“If you worry that lip anymore, you’ll make it bleed.” Taehyung tells Kyungsoo flatly, staring out the window.

They’d been told Kai had gone down to the front lines to check on the war, and had suddenly disappeared from his entourage 3 days prior. The main house had been in an uproar over the sudden disappearance of their leader, that it nearly shocked them into utter silence when Kai showed back up in front of the gate to the house that morning, bloody, bruised and covered in grime from head to toe.

Kyungsoo had tried to go to the infirmary where Kai was currently being treated, only to be shooed away gently by Luhan, who had a soft spot for the Omega, despite the rest of the Pack hating on the shorter male.

“It’s just so odd.” Kyungsoo finally says, looking over at Taehyung. “What happened down there that he is so beaten up?”

Taehyung shakes his head. Since he’s not allowed outside his quarters like Kyungsoo is, he didn’t get to see what Kai looked like when he came in. “I doubt he’ll say anything.” Taehyung finally mutters, glancing over at the other. “It’s not in his nature to admit when he’s been beaten.”

Kyungsoo nods, face sullen as they wait quietly in Taehyung room. If Kai’s wounds are bad enough, Kyungsoo thinks they’ll come get Taehyung to comfort the Alpha and distract him from treatment, though they both know Kai will refuse any type of comfort if he needs more than just bandages and rest.

The silence is nearly overwhelming, the only sounds in the room are of the two breathing and shifting every now and then, until a loud knock sounds on Taehyung’s door, startling them both out of the silence. “Yes?” Taehyung calls, exchanging a worried look with Kyungsoo.

“Head Alpha’s Mate, your presence is required down in the infirmary.” The unmistakable sound of Luhan’s voice calls through the door.

Taehyung swallows. He gets up to answer the door, looking down slightly at Kai’s second in command. It’s interesting to know that he’s just a smidge taller than the Beta, whom he can tell hates that the Omega is slightly taller than he is. “Can…can Kyungsoo come along? He’s worried about Kai too.” He asks. Luhan doesn’t even flinch at the mention of Kai’s given name.

Luhan looks behind him at Kyungsoo, the other Omega standing by the bed, hands tightly clasped together. “Sure.” He shrugs. “Probably safer anyway, we don’t want anything happening to Head Alpha’s Mate.”

Kyungsoo hurries over to Taehyung, taking his hand as they follow silently behind Luhan, and Taehyung steps outside his prison for the first time in what feels like forever. As they walk through the hallways to the infirmary, other shifters stop and bow as Luhan leads them, most of them whispering as soon as they pass. Taehyung’s not stupid enough to think they are talking about him in any good way, being Kai’s ‘mate’ and all, but he’s pretty sure some of them are surprised that he’s as skinny as he is now. He’s been kept in near isolation from power hungry Omegas in the pack trying to catch Kai’s eyes, and the lack of an heir for Kai and Taehyung’s skinny frame only contributes to the rumors he catches snippets of as they walk past the other wolves.

Their journey to the infirmary is relatively short, and Luhan stops short inside the doors. Kyungsoo shutting them quietly behind him. “Before we go any further, I have to warn you. Kai’s not in a good mood. His wounds aren’t serious, but he refuses to be treated for the more severe looking bite marks before he sees you.”

Taehyung’s eyebrows raise. “What could be so important that he’s refusing treatment?” He asks.

Luhan shrugs. “Says that’s for you to know.” He replies. Kyungsoo snorts at the answer.

Taehyung sighs. “Lead the way.” He says.

Of course the infirmary would have a place specially designated for Kai, and for Taehyung too should any of the tonics he’d ingested in the past few years he’s been Kai’s hostage proven effective and caused him to pup for the Alpha. They’re led to the private healing room where they can smell blood, and anger coming from the room.

Taehyung inhales softly, and nearly chokes on how potent the scents coming from the room are to him. Scents that only he knows he can smell as Kyungsoo clings to him and whimpers. Of course the Omega hasn’t smelt blood and anger like this since before Kai became the pack Alpha, but the scents that Taehyung smells bring back potent memories and his body reacts nearly instantly to the scents he’s missed for the past couple years.

Luhan knocks. “I’ve brought the Head Alpha’s Mate and his .” He says into the room.

“Get in here!” Kai commands from beyond the door, and Kyungsoo has to tug on Taehyung’s hand multiple times to get the other Omega to respond.

Taehyung lets himself be dragged into the room, where Kai is sitting on the bed, shirt discarded in favor of the doctors attempting to stem the blood from one of his bite wounds that looks like it refuses to heal.

Taehyung’s eyes dilate as he inhales, breathing in the scents of his mates that permeate from Kai’s wounds. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that Yoongi was responsible for the majority of the bite marks on Kai’s body, as he unconsciously reaches up to his covered neck, feeling underneath the scarf he’d thrown on before they left his room, finding Yoongi’s mating bite at the juncture of his neck and shoulder.

“Everyone, get out.” Kai commands to the doctors and assistants who are trying to treat Kai. Luhan waits until the last one is out before he nods once at the Alpha, turning and walking out of the door, only to stop in front of it as they hear an audible click.

“Alpha, what is going on?” Kyungsoo asks, taking a step closer to the bed, only to stop in fear as Kai growls at him.

“Taehyung, whose bite marks do these look like to you?” Kai asks, his voice laced with annoyance and a hint of anger.

Taehyung takes a step, then another, inhaling the scents of his mates greedily as he approached. “This one is Yoongi.” He says softly, pointing to the most prominent bite on Kai’s arm. “This one looks like Namjoon’s mark, but is overlaid with another of Yoongi’s bites.” He says, pointing to one on Kai’s chest.

Kai’s angry scent grows, and Taehyung takes a step back involuntarily. “Your two mates ambushed me at the front lines.” He says angrily to the Omega. “You will be punished for their lack of manners for the Alpha who holds your life in his hands.”

Taehyung might be a little scent drunk, and barely misses the threat in Kai’s voice but his wolf side does not. “I am sorry Alpha.” He falls down on his knees, looking up at the Alpha with his eyes not meeting Kai’s eyes intentionally. He bares his neck, pulling the scarf off to let Kai see his submission as Kyungsoo gasps behind him.

Kai snarls, grabbing Taehyung up and pushing him onto the bed, ripping off his clothes in one precise swipe of claws. “Get scent drunk off your mate’s bite marks.” Kai growls, pushing a finger into Taehyung’s entrance, which has already started to lubricate in response to his mates’ scents. “You WILL pup for me this time, or I will kill you myself.”

**

Jin sighs, looking over at Jimin as they look down at Yoongi on the cot. His face is pale, but the Beta has a smile on his face, betraying the pain he’s in. He’s got some pretty deep looking bite marks all over his body, but the doctors had told them that they weren’t as deep as they looked, and Yoongi must have bested whomever he was fighting, since he hadn’t been bleeding too much when Namjoon had dragged him back to the front lines base camp’s infirmary.

Namjoon looked a little worse for wear, though he barely had any bite marks on him, save for a few on his shoulder, and one mysteriously placed on his tail. The others chalked it up to the Alpha being clumsy as usual.

Neither one of them would say a word about who they had fought, though both mates seemed to be more at peace with themselves than before this last venture up to the front lines. Jin knows they’ve been trying to find more information about where Taehyung could be, and he has a feeling that they might have found out where Taehyung is, or, at the very least, found out he’s alive and healthy.

“Really thought that we were behind all this bull.” Jimin huffs, smoothing the hair away from Yoongi’s brow as the Beta sleeps.

“Me too, but I don’t blame them one bit.” Hoseok says, looking up from where he’s sitting with Namjoon. The Alpha had all but collapsed once he’d gotten Yoongi to safety.

The front lines were a complete mess. A batch of wolves who had defected from the Northern Packs had been rescued from execution, some of them still in the infirmary, all in various states of healing from injuries sustained in the fighting.

What they’ve heard from some of the more stable shifters is that Kai’s got some sort of tonic that he’s enforcing all his wolves at the front lines to consume. A tonic that forces the wolf’s conscious to the forefront of the shifter’s mind, taking over the shifter without having shifted into their wolf side. They all know whatever tonic that the wolves for the Northern Packs is different than the one that Wendy had used to force herself into presenting as an Alpha, which was also different than the one that she’d used on Hoseok in her attempt to mate with the Beta.

There are so many things that they don’t know about how Kai operates his Pack, nor how the doctors he’s got are making these tonics. Most of the leadership of the Southern Packs are being very tight lipped about every new detail about Kai and other details surrounding the unstable wolf, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by some of the smaller packs who have been helping with food and other supplies to the front lines.

Jin stretches, patting Jungkook on the head as he passes by his mate. “I’m going to see if I can find some food. By their movements, I wouldn’t be surprised if they wake up soon and they’ll both be ravenous after their fight.” He tells the others.

As Jin heads to the mess tents to get a few scraps of food, enough to at least get Namjoon and Yoongi to the van to get back to their Pack house, he overhears some of the wolves who are preparing to head to the front lines to resume fighting after being injured.

“Did you hear the rumors about the North pack Alpha?” The taller of the two wolves says to his companion as they stroll. “They’re saying that he went bat crazy after ordering the defectors to be gathered up to be executed and nearly beat himself to death in the woods.”

The shorter one snorts, a half grimace on his face. “I heard that he brought his mate with him to the front lines to show off the war efforts since he was the reason the war was declared on us.”

Jin sighs softly. At least the rumors didn’t involve Yoongi or Namjoon, though they should be more careful about their search for information about Taehyung. Jin has no doubt that Kai would be sadistic enough to bring Taehyung down to the front lines, and boast about how things are going to the Omega, but realistically Jin knows Kai isn’t stupid enough to bring Taehyung anywhere where the Omega can escape or be seen and have that chance that Yoongi or Namjoon would risk their lives to rescue their Omega mate.

Just as Jin walks inside the mess hall, a scent wafts over from one of the tables, and it instantly churns his stomach, and he clenches down in fear of vomiting up what little breakfast he’s eaten that day. It takes a whole lot of effort to force his body to calm down before he steps up to the line, knowing he won’t get much because the wolves fighting need the food more.

He gets back to the infirmary just in time it seems, as he hears Namjoon telling the others about the battle with Kai, and how Yoongi dominated against the Alpha with barely any effort.

“All the practice he’s done with Ravi, and the mock fights he’s participated in were just starting points to dealing with Kai.” Namjoon says as Jin puts down the few sandwiches that he’d managed to procure in the mess tent.

Jungkook looks over at him, an eyebrow raised as he’s the only one who can tell Jin isn’t feeling well, though the Omega just shakes his head at his younger mate as Namjoon continues to talk. It’s not the first time that Jin has had this problem with getting sick at an unusual scent, though it has lingered longer than it had the last time.

Jin hands out a sandwich to Namjoon, watching their Pack Alpha inhale the food like its air, and hands him the second of the 4 sandwiches he’d managed to barter for.

The second sandwich seems to satisfy the Alpha, who is content to quiet down now, waiting for Yoongi to wake so they can leave and head back to their small borrowed Pack house.

A/N: Apologies for the delay in getting the next chapter out! I got distracted by real life, and I'm a certified Red Cross trained First Aid/CPR/AED instructor so now I'm going to be teaching some first aid classes in the summer for some extra money (hopefully).

BigHit just announced BTS comeback for May 18th!! Love Yourself 'Tear' is the name of the new full album!! I'll be in Chicago at ACEN this year (Anime Central) when the album hits, so if you want to meet up and chat about things definitely hit me up! You can reach out to me here via PM or Twitter @Miharu_sama

Hopefully I will have the next chapter up before ACEN...We are going to have a little bit of a time skip...expect some angst, and maybe a big dose of anxiety, depression amongst other things. Let me know what you think in the comments!!