lets roll with this xD prolly typos

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His skin itches all over, his barely contained rage sending tremors through his body while his humiliation forces his heart rate sky high. He is almost delirious enough that the throbbing in his cheek seems strangely numb. Then he’ll twitch or breathe and it feels like he’s just been punched all over again. When Minhun comes strolling by the village centre, Chanyeol notices that his hand is wrapped in bloodstained cloth. Just how many times did he have to hit him?

The sun sinks on his first day captive and he still hasn’t had any answers, though he has managed to assess a pattern in Baekhyun’s wauling. Every hour or so, Chanyeol’s ears catch onto groans of distress that will spin like the funnel of a hurricane and gather the winds around them, strengthening into shrieking sobs that have Chanyeol writhing against his ties and trying to force himself free.

He is being withheld in a peculiar fashion – a couple of ropes that tie onto his wrists at both ends, looping around the trunk of the tree that looks out over the village centre and the moonpost. How long will they keep him here, he wonders. Long enough to see the full moon pass and Baekhyun be mated with Sehun? With only his arms bound, he is free to stand, walk a few paces forward and skirt around the tree if he pleases, but he wouldn’t be close enough for the moonlight to bathe him.

None of the omegas seem to be able to keep their eyes off him as he slouches there, distraught and wrestling against the will of the pack with all that he has. No one comes to help him or rationalise their actions. He sits in the shade as much as he sits in the dark, watching the pack move along without him. Just like he’s always known, he’s dispensable – though he could have sworn Baekhyun was calling his name. When he tries to remember exactly how things panned out, all he can hear is crying, a few blurry images of himself clawing at people. That, and Baekhyun hasn’t cried his name since. Chanyeol was probably imagining it all.

Out of the glow of the fire, Chanyeol observes the pack as they settle down for their evening meal. Everyone seems jolly, as though Chanyeol’s torment was nothing more than a passing summer shower. It’s not long, though, before Yoona is pacing towards him with a plate of food in either hand. There are so many things he wants to ask her that he doesn’t even know where to start.

“Chanyeol,” she says as greeting, smiling when she sits down and hands him some food.

“I’m not hungry.” As childish as it may seem – to sulk and refuse to eat – Chanyeol really doesn’t have an appetite. The same sweet smell lingers in the air and his stomach burns every so often, usually when Baekhyun screams at his loudest. It would sicken him, if not for the nausea of being barred from seeing his mate poisoning him first.

Yoona sighs, crossing her legs in a new pair of leggings and resting Chanyeol’s plate on the floor. “Well, you need to eat something.” She shrugs, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear to stop it from falling into her food.

“Yoona, what is going on?” His voice unwittingly cracks in the middle.

Her sigh this time is long-suffering. “I shouldn’t be telling you this,” she begins quietly, eyeing him with pity and sympathy and all things that puncture the last shred of dignity he has. “Please don’t mention it to anyone else. I mean, they all know, but they don’t want you to know.”

“Know what?” he spits, fists clenching and veins protruding against the rope.

“This morning, Baekhyun went into heat for the first time,” she whispers, the duck fat from her thumb and pausing her eating for a moment.

Chanyeol’s eyes widen considerably, the smoke of the fire getting caught under his eyelids and making them water. “I’ve never known an omega to have a heat like that.” Not once has he bore witness to an omega’s heat, only because there’s never anything to look at. The only thing that changes is their smell, and should they want pups, they disappear for a few days. They never scream in agony until they have no voice left, and they never smell this strong. They’re never intoxicating.

“It’s because he’s unmated, Chanyeol. His wolf – it’s calling out for a mate.”

Mate. “Is there someone in there with him?” Chanyeol can barely keep the trembling out of his voice when he asks that. “Is Sehun in there with him?”

“No! Gosh, no!” Yoona cries immediately, making a few people from beside the fire look back at her. Her immediate response has Chanyeol calming, just a little. “He left with the other unmated alphas of the pack.” She grimaces guiltily. “We were trying to get you to leave as well.”

“So that’s why you lied to me,” he huffs, rocking his head back against the tree and watching the sparks of the fire flicker against the indigo sky. “You at it by the way. You should have told me the truth.”

“Told you the truth? Would you really have left if you knew what was happening?” She scoffs lightly, then sighs again. Chanyeol doesn’t offer an answer to her question, mostly because she’s probably right. “Listen, I don’t know how close you and Baekhyun are. I have a feeling you’ve been talking more, but none of that matters. No one in the pack knows, Chanyeol. To be honest, none of them really suspect anything either. Did you think they were going to let you walk into Baekhyun’s hut and take him, when for all they know, you’re both complete strangers?”

Chanyeol closes his eyes and pretends he can’t hear her.

“I’m sorry that Minhun punched you, Chanyeol. And I’m sorry that I lied. But if we’d have let you get into that hut and… taken Baekhyun, even if you both were fine with it and even wanted it, the Head Alpha would have banished you from the pack, if he hadn’t killed you. I can’t be on your side if you’re not here anymore.”

For a moment, Chanyeol thinks bitterly that if he had been put to death, he would have become an ancestor and could have stopped the rest of them from choosing Sehun as Baekhyun’s alpha. Some ridiculous side of himself decides to classify that as an option, if push comes to shove.

She makes sense though. Yoona always makes sense. He wants to forgive her, let her mind rest, but he’s still too wound up to be so kind. Over the chatter of the pack dinner, he thinks he can hear Baekhyun crying again and he physically whimpers at the ache in his chest.

“Your pupils have dilated,” Yoona murmurs offhandedly. “Have you bonded with him a little?”

Chanyeol winces, then nods. “Since the last full moon.”

Yoona gasps. “That long? Oh, Chanyeol… I’m so sorry. I want you to be happy, you know I do, but the pack are just so—” She holds up her hands and squeezes them into fists, letting out a frustrated groan and looking out over the pack supper.

“Yoona,” Chanyeol starts, staring deep into her eyes, “why am I tied to a tree? You couldn’t have tied me to my bed or something?”

She closes her eyes and hangs her head. “I told them it wasn’t a good idea,” she mutters.

“Who?”

Her following smile is sad, head tilted to the side. “Well, after Minhun knocked you unconscious, Baekshi brought up the fact that we didn’t know how long you were going to be unconscious for. Minhun suggested that if you woke up, he’d just hit you again, but Baekshi refused to let him risk it. She didn’t want us to take you to your hut, only for you to wake up halfway there and break free again. Without locking you in someone else’s hut or tying you to the moonpost, this tree was the nearest alternative. Minhun tried reasoning with her but the Head Alpha came and put his foot down. There was nothing we could do. I’m… I’m sorry for that as well.”

“Can you move me? Please, Yoona.” Sitting out here all day has crushed him whole – dignity, pride and spirit. If it weren’t for the rope allowing him to get to the river bank, he would have wet himself by now in front of everyone. “Please. I can’t be here like this.”

“I can’t, Chanyeol. I’m so sorry.” She shakes her head, and it squeezes Chanyeol’s chest.

“Why?” he forces out through gritted teeth. Baekhyun moans again in the distance.

“I’m not strong enough to move you, Chanyeol. And if I do set you loose there’s no guarantee that you won’t be distracted by Baekhyun and try to break free again before I have you in your hut. Do you think Baekshi and the Head Alpha will be as lenient this time?”

“If you get Minhun—”

“I can’t, Chanyeol. He would never agree to help me. No one would. I’m so sorry.”

Chanyeol clenches his jaw, fighting past every one of his instincts so he won’t lash out at her again. “Fine,” he lets out stiffly. “I’ll just change into my wolf.”

“No!” Yoona protests, adamant. “Chanyeol, if you change into your wolf with the ropes around your wrists, you risk deforming yourself. Please don’t, Chanyeol!”

“Yoona!” Chanyeol cries, throwing his head back again and scrunching his eyes closed when he feels the tears coming. “!” How did he ever end up in this position? Why didn’t the pack let him mate Baekhyun when he was clearly the chosen alpha? Out of frustration, he throws his fists against the ground. He has never experienced a helplessness so potent. “At least do me one thing, Yoona,” he pleads, opening his eyes to see her quickly brushing away a tear.

“I—What?”

“Just,” Chanyeol sags in defeat, “untie me before Sehun gets back. I don’t want him to see me like this.”

She creeps closer on her knees, squeezing his shoulder with her hand before moving to cup his cheek. “I will do my best, Chanyeol. Please, try and eat something for me, okay?” She watches him until he answers, then leaves for her mate.

The novelty of his imprisonment wears off after the first day. Now, the pack no longer gawp at him like he’s a rabid disease plotting to spread each time they walk by. Of course, there are still the curious few who stare a little too long.

Yoona sits and eats her meals with him, lets him know that Minhun plans to apologise once the ordeal is over. The Head Alpha always checks on him when he strides past nearby, eyes narrowed beneath a heavy brow that leaves him with a permanent scowl. Kyungsoo, another omega, also keeps sneaking peeks here and there. But it is Baekshi’s blatant staring (and smirking) that pisses him off the most. How she looks so pleased with herself whenever she resurfaces to find food or water for her suffering son—a son that wouldn’t be suffering if she had let fate run its course.

It’s hardest when Baekhyun begins wailing again. He can feel every one of his senses fine-tuning themselves into the smell, his voice, their bond. With every choke and gasp for air on Baekhyun’s part, Chanyeol finds himself thrumming with a pain that buzzes through him like lightning, the heat returned to the pit of his stomach as if the bond is mirroring a fraction of Baekhyun’s trauma – a reflection he would rather not look at, simply because it hurts.

He still finds it a challenge to eat, appetite lost to the stickiness of the air. It benefits him in an unexpected way, for every time he has to relieve himself, he doesn’t have to deal with anything solid. Pissing in the river is shaming him enough. ting in it would leave him drowning in mortification.

No matter how many times he hears Baekhyun from across the village, he never stops fighting against the rope that binds him to the tree. It is thick and cumbersome, and even though Chanyeol grazes it back and forth across the bark a thousand times, it never once frays. Instead, it cuts deep into his wrists until he bleeds; it will wear him down to the bone if he ever gives it the ammunition.  

When Yoona is busy elsewhere, it is the young omega Kyungsoo who brings him his food – food he does not eat. Baekhyun’s smell is latched onto the omega’s clothes, almost as if Kyungsoo is dangling him under his nose just to tease. But something tells Chanyeol that Kyungsoo wouldn’t do such a thing on purpose. He’s a kind being, and Chanyeol has seen him heading towards Baekhyun’s hut a number of times. Kyungsoo must be tending to him. It would explain why he stinks so badly.

It also means that Kyungsoo knows how Baekhyun is doing, and seeing as Chanyeol has already spoken to one unmated omega, what difference would another make?

“Forgive me, ancestors, grandmother,” he whispers to the skies at noon on his third day by the tree. If it weren’t for the branches and leaves glowing green above him he would be perilously sunburned by now. In a way, it protects him, while also protecting Baekhyun. There is no denying that he yearns to be inside the Byun family hut with Baekhyun, helping him through his heat, claiming him, becoming his mate. He has an inkling that Baekhyun wants that too, but what if he doesn’t? What if he’s not ready? If Chanyeol had broken down Baekhyun’s door and forced himself upon him, he would never have forgiven himself.

Kyungsoo finds him in a sombre moment. The omega crouches down beside him and rests a plate of food and a cup of water by his feet, wide, owl-like eyes blinking curiously at him before he makes to walk away.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol hums, almost inaudibly. Naturally, Kyungsoo gasps as though he’s been slapped and turns to face Chanyeol like he was the one who did it. “You don’t have to reply to me,” Chanyeol goes on, “but, how is he? Baekhyun.”

Gaping, Kyungsoo keeps mum.

“Is he in pain?” Chanyeol asks with a grimace, the very thought bringing a stab to his chest. Baekhyun in pain, what a monstrosity. As his alpha, Chanyeol should be protecting Baekhyun at all costs. He should be there, he should be with him, perhaps not intimately, but he should at least be present. He can restrain himself. He isn’t some animal. Wiping sweat from his brow and bringing him water would be all he’d do.

Kyungsoo slowly nods and Chanyeol beseeches the sky, hoping for Baekhyun to be relieved of the flames. The omega slips away then, quiet and contained with hurried, little steps. He’s a peculiar one, Kyungsoo is, but he is thoughtful and considerate. He is glad to know Baekhyun has a friend like him, someone else to rely on other than his wretched mother.

Chanyeol gulps down the water he was given and picks at the food over the next couple of hours, body exhausted of zest and determination. When he breathes, ofttimes he finds himself snarling like his wolf, the sounds that vibrate through his chest very much inhuman. His four-legged friend longs for release, trapped inside an ailing body that has all but seized up. Never has his wolf gone so long without looking up into the sun or splashing its paws through the shallows. Chanyeol misses the feeling of the wind in his fur and the forest beneath his claws. He misses sitting on his cliff and watching the mountain couple birth the sun.

He casts his eyes down to his wrists to see where the struggling has marred his skin. The harsh bristles of the rope dig persistently into wounds that are trying their best to heal, dried, brown blood and scabs flaking off whenever he moves. On a regular day, perhaps he would be strong enough to break the rope and be set free. Today, he is simply too tired. That, and he’s in enough trouble as it is.

He decides to wait out the storm. Surely it cannot last much longer. From what little he knows, courtesy of his grandmother’s fond and crackling tone, heats last anywhere between three and five days. But he supposes it would just be his luck, wouldn’t it, if Baekhyun’s heat went on for well over a week.

Despite his thinking, on the fourth day at noon, Baekhyun is slowly creeping towards the pack omegas. His hand is shielding his eyes from the sun that must burn his unadjusted sight, while his steps are stiff and uncertain, as though he feels he’s about to fall over from the amount of strength his heat has robbed of him. Chanyeol can do no more than lift his head off the bark behind him to look at Baekhyun more squarely. He hasn’t the energy to fight against his ties any longer. Not even enough to stand. All he does is watch, stare, as Baekhyun gradually looks around to get his bearings back, and then looks directly at him.

Baekhyun’s hand slowly lowers and Chanyeol is into his eyes. The omega’s expression bleeds from relieved to sickly in less than a second when he comprehends what he’s seeing, and Chanyeol’s heart skips several beats when Baekhyun immediately starts making a beeline towards him. Baekhyun probably has no idea what was going on while he was barred in