(Y/N) POV:

"...you're blonde."

"I know!"

"You're blonde."

"Isn't it great?"

"You're blonde."

"I think the colour suits me-I'd personally say a bit more honey blonde but..."

"And your curls... they're gone."

"They'll come back, the treatment isn't permanent."

"Tae your curls!"

I can't look away from him, can't look away from the starkly different tiger that stands in front of me, fingers carding through straight, long strands of honey blonde hair, brushing the long mullet and bangs from his eyes, dark feline eyes bright with excitement. Can't look away from the fact that his ears and tail aren't orange and black stripes but a golden hue to his fur, that perfectly matches his hair.

There's something about the colour that changes him so drastically and not at the same time. He's still tiger, he's still my tiger, my Taehyung... but something about the honey blonde straight hair does something to my insides, twists my stomach and upturns it into a mass of butterflies. Mourning the loss of messy black curls all the whilst I can't take my eyes off the honey blonde even if I tried. There's something decidedly more... predator in this shade on his hair and fur, something disarmingly beautiful about the bright shade and yet it makes the lines and angles of his face seem sharper, angular, the feline intensity of his eyes more prominent.

"Don't you like it?" fingers carding through the messy strands, beanie cast aside as he looks at me, eyes soft and dark, watching and waiting. The slightest wilted droop to a gold and black striped tail and it snaps me out of my stupor, out of my addled brain that's fixated on the way his hair makes his skin glow, the way it makes the golden warmth of his skin radiant-

"I love it are you kidding me? Wow... it's... fuck... wow." Words stuck in my throat, mouth dry, eyes skimming over him over and over, almost feverishly as if blinking will shatter the golden glow around him and the blonde will vanish. Eyes drinking in the way his smile curls upwards, tail perking upright and the saccharine sweetness of strawberries radiating off him. His own gaze sparking with a different sort of interest when he catches the betraying tell to my own scent, cheeks flushing when his voice dips lower. Honeyed rich baritone.

"Oh? Does the blonde turn you on cub?"

"I..."

Skin feeling flushed, warmed, prickling pinpricks of heat that skim across my limbs, an involuntary shiver that dances across the back of my spine when he takes a step forward, then another, the movement making him appear larger, looming imposing height that crowds closer to me, that swarms me with his scent and him.

"I wanted to show you first and suddenly I'm really, really glad that I did." he murmurs, voice low, the slow purposeful steps he takes forward makes me feel cornered, hunted even in the open room, even despite the space around me being ample opportunity to twist and run-some part of my biology itching with the flight-or-flight urge that begins thrumming incessantly through my veins. A faint trembling jitter to my legs that tries to push me into motion, that recognises the pure predator in Tae's veins, in the ambling hunter's gait of a man, of a tiger who knows he's got time to toy with his prey, with his hunt.

"No-one else has seen?"

Suddenly I'm not sure if this is real or a fever dream, a heat induced delirium from all the blanketed nests and the furnace that Joon's body is even with the window open at night. I don't know whether I've conjured the blonde tiger in front of me, feet cemented where I stand and I can't wrench my eyes away, can't move the slightest bit as he grows closer to me, fingers restless with the need to reach out and confirm, to feel the blonde hair under my touch. Skin feeling flush and pulled tight around my bones, a dizzying rush of pheromones that makes my skin pulse as he's finally...finally close enough, body crowding my space, demanding the very air in my lungs, the curl of his lips beckoning, tilted head appraising and the heat of his own body brushing to entangle against my own.

"Well Jin hyung saw some of it from underneath the beanie, he tried to steal my hat to check but I'm too quick for him." pride and amusement both laced into his words, softening the deep timbre of his voice but this close... this close he'd barely need to move even a step forward for me to feel the timbre of his voice rumble and soak into skin, to press to me and feel the cadence of the low rumble directly against me.

"No-one's... seen." I echo faintly, voice sounding distant, strained and trembling to my own ears but it makes the curl of his mouth deepen into a smirk, the glinting flash of fangs peeking past his lips.

"Can't I surprise you first? Don't want to be like Minnie and do a grand reveal before I've tested out the response... although..." his voice dips lower, his scent thickens with a sweetening intensity that makes my thighs clench together, involuntary pressing together at the way his laugh, low and husky, ripples in the air, brushes against one flickering ear. The tremble in my legs feeling all the more pronounced, tingles making them jolt, the undeniable urge to run yet knowing the failed inevitability of not being able to get far sinking deeper and deeper. A pressure low in my gut when his eyes spark, tail swaying slow behind him.

"Although?" my voice softer, quieter. Control and delirium both dangling on the precipice of that one word.

"Although if it makes you smell like this... if it makes your scent make me want to do unspeakable things to you then maybe it's not bad."

"Not bad?" I echo, voice pitched, hand reaching out to brush against the silken material of his shirt, liquid under my touch, the material rippling and slipping out of my loose hold as my hand brushes upwards. Fingers skimming over buttons, grazing against the golden warmth of skin where the undone buttons show an expanse of skin, fingers trailing from his chest to loosely loop through the delicate golden chains settled against his sternum.

"You're gorgeous." I enthuse, fingers tugging at the chains, tugging him closer. There's barely any strength in the tug but his body tilts forward readily, eagerly to the touch, nose nudging against mine yet holding himself back. Testing my restraints rather than exercising any of his own.

"I am? Even though my curls are gone?"

"You're beautiful." Words rushing past my lips, my other hand coming to finally... finally brush my fingers across the strands of hair that obscure the heavy dark weight of his eyes, trained intently onto my movement, head tilting to the touch.

Some tiny part of me had been minutely, utterly afraid, but the honey blonde strands of hair underneath my fingertips are still silken soft, liquid as they streak through my fingers, brushing back the bangs from his face to be confronted with the full weight of intense dark brown eyes. By pushing his hair away from his face, the sharp definition of his face isn't hidden nor softened by curls or hair brushing against the side of his face. All angular and predator, the intensity of the tiger DNA never seeming more prominent than they do now.

Fingers sinking into his hair, curling around his nape, feeling the strands brush against the back of his neck, hair long and messy and tousled because of his effort to hide the blonde.

Seeing it in all its rich glowing vibrancy, feeling it under my touch, having him so close like this, my skin heats, that feverish delirium seeming to only be amplified by his closeness, by the slow brush of his hand, large and sprawling, against the side of my thigh upwards to curl loose against my hip.

It's still not him who moves first, toying with the slither of distance between us until my fingers curl tighter against his nape and tug more firmly at the chains glittering at his chest, tugging him closer until a space can't exist, mouth searching his out and when Tae's hands move to wrap around me, to tug me closer in a solid firm movement, finally... finally that delirium implodes. He's real. He's so, so real. Fingers pressing hard against his nape, against the long strands of hair, lips slotting to mine easily, a soft quiet groaned rumble of appreciation muffled against the seam of my mouth, a brief kiss before he draws back slightly. Close enough that each word sends his mouth ghosting along mine in the faintest of touches.

"I'm glad you like it cub."

"Are you insane? You'll make me feral one day Kim Taehyung."

And the low rasp of his laugh is laced with promise drenched with lust and amusement, lips chasing mine with a fervent urgency that claws its trails through my veins, leaves its gashes into skin, that makes me clutch at him all the more tighter, a soft keening breath stolen by the way his hands tighten. Their grip possessive and hard, large sprawling weighted hold that keep me anchored to him, keep me lost in the saccharine berry I can taste on my lips, his fangs and teeth nipping at my bottom lip, tugging at the soft flesh, a harsh bite that has my mouth parting for him, moan muffled against the parted seam of his lips. Tongue possessive and eager, delving into the crevice of my mouth, laying claim to every inch of it, chasing my own, muffled pleasure swallowed by the eager press of our lips chasing each other, fingers tugging at the chains, hearing a hissed growl rumble at the back of his throat. A hungering, predatory sound that makes pleasure jolt in my veins, that makes my head tilt unconsciously, deepening the kiss, the urge to bare my throat inviting the possessive hunger of his tongue, fingers flexing and tightening at my back, hand drifting lower to curve over my backside, the brush of his thumb toying at the base of my tail.

The pure need in the sound that spills from my lips is rewarded by a throaty groan, body jolting forward, legs trembling with the rush of arousal and endorphins that floods my system, drenches my scent, makes my legs press together hard.

That urge to bolt overwhelmed by the urge to present my throat, the pulse of my glands to the hungry press of his lips that refuse to spare a breath, fingers skimming from his nape to sink tighter into his hair. Whimpered disbelief as my eyes flutter open, dazed by the fact, by the unchangeable reality that Taehyung is blonde.

Heated presses of his lips dragging from my mouth only to lathe open-mouthed kisses against my jaw to my ear, to map out a line down my throat, the scraping pressure of teeth and fangs inching closer and closer to my hammering pulse, to the presented, bared vulnerability of my glands..

Scent betraying just how turned on he makes me, just how much the blonde affects me, trembling jitters making my legs feel as if they'll crumble, fingers curling harsh, nails against his scalp. A low rough sound saturated with arousal, a growl that reverberates against my skin, a snarl of fangs and laboured breaths, of the rasping bite of his words as his fingers press hard, mouth grazing against skin.

"Maybe then... maybe then you'll realise how much on the brink you leave me cub. How feral you make me, how I could sink my fangs into every inch of your skin and still want to do it all over again."

The primitive carnal desires that spill from his lips makes my hips buck involuntarily, makes his hands tug me forward only to rut his hips back against me. Head buzzing with lust as if somehow Tae unwinds years to make me feel like this is my first biological reaction to someone's pheromones, as if this is the first time all over again, veins electric with it.

"Fuck-" the curse wrenched from my throat, legs near buckling when his fangs drag over the mate bite on my throat, mouth slotting over Joon's claim with the same feverish hunger that'd clawed through my wolf's veins, the dizzying rush of realising this is an apex predator, much larger shifted, the pleasured rush of knowing he could full well carry out the intent of his words and I'd want it all again too.

"Who knew turning blonde would be all that's needed to have your scent spilling for me cub?"

"What did you-" I shudder out, lips and teeth grazing lower, brushing against my scent gland with the slow flick of his tongue.

Clutching at him tighter.

"What did you think was going to happen... when it's you?"

A low contented rumble echoes at the back of his throat, presses to skin.

"Keep talking and maybe my ego will get bigger than my-"

"Taehyung!"

A low bubble of laughter pressed to skin, fingers skimming up to delve under my shirt to rake his fingers slow up the line of my spine. Hot scorching touch to skin.

"So easy to rile cub."

But before I can tug him back into me, before I can open my mouth to ask for something, for anything, fingers refusing to leave their hold on the silky hair entangled around them, an amused voice filters out from further down the hallway.

Makes my skin burn, heated and caught out.

"I can smell you both down the hallway. And you both know if I can smell it then it's strong." The voice slowly approaching, the quiet rustle of feathers making my ears flicker and twitch, so sensitive and in overdrive, senses so sharply attuned to everything, keyed up by the tiger in my hold.

And then a low heavy murmur of Tae's name, the intensity in Jin's eyes makes my stomach pool with heat even as the gaze is directed at Tae. Feeling the offset of just how intense and heavy the silent appraisal in Jin's eyes can be.

A crooked grin curving his mouth when he finally speaks.

"Wanted to show (Y/N) first? Sounds like someone wanted to outshine a certain pink fox."

The headiness of his scent lightens a fraction, softens enough that every breath doesn't make my lungs tremble with need.

"Maybe."

Yes.

"You did it because you turned Minnie pink?"

"That wasn't meant to make you focus on the pink, it was meant to make you focus on your only orange!"

Jin's laugh is fond and teasing, the unspoken contemplation in his eyes dangerous. The lazy flutter of his wings somehow more dangerous than the curling sway of a tail before a predator pounces.

Jin is more dangerous and predator than the others. And it's in not having it wired into his DNA, into his biology that makes him even more so. Eyes sharp and slowly trailing over to me, grin turning indulgent. Sly.

"He's got a point chickie. I think Tae should be the centre of our attention. Don't you think?"

Tae chuffs. Tail curling and swaying.

But I notice the predator stepping into a cleverly laid trap, that gleam in Jin's eyes at Tae's eager nod.

And the predator... becomes the prey.

[......]

The fingers entangled in my hair give a firm tug, drawing me back and off, throat constricting around nothing as I swallow down air, lips swollen and slick, breaths laboured as my throat arches back, a whimpered moan tumbling past my lips.

"No... hyung please." Words plaintive, begging, laced with rough, rough need that makes my skin burn, that makes my scent pool stronger.

"Why not cub? You're in the centre of both our attention didn't you? Look at her, (Y/N) can't wait to get her mouth on you again." Something almost cruelly thrilled about holding Tae's pleasure in the loosely fisted hold that grasps at my hair, keeps my throat arched for the slow press of his lips trailing across my shoulder.

There's something dizzying about knowing our pheromones, Tae's heady sweetness, doesn't affect Jin with the same intensity that it makes my head swim with it. It doesn't make him desperate or addicted to the taste of it on my tongue and lips, doesn't make him lose any other thought than the single minded need to feel him fill my mouth, rock himself deeper into my throat again.

The fingers in my hair tighten, taunting both of us as he relinquishes his grip slightly, letting my head dip closer, lips barely closing around his tip, the taste of him on my tongue, mouth about to dip lower when those same fingers tighten. Draw me back off. A whined plea spilling from fang-bitten swollen lips, reddened with the pressure of teeth and fangs sinking hard into them, dark hazed eyes peering down at me between his legs and then past me. As if pleading will only suffice and appease the swan behind me, knowing that the control lies in the cradled appraising grip of fingers in my hair and the grin pressed to my nape, to the brief sting of teeth that makes my body shudder, head tilting back, arched to the touch. Pleasurable jolts dancing down my spine.

"Hyung you're being mean."

"Cub likes it when I'm mean. Wouldn't be smelling so sweet otherwise."

You're a dangerous man Jin.

Eyes fluttering at the press of nails brushing against my scalp, lips against my ear, quirking when it twitches with sensitivity, at the soft nip that makes the nerves in them feel as if they spark to life.

Dangerous.

Curved mouth trailing to brush against the shell of my ear, teeth nibbling gently, lightly, breath hot against my skin and lips and tongue against my lobe.

Feverish.

That's how he makes me feel.

If the sight of Tae blonde and utterly devastating hadn't betrayed my scent in every way possible, then seeing strands of his hair messily cling to the side of his face, to his temples, to see it fall back as his throat arches, Adam's apple bobbing harshly, then this... this is ruination.

"You look like you could be ruined just like this sweetheart. I haven't even touched you and you're so desperate. So pretty." The praise laced with rough wanton lust.

"Want to... want to make Tae feel good." His pleasure rather than my own. The words echoed with a rough echoed whine, plaintive and wanting, fingers brushing against my jaw, reaching to draw me closer. Hazed feline eyes entreating me to do just that.

"You are sweetheart-look at him." the words sweetly coax, laced with a deep low depth to it that brushes against my skin, lips dipping lower, brushing oh so softly against my skin before Jin's touch withdraws, the only tether of connection the loose brush of fingers entangled in my hair, a nudge as I tilt closer, mouth parting eagerly to take the hard arousal deeper past lax lips. Jin's fingers slowly loosen, slipping away but only to rest curled against my nape. And somehow the lightness of the touch, the reminder of the press of fingers against the vulnerable slither of skin, the just about pressure of his hand against the mating bite there is more dangerous, more sharp, more weighted.

That somehow... somehow he doesn't have to lift a finger to truly touch to have every nerve cell buzzing with that electric hum of heady pleasure and the fog of scents all clustering close, crowding to one another.

And he hasn't even touched Tae yet it's Jin who has him aching, wanting, needing more. The slow circular brush of a fingertip against the edge of the bite, spine curving, a taut bowed tension settling before he gives a small murmur. Quiet. Yet impossible to have gone unheard.

"Go on sweetheart give our cub what he wants."

And the scent of vanilla and berries brand themselves into my skin when Tae spills down my throat with a hoarse cry, skin flushed with exertion, messy blonde strands damp with the sweat that beads at his temples, that slowly etches itself on skin, clings to a pleasure-hazed glow tiger.

"Now cub... what else should I do to remind you just how much you've taken over our attention?"

[......]

Deep rumbling chuffs blend seamlessly, one chuff melting into another. One rumble sinking heavily into the next as Tae's head sets on its pillow, tilting eagerly to the brush of fingers carding through his hair, nails gently scratching and massaging at his scalp.

Boneless, putty under Jin's touch, eyes fluttering lazily, the brush of lashes against skin soft and light, his gaze both enamoured and hazed both, the steady sweetened thickened trails of scent clinging to every fibre, every inch of skin, clothes and into the couch.

"Sweetest aren't you cub?"

Chuuuuuuuuuuuuff. Head tilting eagerly into his touch, fingers grasping Jin's to guide his wrist closer, to nuzzle against the skin of his wrist in a soft scent, rumble pressed to skin before he arches slightly. A cat, through and through, tilting eagerly for more petting and grooming, fingers skimming through soft, soft blonde hair.

"You're-cub's the sweetest." Head tilting, bleary blinks all hazed and fogged with pheromones as his eyes find mine, swallowing the words down, a wry grin quirking at Jin's lips, curved with amusement. Fingers skimming slowly.

"I'm not the sweetest?"

"Hyung's sneaky."

"Got to keep you on your toes don't I? All my predator mates?"

That are putty under Jin.

Seamlessly, effortlessly.

Biology unaffected by the strong weighted predator DNA in the pack, biology and yet it's entirely Jin who can effortlessly remain in control even as the predators own biologies drive them to a brink.

And there's a different, effortless quiet grounding calm in the motion of Jin's fingers, in the brush of his hand through Tae's hair, wings fluttering with quiet contentment, eyes soft and affectionate as he scratches lightly at the base of striped ears, watching Tae's eyes flutter, a low rumbled groan of appreciation as he all but melts further under his touch.

"Out sneaking us all?" Tae mumbles, tail swishing softly, the tip of it brushing against my side, swishing quicker when my finger pokes at it lightly.

"Gotta remember that preys can be sneakier than you give credit for." I lilt.

Feel droopy eyes and sharper, attentive ones flit over to me, laced with curiosity and a glinting sharpness that makes my lips quirk.

"I wouldn't dear underestimate my preys." Jin replies, grin just as sharp.

The words are muffled, blurred around the edges with the grogginess in Tae's voice as he speaks, face burrowed into Jin's lap.

"Not for a second."

------------------------

The choked strangled sound Jimin makes is what makes everything all worth it. That sound alone gratifying and fulfilling and so satisfying that Tae's scent bursts with a rich sweetness, tail curling, all slow swishes as he grins. Wide and boxy.

"Like what you see?"

"When did you-holy fuck... you're blonde." The loud exclamation drawing multiple eyes to turn quick in his direction.

Preening tiger as he steps past the doorway, still rumpled from his nap but eyes turning quickly awake as he takes in the fact that everyone else has already come back home.

"Careful Jimin-ah, you'll swallow flies." Tae lilts, brushing messy hair from his eyes, smile lopsided and grinning at the slack-jawed expression on his face, Jin's hand at the low of Tae's back as he ushers him in further. Wings fluttering.

"I don't think anyone can help it cub-just look too pretty."

Eyes catching the look of surprise in Yoongi's eyes, lips slightly parted and then the flush of pink high on his cheeks as he clamps them shut, citrusy sweet scent betraying just how much he's appreciating the sight in front of him. The loose sprawl of his body suddenly not as relaxed as it had been mere moments prior, eyes scanning the straight messy strands of blonde hair.

"Your curls-"

"Gone! They'll be back, not a permanent change but I think long hair might suit me."

"Fuck yes." Hobi enthuses at the same time as Kook nods eagerly, eyes sparked wide with delight, ears perked with surprise and now upright with attention. Shiny eyes scanning him over.

"Hyung you should've taken me too!"

"What? I can barely handle-" Joon croaks, voice slightly rough, cracking as he stares intensely at the curling golden tail, fingers absently reaching when they poke at him, grin wide and boxy. Immensely pleased.

"Can barely handle me alpha?"

A ripple of a bitten growl, half-entangled with a whine, hand dragged despairingly over his face, eyes clenched shut as he swallows tightly. The hard line of his jaw more pronounced.

Poor pup.

"You went blonde? When? Why?" Jimin circles back.

"Fancied a change... new season, new me and all that~" brushing over one of the biggest motivating reasons entirely, grin far too fangy and mischievous as he shuffles forward, a soft chuffed laugh when he gets yanked forward briskly by a black curling swaying tail wrapping tightly around his wrist.

Body jerked forward and leaning closer still towards the upright panther.

"Hi hyung-where did you run off to?" voice lilted, still laced with a bite of the rasp that's settled into the depth of his voice, sleep lacing it with a rumble I can feel pressed to me even as I sink into the couch, lips quirking.

I'm not the only one it leaves stunned.

Though that had been the intention.

Leave jaws dropping.

"The helpline-" voice slightly strangled, throat bobbing, breath uneven as Yoongi's eyes rake over Tae's hair, hand reaching out to card through the silky gold and pushing it back only makes the sharp features of his face all the more pronounced.

I know the strangled groan is at the sight of feline eyes sharp and prominent, face unobstructed by curls, blonde hair pushed away from his forehead, haphazard and messy but... holy fuck.

Having already seen it wasn't enough to stop taking me off guard with it.

"Kit you're-"

"Stunning." Hobi finishes, a rumble laced into the word, the praise making the scent of berries sweeten.

But his scent isn't the only prominent one and when Kook sinks down onto the sofa beside me, weight sinking down and lips against my ear, my skin tingles with shivers.

"I want him to breed me. I mean I always wanted him to but right now. I would let him breed me right now." the words hushed, unheard because of how quietly he murmurs it, lips skimming against skin, but it wrangles a choked sound past my lips. His own quirking into a playful lilt against my throat. A playful nibble as he draws back slightly, hand resting on my thigh.

I can see his grin from my peripheral.

"Don't act like you didn't think it too. In fact how did you not pin him in bed?"

My voice sounds uneven to my own ears, the betraying tells in it picked apart easily by the grinning bun beside me.

"....oh. Jin hyung got to you both did he?"

My thighs clench together, eyes flitting to the way Tae eagerly crowds close to Yoongi, the way Jimin's eyes are razor sharp and glued to him, eyes raking over the lean line of his form curving closer, nearer to Yoongi. His own body tilting closer.

The brush of his nose skimming light against the column of my throat makes the sparks under my skin fizz. Nose catching the lingering, faded revealing tells. Biology outing me.

"Guess I missed the fun." Words soft and light, far too carefully quiet to let the others hear, the sprawling press of his hand feeling heavier all of a sudden.

"You didn't miss the blonde-I can't..."

"Stop looking." He agrees, the cottony scent of his own pheromones strong, gaze riveted.

But given just how readily Kook's biology gets amped up, it's a wonder how he hasn't pinned Tae down to sink fingers into the same blonde hair I've run my fingers through, between biting kisses and fangs sinking heavy into my lips, mussed hair further ruined between my grip.

"No one said you had to. Although-"

My eyes tilt back, wrenched from a golden tiger to a grinning bun.

The sight seeming more contrasting than ever, the gold to the dark brown, the long straight hair to the wavy jaw length.

But both make my stomach pool with heat and heart skip a beat.

It'll always be like this.

My eyes flutter in resignation, lips curling up into a smile at the mischief in his voice. The warm words murmured soft as his nose nudges against mine.

"Now we can make Tae hyungie's hair all pretty too. How hot do you think he'll look with a ponytail?"

The strangled sound slips past my lips.

"Stop."

"I don't think anything can stop hyung."

--------------------------

"We've been backed up with a large order and a delivery shipment coming in for ingredients." Jin mentions over dinner, wings tucked against his back but even so they rustle. Slightly bothered by it.

"Jimin-ah's going to be out of reach, he's doing some recon." My eyes flit over to him, see the way his ears lazily flicker, lips curling briefly at the corners at the renewed interest evident in the pheromones that just turn a slightly bit... stronger. Knowing all too well how much his last undercover outfit had been a turn on.

"Whilst Joonie hyung's interrogating those scorpions-damn it I hate missing his interrogations." A genuine dismay in his voice, his own scent sharpened with interest but the folded tips of his ears and the downwards pout makes me briefly falter.

How did Namjoon look interrogating?

And suddenly why did it feel incredibly unfair that I'd had to wonder it in the first place?

"You know they're recorded right?" but not for anyone. Just Jimin to relish in.

"It's not the same as seeing you get all hot and angry."

Soft cotton turned sharp, losing its softness as his pheromones briefly burn through the gentleness of his scent.

"I've got classes and I'll be back late." Hobi detracts, steering the sharp heat of the conversation, of tomorrow's schedules of all things.

"Hyung are you still heading to that anonymous helpline centre? They got a few call ins and tips no?" Kookie asks.

Seems like everyone's got plans.

Just a slight... slight disheartening... because I know it's all work. Just slightly... ever so slightly disheartening to know that tomorrow I'd be alone at home. Doing nothing.

And it was home... it was also isolating and confining when no-one else was there to fill the space and empty silence with anything but thoughts that occasionally drifted or spiralled.

Maybe I could just call-

"Guess that leaves you and me cub."

The wide fangy grin, thrilled and delighted makes my own lips quirk, the feeling of emptiness banished... forced away immediately, I feel the rumble of a chuff press briefly to my ear, flickering at the sound as he nips gently. Smiling against me.

"Sounds perfect." And it is.

"I'm sorry I wasn't expecting the order to overlap with the delivery-" Jin begins.

"Why are you apologising hyung? I have you and Kook-ah to thank that I get to capitalise on cub's time without sharing with a single one of you." something so giddy at the thought that it's in his voice, that it makes my own pulse quicken and scent soften. Utterly endeared.

"Wow... how romantic." Words dry and amused. Yoongi's eyes, sleepy narrow cat-slits... kitty blinks all slow and entertained at Tae's spin on it.

"It is! It's a private day for me and cub. That means she's all mine, mine~"

"Need to learn to share Taehyungie~" gentle tug to a striped ear, head tilting back to snap fangs playfully at the inside of Mimi's wrist.

"You're one to talk."

"Dunno what you mean."

"No?"

"Nope~"

"Liar."

"Can't prove that."

"Your scent does. Ever the monopoliser aren't you Jimin-ah? Too bad~ she's all mine."

"Don't worry Taehyungie-it'll do him good to learn." Joon hyung grins.

"Don't encourage him... then he won't share." Hobi hyung gripes.

"You're just slow hyung. Gotta stay quick on your feet if you want to keep up-" laughing, all scrunched and giggling when he jerks back quickly from the swiped hand trying to swat-tug at him, face bright with laughter.

"Care to say that again bun?" eyes alight with interest, gaze slightly darker, heavier as he takes in the potential weight of the taunting words.

"Gotta keep up hyungs. At this rate it's just (Y/N) who can~" a different flush of heat crawls up my spine at the way his eyes dance with mischief, flickering glints of heat and taunt entangled up.

At this rate it's only been me whose been through his ruts with him.

The reminder of the sheer intensity of it all threatens to betray me. The memory... countless memories of it in and out of heat-rut fever yet they're all laced with burning skin and scorching touches....

Glinting eyes snagging mine. Grin morphing into a playful smirk.

Fingers skimming against my leg and squeezing at my thigh.

The touch loose but the possessiveness felt in it all the same. Unspoken. But there.

What is spoken is the complaint, ragged and half-protesting-

"Well I asked. You didn't want to-"

"Who knows Tae hyungie? Maybe next time." a loose shrug to his shoulder.

Eyes pooled with mischief.

It's mischief I realise far too late directed at me, for me.

"Maybe (Y/N) could show you the ropes."

The hand at my thigh tightens.

---------------------------

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Tae I can't."

"Yes you can! We'll be back before anyone realises."

"Tae I can't... I'm not allowed-"

"Yes you are! I've dealt with it all!"

"....what?" Disbelief laced into my voice, startled, surprised and an indescribable feeling of welling up hope that surges up at his words, at the shining giddiness in his eyes that's only more and more infectious the longer I look at him, the longer I find myself eager and thrilled by the spark in his eyes, in the quick swaying swish of his tail and the enticing sweet berry of his scent.

"I've got it all dealt with! So all you need to do is let me take you out. There's so much we can do!"

"Really? Where are we going?"

"That's a surprise beautiful. Now you go and find something that covers your ears and tail. Doesn't have to cover your legs. Consider that optional. In fact my professional and personal advice would be to show 'em." Voice nonchalant but words stirring a thrilling sense of excitement, body buzzing with it. A light bubble of laughter that wells up at the lopsided grin tugging at his lips, boxy and fangy as he beams, There's something only briefly disorienting to look at his grin and realise no riotous curls brush against his cheekbones and temples, that fall forward haphazard. There's a sense of butterflies fluttering wildly in my stomach when I see the intensity of his eyes unhindered and the combined force of his grin and lazily appraising stare makes my pulse quicken too. His eyes flit briefly to my throat, to my pulse, as if my heartbeat is betraying and spilling every secret to him, laying me bare.

"Either you're turned on or you're afraid~ why's your heart racing cub?"

"It's not." I bluff.

His grin widens. The boxy mischief morphing into a lazy smirk, fangs glinting.

"No?"

"No." body twisting to move away, to distance myself from the grinning tiger crowding my doorway, feeling his eyes track the quick motion of my movements, feel the smirk deepen even without turning, intense heated stare trained at my back. My nape prickles with it.

"Well now it quickened again." an appraising nonchalance in his voice. My ears flicker, twitch, heightened sensitivity, as he takes one step forward.

"I'm just excited."

Though that isn't a lie. Far from. The thought of leaving and going out, of somewhere unknown, somewhere Tae's got planned, somewhere... anywhere beyond four walls makes my skin buzz with adrenaline, makes my blood race, makes my heart thrum wildly.

And there's a softer tinge to his voice.

"I am too. I'm so excited that I can't even wait the time it'll take us to get into disguise." he announces, a few more steps taken inwards, my head turning towards him in surprise.

The mischief hasn't vanished from his eyes but it lingers there. Stays. Reminds me of its presence, reminds me that his ears, perked stiffly and upright, are sharply attuned and every betraying heartbeat is tracked, heard, focused on.

"What disguise?"

"Well my beautiful cub, as much as mate's rights entitle me to spending every moment committed to admiring how lucky I am to have you, I don't share the sentiment of allowing any old riff-raff or passerby to do the same. So disguises! And because I think I could totally get away with a fake beard or something-"

"What? No way!" I laugh.

"What? You wouldn't love me in a beard?"

"Not those ridiculous ones I know you're going to try! Besides my mate rights entitle me to admiring how beautiful my tiger is without obscuring the sight in front of me."

"Aren't you a charmer? All that sweet talking already has us in the palm of your hands cub."

"I don't know you seem awfully attached to my lap instead."

"It's comfy. Your biology really blessed me didn't it?"

"Blessed you? Shouldn't it be me-"

"I love your thighs. I think I have a thing for thighs. I have a thing for you. And your thighs. And just-"

"Tae stop!"

"Admiring you? Never! It's the same as asking for a tiger to be stripeless- just isn't physically possible in any shape or form. Too bad."

"You're a handful Kim Taehyung."

"And you're mine." words laced with a rumble of appreciation, eyes glinting as they skim over me slowly, hand reaching out to pluck at my pyjamas, fingers brushing against the slither of skin above my waistband. Hands squeezing appreciatively.

"And as much as I love you in pjs, they're not fitting the tiger requirements."

"What was that remind me?"

"Legs. Can't see 'em."

Eyes sparking when I draw my pyjamas off, letting the fabric pool around my ankles before stepping out of them, scent suddenly rich and strong, hands reaching out to-

The wounded betrayal in his eyes makes me bite back a grin as I swat his hands away.

"I was told to get ready to go out."

"I can behave!"

"Can you?"

"I behave!"

"...I don't trust myself to around you."

He puffs his chest out, grinning widely at me. Tail swaying and curling slowly, preeningly.

Both oranges just as bad as one another.

"Fine... fine. I'll let you dress. I'll stay away from my master disguises. Just no tail or ears peeking okay?" already hurrying out the room, voice carrying as he rushes to get ready.

"How're you going to hide that stripey?"

"Don't you worry~"

[......]

"You look--"

"Human? Cos I was aiming for that, but I mean take away the stripes and I guess anyone looks it huh-"

"You look amazing."

A flush of sweet berry scent.

"Stealing my words?" Though his lips curve up sweetly, the slightly flushed flustered look so rarely caught with how effortlessly smooth and charming he is, how easily he tends to have that effect on the rest of us. On me.

"But it's true. You look great." eyes drawn again and again, immediately snagged by the blonde, eyes failing again and again to wrench themselves away before a knowing quirk to his mouth reveals he's noticed, that it makes him pleased to no end to know the effect it has.s

The bold sharp contrast of the blonde, hair slicked back slightly from his face, features sharp and prominent makes the intensity of his eyes all the more visible. Nothing obscuring his vision but in turn nothing obscuring the intensity of the tiger stare pinning me, appraising in a slow rakish motion that spreads heat through my skin. Threatens to distract me but not quite-eyes rooted on the way the red jumper makes the slicked back gold hair pop all the more. Glowing tiger.

A faint pout on his lips.

Softening the tiger in him around the edges.

"Couldn't find a dress?"

"The weather forecast says it'll be cold!" I laugh.

"I could warm you up afterwards." The offer there, honeyed and drawled out, low rich timbre of his voice that I can feel sink into my skin even though he's nowhere close enough for his voice to press to me.

"I thought that would be a given. Mate rights and all I deserve a tiger to warm my sheets don't I?"

A chuffed grin.

Eyes lingering at my hips, skimming lower.

Not really disappointed with the way his gaze lingers over my thighs.

Feigning dismay that there's no dress.

But nowhere near disappointed if the quick skimming drag of his hands over the low of my back, dragging down to palm at the back of my thighs, a firmer tug to press his body close to mine. Fingers resting against the knitted fabric, brushing against the slither of skin at the jumper's V-neck.

Fingers tracing the delicate chain resting against skin.

"Of course you do. I'll enjoy dragging those jeans off you later." A low crooned promise as his fingers thread through the belt loops to tug me closer, words promising and weighted but the brush of his lips light before he nuzzles at my temple.

"It'll be hard."

"I like a challenge."

----------------------

"Are you sure this is okay?"

"Of course it is!" hand tugging at mine, drawing me beside him eagerly.

I'm sure he can feel the tell of my pulse racketing up as Tae walks with me, drawing me closer and closer, to the exit of the apartment.

There's something so wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong about willingly knowing that I'm leaving the apartment, in knowing that I'm going outside with Tae.

There's something so nerve-wracking and daunting about the prospect that the exit grows larger and closer, moves nearer and nearer--- we move nearer, body unconsciously tightening up. Limbs locking into place and steps faltering, feet rooted to the ground, cemented there. Unable to move past the threshold of the exit doors, fingers reflexively tightening as I grip at his hand tighter.

"What's wrong (Y/N)?" eyes immediately finding mine, the sheer natural comfort in soft brown eyes makes my spine loosen, one knob at a time.

"I-" I can't.

But words fail to come past the tip of my tongue.

And even if they did... what words could I say that verbalise the fact that a part of me... a large part of me is terrified. That fear and wariness has taken root and its grip on me tightens my lungs, my throat...makes the air I've breathed in feel soured and tainted with a dark cloying fear.

And that I hated it. That it was suffocating me.

"(Y/N)?" stepping closer towards me, hand gently tilting my chin up, fingers against my jaw. Dark, dark eyes softened and searching, scent and posture both softening around the edges.

"Tae I-" I can't move. I can't step outside. I'm not allowed. It's wrong. It'll cause trouble. I'll be in trouble, I'll be the problem, I'll be wrong to.

"(Y/N)... cub look at me." Voice gently coaxing my flitting gaze to him, to focus on the warmth in soft, soft eyes.

"Hey."

"...hi."

"What's wrong?" fingers gently clucking me under the chin, head angled down to look at me.

"I..."

He waits with patience, eyes silently encouraging and bolstering, supporting without even speaking a single word, hand loosely cradling my jaw, cupping my cheek.

"I can't go." Dismayed and worn down.

"Why not?"

"I-I'm not meant to."

"Oh cub... it's okay." words reassuring and grounding.

"But-" eyes flitting to the doors, yearning so strong and so intense it seizes the breath in my throat.

"You deserve it. It's your right cub."

It is. Isn't it?

Then why does it feel like I'll be sick at the thought of every possibility of what could happen when I step outside the door. Thousands of scenarios of what could possibly go wrong entangled with the normalcy of it all and then that achy hope that it would be okay, I just needed to put one foot in front of the other.

"I-"

"As long as you need cub." Voice soft, head gently nudging to mine, foreheads briefly touching.

Head tilting into his touch.

"It'll be okay?"

"It'll be okay."

And as the nervousness ebbs away, the soft pulse of his scent, berry-sweetness coaxes that fluttery feeling of excitement... it wells up, growing stronger and stronger, fingers slipping back into his, squeezing in silent thanks.

"We really get to go outside? Where?"

Eyes sparking to life, vivid and bright as Tae looks at me.

"Everywhere. But how about we start at somewhere you haven't gone yet?"

"Where's that?"

Interest piqued further.

"Let's go."

And this time... this time my feet unstick. This time I can move.

Now... now all I can think of as I tug Tae with me... is how much I've waited for this.

[......]

"It's so busy Tae..." I marvel at the sight of people clustered around, milling around the different stalls, the rush of scents and noise and sights crowding my senses, trying to fight for space, for my focus first. Eyes feverishly skimming over the normalcy of it all, of watching people shop as they wander through the market.

"Exactly... no-one is going to spot us... it's packed, besides the Winter markets are closed but that doesn't mean you can't see the Farmer's Market's start." Hand drawing mine to clutch at each other's fingers, laced together and entangled, tucked into his pocket. Warm radiating from the constant touch, the grounding hold where his tail can't-hidden out of sight, our ears and tails tucked away. Making it impossible that anyone could even tell that we weren't human.

"Like the one Jin and Koo go to?" curiosity lacing my voice when I spot the fresh produce, sense the quiet wriggle of movement of how his tail must be itching to swish-sway properly and not under his clothes when his nose faintly twitches. Ears swivelling under the matching red-beanie he's pulled over them, the vibrant colour and gold honey-blonde still eye-catching even without the attentive swivelled-perked ears on display.

Hand tugging him alongside when I catch sight of a chocolate fountain, the sweet richness of it decadent, warm over the strawberries and mini-doughnuts it'd been ladled over.

Tae's mouth tastes like strawberries and chocolate, a sugariness that's addicting when it's paired with the eager press of his mouth to my own, hand cupping his face, angling his lips to mine. Brief and sweet, his taste lingering on my lips even as I draw back.

"Didn't think I was taking you out to get accosted in the middle of a market."

"You said we could take a snack break. That's all I was doing."

A wide grin. A peek of fangs in the boxy slanted stretch of his mouth before Tae's head dips lower to hover close to mine.

"Charmer."

"Now let's keep walking or I'll get tempted." Eyes flitting briefly to his lips, lips quirking at the slow drawl of his voice and the just as giddy smile stretched wide across his face.

"Oh you can get tempted... please do."

"Defeats the purpose of getting me out the house if all you wanted was to rush back to it."

[......]

It's odd.

But it's there.

Somehow these past few months, this past half year has unknowingly altered a lot of me, a lot of that part that just... existed. Somewhere beyond four walls. That could exist beyond those four walls.

Because it's changed... rather I have.

A fascination and wariness in people watching or being in that same space alongside them. Somehow warier even as a stranger walks past me. I know nothing about them, and I can see and smell their happiness, the light floatiness of their pheromones-something entirely unthreatening in how human and harmless it makes them come across as.

But a fleeting thought. Sudden before it vanishes... is how whatever person could pass me by... could I be able to gauge whether they're safe or a threat.

Some part of me feels dulled by that, as if my senses have been blanketed by time, by being holed away, another part of me feels as if every sense tries to overcompensate by working into overdrive- sharply alert at the slightest thing.

"I didn't know you had a thing for people watching." Tae muses, voice low at my ear, hand steering me down another direction, noses chasing out the different scents, stomach rumbling. His fangs briefly flash, head ducking to hide the grin as he hears the sound despite the beanie tugged over his head. My own hidden away too.

"I didn't not before-but now it's interesting. You can figure out a lot." I reply.

His head tilts towards a couple a few large strides away from us.

Realistically we can hear exactly what they're saying, every sound adding to the cacophony of noise that builds, that our ears are used to, able to filter out by active choice.

But it's still fun to pretend.

"As we're technically humans for now-" he begins in a hushed low voice.

I tilt to him. Catching the faint murmur of his voice in the midst of all the sound.

"What do you think you're doing? I'll be the woman, you be the man." a grinned amusement in his dark brown eyes, as I turn back to observe them, taking in their body language.

"Honey we need to go-the babysitter's waiting at home." I complain, hand tugging at Tae's sleeve, easily drawn into the game.

"Babe your older brother will be fine getting looked after for a few more hours." Tae sighs, a lamenting sound. A fluttery feigned lightness to his words to mimic a higher pitch than the low richness of his baritone.

I laugh, lips pressing together as my head twists. The sound startled out of me with surprise at his words and the high pitched voice.

"His older brother needs a babysitter?" broken out of the imagination.

"Shhh-you're missing them talking." He chides, fingers gently gripping my jaw to tilt my face back to observing them.

Turning back obligingly.

"Honey I told you he gets fussy without his bottle and a nap." Playing along with his nudged encouragement, laughter in the curl of his mouth.

"Good thing I hid the whiskey." He whispers, lips brushing against the back of my head.

"That's his bottle?" I question, steps continuing in that slowed pace, languidly walking around, eyes flitting to the couple whose postures curve closer, agitation in their face.

Really they're arguing over the fruits, which ones to buy-the domesticity of their argument makes my smile grow.

"Where? In your bedside drawer?"

I let out a soft gasp, turning to whack him lightly.

"I'm not an alcoholic!"

"Casual night-time drinking turns that way... honey there's plenty of things you could be doing at night instead."

"Like what?"

"Me."

And that answer-is him. It's Tae. It's not the couple who'd we been playing at, it's something so utterly him and it's just one word but it makes my steps falter.

It makes me forget where we are, it makes me forget that right now we're playing at being humans, ears and tails hidden, all I hear in that one word is Tae.

My tiger.

Head tilting up briefly in askance, lips brushing against his.

"Rather get me addicted to you?"

"Seems only fair to return what I feel already."

"Charmer." Heart hammering wildly against my chest.

It should be impossible to fall more in love with them, it should be, yet... it isn't.

Heart feeling overwhelmingly full for the tiger whose arm wraps loosely around me, slow steps in match with my own, the faint-faint hidden scent of berries only ever so slightly filtering past the blockers.

A tiger who loves me enough to wear blockers. He hates blockers.

"I love you Tae."

Fingers squeeze at my waist. Eyes dropping heavily to my lips, his own tugged into an infectiously wide boxy grin.

A rumble that builds in his chest and that I can feel against my back. A rumbled chuff that catches a few eyes, turning in curiosity towards it.

I don't know how he manages to keep his tail tucked and hidden, the loose slouch of his jeans hiding the eager swishing motions that I already know to be there.

"You can't just say things like that and expect me not to be happy." Tilting to me as I turn to face him, hand against his chest, feeling the low cadence of his voice and chuff reverberate against my palm.

"I'll always say it. I love you Tae and what you've done for me today... I thought you couldn't get any more perfect, I didn't think you could be any more sweeter... but you keep proving me wrong."

Fingers catch my wrist to draw upwards, the soft scrape of fangs against the inside of my hand, skimming briefly down before he presses a lingering kiss there.

Eyes warm and weighted and so, so full of the love that I feel making my veins buzz in giddiness.

"I'd do just about anything for you (Y/N)."

TAE POV:

The flushed giddiness on (Y/N)'s face only brightens, glows even as I quietly ease the door shut, the silent click of the lock the only tell that we'd been out in the first place. Breathless with laughter and her lips stretched into the widest smile I've ever seen on her face, her scent rich and fresh.

That. That's all I wanted.

For her to smell happy again.

For her eyes to have life in them.

And seeing how radiant normalcy and happiness looks on her I never want it to end, I never want there to be another day where she goes without looking at least this happy again.

Seeing her suffocate, seeing her become stifled, seeing her begin to fade-now she looks like she's alive again.

And even if only for a day, even if only for a handful of stolen hours, I'm glad that even for that long she felt like herself again. Without the officers, without the security detail, without the confinements of the four walls that'd been all she'd known for months and months on end.

We weren't made to be locked and hidden away behind four walls. Our biology, our DNA, our very skin and bone, our blood needed to be free. It was a right. It was something that she should've never had stolen from her. And if I could give it back to her for a few scant hours then I would.

The sudden rush of her body towards mine almost takes me by surprise, hands automatically reaching out for her, to draw her into my arms as she winds her own tight around me. A squeezing embrace that's laced with gratitude, that's there in the quiet waver to the breathless lilt of her voice murmured against my skin.

"Thank you... thank you, thank you, thank you Tae."

My arms cradle her closer, hug her back tighter, a squeezing fierceness in her embrace as she tucks close to me and tucks me close to her.

"You're welcome (Y/N."

"I can't... I can't thank you enough. I... I feel like I can breathe. I feel like.... I feel like it will end one day. And I can breathe again. Properly. Without... without ever needing to be hidden away again."

"You will. Just... breathe with me." Voice soft, head ducking low slightly to press my lips against her forehead, against her hairline before I wind my arms around her again.

Countless times I've felt (Y/N)'s body slot to mine, countless times I've held her and felt her body meld to mine. But holding her and feeling the same warmth, the same exultation welling up in both our veins, holding her and hearing the rapid pulse of her heart and knowing it's from exhilaration, it's from being outside, it's from getting to breathe fresh air... holding her to me brings a sense of contentment and fulfilment.

"You might've just kept me from going insane." She admits with a hitch of breath in her soft laugh, a slight wobble there, eyes soft and shiny as she looks at me, hand reaching up to brush fingers gently against my jaw before she cups my cheek. A silent invite in the tilt of her head, a sweetness that smiling lips beckon me to, a soft quiet sense of being so utterly whole, heart thudding loudly in my chest when I kiss her, when (Y/N)'s lips brush against mine, soft, tender pecks that make my scent pulse sweet for her, hand cradling me to her, my own settled across her back.

And that admission of truth, that the case was wearing her down, that it was chipping away at her, slowly, slowly making that absence from her own packmates was making her crumble, that being hidden away, forced to stay indoors was making her fade.

And I couldn't stand aside and watch it happen, watch the life in her eyes dull and that spark begin to splutter and fade.

----------------------------

"What are you two grinning about?"

"Hm? I've no clue what you mean Hoseokie hyung."

"No he's right you're definitely up to something." Jimin's eyes narrow, gaze stilling on the two of us, head angled as he looks at us appraisingly... searching.

(Y/N) presses closer to me, peering past my shoulder where the two of us are lying down, half-entangled in one another, her phone tucked out of sight, the innocent doe eyes staring at him so deceptive, so wonderfully beguiling.

"Why would we be up to something Mimi?" voice softly murmuring the words, head propping up on my shoulder, pressing her body closer to my own, my fingers brushing against the low of her spine. Head half twisting to grin at him, fangs peeking past my lips.

"You look suspicious." Eyes scrutinising.

Head tilting up, purposely twitching his nose.

"You smell sneaky!" he accuses.

"They smell happy. And like trouble. Like... happy troublemakers?"

"I'm always happy to cause some trouble if needs be."

"I know that!" Jimin laughs, eyes having drifted away from the file on his lap, his scent minty sweet as his tail gives a soft swish, swish, draped over his own lap.

"I don't think he wants trouble, I think he's got his eyes on you." Joon hyung adds with a dimpled grin, eyes drawn back to the case file he's examining.

Fingers card through my hair, nails dragging light against my scalp, tugging a soft rumble from the back of my throat.

Lips pressing to my shoulder, head tucking closer as (Y/N)'s scent softens, eyes skimming around to peer around the living room.

"Can't blame Mimi for that. Golden tiger now." the words brushed against me, head tilting to briefly nuzzle at my throat, the praised lilt making my tail swish quicker, curling over to brush against (Y/N)'s side, over her waist to belt across her.

"Hear that Mimi?"

"....I hear it Tae... golden cub. You do look really, really pretty in blonde." Attention diverted from the files, smile making his cheeks curve up, minty scent sweet and fresh. Moving to half-rise of the sofa when a hand darts out to yank him back with a dimpled grin.

"Nuh uh... you've got case files to read up from JB's recon."

"Wolfie keeping you from coming to snug Minnie?"

The forlorn fold of his ears and drooped downwards twist of his mouth makes his cheeks push and droop.

"He is! Being a big bad wolf." Grumbling as Joon shoves a file at him, a low quiet laugh as Joon's fingers scratch at the back of folded orange ears in consolation, leaning to him to briefly nuzzle at his temple.

"Sorry pup but if you had your way we both know you'd have snuck onto a lap."

A whined low chirp even as he pulls open the file.

"Because laps are made for sneaking onto."

"A shame... (Y/N) has such a comfy lap~" I tease, head tilting to nudge my nose against her jaw, body draping more comfortably, more heavily over hers, leg half slung over hers, bodies near flush to one another.

"Stop teasing the poor pup." Yoongi hyung grins, smile gummy and eyes crinkled slightly as his gaze settles over the two of us, (Y/N)'s body half-hidden behind my own but his own sweet scent broadcasting how happy he is to smell (Y/N) so happy.

It's unmissed by no-one.

"Why not? Cos he's being booooooring not doing much better things at the moment~"

"Like what?" eyes narrowing with sharp scrutiny, displeasured pout evident on his face but also heard in his voice.

"Like being on a lap, providing a lap... getting ear rubs-I wouldn't mind some actually­-"

"Sounds like you're just trying to get me to pamper you."

"But why nooooot?"

A jealous, huffing grumble.

"Getting plenty of that anyways blondie."

"Sounds... oh so deliciously jealous. Something bothering you orange pup?" I tease, voice lilted slowly, words drawled out.

He moves as if to toss the files aside, a hand tugging him back firmly.

"Pup..." voice warning and amused.

Eyes slightly exasperated as they flit to me.

"Capitalising (Y/N) isn't enough? Pup barely smells like anyone or anything but berries."

Chuuuuuuuuuff.

"Now you're sound jealous... alpha." Words goading, knowing the fire it plays with, see it flash to life behind the thin-framed glasses, a twist of heat at the sight because big bulked alpha is one thing... big bulky alpha with glasses is another thing. Dangerous... dangerous territory.

Warning in those eyes.

Something more calculative about the warning when it comes directed from big-brains-sexy-glasses-wearing-officer Kim.

"Keep going Tae and I might just steal her from you." the lack of endearment, the lack of pup makes my skin tingle with anticipation.

Arms wrapping tighter around (Y/N) to burrow into her throat with a silenced protest, fangs nibbling at her skin. Lips curled into a smile against her.

Her answering brush of fingers through my hair and the laugh that I feel sink into my body from how intently I'm pressed into her.

"Sorry Joonie~ don't think I'll let go of a cub so easily. Might come as a steal one get two kinda deal."

"I could work with that-"

"No. The only thing you're working on is what you're making me work on. Don't try be a double agent Joon." I peek up to see the bristling fox. Eyes pinning a sharp warning to the grinning wolf who raises a hand in surrender before slumping back into the sofa to slowly turn his gaze back to the files on his lap that he'd been perusing.

"Sorry pups... oh."

My ears pick up at the sound, peering past (Y/N)'s shoulder with piqued curiosity, even as my fangs ache faintly with the urge to continue to nibble at her throat, to slowly skim-drag them over her gland, feeling the quiet, shuddered pulses of her scent and the way she tilts to the touch.

Eyes catching the way Jimin grabs the file off Joon's lap before sitting down himself, stubbornly making the lap his seat, the slight tilt of his jaw all the words. There.

"Peace restored Jiminie puppy?" (Y/N) teases fondly, scent sweetening with affection.

"For now." grumbled but a small smile toying at his lips.

Peace restored.

Okay.

Fangs scraping against her gland once more.

------------------

"It's the post- I'll get it, apparently there's a signed delivery..." Minnie's voice filters out from the end of the apartment, having been the closest when the intercom buzzed. The sound of it is so rare and unheard of that it must've been perhaps only a handful of times I'd heard it altogether.

"Ah it might be my headphones... hyung'll get it Jimin-ah, come eat breakfast." Yoongi hyung calls, wiping his hands hastily on his apron before he turns, peering down the hallway, a slight gumminess to the small smile on his face when he hears the door slam quick behind him, the sudden rush of steps slipping past the doorway regardless.

"Come eat breakfast cub, bun. I know you don't have work but hyung's cooked for everyone." fingers slipping to behind his waist to undo the apron strings, drawing it up and off his head, eyes crinkling when he watches my head flop back onto Kook's shoulder instead of getting up, tail draped over his lap, a pleasant buzz of endorphins, warm and floaty, where his fingers brush through soft fur, petting gently at it, soft quiet laugh when it swishes and moves to wind around his hand, brushing over fingers and his palm. Poking when he stills.

"Oh but hyuuuuung." I whine when he calls our names out again several minutes later, his voice causing Kook's fingers to still, gently tug at the tip of my tail when it swishes against his hand, trying to coax his touch back.

"Don't hyung me kit. Come eat. Then go back to sprawling over Jungkook-ah with a full stomach. Nothing beats a post-breakfast nap." tail swishing contentedly at the thought, in validation of his words, his own slowly swaying, lips curling upwards when I groan, slowly moving to rise up, ears stiffening as the door's shoved open and then just as hastily, roughly slammed shut. Abrasive. Forceful.

It's hard enough that it feels like it makes the walls quake with it, making the very foundation of the apartment wobble where it stands. Descending the apartment into a deathly hush. The very sound is fraught with tension. And then the heavy set of quickly approaching footsteps, of an envelope thrown down across the coffee table, the innocuous unmarked white envelope a glaring reason that obliterates the calm from the household. Breakfast forgotten. But nothing else matters. Only the envelope does. That makes everything suddenly brittle, the laughs stilling and a deathly hush of silence that descends, weighted and impenetrable.

"Jimin-ah." the name warning and slightly admonishing. The sound of chairs being pushed away from the table and a sharp intake of breath from behind him. The blankness of the envelope is a ticking time bomb. One that's already arrived. One that'll implode on contact. The moment it opens. But it has been. Creases around it.

The contentment is entirely lost, burnt through by the stinging, painfully so, intensity of piercing mint. Each breath sends prickling stabbing pinpricks to pierce my lungs.

Broken with a rough sharp venom that's not directed at whoever's been sending the envelopes. But to...

Oh.

Sharp burning fury in that scours vengeful trails through me, glaring with a heat and fury that pours off him, stance stiff and offensive, the air prickling with charged tension that thrums like a livewire, sparks crackling around Jimin.

"Open it."

The words a demand.

"Jiminie hyung what is it?" another hand reaching for the envelope, a wariness in the tight set of Kook's shoulders, a snarl that ripples through the air. Words laced with a sharp growl.

"Not you Jungkook. Taehyung. Open it."

I watch as fingers fall away, uncertainly, the outstretched hand curling inwards, a balled fist lowered back down, a faint tremble to them. Something confused and uncertain in soft brown eyes.

"Jimin tone. Watch it." I snap, words laced with a roughness. Body unconsciously shifting to angle in front of Kookie.

"Open it." he repeats, a tight barely-restrained edge to his voice, rough and sharp.

My hand reaches for the envelope, shaking out the contents, the slew of photos that spill out makes my blood run cold.

Freezing.

There's barely a moment where the photos lie across the table before a hand shoves them across the coffee table, scattering them roughly across the surface.

"No..." the sound is disbelieving and hushed, quiet as it reaches my ears. Pleading. Refusing to accept what's spilled out, damning and glaring up at me.

Fingers jabbing hard at them, words guttural and rough. Ears pinned back and tail swishing sharp and quick. Every inch of his body and scent radiating an unmeasurable level of anger.

"That's you isn't it Taehyung?"

Then he's picking a photo up, clenched tightly between a white-knuckled grasp.

"That's you. With (Y/N). Outside."

A few beats of terse, suffocating silence pass.

"Isn't it?"

"What? No hyung it can't be." Kook's voice sounds from behind me, body pressing closer, a hand at the low of my back, voice firm and brushing off the harshness in Jimin's tone. Leaning closer to peer past my shoulder.

A rough uneven broken sound. A laugh that falls short. Far too taut with tension and anger to sound remotely genuine. Because there's nothing funny. Nothing to laugh about.

"Tell me it isn't then Taehyung. That you didn't... please tell me you didn't." a pleading edge to the otherwise hardness of his voice.

My posture stiffens, hackles rising with defensiveness and an urging, growing protectiveness that settles thicker and heavier in my skin.

He looks at me despairingly, everything disintegrating around us, crumbling between our fingers and slipping away.

And then as brief as that moment of ache is, it's lost behind the way his scent burns stronger, heavier, making it hard to breathe, mind blanking because we'd been so careful-

The hand that fists into the front of my shirt and yanks me up is rough, the sudden jolt to my body as it stumbles forward one step before I right myself

"Tell me... tell me you weren't stupid enough to go outside and take (Y/N) with you..." words brimming with anger, the rage in his eyes only mounting higher, clutching the photos tightly, the sight of (Y/N)'s body pressed to mine, the snapshot of what had been a perfect day distorted into something ugly because of the sickening psycho behind the camera lens. The words echoed with a hardness that bleeds into the crevices of the room. Plunges it into unstable waters that drown the two of us in a combatting clash of scents, of space, of bodies posturing, lines and angles jagged and harsh.

"...if I did?" jaw set as I look at him.

The mixture of conflicting emotions in his eyes are burnt through with the overriding intensity of glowering hardness, of stony anger that's simultaneously a furious fire and yet glacial eyes.

"If you did? If you did?" words echoed with incredulity, staring hard at me.

The grating sound of the coffee table being shoved aside carelessly, body tilting to crowd into my space, to fill the very air with the crackling sharpness of his pheromones as he repeats the words, a brittleness to them.

"If you did then have you lost your fucking mind?"

The snap of his words, laced with a growl instinctively yanks at my own biology, snarling as the apex predator in me claws itself viciously to the front, clashing against the roughness of his tone, of the anger that burns heat into me as if trying to torch me alive in it.

"I took her out for a little bit and then we came back home. We were even-"

"No... no. Don't try rationalise it. Someone took photos of you, someone caught you. And there's a strong, strong chance that someone is the same sickening bastard trying to stake a claim on (Y/N). Do you even realise what you've done?"

Kook's body behind mine becomes stiff. Ramrod. Hard sharp lines that are wound tight with tension, a restless, quiet series of thumps of his foot restlessly tapping against the floor, fingers still settled on my back, but his scent takes a sharp plunge, thrown into the deep ends, biology conflicting with his want to stay.

But I can feel the restlessness, can feel it grow with each word spat out with vitriol, fangs snapping at air and consuming rage directed towards me.

But rather than quell mine, rather than douse it with shame and horror it yanks my own to the surface, a rapid burning stinging heat of anger because he won't even listen, he won't give a moment's breath to just hear me out to know why I did it.

The stinging sharpness of mint recedes only for the distance it takes him to snatch up a photo and shove it hard against my chest, the shoved pressure makes a snarl tumble past my lips, fingers trembling as I grip the photo tightly, eyes falling to the sight.

Swallowing hard at seeing us, faces hidden and ears and tails out of sight. But it was us. It was when we'd been in the park. It'd been when I'd been holding her. Forms caught mid-spin, grins etched on our faces.

"If you'd just look we weren't even-" we weren't even blatant. We'd hid our tails, our ears. We were so careful.

If you'd just look Jimin then you'd see that-

"What is there to look at? Someone's already gone and covered that for me."

The sudden heaviness of more scents clustering the space makes my biology thrash, turning on the scents, snarling and growling at the prospect of there being multiple challengers, multiple sources of scents and biology trying to combat or shove down the reason I'd done it.

I didn't regret making her happy. I didn't regret tugging her out of the flats. I didn't regret every single instant she looked as if she'd finally... finally breathed for the first time in a long time.

"Jimin calm down." another voice interjects, sharp and low with a control and predatory dominance that right now can do nothing.

A sardonic rough rasp of a laugh. Too hollow. Too brittle. Too volatile.

Words hot against my skin, pushing into my space.

My body immediately crowds back, hackles raised, fangs unconsciously pricking my bottom lip, a snap of fangs at the air, retaliated by his own at my jaw. A stinging heat. A hand rough as he shoves me back, nearly stumbling against the sofa's edge before I twist back. Eyes flashing.

"Calm down? You can tell me to calm down when you can tell me that his stupidity hasn't thrown everything we've worked for since (Y/N) stepped into the station hasn't been ruined."

The accusation sinks heavy into my veins, entangles with the fire and predatory DNA, fuses together and makes a stabbing heat claw its way out my throat, spilling itself from my lips in a torrent.

"I just took my mate outside for a bit." What did I do that was so wrong? As if I'd intended for us to be seen. Caught. As if all the people I'd want to find us would've been someone who'd had their eyes on her.

Because somewhere in it all, it was getting forgotten. Somewhere in it all, it was okay for us but it hadn't been okay for her for a long time.

That just because she smiled it didn't mean she didn't cry. The faint tang of tears clinging to her cheeks even after the night had ended. The quiet looks of longing and of want flickering only briefly in her eyes whenever one of us went out for the most mundane things, as if she couldn't allow herself to long for more than a few moments because otherwise it was selfish of her, otherwise she was just making herself suffer by wanting it in the first place.

Just because we were hers now didn't mean she'd always been ours to begin with. She had a pack. She had a family. She had friends. She had a home all before she knew us. She had a life that we'd not been a part of. And she'd left it all behind for their sake. So if she could be so painfully selfless why couldn't we do something for her sake? Why was it painfully selfish of me to want her to smile and know that surely... surely it'd get better, surely she'd be outside again.

Why was it wrong to remember that (Y/N) didn't just exist in these four walls? That if we could go outside maybe for a few stolen moments in time... she could too. We lived our lives and came back home, came back to her. She was living a cycle. Going through the motions of it.

"Except she's not just your mate Tae. And now they know that you're involved just as much- how could you..."

"She's not my guilty secret Jimin. And she was our friend before she was our mate. We've been involved since the beginning. We were involved the moment we said yes for her staying. And... she has a life beyond us... it's not fair on her... it's not been fair for her for a very long time." despairing and aching. Why couldn't he see that? Why had he forgotten that?

The anger in his eyes is palpable, the anger in them burns stronger, wells up and the harsh shoved force of his hand against my chest, jolting me back. There's a raw sharp seething heaviness in his eyes, fingers gripping my jaw tightly, gripped pressure hard enough to try still the words in my mouth. The sharp digging press of my hand at his wrist wrenches my face back and in turn shoves him away from me, snarl dripping from my lips, fangs pooling heavily at the sharp mint trying to battle against my own pheromones. Trying to overwhelm and dominate.

"You've added to the danger Tae. You just don't think. This has been months in the work. And now you've made things messy." ears pinned back, pacing the few steps before he moves forward. The accusation is clear in his eyes. Pushing coming to shove. Words and scents and bodies battling for space, for dominance, his fangs trying to snap at skin. To sink in and try assert a claim, a rank.

You did this. You made things worse. It's all your fault.

And seeing it... seeing it, seeing him push blame after blame all for making her happy and now even that escape is tainted with only yells and fury, it's marred by his anger. It's ruined it for her, the idea that trying to make her happy has only backfired in making her feel dragged into this mess makes a growl push past my lips, reverberate in my throat, fangs baring at the realisation Jimin was making it worse. The photos fluttering to the ground, each memory in them ruined by anger and resentment.

So for the two steps forward he takes, I take four. Body against his, fangs bared as my voice drops into a sharp hiss, fangs pooled over my lips.

"She was happy. Unlike you my priorities aren't conflicted. She's my mate. And all I did was let her breathe... I called you. I called you, I called Namjoon."

"And if you don't get a reply you wait. You wait until it was clear... until we could've done something, Taehyung."

"I do not take orders from an officer regarding my pack. But maybe if our mate had been there with us, maybe if he'd been present as a mate and not an officer... maybe it wouldn't be messy."

Shoving Jimin back when his fangs snap at my jaw, a harsh growl rumbled against skin, fangs leaving stinging in their wake when I twist back, hand hard against his chest.

"I will not apologise for making her smell happy. I will not apologise for trying to do something for her."

"You won't apologise for jeopardising something that's bigger than you trying to be the good guy in her eyes?"

"How about you see her... just once as (Y/N)? Just (Y/N)."

Voice pitched louder, pleading and despairing, fangs stinging where they prick my bottom lip, the faint tang of iron coating my tongue, my senses... tainting this all with an ugly heaviness that makes the two of us feel so far apart despite breathing the same charged air as the other.

"Jimin hyung, Tae hyung you both need to-"

"Not now Jungkook." the harsh snap of words stinging and my ears pin back at the aggressiveness laced into them, into the way they're spat out without even looking at him.

My hand darts out to shove Jungkook back, move him out of the line of fire, to chase away the way his scent plummets. Body twisting to stare Jimin down, ears pinning back at the volatile rage that lashes out and hurts one after the other.

"No. You always do that. Don't talk down to him, to me as if he doesn't understand. As if we don't understand."

"You don't understand! If you'd understood then maybe you'd have stopped for a single second and just used a shred of common sense."

The difference is you think with your uniform on. I don't need a uniform to think about what I should do."

"Maybe you should've stopped for a single second and thought. Maybe you should've bothered to ask." words turning harsher, eyes flaring with heat and rage.

The quiet murmur of words behind us are too distant, too dissociated from this that they don't register.

"I just hate seeing her sad. So we went out." The answer and reason is plaintive. Simple. There was nothing more to it.

It wasn't to undermine him, it wasn't to throw his efforts down the drain, it wasn't to make one mate feel better at the cost of... this.

"Taehyung you ignored everything the past months have been for... they know about all of us... this... this means everyone is under their eyes now." he adds, pushing forward to intimidate, the branding sting of his mint driving themselves deeper and deeper under my skin. Digging deep under to leave gashes behind. Looking furious at the prospect that my thoughts and actions don't align with his own. That they've come to clash. That even though all he sees are flaws and cracks in his protection detail and the case- I can see that everything the small trip was meant to do has backfired. Everything I had wanted to do for her dragged down and torn apart.

Growls rippling heavily into the rough unevenness of his voice, fingers curled tightly into fists. Body thrumming with tension, looking moments from either lunging forward or shoving me back. A caginess to his body as if every inch of it, every nerve cell is in tumult. Furious that I've become the reason that under his watch, his protection that I've made the threat extend. Ears pinned back and vitriol in his voice, each word shaking with accusation.

"We were there from day one. We were there before your priorities were split. Duty or mate Jimin. I'd never hesitate to choose."

The snarled growl is full of feral, unhinged anger, there's a shift behind his eyes that mirrors the tight ripple of pure tiger biology roaring and clawing, slashing its way to the forefront.

"But I would?"

But even then, even then some deeply rooted part of me still recognises the man in front of me, still knows and aches for my mate, torn and pushed onto the other side, feel the pinprick of claws threatening to tear through skin. Hands curling into tight fists, channelling the sharp stinging sensation inwards, digging them deeper into the skin of my palms.

Refuses to lunge for his throat the way his primal aggressive stare has locked onto mine, body jerking forward and just as abruptly freezing at the agony and trembled misery that ripples through the air.

But then he does.

I can feel the press of where his fingers dig harder into the skin of my wrist, where the sharpness of his grip begins to feel like claws and not nails. That when I twist my wrist harsh out of his grip the sting left behind is the first tendrils of something that could so easily spiral into something ugly and vicious and primally violent.

"Let go."

"Seems like when I let go a tiger loses his head." words sneered, fangs pooled over his lips, eyes glinting with hard venom, narrowed into slits. And when he doesn't, when his grip readjusts itself to try in some way to anchor himself to me, to use a tight clawed hold to get me from moving, instincts surface to push back, other hand shoving him off me, the force makes him stumble back, body falling onto the sofa, crowding his space, hand fisted at his collar, fangs snapping at his throat, grappling for purchase, for the upper hand. Vision blinded with red when his growls ripple louder, snapping his fangs at my jaw, fingers curling tight to try twist to gather the momentum and force to turn and regain control. But there's a limit of how much push can come before shove. How much I can take before I can't control that biological need to fight back.

And then there's a hand wrenching me back, forcefully yanking me up and off him, snarls rippling in the air, body thrashing and twisting but then the hand doesn't relent, a firm tug to move me away from Jimin.

An even louder growl snaps the air, forces the sound in my throat to quieten when the pressure drops to the back of my head, scruffing me, the pressure tight and immediately triggering a laxness in my limbs, even as they thrum with tension.

"Enough."

Fangs snap at the air, forcing a sharper, harsh sound to silence it.

"You're not pups so don't make me deal with you like one."

The scruffed hold doesn't loosen, senses the tension buzzing underneath my skin.

"Stop thinking with your biology alone and just use your heads. Scrapping and tussling like runts. Be men not boys with bruised egos." Hand tight at my nape, eyes flashing when I try to twist away, fingers tightening, warning in dark eyes looking at me.

Breaths uneven, painfully sharp with every inhale and exhale, deep ragged breaths I try to force into my lungs, body sagging slightly.

His other hand shoving Jimin back when he immediately tries to lunge forward again, a body slotting in to fist into his collar and tug him upright. To push him back from me, trying to keep a safe distance from one another.

A snarled warning rippling to shove him back when he tries to push back.

"When you're not thinking with your knot... when you're thinking with a calmer head..." voice disparaged and angry.

I've never heard him like this.

"I've seen pups behave better than this. And you... Tae stop clawing at wounds to make them hurt more. Cub you know you're playing dirty with your mate's feelings of all things." Words authoritative and rumbling with the deep timbre of his voice, commanding the situation as he takes in the two of us with disappointment, worry and quiet anger.

His words force a shame into me, laced with the sharp acridness of his usually mellow citrus scent.

I've never seen Yoongi hyung like this.

"And neither of you thought for one moment how (Y/N) would feel seeing two mates brawl and snap at each other's throats." Sounding ashamed of us.

Scruffed hold loosening.

My eyes flit to (Y/N), guilty and ashamed.

Feel my heart plummet at the sight of her.

Shaking her head when I take a step forward. When Jimin does the same.

"Just stop." The pain in her voice, the distress contained in two syllables makes everything come to a screeching halt, makes everything freeze, suspended and trapped in resentment and anger and warring biologies, with us at each other's throats. The rapid uneven rise and fall of my chest mirrored by the irregularity of his own. The way when we reach out, she shrinks back.

But I'm not the only one who moved forward. And registering that-taking it in, anguished damp eyes, shiny and wet with brimming tears are what I'm forced to confront before she's turning, stepping to block off the two of us. Caught in the middle and so so stuck.

Body stiff and trembling with the strong overwhelming biological urge to bolt. Feeling suddenly sickened to realise that I did that to her. To hide from this standoff, to be anywhere but here. Body shaking even as she forces herself to stand in between us regardless. That she can't stand seeing us in each other's space again. Fighting. Growling. Snapping.

"Stop fighting... stop being at each other's throats." Wounded by the possibility that if she moves she fears that'll be exactly what happens.

Words ripped from her throat, raw and uneven.

Body angled to face Jimin, hand clasping my wrist, more strength and firmness in the hold despite the shakiness to her voice, despite the way her scent is wilted and decayed, drowning with misery, as she tugs me behind her, positioning herself in front of me. Heart cracking at the defensive position she takes in front of me. To shield me. To try wield off the hostility and anger radiating off Jimin.

"Mimi I went with Tae... I let myself forget for a while... Tae did it for me." The guilt and shame in her eyes is suffocating, gaze pooled with self-blame as her voice aches. Strains on each syllable.

Her scent weighs her down, makes her shoulders cave and the lines of her body caves, sinking inwards.

Bending down to reach for the photos, a faint tremor to her fingers that she... or any of us don't address in that moment but everyone sees. My eyes are fixed onto the sight, the clenching tightness in my chest only making the struggle to breath evenly even more difficult.

Hand clutching the photos, the glossy cache categorising methodically those small moments that we'd been together, every memory that'd been new, exhilarating and so much everything, so normal. Now it was everything but.

And her eyes are focused on the photos, gaze glued to them, and I can smell the way the salt of her tears thickens, how it entangles in a messy knot with something sharper, acrid, something bitter and cloying that gets stuck in my throat and coats my lungs liberally... drowns them in that scent.

"I never meant for the pack to get involved... for them to be threatened..." she begins, voice wavering, heavy and laden with guilt and shame, her scent so soured and turned rotten that it makes my stomach churn, that it makes every inch of my skin rankled and revolt at the scent. She should never smell like that.

And I watch as (Y/N)'s body subtly moves to angle me further behind, as if the only thing rationality is telling her to do is to block off me from Jimin and Jimin from me, the way her body thrums with caged up energy-a cornered, trapped doe. Stuck.

And the hard unchanging truth that she can't bolt, not truly makes me feel sick to my core.

Even now...

The fury hasn't gone from Jimin's scent, nor has it bled out his posture but part of his eyes... a flicker of pain at seeing (Y/N) so devastated.

"I didn't leave home to protect one pack and land the other in danger... Jimin I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry." words aching as her expression begins to crumble, eyes shiny and wet with brimming tears that well up stronger at the scents pushing in from each angle, pushing into her and I can't see her face. Jimin can. And he looks like he's been struck, the force of her grief and misery and ache, unmissable, unavoidable. Whatever he sees makes him flinch. Cuts through him. And when she turns, I feel some part of me crack, hear the sound resound through my body, body involuntarily tensing at the sight of her tears trickling down her cheeks. The way the words get stuck in her throat.

"I'm so sorry Tae."

A wounded grieving sound at the back of my throat, torn out violently as I shake my head, hand reaching out for her, stepping closer. An aggrieved sound of pure agony stifled between her lips when I reach for her at the same time as Jimin steps closer, the fight bleeding out his posture, scent heavy with remorse. This close I can feel the way his uneven breaths press to her back, the way that even though neither of us can bring ourselves to meet each other's gaze right now, there's no decision or words needed to know (Y/N) first. The tension ebbing away only slightly, trying to reign in my scent, trying to will and force the scent of my own ache and anger back because (Y/N) doesn't need any more of that. My fingers move to pry the photos out her hand, but they tighten reflexively, gripping at them. Hand moving to cup her cheek, thumbing at the tears hot on her skin, fingers stained with the sorrow we've made worse for her. I can't even begin to imagine how suffocating it is for her to be stuck with the feeling and then have it thrown at her again.

Hand smoothening down her back, pressing close to her, tightly-pressed lips pressing to her hair, ears shifting from their pinned back state to fold instead. Mirrors of the turmoil and conflict, scents still antsy and uneven but trying... trying to reign it back for her. Her tears staining my skin with her scent.

"You can always smell if noona's sad."

And I've failed her, her packmates by not being able to keep her from hurting, from being lost and stuck and then forced to be confronted with Jimin's anger.

And it's something I can't bring myself to bother with, to focus on, instincts and biology keyed up on the fact that right now the reason of her distress is so close to her, that right now even as my hand cradles her closer, heart squeezing painfully tight at the way she tilts closer even as her eyes clench shut, tilting to comfort she can't even look at us to take.

....as if she's ashamed to.

The red around my vision recedes further.

And the glower in Jimin's eyes when they briefly meet mine, a moment where the hot-white rage forces itself into me are trying to damn me.

Look at what you did.

A snarled on-edge sound that threatens to rip past bitten lips and fangs that feel sharper, heavier in my mouth.

"No that's it." words rough and agonised, body forcing ours back, rippled uneven breaths and growls when she's taken from us, body shielding and protectively curved around hers to draw her back when even trying to comfort her fails, because we fail her.

Hand tugging her away, steering her away. Tugs the photo out of slowly growing lax fingers to toss them onto the table, eyes full of glower and heat and such deep disappointment. The look in his eyes doesn't cut me down to size it leaves me feeling small.

Guilty.

Wrong.

"And you've done exactly what these people want. You're fighting each other rather than them."

And when he leaves... he takes (Y/N) with him. And when he leaves... the air sharp and fraught with tension crackles in deafening silence.

No one speaks.

But the silence is what condemns us.

A hand reaches out tentatively, slowly, almost gauging where my mind's at, my eyes stinging as I look up to see that Namjoon hyung and Jungkook are there, but I can't stand to look at them and see how much I've hurt them too, to see their anger and shame directed towards me.

I can't-I can't---

"Tae wait!"

Voice calling out as I shake my head and twist away, body hastily moving past every single silent condemnation and moving to hurry down the hallway, stumbling as I tug on one shoe then the other, the door a hard slam behind me.

Not caring for a single instant, every paranoid fear or worry that Jimin had been driving in-they know you, all of it washes over me, brushes past burning crackling skin as I leave. Threat be damned.

Not right now. I can't do it right now.

I can't... I shouldn't even be around them.

Winter's gone... Nearly about gone but the cold air still bites and stings my skin, reminds me that it hasn't been too long since spring's started, tries to force the heat radiating off me to calm, to cool. Tries to will the anger and misery clawing at me to try loosen its hold somehow.

It's the gust of wind that pushes their scents on, that tells me they're here.

Steps quick and hurrying forward.

Don't turn to look at them as they move closer, ears folding over further at the thought that maybe they didn't trust me to be alone, that this was babysitting, keeping an eye on someone who didn't know right from wrong, someone reckless and stupid.

"You don't have to stay with me you know. I'll come home... I just need to clear my head."

"Tae hyungie..."

My head ducks lower, away from the soft voice, away from the quiet murmur of my name with a gentleness I don't deserve.

A sad whine at the back of my throat.

"I really just wanted to make her happy."

"We know."

"I even..."

"I just wanted her to feel properly courted. I was so careful you know. She was wearing pack clothes so her scent wouldn't be detectable. I even made her wear some blockers... we had our phones... I would never put her in danger."

I look at the two of them, imploring and aching... that even if they understood a fraction of how careful we'd been, how much I'd planned and gone over to make sure nothing happened. That I wasn't stupid or reckless enough to jeopardise her.

Eyes stinging at the way my own scent burns, the way that hurt and guilt twists my insides painfully. Dejected as my posture slumps, curls inwards.

"Tae your heart's in the right place..."

"I only did it because I just want her to know she will have this afterwards... that courting her isn't a convenience because she's there... that I want to court her all the way, all the time." turning around to keep walking, pace slowed, nose catching the way their scents turn heavier. Achier.

"Oh hyung..."

A quiet silence falls but the quiet treads of their steps keep in pace with my own, bodies brushing against my side as they fall into place on either side of me. Neither of them speaks, neither of them reach out. I don't know what I would've done if they did. Whether whatever comfort they've brought is one I even deserve.

We reach a park, reach somewhere open I realise. Eyes scanning the wide space of it all. Of a few families dotted around. Still quiet. The city still sleepy. Bitter grief making my heart lurch when I realise in these past months that (Y/N)'s only been outside twice. Once on the spring picnic. The second when we'd gone out together. They'd been the only two times in over half a year where she'd felt something normal. Been normal. Twice since she'd arrived when she'd been able to see that the world existed still beyond the four walls. And it was full of a normalcy she was painfully waiting for.

6 months is over 180 days.

2 days out of 180 and counting weren't anywhere near enough for even a glimpse of freedom. Six months and going since she's been under protection.

Why had my one day been so bad?

It's a long, long time before someone speaks. A long time as the day steadily grows brighter, a faint warmed tinge to skin alongside the balmy breeze.

It's a long time before anyone speaks.

"Taehyungie-"

"I'm not going back right now." I state, breaths shuddering out of me.

Not now. Not now.

"We won't make you hyung." voice soft.

"I won't justify Jimin-ah to you cub... but like you have your reasons he has his." Hand gently squeezing at my shoulder, the pressure of it reminding me of his presence. That I wasn't alone.

My eyes briefly flit to him, dark brown eyes empathetic as they look at me, turning softer.

"I thinking... under all that anger... he's also jealous. I know I am." my head darts up at that to look at him, teary eyes tilting to find his. Blinking at the dampness in them. Feel Kook's eyes also flit towards hyung.

"Why?" voice rough and raw.

"Like you said... Jimin and me... we have to think as officers as well... even if we don't want to be... we're the bad guys in this. We can't let her have dates and be out for her protection... but that also means somewhere we're adding to that sadness and isolation." Looking pained at the thought and the way he says it, voice wavering slightly but the truth pooled heavily in his eyes... it's not the first time he's thought it. It's not the first time either of them have thought it. That somewhere deep down they're so aware of what their role makes them become.

"Deep down... we're the ones who make her feel like a chore. Even though that's the last thing she is, even if her safety is the first thing we're thinking about."

Whatever anger I'd had left inside me, its vicious hardening fury that'd been worming its way through my veins and limbs, making me feel laden with its intensity... it diminishes with an ache, a grief for hyung, for Jimin.

"I wish I could've taken her out too. But we can't and I know that Jimin wants to as well... so when you did. It was everything he wants to do but can't do."

I'm a horrible mate. A horrible person.

"I'm a bad mate. I know how hard Jimin work... but I just-I wasn't... I'm not... I want to be a good mate for (Y/N)."

My shoulders hunch, head ducking lower, eyes flitting away from the silent understanding in Joon hyung's eyes. Unworthy of it.

"But I wasn't a good mate for him."

Unworthy of the comfort when Kook steps closer, arms wrapping around me from behind, a loose cradled hold, chinning gently at my shoulder as he tucks his head there.

"Being overwhelmed doesn't make either of you bad mates. It's hard that's all... but Tae hyungie... you care a lot. You can't ever be a bad mate."

And for a while I just stand there, slowly loosening in Kook's hold, his embrace tightening when he feels a shiver run down my spine, heat melding with mine, the soft scented chins as he helps coax me away from that poisonous twisted snare of thoughts and feelings too ugly and vicious that they hurt me.

Quiet silence when he eventually slips away from behind me to lace our hands together, drawing our entangled hands with a tug to step closer into his side, hands buried into his hoodie pocket. Comfort without words, fingers squeezing gently and lips soft against my cheek before he tugs me to him, to walk back home.

The scent of earth and dew a protective cocooning presence even if Joon hyung isn't directly next to me, his movements precise and measured, hands brushing over our spines and half-ushering, half-herding, a protective alpha wolf nudging, steering us back out the park and retracing our steps home. Eyes alert and ears perked. Attentive.

And the comfort of Kook's body pressed close to mine, our hands entangled, squeezing back every time I clutch at him when a worry flits through my mind, the soft grounding reassurance in his eyes promising me it'll be okay.

And Joon hyung-he didn't go after his first mate, he came to find me and that thought that he doesn't hate me or resent me bolsters me, finding the tenderness in his eyes soften further as if he can read the gratitude in my gaze. Smiling gently, brushing close enough that his body flanks mine for a while, comfort in being pressed, tucked between the two.

But the closer we get to home, the more my worry grows, nausea inching its way up my throat at the prospect of seeing Jimin and seeing the hate and venom directed at me, at seeing him and realising how much I'd fucked up in understanding him.

Throat tightening because how had I not realised... that despite being careful and doing it for (Y/N) I had clearly done something wrong enough that Jimin-that one person I'd immediately clicked with when our packs had merged, the person who I felt I'd known my entire life and had been waiting for... that Mimi was someone I'd failed to understand then. That my other orange half had looked at me with anger and rage... that I'd been the reason my mate had snapped.

"Hyung it'll be fine."

"He's going to hate me."

"He loves you and you love him. Almost too in our faces with your synergy."

"We're soulmates." A wobbling pout in my voice.

Were we still? Or was I too horrible now?

"So soulmates understand each other better than anyone."

"But I didn't understand him."

"You can't beat yourself up. You weren't in the wrong. Jimin-ah's not in the wrong. The way it blew up was wrong."

-----------------------

The sight of tear-stained cheeks hits me before the scent of wilted mint does. The sight of folded ears and lips wobbling, my face crumpling at the sight.

I caused that.

Body rushing forward without processing, moving without realising, just rush-rush-rushing towards him without a single thought but I can't make him hurt again. A hand reaching out to yank me close to him, to tug me forward into him, bodies pressing together as close as physically possible and then some. Desperate to force away any distance between our bodies, hands tugging each other closer, apologies spilling in a torrent from my lips, head ducking closer to nuzzle at every slither of skin I can reach, cheek against his, soft quiet whines muffled between our skin.

"Tae I never-" voice cracking as he clutches at me, glassy eyes peering at me with so much remorse-guilt-shame-hurt-depreciation-pain, everything in his stare winding their snares around me, yanking harshly at heartstrings. Heart already too bruised, too sore, too aching to be able to bear the sight, throat constricting as I nod quickly.

"I know... me... me neither..."

Head gently nudging against his, nuzzling against the faint scrape of fangs at his jaw, quiet, discontented whine at seeing the redness there, mapping out the litter of scrapes and half-bites I'd left on his skin. I'd hurt him.

Every disagreement, every barbed word, every jagged breath laced with the sharp rage of each other's scents, every single instant of pain and hurt we'd inflicted on each other melting away, leaving only remorse in its wake.

Soothing over every mark left from our fight, faint scratches lined with red, bites left where the indents have faded but knowing how his body feels coiled with tension and thrashing... fighting against my own... that hasn't left my mind.

Grip loosening only once every inch of me, both biologies are satiated and satisfied with the knowledge that he's not going anywhere. Fingers loosening even as his own tug, tug, tug to draw me into him, small steps back before he's reaching to tug me down onto him, bodies pressed together on the sofa, body astride his. Cradled by him.

Anger and ire melting away, disintegrating, crumbling into tiny pieces until it was like it never existed, like there'd never been any venom or anger there, trying to poison each other's minds, trying to strike where it hurts. And now... now that we've hurt one another, the weight of it sinks heavy in me- only soothed or appeased by making it right, heart aching with pain and understanding, knowing now all too well how he's feeling, how he's hurting.

Gentle nuzzles to soothe the stinging marks left behind, faint or small, his skin and scent marred with the decayed weight of the hurt I've inflicted. Body sinking to his at the insistent tugs that draw me into the cradle of his arms wrapped tightly around me, hand clutching firmly at the front of my jumper. Fisted tightly. Knuckles whitened with how hard his grip is.

"I'm sorry... Tae I'm so, so sorry... sorry...'m sorry..."

Lips peppering small pecks and nibbles, soothing affectionate touches full of tenderness, quiet rumbled whines and faint chirps muffled against my skin. Faint shudders of breath where words and sound can't disguise or hide, lips lingering against skin, nose nuzzling against my jaw, quiet scenting motions, careful and gentle. So, so careful. So, so light.

My head tilts to brush my lips softly against the hollow of his throat, hand brushing against his sternum, rubbing gently to try to soothe the roughness of my shove. An unspoken apology in every touch shared.

"I'm sorry Jimin-ah... I'm sorry I didn't try see why you would be hurt-"

Fingers brushing through his hair, cradling his nape tightly, tugging him closer, keeping him tucked to me, even as his hand at my back keeps me tucked to him.

It's been hours since I'd left. But right now... right now there's just his scent. Steadily losing the sharp knife-edge to the mint, softening around the edges until it's fresh and light against my skin and senses.

Against the stinging.

A balm now. For the hurt it had been.

----------------------------

I quietly ease the door open, peering inside tentatively, eyes falling immediately to the sight on the bed, heart squeezing painfully tight, hand squeezing Jimin's as he peers past the quietly opened door. Tail swishing and brushing against his side, moving to curl around him, ears folding at the sheer scent of sad, wilted anise. Flowers decayed and rotten. Her misery clinging to every crevice of the room, to her. To Yoongi hyung.

A quiet pained sound muffled forcefully, swallowed back down but the sight cleaves at my chest, sinks its clawed hold in to hurt me. But we'd hurt her.

See a pair of flickering ears past Yoongi hyung's arms, a curled up, circled fawn drooped sadly on his chest. The tight circled bundle radiates pain. Her head tucked against Yoongi hyung's neck, the hand that'd been brushing over her doesn't still its movements, fingers brushing over her down. Nor does he turn to look at us. Though it's no doubt that both of them know we're there. Hovering at the doorway, guilty, shamed, agonised at the misery that clings to each fibre of the room, each atom and particle of air.

Voice a hushed quiet murmur as he speaks to her, lips brushing against one slowly flickering ear, gently nuzzling at her, soothing her.

Trying to help her through the hurt the two of us have caused.

"Can we...can we come in?"

Wide sorrowful eyes blinking slowly when her head turns to look at the two of us, head folding to droop heavily against Yoongi hyung's arm, doe eyes still damp, eyes blinking slowly before she curls up smaller, head turning to duck away. Because she doesn't even want to look at us.

The realisation makes my eyes sting, ears folding, tail going limp as it unravels from around Mimi, staring morosely at the sight of (Y/N) curled away from us, tucking herself up small.

Because being smaller makes you a smaller target. And by being smaller maybe the words we'd said, the accusations and cutting harshness we'd spat and growled at each other... it had been us fighting but it'd been (Y/N) we'd been hurting.

It's a rejection.

But I can't bring myself to leave.

Neither can Mimi.

Especially Mimi.

Eyes shadowed and watching, tormented by knowing that his words hurt more because his words were turned against her, against us having gone out.

So when he steps forward, hand tugging mine, both in needing support but also because we both need to fix this together.

Head turning to watch us, eyes narrowing with warning, with the intensity of the silent watchful stare of a panther carefully gauging and examining every single step we take.

Warning silently sitting in dark brown eyes, darker now with intensity. But his scent remains unflappably calm.

Hyung's scent hadn't wavered once unless he'd wanted it to. The level of pheromone control he had to restrain his own biology... there'd been no restraint when he'd scruffed and shoved us apart. Eyes glowering with the stare of a predator near ready to sink his fangs in and tear out our throats if it'd mean we'd stop. If it meant he could've somehow shielded (Y/N) from the brunt of our fight.

There'd been no scent control then.

Citrus sharp and acidic, stinging with every inhale as he'd growled, snarling lips and posture stiff, overpowering in that moment.

He'd wanted us to know just how much it'd bothered him too. Every bit of his anger and disappointment and warning.

Now it's a balm. A balm to the hurt of the mate he cradles on his chest, never once stilling the patterned scenting, tactile touch of running his fingers over brown spotted down. Now it's nothing but light and sweet and gentle. Even as we approach. Slowly under the watchful, slightly narrowed stare of a panther tracking every single step.

The sharp hard thin line of his lips soften briefly to curl and tip up at the corners, just about, when his ears perk to attention, nose catching that our scents aren't drowning in anger but softened with apology and contriteness. A small encouraging nod to carefully clamber into bed, two spotted ears flickering slightly at the sound, at the way the bed dips briefly but she doesn't turn. And I don't blame her.

Hands disentangling so we can settle on either side of Yoongi hyung, eyes sharing an achingly guilty look because she doesn't turn to look at either of us, not even as hyung's touch falls away and fingers at the low of her ears, Jiminie's hand brushing over her curled up form.

"Baby we're sorry."

Head steadfastly remained turned away, burrowing further into Yoongi hyung's throat so that she doesn't have to turn, doesn't have to look at us, a soft murmur of her name as his nose gently nuzzles against a soft cheek, pressing a kiss to down.

"Sweetheart we're sorry you had to see us fight... we're sorry we fought... we're sorry we didn't think how you felt watching us, hearing us..."

"And the last thing we wanted was to make you feel sad and hurt you."

Fingers gently brushing over her, trying to ease her away and out of her circled burrowed form, her scent still heavy. Voices a hushed murmured plea, straining with the guilt of knowing that she had been caught right in the middle of it all.

It wasn't her fault I'd taken her out. It wasn't her fault we'd been photographed. It wasn't her fault that it blew up messily between me and Jimin. It wasn't her fault she was stuck in this way of living in the first place.

She was blameless in all this.

She was also caught in the middle of all this.

It wasn't fair to her.

It wasn't fair to have her see us at each other's throats, throwing blame and accusations and feel the weight of the burden she was already feeling begin to suffocate her.

And she needs to know that.

Each word murmured quietly, fingers never stilling the slow repetitive motion of brushing gently down the back of her ears, nails scratching gently at the base of them.

"We love you so much. And our hurt at not doing good enough made us fight. Never you. Both of us want you safe... all of us do."

There's a wavery quiet laugh, depreciating and strained as Jimin shuffles closer. A soft sniffle.

"We're just stubborn brash idiots who want to do their best by you."

A slowly curling tail unfurling to poke at Jimin's side.

"And to our pack." lips curling into a small fond smile.

Slowly...slowly she unfurls. Slowly slowly... the sight of damp, shiny doe eyes peeking as (Y/N) turns around, unburrowing slightly.

Heart clenching tightly before warming when her head dips into an agreeing nod. A quiet soft bleat.

"We're your idiots though. Won't let us hold you?" I ask, voice full of pleading want.

A contemplating silence as she looks to the two of us, head turning slowly before she rises up on one wobbly leg then the other, clambering up. The wobbliness endearing, steadying the unevenness with his hands, tender affection in hyung's gaze, warming my blood. Fondness pulsing through me at the sight of doe eyes staring at us in wide-eyed, shiny contemplation as she wonders who to turn first, my body shuffling, scooting closer as I tilt to her, thumbing over the tip of a perked ear. Hoove prodding at my wrist then Jimin's- the touch reproachful, a prodding nudged that feels scolding. Feels like if she'd been shifted back then it'd be a hand at my chest, a shoved motion.

Jiminie's hands reach for her, and knowing that he needs this more, I sink back slightly, watching as his hands curve around her to gently scoop her up, nose nuzzling immediately at hers, lips brushing against her cheek and ears.

Eyes puffier from crying but cheeks bunching up, crinkled eyes lined with red and blinking at her, utterly endeared and loving when she tucks close to him instead, head resting against his shoulder, tucked up all small again in his arms. Nose nudging against his jaw, soft bleats between every light nudge and bonk until he turns to press soft kisses to her ears, hand at the back of her head.

"Hi baby fawn."

Bleat. Hoove prodding at his chest, wide doe eyes reproaching and slightly achy and yet- an intensity that I know if she'd been unshifted it'd have been sharpened by the unimpressed hard glare on her lips.

"Cub, you're squishing me." a discontented grumble even as his arm worms out to wrap around me rather than be trapped between our bodies.

But even so I lean further into his side, obstinate, half-clambering onto him, weight globbing onto him as I press to him, nose nuzzling at his jaw, a soft grateful nip. Quietly thanking him for being there for (Y/N).

"You're very cosy."

"..." eyes silently flitting over me in narrowed contemplation. Trying to figure out if he should be preening or bristling, whether it's a compliment or not.

"It's a good thing hyung." Smiling against his jaw, a soft purr rumbling in his chest when I continue to nuzzle at skin, chasing the sweet citrus to further calm, soothe my instincts, to sweeten my own scent with.

"It's a very good thing." Mimi echoes, a quiet soft bleat as soft doe eyes peer at Yoongi and me, head turning from its rest against his chest to look at us.

Restlessness growing after a while, impatience longing making the curved slump of my body tilt past Yoongi's side to want her in my arms, no longer content by just having my fingers brushing over her. Slow and gentle as I ease her from Mimi's arms, her head lifting off his chest.

"My turn."

A brief playful narrowed stare before he relinquishes his cradled hold, pressing a smatter of kisses, trying to steal as many moments to let his cradled hold linger, loosening eventually but they still hover, as do hyung's- three pairs of eyes trained on the small wobbles as she clambers over towards me, eager as I draw her close.

Nose nudging to hers.

"Baby fawn cub."

Bleat. A soft bonked nudge in return. The bed dipping all of a sudden as Mimi decides that now the distance of being able to reach her just as much is in an issue, using Yoongi hyung's body as a bridge to half-crawl, half-clamber over before he worms his way between the two of us. Cheek squishing to my shoulder, eyes crinkling with amusement at the quiet grumbled protest before hyung shuffles along obligingly.

"Now it's too far huh?"

Knowing all too well the instinct to press closer, arm snaking around me, a quiet chirp at the back of his throat, pressing just as close, soft rub of his cheek against my shoulder to scent me too I realise... the urge to wipe away every last trace, remnant real or haunting from mind and the air itself.

"Shhhhhhh-look how soft our baby fawn is." he murmurs to distract me, a smile laced into his words.

And that's all it take. To detract my focus from the teased remark to the gentle doe eyes.

She is.

AMINA POV:

"She'll talk."

"Oh she's not leaving alive. What makes you think she'll have the chance to?"

"There's something wrong... the drugs aren't working as quickly as they should be."

"Amp up the dosage... I don't have time to figure out your problems, I've already got to keep the red-district data from getting decoded and sent back."

"Someone made a mess boss?"

"Someone's not been good at their job if I'm having to clean up after him."

"What about those girls?"

"Too old to send to a training facility... I'll arrange them to be taken to the red-district."

A low whistle and amused laugh.

"Got yourself a pair of new whores?"

"They're the whores for whoever wants to throw a pretty penny at them."

"Damn... not starting off with a bidding price?"

"Bidding puts them in a spotlight. Can't afford that. I'll get them trained up and sent out."

"And if someone goes around sniffing?"

A hand roughly grips my jaw, forces my head back, eyes blank and unseeing, unable to make out the shadow that hovers over my vision.

Fingers roughly prying open my mouth.

"We already had someone go sniffing didn't we fox?"

An unintelligible sound, mouth heavy with words that sit useless on the tip of my tongue.

The shadowed figure, blurred and indecipherable even as it leans closer.

I still can't make it out. Eyes blinking up, hazed and unfocused, wide but they're seeing nothing. As if a flimsy veil's been drawn over my sight.

"I guess... if someone goes sniffing-they end up like this officer does."

"It's not hard to infiltrate records?"

"They give far too much access if you're high up enough."

Words heavy in my mouth, they taste cloying and bitter.

He smells like sharp smug pride and sweat.

Something bitter around the edges about his presence that I can sense but not see.

"Shame Lieutenant doesn't quite have the power a..... of.......'nce"

Twisting violently, thrashing against the tightening grip at my jaw that forces my mouth to go lax. The press of powder coating my tongue. Gagging as I try to spit it out, those same fingers that'd been prying my mouth open now clamping it shut until it's dissolving in my mouth. Coating my tongue and swallowed as I try intake a breath to scream but it makes my head float, makes my mind turn hazed...

"Mina.... Mina... Mina wake up!"

Sweat plasters to my skin, eyes feeling just as helplessly blind and unseeing, staring up, eyes roving frantically, a cried anguish at seeing just black crowd my vision. Nothing but darkness.

A hand gripping tightly at mine, name a warned call before light floods the room, eyes immediately squinting against its harshness but lungs burning with shuddered relief. I can see, I can see.

And the figure immediately filling my vision isn't blurred or a shadow.

Worried dark brown eyes skimming over me, damp and shiny and my name shuddered out with quiet relief.

"You're awake."

My throat's hoarse.

"Jangmi... Mi where's... where's KitKat?"

"SJ... SJ's got her." Reassuring, hand smoothening down curls, brushing over twitching, hyper-sensitive ears... not ready for even the light touch she brings, flinching back.

Hand falling away.

"What time is it?"

"2am? Near about... you've been asleep a few hours."

"Why aren't you asleep? It doesn't look like I woke you." I mumble, words sounding slightly strangled. Mind haunted with phantoms whose voices still ring in my ears.

"I was in the living room." The scent of baby powder and peaches lingers on her alongside the sweet honey, that now is brittle and hard around the edges. Turned bitter with worry.

"Why aren't you asleep?"

"Not tired."

The dark shadows under her eyes attest to something else entirely.

But neither of us say.

Voice hoarse and strained as I tap at her hand.

"Could I get pen and paper?"

"Nightmare?"

"Felt too real... I don't want to forget anything important."

"I'll go to the station tomorrow-"

"I'm going tomorrow anyways." I shake my head.

"Doesn't mean I can't drop you off." A gentle nudge at my side, a small smile, something about Jangmi's posture screams exhaustion and comfort all at once, her scent sharp around the edges but still soft, soft, soft.

"Can I sit with you guys? Don't feel like sleeping just yet."

"Don't need to ask... maybe you can actually keep SJ busy for me. Or send him away-whichever one works."

"Send a pining stag out in the middle of the night? That's cruel." I tease lightly, body still trembling with shudders, the air makes the sweat on my skin cool, makes a shiver wrack me as I move to clamber out of bed.

"He's not pining!"

"Sure..."

It's easier to forget nightmares, to escape them, when I remember the solid reality that remains around me, when these four walls remind me again and again that I'm home.

It's easier to remember I'm alive and safe when the space around me is engrained with the scent of pack, home, family.

The baby powder scent having worn its way into the fibres of the house, eyes catching sight of the curled up figure, cheek pressed to SJ's chest, not quite asleep but not quite awake and alert. Though a soft mumbled babble and then mama slips out past her lips once she sees me approach, ears flickering up slightly from their drooped folded state-no doubt under the ministrations of endless ear rubs as she deserves.

"Couldn't sleep Mama pup?" SJ asks, smile quirking at the way my tail swishes, eyes briefly narrowing as I reach out for my kit from him, though he toys with the idea of handing her over for a few seconds before easing the sleepy bundled kit into my arms.

The soft quiet mumbled sounds doing miracles in soothing the sharp, prickling taste of sea-salt that invades every inhale... and holding her, cradling her to me, her scent lulls my own to calm.

She's wonders for my health.

Wonders for my mind.

"Maybe a tingly instinct kept me from sleeping too deeply-yknow with a stag deciding to bunk over."

His eyes gleam with amusement.

"Mi said I could~"

"You didn't ask me... both of us share the apartment."

"Well if Mi asked you then could you have said no?"

"...no."

The triumphant smile that stretches across his face is smug.

"So if I asked Mi and she's fine with it then it means you automatically are."

"Abusing my love for my panda bear? She's mine first." Relishing in that, in wielding it over him that before they (eventually) overcome the shyness and tiptoeing... before that Jangmi is my packmate first. My panda bear.

Not that sometimes I just wish SJ would just man up, be the big bold stag he's meant to be and call Jangmi his panda bear too.

I eye them with curiosity. Watching the way SJ seems to be in unconscious gravitation, eyes flitting to Jangmi when she re-enters the living room, detecting the faintest... barest sweetening tell to his peaches scent and the way his eyes track her movements. From her moving into the living room, hand briefly smoothening over KitKat's ears and pressing a kiss to her cheek, to rounding past me to sink into the nest on the sofa, hands drawing the laptop onto her lap again, nearly entirely swaddled.

The flash of longing there before his eyes drift.

Turning assessing, something in his posture that unconsciously broadcasts that he might not be an officer, but he was trained like one.

Eyes flitting to the pages still clutched in my hands.

"Remembered something?"

I wonder if he's asking because he actually wants to know.

In my peripheral I notice Jangmi's ears perk slightly, listening even if she types away.

My hand cradles the back of KitKat's head as I sink down into the opposite sofa, settling comfortably into it and adjusting the blanket around her.

Even though she won't know, even though she'll never remember... my hand unconsciously shields her ears.

Not wanting her to hear regardless.

"I did... the drug they used was in powder substance... and it had this awful thick taste to it that sort of clung to me..."

"A powdered drug?" voice soft. Pained.

"Dissolves quicker than pills. So it acts quicker too." the look on SJ's face turns grim.

"It's harder to trace drugs back if there's no pills either, no signature of the dealer and manufacturer that way." I muse, voice pitched softly, carefully. Hand shielding KitKat from it all, thumbing over the back of her ears.

"So that means we won't find the one who drugged you?" anger laced into the quiet hardness of her voice, gaze focused on the two of us, eyes flinty with simmering rage and hurt.

"We will." SJ says firmly.

"But if it's untraceable-"

"Every criminal leaves some mark, makes some mistake." He says firmly.

Eyes turning to me, full of a gentle firmness.

"Anything else you remember?"

Because we don't know whether the voices I remember are a threat from inside the centre or from the station... we can't currently place the threat to one place with certainty.

"One of them... I think one of them is a higher ranking officer. He mentioned that being a lieutenant didn't give me the same power as it did to someone as a head-"

"A head of department? Do you know which one?" eager and body and scent sharpening with interest.

"No." frustrated as the breath shudders out of me, the quiet baby purrs pausing, head rising off my shoulder, hand patting at my gland, at my cheek in quiet mumbled comfort. Wide kit eyes blinking at me.

"Mama's okay... everything's okay sweetheart." I murmur quietly, hand smoothening over the back of her head, voice immediately softening, reminding myself that my scent control needed to be all the more careful because she was so responsive to my scent.

Waiting until she's settled, curling back against me, cheek pressed to my shoulder, her fingers still patting at my jaw, at my cheek, playing lightly with my curls until she relaxes again.

"We'll find him."

"But what about the other voice?" I ask, a tinge of frustration there, a faint bite at the back of my words.

"Could you recognise it?"

"It sounds like he works for the officer... that mole but... but it doesn't feel like a low-level hire. He's involved too."

"Did you get to see the interrogations playback?"

I nod.

"The voices don't match."

"What about one of the scorpions?"

"Namjoon's had the other officers take a crack at them first... different officers, different interrogations..."

"Trying to find holes in their stories. They've been in lockup for weeks."

"They've been hurting people for longer-the least the officers can do is make them break."

[......]

"Want to go back to sleep Mina?"

"Not tired."

"Stubborn lying pup." A soft scold, fingers gently tugging at a drooped ear.

"...not tired."

"Liar~ I'll steal kitty from you if you keep that up."

"SJ's a bad influence!" I complain.

She smiles, cheeks slightly bunching with the upturn tilt of her mouth, eyes amused behind dark-rimmed glasses.

"I thought you were in favour of bad influences."

"Not when it's ganging up on me!" I huff faintly, finger poking at my cheek. Head turning to snap my fangs and nip at the pokes.

"Are you going to bed or do I take KitKat to burrow with me?"

My hand snags her wrist, huffing as I tug Jangmi alongside me.

"You can't kick me out of a burrowed nest."

"No?"

"It's my right!"

"Oh?"

"Violation of packmate LAW to try steal a kit and nest without me... you're not a lawbreaker are you panda bear?"

"...I don't know... am I~?"

"No! Absolutely not! I won't have a lawbreaking panda refuse me rights... let's go."

"Where to~"

"Nest!"

--------------------------------

"Something's happened." I observe, the moment I've shifted, eyes flitting between Namjoon and Jimin. An unspoken tightness to their postures, a heaviness haunting Jimin's eyes as he twists them away from me, a deep achy breath before he turns to tug open Namjoon's top drawer.

Slamming down an unmarked envelope but the moment he does, a slew of photos spill out. Clear, high definition photos of--- who is that?

Trying to make sense of the two figures being photographed, reading into Namjoon and Jimin's postures that it's-oh.

"Is that (Y/N)?"

"With Taehyung."

"Huh."

"Is that it?"

"Well I couldn't tell. And if you two hadn't shown me the photos, I wouldn't have been able to place them."

"I thought that too."

"I knew."

"No... you knew because the photos were sent to us. Because there was no-one else that matched the build but that's because of course we know our mates."

"Clearly it means they knew too."

"Have you figured out who'd dropped it off at reception?"

"No." the word bitter. Angry.

And even though Jimin doesn't outrightly say I know he's furious and unsettled.

That the idea that even in disguise his mates have been exposed, have been seen and photographed.

That even they shouldn't know they do-

"But how do they know it's (Y/N) and Tae? You can't tell so how did they know?" Namjoon mutters, eyes flashing with sharpness, with a scrutinising, assessing intensity as he spreads the photos out across the desk.

"Because. We know there's a threat over her, we know she's being watched and that there might've been someone following her." Words laced with anger.

"But that's the thing... they know what (Y/N) looks like. How did they figure out that she was out in disguise? Look at the photos again-"

His words make both our heads turn, tilted close as I lean forward, watching his fingers card through the photos with a rough perusal, trying to see what Namjoon's seeing. But what he's seeing, whether or not that's been dealt with, is clouded with anger, seeing red as he stares hard at a photo of Tae and (Y/N) pressed close together, no tail, no ear in sight.

If anything...

In every single photo...

(Y/N) isn't visible.

If anything Tae is. Camera shots with Tae visible... small glimpses of him that make him recognisable because we know him, because his body's curved to hers, over hers. Protective and shielding. Guarding.

"If anything you catch 3 photos with enough exposure to see Tae-we never see (Y/N)."

Jimin's breath shudders out of him and when I dart a glance towards him, his eyes are plagued with guilt, with anger and hurt, grief and fury. The two make a deadly mix.

The tension in his shoulders sagging suddenly but it's prominent in the sharp curve of his neck as his head slumps forward.

"They knew where to look." The conclusion quiet first.

A whispered tremble.

Then louder. Firmer. Harder.

"They knew where to look."

"They knew-how did they know?" eyes flashing with panic and alarm as his head jerks up, flashing eyes first finding me but then looking... and settling desperately on Namjoon, gaze begging, demanding for an answer. For some sense.

"They couldn't have known where she was going that day. They couldn't have known that Tae would take her out..." I start.

But there's a grim finality in Namjoon's words.

"They were waiting for us to break. For us to slip up. For something like this to happen."

...

"Keeping her in, no matter how long-" I realise.

"Would've eventually given them what they wanted." Joon finishes grimly.

There's a sharp, sharp clarity on Jimin's face.

Makes every feature all the more harsh and prominent.

Angular and piercing.

"They want to push us to our limits, push (Y/N) to her limits."

Which makes them far more dangerous than we could've realised.

And far more deadly too.

(A BIT OF A SHORTER CHAPTER... SIGH... BUT! BUT~ THIS CHAPTER FELT LIKE IT ONLY DESERVED TO BE JUST TAE AND BABY FAWN'S DATE... THE MASSIVE FALLOUT AND PAIN AND THEN A TINY BIT OF OUR LT. FANG~ SO!! HOW WAS IT! IT FEELS LIKE ITS BEEN LITERALLY FOREVER SINCE AN UPDATE AND IM SOOOOORRY BUT THIS CHAPTER WAS REWORDED, REWRITTEN SO M A N Y TIMES SO IT WOULD GET THE FEELS AND ACHE RIGHT! SO!! DID I DO IT JUSTICE??? Midiiplier HOW DO YOU LIKE OUR DYNAMITE ERA SLICKED BACK MULLET TAE? WE HAVE A BLONDE TIGER!! THAT BEING SAID HIM GOING BLONDE RECENTLY REALLY COULDN'T HAVE COME AT A BETTER TIME! LET ME KNOW ALL YOUR THOUGHTS!! THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS... WELL... ENJOY!)

Borahae! 💜💜💜

PurpleQueenie <3