It is still the early hours of the morning by the time Lailah opens her eyes. For the first time in a long time, she'd slept as if dead. She'd drifted into dreamlessness so suddenly, however, that she is more than a little bleary now.

With a groan, she tries to push Yoongi off of her. This would be the perfect time to escape; if only she weren't wedged between the peacefully lumbering panther hybrid and his sick bed so thoroughly. He has a possessive arm wrapped around her waist; even in sleep he seems adamant in his refusal to allow her to leave.

Lailah wriggles this way and that, trying not to make too much commotion and risk waking him, but at the same time desperate for escape. There is too much to think about, too much to regret. But Yoongi doesn't seem to be budging, no matter her efforts.

The slight rise and fall of his chest reassure Lailah that he is still completely oblivious, even after all of her squirming. She finds this slightly odd; Yoongi has never been a very heavy sleeper, though he'd slept as often as he could. Lailah had seriously expected that he would wake if she wasn't careful.

It seems that she worried for nothing.

He murmurs in his sleep, stirring a bit as Lailah pries herself free of his grip. Still, he does not wake. She almost wants to sigh in relief at the sensation of the cold floor beneath her feet; the stone is a sure sign that she is closer to her goal of fleeing. However, the damage has already been done.

It is not easy, walking away.

Yoongi looks so peaceful in his sleep; it is enough to make the beating of her heart stammer painfully in Lailah's chest. She wishes, more than anything, to just crawl back in bed with him and enjoy his embrace as she once did. Unfortunately, there is no telling what kind of mood Yoongi will be in once he wakes up. And Lailah can't think of a single mood he might be in that is good for her heart.

Will he be amorous?

Lailah sincerely doubts that his heat has been satisfied. She remembers what it was like for him before, remembers how ravenous for her he'd been. This is the most probable scenario. Most likely, Yoongi will awaken in a lust-fueled haze; he won't be cognizant of anything, aside from the need to bury his dick into something with a hole. Preferably something warm.

It doesn't have to be her. They might be mates, but he doesn't even know that. Truly, in this scenario, what does it really matter? He has clearly lived without her, without even the memory of her, for far too long. The gap between them feels too wide to breach.

Then, of course, there is the other possibility.

Yoongi could wake up spitting fire, and begin hurling insults. If he awakes with even a partially clear mind, he might be so repulsed by the fact he touched a human like that... well, to say that Lailah fears a sour mood once all of this is over is an understatement.

By the time Lailah finally finishes showering she can already hear several of the hideout's residents puttering about. Here, within the confines of the space she has claimed as her own, she feels a little more calm. It isn't likely that Yoongi will come here, even if he can figure out where she sleeps.

When she really thinks about it, there's every chance that Yoongi was far too out of it to actually recognize his own mark; she's tried keeping it's existence under wrap, mainly because she doesn't want to think about it. It's long since become habit to hide it, not just from Yoongi, but from everyone.

Standing before the small mirror, under the harshness of the bunker's bright lighting, Lailah feels older than she really is. The face staring back at her doesn't seem like one that might belong to a woman in her mid twenties. There is hurt and loss, anger and determination written in the lines of her face. Her eyes seem, more than ever, like the eyes of one who has seen too much.

As she drops the towel she'd used to dry herself off with, and reaches for the bathrobe hanging on the nearby wall, the mark catches her attention. She winces. It's not that she wants to forget it's there, but the knowledge that she is the only one who remembers it's existence is a lonely truth.

It hurts.

Lailah runs trembling fingers over the expanse of the mark. There, in the corner where her shoulder meets her neck, is a scar that looks an awful lot like an old bite. The mark. He'd warned her that it would hurt, but she doesn't remember the physical pain hurting more than what she is going through now. Compared to this, that pain was nothing.

It is just as she is tying her robe closed that Lailah hears the sound of banging against her door.

She doesn't remember Seokjin ever banging quite that harshly, and Sully always just lets herself in. Who could be banging on her door so rambunctiously?

Yoongi bangs against the door with every ounce of strength that he possesses. He has half a mind to break the door down; he is furious.

First, he'd awoken with a raging hard on; he'd been eager to begin round two, mind hazy with the feral need for his mate. Only, she was gone. Long gone, judging by the faintness of her scent upon his sheets. He'd immediately been alert, and the hurt he'd felt turned into fuel that kept him alert.

Just in time for Seokjin to come barging into the clinic with an exasperated look upon his face. The fox hybrid took one sniff, one measly sniff, and instantly knew what had happened between Yoongi and Lailah. He'd laid into Yoongi for marking Lailah; if Yoongi hadn't been in such a drastic hurry to find his erstwhile mate and pound her into oblivion he might have felt compelled to knock Seokjin out.

Instead, he'd chosen to let Seokjin misunderstand, and bulldozed his way out of the clinic.

Let the fox think he'd only just claimed her; why should Yoongi care to justify his choice with details. He knows better than to care; he remembers everything. The relationship between Lailah and himself is of no concern to anyone else.

That pang of hurt returns as Yoongi thinks about how much he'd been looking forward to waking with her in his arms. He can't believe he ever forgot about her; how is it possible that someone so important to him was simply erased from his memory? He realizes that it has to do with the spill they'd taken that night just outside Barberry Grove. But it still seems impossible.

They love they'd shared was a once in a lifetime kind of deal; Lailah belongs to him. She did then, and she does now. Nothing has changed. Nothing, except for the fact that she tried to resist him and the fact that she ran away from him the moment she had the opportunity.

In his frustration, he pounds away at the door with increased vigor. He knows she's in here.

He'd spent half the morning running around and threatening information out of people. Nobody would tell him what he wanted to know; most simply ignored him with a disdainful stare. It is quite obvious what is going on with his body; his eyes are blown wide and there is a frighteningly noticeable erection straining against the cloth of his pants.

His agitation had bubbled, and bubbled; for sure it would have eventually exploded, if not for Sully. She lanced his growing annoyance with a few well meant words; directions to the place that Lailah has claimed as her residence.

He can smell her on the other side of the door; vanilla and spice, the smell is stronger than usual. His ears, standing on alert atop his head, catch the sound of the knob before the door is fully opened. Yoongi rushes the door, and pushes his way inside.

Lailah is startled by the sudden emergence of one very angry panther hybrid through the door. She barely even has the time to react before he has her by the throat, and is pushing her against the door with a snarl and a feral gleam in his eyes.

"Why did you leave?" He demands.

The tone of his voice brooks no argument, and Lailah gulps audibly. This is a scenario that she hadn't anticipated. Without knowing how much he knows, she really isn't sure what to say. What to do? She knows that Yoongi won't actually hurt her, at least, she thinks that he won't. But the look in his eyes promises otherwise, and Lailah shivers at the connotations.

"Am I not allowed to take a shower?" Lailah rasps.

His fingers are cutting off her airflow slightly. It isn't enough to suffocate her, but it's enough to distort her voice.

Yoongi's fingers loosen their grip, though he does not release Lailah. His feline eyes travel the length of her body, from her wet platinum curls that hang halfway down her back, to the tips of her bare toes. It doesn't take much imagination to guess at what she might, or might not, be wearing beneath that robe. At least now he understands why her scent was so much stronger.

"You've wasted a shower, " he murmurs, leaning forth to brush his lips sensually against the tip of Lailah's ear, "I'm not done with you."

She tries to pull away, but Yoongi isn't having it. His fingers tighten around her neck once more, and Lailah ceases her struggling immediately. Like a statue, she stills. His breath upon her ear is hot; it tickles the flesh and leaves goosebumps trailing down her arms.

"You belong to me, " Yoongi growls, elongated canines on clear display as he speaks. "You will not leave me to wake alone again, shower or no. There's no escape from this, you know what we are. Don't you?"

Yoongi's breath hitches in his throat as he awaits her answer. He knows that she knows.

"I don't-"

"Don't lie to me, " he warns, voice low and dangerous. "You know exactly what that mark means."

"And if I do? What then?" Lailah refutes there is a sad look in her eyes that makes Yoongi want to strangle something. "I hardly imagine you'd want to keep a human for a mate. Surely it was just a mistake; if you hadn't been in heat it likely would have never happened."

Realization dawns upon Yoongi as he released that she is pretending as if he'd only just given her the mark; likely, she assumes that he still doesn't remember anything. The thought tastes like ash in his mouth, as does the idea of telling her the truth. It doesn't feel right, not when she's suffered on her own for so long.

He doesn't deserve to call her out on it. At least, not on that portion of her assumption. But Yoongi will not stand for her belittling the bond between them, no matter what she believes of him now.

"It was no mistake, " he murmurs. The edge in his tone is gone, but it is still sombre and low. "Human or not, you are mine. My mate. And I'm not in the habit of throwing away things that belong to me."

"I won't-"

Lailah's voice breaks off, shattered by the sensation of his lips upon hers. Careful to avoid nicking her with his canines, he devours her mouth. He releases his hold upon her throat in favor of sinking those same digits into her quickly drying hair. When he pulls, yanking her head back and her lips away from his, he quickly dips down to suckle away at the mark that makes her his.

Despite her emotions, Lailah is swept away by the feeling of his teeth and tongue against that very sensitive spot. It tingles every time he so much as breathes upon it; his assault leaves her feeling weak in the knees.

She doesn't fight him in the least when he lifts her up, though a second of sheer panic does arise when he tosses her down upon her decrepit mattress.

"I'm going to fuck you until you beg for mercy, " Yoongi declares, smirking as the scent of her arousal floods his nostrils. "And then, I'll fuck you some more."

His fingers prove their dexterous nature as they fly through the buttons keeping his pants up. Before long, they are removed entirely, and flung carelessly upon the floor along with his shirt. He kicks off his shoes as he nears the bed; the mattress dips beneath his weight as he settles down, face between Lailah's legs.

"I'm going to taste you now, " Yoongi purrs.

He all but rips the robe open; Lailah is certain that the robe's belt will never be serviceable again. Yoongi takes great interest in the way she tenses beneath his touch; if she is set on shying away from him, then he is equally set on refusing to let her. He'll not stop until she becomes so used to his touch, that it becomes second nature. He won't stop until she is honest; she craves this just as much as he does, and most likely for the very same reasons.

She must have been so hurt and so lonely. He acknowledges that. The fact that she is even trying to push him away is evidence enough; Yoongi recognizes the fear in her eyes. She is afraid of being hurt again. Of being left again.

He can't tell her; the very idea of putting his remembrance into words is terrifying. But he can show her.

Yoongi starts slow, his tongue a gentle caress against the sensitive skin of Lailah's inner thigh. He means to tease her, to torment her for the slight he'd received of waking alone. But Lailah tenses beneath him, fingers digging into his scalp as she moans and he is finished. So enraptured is he by the sound, that he loses all sense.

In his desire to hear it again, he forgets his intentions for revenge. Earnestly, he plunges his tongue into Lailah's cunt, and savors his well-earned reward. The moan that spills from her lips sounds like music to his ears; it becomes the goal for which he strives as he feasts upon Lailah's flesh.

When the pleasure becomes too much to bear, Lailah cries out. She clamps her thighs closed as best she can, but Yoongi stubbornly refuses to stop. It's a little painful, especially since her grip upon his turquoise locks has intensified, but the knowledge that she is falling apart beneath his touch gives him far too much pleasure to stop. Only once she has peaked twice does he manage to pull himself away.

Lailah is dazed. Every bone in her body feels like gelatin. She should be more than sated, but when the tip of Yoongi's arousal twitches against her sopping cunt a burst of sharp desire comes to life within her very blood. He takes only a moment, just long enough to encourage her to wrap her legs around his waist, before he is thrusting inside with enthusiastic and half-crazed strokes.

Lailah's vaginal walls flutter around his cock; the look on her face tells Yoongi that she has gone delirious with pleasure. Her lips hang open, and her eyes are hooded and dark. Lailah's platinum curls have formed a halo around her head, and he almost wishes that he could take advantage of the moment to study her beauty. But the need within him is strong, and Yoongi finds it almost impossible to stop.

"You feel so fucking good, " he swears, voice low and raspy.

"You too, " Lailah gasps, "it feels good for me too."

"I can tell, " Yoongi moans. "You're squeezing me like crazy."

The next moan that is squeezed from Lailah's lips falls silent as Yoongi lurches forward to lock his lips upon hers. The kiss that they share is as desperate and frenzied as the pace of his hips, and it isn't long before Lailah feels the swelling of his cock. He's going to cum soon, and truthfully, Lailah isn't very far behind.

The air within Lailah's tiny living quarters smells heavily of sex and sweat. For hours they've been at it; Lailah no longer has the heart to fight against this. Her mind is probably about as fuzzy as Yoongi's is. Orgasm after orgasm has left her winded and reeling.

Yoongi has already climaxed at least five times.

Now, he is in a deep and seemingly seamless sleep. But though Lailah can barely keep her eyes open, sleep is still so very far away. It isn't that her brain is too full of questions to sleep, after all, her mind is a fuzzy lust induced haze. The afterglow of their activities fills her with a sense of longing.

Oh, how wonderful it would be if he only remembered everything.

Lailah barely has the energy to even so much as move her head, though Yoongi seems intent on holding her still anyways. His grip on her is relentless; there's no way she could escape this time even if she wanted to.

And, truth be told, she really doesn't.

It's been so long since Yoongi held her like this... Lailah knows that this isn't the same. How could it be? Before, the two of them were madly in love. Enough to challenge the world in order to be together. But now? Does he even feel anything for her aside from annoyance?

Not that it matters. Lailah is only human, and there is only so much temptation she can bear. Especially when that temptation is a certain turquoise haired panther hybrid.