TAE POV:

Blinding, consuming panic and fear. When I step out of the art shop, rushing out because the mating bond had flared and been set ablaze, only to find an empty bench.

Empty. Vacant. Unoccupied by our baby mate who I had left there minutes ago.

I try to swallow past the thick feeling of guilt and consuming rage, when I realise after desperately scanning my surroundings that she hasn't wondered off. She's gone.

And Kookie...he looks devastated. Looking at me if he can't believe it, doesn't want to believe it.

I don't want to either.

Don't want to believe that me walking into a shop could've led to this. That me sitting her down to sit on a bench with a promise to be back soon would mean I had to return to an empty bench, the lack of my mate glaringly present and obvious.

And the heavy overwhelming realisation of how my actions have led to this pushes me to the very brink of the edge- teetering dangerously between remaining or shifting.

I can't stop spinning around, trying to see her, trying to assure myself that she's just popped into another shop but the evidence glares at me. There's no trace of her. The shameful tears of regret trickle down my cheeks and Kookie silently cries- shocked and stunned by how our lives could turn around so quickly. Be upturned so rapidly.

"(Y/N).... (Y/N)." Kookie keeps muttering, a broken crying plea for his only younger mate, eyes roving- constantly flickering from between red and brown; instincts warring with themselves, pained at having failed to protect. And me...it seems like the voice has been stolen from my lungs, the sounds snatched from my mouth and I can only desperately search silently with my eyes for her.

"Hyung he..." Kookie cries, voice wavering.

"Took her." I finish, voice tight and wavering and trembling, words coming out low and murderous and hateful and pained all in one. Because we've both reached the same conclusion. Because only one despicable, filthy thing could've done this.

I spin turning to grip Kookie firmly and looking at him intently. The buzzing, itching need beneath my skin growing more and more with each passing moment, with each unstable feeling. With each crashing wave of realisation that me, I did this.

But still I need to get Kookie into a more reasonable, focused mindset- one of the two of us need to be composed, and it can't be me; not with the way my footing is becoming unstable and I can feel those instincts pushing at that thin veil which would tear and cause me to shift.

"Baby I need you to focus. Kookie listen to me darling." I say, voice tinging on slightly hysterical, trying to get his attention.

But he looks like if he's lost his world, and the other looks not too far off from the same predicament.

I pat his cheeks.

"Kookie...Kookie look at me. Listen baby. Listen." I say, hating the roughness to my voice, the firmness I need to instil in it to get him to focus.

He looks at me, shattered and distraught, and I fight the urge to just wrap him tight and never let go.

But he needs to listen.

He needs to be strong and have a level-headed mind.

"Call Joon hyung. Let him know." I say, feeling the haziness begin to seep into my mind, enveloping it in a foggy daze.

His fingers shake as he gets his phone out.

Presses it to his ear as I hold onto him, trying to hold on- both literally and as a way to combat the urge that grows higher and higher.

I hear the moment the phone connects, know that Kookie will manage, that the determination to find our mate grows stronger and stronger in his eyes and that he'll be fine. He'll get the message across.

The struggle in holding back is getting stronger and I find myself weakening to the urge.

Kookie goes to grip my hand tightly, eyes understanding and knowing through the glossy sheen to his eyes.

"I've got this hyung. Shift." He whispers to me.

I take those words as reassurance, as a promise.

And nod, wincing when the motion sends pain splitting through me.

"Do it hyung. I won't let you down, I won't let (Y/N) down either. Promise." he whispers, pressing the briefest kiss to my forehead.

And I take it as permission, to seek that relief. And to give in to those instinctual needs. 

And shift.

JOON POV:

"Kook-ah, what is it? What's happened?" I ask, voice tight with nervousness and heightened instincts, threatening to rage and sweep over me and consume me.

"Hyung he...he took her." he confesses in a broken, upset voice.

I feel ice seep through my veins, far colder than any biting wind or harsh element. Feel my ability threaten to spike and the nature around me to wilt and droop at the negative emotions that bubble out.

"Kook-ah where's Tae?" I ask, throat feeling as if it'll close up.

"Shifted. It was too much." He says.

And whilst I knew that the news could cause an emotional imbalance that caused him to lose control, it still sends a bolt of fear through me at the news.

"Hyung...can you tell Jin hyung and Yoongi hyung? I can't. I can't tell them. I can't just stand here; I need to find her. I need to go look for her." he says, voice rushed and frantic.

And I wish I could be there; wish I could reassure him. Hold him whilst it seems like our world is shredding apart.

"I will. Kook-ah be careful, whatever you do, I beg you...be careful." I whisper, feeling vulnerable knowing that our baby mate has been taken, that our other baby is about to go looking for her.

"I'll be there as quick as I can." I murmur, hearing his slightly unsteady breathing.

It makes my heart squeeze in pain. Because Kookie's habit of breathing only made reappearances when he was pushed to an extremely vulnerable, raw state. That was what pushed him into the habits of human, of being mortal- fragile. And right now that indicated that Kookie was feeling that again. 

And no-one was there to help him through it.

"Stay safe Kook-ah." I say, hearing it murmured back before the phone call ends.

And breathe, trying to calm the way the wind has become chillier around me, sharp and unforgiving. 

I turn to Hobi, see his tight jaw, and set expression- rage seeping into his warm friendly expression and replacing it with a hardened look. A look of someone who doesn't forgive.

Who seems in this particular moment unforgiving and harsh and cold. Who will tear apart the barriers between worlds if he has to, to get her back. Who will push aside ever law, every restriction, every hindrance to get to her as quick as he can.

"Need to call Jin hyung." I manage to say, hating how listless and drained my voice seems. How void of life it seems when inside there's a raging, shrieking tempest.

He nods.

"I'll do it Joon-ah." He says softly, a crack in the icy mask as he takes the phone from my fumbling hands, gently squeezing it with his other hand as he takes it, bringing the phone to his ear.

"Jin hyung...Chul's got her. Chul got her and we couldn't do anything to stop it." He says, voice wavering and shaky, bond an upheaval of a storm, the crashing uncontrollable motion of waves, the wind roaring and battering, the heat bubbling and fiery and consuming. The bond feels taut, pulled, and strained tight, the threads bounding us all together seeming on the verge of shattering and snapping. It's the only way of making sure everything is fine, everyone is still connected.

And I have to fight the bile in my throat when all of a sudden, one of the eight threads snap.

JIN POV:

"Yoongi....we need to go. Now." I say tightly, gripping at the phone as if it's the lifeline keeping me stable, keeping me composed and only a hairbreadth away from shattering and in my agony consuming worlds in it.

But Yoongi is already tugging me by the hand, the pressure firm and unrelenting and slightly harsh but it's what I need. What we both need, that tight physical reassurance that the two of us are there, that we won't let things slip away from us so easily.

"Hyung he..." Yoongi begins, but tails off seeming unable to finish his sentence.

Any shopping we had separated to do whilst the maknaes were in the art shop are long since forgotten. Something had felt uneasy, slightly off when I woke up so when they'd proposed the outing, I'd gone along- and Yoongi, seemingly feeling the same way, tagged along too.

But never had I envisioned this.

Never this situation or scenario.

And I curse myself for my lack of foresight, for no vision happening when we'd needed it.

And for my ability for not having failed just me, but my youngest mate too.

And then I stumble when all of a sudden Yoongi's rushing figure from the back disappears and the scene changes.

Morphing into a side alley, with (Y/N) pinned to the wall, eyes glazed and vacant and a hand digging into her throat, disgust in the voice that comments on the marks, on our marks and the hate that emanates off him.

"Maybe I'll give your drained carcass as a gift to Yoongi on our reuniting." He hisses, voice sick and alight with sadistic pleasure.

I watch frozen, unable to move forward as I see her eyes flutter, hear the pained whimper that slips out her lips when he digs his fingers into her throat, closing in around them.

And just as quickly get tugged out of the vision, as if my ability senses that there's no time.

Yoongi's paused to look at me but whatever he reads on my face makes him hurry as he moves forward, yanking me along with him, breaking into a run with me, feet slapping against the pavement- the sound of it echoing in our ears.

"Yoongi hurry." I say, approaching closer and closer to the art shop when suddenly he stops, nearly sending me crashing into him. He turns.

"This way." He states assuredly, tugging me down the side street and then suddenly veering right into a side alley- the brickwork and pavement familiar, one I'd just seen minutes ago.

"This is it." I breathe.

We take careful deliberate steps forward, trying not to attract unwanted attention as we move in, carefully moving in to catch a glimpse of a horrifying sight.

One that mirrors what I'd just seen in my vision.

I hear Yoongi suck in a small breath, stiffening and even from the back notice when his posture changes, when it becomes coiled up and murderous and disgusted and ready to attack.

I just hope we arrived in time, but given the silence save for the venomous hiss of Chul's words- I wonder if we're too late.

GYEOM POV:

Something's wrong. I can feel it in the bond. Strong and petrifying and just wrong. Wrong in the way that I can't seem to still for a single moment after (Y/N) left the apartment to return to her nest, in the way that I find myself glancing at the door, as if she'll reappear and call the thing off.

But she doesn't.

She left with a murmur that she'll let me know the decided date, that she loves me as she gave me a kiss and one of the tightest, longest hugs I've ever had, murmuring a soft thanks for agreeing, a thanks for sticking through with her with this.

But I've grown antsy when breakfast ends, too pent-up to eat anything and when I bolt upwards, rushing to the door- the others don't stop me, merely following and unquestioning- despite the odd hour, a little bit close to noon.

"Where are we going?" Mark hyung asks, easily keeping pace with my rushed movements as I get into the car.

I tap the steering wheel, shrugging but the gesture is too tense. Too wound up.

"Just feel off." I murmur.

And waste no time in starting the car to get closer and closer to the city centre, where shops begin to come into view, where the feeling of restlessness grows and I find myself parking hastily near a line of shops. But my eyes aren't on them, I rush towards a side street, feeling an overwhelming compulsion to go in further, tugged towards a small side-alley empty.

There's no-one here.

But even so I take my time slowly to go through it, trying to see what is that's causing my restlessness. The others haven't followed yet, probably giving me the space to go through it on my own.

And I turn to repeatedly scan the surroundings, finding nothing that could explain the panicky, tight feeling in my chest.

I sigh.

Maybe the plan was just getting to me.

Maybe I'd feel like this until it was over, until I knew we'd actually be going through with it.

Maybe I was just getting wound-up for no reason.

And after trying to sort out my scrabbled mind, slowly turn the corner to leave- exiting through a small side entrance from another hidden nook.

Maybe this worry was just our blood bond flaring up.

I couldn't wait until the plan was done. Until Chul was gone. Because with him, this restless anxiety would leave too.

And I couldn't wait for that.

(OH MY GOD!! SO MANY POVS. SO MANY SNIPPETS. AND WHERE ARE THEY?? WHO ON EARTH TOLD THEM LEAVE (Y/N) ALONE AND LET HER GET TAKEN...AGAIN!! AND WHAT IS HAPPENING?! IT FEELS LIKE THE COVEN IS TEARING APART AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S ANY PLACE ON EARTH FOR ME TO HIDE THAT'S SAFE FROM YOU ALL FROM HUNTING ME DOWN! AHHHH! I'M SO STRESSED AND EMOTIONALLY INVESTED AT THE MOMENT, I'M FEELING PAIN AND WORRY WRITING THIS COS THIS COULD GO ANYWHERE!! AND IT HURTS SEEING YOU ALL HURT SO I AM REALLY AND VERY TRULY SORRY FOR THAT!! LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS!! IF THE BOYS AREN'T GONNA DO ANYTHING, I'M SHATTERING THE FOURTH WALL AND HEADING IN MYSELF. STAY SAFE LOVES!)

When we get dealt a bad hand of cards, when we suffer, hurt and grieve and lose- remember that we can only try and endure, try and be strong. And try to be each other's strengths. Loss is inevitable in the cycle of life and that doesn't mean we have to like it or adapt to it. But only try and be strong.

Don't kill me if there's such a loss. 😫🥺

Borahae! 💜💜💜

PurpleQueenie <3