibilities. "Right now, we need to look after Jimin. Something happened to Jungkook on the way here, and after seeing Jimin's wound, I'm sure he's experiencing the same pain, if not worse. They need us."
Taehyung wiped his eyes with a resounding nod, grasping Namjoon's hand and practically dragging him out the door in his sprint. Outside, he found Jungkook and Jimin sprawled next to each other. All of the alphas on forest patrol had shifted to their wolf forms, three of them carrying Lukas, Jin, and Hoseok while the others trailed behind and began to walk in the direction of the village.
Not wanting to separate Jungkook and Jimin, Namjoon offered to carry them both if Taehyung helped get them on his back. While the Alpha shifted once more, Taehyung ripped a piece of cloth from his mate's forgotten trousers and placed it against his brother's neck, instructing Jungkook to keep it there. He frowned when all he got was a weak nod, although the young alpha did manage to follow his order.
Once the couple were safely situated on Namjoon's back, Jungkook still squeezing Jimin within an inch of his life, Taehyung allowed himself to shift and walked beside the Alpha on the way home.
-==-
On a normal day, the pack house would be full of men, women, and children from all ranks seeking comfort, warmth, food, or plain conversation. It was a safe haven, a place where everyone was welcome and could relax without fear of hate or discrimination, whether someone needed a break from home or were residing in one of the house's many rooms until they could get back on their feet.
Today, the pack house was silent.
Beneath the common room in the basement that had been untouched for years, Kim Namjoon stood before the alpha whom he had once trusted as the pack's secondary doctor. But now, he was seeing Lukas Flint as a murderer, a kidnapper, and an abuser.
In a second basement room, Kim Seokjin was awaiting his own questioning and allowing himself to rest while he could. The omega, after what felt like hours upon hours of endless pain, was finally feeling well enough to get up and move although his neck was continuing to throb. When he sat up from the makeshift cot in the windowless basement room of the house, the first thing his eyes fell upon was a small mirror on the wall opposite the bed.
Shifting slightly to meet his reflection in the glass, he froze when he caught sight of his neck. The self-induced scars were still there, the claw marks from when he had tried to scratch away Lukas's bite. But that wasn't what forced his breath out of his lungs.
The bite itself was gone.
And when Jin, for the first time since being mated against his will, opened himself to the emotional bond he should have had with Lukas, he felt nothing.
Immediately the omega was out of bed, the fatigue in his bones being promptly ignored as he raced to the door of the barren room, only to find it locked. He had seen firsthand what happened to people when they were marked by someone besides their destined mate, but he had never encountered a situation where a bond was... broken like this.
A lack of a mark, a lack of a bond between him and Lukas... there couldn't be any other explanation.
Jin wanted to scream in pure unadulterated joy, but with the knowledge that he wasn't bonded to Lukas came an incredible amount of dread. Because he had watched as Lukas bit into the brunet omega's neck, and if his theory was correct, then this situation was even worse than it had been before.
Jin wasn't Lukas's mate. But now an innocent, already mated man, had been forced to take his place.
-==-
Jimin thought his head was literally going to explode.
His skull felt like it was contracting around his brain, squeezing him until he couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Or was it his brain swelling against his skull? He didn't know, but his eyes hurt too much to open and he didn't have to touch his face to know the skin would be sensitive and sore. His temples throbbed in time with his heartbeat and his ears were aching from sinus pressure, waiting to pop but hurting even worse when they never did. His neck was stiff, and when he tried to move, the muscles tensed and cramped, eliciting an inhuman grumble of a whine.
He had no choice but to sit and wait out the cramp. His closed eyes were leaking tears he could hardly feel over the unbearable pain, but he faintly recognized the wetness trailing down the sides of his face and into the hairs lying tangled by his ears. He didn't know where he was or even what day it was. He almost wished someone would hit him again and put him out of his misery.
He barely registered that someone had been holding his right hand before there was a heavy weight on his chest and arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Jimin so badly wanted to take comfort in the embrace and return the hug, but he couldn't. It hurt. Everything hurt. The arms squeezed tighter and the pressure in his head became greater and he couldn't fucking breathe. He was panicking, hyperventilating and taking in such shallow gasps of air that he was starting to breathe out more than in. Even when the weight on his chest lifted, he couldn't relax. It was too much, his neck and head hurt so bad--
His mouth was still open wide, gasping, when something connected with his lips. There was such a contrast between the movements of air that he felt right then--his breaths were quick and shallow while the opposing current was slow and heavy, almost like this new force was taking in his anxiety and breathing in a sense of tranquility. Jimin was startled by this new feeling, unconsciously trying to match his breaths with the ones against his lips.
It wasn't until several moments later that he realized what was happening. The movement of air wasn't a what, it was a who, and he squinted his eyes open just enough to see a mess of raven hair before the light became too much and he closed them again. But he had seen that hair enough times over the years to know exactly who it belonged to.
Jungkook was kissing him.
Maybe kissing wasn't the right word--there was hardly any movement between them at all. Rather, the alpha was helping him breathe. He was demonstrating what slow breathing felt like since Jimin's ears were too pressurized to hear and his eyes were too sore to see. Jungkook was calming him down the only way the 18 year old knew how in their current states. By touch.
When he was sure that Jimin was no longer in the throes of a panic attack, Jungkook slowly moved away, and Jimin once again tried to open his eyes, afraid that the younger was leaving. But he didn't even get to crack them open before he felt the alpha collapse heavily on the bed beside him, the mattress dipping under his weight. He reached over to grab Jimin's hand once again, and then his movements were still.
Unbeknownst to the two, Taehyung was sitting at the foot of the bed, silently crying over their exchange. Jungkook looked like he hadn't slept in an entire week, but the second his omega let out a sound of distress, the man was fighting everything in his body to take care of him. His movements were slow and languid, and the Luna could tell just by the heaviness of his breathing after he calmed Jimin down that he wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer. He watched the alpha fall beside Jimin on the bed, reach for his hand to hold, and fall back into a deep sleep.
Taehyung noticed Jimin continuing to stir and stood up to move to the side of the bed, weakly brushing his fingers through his brother's mess of brown hair. He had tried to clean up the blood as best he could with a wet rag, getting nearly all of it off his chin and neck before dressing the bite. He couldn't keep the scowl off his face the entire time he was looking at it. It didn't look right--it didn't fit as well as Jungkook's did, it didn't flatter Jimin's skin like Jungkook's did, it wasn't meant to be there. And he knew that the second Jimin was awake enough to comprehend what had happened, he would be destroyed.
The three of them were occupying one of the bedrooms in the second story of the pack house, as far away from the basement as they could possibly be. It was closer than the clinic and either of their houses but was sufficiently guarded and had a steady flow of people that could help prepare food or provide general knowledge on how to treat wounds. And just as Jimin was beginning to awaken, his squinted eyes gradually opening wider, one of the pack elders quietly knocked on the door holding a steaming bowl of soup.
Taehyung left Jimin's side for a fraction of a second, just long enough to open the door before he was dashing back to his spot next to the bed and carding his fingers through the omega's hair. Jimin glanced up at him, trailed his eyes over the beta's distressed features, and slowly looked over to the elder while taking in the room that he was in. He had so many questions, and he desperately wanted to see how Jungkook was doing beside him, but the elder held up a hand to silence him as if sensing the impending words. Jimin didn't really think he'd be able to speak anyway given his tiredness at that moment.
The man's hand lowered along with his head like he was bowing in apology, his face impassive and stern although his eyes held immense sorrow. He spoke quietly so as not to alarm Jimin or worsen his condition, but the words cut deep into his soul nonetheless, heard loud and clear.
"The elders have heard of what has happened," he began slowly, "and while we do have a solution, or rather a proposition to remedy it, we cannot guarantee that it will not result in tremendous physical and emotional strain for all of the wolves involved."
"Stop," Taehyung ordered. His voice came out louder than he had intended and Jimin flinched on the bed, gasping when his head shifted and his neck seized with another small cramp. The beta leaned down to kiss his forehead in a silent apology, continuing to finger-comb his hair while he turned back to the elder, lowering his tone. "You're talking about a solution to a problem we don't even understand yet. What happened to them?"
The elder's weight shifted from one foot to the other. "Piecing together all that I have heard from Alpha Namjoon, Lukas Flint forced a mate bite on Kim Seokjin in their old pack--" Taehyung grimaced "--causing them to become mates, although their union does not appear to have been destined by the Moon Goddess. We know that Jeon Jungkook and Park Jimin were mated to each other. But when Lukas bit Jimin, he effectively severed both of the bonds and formed a new one.
"The pain that the four of you are feeling," he said, looking at Jimin, "is the result of your mate bonds breaking and forming anew. Your wolf will no longer recognize Jungkook's scent as your alpha's, and you will no longer feel an emotional connection to him. Your body, having been marked by another, recognizes Lukas as your mate and has begun to respond as such."
Taehyung's eyes were wide with horror and Jimin's skin turned from a ghostly white to a pale green. He hardly had time to warn anyone before he was struggling to sit up, lunging towards the side of the bed and hurling onto the floor.
The sudden movement brought Jungkook from his slumber, the alpha looking warily towards the omega's side of the bed and running a comforting hand down his back. He could hardly keep his eyes open, his body was so fatigued and worn out from the stress and exertion. He could be on the verge of hallucinating or dreaming with his eyes open, but he didn't care as long as Jimin was okay.
That was why this time, he forced himself upright, kneeling behind Jimin with his knees on either side of the omega's hips. He wrapped one arm loosely around his stomach and the other in his hair, keeping it out of Jimin's eyes. He held him there as long as the omega needed it, and when he was done, he pulled Jimin back into his chest and rubbed light circles across his flushed skin.
Taehyung turned again to the elder with a burning anger in his eyes from what Lukas had done. He wanted to snap and growl, but he knew that no one in this room was at fault. Reigning himself in, he brought himself to talk again, his voice trembling slightly.
"You said the elders had a solution. What is it?"
"Well... Lukas was able to form a bond with Jimin simply by marking him. The former bond could be reestablished if Jungkook marks Jimin once again, but--"
"Then let's do it!" Jimin called out hoarsely. His mouth felt disgusting and his head was still pounding, but he tilted his neck in offering to Jungkook regardless. "Bite me and let's go back to normal."
"Stop!"
The three young men jumped at the elder's shout, staring at him in shock.
"Your bodies haven't recovered from what Lukas did," the elder explained angrily. "You can't just jump into marking each other right away when your conditions are at their worst. You've both fallen unconscious at least once today and it's only been a few hours. Jungkook, if you mark him right now, you risk killing the both of you. Your bodies cannot handle that kind of stress in one day."
Jimin's head hung low, defeated. Behind him, he could feel Jungkook's body, tense and rigid. He was practically shaking. Although he had been asleep for the first half of the conversation, the elder had said enough since he was awake for Jungkook to understand what had happened. And Jimin knew the younger was going to beat himself up over something that wasn't his fault.
"There has only been one other instance of this occurring within my lifetime," the elder continued solemnly. "The mates tried to rebond less than two hours after their connection was broken, but it was too much. They died instantly. We... we had to untangle their bodies because the bite killed them before the alpha could let go of his omega's neck.
"There are records of this happening in the past, long before I was born. I've read them all. Your connection can be restored, I promise you. But you risk your own deaths if you try it before you are fully recovered."
"And how long will it take for them to be healed?" Taehyung whispered.
The elder shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know... The shortest recovery I've read was six weeks but the longest was nearly five months."
Jimin's blood ran cold. Six weeks? At least? "B-But my heat is less than three weeks away!" he cried. If his body thought that he was mated, he'd spend his entire heat pining for his mate and no one else. His omega wouldn't dare let another alpha touch him. But that meant his body would only respond to... Oh Goddess, he was going to throw up again.
Jungkook seemed to come to the same conclusion as Jimin if the tightening of arms around his torso was anything to go off of. "That sick bastard isn't coming anywhere near you," the alpha growled lowly.
"You told me you were prescribed heat suppressants a few weeks ago, didn't you?" Taehyung asked cautiously. "Could you use those?"
"That's right," Jungkook said quietly. He despised the idea. He knew how Jimin felt about the suppressants and he knew that he was worried about the medical risks. The argument that they had had about the whole thing came rushing to mind. He wanted so badly to help Jimin with his heat, and it wasn't just because of everything the omega had done for him. It felt like they had just figured everything out and now there was a new alpha in the equation to fuck it all up. "There's an entire bottle of those red pills in the kitchen I think--"
"Wait," Taehyung interrupted. "Red?"
Jimin looked up at his brother, confused, but he nodded in solemn agreement. "Yeah, the heat suppressants. They're red."
Taehyung exchanged a panicked look with the elder whose expression mirrored his own, both of them turning to the duo on the bed with worry.
"Jimin, heat suppressants aren't supposed to be red... they're white."
-==-
Lukas Flint was tied to a metal chair, bleeding, bruised, and drugged on hemlock so anything done to him wouldn't inflict pain on Jimin. While one elder had gone upstairs to inform the omega of what Lukas's bite had done, another had informed Alpha Namjoon whose will to keep Lukas alive was rapidly depleting with every passing second.
He knew that by the end of this, he would kill him. But he wanted answers first.
"Tell me about my parents," Namjoon growled. "Tell me why you killed them."
It took Lukas only a matter of seconds to make peace with the knowledge that he was most likely going to die. He didn't care for his father, his mother was out of the picture, and now that he was in custody, he probably wouldn't be seeing Jin anymore, either. There was no joy in a life lived behind bars, and he knew what it was like to live as a rogue. Neither option was pleasant. If and when Namjoon sentenced him to death, he was sure he'd take it with a smile.
When the leader demanded he tell the truth and reveal everything, he didn't want to at first. Wouldn't it be fun to die and let them all fester in their curiosity? Lukas thought so. He could imagine it, the guilt and the weight of the unknown dragging the Alpha before him into the depths of insanity.
He smiled up at Namjoon from his tied up position, his lips thinning into a curved line as he shook his head.
Which turned out to be a grave mistake.
Namjoon's eyes darkened into something murderous, and while Lukas may never admit it, his stomach coiled with fear, his smile instantly dropping. The leader looked over his shoulder to an alpha keeping watch by the door, and when he spoke, his voice was deep like the hatred flowing through his veins.
"Get me a pair of pliers."
Lukas squirmed, his weakened muscles feeling utterly useless against the thick ropes that bound him. The man by the door left only to come back less than 15 seconds later with a gleaming metal tool in his hand that he quickly gave to the pack leader.
Namjoon turned to him, the same dark look in his eyes as he crossed the room in three strides and gripped Lukas's jaw hard enough to bruise. He let out a grunt of pain, and when he saw Namjoon's hand reach up to his mouth with the pliers, he started to thrash, desperate to escape the alpha's grip.
"I'll tell you!" he shouted. Namjoon's grip on his jaw was still too tight, but the hand with the pliers had frozen in place. "I'll tell you!"
He knew he was going to die but he hadn't thought Namjoon was capable of making him suffer.
Namjoon took a single step back, letting go of Lukas's face and crossing his arms. The man nearly whimpered at the throbbing in his jaw, itching to rub away the soreness with his hands, but he couldn't. Instead, he threw his head back to look up at the pack leader, taking in a deep breath and beginning his tale.
"I am an exile of the Choi pack," he muttered. "Branded and all. Cut open my shirt and you'll see the marking ironed on my chest."
The leader reached forward, grabbing Lukas by the hem of the shirt and tearing it in one swift motion to expose his upper body. There in the dip where his shoulder met his neck was the outline of a wolf's body with a jagged line through the middle and the word "Choi" underneath. Despite many months having passed, the scar was still an angry red, the flesh bubbled and rough to the touch. Namjoon had known of the man's exile from his first encounter with Seokjin all those moons ago, but this only confirmed it.
He stepped back after inspecting the wound, nodding for Lukas to continue.
"I followed my mate, Kim Seokjin, to this pack. When I arrived, there were three alphas hunting along the outskirts of the forest. They saw me and instantly knew I wasn't part of the pack. It was easy enough to get through them, though; a large enough bribe can persuade just about anyone."
"And those three alphas, where are they now?"
"Dead."
Namjoon's face remained blank although his jaw was tense. "Your doing?"
"Yes," Lukas admitted. "I paid the alphas to keep secret about my identity and introduced myself as a doctor which was easy enough since I had to learn how to dress my wounds as a young pup. I knew Seokjin was here but I could never find him. I was too busy during the day and at night, his scent would be faded and too muddled with other wolves nearby that I couldn't track him. So I decided to lure him to me.
"I started with the real doctor. Jung Hoseok. I went through his records and found that Jin had gone to him for heat suppressants earlier in the week. Dr. Jung was the best chance at finding my mate so I kidnapped him and brought him to my cabin. But on the way out of town, the three alphas I had bribed to keep quiet demanded more money to pretend they hadn't seen me carrying him. One of them howled for backup and I had no choice but to kill them. I threw their bodies into the creek as your parents came investigating, and I ended up killing them too."
Namjoon was bristling with anger. Lukas, in less than a minute, had nonchalantly admitted to the murder of five people like he was discussing something as simple as the weather. But the man continued before the leader could say anything.
"Jin didn't come when I killed your parents and he didn't come when I took Dr. Jung so I decided to bring him to me by capturing another omega. Park Jimin had come to me earlier in the same week asking for heat suppressants; he was the perfect opportunity. I gave him oxazepam instead of suppressants so I could take him and use him during his heat. My rut is coming at about the same time as his heat. Thought I could teach Jinnie a lesson to never leave me again if he saw me taking advantage of and impregnating an omega in his name."
Namjoon couldn't stop himself at that point, his anger surging to newfound heights. The leader reached forward, striking Lukas across the face with the pliers and causing his face to fly to the side as he yelped in pain. There was a deep cut just under his cheekbone, bleeding profusely onto his exposed chest. He took a moment to recollect himself and his bearings and breathlessly continued, hissing through the pain.
"I was going to take Park Jimin but I couldn't find him at first. You sent your little alphas on a hunt for me and Jimin holed himself up in his house while his mate was gone. I was fortunate to find Kim Taehyung when I did. I captured him as well, thinking he could help me find his brother, but I didn't end up needing him. I retraced his steps in the direction he came from and went to every house down that road before I found the omega.
"I took Jimin with me, and it was then that Jin finally came. As one last feat, I was going to scare him by biting another omega's neck. I didn't think anything would happen!" he rushed, seeing Namjoon's grip tighten on the pliers. "I swear I didn't know it would form a bond with him. He was already mated, I didn't think I could undo that. I didn't want to undo that. I was just playing!"
"You admitted to murder, kidnapping, and plotted rape, but the bite was just you playing?" Namjoon shouted. "Look at the mess you've caused! Look at the pain and suffering that you created!"
"Yes," Lukas breathed. "And I'd do it all again if it meant Seokjin would finally be mine."
Namjoon growled, all the willpower he had used to hold himself back disappearing in a heartbeat. He grabbed Lukas's jaw once again, prying his mouth open and exposing his teeth. He shoved the pliers past his lips, the cold metal gripping onto Lukas's right canine and making the alpha flinch hard while he cried out. Namjoon pulled the tooth in one swift motion, bringing the pliers down and slamming the tooth into Lukas's neck.
The alpha screamed deafeningly loud, but Namjoon ignored it as he went to pull the second canine and repeat the action of stabbing it into the murderer's skin. He dropped the pliers to the floor, the tool landing with a harsh thud, and then Namjoon turned and walked towards the door.
With his hand on the knob, he looked over his shoulder, his eyes cold and void of sympathy, his voice dark and full of anger.
"Lukas Flint, you have been charged with pack infiltration, five counts of second degree murder, assault, stalking, infliction of bodily harm via drugs, and planned rape. You have admitted here today, on September 27, 20XX, guilty of all charges with alpha Choi Soobin as my witness. I hereby sentence you to death."