Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Fear coursed through Jisung’s body, heart pounding in his chest, legs shaking as he tried to cram himself tighter into his hiding spot.

              “Where did he go?”

              “I don’t know, but I can smell him around here somewhere.”

              Jisung stifled his cry in his hand, trying not make any sounds that would give him away. He couldn’t do this, not again, he had just gotten away from the last pack, squeezed through the window in the middle of the night before he could be mated against his will, forced to carry pups that he didn’t want, to pleasure alphas that he loathed. Jisung knew that the streets were dangerous for unmated omegas, that alphas were always on the prowl, but he didn’t think that he would be found so fast, that the alphas would be brave enough to venture into a crumbling building just to chase after an omega.

              “Hey sweetie,” one of the alphas called out. “Why don’t you come out of where you’re hiding? It’s not safe here for an omega.”

              And being with the alphas wouldn’t be safe either. Of that, Jisung was certain.

              “I think he’s over here,” a voice said, closer to Jisung than he was comfortable with. “Chan, he smells terrified.”

              “I know, he must’ve had some bad experiences with alphas in the past.”

              Who hadn’t? Alphas lived only to hurt omegas, to capture them and keep them locked up as one would fine china. If only they handled omegas as delicately as one would fragile dishes. For as rare as omegas were, alphas didn’t seem to mind beating them into submission. Jisung had the scars to prove it.

              There were footsteps right next to where Jisung was hiding, crouched under some fallen debris, wedged as far back as he could manage and Jisung had to bite down hard on his arm to muffle his cries. His cheeks burned as the salty tears cascaded down his face, but Jisung couldn’t stop. They were so close to finding him and Jisung didn’t think he was strong enough to survive being abducted by another pack. His body was still littered with bruises, aching from where he had been abused by the last pack.

              “Oh here he is.” A head peeked into the small crevice Jisung was hiding in and Jisung couldn’t hold back his scream as he tried to scramble backwards. Jisung’s heart was beating so fast that its pounding was all he could hear in his ears.

              “No,” Jisung cried. “No. Please don’t.” Jisung tried to breathe, tried to gasp for air to continue his begging, but his lungs refused to fill. The terror that grasped Jisung’s body was unlike anything he had ever felt before. These alphas couldn’t take him. They couldn’t. Jisung couldn’t take any more pain, couldn’t live every day in fear.

              “Hey, we won’t hurt you. It’s okay. You can’t stay in here, though. It’s too dangerous.” Jisung could barely hear the alpha over the roaring in his ears. It was over. Jisung short bit of freedom was soon to be dashed.

              One of the alphas popped his head into the crack and reached for Jisung. Jisung screamed and kicked, but it was no use, the alpha easily grabbed his ankle and started to drag Jisung out from the hole he had hidden in.

              “No!” Jisung screamed, finding his voice again as he clawed at the ground. “No, please. Please don’t.”

              His begging did nothing to deter the alphas, but Jisung should have known better than to expect that it would. Alphas liked it when omegas screamed, when they begged for the pain to stop. They liked to feel powerful and apparently abusing an omega was the best way to do it.

              “Stop fighting and relax.” The command reverberated through Jisung’s body, his screams and thrashing coming to an abrupt halt, as his muscles relaxed against his will, allowing the alpha who had the grip on Jisung’s ankle to finally pull him out from the safety of the hole he had crawled into.

              Once in the open air, Jisung was met with the sight of four alphas staring down at him. They were all buff and big and enough that they could crush Jisung with just one hand, and Jisung would have been terrified if it wasn’t for the alpha command forcing an artificial calm over Jisung’s body. Jisung could usually fight alpha commands to some extent, but this alpha was powerful, more so than any of Jisung’s previous alphas. It was something that was going to worry Jisung in the future, but for now, all he could do was stare up at the group of alphas looming over him, mind fuzzy and limbs weak.

              “Chan, can we keep him?” the alpha who had grabbed Jisung’s ankle asked.

              “Only if he’s not claimed,” the alpha who had commanded Jisung to relax replied.

              “I don’t see any bite marks on his scent glands.”

              “Yeah, just everywhere else,” one of the other alphas said, voice full of distain.

              “We’ll take him home for now,” Chan decided. “It’s not like we could leave him out here.”

              Jisung wished they would. He wished the alphas would just shove him back into the hole they had dragged him out of, let him curl up and die in this dilapidated building. Instead, one of the alphas picked up Jisung, one arm behind his shoulders and the other under his knees as if Jisung was a child.

              “Go to sleep,” he urged. “When you wake up, you’ll be safe in our pack house.” There was no command in his voice, but Jisung felt his eyes fluttering closed anyway, his eyelids suddenly feeling as if they were impossibly heavy. How weak Jisung was that an alpha voice wasn’t even needed.

              Jisung was comfortable when he woke up, laying on a bed with a blanket, aches and pains feeling muted. Either someone really fucked up or Jisung had somehow gotten on someone’s good side. He never got to sleep on a bed, usually relegated to a mat on the floor. Jisung cracked his eyes open, ready to figure out whose bed he had ended up in, but the room didn’t look like any he recognized. The walls were painted a sterile beige color and the only furniture was a nightstand and set of wooden drawers. Jisung blinked in confusion until the events of the past couple of days suddenly came rushing back. Jisung had gotten out of his old pack only to be abducted by another.

              At least this pack seemed willing to let Jisung sleep on a bed. For now at least. The privilege probably wouldn’t last long. Only good omegas got nice things and Jisung was far from a good omega.

              The door opened and Jisung snapped his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. In his experience, alphas were less mean when they thought omegas were asleep. The few times Jisung had ever enjoyed gentle touches had been when his eyes were closed and breathing even.

              “Oh, you’re awake now.”

Fuck.

              Admitting defeat, Jisung cracked open his eyes. The beta who had walked through the door smelled like the earth after rain. Jisung hated to admit that it was a good scent, belonging to a beautiful beta. The beta looked more like an omega with his thin stature and long, shoulder length hair that framed his face in layers. His lips were plump and Jisung was sure that the alphas loved to bite at them when kissing.

              “My name’s Hyunjin.” The beta crossed the room to sit on the side of the bed. It took all of Jisung’s power not to flinch away.

              “Are you scared?” Hyunjin asked, tilting his head as if the thought puzzled him.

              Jisung thought it was a stupid question. Hyunjin could smell the fear in Jisung’s scent, could see the slight shaking of his body. Of course Jisung was scared. He had been dragged out of his hiding spot by Hyunjin’s alphas and alpha commanded to stay calm. Now, Jisung was in a strange pack’s house with a beta sitting on the bed he was lying in, close enough touch, close enough hurt.

              “You don’t have to be scared, our alphas are really nice.”

              Jisung doubted that. Maybe the alphas were nice to Hyunjin, as good looking of a beta as he was, but Jisung was a broken, abused omega. Alphas were never nice to him.

              “Your last pack wasn’t nice, were they?” Hyunjin reached towards Jisung’s face. Jisung froze in fear, not even daring to breathe as Hyunjin’s thumb traced over the bruise marring the corner of his mouth. The touch was surprisingly gentle, Hyunjin didn’t dig his fingers into the bruise like Jisung was expecting, but Jisung didn’t dare to move, didn’t dare to make a sound. Betas weren’t as mean as alphas, but they could still be cruel. The betas in Jisung’s last pack enjoyed picking on him. He was the only one lower on the totem pole and they never let him forget that.

              Jisung wasn’t sure what Hyunjin wanted. Was he trying to befriend Jisung for some reason? Maybe grateful that Jisung was now going to be taking up most of the alphas’ time and energy?

              Hyunjin pulled away and stared down at Jisung. A part of Jisung found himself missing Hyunjin’s touch. It had been gentler than Jisung had felt in weeks and his omega craved more, wanted Hyunjin to smooth over all of his hurts, promise him that everything was going to be okay. More than anything, Jisung’s omega just wanted to be comforted, just wanted to be loved.

              Jisung pushed down the desire the best he could, locking his omega back away in the room he kept it in. His omega was safe there, locked away deep inside. Jisung’s omega couldn’t be hurt if it was buried, kept under lock and key. Jisung knew it wasn’t healthy, knew that it only hurt him in the long run, but it would hurt even more if his omega was there as alphas slung insults and fists at him, called him names, called him a terrible, good for nothing omega. Hearing that would break Jisung’s omega’s spirit and without that, Jisung would be gone, a husk of an omega, all of the fight drained out of him. It was what the alphas wanted, but Jisung wouldn’t be able to bear that. Being separated from his omega was better that having a broken one.

              “You haven’t told me your name,” Hyunjin said as he studied Jisung. Jisung wondered what he saw, what Hyunjin thought of the bruised omega lying on the bed in front of him.

              “Jisung.”

              Hyunjin smiled, dimples decorating his cheeks. “What a cute name for a cute omega.”

              Jisung couldn’t help the blush that warmed his face at Hyunjin’s words. It didn’t matter that Jisung knew that Hyunjin was lying, knew that no one thought he was a cute omega. His old pack had hammered that into him. Jisung knew he was undesirable, but Hyunjin’s words still made something jump in his chest, made his omega want to come out for the second time in such a short conversation. That never happened. Jisung’s omega usually was subdued, happy to stay in its dark, safe spot.

              “I can’t wait until you meet Felix, he’s our pack omega.”

              Jisung blinked in surprise. This pack already had an omega? Was even allowed for a pack to have two? Omegas were rare these days and Jisung had never heard of a pack having more than one. In fact, a lot of packs didn’t have any.

              “He wants to meet you so bad, but Chan wouldn’t let him until they knew if you were stable or not. The alphas are very protective over him and they would never risk Felix getting hurt. You seem stable to me, though, right?”

              Jisung stared at Hyunjin in shock. Was that a question Jisung was supposed to answer?

              “You wouldn’t hurt Felix, would you?”

              Jisung shook his head. No, he would never hurt an omega. He had only met one since he had presented, the omega of one of his pack’s friends, but he had felt such an instant connection, such a desire to be close and comfort. That desire had just made things worse when he had been forced to watch the omega be caned for disobedience.

              “Of course you wouldn’t,” Hyunjin cooed, reaching out to stroke Jisung’s hair. Jisung didn’t even flinch away this time, too caught up in the thought of being able to see another omega. “You’re such a good omega.”

              Jisung melted into the sheets, the tension and fear leaking out of his body. Jisung’s omega was so close to the surface, closer than it had been in months and Jisung was helpless to stop it. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to.

              “Aw, look at you, going down so easily for me.” Hyunjin’s thumb brushed over Jisung’s cheek, touch light and gentle. “You’re so close to omega-space after just a few touches. Your old pack didn’t know how to treat you properly, huh?”

              Omega-space? Jisung knew that omegas had to go into omega-space regularly for their health, but it had never felt so calm and gentle before. The only times Jisung had experienced omega-space before had been after a particularly rough punishment when Jisung lost control and his omega came to the surface to try and save them. Those time, omega-space had felt scary and confusing, like Jisung was trying to navigate twisting maze while blindfolded. This felt nothing like that.

              Jisung was warm, sinking into the sheets, brain feeling comfortably fuzzy. All of his worries and fears seemed to have evaporated, his only focus was the feeling of Hyunjin’s hand in his hair, gently stroking through the stands, careful not to tug. As Hyunjin stroked Jisung’s hair, he whispered soft reassurances, called Jisung a good omega, said he was perfect. Jisung preened at the kindness. He never wanted Hyunjin to stop, wanted to keep feeling this way for forever. Hyunjin said Jisung was good, no one had ever called Jisung good before.

              “How could anyone ever hurt you? Your old alphas were so mean to you, weren’t they?” Jisung’s eyes burned at the reminder. They were mean, so mean to Jisung and Jisung had only ever wanted to be good, he didn’t want to be bad. “Aw.” Hyunjin used his thumbs to gently wipe away Jisung’s tears, cupping Jisung’s face in his hands. “You didn’t deserve that, sweetie. You deserve to be loved and to be treated gently like the precious omega you are.”

              Jisung whined at that, body filling with warmth. Hyunjin thought he was good. Hyunjin thought he was a precious omega. Hyunjin was taking care of him.

              “Oh baby. People have been so mean to you, but that’s all over now, we’ll take care of you like you deserve.”

              Please, please, please. Jisung wanted that. He wanted that so bad. He wanted these soft, gentle touches to continue forever. He wanted to be good.

              Hyunjin kept gently stroking Jisung’s hair and face, murmuring soft reassurances the whole time and Jisung started to drift. His omega was free now, basking in Hyunjin’s touch and Jisung couldn’t even bring himself to care that the part of himself he kept so tightly locked away was now in the open, vulnerable to any attacks. Hyunjin wasn’t going to hurt him, Hyunjin said that Jisung was good. Hyunjin said that Jisung deserved love.

              Someone knocked on the door, but Hyunjin told Jisung not to worry about it, so he didn’t. Jisung was vaguely aware of someone else entering the room, but he only had eyes for Hyunjin who had carefully cupped Jisung’s face in his hands, blocking out the view of the rest of the room.

              “Don’t worry about that, no one is going to hurt you. You’re safe here with me.”

              Safe. Jisung was safe.

              “That’s it, you’re doing such a good job of staying calm and staying here with me.”

              Jisung hummed at that, nuzzling his face into Hyunjin’s hand. Hyunjin smelled good. The scent gland on his wrist was so close to Jisung’s face, but Jisung didn’t dare touch it without permission, so he did the next best thing and nuzzled his face into the palm of Hyunjin’s hand, feeling like he was drowning just on the bit of scent he got. How nice it would be to be able to cover himself in Hyunjin’s scent and make Hyunjin smell like him in return.

              In his last pack, the alphas would rub their scent into Jisung’s scent gland, but would never let Jisung do the same. It was shameful to let an omega mark you in any way, but Jisung wanted to so bad. He just wanted someone to smell like him, to feel like he truly belonged.

              “Oh baby, do you want to scent me?”

              Jisung whined, too out of it to form words.

              “Okay.” But instead of moving his wrist closer to Jisung’s face, Hyunjin moved away. “First you have to eat something, can you do that for me?”

              Jisung whined again. He wanted scenting, not food.

              “I know honey, but if you scent me, you’ll be too out of it to eat and we need to get some food in you.”

              Jisung butted his face into Hyunjin’s hand, trying to communicate that he didn’t need food, but he did need the scenting.

              “How about this? Eat a couple of spoonfuls of soup for me, and then you can scent me as long as you want. You’re such a good omega, Jisung, you listen to me so well.”

              Jisung stopped butting his face into Hyunjin’s hand and turned to look up at Hyunjin. He was good. He could wait to eat food before scenting if that’s what Hyunjin wanted.

              “You’re so beautiful.”

              Jisung preened. Beautiful. He wasn’t sure if anyone had ever called him that before.

              Hyunjin shifted on the bed, pulling away from Jisung. A pitiful whine tore itself out of Jisung’s throat at the movement. Hyunjin was leaving him. Did he not want Jisung anymore? Was Jisung too needy? Of course Jisung had messed up, he could never do anything right. He should have known better than to ask so much from Hyunjin.

              “Oh honey,” Hyunjin sighed, pulling Jisung into his lap so that Jisung’s back was resting against Hyunjin’s chest. “I’m not leaving you. I just had to grab the soup, okay?”

              Not leaving? Hyunjin wasn’t leaving? Jisung relaxed back into Hyunjin’s chest with a small whine. It was okay. Hyunjin wasn’t leaving him. Jisung hadn’t done anything wrong.

              “There you go,” Hyunjin soothed, stroking a hand over Jisung’s hair. “Everything’s alright. You’re still my amazing, gorgeous omega.”

              The words made Jisung’s head go pleasantly floaty as he sunk into Hyunjin’s touch. He rather like the security that being in Hyunjin’s lap provided. Usually Jisung was terrified of being caged in, but when Hyunjin did it, it made him feel safe and secure. Hyunjin wouldn’t let anything happen to Jisung.

              A spoon nudged at Jisung’s lips and Jisung opened up obediently. Normally, Jisung wasn’t so trusting when it came to food—his alphas had liked to drug his meals, saying that if Jisung wasn’t going to take it like a good omega, then they were going to make him. But Jisung trusted Hyunjin. Hyunjin was nice. Hyunjin said that Jisung was a good omega and stroked his hair and paid him compliments. Hyunjin wouldn’t drug Jisung’s food.

              Jisung ate spoonful after spoonful of the soup until Hyunjin declared him done. “You did a great job, do you want to scent me now? Or I can scent you, whichever you prefer.” Hyunjin leaned back against the headboard, leaving his neck wide open for Jisung to do what he pleased. Jisung couldn’t help but blink in surprise, coming out of that fuzzy headspace just a bit. Necks? Hyunjin was going to let Jisung scent his neck?

              Tentatively, Jisung leaned in to rub his face against the scent gland on Hyunjin’s neck, spreading Hyunjin’s earthy scent on his skin. Jisung waited to be pushed away or scolded, but Hyunjin stayed still, let Jisung do what he wanted.

              As Jisung breathed in more and more of Hyunjin’s scent, his brain started to cloud over again. Hyunjin was happy and content so why wasn’t Jisung? Hyunjin’s scent seemed to seep into Jisung’s skin, filling him with contentment. He was okay, he was safe. Hyunjin was going to take care of him. With that thought, Jisung let the last of the tension seep out of his body and he collapsed, completely boneless into Hyunjin’s side, head still buried in his scent gland.

              Fuck.

              Hyunjin hadn’t been supposed to put Jisung in omega-space. His job had just been to make Jisung relax a bit so that he didn’t freak out as much when Chan came in to ask him a couple of questions. Hyunjin hadn’t expected Jisung to go down after just a few touches and kind words. It took a lot more than that to bring Felix under.

              But then again, Felix was a well-cared for omega in a pack that loved him. Jisung’s old pack clearly didn’t know how to treat omegas correctly. Jeongin had warned Hyunjin that Jisung was in bad shape, but it still hadn’t prepared him for the sight of Jisung’s too-thin body dwarfed by the bed he was lying in, body covered in the mottled purple of bruises. It had taken all of Hyunjin’s self-control to stay calm, knowing that any anger or sadness in his scent would just serve to agitate Jisung.

              It had been all too easy to shower Jisung with praise and compliments and gentle touches when it was apparent that his omega had been deprived of all of those things for far too long.

              And then Jisung had dropped into omega-space and Hyunjin couldn’t bear to bring him back up from it. Jisung clearly needed it, was so affected by the tiniest bit of love and affection that Hyunjin felt like it would be wrong to do anything but show him what being cared for felt like. Chan and Changbin could wait until later to question Jisung, the omega’s needs came first.

              When it was time for lunch, Seungmin had come in wearing scent-blockers and Hyunjin had blocked Jisung’s view of the rest of the room and showered him in praise until Seungmin was gone. The whole exchange couldn’t have gone smoother.

              At least until it was time to eat lunch. Hyunjin had to shift away from Jisung in order to grab the bowl of soup and Jisung had taken that as a rejection, scent souring so quickly that Hyunjin had gotten whiplash. Luckily, it had been relatively easy to bring Jisung back up, but the fact that Jisung had started to drop so quickly left Hyunjin feeling shaken. It was a bad sign that just the slightest bit of perceived rejection was enough to send Jisung’s omega into such a spiral.

              Hyunjin wished that Felix was here. He would know what to do better than Hyunjin. Felix would love Jisung. Hyunjin was certain of that. Most days, all Felix wanted was a cuddle partner, someone to curl up with him in his nest and play games with him. Jisung would be perfect for that. He seemed terrified of alphas and wary of betas, but when Hyunjin had mentioned another omega, Jisung had perked up, seemed hopeful at the prospect of being able to meet Felix. Hyunjin hoped that their alphas would get their heads out of their asses soon and realize that an abused omega was of no danger to Felix. Sure, Jisung had screamed and scratched at the alphas, but they had corned him and forced his hand. Jisung was simply acting in self-defense. It didn’t mean that he was a half-feral omega that needed to be separated from everyone else or whatever it was that Minho, Chan, and Changbin thought.

              Jisung was just a scared omega who needed kind words and gentle touches, preferably without any alphas in sight.

              Right now, Jisung’s face was buried in Hyunjin’s neck, breathing in Hyunjin’s scent. Hyunjin had no doubt that Jisung was scent drunk, but he couldn’t bring himself to move Jisung. Jisung’s scent had finally seemed to settle, the fear and sourness receding to reveal his sweet citrusy scent. It reminded Hyunjin of lemonade on a hot summer’s day or maybe like a cake with orange flavored icing. It was a nice scent now that it wasn’t polluted by fear.

              Jisung whined and Hyunjin glanced down to see what was wrong, ready to remedy whatever had made Jisung upset. Hyunjin had only known Jisung for a couple of hours and he was already ready to do whatever it took to keep him happy.

              Jisung still had his head buried in Hyunjin’s neck, but now he was holding up his wrist, offering it to Hyunjin. “Oh baby, you want me to scent you too?”

              Jisung hummed in approval and Hyunjin did as was requested, bringing Jisung’s wrist up so that he could rub it against his face and nose, breathing in lungfuls of Jisung’s sweet scent. Unable to resist, Hyunjin licked over Jisung’s scent gland, causing Jisung to gasp into his neck, muscles tensing before going completely boneless. Jisung’s scent became sickly sweet and Hyunjin smiled in triumph, glancing down at Jisung whose eyes were closed as his head lolled against Hyunjin’s neck.

              All Hyunjin could smell was happiness and contentment and he couldn’t hold back his smile. Jisung was so cute with how sensitive he was. Something like that wouldn’t even have phased Felix, the little gremlin that he was, but it had been enough to send Jisung completely under.

              Hyunjin carefully settled more comfortably against the headboard and grabbed his phone. He was going to be stuck here for a while with Jisung in his lap, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.

              A couple minutes of mindlessly scrolling through a muted TikTok later, Hyunjin got a text message from Chan. He opened it up, narrowing his eyes when he realized Chan had created a groupchat of just him, Hyunjin, Changbin, and Minho.

Chan:

Is it okay if we come in to talk to Jisung now?

              Hyunjin frowned at the message. He had texted the pack groupchat earlier telling them that only betas with scent blockers and omegas were allowed in Jisung’s room because he was in omega-space. Why were the alphas texting now asking to come in?

Hyunjin:

No, he’s under rn, you’ll make him drop if you come in

Minho:

Now is the best time to talk to him because his inhibitions will be lowered

Did Minho not understand what Hyunjin had said? The alphas absolutely could not come in the room right now. Jisung was finally settled and feeling safe.

Hyunjin:

No. You’ll make him drop.

Minho:

We need to find out if he’s a danger to the pack

A danger to the pack? Jisung? Hyunjin was able to answer that question. He knew that the alphas were worried about Jisung’s pack coming after them for omega-napping since omegas were such a rarity these days, or that Jisung had been driven feral from abuse, but Hyunjin was pretty sure he knew the answer to both of those questions.

              Jisung had looked as if he’d been on the streets for several days when he was brought in, and he was unclaimed. His old pack had no legal claim on him anymore, especially if Jisung testified that he wanted to stay with Stray Kids. And as for being feral, the fact that Jisung was calmly buried in Hyunjin’s neck right now was answer enough to that question.

Hyunjin:

Jisung is a danger to no one.

If you guys come in here, he will freak out and drop.

Changbin:

We need to make sure, plus if he’s going to stay, he needs to properly meet the alphas of the pack.

It was Changbin who responded this time. He was from a more traditional pack than some of the others, and Hyunjin knew that he was closer to his instincts. However, that didn’t excuse coming in and scaring an abused omega and making them drop. The safety of the pack was important, but so was Jisung’s wellbeing.

              Knowing that he wasn’t going to get through to the alphas, Hyunjin created a new groupchat with him, Jeongin, Seungmin, and Felix.

Chan, Changbin, and Minho are planning on barging in here and Jisung is in omega-space and will drop if they do that

Felix was the first to respond.

WTF??? How’s Jisung rn?

Calm and relaxed, he’s so cute

I’ll stop them, dw

Hyunjin breathed out a sigh of relief, he knew that he could rely on Felix to have his back.

              There was a knock on the door and Hyunjin barely had enough time to press Jisung’s head closer to his neck before the door was opening, revealing Chan and Changbin standing in the entryway.

              Hyunjin forced himself to stay as calm as possible, knowing that any changes in his scent were going to affect Jisung. “You guys need to leave.”

              “It’s okay, Hyunjin. We just need to ask Jisung a few questions.”

              “He’s going to drop.” Hyunjin took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. It apparently wasn’t good enough because Jisung started to stir.

              “It’s okay, Sungie,” Hyunjin whispered, running his hand through Jisung’s hair. “Just stay where you are.”

              Unfortunately, Chan decided to take Jisung’s return to semi-consciousness as an opportunity. “Hey Jisung sweetie, do you think you could answer some questions for Changbin and I?”

              Hyunjin was helpless, unable to stop Jisung from turning his head to see who was talking to him. As he turned his head, Jisung caught a whiff of Chan and Changbin’s scents for the first time, neither alpha had been smart enough to wear scent blockers.

              Jisung went from calm and relaxed to panicking in a couple of seconds, scent souring so fast that Hyunjin’s nose burned.

              “No!” Jisung screamed, scrambling out of Hyunjin’s lap and falling off of the bed, colliding hard with the wood floors. The fall didn’t stop Jisung though as he frantically crawled into the corner of the room, wedging himself between the nightstand and the bed.  Jisung’s entire body was shaking, breathing coming too fast and Hyunjin could only watch helplessly as Jisung worked himself into too much of a panic for his body to handle, suddenly going limp as Chan took another step towards him.

              “I told you,” Hyunjin said, staring at Jisung’s unconscious body. “I fucking told you that Jisung was going to drop if you came in here.”

              Felix chose that moment to enter the room, out of breath, looking as if he had just sprinted across the house.

              “He dropped,” Hyunjin deadpanned.

              Felix turned to Changbin and Chan, fury in his gaze. “Get out.”

              “But—”

              “Get. Out. We tried this your way, now we’re doing mine.”

              Chan and Changbin retreated like puppies with their tails tucked as Felix headed to Jisung’s side, cursing softly. “Let’s get him to my nest and we’ll see what happens. I’m not talking to a single alpha in this pack other than Jeongin until Jisung is better.”

Chapter Text

Jisung was stuck in a nightmare. There were faceless alphas looming over him, teeth sharp and ready to tear into skin. No matter how far or fast Jisung tried to run, the alphas were always right behind him. It didn’t matter if Jisung crawled into small holes or climbed up trees, the alphas were always there, menacing laughs taunting Jisung.

              Jisung just wanted to be free, but the monsters even followed him into his dreams.

              Jisung woke up with a gasp, ready to fight, ready to run away from the looming alphas who had caught him, dragged him to this house. They sent in a beta to get Jisung to lower his defenses and then barged into the room anyways, ready to hurt.

              “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just us here. You’re in my nest.”

              Jisung looked around, noting piles of blankets and pillows until his gaze landed on an omega kneeling a couple of feet away. His hair was blond and long, braided back away from his face, freckles gracing his cheeks.

              “I’m Felix. It’s nice to meet you.”

              Felix was the prettiest person Jisung had ever seen. He looked well cared for too, cheeks full and skin devoid of bruising. But then again, if Jisung was an alpha and had an omega as pretty as Felix, he wouldn’t be able to hurt him either.

              “I’m sorry about Chan and Changbin. They mean well, but they’re as dumb as a bag of rocks.”

              Jisung felt his jaw drop. Felix was insulting his alphas so casually. Wasn’t he scared that they would hear and beat him for his words?

              “Don’t worry, no alphas are allowed in my nest right now. You’re safe here.”

              Jisung’s head hurt. This was all too much. Felix had a nest and a whole room to himself. A room he had control over and could apparently bar the alphas from. All Jisung had ever had was a mat on the floor and sometimes a blanket if one of his alphas were feeling generous. Felix must be a better omega than Jisung was to deserve all of this.

              “I’ve always wanted a nest.”

              The smile dropped from Felix’s face, apple pie scent turning bitter. “You’ve never had a nest before?”

              Jisung shook his head, running his fingers over the fuzzy texture of a blanket. “I was never allowed. Only good omegas can make nests.”

              “Jisung.” Felix looked like he was about to cry. “Omegas need to make nests for their well-being. It helps us regulate our emotions and feel safe.”

              Jisung had never felt safe before. Not really. From the moment Jisung had presented, he had been fighting for his survival, fighting to keep from succumbing to the wills of alphas.

              “You can make a nest here if you want. A smaller nest within mine or honestly, just completely redo my nest if you want. I won’t mind.”

              Jisung stared at all the blankets and pillows surrounding him, but he didn’t move. He wouldn’t know how to make a nest if he tried. It was best that Jisung just didn’t do anything so that he didn’t make a mess. Felix’s nest was nice and cozy and Jisung didn’t want to ruin it. “I’m tired,” Jisung said, not looking at Felix so that he couldn’t see the disappointment on the other omega’s face.

              It wasn’t even a lie. Jisung was tired despite the fact that he had just woken up. He felt drained, like all of the energy had been sapped out of him, leaving Jisung feeling slightly floaty and disconnected from the world around him.

              “It’s because you dropped. That’s why you’re so tired.”

              “Dropped?” Jisung had never heard the word before.

              “Yeah, Chan and Changbin entering the room when you were in omega-space made you drop. It’s a kind of thing omegas do to protect themselves since we’re not as good at fighting as alphas and betas.”

              “Hmm.” Jisung continued to mess with the blankets near him, running the fabric through his fingers. They felt nice. Nicer than the blankets Jisung was usually allowed.

              “That’s why you feel off right now, like things are hard to process. We could cuddle. Skin to skin contact, especially with other omegas is supposed to help.”

              Jisung looked up in surprise. “You want to cuddle with me?” Jisung had never cuddled with another omega before and now that Felix had mentioned it, Jisung wanted nothing more. Honestly, Jisung was surprised that an omega as good as Felix was willing to cuddle with him. Wasn’t he worried that some of the bad would rub off? Jisung wasn’t worthy of such kindness.

              “Of course I want to cuddle with you.” Felix started to slowly move towards Jisung, but Jisung flinched away.

              “What about the alphas?” The last time Jisung had cuddled with someone, had let his guard down, alphas had barged in and ruined anything. Jisung had felt so nice, so calm and floaty and then the two alphas had entered the room and he had been violently yanked out of the headspace like being dumped in ice water. As much as Jisung wanted to cuddle with Felix, he didn’t want to be surprised by alphas again.

              “The alphas won’t come in here. I told them not to and locked the door.”

              Jisung shook his head. That wasn’t good enough. The alphas could have keys, could just barge in anyways.

              “Okay.” Felix glanced around his room. “What if I put that desk chair under the door?”

              Jisung considered. A chair wouldn’t stop an angry alpha, but it would slow them down enough to give Jisung a warning so that he could pull himself out of the headspace before being surprised. “That’ll work.”

              Felix smiled and jumped up, making quick work of jamming the chair under the doorknob, ensuring that the door couldn’t be opened without at least a bit of trouble. “There. Can we cuddle now?”

              Jisung reluctantly agreed. He wanted to be alert in case any more alphas made an appearance, but the prospect of cuddling with another omega was just too alluring.

              Felix, for all of his excitement, didn’t immediately launch himself across the room at Jisung like Jisung was half expecting. Instead, he approached Jisung slowly, sitting down a few feet from him and holding out his arm, wrist turned up.

              Jisung stared at Felix, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

              “You can scent me if you want.”

              “Are you sure? Your alphas won’t be mad?”

              Felix frowned. “No, of course not. They weren’t mad that you and Hyunjin scented each other.”

              Jisung flinched at the reminder. He shouldn’t have lost himself so much with Hyunjin. It had only led to more trouble than the bit of pleasure had been worth.

              “You’ll be okay,” Felix soothed, noticing Jisung’s distress. “I locked the door and put the chair in front of it, remember? No one can bother us here.”

              Felix reached out and rested his hand on Jisung’s shoulder. “I know you’re scared, that people haven’t always treated you nicely in the past because of your subgender, but I promise that you’re safe here. I will do everything in my power to make sure that no one ever makes you feel uncomfortable or sad ever again. Even if that means that we camp out in my nest together for the foreseeable future because you’re scared of the alphas and everyone else in this pack.”

              Jisung stared at Felix incredulously. He was much braver than Jisung if he was promising things like that. Brave or just incredibly stupid. “What if you get in trouble?”

              Felix laughed. “Those alphas couldn’t scold me properly even if they tried. Plus, right now, they’re the ones in hot water. Hyunjin told them that you weren’t ready to meet anyone else, but they didn’t listen and let their instincts get the best of them. Now, they won’t get to meet you for even longer.”

              Felix was crazy. Bossing around alphas, having no fear of punishments, acting like he was in charge to some degree. Jisung wasn’t sure if Felix was somehow his key to safety or if the other omega was just going to get Jisung into even more trouble.

              “Oh,” Felix’s voice softened and he rubbed gently at Jisung’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, that was a lot, wasn’t it? How about we cuddle a bit and we can talk about this all later?”

              Despite his fears and worries, Jisung found himself nodding. The warmth of Felix’s hand on his shoulder was enough to make Jisung feel slightly fuzzy. As Felix closed the gap between them, Jisung found himself caring less and less about the alphas’ ire that was doubtless to come. Just a couple of minutes relaxing with Felix was worth all of the pain in the world.

              Jisung went down far easier than Felix had expected. Sure, Hyunjin had told him that Jisung had slipped into omega-space after a few soft touches, but it was different when Felix actually saw it for himself.

Felix hated Chan, Changbin, and Minho for making Jisung drop. Jisung was clearly so fragile, so abused and yet the three of them had decided that alpha posturing was more important that Jisung’s safety and well-being. Jisung wouldn’t harm a fly, was probably too scared to do so. Even when he was hurt and confused, he cared more about Felix’s wellbeing than his own, worrying that Felix was going to get in trouble with his alphas by hiding Jisung away.

Felix hoped that said alphas were doing some reflecting right now. Hyunjin had helped Felix carry Jisung to his nest after he had dropped before leaving, scared that Jisung was now going to associate his scent with the fear that had come with the alphas barging in and causing him to drop.

Felix’s phone had blown up after the incident, but he had just turned notifications off, not wanting to deal with the groveling of dumb alphas who didn’t know how to follow simple instructions.

At least Jisung was doing okay now. He had woken up groggy and a bit confused, but luckily Felix had been able to send him under again fairly quickly. Now, the two of them were cuddled together in Felix’s nest, Jisung napping calmly as Felix gently ran his hands through Jisung’s hair.

It was nice to have another omega in the house. Felix had omega friends from neighboring packs and he got to hang out with them, but it wasn’t the same as actually having another omega in the pack. Despite what alphas and betas seemed to think, omegas weren’t solitary and needed the presence of others to thrive. Felix doubted that Jisung had spent any significant time with other omegas judging by the way he reacted to Felix. They had each other now, though. Felix could already tell that his omega was attached to Jisung, the desire to be near him and protect him from harm was overwhelming.

The bruises on Jisung’s face and body were horrifying reminders of the kind of alphas he had belonged to before, reminders of how the majority of society treated omegas, and Felix wanted nothing more than to soothe that hurt and help Jisung grow and blossom into the omega he was meant to be.

Hyunjin had mentioned his fears that Jisung had been suppressing his omega and not giving into his instincts and Felix found himself agreeing. He understood it though. If Felix was in a horrible situation, he too would suppress his instincts and inner omega, if only to protect himself, to be able to keep a piece of himself—no matter how small—alive.

At least Jisung was safe here now. And Felix was going to make sure that Jisung knew it.

When Jisung woke up next, it was with eyes that blinked slowly opened, not fully registering his surroundings.

“Hey Sungie,” Felix cooed, stroking Jisung’s hair out of his face. “How are you feeling?”

“Fuzzy,” Jisung answered.

“That’s nice.” Felix continued to play with Jisung’s hair, keeping his voice soft and low. Jisung was pretty far down still and Felix didn’t want to pull him back up before he was ready. Felix wasn’t sure that Jisung had even been in a healthy version of omega-space.

“Do you think you want to eat something?”

Jisung blinked several times.

“Hey,” Felix soothed. “Don’t think so hard, okay? I have some kimchi fried rice that I can feed you. That sounds good, right?”

Jisung nodded and Felix breathed out a sigh of relief. He had been scared that Jisung was going to pull himself out of omega-space over a simple question.

              Felix fed Jisung slowly, praising him for every bite he took. Felix wasn’t sure how much Jisung was used to eating so he erred on the side of caution, only giving him a small bowl of food. Feeding Jisung a bit too little would be better than giving him a stomachache, especially when Jisung was still recovering from a drop.

              After Felix had fed Jisung the last bite of food, he gently stroked Jisung’s hair. “You did so well, eating all of your food.”

              Jisung preened at the praise, scent sweetening. His scent still smelled off, more sour than Felix thought it should be, but hopefully with more tender care and love, Jisung would be comfortable and happy enough that his scent would blossom into what it was supposed to be. Even now, with all the abuse Jisung had suffered so recently, Felix could still smell hints of sweetness through Jisung’s overwhelmingly tart lemon scent. It gave Felix hope for the future. Chan, Minho, and Changbin had all scared Jisung yesterday, made him drop, but Jisung was still willing to slip into omega-space with Felix.

              Felix knew that likely had more to do with the fact that Felix was an omega and Jisung seemed to have woefully little experience with other omegas and omega-space in general, but it was still hope. Jisung knew that the alphas that had made him drop were in the house, but he still trusted Felix enough to go into omega-space around him.

              Jisung was stubborn and Felix admired that. It meant that Jisung wasn’t broken yet, that he hadn’t lost himself in one of his drops. Felix just hoped that Jisung could learn how to trust their pack eventually. If not, they would of course find a pack or home for Jisung that he was comfortable with, but Felix selfishly hoped that Jisung would stay. His omega was already attached, having wanted another omega packmate for so long. Now that Jisung was in Felix’s nest, lulled into soft sleep by Felix’s gentle touches and praise, Felix didn’t know how he was ever going to be able to let Jisung go.

              For now, though, there wasn’t much Felix could do but continue to cuddle with Jisung and hope that he would feel better after his post-meal sleep.

              Jisung woke up feeling more comfortable than he had in a long time. He was sleeping next to Felix, sides pressed together. They were laying on a comfortable mattress, surrounded by blankets and pillows. It was heaven.

              Jisung remembered the events of the day before, but they didn’t elicit the usual panic that bad memories brought. Jisung was calm, but not artificially so like he was after alpha-orders. This calm felt real. Not only that, but for the first time in forever, Jisung’s omega wasn’t hiding deep away where he couldn’t be hurt. Instead, he was at the surface, feeling almost as if he was one with Jisung. It was a luxury that Jisung hadn’t previously been able to afford. Jisung knew that this was all just a recipe for disaster, that he was so much more vulnerable now, could be hurt in a million different ways, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. These few minutes of bliss were worth every hour of pain the future would bring.

              Felix started to stir next to Jisung, blinking his eyes open sleepily. “Hey, you’re awake already.”

              “Yeah,” Jisung responded. “I feel more well rested than I think I ever have.”

              Felix smiled, the brightness of it almost blinding. “I’m glad. I’m sorry that we had to meet like that. Some of my alphas are idiots.”

              Jisung eyed the bite marks on Felix’s neck. They were clean and well healed, something that Jisung didn’t often see.

              “I promise that they’re actually good people. I wouldn’t be mated to them otherwise,” Felix said, noticing Jisung’s gaze. “You don’t have to meet them again until you’re ready though, and I’m not talking to them until you’ve forgiven them.”

              Jisung balked at that. Felix was going to get them both in so much trouble.

              “Oh.” Felix reached out towards Jisung, hand resting on Jisung’s knee. “I promise that they won’t punish us. They’re not that type of alpha, no matter how they seemed yesterday. We’re both safe here.”

              Jisung wanted to believe Felix so bad, but he just couldn’t. There was no such thing as a good alpha, just ones who were pretending, biding their time until they showed their true colors. He glanced at the door, but the chair was still there, unmoved. At least there was that. No one had entered the room while Jisung had been in such a vulnerable state of mind.

              Something buzzed and Felix reached over and grabbed a phone that had been buried somewhere in the nest. Jisung blinked in surprise at the sight. “You have a phone?”

              “Yeah,” Felix responded. “Hyunjin just texted asking what we wanted for breakfast.”

              “Oh.” Jisung wasn’t sure if he wanted to see Hyunjin or not. The beta had been nice, but in the end it had just been to get Jisung to lower his defenses so that the alphas could come in. On the other hand, Jisung had woken up here, in Felix’s nest and Felix had been livid over what the alphas had done.

              “It can be Seungmin, our other beta, if you prefer. Hyunjin wants to apologize for what happened, even though it’s not his fault at all, but it’s okay if you’re not ready to see him.”

              “He didn’t call the alphas in?” Jisung couldn’t help but ask.

              Felix frowned. “No, in fact, he tried to stop them from coming in.”

              In a way that almost made more sense than Hyunjin betraying Jisung after spending so long trying to make him relax. “He can come in,” Jisung decided. “But, not too close,” he added, not sure if it was a demand he could make.

              “Of course.” Felix typed something on his phone. “He won’t enter the nest. No one is allowed in my nest unless I invite them in. Not even the alphas.”

              Jisung couldn’t imagine alphas respecting an omega’s space, but then again, he couldn’t imagine an omega having a whole room and nest to themselves like Felix had.

              “After breakfast do you want to shower? Or take a bath? I have an en-suite bathroom you can use.”

              Now that Felix had mentioned it, Jisung realized how dirty he was. He was still dressed in the pants and shirt he had run away from his old pack in. “That would be nice. I’m sorry I got your nest dirty.” Jisung was wearing his gross clothes in Felix’s nice, clean nest.

              “Don’t worry about it. I can always do laundry. Plus, I was the one who brought you in here, I knew what was going to happen. We just didn’t want to change you when you were unconscious, it felt like too much of an invasion, especially after everything you’ve been through.”

              So they let Jisung get everything dirty with his disgusting clothes? Jisung appreciated the gesture, but this pack was weird. “I can wash what I got dirty in your nest,” Jisung offered.

              Felix waved his hand. “It’s okay, I’ll wash it while you’re in the bathroom. Then we can rebuild the nest together!”

              “Are you sure? I won’t be good at making a nest, I’ve never done it before.”

              Felix’s scent saddened. “Yes, I’m sure Jisung. You don’t need any experience to build a nest, you just let your instincts take over and do what feels right.” 

              Jisung wasn’t sure it was as easy as Felix made it sound, but right then, there was a knock on the door.

              “Oh, that’s Hyunjin.” Felix jumped up and headed to the door, looking at Jisung for permission before moving the chair keeping the door locked.

              Hyunjin entered the room, two bowls of food in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he said the moment his gaze landed on Jisung. “I’m really sorry. I told the alphas not to enter, but I should have known that they weren’t going to listen to me.  I should have protected you better. It’s my fault that you dropped.” By the time Hyunjin was done speaking, there were tears streaking down his cheeks.

              Jisung wasn’t sure what to do. He’d never had a beta apologize to him, cry because his action had inadvertently gotten Jisung hurt.

              “Hyunjin.” Felix reached out to comfort his pack member, but Hyunjin shook his head, refusing Felix’s touch, gaze still settled on Jisung.

              “Um.”

              “You don’t have to accept my apology, not if you’re not ready yet. I completely understand if you don’t. I bet that was really scary for you and I wish I could have protected you better.”

              Felix shot Hyunjin a look that Jisung couldn’t interpret, but he didn’t move to interrupt Hyunjin and Jisung’s moment.

              “I thought you brought me under to lower my defenses on purpose so that the alphas would have an easier time subduing me,” Jisung didn’t know why he said what he did, judging by the look of devastation on Hyunjin’s face, he should’ve just kept his mouth shut.

              “Oh,” Hyunjin breathed out. “I suppose that makes sense. I know it doesn’t mean much now, but I promise I would never do anything like that to you or any other omega. There are better ways to deal with things than coercion. You deserve so much better than what life has dealt you, Jisung, and I hope that one day you can learn what it means to love and be loved, whether that’s with our pack or another.”

              Hyunjin’s words make a strange feeling swell in Jisung’s chest. He wanted that. He wanted that so bad and he hadn’t even realized until this moment. Jisung wanted to be taken care of, wanted to have his hair stroked gently instead of pulled, wanted soft touches to grace his skin instead of hits that left bruises. More than anything, Jisung wanted to feel love.

              Hyunjin didn’t say anything else after that, just handed the food to Felix and kissed his cheek before waving goodbye to Jisung and closing the door behind him. It was probably good that Hyunjin didn’t say anything else. Jisung wasn’t sure he could take any more revelations of this scale today.

              “Hey,” Felix said as he slid into the nest next to Jisung. “That was a lot, wasn’t it?”

              Jisung nodded, still trying to get over the giant chasm that had opened in his chest. No one had loved him since he had presented at 14. No one had touched Jisung with any kind of care since he had presented until now. Jisung had just been shipped off to the highest paying pack, no regard for his wellbeing. Honestly, Jisung’s parents had probably been happy to get rid of him, one less ungrateful brat to feed. The money they had gotten for Jisung had been enough to pay off all their debts. Jisung didn’t know where they were now, and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to.

              “It’s okay.” Felix rubbed at Jisung’s back. “I know how things are for omegas. It’s hard to find love when society considers you property.”

              Jisung choked back a sob. It hurt. Was he really that hard to love? Was he really so terrible that everyone he had ever known had chosen to abuse him? All Jisung wanted was to be good enough to deserve gentle touches, to deserve to be cherished.

              “Am I good enough to be loved?”

              Felix’s face crumpled. “Yes Jisung. Love isn’t something you should have to earn.”

              “No one has ever loved me before. They haven’t even been nice to me. They said I deserved it because I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t follow their orders well enough. I didn’t react how they wanted me to. I tried so hard Felix, I really did. I tried so hard, yet I was never good enough, never worthy of love.”

              Felix pulled Jisung into a bone crushing hug, hand cradling the back of Jisung’s head. “You are good enough. You are worthy of love and I hope that one day I can make you truly realize that. It was those alphas and betas who were wrong, not you.” Felix’s voice was heavy with emotion, but Jisung couldn’t stop.

              “Why then? Why were they so mean to me?”

              “I don’t know.” Felix’s voice broke and he hugged Jisung even closer. “Some people are just mean for no reason; they use other people who are weaker than them as an outlet for their anger. I’m sorry Jisung. You’ve deserved so much better than what you’ve gotten.”

              The tears that Jisung had been holding back finally broke free, streaming down his face, followed quickly by chest heaving sobs. Years of hurt that Jisung had shoved down were now coming to the surface. Jisung had never been able to process all of the hurt he had suffered, never quite come to terms with how bad it truly had been.

              Jisung soaked Felix’s shoulder with his blubbering sobs, but Felix didn’t mind, just hugged Jisung tighter, pumping out soothing pheromones.

              “It’s okay,” Felix soothed. “Let it all out. I’m here for you.” 

              When Jisung was finally done, tears cried out and body feeling numb, all Felix did was gently wipe the tears from Jisung’s cheeks with his thumbs.

              “I’m sorry for making a mess.”

              “No, don’t apologize. You needed that cry. Plus, I’m doing laundry anyway.” Felix then reached for their abandoned bowls, filled with yogurt and fruit. “It’s a little late now, but would you like some breakfast?”

              Jisung smiled despite the gaping cavern that was his chest. “Thank you.” It was for more than just the food. It was for the companionship, the understanding. Jisung hoped that Felix was telling the truth and that Jisung could stay here with Felix in his nest for as long as he desired.

              It felt good to wash all of the grime off of his skin in the shower even if it meant that Jisung had to come face to face with what his body looked like. Bruises painted his skin in varying hues of purple and yellow, accompanied by scabbed over bite marks crossing Jisung’s chest and thighs. He looked like a thoroughly used omega. The only thing that was missing was a bite mark over the mating gland on Jisung’s neck. That area had been left clear so that the pack could still sell Jisung for some extra cash if they were in need. Jisung had hoped it was always going to stay that way, but then the pack alpha had a successful business venture and decided that Jisung was more valuable as a mated omega. That’s when Jisung had run.

              When omegas were mated, they were fully at the mercy of their alpha. They could feel their alpha’s every desire as if it were their own, helpless to resist their alpha’s every whim. Not only that, but the omega would die if they were away from their alpha for too long, the separation too much for their bodies to handle. Alphas, of course, suffered none of these penalties. It was a one-sided bond that only spelled disaster for the omega.

              Felix didn’t seem upset about the mating bites on his neck, though. He was upset at the alphas currently, but his bites were well healed—something that Jisung hadn’t thought possible. Every omega Jisung had ever seen had festering wounds on their necks from alphas mating them, their body unhappy with the bond.

              The fact that Felix’s bites were well healed and his body was free of bruises and scars meant that the alphas were at least somewhat nice to him. But then again, Jisung knew that alphas didn’t have to physically hurt omegas to harm them.

              When Jisung stepped out of the shower, there was a clean pair of clothes waiting for him, smelling faintly of Felix. Jisung’s old clothes were gone, Felix had presumably grabbed them while Jisung was in the shower. Jisung hoped that Felix had just thrown the stained and ripped fabric away.

              “Jisung!” Felix exclaimed as Jisung exited the bathroom. “You look so much better.” Felix grabbed Jisung’s arm and led him to a corner where a couple of blanket and pillows were piled up. Most of Felix’s nest was in the wash, but it still looked more comfy than anything Jisung’d had before.

              “Is it okay if I brush your hair?” Felix ran his fingers through Jisung’s wet locks. Jisung’s hair was long now, the pack alpha had like it that way. It made Jisung look more feminine, more like a proper omega. It was an added bonus that long hair gave him something to grab.

              “Yeah, you can.”

              Felix smiled and grabbed a comb and bottle of something that Jisung didn’t recognize. “It’s leave-in conditioner,” Felix explained. “It’ll help me comb out some of the knots and make your hair feel soft.” Felix started to run the brush through Jisung’s tangled hair, and Jisung braced for the pain that would ensue when Felix encountered a knot, but it never came. Instead of just pulling the brush through harder when it snagged, Felix stopped, taking the time to spritz Jisung’s hair with the conditioner and gently work the knot out of Jisung’s hair.

              As Felix continued his work, Jisung found himself relaxing, sinking into the pillows around him, breathing in lungfuls of Felix’s sweet scent. Jisung had never felt as relaxed as he did when he was around Felix. Maybe it would be worth it to stay with this pack if it meant that Jisung got to see Felix. The hurt the alphas would inflict wouldn’t feel as bad if Felix was there to patch Jisung up afterwards. Jisung could already imagine Felix’s soft hands tending to Jisung’s wounds, cursing the alphas for hurting Jisung in such a way. Felix would be helpless to stop the alphas, especially since he was mated to them, but it would be nice to have someone who understood, whose hands were gentle and never cruel.

              “Can I braid your hair?”

              The question took Jisung by surprise. “Uh, yeah, you can do whatever you want.”

              “Thank you.” Jisung could hear the smile in Felix’s voice. “Hyunjin lets me braid his hair sometimes, but he’s bad at sitting still. No one else has hair that is long enough.”

              “I don’t like having long hair.” Jisung regretted the words almost immediately as Felix’s scent soured slightly.

              “Hyunjin could cut it for you,” Felix offered, scent back to normal. “He cuts his own hair all the time.”

              “Would the alphas be mad?”

              “No, you don’t have to worry about what the alphas think all the time, Jisung.”

              Jisung disagreed with that. It was always important to worry about what alphas were thinking. That was the only way to avoid a punishment. If Jisung could anticipate the needs and wants of the alphas in the pack, then he wouldn’t get yelled at as much, wouldn’t get slapped across the face for not being fast enough or paddled for bringing the wrong brand of beer.

              “What if I want it shorter than you can braid?”

              Felix cupped Jisung’s face, moving so that he could look Jisung in the eyes. “Don’t worry about me or anyone else, okay? Just do what you want to do.”

              Jisung nodded, feeling a bit overwhelmed by Felix’s sincerity. He’d never been able to do what he wanted to do before, especially in terms of his physical appearance.

              “Is it still okay if I braid your hair?”

              “Yeah.” Jisung tilted his head back so that Felix could reach his hair more easily. “You’re so gentle, I don’t mind.”

              The soothing motion of Felix’s hands in his hair made Jisung start to drift off into that comfortably fuzzy space he found himself in more and more often these days. Jisung didn’t fight it, knowing that Felix would take care of him while he was under.

              Jisung was in omega-space again. Felix hadn’t even known that it was possible to go down so many times in less than two days. After Felix went down into omega-space, it was nearly impossible to get him to go down again for the next couple of days.

              Felix had finished braiding Jisung’s hair and now they were laying down together, Jisung with his head pillowed on Felix’s chest, hands holding onto Felix’s shirt as if Jisung was scared that Felix was going to leave him.

              Felix was careful to not let it show in his scent, but the sight saddened him. Jisung’s omega soaked up every little bit of affection it got, like a man traveling the desert finally stumbling upon water. It wasn’t right. Packs should cherish omegas, treat them like something precious instead of acting as if the only point of an omega’s existence was to be a punching bag for alphas.

Jisung was so bruised, so touch-starved that it made Felix’s chest ache. He wished he could just take all of Jisung’s pain away, could make him realize that he was safe here, that the alphas weren’t like the ones of Jisung’s old pack. Felix knew that healing and building trust took time, but he just wanted Jisung to be okay, to stop smelling so anxious and sad all the time.

              “Lixie?”

              “Yes, Sungie?”

              “Scent?” Jisung was staring up at Felix with wide brown eyes. The sight made Felix want to squeeze Jisung’s cheeks and pepper his face with kisses until he was laughing and smiling.

              “Of course. How do you want to do this?”

              Jisung’s brow furrowed. “I…”

              Oh, right. Jisung didn’t like making decisions in omega-space. That was probably something they needed to work on, but for now, Felix was happy to help Jisung out. “Here.” Felix carefully pulled Jisung up a couple of inches so that his head was at the junction of Felix’s shoulder and neck, close to his scent glands. “Scent me however you want.”

              Jisung whined and buried his head in Felix’s scent gland, spreading Felix’s scent all over him. Felix’s omega was pleased by the action. It was already seeing Jisung as pack and Jisung smothering himself in Felix’s scent just further cemented that notion.

              “Do you want me to scent you too?” Felix asked. He wanted Jisung’s citrusy scent all over him, for everyone to know that Felix’s omega had claimed Jisung as one of their own.

              Jisung whined, high-pitched and in the back of his throat and turned his head so that his neck was bared for Felix to scent. Felix took the invitation for what it was and buried his face in the side of Jisung’s neck, right where the source of Jisung’s citrusy scent was. Now that he was so close, Felix could smell notes of sugary orange underneath Jisung’s usually lemony scent. It was good. Felix loved Jisung’s scent despite the sourness, but he couldn’t wait for Jisung to be comfortable and happy enough for his true scent to shine.

              “You smell so good, I could just eat you up.” Felix couldn’t resist himself and licked over Jisung’s scent gland, making Jisung’s scent intensify to the point that Felix could swear that he could taste it.

              “Oh,” Jisung gasped, going lax under Felix.

              “Did you like that?” Felix licked over Jisung’s scent gland again. He wanted to bite, wanted to leave his marks on Jisung’s skin, but Felix didn’t think that was a good idea considering all of the still-healing bite marks decorating Jisung’s skin.

              “You’re so pretty, Sungie.” Felix praised, cupping Jisung’s face in his hands. Jisung stared at Felix with his wide eyes, slightly glazed over. Unable to resist, Felix pressed a soft kiss to Jisung’s forehead. Jisung’s scent sweetened at the press of Felix’s lips against his skin. Felix was glad that Jisung wasn’t upset by the liberty he had taken.

              Felix laid back down next to Jisung, ready to continue to cuddle and mindlessly draw patterns over Jisung’s arms and back like he had been before Jisung’s request for scenting. Jisung, however, seemed to have other plans.

              As soon as Felix laid back down, Jisung cupped Felix’s face in his hands, much like Felix had done to him earlier. Jisung stroked his thumbs over Felix’s cheeks, the gentle motion making Felix’s breath freeze in his chest. He hardly dared to move for fear of scaring Jisung, letting Jisung do whatever he wanted. “Pretty,” Jisung whispered before leaning forward and pressing his lips to Felix’s forehead.

              Felix’s brain stopped working.

              Jisung had just kissed him. Jisung thought Felix was pretty.

Felix lost control over his scent, the thick smell of pleased omega filling the air. Jisung—who had been embarrassed after kissing Felix and decided to hide his face in Felix’s neck, ended up getting the full brunt of it.

               “Oh,” Jisung gasped. “You liked?”

              “Of course, Sungie. You can kiss me whenever and however you want.”

              “Really?”

              “Yes.” Felix wrapped his arms around Jisung and buried his face in Jisung’s hair. It smelled of the conditioner Felix had used and Felix made a note to ask Minho to buy orange scented products the next time he went to the store, so they would match Jisung’s scent.

              “I liked it.”

              “Hmm?”

              “The kiss,” Jisung clarified. “It was soft.”

              “I’m glad.” Felix rubbed Jisung’s back and Jisung relaxed, adjusting himself a bit until his face was tucked in Felix’s neck. It was an action that pups usually did to familiarize themselves with their pack’s scents and Felix found it cute. It also probably meant that Jisung’s omega was starting to see Felix as pack just like Felix’s omega was with Jisung.

              Felix tried not to think about the ramifications of that as he held Jisung a little closer. They would figure this out. Everything was going to be okay.

Chapter Text

Seungmin:

come get your blankets and stuff I need to do laundry

Felix sighed. Could Seungmin really not wait? He and Jisung were so cozy cuddled up in Felix’s makeshift nest and Felix really didn’t want to move.

Seungmin:

Pls, I need to wash my uniform for tomorrow

Fine. Felix would get up. “Sungie.” Felix stroked Jisung’s hair. “I need to get the blankets and stuff for the nest out of the dryer.”

“No,” Jisung mumbled, lips tickling Felix’s neck as he spoke.

“Yes,” Felix coaxed. “Wouldn’t it be nice to make a real nest together?”

“This is the biggest nest I’ve ever had.”

Fuck. Felix’s scent soured at the reminder that Jisung had been abused by his old pack, denied the most basic things that an omega required.

“Sorry,” Jisung muttered, moving so that his nose was buried in the fabric of Felix’s shirt instead of his neck where Felix’s soured scent was most potent.

“No, don’t apologize.” Felix took a deep breath and focused on calming down, his scent gradually returning to its normal sweet cinnamon apple. Jisung was still partially in omega-space and Felix needed to be careful to make sure that he didn’t drop. Hyunjin had warned him that it didn’t take much for Jisung’s mental state to do a complete 180.

“It’s not your fault that your last pack was full of assholes.” Oops, that came out harsher than Felix had intended. At least, Jisung didn’t seem to mind, snuggling closer to Felix.

“Jisung, I do have to get up.”

Jisung shook his head. He was so cute curled up next to Felix, eyes closed as he rested, hands clutching onto Felix’s shirt.

“Please. I’ll be so quick you won’t even realize I was gone.” Felix started to carefully untangle Jisung’s fingers from the fabric of his shirt, but Jisung whined at the action.

“Don’t leave me.”

“I’m not leaving you, I’ll be right back.” This wasn’t ideal, but Felix couldn’t have any other members of the pack touching his nesting material. Normally, Felix loved having his pack’s scents surrounding him in his nest, but this wasn’t the time for that. Felix was certain that Jisung wouldn’t react well to a scent that wasn’t Felix’s.

“Everyone always leaves.” Jisung’s scent soured as he let go of Felix’s shirt, hands falling limp.

“No, I’m not leaving. I’ll be back in two minutes.”

Jisung’s scent didn’t lighten at all. He was going to drop if this continued.

“You can come with me.” Felix blurted out the words, regretting them almost immediately. Jisung could come with him, but it was likely to cause more problems than it solved. The chance of running into someone else was just too high and Felix was reluctant to text the groupchat their plans, worried that a well-meaning, but dumb alpha would take the chance to try and apologize to Jisung.

Felix’s phone buzzed again.

Seungmin:

Please, I don’t want to touch your stuff, but also I want to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight

Felix:

Okay, I’m coming, but Jisung is with me bc I can’t leave him alone

              “I’ll go with you?” Jisung asked.

              “Yes,” Felix sighed. This was either a good idea or a very bad one and it all depended on whether or not they ran into someone from the pack. The washer and dryer were close to Felix’s room, but there was still the chance that an alpha wandered by and scared Jisung.

              Oh well. At least this way had the possibility of Jisung not dropping. If Felix left Jisung here alone, he was certain that he’d come back to a scared, dropped omega.

              “Are you ready for a short adventure?”

              Jisung looked up at Felix and nodded.

              “Are you sure? We’re going to have to leave my room.” Maybe that would be enough to deter Jisung, he had seemed determined to barricade himself inside earlier.

              “Together?” Jisung looked up at Felix with his wide, brown, trusting eyes.

              “Yeah.” Felix intertwined his hand with Jisung’s. “Together. I won’t let go of your hand, okay?”

              “Okay.”

              Somehow this whole ordeal had seemed to make Jisung fall even further in omega-space instead of bringing him out of it like Felix had hoped. Oh well. Hopefully building a nest would help negate any of the stress that was caused by this outing.

              Jisung and Felix headed towards the door together, Jisung holding on tightly to Felix’s hand. His grasp tightened as Felix removed the chair under the doorknob.

              “Are you okay?” Felix asked, pausing before unlocking the door.

              Jisung nodded. He looked nervous, but he didn’t smell like he was close to dropping, so Felix flipped the lock on the door. The resulting click seemed to echo through the space of Felix’s room.

              “I’m scared.”

              Jisung’s whispered words made Felix pause before opening the door.

              “You can always stay here, Sungie, you don’t have to leave the room with me.”

              Jisung shook his head. “Can’t be alone.” He was holding onto Felix’s arm with the hand that wasn’t intertwined with Felix’s, hiding himself half behind Felix’s body. And the door wasn’t even open yet.

              Felix took a deep breath, Jisung’s scent filling his nose. It was sour, like lemonade that was missing sugar. Felix debated telling Seungmin to just throw Felix’s nesting supplies in a laundry basket for Felix to pick up later, but the thought of sleeping tonight with only a couple of blankets and pillows instead of a proper nest was deplorable.

              “I’m sorry.” Jisung let go of Felix’s arm and moved to step away, but Felix reached out to stop him.

              “No, Sungie, it’s okay.” Felix pulled Jisung close, guiding Jisung’s head to his neck so that Jisung would be soothed by Felix’s scent. “Our trip outside is going to be so fast, okay? Just to grab my nesting supplies, and then we’ll come back here and nest together, doesn’t that sound good?”

              Jisung didn’t reply, but Seungmin was waiting on them, so Felix opened the door.

              It was an awkward shuffle to the laundry room with how Jisung was latched onto Felix, but Felix didn’t dare make Jisung move from where he was, head tucked into Felix’s neck. Being so close to Felix’s scent was probably one of the few things keeping Jisung calm and Felix wasn’t about to take that away from Jisung. 

              “You’re doing so well, Sungie, we’re almost there,” Felix praised, stroking over Jisung’s braided hair. Jisung’s scent lost a bit of its sourness, so Felix continued the action as they shuffled down the hallway to the laundry room.

              They reached the laundry room without incident. There had been no sign of anyone in the hallway and Felix hoped that Seungmin had enough common sense to try and keep the others away.

              “Sungie, you’re going to have to move a bit so that I can put the nesting materials in the laundry basket.”

              Jisung moved his head out of Felix’s neck with a whine.

              “It’s okay,” Felix soothed. “We’re so close to having a proper nest, won’t that be nice?”

              Jisung didn’t seem that excited about the prospect of a nest, but he did start to move away from Felix. As Jisung was moving away, Felix realized that Seungmin’s dirty clothes were sitting in a basket on the floor.

              “Jisung wait—“

              It was too late. As Jisung pulled away from Felix, he caught whiff of Seungmin’s scent, lingering in the room from his dirty laundry. Felix could only watch as Jisung’s eyes widened and his scent soured. Oh no. Felix hadn’t even thought about how much Seungmin’s dirty laundry would still carry his scent and it was likely that Seungmin hadn’t either. Felix was so used to being around his pack, that he hadn’t even registered the scent when he and Jisung had entered the room.

              “It’s just Seungmin’s laundry,” Felix hurried to explain. “He’s a beta, super nice.”

              Jisung was frozen in place, a death grip on Felix’s hand.

              “Seungmin isn’t here. It’s just his laundry you’re smelling, you’re okay.” Felix slowly reached out to place his hand on Jisung’s shoulder, pumping out as much of his own scent as he could. “You’re okay, Jisung, Seungmin isn’t here.”

              “No?”

              “No,” Felix confirmed, rubbing Jisung’s shoulder.

              Jisung slowly turned around to look at Felix. His eyes were blown wide and glassy, but it didn’t seem like Jisung had dropped.

              “There you go, Sungie, you’re okay.”

              “Seungmin?”

              “Yeah, you smelled Seungmin, but he isn’t actually here.”

              “Oh.” Jisung took a step towards Felix and Felix let him, enveloping his arms around Jisung’s body. “Seungmin smells good.”

              Felix almost choked in surprise. Seungmin did smell good, an intoxicating mix of raspberries and mint, but he didn’t expect Jisung to think that a strange beta had a nice scent.

              “You like his scent?”

              “Mm,” Jisung confirmed. “Smells nice.”

              “He does,” Felix agreed. “Do you want to help me bring the nesting supplies to the room?”

              Luckily, Jisung agreed and Felix loaded his arms with blankets and they started the trek back to Felix’s room. When they rounded the corner, Felix noticed that someone had left something by his door. It looked like two bowls of food and a stuffed animal. Puzzled, Felix went ahead of Jisung, wanting to make sure that the stuffed animal was clear of scent since Jisung was sensitive to foreign smells.

              The stuffed animal was a white puppy with floppy ears, something that Felix recognized as belonging to Seungmin.

              “Oh, it’s Seungmin,” Jisung said, appearing behind Felix and reaching for the stuffed animal. Seungmin slept with his stuffed animal every night, so the puppy was soaked in his scent, but Jisung didn’t seem to mind.

              “Yeah, but I don’t know why he left—oh.” Felix noticed a note that was sitting on the ground.

              For Jisung, I heard you like my scent, so I hope you enjoy Ruby. If not, just leave him here and I won’t take offense. –Seungmin

              Felix rolled his eyes at the note. He should’ve known that Seungmin had been eavesdropping on him and Jisung. “He says Ruby, the stuffed animal, is yours to keep if you want.”

              “I can?”

              “Yeah,” Felix confirmed.

              Jisung looked doubtful, but still held the stuffed puppy to his chest.

              “Let’s go inside, eat dinner, and make a proper nest, okay?” They were still out in the hallway and it was making Felix nervous. He hadn’t warned anyone but Seungmin that they’d be out, so it was possible that someone could walk by and accidentally scare Jisung.

              “Okay, we have to cuddle.”

              Felix smiled. “Don’t worry, Jisung, we will.”

              When Jisung woke up, he was more clearheaded than he had been in days. While the events of the past couple of days were a bit blurry, Jisung still remembered the terror he had felt being captured by the alphas, the comfort and then betrayal and fear that had resulted when he’d woke up with Hyunjin, and the calmness that came from being with Felix. Last night the two of them had built a nest together, and it was the best thing Jisung had ever done. This morning, it felt like his omega was soaring, so happy that Jisung was curled up in a nest that he had helped made that smelt safe.

              Felix was still sleeping, head pillowed in Jisung’s lap. Felix was pretty when he slept, blond hair haloed around his face, eyelashes brushing against his freckled cheeks. Jisung couldn’t resist pressing his lips gently against Felix’s forehead.

              “Hmm?” Felix blinked his eyes open.

              Oops, Jisung hadn’t meant to wake Felix up. “It’s okay.” Jisung ran his fingers through Felix’s hair. You can still sleep if you’re tired. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

              Felix yawned and then sat up. Jisung mourned the loss of Felix’s touch. His omega was so sensitive now, daring to yearn for things it never had before. In a way, it almost felt good, but Jisung knew that he was going to have to be careful. Vulnerability like this was dangerous; it was something that alphas could exploit.

              “Are you feeling better?” Felix asked.

              Jisung nodded.

              “Good. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed cuddling and taking care of you yesterday, but it was a bit worrying. I’d never seen an omega go into omega-space that easily or that many times.”

              “Sorry.” Jisung felt bad. He had made Felix take care of him and baby him all of yesterday when that wasn’t the omega’s job. “I didn’t mean to be a burden. I can help you with your chores and stuff now.”

              “Jisung.” Jisung looked up to see Felix’s kind eyes staring into his. “You’re not a burden. It was my pleasure to help you out in a time of need. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to spend time with another omega like that, believe me when I say that it benefitted me almost as much as you.”

              Oh. It made sense though, in a way. Felix was the only omega in this pack and even though he seemed treated better than Jisung’s old pack had treated him, there was still no substitute for quality omega-omega time. It wasn’t something Jisung really had ever had before now, but now he hoped that he would never have to go so long without it again. The day spent cuddling with Felix had been the best thing Jisung had ever felt. He’d had no worries, just complete faith that Felix would take care of him.

              “Do-do I have to meet the alphas now?” Jisung hated the tremor in his voice. He’d survived pain before, knew how to deal with angry alphas, how to take a hit. Maybe now they’d let Jisung stay with Felix when they were done with him. That would at least give something to look forward to after his punishments.

              “Jisung, you don’t have to talk to the alphas if you don’t want to.”

              Jisung looked up in surprise. “But don’t they want to talk to me?”

              “I don’t care what they want. It’s your well-being and safety that matters. You could drop again if you meet them before you’re ready.”

              Jisung wasn’t sure why Felix was so worried about Jisung dropping. “I’ve dropped many times before, I’ll be alright.”

              Felix’s scent soured and it made Jisung want to wrap Felix up in a hug until all of his sadness went away. Maybe that’s why Felix had been so gentle with Jisung yesterday, it was some kind of omega instinct.

              “That’s not good, Jisung. It’s not good for your mental or emotional health to drop so many times, or at all really.”

              Jisung shrugged. It had been his way of life for years and he didn’t want to dwell on it too much lest that floaty feeling took over his brain again. As nice as it was, Jisung wanted to spend some time as fully himself to get some answers to his questions.

              “How’d you end up with this pack?”

              Felix smiled. “How about I tell you over breakfast? Jeongin just texted me that he left food for us by the door.”

              Jisung had thought that maybe yesterday had been a fluke, but apparently not. The alphas really were letting Jisung and Felix eat in Felix’s room instead of sitting by their feet at the kitchen table, hoping to get scraps fed to them.

              Scraps were certainly not what Felix and Jisung were eating, Jisung realized as Felix grabbed two plates from outside the door, both of them laden with delicious smelling food. Maybe the alphas were just trying to lull Jisung into a false sense of complacency, wanting to gain his trust so that they could tear him back down. But then again, Jisung wasn’t one to look the gift horse in the mouth, so he accepted the food from Felix and dug in while it was still warm.

              “I’m originally from Australia.”

              Jisung looked up in surprise at Felix’s words.

              “Chan is too, that’s where we first met. We were kids playing together at the park every week, not a care in the world. This was before either of us presented and dynamics were the last things on our minds. Australia is a bit different from Korea, they don’t have the same omega crisis. I mean male omegas are still a rarity, but less so than here.”

              Jisung tried to imagine that. It would be nice. Maybe if omegas were more common here then he would’ve found someone like Felix earlier.

              “When Chan presented as an alpha, he decided to go to Korea for school, but he’d come back for the summers and we’d hang out. I wanted to follow him to Korea and attend the same school, he seemed to love it, but my parents wouldn’t let me until I presented for fear that I’d be an omega. I mean they were right, of course.”

              “What happens to omegas in Australia after they present?” Jisung asked.

              “We stay with our families until we’re of age and then find a pack to be mated to. Usually omegas will continue their schooling after presentation, but it’s at an omega only school to prevent accidental matings.”

              Not too different from Korea really. Jisung’s parents were just ready to jump at any chance they got for extra cash and one less mouth to feed. The first pack Jisung had been sold to hadn’t been that bad really. There was an older beta who had taken Jisung under her wing and the alphas had promised not to mate Jisung until he was old enough. Good things never lasted, though.

              “I stayed in Australia after my presentation, of course, but I still met up with Chan over the summers and when we hung out it was like nothing had ever really changed.”

              “Your parents allowed that? An unmated alpha and omega hanging out?”

              Felix shrugged. “They knew Chan and trusted him. Plus, we were always in public places. Chan has a strong sense of morality, to a fault sometimes. I always knew that I wanted Chan to be my mate, but when Chan was in Korea, he met other people. People that he wanted to form a pack with. So when I was old enough, it was kind of a no-brainer for me that I move to Korea. My parents weren’t exactly happy with the idea, but they just wanted me to be happy. Honestly, it was Chan who had the most qualms about me moving. He was worried that I’d end up hating it, that I’d miss the freedom I had in Australia.”

              It was bold. Moving across the world to be with a pack he had never met, just because he was in love with the pack alpha. “Are you happy here?”

              “Yeah.” Felix smiled. “Yeah, I really am. I may be upset with Chan, Changbin, and Minho right now, but I still love them. I still love everyone in this pack.”

              Loving an alpha was a foreign concept to Jisung. Alphas weren’t nice to omegas, they didn’t care about omegas beyond what they could provide to the pack. Felix said that the alphas of this pack were different, but Jisung wasn’t so sure. Maybe they were only nice to Felix because he was pretty and the childhood friend of the pack alpha. Things would be different for Jisung. They always were.

              “Are you going to finish your breakfast?”

              Jisung looked down at his half-full bowl. He should finish the food. Jisung knew that the next meal was never guaranteed. Locked up in Felix’s room as they were, Jisung and Felix were privy to the whims of the alphas of the pack, dependent on them to allow the betas to bring food to Felix’s room. Jisung took another bite.

              “Is it too much?” Felix asked, looking fretful. “You don’t have to eat all of it if it’ll make you feel sick. I don’t know if your old pack let you eat a lot.”

              Too much food? Was there such a thing? Food had never been something Jisung had been able to gorge himself on before, his portions carefully monitored by wither his family or the alphas in the pack.

              But maybe Felix was trying to tell Jisung something. Was he not supposed to eat all of this food? Maybe save some for later? Jeongin, an alpha, had dropped it off, so Jisung had figured that eating the full portion was okay, but maybe he was wrong. Jisung hadn’t thought too much about Felix’s weight, but he was thin, maybe the alphas didn’t like seeing omegas eat all of the portions they were given.

              “I can practically hear you overthinking.” Felix wrapped his arm around Jisung’s side. “Eat as much or as little as you want, okay? The alphas don’t care. All they want is that we’re well fed and happy. Normally—when I’m not locked in my room—I eat as much food whenever I want, the pantry is always open.”

              “Really?” Jisung could hardly believe it. He had never been allowed to just grab food for himself whenever he felt like it, he had to wait until the alphas of the pack gave him permission to eat.

              “Of course.” Felix rested his head on Jisung’s shoulder. “I was just worried that if you’re not used to eating a lot of food, that a portion of this size could make your stomach hurt. One of our friends rescued an omega from an abusive pack and the first time they gave him a meal, he ate so much that he threw up.”

              That didn’t sound pleasant. Jisung took another hesitant bite. “Will we get food for lunch?”

              “We will,” Felix confirmed. “Seungmin and Minho are really strict about everyone in the pack eating three meals a day. We usually eat dinner together, but depending on everyone’s schedules, the other meals kind of vary. Chan used to forget to eat lunch because he was so busy at work, but now Minho always makes sure to pack him something and Seungmin checks his lunchbox when he gets home to make sure it’s empty.

              A beta bossing around an alpha? And the pack alpha at that? “He lets them do that?”

              “Yeah, we’re pack and pack takes care of each other.”

              What a bizarre concept to Jisung. In his old pack, the pack alpha was the head of everything and no one could question any of his decisions for fear of facing his wrath.

              “I’m sorry if I overwhelmed you. I feel like that was a lot of information for one morning.”

              “It’s okay.” Jisung rested his head on Felix’s shoulder, deciding to abandon the rest of his food. His stomach was starting to feel full and he figured there was no reason to have a stomachache if they were going to get food for lunch as well. “Could you maybe do what you did yesterday?” Jisung asked. “With the hair and cuddling and stuff?”

Jisung had asked all of the questions he’d had and the answers had left him feeling drained. There was a lot to think about and Jisung just wanted to take a quick break from everything, craving the floaty feeling that he had succumbed to yesterday.

“Of course.” Felix started to stroke over Jisung’s hair, running his fingers through the soft strands. It felt heavenly. Already, Jisung could feel the fuzz starting to take over his mind as he let his body go boneless, slumping against Felix’s side.

“Oh, wow,” Felix laughed as he steadied Jisung. “That was so quick.”

Jisung whined and buried his head in Felix’s neck. Felix was being mean.

“Sorry, I’ll be nicer.” Felix rubbed Jisung’s back in apology, the touch sending warm sparks down Jisung’s spine.

Felix’s scent was sweet and intoxicating and Jisung found himself wanting to drown in it. Remembering what Felix had done to him yesterday, Jisung careful licked over Felix’s scent gland, humming in contentment when the action rewarded him with a wave of Felix’s sweet scent.

“Oh,” Felix gasped, hand in Jisung’s hair stilling.

Jisung paused. Had Felix not liked that?

“Sorry, you didn’t have to stop. I was surprised, that’s all,” Felix said almost as if he could read Jisung’s mind.

Carefully, Jisung licked over Felix’s scent gland again. This time, Felix relaxed back into the nest and tilted his head back to give Jisung better access to his neck.

“It feels good, Jisung. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you if you ever do something that I don’t like, okay?”

Jisung nodded and pressed even further into Felix’s side, letting the warm fuzziness take over. It felt as if Jisung was being wrapped with soft blankets, swaddled until there was nothing to think about anymore. He was safe with the smell of cinnamon apple in the air, taste lingering on his tongue.

Hyunjin:

How is Jisung doing?

Felix:

Good, he’s in omega-space rn

Hyunjin:

Again?

Seungmin:

Is that healthy?

              Felix sighed. How was he supposed to know? It’s not like Felix had a ton of experience with abused omegas. He just figured that Jisung’s omega was doing what it needed right now. Jisung didn’t seem like he was in any danger of losing himself. He still came out of omega-space just fine and was perfectly coherent.

Felix:

Idk ask Hongjoong or Seonghwa if you’re so worried

He seems fine to me, a bit skittish and worried about things

I think that’s to be expected though

Seungmin:

Did he like Ruby?

Felix:

Yeah but that was risky

It’s in the nest rn

Hyunjin:

That’s not fair, what if I give Jisung a blanket or something I scented, do you think he would like that?

              Felix rolled his eyes. He didn’t know what Jisung did and didn’t like. He would’ve thought that Jisung would have refused the stuffed animal from Seungmin, but the other omega was always surprising him.

Felix:

Idk, I can ask later

              Felix turned off his phone, ignoring the buzzing that likely came from Hyunjin and Seungmin trying to bug Felix for more answers to their questions. The truth was, Felix really didn’t know that much about Jisung other than the fact that his old pack was abusive and that he liked having his hair played with and back rubbed. Other than that, Felix knew next to nothing. What Felix did know was that his omega had latched onto Jisung and wasn’t likely to let go anytime soon. Every time Jisung smelled the slightest bit upset, Felix’s instincts screamed at him to make it better, to soothe away the hurt.

              “Lixie?”

              “Mhm?”

              “You won’t leave me, right?” There was a hint of anxiety in Jisung’s scent.

              “No, of course not.” Felix stroked over Jisung’s hair, hoping that the action would help to soothe him.

              “Good,” Jisung relaxed again, head dropping back down onto Felix’s chest. “Everyone nice always leaves.”

              Felix didn’t say anything even as his heart clenched with sympathy. He wouldn’t leave Jisung if Jisung didn’t want him to. Felix wasn’t even sure that his omega would let him, as attached to Jisung as it was. As far as Felix was concerned, Jisung was part of the pack now. They’d figure everything out with the alphas later, but Jisung was Felix’s and Felix was never going to let him go.

Chapter Text

              “I want to meet the alphas,” Jisung spoke the words with a confidence he didn’t have, trying his best to ignore the pit of anxiety that was twisting his stomach into knots.

              “You do?” Felix asked, clearly surprised. Jisung was pretty sure that Felix had relegated himself to the fate of being stuck in his room with Jisung forever. It was a nice room at least, with its own bathroom and TV, the nest taking up the majority of the space.

              “I do. I feel like nothing is ever going to get better if I don’t meet them. When I’m not in omega-space, I’m constantly nervous like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the alphas to barge in and hurt me. I just want to get it over with.” If the alphas were going to hurt Jisung, he needed to get it out of the way as soon as possible. The worst part of punishments was always waiting. And if the alphas were truly nice like Felix had said…

No, Jisung wasn’t going to dwell on such fantasies. He wasn’t about to get his hopes up for something that wasn’t going to happen.

“Okay.” Felix pulled out his phone and typed out a message. Jisung was still amazed that Felix was allowed to have one. Felix had a lot of freedoms, though. More than Jisung dared to wish for. It probably had to do with the fact that Felix was childhood sweethearts with the pack alpha.

“When do you want to meet? It’s a weekend, so everyone is home right now.”

“Oh. Maybe like half an hour?” Jisung needed time to gather his strength, but not too much time or else he would start to second guess his decision too much.

“Okay, we’re going to meet with everyone in the living room. It’s really comfy, there’s a bunch of big couches and stuff we can sit on.”

Jisung gulped, the image of him smashed in between two alphas on the couch popping into his head.

“We’ll sit together,” Felix reassured. “I’ll be next to you the entire time, okay?”

“Okay,” Jisung responded. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Jisung should’ve just pushed the limits and seen how long they allowed him to stay in the nest. At some point even ever-patient Felix would’ve cracked and started to urge him to meet the alphas of the pack. Surely Felix was starting to miss his mates by now. Jisung eyes the bites on Felix’s neck. They looked fine, but everything Jisung had ever been taught had said that mated omegas needed contact with their alphas almost every day or else their bites would fester and the omega would suffer. It had been several days since Felix had seen the alphas of the pack and he still seemed fine.

“Do you miss them?”

“Who?”

“Your alphas.”

Felix made a face, wrinkling his nose. “Not really. I’m still mad at them for what they did to you. They better have one hell of an apology waiting for you.”

Jisung didn’t really understand what Felix meant by that. “But don’t your bites hurt when you don’t see them?”

“Oh, no. That’s a bit of a wives’ tale to scare omegas. Alphas can sort of like tug on the bond to urge their pack members towards them and if a person ignores that tug for long enough, it can become painful. But my alphas would never do that to me when I didn’t want them to.”

“Oh, okay.” Jisung didn’t fully understand, but at least Felix wasn’t in pain because Jisung was too scared to face the alphas of the pack.

The half hour that Jisung had allowed himself to get mentally ready passed all too fast. Before he knew it, Felix was stroking his hand over Jisung’s hair and asking if he was ready to head out to meet the pack.

“It’s time already?”

Sensing Jisung’s anxiety, Felix pulled him closer. “Yes, but we can delay it even longer if you want. There’s no pressure.”

“No.” Jisung took a deep breath. “Let’s go.” He just wanted to get this over with. “I can cuddle with you after, right?”

“Of course, we can head straight to my nest after you’re done talking to the alphas.” Felix pulled Jisung closer and Jisung buried his face in Felix’s neck, inhaling waves of Felix’s scent to calm himself down.

“Careful,” Felix said, but didn’t force Jisung to move away. “I don’t want you getting scent drunk right now.”

Reluctantly, Jisung pulled away. “Okay, let’s go.”

Felix intertwined his hand with Jisung’s and led him towards the door. “It’s going to be okay. I won’t let go of your hand the entire time.”

Jisung nodded, throat suddenly too clogged to speak. Jisung’s heart started to pound in his chest as Felix opened the door to his room. He wasn’t sure if he would do this. He’d have Felix by his side, but that wouldn’t be enough to protect Jisung from the alphas’ wrath, wouldn’t be enough to keep him safe when an angry alpha was staring him down, demanding a punishment for Jisung’s insolence.

Felix stepped out into the hallway and Jisung followed him, feeling as if he were in a daze. He had thought he was ready, but now Jisung was starting to second guess everything. Maybe Jisung should just call it off, return to hiding in Felix’s room, hoping that the chair in front of the door and sacredness of an omega’s nest would be enough to protect him from the angry alphas that he refused to meet.

Jisung opened his mouth to tell Felix that he wasn’t ready, but Jisung couldn’t manage to eek out any words past the giant lump in his throat. The world was closing in around him, the hallway spinning, but Felix kept Jisung’s hand tight in his, leading him towards the living room, each step feeling like a death sentence.

But no matter how hard he tried, Jisung couldn’t keep his feet from moving forward, couldn’t stop from taking one step after another, approaching the room where the alphas and rest of the pack were waiting for him and Felix.

Everyone was already seated when Jisung and Felix entered. Three of the alphas were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the couch, looking as intimidating as ever. On the loveseat, one of the alphas that Jisung recognized as Jeongin was sitting with a very happy looking Hyunjin on his lap and Seungmin at their side. That only left the one chair across from the three alphas free. Jisung didn’t dare assume that the chair was for him. Omegas didn’t get to sit on the furniture, he belonged at the alphas’ feet, waiting for his punishment to be doled out.

Jisung took a step towards the couch but was stopped by Felix’s gentle hand on his arm, leading him to the empty chair. They both fit, but it was tight, thighs slotted together and sides pressed against one another. Jisung didn’t mind. It meant that Felix was by his side, offering gentle encouragement. The alphas seemed to like Felix; he was a better omega than Jisung, and maybe their proximity would provide Jisung with some of the same protection.

“If Jisung feels too scared or is on the verge of dropping, then we’re leaving,” Felix announced.

“That’s perfectly fine,” the alpha in the middle of the couch acquiesced. Jisung recognized him as Chan, the alpha who had commanded Jisung in the abandoned building. The way that he had agreed with Felix was easy. Too easy. It had to be a trap of some kind. Jisung couldn’t come up with any other reason that an alpha would agree so easily to an omega’s demand. If Jisung had dared to ask for anything in his old pack, the alphas would go out of their way to make sure that it didn’t happen.

“Hi Jisung, my name is Chan and I’m the head alpha of this pack. We seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot and for that, I apologize. We should have listened to Hyunjin’s warning and not come into the room. Making you drop was inexcusable.”

Jisung was pretty sure his jaw was on the floor. What the actual fuck. Alphas didn’t apologize. Especially not to omegas like him.

“It’s okay if you don’t accept my apology right now, I understand that you’re scared. Hyunjin and Felix have helped us to understand why Changbin and I should’ve never come into that room.” Chan gestured to the alpha next to him as he spoke. Changbin smiled at Jisung, but somehow Jisung didn’t feel relieved in the slightest. Changbin’s muscles were so big that the sleeves of his shirt were straining against his biceps. Jisung was sure that one hit from Changbin would be enough to take him out for at least a week.

On the other side of Chan, the other alpha, Minho, didn’t move or say anything. He had his arms crossed over his chest, dark eyes tracking Jisung’s every move. Unlike Chan and Changbin, he offered no reassurances or smiles, just stoic silence.

“We were trying to make sure you weren’t a threat—”

Changbin was cut off by a growl from Felix, his scent sharpening. Jisung retreated into Felix’s side, hand squeezing Felix’s tight as he waited for the lash back for Felix’s action.

It never came. Instead, Changbin held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Sorry, Jisung’s not a threat, I know.”

An alpha listening to an omega? Letting an omega growl at him with no repercussions? Were the punishments just going to come later when Jisung wasn’t there? Were they trying to lull him into a false sense of security so that he’d be easier to break?

Jisung tugged on Felix’s shirt. “I want to go,” he whispered into Felix’s ear. They needed to get back to the nest where it was safe, where no alphas could reach them, could punish Felix for his insolence.

Felix stood up. “We’re leaving,” he announced, tugging Jisung to his feet and leading him out of the room. None of the alphas moved, seemingly glued to the couch.

“Already?” Chan questioned. “We haven’t even talked about—”

“Bye Jisung and Felix!” Jeongin exclaimed, waving to them.

Jisung grabbed onto the back of Felix’s shirt, needing the extra reassurance as he braced himself for Chan’s growl. Jeongin may be an alpha, but he was the youngest in the pack and had just interrupted the pack alpha. Chan didn’t say anything though, just stayed silent as Hyunjin and Seungmin chimed in with their goodbyes.

It was entirely possible that Chan was going to reprimand Jeongin later, but Jisung couldn’t really bring himself to care when he was approaching safety in the form of Felix’s nest.

              Felix guided Jisung into the room and locked the door behind them, and only then did Jisung allow the wave of feeling that he had been keeping at bay wash over him. Jisung crashed down to his knees, but he didn’t register the pain. None of the alphas had yelled at him. None of them had hit him or Felix or done anything but sit on the couch.

Jisung gasped for air that refused to fill his lungs. Nothing had happened, but Jisung still couldn’t breathe, couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that alphas had apologized to him instead of beating him until he submitted. Everything was fine, but Jisung’s body didn’t seem to know that. All of the stress from the past couple of days was crashing down on Jisung all at once, his shoulders trembling, scent flaring in distress.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.” Felix pulled Jisung until his face was in his neck. “You were so brave, Jisung, you did so well.”

Jisung shook his head. “Left. I left.”

“You did,” Felix agreed, rubbing Jisung’s back. “And it was very brave of you to do. No one is mad at you for doing what was best for yourself.”

“I-I don’t—”

“It’s okay. I’m here, you’re safe. Just take deep breaths for me, okay?”

Jisung forced air into his lungs and was immediately met with sweet cinnamon and apples, the cloying scent sticking in his lungs. Calm washed over Jisung’s body, and he slumped into Felix’s arms.

“There you are,” Felix soothed. “You’re doing so well for me. Just relax. I’ll take care of everything.”

Jisung did as Felix told him to. Felix would protect him, they were safe in Felix’s nest. Felix continued to whisper in Jisung’s ear, but Jisung didn’t hear him as a warm fuzziness washed over his body. Jisung gave into the feeling, wanting a break from the turmoil of his mind. Felix would take care of him.

              Felix sighed as he looked down at Jisung. He was in omega-space again and this time, Felix had done it on purpose. Jisung had been so freaked out after meeting the alphas that Felix had thought that he was going to drop, so Felix had done the only thing that he cold think of: make Jisung go into omega-space instead.

              To be honest, the meeting had gone better than Felix had expected. He had known that Jisung wasn’t truly ready to meet the alphas, but he gone along with it regardless, not wanting to deny Jisung anything.

              Chan had probably laid it on too strong, speaking all formally and apologizing to Jisung like that, but at least he had apologized. Felix still didn’t forgive the alphas for barging into that room, but this at least was a step in the right direction.

              Felix stroked over Jisung’s long hair, letting the sensation of the soft strands falling through his fingers soothe him. Felix’s phone buzzed by his side, but he ignored it. The pack was going to be fine. Jisung was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine.

              Felix purposefully ignored the fact that Minho hadn’t spoken a single word the entire meeting, had just stared Jisung down the entire time. Felix had purposefully been ignoring his messages from the alpha, knowing that they were going to be filled with worry and stupid alpha posturing.

              Frankly, Felix didn’t care that Minho didn’t like strange omegas, didn’t trust people who weren’t pack in his space. He needed to learn that not every stranger was a threat, and certainly not an abused omega that he, Chan, Changbin, and Jeongin had all but kidnapped. Honestly, what did the alphas expect when they had scooped a terrified omega off the street?

              They honestly, probably hadn’t been thinking much at all, brains filled with the need to soothe and protect an omega in distress.

              Felix didn’t understand the alphas of his pack sometimes. He had instincts too, but Felix wasn’t a slave to them like the alphas seemed to be. Felix knew when to listen to what his omega was telling him and when to take a step back and think about a problem logically.

              Hyunjin and Seungmin had the instinct to soothe the pack and be the mediator in all problems, but you didn’t see them defending hair-brained alphas actions or demanding that Felix make up with the alphas for the good of the pack.

              It was dumb. Felix’s alphas were dumb sometimes, letting their instincts get the best of them and taking home an abused omega and then getting surprised when said abused omega was terrified of alphas and didn’t want to talk to them for a proper pack introduction.

              Whatever. Felix shifted until Jisung was more fully on top of him, acting like a sort of weighted blanket. Felix’s phone buzzed again and he ignored it. He’d deal with the pack and everything else later, right now was time for just him and Jisung.

              Hyunjin stared down at his phone in frustration. Felix seemed to have completely forgotten all about his heat, but Hyunjin and Seungmin hadn’t. Felix’s heat wasn’t due to start for another week, but at their meeting both Seungmin and Hyunjin had picked up the slight milkiness that Felix’s scent got when his heat was approaching.

              It was subtle enough that none of the alphas had noticed, and Jisung seemed none the wiser either, but betas had more sensitive noses than the rest of the subgenders, able to detect the most subtle changes. It was a skill that Hyunjin used to hate. After presenting, he had been overwhelmed by all the scents he could now smell. Hyunjin had refused to leave the house for months, scared of what smelling the scents of strangers would do to his already overwhelmed nose.

              Now, Hyunjin was grateful for the skill. It allowed him to detect subtle changes in the pack’s mood, sometimes aware of how a person was feeling before they knew themselves.

              “Is he not answering you either?” Seungmin asked, leaning over to look at the screen of Hyunjin’s phone.

              Hyunjin shook his head, biting his lip nervously. Having another omega around and the stress of adding someone new to the pack might speed up Felix’s heat.

              “It’s okay,” Seungmin soothed. “He’s probably busy calming down Jisung right now. When it’s time to eat, we’ll let Felix know.”

              “Let Felix know what?” Hyunjin whipped around to see Jeongin standing in the doorway. Hyunjin had been so worried about Felix and Jisung that he hadn’t even smelled Jeongin approaching.

              “Nothing you need to worry about,” Seungmin answered. “Don’t you have some chores to do or something? Leave Hyunjin and I alone, we’re talking about beta things.”

              Jeongin rolled his eyes and turned around. “Fine, I won’t disrupt your beta time.”

              Hyunjin could smell how upset Jeongin was from here. “Innie, Seungmin didn’t mean it like that. It’s just something that we don’t think Felix wants anyone else knowing yet. We don’t tell anyone else your secrets that we smell in your scent.”

              “Fine.” Jeongin rolled his eyes, but Hyunjin could tell that his words soothed some of Jeongin’s turmoil. “After you’re done, do you guys want to play a game with me?”

              “Of course,” Seungmin answered. The question was more directed at him since Hyunjin wasn’t one much for the video games they liked to play. “I’ll come get you when we’re done, like five more minutes.”

              “Okay, just don’t take too long or I’ll start without you.” Jeongin left and Seungmin and Hyunjin exchanged a knowing look.

              “It’s just that this heat, with Jisung here…” Hyunjin trailed off, but Seungmin knew what Hyunjin was implying.

              “He’s going to want Jisung with him, but Jisung isn’t pack yet.” And the alphas weren’t going to like someone who wasn’t pack spending a heat with their omega.

Chapter Text

By the time dinner rolled around, Jisung was starting to come out of omega-space, restlessly moving around. Felix had turned on a movie for them to watch, hoping that would entertain Jisung a bit, but Jisung didn’t seem interested, deciding instead that he wanted to curl up with his face buried in Felix’s neck, occasionally licking over Felix’s scent gland.

              Felix was waiting for the backlash that was sure to come when Jisung remembered in full detail what had occurred that morning with the alphas, but for now, he would enjoy the calm, even if Jisung’s little kitten licks were doing things to Felix’s omega that he would rather not admit.

              Felix still hadn’t checked his phone. The buzzing had become too annoying so he had thrown it somewhere outside of the nest where he couldn’t reach. He figured that no one in the pack was likely to really need him in the couple of hours he was unplugged.

              That’s why, when the knock on the door came, Felix figured that Seungmin or Hyunjin were going to leave dinner sitting on the floor outside like usual. Instead, there was another knock. “Hey Felix, would it be okay if we talked to you about something?” Hyunjin asked. “It’s just me and Seungmin.”

              Felix sighed and carefully began the process of sliding Jisung off of his lap. Jisung let Felix go easier than Felix had expected, farther out of omega-space than Felix had thought.

              When Felix finally unlocked the door, he was met with the smiling faces of Hyunjin and Seungmin, both holding a plate of food. “What do you want to talk about?”

              Hyunjin glanced down the hallway. “Well…”

              “You should try checking your phone sometime,” Seungmin said bluntly.

              Felix bristled. “No one says anything important. It’s mainly just alpha whining.”

              “Except for today when Hyunjin and I were trying to tell you something and you weren’t responding to us.”

              “Well you can tell me—“

              “Seungmin?”

              Felix turned around to see Jisung peering over his shoulder at Hyunjin and Seungmin.”

              “Hi Jisung,” Seungmin’s voice softened. “Hyunjin and I are just dropping off some food and telling Felix something.”

              “Okay. I like Ruby.”

              Seungmin smiled, scent sweetening. “I’m glad. I hope my scent wasn’t too much in the laundry room.”

              Jisung shook his head. “I like your scent. It’s nice.”

              Seungmin looked a bit like he was going to combust on the spot.

              “Would you like anything else scented for the nest?” Hyunjin asked. “I could scent a blanket or something for you if you want. I have some really soft ones.”

              Felix shot Hyunjin a disapproving look. “You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to, Jisung. You decide what gets to go in the nest, not anyone else.”

              “Oh.” Jisung’s brow furrowed. Felix had forgotten that he didn’t like making decisions himself.

              “How about Hyunjin gives us something lightly scented and then you can decide what you want to do with it?”

              “Okay.” The moment Jisung agreed, Hyunjin was turning to run towards his room to grab something for Jisung. Felix couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

              “It’s because we can tell you’ve already accepted him as pack and he you,” Seungmin explained. “It makes us want to get to know him too.”

              “Do the alphas feel the same?” Felix couldn’t help but ask.

              Seungmin shrugged. “Probably, but they can deal.”

              Hyunjin returned a couple of seconds later, blanket in his hand. Felix was pleased to discover that the blanket was in fact lightly scented like he had requested. Felix had been scared that Hyunjin was going to give something to Jisung that was absolutely drenched in his scent.

              “You smell nice too, Hyunjin,” Jisung said as he accepted the blanket.

              Hyunjin’s resulting smile split his face in half. “Thank you, I’m glad you like it.”

              Jisung buried his face in Felix’s back, probably not liking being the center of attention for so long.

              “What was it you wanted to tell me?” Felix asked. “We need to eat dinner and I’m afraid that Jisung might get too overwhelmed.”

              “Oh.” Hyunjin shifted his feet and looked towards Seungmin.

              “Maybe Jisung should go back to your nest,” Seungmin suggested.

              Felix bristled at the idea.

              “Or not,” Hyunjin hurried to soothe.

              “Are you sure you want Jisung to hear this?”

              Felix nodded. “Jisung will find out eventually, right?”

              Both Hyunjin and Seungmin nodded.

              “Then he might as well hear it right now.”

              “Okay, well, Hyunjin I noticed a change in your scent today.”

              Huh? What change? It wasn’t like Felix was pregnant or anything.

              “Felix, your next heat is going to start soon.”

              Oh. Oh no. Felix had completely forgotten about his heat with everything else going on. It made sense now that Felix was thinking about it, he had been more protective of Jisung today, completely focused on making sure the other omega was happy. He had thought it was just because Jisung had been so upset after meeting the alphas, but now that Felix knew that his heat was coming, he could feel the instinctual protectiveness flare up in him. Normally, Felix’s heats were focused on the whole pack, needing everyone in his nest surrounding him, but this time, Felix’s omega only seemed to want Jisung.

              “Your heat?” Jisung whispered. “The alphas will come?”

              “No,” Felix all but snarled, pulling Jisung closer to him. “No alphas. Only us.” Felix nuzzled the top of Jisung’s head, Jisung’s lemony scent soothing his instincts.

              “But—“

              “Jisung, Felix doesn’t have to spend his heat with anyone he doesn’t want to,” Hyunjin explained. “All of us, some of us, none of us, it’s his choice because it’s his heat and his body.”

              What Hyunjin didn’t say was that there had never been a time when Felix didn’t want all of the pack surrounding him in his nest, soothing his heat with their touches. Felix was usually insatiable, demanding that he had a knot in him at all times. This heat was going to be different though, Felix could already tell.

              “But the alphas, they always…”

              “Not here, Jisung. They won’t touch me unless I ask them to. We’re going to be okay, got it? It’ll just be you and me, no one else.” Felix spoke with confidence, but a part of him couldn’t help but wonder how the alphas would take the news. Felix was planning on spending his heat with someone who wasn’t pack, who the alphas didn’t even really know.

              “You’ll be safe, Jisung.” Seungmin’s scent was soft and soothing as he spoke. “During Felix’s heat, not a single person will enter through this door without Felix’s approval, okay?”

              Jisung nodded, but Felix could tell that he didn’t believe Seungmin.

              Felix stroked over Jisung hair. “How about we talk about this more during dinner? Wouldn’t it be nice to be back in the nest?”

              Felix started to guide Jisung away from the door. “We’ll be okay,” Felix promised Seungmin and Hyunjin. “Maybe just let me be the one to tell the alphas about my heat, okay?”

              “You’re going to have to do it soon,” Seungmin warned. “But let us know when you plan on telling them, Hyunjin and I can help keep them calm.”

              “Thank you.” Felix closed the door and then focused on Jisung. He was trembling in Felix’s arms, hands fisted in Felix’s shirt.

              “It’s okay,” Felix soothed, guiding Jisung over to the nest, hoping the familiar space would help him calm down. “It’s just us here. I locked the door and put the chair in front, we’re safe.”

              Jisung shook his head. Felix could hear the big heaving breaths that Jisung was trying to inhale, could feel the way his whole body was shaking in Felix’s arms.

              “The alphas aren’t going to be here for my heat, we’re okay.”

              Jisung let out a high pitched whine at the mention of the alphas, moving his head to the side to show his neck.

              “Jisung.” Felix tried to pull Jisung closer, pumping out his scent as much as possible, but Jisung was a dead weight in his arms, scent gland bared as if he were presenting to an alpha.

              “Jisung.” Felix sat Jisung down in the middle of the nest, frantic now. Jisung’s scent was tart, but strangely muted. He was going to drop if this continued on. In fact, Felix wasn’t entirely sure that Jisung hadn’t already dropped. 

              “Jisung please.” Felix didn’t know what to do. Jisung was obviously terrified and nothing Felix was saying or doing was making anything better. Felix tried to pump out even more of his scent, but Jisung’s nose didn’t even twitch.

              At this point Felix had exhausted all of his options. All but one. “I’m sorry,” Felix whispered before he leaned forward, laying his weight on top of Jisung’s like a blanket, and nipped at Jisung’s exposed scent gland. Felix was as gentle as he could be, barely brushing his teeth over the sensitive skin, but it was enough.

              Jisung went boneless.

              “There you go,” Felix soothed, feeling nothing short of a monster. He had just forced Jisung down like an alpha would to an unruly omega. Felix had done it as gently as possible, hoping that it wouldn’t have quite the same effect since he was an omega, but Jisung fully submitted to him anyway.

              Every time Felix had been nipped, he’d hated it. It was better than a full scruffing, but still awful. Felix hated the weird fuzzy space nipping sent him down into, the forced calm that spread through his body. It had only been done for Felix’s own good, to get him to calm down and submit in dangerous situations, but Felix hated it nonetheless. It was like omega-space, but wrong, tainted somehow, like the whole world was spinning but Felix wasn’t spinning with it.

              “I’m sorry.” Felix stroked Jisung’s hair out of his face. Jisung didn’t move. Didn’t even blink. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. You were panicking and—“ Felix choked on his words. Was he really any better than the alphas Jisung hated?

              “I’ll lay down next to you and we can cuddle in the nest, maybe that’ll make you feel better.” Felix swallowed back his sobs, knowing that tears weren’t going to help Jisung. Felix needed to calm down, needed to smooth all of the distress out of his scent. Jisung was sensitive in this state and any emotion from Felix other than happiness and contentment was only going to make things worse.

              “We’re okay, Jisung. Everything is okay.” Felix didn’t know who the words were for more, him or Jisung.

              “’M ‘kay,” Jisung mumbled.

              “Yeah?” Felix asked wiping the tears from his own face. “I’m sorry I nipped you.”

              “’S okay. You’re gentle.”

              “It didn’t hurt too bad?”

              Jisung made a grumbled noise that Felix took to meant that he was fine. “Cuddle.”

              “Okay,” Felix agreed, helpless to disobey Jisung’s commands. He laid down next to Jisung, wrapping his arms around the thin omega’s body. Jisung snuggled into Felix’s embrace, nose going straight for Felix’s neck. Felix let him indulge as much as he wanted, too guilty to do anything else.

              The two of them fell asleep like that, dinner forgotten at the side of the nest.

              When Jisung woke up the next morning, he had a slight headache. The events of the past night were a bit blurry, but Jisung remembered being told that Felix’s heat was going to start soon and the terror that had followed. Felix had nipped him, Jisung remembered that being the only thing breaking through the panic he had felt, the feeling of Felix’s teeth brushing over the sensitive skin of his neck forcing him into a state of pseudo-calm.

              Felix was gentler than any alpha or beta had ever been and the resulting headspace had been nicer. Jisung’s omega didn’t feel the need to fight against it, instead Jisung just relaxed into it and let Felix guide him through.

              Being nipped by Felix hadn’t necessarily been pleasant, but it was better than dropping, better than his omega completely shutting down to protect him.

              “Sungie, are you up?”

              Jisung cracked open his eyes, wincing at the light in the room.

              “I’m sorry, I forgot to close the blinds last night.” Felix started to move, but Jisung let out a whine, hand grabbing onto the fabric of Felix’s pants.

              “Don’t leave.”

              “Okay.” Felix laid back down and Jisung crawled on top of him, ensuring that Felix wouldn’t be able to sneak off. “You know that the blinds are less than two steps away, right?”

              Jisung didn’t care. “You nipped me,” Jisung muttered. “You have to deal with the consequences now.”

              Felix stiffened, scent going slightly stale. “I’m sorry about that. It’s just that—“

              “It’s fine. Really.” Jisung licked over Felix’s scent gland, relishing in the way it made Felix shudder. “I prefer it to dropping and you were so gentle.” Jisung planted a kiss on Felix’s neck.

              “Seungmin and Hyunjin were right you know, my heat’s going to start in a couple of days.”

              Jisung could smell it now that Seungmin and Hyunjin had pointed it out. Felix’s scent was slightly more milky than usual.

              “Would you be okay spending it with me? My heat? It’s usually a day of preheat and then two to three days of actual heat and this heat might be different, but my heats are usually pretty sexual.”

              That didn’t surprise Jisung. Most omega’s heats were.

              “I mean it might not be this time because usually I’m with the rest of the pack, but I just want you to be prepared and you of course don’t have to help with anything you don’t want.”

              “I’m fine with helping you.” Jisung nuzzled against Felix’s scent gland. Jisung probably smelled more like apple pie these days than sour lemonade.

              “Are you sure? Like really sure? Because I can be a lot sometimes and we did just meet and…”

              “My omega likes you, Felix. You make me feel things that I didn’t know I could feel. Of course I want to help you through your heat in any way necessary.”

              “Are you sure—“

              Jisung shut Felix up by planting a kiss on his lips. “You taste so good Lixie, I can’t wait until you’re in heat.”

              Felix groaned and tangled his hand in Jisung’s hair, pulling him closer until their lips were connecting again. This time, Felix took the lead, slotting their mouths together and nipping at Jisung’s lips until he was opening up, letting Felix’s tongue invade his mouth.

              Kissing Felix was nothing like kissing an alpha or beta. Felix was gentle, more coaxing instead of invading. His kisses didn’t bruise, weren’t for the purpose of establishing dominance. Felix was soft and gentle and cradled Jisung’s face like he was something precious, something to be cherished.

              “Okay,” Felix gasped, pulling away from Jisung. “We have to stop before I slick up even more. I don’t want to accidentally trigger my heat early.”

              “You think you could trigger your heat early just from kissing me?” Jisung asked in astonishment.

              “Oh for sure. You, Jisung, are absolutely delicious.”

              Jisung blushed, cheeks heating up.

              “Oh, now you’re shy?” Felix teased.

              “You can’t bully me,” Jisung whined. “I’m still fragile.”

              Felix smiled and ran his fingers through Jisung’s hair. “Okay, whatever you say.”

              The morning slipped by slowly, full of sun on Jisung’s skin and warm cuddles. At some point, Felix got up to grab breakfast, soothing Jisung’s whining when he returned by hand feeding him berries and buttered toast.

              “You’re so needy,” Felix laughed as he placed another raspberry in Jisung’s waiting mouth. Jisung’s only response was to open his mouth like a baby bird and wait for Felix to feed him another berry.

              At some point in the morning, late enough that sun had finally lifted off of Jisung’s face, Felix shifted in the nest. “Eventually, I’m going to need to tell the alphas about my heat.”

              Jisung stiffened. “You can’t leave.” If Felix left the nest, left Jisung here alone to go talk to the alphas, there was no guarantee that he was coming back. The alphas could want to keep Felix to themselves for the heat, lock Felix up in one of their rooms until Felix’s heat was over.

              “I mean, you can come with me, but I do have to tell them sometime.”

              Jisung shook his head. There were four alphas and only two of them, they could easily be overpowered. “Just text them. Your phone is over there.” Jisung pointed vaguely in the direction he remembered Felix throwing his phone yesterday after its buzzing kept interrupting their cuddle time.

              “Okay,” Felix agreed, starting to move away from Jisung and towards his phone. Jisung instinctively grabbed onto Felix’s shirt.

              Felix looked down. “Jisung you have to let go of me so that I can get my phone.”

              “They won’t be mad, right?”

              Felix softened. “Of course not. It’s my heat so I get to decide how I spend it.”

              Jisung glanced towards the door to make sure it was still locked with the chair in front. “Okay,” he finally agreed, letting go of Felix’s shirt.

              Felix grabbed his phone and then clicked the button on the side, the screen not reacting in the slightest. “Oh it’s dead.”

              Jisung wasn’t sure why Felix was so surprised. He couldn’t remember seeing Felix ever charge his phone. “How long does it take to charge?”

              Felix shrugged. “Just like two minutes for it to be charged enough to turn back on, but it’s like an hour or two for a full charge.”

              Oh, Jisung had thought that it would take longer than that. Honestly, Jisung had hoped that it would take so long to charge Felix’s phone that he would forget about texting the alphas until his heat started and then he could just pass it off as Jisung being too scared to leave Felix’s nest. That would be better than Felix admitting to the alphas that he was about to go into heat. What the alphas didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

              But then again, Jisung’s plan depended on Hyunjin and Seungmin covering for them. Jisung was somewhat confident that the betas were on their side, but Jisung had been wrong in the past about the alliances of the betas in his pack.

              “Okay, I texted the pack to let them know I’d be spending my heat with you.”

              Jisung looked at Felix in surprise, he’d been too lost in thought to notice Felix’s phone turning back on. “Now what?”

              “Now we cuddle.” Felix wrapped his arms around Jisung and they both tumbled down into the blankets of the nest. “Either Hyunjin or Seungmin will come by later with food.” Felix tossed his phone out of the nest. “There. Now there’s nothing to worry about.”

              Jisung didn’t think that was how things worked, but his worries disappeared when Felix pressed his lips to Jisung’s scent gland.

              “You smell so good, Sungie, I just want to eat you up.”

              Jisung, who was still feeling a little off after being nipped, let himself relax into Felix’s touch. His omega trusted Felix, even after being nipped, so Jisung should as well. It was Felix’s pack, he knew them best.

              Chan stared down at the message on his phone from Felix in the groupchat.

Felix:

Hey just letting you guys know that my heat will be starting soon and that I’ll be spending it with Jisung <3

              Not even a conversation. Not even a phone call. A text.

              Ever since Felix had become part of the pack, he had always spent his heats with them. All of them. Even when Felix and Minho had been bickering non-stop towards the beginning, Felix had still allowed Minho in his nest during his heat.

              “He really is pissed at us,” Changbin said, still staring down at Felix’s message in the groupchat.

              “Chan, Changbin.” Chan looked up to see Jeongin standing in the doorway, phone in hand, eyes watery, and smelling of distress. “Do you think Felix is going to leave the pack? With Jisung? Does he like Jisung more than he likes us now?”

              “Oh, Innie.” Chan held open his arms for the younger alpha to fall into. “Felix is never going to leave this pack, okay? He loves all of us very much.”

              “Then why isn’t he spending his heat with us? He always does.”

              Chan petted Jeongin’s hair. He didn’t really have a good answer for that. To be honest, he never quite fully understood the more omegean things that Felix did, his instincts seeming foreign to Chan. Chan’s alpha saw Jisung as an outsider, a threat, but Felix seemed to see Jisung as a person he needed to coddle and protect.

              “Jeonginnie.” Chan hadn’t even noticed Hyunjin entering the room, nose so clogged up with Jeongin’s sad scent. “Felix doesn’t hate us or view us any bit less as pack, I promise.”  Chan loosened his tight hold on Jeongin so that Hyunjin could wrap his arms around Jeongin’s shoulders. Hyunjin’s scent started to fill the room, working to soothe their emotions.

              “Then why won’t he spend his heat with us? He always does.”

              “It’s because there’s another omega here now. Omegas bond together differently than other subgenders, Let them have this heat together and I bet that Felix’s next one, he’ll want to spend with all of the pack.”

              “What if Jisung ends up not liking the rest of us? What if he doesn’t want to become pack?” Jeongin’s questions echoed Chan’s own fears and judging by the look on Changbin’s face, he felt the same way.

              “Just be patient with Jisung,” Hyunjin answered. “He’ll come around eventually if we give him time.”

              Chan wasn’t sure how Hyunjin could sound so certain. He, Changbin, Jeongin, and Minho had already started off on the the wrong foot with Jisung, and judging by their meeting earlier, Jisung didn’t seem likely to forgive them or trust them anytime soon.

              Chan didn’t voice his doubts, though, deciding instead to just let Hyunjin soothe Jeongin’s fears and worries. There was nothing they could do right now, and Chan was pretty certain that the pack would figure things out eventually. Felix may be attached to Jisung, but Chan had no fears about him leaving the pack with the other omega. Felix bore Chan’s bite and Chan his, they were mated together forever.

              “What about Minho?” Jeongin asked, voice muffled from speaking into Hyunjin’s neck.

              “Seungmin’s with him right now, don’t worry.”

              Jeongin settled back down, but Chan exchanged a worried look with Changbin. Minho was the wild card when it came to things like this. He had been the only one who hadn’t’ wanted Felix to join the pack and while he hadn’t aid anything directly, Chan was certain that he felt the same way about Jisung.

              Changbin got up, probably to go and check on Minho, but he was stopped by Hyunjin. “Sit back down, Seungmin has things covered.”

              Changbin wavered near the door, clearly debating how much he believed that Seungmin could handle Minho on his own.

              “Changbin,” Hyunjin whined, tilting his head to the side, baring his throat for the alpha. It was a bit of a dirty move, but it worked, Hyunjin’s whining coaxing Changbin away from the door.

              “Chan, you too.” Hyunjin held out his free hand and Chan was helpless to disobey, letting Hyunjin grab his hand and pull him into the quickly forming cuddle pile. It was nice to be surrounded by the scents of his pack. Usually, Felix let everyone cuddle with him in his nest, but that hadn’t been happening recently and Chan hadn’t realized how deprived he was of physical touch and his pack’s scents until now. Felix was the touchiest out of all of them, always begging to cuddle more and Chan hadn’t realized that without his presence, the pack cuddled together a lot less.

              “Stop thinking so much,” Hyunjin scolded, pressing his wrist into Chan’s face. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

              Chan didn’t protest, just let Hyunjin’s scent roll over him and take his worries and fears away.

Chapter Text

              Jisung could smell Felix’s heat, his normally cinnamon-y apple pie taking on a sickly sweet and milky scent. Felix hadn’t moved from where he was cuddling Jisung, but Jisung knew it was only a matter of time.

              A part of Jisung was excited to spend Felix’s heat with him, but a part of him was also deathly scared. He knew that Felix seemed to trust his alphas, but Jisung still had the fear that they would try to bust in and rip Felix from Jisung’s arms. Jisung was just an omega, not even part of the pack, he didn’t deserve to spend Felix’s heat with him. But then again, it had been Felix who had specifically chosen Jisung for his heat, refused to entertain the idea of anyone else in his nest.

Jisung wondered if Felix was going to be disappointed when he found out that Jisung didn’t have any experience dealing with an omegean heat that wasn’t his own. It wasn’t like Jisung’s heats were ever good, full of him begging cruel alphas for care and tenderness he would never receive. Jisung was willing to provide for Felix in any way necessary, wanted to even, but he was also nervous that he’d mess something up, do something that would hurt Felix.

“What’s wrong?” Felix asked, sitting up to look at Jisung. Jisung hadn’t even realized that Felix was awake.

“Just nervous.”

“About what?”

“Your heat.”

Felix frowned and Jisung wished he could take the words away. “No one will come in here that I don’t want, you know that right?”

Jisung nodded even though he had his doubts. He’d never known an alpha to not participate in an omega’s heat regardless of if the omega wanted it or not.

“That’s not it though, is it?”

Jisung cursed Felix’s ability to understand what he was thinking. “What if I’m not good enough?”

“Good enough for what?” Felix tilted his head, wide eyes staring up at Jisung earnestly. Felix was so nice, so beautiful, had a great pack that he trusted and Jisung was just here, throwing himself into places that he didn’t belong and messing everything up.

“Good enough during your heat. I’m not an alpha, I can’t…”

“Do you not want to help me?” Felix asked. “It’s okay if you don’t—“

“No, I do, I really do,” Jisung interrupted. “It’s just that I’ve never helped an omega in heat before or really ever been with other omegas and I just don’t know how to do anything.”

“That’s okay.” Felix gently ran his thumb across Jisung’s cheek in a soothing motion. “I have a feeling that this heat might be a bit different for me. I’ve never spent my heat with another omega before, but I don’t think you could do anything to disappoint me, Jisung.”

Jisung wasn’t so sure about that, but he didn’t want to argue with Felix, so he just nodded and moved his face so that his nose was pressed against Felix wrist, breathing in his pre-heat scent. Normally, scenting Felix had a calming effect, but Felix’s pre-heat scent seemed to do the opposite, igniting a fire in Jisung’s lower belly.

“Fuck,” Felix gasped, pulling away from Jisung to collapse back into the sheets. “We may need to wait to do that until after Hyunjin and Seungmin bring us our food. You’re seriously going to trigger my heat early like that.”

Pride flared in Jisung’s chest, worries abated for the time being. “It’s not my fault that you smell so good right now.”

“Jisung!” Felix swatted at Jisung’s chest even as his scent sweetened. “Hyunjin and Seungmin need to hurry up because I’m not sure how much longer I can last.”

Jisung tried to move away from Felix so that he wouldn’t affect the other omega as much, but Felix reached out and grabbed Jisung’s arm, stopping him. “No, don’t go. I don’t want you too far away right now.”             

So Jisung stayed put, lying next to Felix in the nest, trying his best not to think about how good Felix smelled and how much that scent made Jisung want to devour the other omega whole.

Luckily, Hyunjin and Seungmin were at the door only a couple of minutes later, depositing boxes full of snacks, quick meals, water, and electrolyte drinks in Felix’s room.

“Wow you smell good, Lixie,” Hyunjin remarked as he set down the box in his hands. “Heat coming on a bit quicker than usual?”

Felix bared his teeth in response.

Instead of getting mad or scolding Felix for the display of aggression, Hyunjin just laughed. “Sorry, I’ll stop teasing you.”

“Have fun during your heat Lixie,” Seungmin said. He then winked at Jisung. “Good luck, have fun.”

And with that, the betas left. They had definitely noticed how good Felix smelled, but they hadn’t let that influence them, hadn’t stopped for a quickie like the betas in Jisung’s old pack would’ve. Hyunjin and Seungmin were respectful, staying outside of Felix’s room and they deposited the supplies, only teasing Felix a little bit before leaving of their own free will. Felix hadn’t had to growl at them or demand they leave, Hyunjin and Seungmin had just gone.

“It’s just us now.” Felix sounded happy as he pranced back over to the nest where he had told Jisung to stay when the betas had knocked on the door.

Jisung welcomed Felix with open arms, Felix falling into Jisung’s embrace and immediately going to scent him. “You’re mine now.” Felix all but growled into the skin of Jisung’s neck.

If it were anyone else, the words would send a shot a fear through Jisung’s body, but Jisung trusted Felix, knew Felix would never hurt him.

“I’m yours,” Jisung confirmed, titling his head back, fully baring his neck to Felix.

Felix scented Jisung with a fervor, mouthing over Jisung’s scent gland until Jisung started to feel fuzzy and lightheaded, nose clogged with Felix’s scent that had transitioned from pre-heat to a potent, full heat.

“Felix,” Jisung gasped as Felix sucked on his neck. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to get scent drunk.”

“Good,” Felix said, lips tickling Jisung’s skin. “You smell sour.”

Oh. Jisung’s scent had taken on a permanent sour undertone a couple of years ago. Now, even when Jisung was happy, there was always that undercurrent of sour, of something being wrong.

“Stop being sad. I’ll fix it.”

Jisung was just about to tell Felix that there was no fixing his scent, when Felix started to massage Jisung’s scent gland, devilish little fingers digging into the sensitive skin. At first there was a stinging pain, that made Jisung’s toes curl, but as Felix kept rubbing his thumbs into the tender skin, the pain morphed into something that made Jisung’s toes curl for a completely different reason.

Jisung’s scent started to fill the room, sweet and sugary, only a little bit tart. For the first time in years, Jisung smelled more orange in his scent than lemon.

“Fuck,” Jisung gasped as Felix continued his ministrations. Felix was the one in heat, but Jisung was the one slicking up, helpless to stop the pleasure the coursed through his body, warming his limbs, causing his back to arch.

The pleasure continued to build as Felix kept massaging Jisung’s scent gland. He was clearly waiting for something to happen, but Jisung couldn’t figure out what when his brain was like this, all fuzzy and tingly, thoughts moving slow like molasses.

“Oh,” Jisung gasped as something Felix did caused molten heat to spread through his body. Jisung wriggled in Felix’s hold, trying to lessen the intensity of what he was feeling, but Felix didn’t budge except to move his other hand to cup Jisung’s neck and chin to keep him from moving as much.

“You’re so pretty,” Felix cooed. “So well behaved, so perfect for me.”

Everything that had been building suddenly burst at Felix’s words. Jisung body arched with the force of it, before collapsing back down to the bed, boneless and breathless, riding out the residual waves of pleasure as Felix gently rubbed over Jisung’s scent gland, no longer massaging like he had been.

“You smell so good now, so perfect for me.”

Jisung could hardly even focus on Felix’s words, brain still buzzing from whatever that was that had just happened. Had he just come? From Felix touching his scent gland? Jisung wasn’t sure he had ever felt that good before, especially just from a couple of touches to his neck.

“I need this off.” Felix started to tug at Jisung’s shirt, but Jisung didn’t have enough energy to sit up to assist Felix, so he just stared up at the other omega.

“Please?”

“Tired,” Jisung mumbled, eyes flicking closed. His whole body felt like it was made out of soft cotton, floating along on the wind. He didn’t have any muscles to sit up or lift his arms, he was light, like cotton.

There was a ripping noise and then the feeling of cool air on Jisung’s chest. Jisung languidly blinked his eyes back open to stare at Felix who was straddling Jisung with the remains of Jisung’s shirt in his hands.

“Oh.” That was definitely one way for Felix to get what he wanted. It didn’t really matter since the shirt was Felix’s anyway. Jisung’s eyes closed again and he didn’t want to expend the effort to open them.

Felix laid down next to Jisung, bare chests pressing together. Jisung wasn’t sure when Felix had shed his shirt as well, but the feeling of skin on skin was nice, soothing away what little worries Jisung had left.

“Good omega,” Felix cooed, guiding Jisung’s head into the crook of his neck where his scent gland was, forcing Jisung to breathe in lungfuls of Felix’s heat-tinted scent. Jisung didn’t mind, he just enjoyed being so close to Felix, breathing in so much of his sweet scent.

“Happy?” Felix asked.

“Happy,” Jisung confirmed.

Felix started to run his hand through Jisung’s hair and Jisung let the soothing motion coax him to sleep.

              Felix’s omega was sad. Even in his sleep, there was an undertone of sour to Jisung’s scent, a note of fear that Felix couldn’t seem to soothe away. It was better now, Jisung’s scent only smelling a little tart instead of tongue-numbingly sour, but Felix needed to fix it, needed to make sure his omega was content. Felix’s own inner omega was demanding that he soothe his pack, make sure everything was okay and right now, Jisung was unhappy. Felix needed to fix that.

              Felix started to rub his scent all over the bare skin of Jisung’s chest. Felix was always happier surrounded by the scents of his pack and he hoped it would be the same for Jisung. Felix made sure that his scent was content, trying his best to convey feelings of pack and care as he rubbed his scent into Jisung’s skin. Jisung’s inner omega was deeply upset for his scent to smell like that and Felix needed to fix it. He couldn’t have a pack member feeling so discontent.

              Logically, Felix knew that Jisung wasn’t really pack, but his inner omega had already claimed Jisung as his and had decided that Jisung was already part of Felix’s pack despite the fact that there were no pack bites on the skin of Jisung’s neck.

              All Felix’s inner omega knew was that Jisung was his and that Jisung was upset and that meant that it was Felix’s job to fix it.

              Jisung woke up to Felix running a brush through his hair, whispering soft things into Jisung’s ear.

              “You’re doing so well for me. You’re such a good omega. Your hair is so pretty, so soft.”

              The words combined with Felix’s scent made something stir low in Jisung’s stomach.

              “Felix?” Jisung asked.

              Felix didn’t respond except to pull Jisung into more of a sitting position so that he could reach Jisung’s hair better.

 “Is everything okay?” Jisung was confused. Felix wasn’t acting like any omega in heat Jisung had ever seen. Usually, omegas were begging for knots, to be surrounded and taken care of by their pack. Jisung had expected Felix to be needy, to be begging Jisung to be touched. Jisung had expected to be the one taking care of Felix, but instead Felix was the one taking care of him.

“You’re sad,” Felix said, sniffing at Jisung’s scent gland. “I need to make pack happy.”

Jisung blinked in confusion. Jisung wasn’t Felix’s pack. Was Felix talking about the rest of pack? Did Felix want Jisung to bring them in?

“Oh, I can get the rest of the pack if you want?” Jisung started to move to get up. He really didn’t want to talk to the rest of Felix’s pack, but Felix was the one in heat, not Jisung.

Felix growled, pulling Jisung back down into his lap, and starting to furiously scent him. “You’re pack, don’t leave.”

Jisung was confused, but let Felix do what he wanted. Jisung knew better than to argue with an omega in heat.

To Jisung, Felix did feel like something more than just a friend, his omega had seemed to claim the other as his own. Jisung had thought that the feeling was one sided, that it was just because Jisung had never been close with another omega before. Felix’s actions, however, made Jisung rethink things. Maybe the feeling wasn’t as one sided as Jisung had thought. It seemed like Felix’s omega had claimed Jisung as pack as well. Jisung just really hoped that this wouldn’t cause any problems with Felix’s real pack. The alphas didn’t seem to like Jisung that much, but they did at least seem to trust and respect Felix. They hadn’t tried to get into Felix’s nest, were leaving the two of them alone for Felix’s heat. It almost seemed too good to be true, but Felix had a faith in his alphas that Jisung couldn’t quite comprehend.

“You’re thinking too much.” Felix’s lips tickled the sensitive skin of Jisung’s neck. “Thinking makes you upset.”

Felix was right, the sourness had returned to Jisung’s scent, like it had never left.

“Sorry.” Jisung felt bad. This was Felix’s heat, yet the entire thing seemed to be focused on Jisung. He tried to brighten his scent, get rid of the sourness that Felix seemed to hate, but it was impossible. The unhappiness and discontentment of Jisung’s omega wasn’t something that he could just plaster over. Jisung’s omega had been hidden away for too long, locked up in a place deep inside Jisung’s chest where its spirit couldn’t be broken by the cruel alphas of his old pack.

It had been the best way to keep Jisung’s inner omega safe, but it hasn’t come without its consequences—like the permanent sourness to Jisung’s scent or the fact that Jisung’s instincts were weird, not like a normal omega’s.

“You’re okay,” Felix soothed, running a gentle hand down Jisung’s cheek. “Don’t think about anything else except being here with me. We’re safe here. I’ll protect us.” Felix’s eyes flashed blue, a sudden fierceness coming over him. Felix looked small and frail, but in that moment, Jisung believed that he was more than capable of protecting both of them.

“You’re mine and no one is taking you away from me, okay?”

Jisung nodded.

“Good, now let me make you feel good.”

Jisung wasn’t ready for the feeling of Felix’s lips on his chest, kissing across his collarbones, then dipping down until Felix’s tongue was encircling one of Jisung’s nipples.

“Felix,” Jisung gasped, surprised by his boldness.

Felix, seemingly encouraged by Jisung’s sounds, started to suck on Jisung’s nipple, taking the sensitive skin into his mouth.

Sparks of pleasure coursed through Jisung’s body, his hands flying up to tangle in Felix’s hair. Jisung’s reaction spurred Felix on even more, his hand started to trace over the nipple that wasn’t currently in his mouth.

Jisung could feel himself start to slick up, the sweet scent of arousal starting to fill the air. Jisung wasn’t sure that he had ever felt like this, ever been taken care of by someone like this. But this was Felix’s heat. Shouldn’t Jisung be returning the favor?

Before Jisung could even act on his thoughts, Felix was pushing Jisung down into the bed, slotting one of his legs between Jisung’s. “Just relax,” Felix urged. “I want to take care of you.”

“But—“

“Shh.” Felix pressed his finger to Jisung’s lips. “It’s my heat, let me decide what I want.” Felix kissed just under Jisung’s collarbone before pressing his teeth to the skin and sucking.

“Oh,” Jisung gasped.

Felix pulled off and kissed at the skin once more, pausing to admire what was already starting to bruise. Jisung had no doubt that by the end of Felix’s heat he was going to be covered in marks.

“You look so pretty with the marks of my teeth on your skin. Everyone will know you belong to me.”

The words sent a shiver down Jisung’s spine and he threw his head back into the pillows, baring his body for Felix, letting Felix leave whatever marks he desired on Jisung’s skin.

Felix’s touch was gentle, even as he sucked bruises into Jisung’s skin. He didn’t hold Jisung down, didn’t grab him, didn’t force. Instead Felix guided Jisung, leaving plenty of room for him to pull away, to stop Felix if he wanted. But Jisung didn’t want that, he loved Felix’s skin on his, loved the pretty marks that Felix left behind.

Felix continued to kiss all over Jisung’s skin, hands gently running up and down Jisung’s sides as he did so, every touch feeling electric. Jisung couldn’t help but want more, couldn’t help but welcome everything Felix was willing to give him. He had never known that foreplay could feel so good, could be so long and drawn out.

Jisung wasn’t the one in heat, but he almost felt like it with how desperate he was getting, whining and begging Felix for more. Slick had completely saturated Jisung’s underwear, sticky against his skin, and he thought it a miracle that Felix’s thigh that was slotted between Jisung’s legs wasn’t wet with his slick yet.

“Please,” Jisung gasped as Felix sucked another hickey into his skin, at the junction of his neck and shoulder, dangerously close to Jisung’s mating glands.

“Are you ready for more?” Felix asked, pulling away to look Jisung in the eye.

Jisung nodded enthusiastically and then Felix’s lips were pressing into his and Jisung was gasping into Felix’s mouth as Felix’s hands started to explore further south, tracing little circles into the skin of Jisung’s hips, dipping lower and lower with each movement until they were dipping under the waistband of Jisung’s sweatpants, the touches gentle and teasing but seeming to leave tracks of fire on Jisung’s skin.

“Please,” Jisung begged against Felix’s lips, not even quite sure what he was asking for. All Jisung knew was that he needed more of Felix’s touch on his heated skin.

“My pretty omega,” Felix cooed, pressing a kiss against the corner of Jisung lips. Jisung chased after Felix’s mouth, wanting more kisses, but Felix pulled away. “Don’t worry, I’ll make you feel good.” Felix tugged at the waistband of Jisung pants and Jisung lifted his hips off of the nest to make it easier for Felix to pull off his pants and underwear all at once.

Felix ran his hands down Jisung’s sides. “You’re so pretty.”

Jisung preened at the praise, letting his legs fall open, his inner thighs slick with his arousal. He was naked in front of Felix, completely at Felix’s mercy, but Jisung wasn’t afraid, was begging for more instead of begging for things to stop.

Felix licked a stripe through the center of Jisung’s folds and Jisung’s brain whited out.

“You taste so good, I just want to devour you whole.”

Jisung wanted to respond, but his brain had turned to mush, all of the words in his vocabulary disappearing. All he could do was gasp and fist the sheets under him as Felix took him apart with his tongue.

The pleasure seemed to encompass Jisung’s body, limbs feeling fuzzy, entire world only focused on Felix’s tongue taking him apart, lighting up his nerve endings. The pleasure seemed to build and build, Jisung’s core tightening, legs shaking, until the bubble finally burst. Jisung’s vision whiting out as a wave of pleasure crashed through his body, leaving his skin buzzing and limbs feeling numb.

“You’re so pretty like this.” Felix pet over Jisung’s quivering folds, working him through his orgasm until Jisung was done, feeling tired and rung out. Only then did Felix crawl over Jisung’s body, face smeared with Jisung’s slick to press a kiss to Jisung’s lips.

Felix’s kiss was flavored with Jisung’s slick, a mixture of sweet orange and sour lemon that Jisung found that he didn’t actually mind all that much.

“Aw, you’re so cute like this.” Felix cupped Jisung’s cheek and kissed him again. “All tired and needy after your orgasm.” Felix sniffed at Jisung’s neck. “And your scent is so sweet now. We’re going to have so much fun during my heat. It’s only going to get more intense from here on out.”

Jisung whined. More intense? More than that? Jisung still felt like his brain was mush after that orgasm, his limbs still buzzing.

Felix buried his face in Jisung’s neck, licking over the skin of his scent gland. “My omega likes that you smell happier now, much more content.” Felix smiled. “I think that means this might happen a lot more over the course of my heat.”

Jisung was okay with that. As overwhelming as it had been, he had enjoyed Felix’s ministrations. It was the first time someone had treated Jisung so gently, like he was something to be treasured instead of something to be used.

Felix pulled away and Jisung felt his heart drop. Why was he leaving? Was he going to get alphas who could properly satisfy him? Had Felix realized that Jisung was too needy, wasn’t right for his heat?

“Hey.” Felix was back by Jisung’s side in an instant, carefully brushing strands of Jisung’s hair out of his sweaty face. “It’s okay. I’m not leaving you. I was just going to grab a washcloth and some food for us, okay?”

Jisung frowned, but let Felix go, happy when the other omega returned less than a minute later with the things he needed. “You can’t leave me,” Jisung muttered, suddenly feeling tired.

“I won’t,” Felix promised, pulling Jisung up so that he was reclined in Felix’s lap. “It’s just going to be you and me for the rest of my heat, okay?”

Jisung nodded, turning his head so that it was buried in the smooth skin of Felix’s chest. Mimicking what Felix had done earlier, Jisung sucked at the skin until a bruise was blooming in the shape of Jisung’s mouth.

“Are you leaving marks on me too?”

Jisung nodded and then paused. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah.” Felix stroked over Jisung’s hair. “Leave as many as you want. They make my omega happy.”

Jisung nodded and started to mouth at Felix’s skin, careful to avoid where the rest of the pack had left their bites, not wanting to accidentally challenge the pack’s claim to Felix.

“I just want to warn you that the rest of my heat is only going to get more intense,” Felix said. “I’m usually most coherent during my first wave and then after that, things get a bit more fuzzy and instinctual.”

“That’s fine.” Jisung’s lips brushed Felix’s skin as he spoke. “I trust you.”

              ‘A little bit more intense’ had been an understatement. Tears were streaming down Jisung’s face as Felix coaxed him through yet another orgasm, fingers squelching as they pumped in and out of Jisung’s soaked pussy, other hand stroking Jisung’s small dick.

              The pleasure built and built, Jisung tearing holes into the blankets surrounding him as he held on as the wave finally crashed and Jisung squirted slick all over Felix’s hands.  That didn’t slow Felix down, he kept pumping his fingers in an out, hitting that spot inside Jisung that made him see stars until Jisung’s orgasm was completely over, leaving Jisung boneless in the sheets, chest heaving.

              It was all just so overwhelming. Jisung had lost track of how many orgasms he’d had long ago and now his body and mind were just stuck in a haze of never-ending pleasure. Felix, now deep in his heat, was hell-bent on getting rid of every trace of sourness and discontentment in Jisung’s scent and that apparently meant wringing orgasm after orgasm out of Jisung’s body until he couldn’t even think anymore.

              “Felix,” Jisung begged as Felix started to lap up the slick that was dripping down Jisung’s thighs, pooling on the blankets below him. Jisung’s inner thighs were already covered in bite marks and bruises, but Felix continued to suck on the tender skin, savoring the taste of Jisung’s slick as if he hadn’t already drank almost a liter’s worth.

              “Felix,” Jisung repeated, pulling on Felix’s hair. “Kisses, please?” It was one of the few requests that could pull Felix away from seemingly trying to make Jisung produce as much slick as possible.

              Predictably, Felix obeyed, gently pressing his lips to Jisung’s. Felix’s mouth tasted like oranges, only a small hint of lemon still left. Jisung didn’t think the lemon was ever going to go away, no matter how much Felix tried. A week of comfort wasn’t going to make up for years of hell.

              “Stop thinking.” Felix kissed Jisung even harder, hand coming up to brush over his nipples, little sparks of pleasure zinging through Jisung’s body.

              Felix’s thigh pressed between Jisung’s and he couldn’t help but rut up against it, grinding slick all over Felix’s leg. Despite the fact that Jisung was tired, despite the fact that he’d had more orgasms today than he ever had, Jisung found himself growing aroused again. It probably had something to do with the way Felix’s scent was thick in the air, cinnamon and apple clogging Jisung’s nose, making his head feel light and body fuzzy.

              Felix’s hand cupped Jisung’s chin, guiding him deeper into the kiss. Jisung loved kissing Felix. He could get lost in the feeling of it, Felix’s soft lips against his, the way Felix always held Jisung close, made him feel special and cherished as he was kissed. Felix wasn’t at all like the alphas Jisung had kissed who were rough, forcing their tongues into Jisung’s mouth, pushing him down into submission. Instead, Felix allowed Jisung to lead the kiss when he wanted, cradled Jisung’s face, was soft and kind. Jisung didn’t think he could ever get sick of kissing Felix.

              Felix’s free hand rubbed around one of Jisung’s nipples and Jisung gasped into Felix’s mouth, bucking his hips. Felix didn’t let up, just kept kissing Jisung senseless, rubbing his fingers in little circles around his nipple and slotting his leg between Jisung’s thighs, encouraging Jisung to rub up against him.

              Jisung bucked again and this time, his thigh fell in between Felix’s and Jisung could feel that Felix was nearly as wet as Jisung was. Earlier, Jisung had tried to return the favor to Felix and eat Felix out, but Felix had refused, pushing Jisung down onto the bed and kissing him until all he could think about was Felix’s lips on his. In fact, Jisung wasn’t sure that Felix had come once his entire heat, too focused on Jisung’s pleasure instead of his own.

              Jisung ground down on Felix’s thigh and at the same time pressed his own thigh up until it was grinding against Felix’s folds and small dick, the copious amount of slick leaking out of his pussy making the slide easy.

              Felix gasped into Jisung’s mouth and then they were kissing more furiously, grinding against each other, both of them seeking their own orgasms. There was something about knowing that Felix was getting off on Jisung the same way Jisung was getting off on him that made Jisung brain go fuzzy with pleasure, even more slick leaking out of his pussy, smearing all of Felix’s thigh, making it all that more pleasurable.

              “Felix,” Jisung gasped as Felix pulled away from kissing him to mouth at Jisung’s neck, right over his scent gland. Jisung almost came at that alone. Felix’s mouth on one of his most sensitive spots, teeth grazing against the skin as Felix covered himself in Jisung’s scent, practically took a bath in it.

              Now that Jisung’s mouth wasn’t occupied, all of the gasps and moans he was making were no longer muffled, cried out freely in the air as he moved his hips against Felix’s thigh, movements becoming messier and messier as he came closer and closer.

              Then, Felix pressed his teeth to Jisung’s scent gland and sucked. It was like a dam burst inside of Jisung, all of the little self-restraint he had flying away as he desperately moved his hips, chasing his high. Slick gushed out of Jisung’s pussy, but he didn’t care. It was all so good. The press of his skin against Felix’s, Felix’s hand stroking his face, his mouth on Jisung’s neck, his thigh against Jisung’s.

              Jisung broke, tears streaming down his face as he came, body moving with exhausted little twitches. Jisung thought he was done, could take no more, and then Felix’s scent exploded, his movements against Jisung’s leg becoming more and more desperate as he came.

              Felix’s scent made the pleasure spike again in Jisung, his orgasm never seeming to end as it tore through his body, crashed over him like a never ending wave.

              When it finally did end, Jisung’s body didn’t feel like his own. He felt like he was floating through space. He was distantly aware of the tears streaking down his cheeks, the stickiness between his body and Felix’s, but none of that mattered, none of that fully registered in Jisung’s brain.

              Fingers were pressing against Jisung’s lips and he opened his mouth, letting them in. It tasted of sweet candied apples dusted in cinnamon and sugar, a taste sweeter than anything Jisung’d had before. Jisung licked over the fingers as his brain grew fuzzier, body feeling as if it were sinking into the blankets of the nest below him. It was like that, held close in Felix’s arms, taste of Felix’s slick in his mouth, that Jisung drifted off to sleep.

              A spoon pressed against Jisung’s lips and he opened his mouth, letting himself be fed by Felix. He was propped up in Felix’s lap, eyes closed as Felix spoon fed him some food. “You’re so tired,” Felix cooed, pulling Jisung a bit more upright in his lap.

              Felix was in between waves and had decided that it was time for Jisung to eat despite the fact that all Jisung wanted to do was take a nap.

              “You exhausted me,” Jisung mumbled in response.

              “Had to make sure everyone knows you’re mine,” Felix responded, rubbing his face against Jisung’s neck. “You’re my pack and I take good care of my pack.”

              Jisung didn’t know how to respond to that, so he stayed quiet. He wasn’t Felix’s pack. Felix had a pack, a pack that didn’t include Jisung, a pack that he was decided he didn’t want to spend his heat with.

              “You’re upset.” Felix wrapped his arms around Jisung, trying to soothe away the anxiety that was bubbling up in Jisung’s chest.

              “You have a pack,” Jisung muttered, “and I’m not a part of it.”

              Felix growled. “You’re my pack,” he insisted.

              Before Jisung had a chance to try to reason with Felix and explain that Jisung wasn’t actually pack and that it wasn’t Felix’s place to make decisions like that, Felix started to nip at Jisung’s neck and all of Jisung’s protests were forgotten as he melted into Felix’s arms.

              Jisung had been tired more, but now he was fuzzy and tired, all of the worry draining out of his body as Felix scraped his blunt teeth over the sensitive skin of Jisung’s neck.

              “There you go,” Felix soothed. “Now you’re all calm for me.”

              Jisung didn’t respond. He felt like a warm pile of goo. Felix’s embrace was tight around Jisung’s chest, keeping him together, keeping him from falling apart. The world around Jisung was slowing, colors blending together. All Jisung knew was that he was warm, that he was comfortable.

              A spoon pressed against Jisung’s lips and he opened his mouth, letting Felix feed him little bites of food. There was something wrong, but Jisung couldn’t remember what, so he didn’t let the thought bother him. He was happy with Felix’s arms around him and that’s all that mattered.

              Felix was insatiable. Jisung’s brain wasn’t even functioning anymore with how much he had come in the past couple of hours, but Felix showed no sign of stopping, wholly focused on getting Jisung’s scent to sweeten.

              Earlier when Jisung had tried to return the favor to Felix, reaching between Felix’s legs to stroke at his dick, Felix had just stared at Jisung in confusions before carefully redirecting Jisung’s hand to Felix’s hair, sending a clear message that he didn’t want to be touched before doubling his efforts in making Jisung come for the second time in a matter of minutes.

              “Felix,” Jisung whined as Felix started to pump his fingers in Jisung’s slick entrance, hitting the spot deep inside that made Jisung’s toe’s curl with every thrust. There had been a point during Felix’s heat where he had brought out a dildo, but Jisung had refused to let Felix near him with it, not wanting the feeling of an alpha’s cock inside of him, even if it was made out of silicone. Felix had been understanding, tossing the dildo across the room and proceeding to eat Jisung out until tears were streaking down his cheeks.

              Felix hit Jisung’s g-spot and sucked on one of his nipples at the same time and Jisung finally came, the orgasm as toe-curling as it was exhausting, leaving Jisung tired and oversensitive even as Felix kissed over his chest, fingers still deep inside.

              “Please,” Jisung gasped, once he had somewhat caught his breath. “I’m so tired.” It was the truth. His legs and inner thighs ached, pussy and cock both feeling oversensitive, even the smallest breeze feeling almost overwhelming.

              Felix, at least, seemed to sense that Jisung truly did need more of a break and pulled away, choosing instead to slowly stroke his hand through Jisung’s hair. Jisung flinched as slick-slick fingers combed through his hair, but to be honest, both Felix and Jisung were so covered in cum and slick that it probably didn’t matter. Really, Jisung was just too tired to care.

              “Soon you’ll be mine,” Felix said as he kissed the tip of Jisung’s nose.

              Jisung hummed in acknowledgement, too tired to decipher the meaning of Felix’s words. It was the most that Felix had spoken since the start of this wave, but Jisung’s brain was too fuzzy to register the significance. He was just grateful for a bit of break even though he knew it wasn’t going to last long. Felix’s heat was coming to an end and the last wave was always the longest and most intense.

At least Jisung hoped this was the last wave. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if it wasn’t.

Felix peppered Jisung’s face with small kisses, one hand tangled in Jisung’s hair and the other cupping his face. Jisung let himself relax into the sheets, eyes blinking closed. Felix hummed in approval and continued his soft kisses before capturing Jisung’s lips, gently coaxing Jisung’s mouth open. Felix was as gentle as he had been for all of his heat, but somehow this felt different, Felix taking his time to show Jisung his love even as he was in the throes of his final wave.

When Felix broke the kiss, both he and Jisung were out of breath. With the way that they were pressed together, Jisung could feel Felix’s every inhale and he was sure that Felix could feel his.

“Pretty,” Felix hummed, brushing his thumb over Jisung’s cheek. The praise sent a wave of warmth through Jisung’s body, his skin feeling tingly where it was in contact with Felix’s.

“You’re my pretty omega.” Felix nuzzled his face against Jisung’s and Jisung got a whiff of Felix’s heat scent, sweeter and milkier than it had been the last couple of days. The scent of it was enough to send heat racing through Jisung’s body, pooling in his lower stomach, pussy throbbing. Jisung had thought just a couple of minutes ago that another round was going to be near impossible, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Felix’s nostrils flared, clearly smelling Jisung’s arousal, but he didn’t pounce like Jisung was half-expecting, instead he just pressed a kiss against Jisung’s lips before moving down to Jisung’s neck and burying his face in Jisung’s scent gland.

Jisung hoped that the sourness to his scent didn’t upset Felix too much this far into his heat. Jisung couldn’t smell his own scent, nose too clogged with sweet apple and cinnamon, but he knew it still smelled slightly sour.

Pleasure made Jisung fill with liquid heat as Felix attached himself to Jisung’s neck, sucking a deep bruise into the skin, right on the edge of Jisung’s mating gland.

“Oh,” Jisung gasped, hands digging into Felix’s back. Felix pulled back with a smile on his face, kissing Jisung’s cheek before ducking down to repeat the action, this time on the other side of Jisung’s neck, right over his scent gland.

Jisung scent exploded in the air, almost overpowering Felix’s. There was still some sourness, but Jisung smelled almost as sweet as he had when he presented.

“Good,” Felix purred, slotting his thigh between Jisung’s legs. Jisung couldn’t help but buck up a little, surprised to find that he was getting slick again, the tiredness from before quickly disappearing, replaced with arousal.

The hand that was in Jisung’s hair moved down to his chest, thumb brushing over Jisung’s nipple teasingly before moving to cup Jisung’s chest. There was nothing there, Jisung had been fed only scraps in his own pack, having to beg for even that, but Felix didn’t care, massaging Jisung’s chest as if he had pups and his breasts were full of milk instead of flat and devoid of any muscle.

“Felix,” Jisung moaned as Felix kissed over his other nipple and ground his leg up into Jisung’s folds at the same time. It was like Jisung hadn’t been coaxed through countless orgasms already that day; he was feeling as desperate as ever, begging Felix for more even as his hips bucked, searching for more friction and stimulation than Felix’s thigh provided.

“My omega,” Felix hummed into the skin of Jisung’s chest as he continued his assault on Jisung’s senses, hand and mouth working in tandem to drive Jisung absolutely insane.

“Please,” Jisung begged, not even sure what he was asking for. All real thoughts had long disappeared from his brain, his only focus on the mind-numbing pleasure that he was feeling, body seeming to move without his permission as he bucked into Felix’s thigh.

Felix ran his hands down Jisung’s sides as he shifted, moving his thigh so that it was no longer between Jisung’s legs. Jisung cried out at the loss, but was soon placated when Felix carefully guided his dick into Jisung’s pussy, eyes trained on Jisung’s face the entire time as if he was checking to see that Jisung was alright with the intrusion.

Jisung cried out as Felix’s dick rubbed passed his folds before slipping into his entrance. Male omegas didn’t have dicks nearly as girthy as alphas, but Jisung didn’t care, preferred Felix’s small cock to an alpha one that would feel like it was splitting him in half with every thrust.

“Felix,” Jisung gasped as Felix hit his g-spot with a well-placed thrust, sending pleasure shooting up Jisung’s spine. Felix, egged on by Jisung’s sounds, proceeded to hit that spot with his every smooth thrust, forcing small moans from Jisung’s throat as his body burned and tingled all at once.

It felt so much better than any alpha ever had, Jisung’s brain feeling like it was melting. All he could focus on was the feeling of Felix inside of him, his hands roving over Jisung’s body, petting his side, cupping his face before capturing Jisung’s lips in a kiss.

Jisung opened up his mouth for Felix, let Felix ravage his body as he pleased, too cock-dumb to do anything else.

Felix’s thrusts slowly started to speed up and Jisung grabbed at Felix’s back as the pleasure mounted. Jisung had never felt this good before. Jisung’s whole world had narrowed down to the feeling of Felix in his, the sensation of Felix’s hands on his body, lips on his. Warmth was flowing through Jisung’s veins, whole body feeling slightly tingly as he approached his orgasm.

Felix reached down to stroke Jisung’s cock and that was enough to push him over the edge. Pleasure exploded and Jisung grabbed onto to Felix, gasping as his orgasm washed over his body. The whole world was fuzzy, Jisung’s body turning into goo as colors blended together. The last thing Jisung was aware of was teeth in his neck, digging into his mating gland before everything went black.

Chapter Text

              Minho’s pack growing up hadn’t been nice. It’d been big, several omegas, but far more alphas and not enough betas to balance everything out. Minho’s parents had expected him to be an omega; he’d been born early and was small growing up as a result, scrawny and shorter than the rest of his classmates.

              As a child, Minho had been scorned by the rest of the pack because of it. Omegas were valuable, but male omegas were an abomination. Able to have children, but never as many as female omegas and with higher mortality rates. In some packs, male omegas were seen as unique, exotic because of their low numbers, but Minho’s pack scorned them. There were so few male omegas because they were wrong, a fluke of nature. There was only one male omega in Minho’s pack and he was basically free to use, free to abuse. He’d birthed one child for the pack and miscarried many more.

              Minho had been bullied by everyone in the pack until the day he presented, earlier than any of his classmates. Minho presented as an alpha and while the teasing and bullying decreased, he was still picked on the most. He was smaller than an alpha should be, weaker, too omega-like.

              One day after coming home with a black eye, Minho’s dad had decided that enough was enough and that Minho needed to learn how to fight. Both of Minho’s parents were betas, Minho’s mom being a female beta who was able to bear children, something that was starting to become more a rarity these days.  

              Minho’s dad had said that if Minho was going to be an alpha—something that the world had too many of these days—then he was going to have to learn how to defend himself and his future pack. So Minho and his dad trained in private, Minho strictly forbidden from fighting unless it was in self-defense.

              The training from his dad came in handy several months later when Minho was ambushed by his classmates when he was walking home from school. It was three newly-presented alphas who had jumped out from behind a dumpster snarling things about how Minho was always meant to be an omega and they were going to show him his place.

              It was Minho who ended up showing those alphas that he was stronger than they thought, but Minho only barely made it out, sprinting for his house with blood streaming down his face, one eye already swollen completely shut.

              Later, Minho had learned that the entire attack had been orchestrated by one of his classmates: a male omega who had convinced the alphas to leave him alone by saying that Minho would be better than him because he was an alpha who was clearly meant to be an omega. According to Minho’s classmate, all Minho needed was some alphas to show him his place and he’d roll over, belly up like the omega he really was.

              That incident had cemented Minho’s hatred for omegas, especially male ones. Omegas were sneaky and self-serving and male omegas were the worst, willing to do anything to protect themselves. It was because male omegas were against the order of nature, it made them wrong in the head, all too willing to betray a classmate or packmate for their own gain.

              When Minho was 16, he met Chan and Changbin and the three of them decided to make their own pack together instead of joining their birth packs. Minho’s pack had been disapproving, the head alpha telling Minho that he’d come crawling back in a year because a pack without an omega would never work, but Minho didn’t listen to him, taking Chan’s bite on his neck and biting Chan in return.

              Their little pack grew over the next couple of years to four alphas and two betas and things were good. At least until Chan had approached them with the idea of some omega he had known from Australia moving in with them. Minho had been against it immediately, but everyone else had convinced him to say yes, that it’d just be a trial run and Felix wouldn’t join the pack unless everyone agreed.

              Minho avoided Felix for the first couple of months, not wanting to get close to the omega for fear that he would betray the pack, meet some alpha on the street and decide that he was the one or something, leaving the pack broken and sad.

              It wasn’t until one day when the rest of the pack had been out and Minho had been forced to escort Felix to the mall that Minho realized that maybe Felix wasn’t as bad as he had thought. Felix had spent the entire trip pointing out and buying things that the other members would like, never shutting up about how much fun he had been having with the rest of the pack.

              Minho had stayed by Felix’s side for the whole trip until the end when they were in line at the food court. Minho had been too distracted with getting all of the pack’s orders right to notice Felix slipping away until he heard growling coming from one of the nearby shops in the mall. Minho had been horrified to see Felix surrounded by three alphas, clearly wanting to bring Felix home with them despite Felix’s protests.

              Minho had dropped all of the food and sprinted across the food court, getting to Felix just before one of the alphas lunged for him. Minho fought off the three alphas and then dragged Felix out of the mall.

              “What were you thinking?” he had growled once they were safely in the car. Felix was crying, bleeding scratches on his arm from where the alpha had tried to grab him and then was subsequently body-slammed by Minho.

              “I’m so sorry,” Felix had blubbered. “It’s just the store was close and I thought it’d be okay.”

              “I told you not to leave my side. You’re not claimed, it’s dangerous for you out here.”

              “I just wanted to get you this.” Felix held out his hand, revealing a small figurine with its arm broken off. It had been the one that Minho had been eyeing as they had walked by the storefront. Felix must’ve noticed and decided to buy it for him as a surprise.

              “I—“ Minho hadn’t known what to say, too shocked to be mad. “Just don’t wander off again, okay?”

              That had started a somewhat shaky alliance between the two. In the afternoons after Minho came home from work, he would teach Felix how to defend himself. The pack wouldn’t always be able to protect Felix and until he was properly claimed as part of the pack, there would be a target painted on his back.

              At some point Minho started trusting Felix and his intentions and when Chan asked him if he was ready for Felix to join the pack, Minho had agreed.

              But Minho trusting one omega didn’t mean that he trusted them all, and Jisung was particularly suspect.

              It had been Jeongin who had caught the scent of an omega in the abandoned building on their walk home and he had taken off before any of the others could register what was happening.

              “There’s an omega in danger!” Jeongin had yelled over his shoulder at Minho, Chan, and Changbin. Minho hadn’t know what Jeongin was talking about at first until he finally caught the scent for himself: a faint trail of rotten, sour lemons. It wasn’t even something Minho would’ve registered, but Jeongin had always had the best noise out of all of them.

              Minho had warily followed the rest of his pack into the crumbling building, scared that someone stepping in the wrong place would result in the floor disintegrating beneath them. Minho thought that they should just leave the omega be and get out of the dangerous building before it fell down on them, but the rest of the pack clearly didn’t agree with his sentiment. Jeongin in particular had been like a man on a mission, so Minho had just followed along behind, making sure that there weren’t any other alphas who’d had the same idea.

              Chan had to use his alpha voice to get the omega to come out of his hiding place, the boy stinking up the whole building with his distress, making Minho’s nose sting. He had disagreed with the plan to take the strange omega home, but had been outvoted. Chan claimed it was just to get the clearly abused omega back on his feet and that he felt obligated after using his alpha voice. Minho thought that the omega just spelled trouble, but no one listened to him.

              Now there was a strange omega in Felix’s nest with him during his heat and there was nothing Minho could do about it.

              When Minho had received the text message from Felix, he’d been furious. Seungmin had to stop Minho from stomping into Felix’s nest and demanding an explanation. Minho had felt like all of his fears had turned out to be true. Felix was abandoning the pack just because they’d brought in a new omega. All of the years they’d spent together meant nothing when there was another omega in the mix.

              “Minho,” Seungmin had said, physically blocking Minho’s door with his body. It wasn’t much a roadblock considering that Minho could’ve just knocked Seungmin to the side and continued on easily enough, but Minho hadn’t wanted to hurt a member of the pack, so he stopped and waited for Seungmin to say what he wanted. “Think about it this way: all of the alphas, but especially Chan and Changbin upset Felix first by bringing a strange omega into our pack house and then scaring that omega and making him drop despite Hyunjin telling them not to enter the room. In a way, the fact that Felix is now spending his heat with that omega, is just a consequence of your guys’ actions.”

              “I told them not to bring him home.”

              “Yes, but it still happened so then this happened. You know that when Seonghwa had his first heat after Yeosang was brought to their house, he spent his heat with Yeosang and only Yeosang. It’s just an omega thing. It doesn’t mean that Felix is abandoning the pack or anything.”

              “I don’t want Jisung to be part of the pack.”

              Seungmin had deflated a bit at that. “I know, but I think it’s going to happen anyway. I know that you had no say in bringing Jisung home, but Chan, Changbin, and Jeongin really should have considered the fact that Felix might bond with Jisung and leave the rest of us no choice.”

              “We did consider it.” Minho’s frustration was mounting. “That’s why we didn’t let Felix meet Jisung at first. The whole plan was that we let Hyunjin in to calm Jisung down a bit since he was clearly scared of alphas, and then Chan and Changbin were going to ask him a few questions. No Felix involved.”

              Seungmin had stepped out of the doorway at that, placing a hand on Minho’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter what should have happened, it matters what did happen. I think you may need to consider the possibility that Jisung becomes pack.”

              Minho’s heart had frozen at Seungmin’s words. He didn’t want another member of the pack, especially not a male omega. They were perfect as they were. Why did they need to add another person to the pack especially when he was likely to just mess everything up and betray them and cause heartbreak?

              “Minho, I need you to take a deep breath for me.”

              Minho hadn’t even realized he’d been panicking until he’d heard Seungmin’s words. “I’m fine.”

              “You’re not,” Seungmin had answered, “and that’s completely fine. How about we go to my room? I have a bigger bed, it’ll be more comfortable.”

              Minho had nodded robotically and let Seungmin lead him away. Minho didn’t want another member of the pack. He didn’t want to be hurt again. He didn’t want his pack to fall apart.

              Once they got to Seungmin’s room and laid down together, Seungmin hadn’t told Minho that his fears were unwarranted, hadn’t tried to dissect Minho’s past and tell him that he was stressed over nothing, that one bad experience didn’t dictate everything. No, instead, Seungmin had held Minho close and told him that eventually they would talk about everything as a pack, but for now, he just silently comforted Minho as he panicked, let Minho try to reason through everything that had happened on his own, just the way Minho preferred.

              The next couple of days were hard as they waited for Felix’s heat to end. Minho had work, but he could hardly focused, too worried about the fact that his omega was in heat and Minho wasn’t there to take care of him. Everyone avoided the hallway to Felix’s nest, not wanting to smell Felix’s heat without being able to help him with it.

              Jeongin, Hyunjin, and Seungmin tried to keep things bright, but it was hard when they all knew that they were missing a person, that their omega was in heat, yet they were forbidden from entering his nest. Minho’s alpha howled in his chest, upset that there was sweet milk and cinnamon apple lingering in the air, but he wasn’t with Felix.

              “What if he wants to leave our pack now?” Jeongin asked over dinner. The pack always ate dinner together, but tonight it was a sorrowful affair. Today was the last day of Felix’s heat, but Felix had texted earlier that he and Jisung needed another day before they left the nest. Minho had not been happy about the news, but there was nothing that he could do.

              “Don’t say things like that,” Chan scolded. But everyone could smell the fear and worry in Chan’s scent. Felix had never spent a heat without the rest of the pack around him. He was especially clingy right after his heat ended, wanting everyone in the pack to scent him and his nest, but today he wasn’t even going to leave his room.

              “Stop worrying,” Seungmin scolded. “Everything is fine.” His scent was clear as ever—he actually believed his words.

              “You guys bring home an abused omega and then you’re surprised when said omega is traumatized from his abuse,” Hyunjin muttered. He had been moody all of Felix’s heat, still mad at Chan and Changbin for making Jisung drop and even more mad that the rest of the pack was upset that they weren’t spending Felix’s heat with him.

              Minho sighed and stirred his food around his plate. This is why he’d said that they shouldn’t bring Jisung home, shouldn’t even have ventured into that building in the first place.

              “You guys don’t make sense to me sometimes.”

              “Hyunjin.” Both Seungmin and Chan spoke at the same time.

              “No, really. You all saw the process with Hongjoong’s pack and then decided to bring Jisung here, but you don’t seem to want to commit to helping him? You should’ve left him in that building if that was the case.” Hyunjin stood up, chair clattering noisily against the ground. “I’m going to my room.”

              The pack watched Hyunjin leave in silence.

              “I’m going to go talk to him.” Changbin stood up from the table to chase after Hyunjin. Minho watched Seungmin to see if he was going to stop Changbin, but Seungmin didn’t say anything, just watched him go.

              It was just Chan, Minho, Jeongin, and Seungmin sitting at the table now, their plates all half-full.

              “Well this is awkward,” Jeongin said.

              Minho was inclined to agree.

              Felix and Jisung didn’t leave Felix’s nest until the next evening when everyone was home, but before dinner was ready. Minho was surprised that Jisung was leaving Felix’s nest with him considering how terrified of alphas he was, but according to Hyunjin, Jisung was terrified of being left alone.

              Felix and Jisung entered the kitchen first, where Minho was cooking and Seungmin was sitting at the table being annoying and not helping. “Hi!” Seungmin greeted.

              Minho turned around, hating how sour Jisung smelt, scent thick with fear.

              “Hi,” Felix responded. “Do you guys have anything to snack on? We’re kind of hungry.”

              Minho eyed Felix as Seungmin hurried to get food. Felix looked fine, a couple of hickeys on his neck that made Minho’s alpha whine, but then again, Jisung and Felix had spent Felix’s heat together, a couple of hickeys was nothing compared to what they had probably done together.

              Minho couldn’t really see Jisung with the way he was standing, half hidden behind Felix. From what Minho could tell, Jisung seemed fine, swamped in a turtleneck sweater that Felix hated to wear because it rubbed against his scent glands in a way he didn’t like.

              “Here you go.” Seungmin set down a bowl of chips at the table. “This should tide you over until Minho’s done cooking.”

              Felix led Jisung over to the table and pulled two chairs together before sitting down and gesturing for Jisung to do the same. Jisung glanced over at Minho, not moving closer to the chair, scent somehow souring even further.

              Minho looked away from the omegas and focused on cooking dinner, realizing that he was the one making Jisung more upset. As much as Minho didn’t like the strange omega, Minho didn’t want to make Jisung any more upset than he was already or cause Jisung to drop. If Minho made Jisung too upset, then Felix would flee back to his room with Jisung and then Minho wouldn’t be able to watch his omega eat the meal Minho had prepared for him after his heat.

              “So at work the other day one of my coworkers was acting really weird, kind of guilty you know?” Minho resisted the urge to turn and look at Seungmin. He was probably trying to calm Jisung down with a story, but Minho wasn’t sure why Seungmin had chosen this one.

              “Whenever one of our other coworkers came by, she couldn’t look him in the eye and even through her scent blockers, I could smell her scent sour whenever she talked to him. I knew something was up, but I didn’t know what until the coworker she was avoiding came back in with his favorite mug in his hands. Someone had clearly dropped it and it was broken into several pieces. He was upset that his mug was broken, but even more upset that no one had told him what had happened. He eventually figured out who had broken his mug, but he felt hurt that she hadn’t told him herself right after she broke it. Keeping it a secret did more harm than good.”

              Jisung’s scent soured to point where it was burning Minho’s nose even from across the kitchen and Minho couldn’t help but turn around to look at everyone sitting at the table. Jisung was tense, hand fist in the sleeve of Felix’s sweater, looking like he was ready to bolt. Felix was sitting up straight and glaring at Seungmin.

              “Are you trying to say something, Seungmin?” Felix asked. There was an edge to his voice that Minho didn’t like.

              “You know exactly what I’m trying to say,” Seungmin replied.

              “Wow!” Minho interrupted, scared that Jisung was going to bolt and take Felix with him before Minho got a chance to watch Felix eat his food. Minho would reflect on what Seungmin was implying later, after Minho had a chance to take care of Felix after his heat and soothe his alpha a bit. “The food is ready! I made your favorite, Felix.”

              Minho walked over to the table, trying his best to ignore the way Jisung leaned closer to Felix as Minho approached. “Here you guys go. I hope you enjoy it.” Minho set down two bowls in front of Felix, not wanting to reach too close to Jisung in case that scared him, and then set down another bowl in front of Seungmin before retreating to the kitchen to eat his own food. He would text the others that dinner was ready once Felix and Jisung were done, figuring that too many people would just scare Jisung too much. He already smelled like he was one incident away from dropping.

              “You should sit down at the table,” Seungmin said.

              Minho glanced at Jisung who was staring at him as if Minho was going to eat him alive. “No,” Minho decided. “I’m fine right here.”

              Seungmin frowned, but didn’t press the issue any more.

              Felix moved one of the bowls in front of Jisung. “You should eat it,” he urged. “Minho’s a really good cook.”

              Minho smiled at the praise from Felix, smile widening even more as Felix took a bite of the food Minho had prepared for him.

              “It’s so good Jisung, you should have a bite.”

              Minho was happy that he was in the kitchen, far enough away that Felix couldn’t smell the way Minho’s scent reacted to compliment. Seungmin could definitely smell Minho if the way that he rolled his eyes was any indication, but Minho didn’t care, too happy that Felix was eating his food and enjoying it. He hadn’t allowed Minho in his nest during his heat, but at least now Minho was allowed to care for Felix afterwards, making sure their pack omega was well fed and happy.

              Minho watched with satisfaction as Felix and Jisung ate their food. Jisung seemed a bit reluctant at times to keep eating, glancing over towards Minho as if he was going to take Jisung’s food away from him. Whenever Jisung paused eating, Felix would always nudge him to keep going, sometimes even going as far as to feed Jisung himself.

              The sight made Minho’s alpha happy. Pack omega is taking good care of our omega.

              Our omega? Minho blinked. Where had that come from? Jisung wasn’t part of the pack and Minho didn’t want him to be, so why was his alpha acting like he was?

              Before Minho could ponder his alpha’s reaction too much, he was interrupted by Jeongin bounding into the kitchen, followed by Chan. “When is dinner going to be—oh.” Jeongin cut himself off when he saw Jisung and Felix sitting at the table.

“Oops.” Jeongin turned to leave, pushing at Chan, but the damage was already done.

Jisung whined upon seeing the alphas entering, scrambling out of his chair before Felix could stop him and falling to his knees with a thud that made Minho wince. Jisung bared his neck, the fabric of the sweater moving to reveal a fresh bite mark on his mating gland.

“Damn,” someone cursed, but Minho wasn’t sure who, he couldn’t hear anything over the roaring in his ears. Felix had mated Jisung. Felix had mated Jisung and hadn’t told any of them. Did that mean that Felix was planning on leaving the pack? Was he going to run away with Jisung and leave the rest of them behind broken and without their pack omega?

Minho stumbled backwards until he hit the counter, hand reaching for the bite Felix had left on him. Was it going to fester now that Felix didn’t want to be a part of the pack? Minho knew a bond breaking hurt like nothing else. He wasn’t ready for the pain, he wasn’t ready to have one less person in the pack, he wasn’t ready to be betrayed again.

“Minho.”

Minho blinked his eyes open to see Seungmin kneeling in front of him. Minho was sitting on the kitchen floor. He wasn’t sure when that had happened.

“It’s okay, Minho. Felix isn’t going to leave us.”

“No?” Minho asked, finding the words hard to believe. Felix had mated Jisung without telling any of them, what else could that mean? If it had been an accident in the heat of the moment and Felix still wanted to be with the pack, he would have told them immediately, but instead Felix and Jisung had kept it a secret, going as far to cover up Jisung’s bite with a turtleneck.

“He’s staying,” Seungmin confirmed. “We’ll have a pack meeting later to talk about everything, but know that Felix has no intentions of leaving us.”

“Then why?”

Seungmin sighed. “I think just because he was scared and Jisung was scared and Felix was trying to protect Jisung. We’re going to talk tomorrow, okay?”

Minho nodded, brain still feeling fuzzy, thoughts moving slow as he tried to make sense of what Seungmin was telling him.

“Felix and Jisung went back to Felix’s nest for now. Jisung was really upset, he may have dropped.”

Minho’s alpha whined at that, upset that Jisung may have dropped, may be in distress and Minho was unable to help. While Minho was still on the fence about Jisung being pack, his alpha seemed to have already accepted the omega as one of them, instincts wanting to protect Jisung and make sure that he was safe.

“Do you want to go to my room?”

Minho shook his head. “Chan.”

“Chan’s room?”

Minho nodded.

“Okay then.” Seungmin helped Minho to his feet and lead him out of the kitchen. The entire space smelled like sour lemons, making Minho’s nose burn until they were in the hallway. Normally, Minho went to Felix’s nest when he was upset, but that was out of the question now, so Chan’s room was the next best place. He let the members in whenever they wanted, so it smelled the most like pack which is what Minho needed right now: to be surrounded by the scents of his pack.

Chapter Text

Jisung had dropped again.

Jeongin and Chan had entered the room and then Jisung was kneeling for them before Felix could tell him not to, baring his neck and consequentially showing off his mating bite. In the chaos that ensued, Jisung had dropped, body slumping to the ground, completely limp.

Felix looked around, not sure what he should do. Seungmin was in the kitchen with Minho trying to calm him down, so he was unable to provide Felix with any guidance.

“Felix,” Chan said, surprisingly calm given everything that had happened. “You need to help him. He’s your mate now.”

Right. Felix had mated Jisung during his heat and while he didn’t regret it, the timing had been poor. The rest of the pack didn’t even really know Jisung and now Felix was practically forcing them to accept Jisung into the pack. Both Felix and Jisung had been scared of the ramifications of what Felix had done after his heat had ended, neither of them brave enough to tell the rest of the pack what had happened.

Felix should’ve just texted them. Seungmin was right that keeping a secret like that was never going to work. Now everything was a mess and it was all Felix’s fault.

“Felix.” There was a hand on Felix’s shoulder. “You need to scent him and bring him to your nest, okay? He’s your mate now, you’re the only person who can help Jisung.”

“I shouldn’t have,” Felix said. “I shouldn’t have mated him.”

“Hey.” Chan moved Felix until he was looking him in the eye. “I’m not mad about this, okay? We’re going to talk tomorrow, but right now, you need to help Jisung. Scent him and talk to him and bring him to your nest, okay? I’m going to get Jeongin out of here and Seungmin has Minho, so just focus on Jisung for now.”

Felix nodded and glanced at Jisung, feeling sick to his stomach as he took in Jisung’s limp form.

“I would scent you, but I think Jisung probably wouldn’t like you smelling like an alpha right now, but are you going to be okay?”

Felix took a deep, steadying breath. What Chan was to him, he now was to Jisung. It was Felix’s job to help him now. “Yeah, thank you.”

“Of course.” Chan squeezed Felix’s shoulder. We’re going to figure this out, okay?”

Felix nodded and headed to Jisung’s side. Jisung’s scent that had been overwhelmingly sour was now strangely muted, his chest rising and falling with every slow breath.

“Sungie.” Felix gently brushed at Jisung’s hair. “You’re okay, you’re safe. No one is mad at us.” Jisung didn’t stir, but Felix didn’t expect him to. He was in deep and it was going to take more than just a couple of reassuring words to bring him out of the drop. Felix needed to bring Jisung to his nest to help him recover, but Felix wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to pick up Jisung’s limp bodyweight.

Hyunjin appeared by Felix’s side as if he had been summoned. Honestly, in hindsight, Felix was pretty sure that either Chan or Seungmin had texted him.

“Let’s get Jisung to your guys’ nest, okay?”

Hyunjin helped Felix lift Jisung off of the floor and then the two of them carried Jisung through the hallway to Felix’s nest.

Jisung was lighter than he should’ve been in Felix’s arms and it made Felix’s chest ache. His mate was too skinny. Felix needed to feed him more, needed to take care of him better, needed to make sure that Jisung was safe.

“Your bite is so pretty,” Hyunjin said. “When did you do this? Two days ago?”

Felix nodded.

“Wow, it’s healed so well. You know that means that he’s accepted you as his pack, right? He’ll want to bite you in return during his next heat.”

Emotion welled up in Felix’s chest. “I shouldn’t have bit him without the pack’s permission.” Felix was happy that Jisung was his mate, wanted to stay with Jisung forever, but also acting on his own had the potential to hurt his pack and that was the last thing Felix wanted.

“Maybe, but we’re past that point right now. All that matters is that Jisung is your mate and that he’s distressed and you’re going to fix it, right?”

Felix nodded, not able to talk around the lump in his throat.

Hyunjin leaned over Jisung to press a quick kiss to Felix’s cheek. “I love you Lixie and I support your decision to add to our pack. I don’t think anyone is mad at you, we’re just going to have to all talk about this more tomorrow, okay?” Hyunjin shifted Jisung fully into Felix’s arms. “For now, just focus on your new mate, yeah?”

Felix nodded and entered his nest, cradling Jisung to his chest. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Everything was a mess, Felix’s pack was stressed and it was all his fault.

Felix took a deep breath to center himself. That didn’t matter right now. Chan and Hyunjin were right, Felix needed to focus on getting Jisung out of this drop. After being mated, Jisung was more vulnerable to changes in emotions and dropping. He and his omega would be more reliant on Felix now, especially with Jisung’s past.

Felix settled Jisung into the center of their nest and laid down next to him, tucking Jisung’s face into his neck so that he’d only be able to smell Felix’s scent.

“You’re okay, Jisung,” Felix soothed, running his hands through Jisung’s hair. “You’re safe with me in my nest.”

“You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to.”

Jisung whined and held on even tighter to Felix’s arm. “No, don’t leave me, you can’t leave me.” Jisung felt fuzzy and weird. Felix had said that he’d dropped the day before, but Jisung didn’t remember any of it, his memories covered in a haze. All Jisung knew was that Felix was trying to leave the safety of their nest and that Jisung couldn’t let him.

“You options are you come with me to the pack meeting in the living room, or you let me go by myself,” Felix explained.

Jisung shook his head. “No, we stay.” While he didn’t fully remember what had happened yesterday, Jisung did know that he and Felix had left the nest and that it had led to him dropping. The outside world was scary, but the nest was safe.

“Jisung.” Felix cupped Jisung’s face in his hands. “I have to talk with my pack, okay?  We can sit together the entire time, but I do need to talk with them. Please?”

Jisung was scared. He didn’t want to be hurt again. Felix’s pack was mainly alphas and alphas hurt omegas. That’s just the way things worked.

“We’ll sit in a chair in the corner and you can be in my lap the entire time and everyone else will already be seated when we arrive, so they’ll be no surprises. No one is going to hurt us, I promise.”

Jisung’s head hurt. He always felt so weird after dropping and today was no exception. He just wanted to curl up in the warm, safe nest with Felix, but that wasn’t allowed and now Jisung had to make a decision, but he didn’t like either options.

Jisung tried to make himself think like normal, but it wasn’t working. Jisung’s head was pounding and Felix was looking at him expectantly and Jisung just didn’t know what to do.

“I’m scared.”

Felix’s face crumbled and he pulled Jisung into his arms. “I know baby, I know. This is all really hard for you, huh?”

Jisung nodded, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. His head hurt and his brain felt fuzzy and Jisung didn’t know what to do.

“What if I helped you go into omega-space and then you stayed in the nest while I talked to the rest of my pack?”

Jisung’s heart dropped, and he started to cry in earnest, grabbing onto Felix’s shirt. No, Felix couldn’t leave Jisung. Especially when Jisung’s brain was all fuzzy and things didn’t make sense. Jisung couldn’t be alone right now.

“I’m sorry,” Felix soothed. “I’m not going to leave you. I shouldn’t have suggested it.” Felix rubbed Jisung’s back as he cried, letting him cry his tears out until all that was left was small sniffles.

“Don’t leave me,” Jisung said, voice watery. “I don’t care where we go, but you can’t leave me.”

“Okay, I’m not going to leave you.” Felix rubbed the tears off of Jisung’s face with his thumbs. “I’ll stay with you the entire time, but we’re going to take a trip to the living room to talk to my pack, okay?”

Jisung nodded, too tired to argue. He didn’t want to leave the nest, didn’t want to have to face alphas right now when nothing was making sense, but more than anything, Jisung just didn’t want Felix to leave him.

Jisung curled into Felix’s side as Felix led Jisung out of the safety of the nest, trying his best to bury his head in Felix’s scent gland even though the angle was awkward as they walked.

Entering the living room was overwhelming and Jisung wanted nothing more but to turn back around and head back to the nest, but Felix kept walking forward, so Jisung was forced to as well even as he was aware of Felix’s pack’s eyes following them as they walked across the room to chair big enough for the two of them to sit in.

None of the alphas got up or moved, but Jisung could still feel his heart jackrabbiting in his chest, a roaring filling his ears. Felix had mated Jisung without permission, had handed Jisung a turtleneck sweater to cover the bite when they had left the nest. Jisung wasn’t the smartest, but he did know that meant that Felix hadn’t wanted the others to know that he had mated Jisung. Now, they were having a pack meeting about it and Jisung head hurt and he couldn’t think well, but he did know that the alphas looked tense and smelled slightly stale and sour and Jisung knew that meant that Felix was in trouble.

Jisung held on tighter to Felix’s shirt. He didn’t want to hurt. He didn’t want to listen to alphas scream and growl, didn’t want to have to watch them beat Felix for his insolence.

There was a pounding behind Jisung’s eyes. He felt like he did after one of the alphas in his old pack’d had a bad day and decided to take it out on him. Jisung was vaguely aware of being tugged down into Felix’s lap, but he couldn’t see anything, the world spinning around him, eyes unable to focus.

“Jisung.”

Jisung thought he heard Felix’s voice, but he wasn’t sure, couldn’t hear anything over the roaring in his ears. His head hurt. He didn’t want to be in the living room surrounded by angry alphas who were going to hurt them. Jisung didn’t want to do this, not again.

“Jisung, listen to me, please. You’re going to drop again.” There was a note of urgency in Felix’s voice that Jisung didn’t understand. Felix’s scent had a note of bitterness to it and it only drove Jisung further down. Felix wasn’t content, he didn’t feel safe either.

“Everything’s going to be okay, I promise. My pack would never hurt us. Just focus on my scent. You can’t drop again, not so soon.”

Jisung didn’t understand why. Things didn’t hurt when he was unconscious. He didn’t have to be scared when he was dropped. The things that happened to him while he was out of it didn’t even really count. Jisung didn’t mind waking up confused and with an aching body if it meant less pain in the moment.

“Jisung.” It wasn’t Felix speaking, but one of the betas. Jisung inhaled, breathing in the scent of rain. Hyunjin then. His scent was nice, it didn’t have the bitter edge to it that Felix’s did at the moment. “Stay with us for now.”

Jisung whined. He didn’t want to. It was safer to drop, safer to be unconscious when the entire pack smelled upset like this. Jisung’s head hurt and his chest hurt and he was stressed and he just wanted it all to stop.

The smell of the earth after rain invaded Jisung’s senses, soft skin pressing against Jisung’s nose. “It’s okay,” Hyunjin soothed. “You’re okay. Felix is okay. No one is mad at either of you.”

Felix pulled Jisung closer, wrapping his arms tightly around Jisung’s body. His scent had evened out, smelling less upset and stressed now. “No one in the pack is going to hurt us,” Felix soothed. “There’s no need to drop right now, you’re safe.”

Jisung was too tired to think for himself. His body and mind were screaming danger but his mate was telling him that everything was okay and Hyunjin’s scent was smooth and even and Jisung wasn’t sure what he should be thinking.

Jisung whined again and was quickly soothed, Hyunjin pumping as much calm and soothing into his scent as possible and Felix starting to stroke his hand through Jisung’s hair, whispering soft reassurances into Jisung’s ear.

“You’re okay. Everything’s okay. We’re safe here.”

Jisung hoped that Felix was right, hoped that he was safe for the first time since his presentation.

              Felix didn’t know what to do. He had somehow managed to get Jisung out of the nest and into the living room, but now he was panicking, scent so sour that it was burning Felix’s nose, waves of distress coming through the partial mating bond.

              Jisung was barreling headfirst into another drop and Felix didn’t know how to stop it.

              Dropping again so soon had the potential to cause permanent damage to Jisung’s omega and that was the last thing Felix or anyone in the pack wanted. It was a miracle that Jisung had lasted as long as he had in that abusive pack without losing himself, but now that Jisung was more connected with his inner omega, it meant that he was more susceptible to the negative consequences that came with dropping.

Bringing Jisung to this meeting while he was still recovering had probably been a terrible idea, but Felix couldn’t have left Jisung behind and this was a conversation that needed to happen.

Hyunjin crossed the room and shoved his wrist in Jisung’s face. “Fix your scent,” he hissed at Felix before turning to try and soothe Jisung.

Felix took a deep breath and focused on purging as much worry and fear from his scent as he could. It was hard when Jisung’s emotions were so strong that they were projecting across the partial bond—something Felix hadn’t even realized was possible. Felix could feel the rest of the pack, but they had full bonds and it was more of a conscious effort. This felt like Jisung was screaming across the bond, projecting his emotions so strongly that Felix had a hard time distinguishing them from his own.

Jisung whined and it snapped Felix out of his thoughts and into action. Felix’s mate was in distress and it was Felix’s job to soothe him.

When Jisung had finally calmed down, Felix finally looked up at the rest of the pack. They were watching him, Hyunjin, and Jisung quietly. Seungmin was sitting on the couch in between Minho and Jeongin while Chan and Changbin were on the loveseat, all five of them looking worried.

“How is Jisung going to be part of our pack if he can’t even be in the same room as us?” Jeongin asked.

Felix felt his heart drop. He had mated Jisung before asking permission, before talking to anyone else about it and now everyone else didn’t want Jisung in the pack.

“It’s going to take time,” Seungmin responded, “but I think that he’ll become more comfortable around the rest of us when he sees that we’re not threats.”

“Does Felix even want to be in the pack anymore?”

“Of course,” Felix answered Minho in a heartbeat. “I love you guys. You’re all my pack and I know I messed up by mating Jisung, but I still want to be with you all.”

“Why’d you do it them?” Minho demanded.

Indignation flared, but Felix pushed it back down, taking a deep breath before he spoke, Hyunjin stroking Felix’s leg with his free hand to help him calm down. Minho had a rough past, Felix reminded himself. This was probably reminding him of memories that he’d rather forget.

“My omega claimed Jisung, I think even before my heat or that was the reason why I went into heat. He was so distressed and clearly needed help and I just kinda latched onto him. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain because I think it’s different for omegas. There’s not a lot of us, you know, so we have to look out for each other. I didn’t really mean to mate Jisung, it just happened during my heat and I don’t regret it except for the negative impact it's had on the pack and for that, I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you, Felix,” Chan said. “This wasn’t really ideal, but I know that you were acting on instincts, trying to do what was best for you and Jisung, especially after he had been threatened by the alphas of this pack.”

Felix let out a breath he hadn’t even know he was holding. His pack alpha wasn’t mad at him. Chan was understanding, Chan wasn’t mad at him, wasn’t going to kick Felix out of the pack.

“It’s going to take some planning and adjustment, but I’d be willing to welcome Jisung into the pack if he and everyone else was willing.”

“I’m willing,” Hyunjin answered first. He was kneeling on the floor next to Felix, wrist still pressed against Jisung’s nose. Jisung wasn’t unconscious at the moment, but he wasn’t entirely conscious either, floating somewhere in between, partially high on Hyunjin’s scent.

“I’m also willing,” Seungmin said.

“Me too,” Jeongin chimed in. “I mean it’d be really mean of us to find him in an abandoned building and then force him to come home with us, only to abandon him again.”

“I’m okay with him joining too,” Changbin said. “Felix seems attached and I trust his judgement.”

Everyone looked to Minho.

“You don’t have to answer now, Minho,” Chan said. “I know this is a lot for you.”

“No.” Minho shook his head. “I’m okay with Jisung joining the pack if he wants to. Earlier when Jisung and Felix were eating the food I made, my alpha was already seeing him as pack. Jisung has been through so much, he deserves a pack who will love him and treasure him like he deserves.”

Felix’s jaw dropped and he wasn’t the only one, Jeongin looking similarly shocked. Seungmin was the only one who didn’t seem surprised, a wide grin on his face, but it was only natural that the beta knew something that the others didn’t considering he and Minho had a weird bond that Felix didn’t understand. Minho wasn’t trusting of new people, hadn’t wanted Felix to join the pack for forever after they had met, but here he was, welcoming in Jisung after only a week.

“Well,” Chan said, “I guess that settles it. We’ll talk with Hongjoong’s pack a bit and figure out the best way to get Jisung comfortable around the rest of us, but he’s staying for as long as he wants to. Hopefully forever if he wants us.”

Felix hoped that it was forever. He didn’t know what he would do if Jisung didn’t want to be with the rest of the pack. Felix wasn’t going to leave his pack, but he also didn’t want to lose Jisung.

“It’s going to be okay,” Hyunjin said.

Felix didn’t know how he could speak with such confidence about things that were in the future. Sometimes Hyunjin and Seungmin freaked Felix out with the things they knew. The beta’s ability to detect small changes in a person’s scent meant that they knew more about pack affairs than anyone else and sometimes knew what a person was feeling before they did.

“You should probably bring Jisung back to your nest now, I’m still a bit worried about him dropping.”

Felix nodded but was remiss to move when he was surrounded by the rest of the pack for the first time since his heat. Felix hadn’t realized how much he had missed them all until now when he was surrounded by all their scents. “I love you guys,” Felix said. “I hope me mating Jisung didn’t make you doubt that because I would never leave this pack.”

“We know,” Changbin responded, walking over to ruffle Felix’s hair, still staying far enough back that Jisung wouldn’t be able to smell him over Hyunjin’s wrist pressed against his nose.

“I wish I could hug you.” Felix didn’t want the alphas’ scents to rub off on him, fearful that it would stress out Jisung even more.

“We’ll be able to hug again soon,” Changbin promised. “And when we do, I’ll smother you so much that you’ll be begging me to let you go.”

Felix smiled. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Chapter Text

Jisung was tired. It had been a day or two since he’d dropped—Jisung hadn’t really been keeping track—and he still felt fuzzy and out of it. Felix hadn’t made him leave the nest since the pack meeting, but Jisung was still confused.

The alphas hadn’t burst into Felix’s nest during his heat like Jisung had feared, nor had they been angry at Felix for mating Jisung without permission. They had been understandably upset, but Jisung had expected screaming, had expected to wake up after dropping to a black and blue Felix at his side, but Felix hadn’t had so much as a mark on him except for red and puffy eyes from crying.

Jisung’s brain had been too muddled after dropping to think through everything that had happened in the past week, but now that he was feeling better, he was forced to consider that maybe Felix and Hyunjin and everyone else hadn’t been lying when they had said that this pack was different, that they treated omegas as equals instead of something lesser. Omegas were human to them, not just glorified sex dolls and punching bags.

Jisung wasn’t sure what to do with this revelation. It was still hard to trust anyone, but especially a pack of majority alphas. Jisung was warming up to Seungmin and Hyunjin, but anytime he saw one of the alphas, he couldn’t help but freeze in his tracks, waiting to be yelled at, waiting for orders, waiting for them to approach with leering eyes and wandering hands.

Felix had said his alphas were different, and so far, they had proven that, but Jisung just couldn’t get the fear out of his head, couldn’t stop from panicking whenever they got too close.

“What are you thinking about?” Felix’s words cut through Jisung’s train of thought.

“I don’t know, just…stuff.”

“Hm.” Felix reached out to tuck a strand of Jisung’s hair behind his ear, the motion familiar by now. Felix was always casually touching Jisung and Jisung was growing to return the gestures, leaning into Felix for comfort. Having another omega around was nicer than Jisung wanted to admit. “Well I was thinking about how sunny it is today.”

It was quite sunny outside, light streaming in through the windows in Felix’s room, a stark difference from the clouds and rain that had been pattering against the window for the last couple of days.

“What if we went outside?”

Jisung froze. Outside? He was hardly ever let outside, only when his alphas were showing him off to other packs, boasting about the fact that they had a male omega.

“Are we allowed?”

“To go outside? Of course,” Felix answered. “There’s a patio and some grass as well as a little herb garden that Minho takes care of.”

“I—” Jisung’s instincts were telling him to say no, that alpha’s would never let omega’s go outside unsupervised, but one glance at the window had him hesitating. The sunlight streaming in looked too tempting. “Okay,” he finally agreed.

Felix smiled and stood up, holding out a hand for Jisung. “Great! Let’s get dressed and we can head out.”

Jisung let Felix tug him to his feet. “Do you have to let anyone know?”

Felix tilted his head in confusion. “Let them know that we’re going to the backyard? Of course not. I mean I might text them anyway so that no one accidentally surprises you, but we don’t need permission to go anywhere, especially when it’s on our property. I’ll let the other know if I ever head to the store or something and one of them usually accompanies me, but it’s not like they’re going to restrict where I can and can’t go.”

“Oh,” Jisung responded. That was very much unlike his old pack and everything Jisung knew about how packs treated their omegas. Yet another point towards this pack actually being different.

Jisung was dressed in Felix’s clothes and being dragged out into the hallway within a matter of minutes. It all happened so quick, that Jisung didn’t even have time to panic or think about what would happen if they ran into anyone on their journey outside. The hallways were thankfully empty and Jisung’s worries all disappeared once he and Felix walked through the door that led to the backyard.

The sun was shining, warming up Jisung’s skin in a way that he hadn’t felt for a long time. Jisung closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the sky, enjoying the feeling of the sunlight kissing his face, the warmth of the light surrounding him like a hug.

Birds were chirping, the sun was shining and Jisung wanted to stay in this moment forever.

Almost as if he were in a trance, Jisung collapsed onto the grass, running the blades through his fingers, pants soaking through with dew, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. It smelled bright and fresh and green. As much and Jisung enjoyed Felix, Seungmin, and Hyunjin’s scents, it was nice to smell something not associated with a person, was nice to connect with just a little bit of the earth.

Jisung laid on his back, face towards the sun, grass in between his fingers and breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with fresh, outside air. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been allowed to enjoy the outdoors like this. When Jisung had espaced from his old pack, he’d been so focused on running and hiding that he hadn’t enjoyed a single moment of his freedom, too focused on survival.

But now he was allowed to lay in the grass, let the sun warm his skin, the sounds of birds gracing his ears.

“It’s nice isn’t it?” Jisung titled his head and opened his eyes a bit to watch Felix sit down next to him and tilt his face towards the sky like Jisung had done earlier. “I should get out more. Usually, I just play video games in my room when everyone else is at work.”

“Is everyone at work right now?”

Felix shrugged. “I think so. Sometimes Minho, Seungmin, and Changbin work from home—Chan too if he has the time—but I think they’ve all been going in person lately.”

“Because of me?”

“Yeah, they don’t want to scare or overwhelm you.”

Oh. That was nice of them Jisung supposed. Less chance of Jisung running into someone and freaking out if they were off at work all day.

“Don’t worry about that, just enjoy the backyard for now. You can explore all you want.”

Jisung nodded, but didn’t move, content to lie in the sun and take it all in for the time being.

Eventually, Jisung got tired of just lying in the grass and sat up, truly taking in the backyard for the first time. There was the patio that Jisung had practically ran over in his excitement to get to the grass, an outdoor table and grill set up on it. Beyond the grass was the herb garden Felix had told him about. Jisung decided not to get too close to it in case he accidentally hurt one of the plants that Minho obviously worked to hard to care for.

All of the plants were lined up in neat little rows, looking green and healthy. Gardening wasn’t really an alpha activity, and Jisung found himself slightly endeared that the big, gruff alpha had such a stereotypical omega hobby.

But then again, Minho had been the one to cook for them after Felix’s heat and it was clear that Felix didn’t do the cooking for the pack despite the fact that he was the only omega.

Jisung had been supposed to be the one doing the cooking for his old pack, but he was so bad at it that the task had been delegated to one of the betas instead. Jisung winced at the reminder of how un-smoothly that transition had went. At least it had been better than being scolded every night for his barely-edible meals.

“Do you like the garden?”

Jisung jumped a bit as he turned to look at Felix. He hadn’t noticed the other omega was at his side until he’d spoken.

“Uh yeah, it’s nice. It’s clear Minho takes good care of his garden.”

“He calls his plants his babies,” Felix confided. “Minho really likes cats but can’t have any because Changbin is allergic, so I think he’s replaced them with a herb garden.”

“That’s kind of cute.”

“Honestly, all of the alphas are big softies when you get to know them. Changbin is actually the sweetest person I know despite all of his imposing muscles and Chan cries at any sad scene in movies, even if he’s seen them a million times.”

Jisung blinked in surprise. He’d never seen an alpha cry before.

“And Jeongin teaches kindergarten.”

“Really?” Jisung had only heard of betas teaching kids that young.

“Yeah, you should see him with the kids, he’s so good with them.”

Jisung really hadn’t interacted with the alpha’s of Felix’s pack that much, but he couldn’t help but think that Felix was fibbing a little to make Jisung feel more comfortable around them. Maybe Jeongin didn’t teach at a kindergarten but rather managed one.

“I hope that you can be more comfortable around all of the pack eventually. I mean we’re partially bonded so it’d be weird if you didn’t become part of the same pack as me.”

That was Jisung’s fear. He wouldn’t give up his partial bond with Felix for the world, but he also didn’t want to join Felix’s pack nor drive a spike between Felix and the rest of his pack. Jisung knew he had been there for the conversation about Felix claiming him, but Jisung did remember anything that had been said, too out of it to comprehend the swirl of voices.

For now, Jisung figured he would just stay quiet and do as he was told and figure things out as they happened. No one had mentioned joining the pack to Jisung nor had anyone other than Felix try to get closer to him in the past couple of days. Jisung could only hope that the agreement they had come to involved him staying holed up in Felix’s room forever. Maybe they thought of Jisung as some sort of pet for Felix. Jisung was too broken to be a part of their pack, but brought comfort to their omega so they kept him around. Jisung would be okay with that. It was better than how anyone else had ever treated him and Jisung knew not to hope to be seen as an equal. Omegas weren’t equal to alphas and betas, it was just a fact of life.

“Hey, don’t worry about it too much. No one is going to do anything you’re not comfortable with, okay? How about we look at some of the flowers I planted last spring?” Felix tugged Jisung towards the other corner of the backyard and his worries were quickly forgotten as he admired the roses Felix was in charge of.

The two of them stayed outside until the sun was past its peak in the sky and was approaching the horizon.

“We should go inside,” Felix said, glancing at his phone. “The others will be getting back from work soon if they aren’t already back. Sorry, I kind of lost track of time.”

Jisung didn’t know why Felix was apologizing. This was the best day he’d had in a long time. Much of the afternoon had consisted of Felix and Jisung lying together in the grass, making up storied about the animals they saw in the clouds, sides pressed firmly together.

“Okay.” Jisung stood up and looked at his clothes. They were streaked with dirt and grass stains. They looked like the clothes of a little kid, not a fully grown omega who should know better.

“It’s okay, we’ll just do laundry when we get inside.” Felix bumped his shoulder into Jisung’s as they headed towards the door. “We can even shower together.” Felix raised his eyebrows and Jisung laughed, shoving at Felix.

“You’re insatiable.”

“Only when it comes to you, baby.”

Jisung’s laugh cut off with the sound of the door opening, freezing when he saw Minho step into the backyard.

“Oh.” Minho froze as well when he saw Jisung and Felix, one of his gardening gloves falling to the ground. The edges were pink with little flowers. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you guys were still out here.” Minho turned and fled back into the house, not even bothering to retrieve his dropped glove.

Jisung still stood there, stiff as a statue, staring at the glove on the ground, trying to comprehend what had just happened. When he had seen Minho, Jisung’s brain had stopped working, cold terror filling his body, muscles tensing as he prepared for a scolding, prepared for Minho to stalk over to him and backhand him across the face for getting in an alpha’s way, for being outside when he wasn’t supposed to. But instead, Minho had turned and ran away like he was the one in the wrong, like this wasn’t his backyard, like Jisung wasn’t the trespasser in this situation.

“Hey.” Felix stepped into Jisung’s field of view, holding out his hand for Jisung to take, but not touching him. “How about we go inside and take a warm shower? Doesn’t that sound good?”

“But Minho…”

“Will come back out to do his gardening once we’re back in my room, okay? He’s not mad or anything, he just didn’t want to scare you and make you drop.”

The again went unsaid.

Slowly, Jisung reached out for Felix’s hand. Each step felt like swimming through molasses, Jisung afraid that Minho was going to jump out from around the corner to yell at them, scared that maybe Minho went to get reinforcements. But they reached Felix’s room unharmed and Felix helped Jisung strip out of his clothes and ran him a warm bath, deciding that was better than a shower.

The warm water did help clear Jisung’s head, helped the fear and tension bleed from his muscles, Felix’s soft touches and quiet words soothing the torrent that was Jisung’s thoughts.

“I’m so proud of you,” Felix whispered into Jisung’s hair later that night. Jisung wasn’t sure what there was to be proud of. “We can go outside again tomorrow if you want.”

Jisung didn’t respond, just closed his eyes and pretended like he was already asleep.

Chapter Text

“Do you want to bake brownies with me? It’ll be so much fun!”

              No. Jisung did not want to bake brownies with Felix. Jisung didn’t want to leave the safety of the nest, didn’t want to go outside again, didn’t want to risk seeing another member of the pack. Maybe if Jisung stayed in Felix’s room long enough, the rest of the pack would forget that he existed.

              “I love baking so much and it’s been so long since I’ve been able to. Please Jisung? I promise that only Changbin and Seungmin are home today and Changbin said he’d stay in the office.”

              Last time Felix had said that no one was home and then Minho had appeared in the garden. Leaving the nest was dangerous.

              “Please?” Felix tugged on the sleeve of Jisung’s shirt and looked up at him with wide eyes. “I’m going a little stir crazy in here and this would make me so happy. Please? You don’t want me becoming depressed staying in here all the time, right?”

              Jisung frowned. Felix sure was manipulative when he wanted to be. But Jisung didn’t want Felix to get sad and depressed locked up in his room all day. They had been inside in the nest for the past two days after going to the garden had worked out so poorly and Felix was seeming more restless and jittery than usual.

              “Okay.”

              Felix cheered and grabbed Jisung’s hand, starting to drag him towards the door as if he was scared that Jisung was going to change his mind at any moment. “It’ll be so much fun I promise! Plus, the brownies I make are so good.”

              Jisung didn’t doubt that. It wasn’t Felix’s baking skills that he was scared of.

              Jisung sat on a stool at the counter watching Felix bake. The brownie recipe had looked complicated and Jisung didn’t want to mess anything up, so he just sat and watched and listened to Felix talk. It was truly amazing how much Felix could talk about things. Jisung felt like he had basically run out of topics to talk about with Felix, but Felix didn’t seem to feel the same. Right now, Jisung was getting a complete run down of how Felix had found this recipe and tweaked it to be perfect. There had apparently been several fails along the way.

              “And then once my hand slipped when I was pouring in the salt and I thought it was fine and I’d just add more sugar, but then I also forgot about the brownies in the oven, so they were overly salty, grainy and burnt all at once. It was completely inedible.”

              “The best part is that Felix fed them to Chan first without telling him about any of the mishaps he’d had along that way.”

              Jisung startled so bad that he fell from his chair.

              “Seungmin! You were supposed to stay in your room,” Felix scolded, hands on his hips as he stared down the beta that was still standing in the doorway.

              “I was hungry, I wanted a snack. Plus, Jisung knows me,” Seungmin pouted.

              Jisung watched the exchange from where he had landed on the cool tile of the kitchen floor. He didn’t trust himself to stand up yet, heart pounding in his chest, limbs feeling shaky from the residual fear.

              “Are you okay, Jisung? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you like that.” Seungmin held out his hand towards Jisung.

              “I-I’m okay.” Jisung glanced towards Felix and saw that he was watching the interaction between Jisung and Seungmin, chewing nervously on his lower lip. Felix was probably remembering the last time someone had snuck up on Jisung in the kitchen and caused him to drop.

              But Seungmin was a beta, not two buff alphas. Jisung knew Seungmin, had something that smelled like him in the nest. Jisung reached out his hand and let Seungmin pull him to his feet.

              “Sorry, I won’t sneak up on you again.” Seungmin offered Jisung a smile and Jisung found himself smiling back.

              “You better not!” Felix chimed in. “You almost gave poor Jisung a heart attack.”

              It was partially Jisung’s fault, but Jisung didn’t say anything. Normal people didn’t fall out of chairs when someone entered the kitchen, normal people didn’t almost drop when they were surprised.

              “Is Felix not letting you help bake?”

              Jisung shrugged, gaze trained on the floor so that he wouldn’t have to look Seungmin in the eye. “I’m not good enough to help.”

              “Hmm, you know, Felix wasn’t good at baking either until he started to do it.”

              Jisung had gathered that from all of Felix’s stories about his kitchen mishaps.

              “So how are you going to get better if you never try?”

              “Don’t be like that Kim Seungmin.” Felix pointed the spoon he was using to mix the batter at Seungmin threateningly. “You never help either, so don’t give Jisung a hard time. He can help when he wants to.”

              Seungmin shrugged. “I just don’t want Jisung to hold himself back from things he wants to do because he feels as if he isn’t good enough.” Seungmin turned to look at Jisung. “You are good enough, Jisung, and you should never let anyone make you feel like you’re not.”

              Somehow Jisung felt as if Seungmin wasn’t just talking about baking the brownies anymore.

              The brownies were good when Felix finished making them. Jisung was never allowed to eat sweets in the past, but he took a bite under Felix and Seungmin’s encouragement. As the rich chocolatey flavor exploded in Jisung’s mouth, no one jumped out from behind a wall to yell at Jisung. Felix and Seungmin didn’t suddenly change their minds and rip the brownie out of Jisung’s hands, nor did they say that Jisung needed to pay them back for their kindness.  They just watched Jisung with smiles on their faces and encouraged him to eat more.

              When Jisung and Felix went back to the nest, no alphas knocked on the door demanding to know why some brownies were missing from the tray and when Hyunjin brought them dinner, there was a brownie sitting on the side of Jisung’s plate.

              “The alphas really don’t mind?”

              “Of course not,” Felix replied. “Why would they?”

              Jisung didn’t have an answer for that, so he just ate his dinner and brownie in silence. Jisung wasn’t going to complain about sweet treats being allowed.

              Jisung didn’t see any of the alphas of the pack as the days passed, but Hyunjin and Seungmin did start to appear places that Felix and Jisung were more often. It probably helped that Felix was making Jisung actually leave the nest, claiming that he was too bored to stay cooped up in his room all the time.

              Jisung didn’t like leaving the nest, but he also wasn’t terrified of it anymore. Felix always told Jisung that he didn’t have to follow Felix around everywhere, but the mere thought of Felix leaving him alone was enough to make Jisung’s breath quicken until he felt light-headed.

              “Do you want to watch a movie with Seungmin, Hyunjin, and I?” Felix asked, looking up at Jisung from his phone.

              “Where?” Jisung asked. He should have known that Felix was going to want to leave the nest today, he had seemed ansty as of late, constantly rearranging blankets and pacing around.

              “In the living room where TV is, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

              But Felix was going. “Are the alphas going to be around?”

              “They’re in the house, yes, but they won’t enter the living room if we tell them not to.”

              So there was still the possibility that Jisung could see one of them. But his only other option was to stay in the nest alone while Felix was in the living room watching the movie. Anything could happen while they were separated. An alpha could burst into the nest and hurt Jisung. Felix could get hurt watching the movie. Or Felix might realize how much Jisung is holding him back and decide that he wants to spend a night with his pack and not the silly little abused omega that always clung to him. Then Jisung would be all alone for a whole night and anything could happen. The alphas of the pack could decide that Jisung was too much trouble to keep around when all he did all day was hide in Felix’s nest and take up their resources. Jisung was no match for the alphas of Felix’s pack.

              “I’ll go with you,” Jisung said.

              “Great! I’ll let Hyunjin and Seungmin know.”

              The movie wasn’t one that Jisung had watched before, but everyone else seemed familiar with it, talking over the dialogue from the minute that they pressed play. Jisung couldn’t find it in himself to mind, he was more focused on watching Felix, Hyunjin, and Seungmin than he was the TV anyway.

              Jisung was curled up in the corner of the couch, pillow hugged to his chest, watching as Hyunjin painted Felix’s nails a light baby blue color. Hyunjin had started with Seungmin and now his nails were painted black. Seungmin seemed to be the only one watching the movie now, and he would sometimes make comments on how stupid the characters were. Felix had said Seungmin had picked the movie, but he didn’t seem to like it that much.

              “Oh Felix, I forgot to tell you earlier, but you’ll never believe what happened the other day when I was at the store…” Hyunjin launched into a story about meeting someone that Jisung didn’t know, but Felix seemed totally engrossed in the story and even Seungmin would offer his thoughts.

              It made Jisung feel like even more of an outsider. Felix was comfortable with his pack, wasn’t afraid of them, felt safe enough to allow his nails to be painted and to gossip. Jisung, on the other hand, always kept Hyunjin and Seungmin within his sight, irrationally scared that they were just trying to lull Jisung into a false sense of security so that the alphas would be able to have their way with him more easily, like Hyunjin had done on the first day.

              Jisung knew that Hyunjin felt awful about that, that Felix would never allow the alphas to hurt Jisung, but the fear remained.

              “Jisung, do you want your nails painted?”

              Jisung startled slightly at the sound of his own name. He had been too deep in thought to realize that Hyunjin had finished with Felix’s nails and was now looking towards Jisung expectantly.

              “I, uh,” Jisung stammered out, unsure of what to say. Hyunjin was nice and he hadn’t hurt Seungmin or Felix with his nail painting and the colors really were pretty, but did he really want to paint Jisung’s nails or was he only offering out of obligation?

              “You can pick whatever color you want,” Felix encouraged. “Hyunjin even does pretty designs.” He held out his nails for Jisung to see and sure enough there were pretty pink bows painted on his ring fingers.

              “I have a whole box of nail polish.” Hyunjin reached to the side of the couch and held up a box stuffed full of every nail polish color that could possibly exist.

              Jisung looked over the bottles after some encouragement from Hyunjin and Felix. Just looking wouldn’t hurt anything, Jisung didn’t have to agree to getting his nails painted.

              As Jisung pursued through all the colors, he couldn’t help but pause when he got to the same black that Seungmin had his nails painted. It wasn’t an omega color though. Omegas painted their nails something light and pretty like Felix had, not something dark and depressing. Jisung kept looking, but couldn’t help but keep the bottle of black polish in his left hand.

              “Do you like that color, Jisung?” Seungmin asked. “It’s my favorite too.”

              “Oh.” Jisung looked at the black bottle in his hand. “It’s not an omega color though.”

              Felix and Hyunjin both went still, scents flattening and Jisung wished he could take back the words.

              “Why do you think omegas can’t paint their nails black?” Seungmin asked, voice free of judgement.

              “Because it’s not right.” Jisung shrunk back into himself a bit, he really shouldn’t have said anything, now everyone was upset.

              “Hmm, what if I told you that I think that omegas, betas, and alphas can paint their nails whatever color they want? Changbin likes to paint his nails pink, does that make him any less of an alpha?”

              Jisung quickly shook his head. Changbin was giant. There was nothing he could do to make himself seem like less of an alpha.

              “So painting your nails black doesn’t make you a bad omega or whatever you think and the alphas could care less about the color of your nails.”

              “I can paint your nails black if you want, Jisung,” Hyunjin offered. “I can also do some designs.”

              Jisung looked to Felix for support. Maybe Hyunjin and Seungmin didn’t understand because they were betas, there could be a cost to these kinds of things that only Felix knew. But Felix just nodded his head in encouragement. “You should paint your nails whatever color you want.”

              “I—” Jisung glanced at the black nail polish and then towards Hyunjin. Jisung supposed it didn’t really matter because he avoided the alphas of the pack like the plague. “Okay.” He held out the bottle for Hyunjin to take.

              “It’s going to look so great!” Felix gushed, grabbing one of Jisung’s hands in excitement. “Hyunjin is seriously so good at painting nails.”

              “Yeah, your nails are pretty, Lixie.”

              Felix beamed.

              Jisung scooted a little closer to Hyunjin, holding out one of hands, the other still holding onto Felix. “You’re so brave, Jisungie,” Felix whispered into Jisung’s ear, arm wrapped around Jisung’s waist in support.

              “Are you ready to start?” Hyunjin asked.

              “Yeah,” Jisung responded, putting his hand into Hyunjin’s so that he could start painting Jisung’s nails.

              Hyunjin was gentle, not that Jisung had really expected him to be anything but. It helped that Felix was pressed up against Jisung’s side, offering silent support, scent light and happy, reminding Jisung that he was okay, that he was safe.

              Jisung’s main fear was that this was somehow a trap, that Hyunjin was going to paint Jisung’s nails a color that the alphas hated and then Jisung would get in trouble, but Jisung didn’t really ever see the alphas and he knew that Felix wouldn’t trick him like that.

              So Jisung let himself relax into Felix’s side as Hyunjin painted his nails, half paying attention to the movie playing on the TV.

              Hyunjin thought Jisung was cute with the way his head was pillowed on Felix’s shoulder as he slept. After Hyunjin had finished painting Jisung’s nails, he had thanked Hyunjin and then leaned against Felix and fell asleep.

              Felix said that Jisung slept a lot and from what Hyunjin had researched, that was to be expected as Jisung’s mind and body recovered from the abuse he had suffered. It didn’t mean that Hyunjin wasn’t worried about the way that Jisung seemed perfectly happy to be locked up in the nest and never leave. It wasn’t healthy for Jisung to be cooped up all day every day, but none of them had any ideas on how to fix Jisung’s reluctance to leave other than by showing him that no one was going to hurt him outside of the nest, that he was safe.

              They had decided that getting Jisung used to Hyunjin and Seungmin first was probably the best idea since he seemed to be less scared of betas than he was alphas and it did seem to be working, albeit a lot slower than Hyunjin had thought it would. Felix said that Jisung still fought him every time that they left the nest, was more than content to never leave, especially after accidentally running into Minho in the garden.

              “I have to go to the bathroom,” Felix announced.

              “Have you been in your nest so long that you forgot where it is?” Seungmin asked.

              Felix rolled his eyes. “No, but I do have Jisung sleeping on my shoulder right now and I don’t want to wake him up.”

              “Here.” Hyunjin held out his arms. “Shift him over to me and then you can go to the bathroom and Jisung will be none the wiser.”

              “Okay.”

              Hyunjin and Felix carefully shifted Jisung until his head was resting on Hyunjin’s shoulder instead and waited a few seconds. Once Felix was certain that Jisung was going to stay asleep, he ran off towards the bathroom.

              Felix was gone for a total of one minute when Jisung started to shift, groggily blinking sleep from his eyes. Hyunjin tried to keep his breathing and scent as even as possible, hoping that Jisung would just drift back to sleep without realizing Felix was gone, but Hyunjin couldn’t be so lucky.

              Jisung pulled away from Hyunjin, scent souring as he looked around the room. “Where’s Felix?” Hyunjin could hear the hint of fear in Jisung’s voice, smell the way his scent was getting sharper and sourer by the second.

              “He went to the bathroom,” Seungmin answered for Hyunjin. “We didn’t want to wake you because you were sleeping so peacefully. Felix will be back in a couple of minutes.”

              “Felix left? He left me?” Jisung stood up and started to look around the room as if Felix would magically appear. Hyunjin could hear the panic in Jisung’s voice, see the tremble of his limbs and knew that if he and Seungmin didn’t act fast, then Jisung would drop.

              “You’re okay,” Hyunjin soothed, trying to make his scent as sweet and calm as possible, noticing that Seungmin was doing the same. “Felix is going to be back any minute now.”

              “But what if he isn’t?” Jisung looked around frantically, taking a step towards the door before collapsing to the floor, his shaking legs giving out from under him. “What if he gets hurt? What if he never comes back? He left me. He left me.”

              Jisung was going to drop if he continued like this and that was the last thing Hyunjin wanted.

              “Jisung, you and Felix are bonded, remember? He can’t leave you.”

              Jisung didn’t seem to register Hyunjin’s words, letting out a broken cry and spiraling even further into despair, hiccupping as tears streamed down his face. His scent was acrid now, so sour that it was burning Hyunjin’s nose. Hyunjin didn’t know what to do and it didn’t seem like Seungmin didn’t either. When a member of their pack was distressed, Hyunjin would hug them and use his scent to calm them down, but he didn’t think that was going to work with Jisung.

              Just when Hyunjin was sure that Jisung was about to drop, Felix burst through the door and dropped to his knees by Jisung’s side, pulling Jisung into a hug. “It’s okay Sungie, I came as fast as I could when I felt your panic. I’m here now.”

              “You left,” Jisung cried. “You left and I thought you’d never come back.”

              “Oh Jisungie.” Felix stroked Jisung’s hair soothingly. “I’ll always come back, I’ll never leave you, okay?”

              “But what if it’s not under your control?” Jisung grabbed onto Felix’s shirt with a white-knuckled grip. “The alphas could make you leave if they wanted.”

              “No, they couldn’t,” Felix corrected, a bit of a growl coming into his voice. “Nor would they want to. Remember how no one came into my nest during my heat? How they weren’t mad that I bit you without permission? We’re all equals in this pack.”

              Jisung didn’t respond, but Hyunjin could tell that he didn’t necessarily agree with Felix’s words, but was too tired to argue.

              “Can we go back to the nest?” Jisung asked.

              Felix shot a look towards Hyunjin and Seungmin, seeming to ask what he should do. Their goal had been to get Jisung out of the nest as long as possible, but Hyunjin thought that they had pushed Jisung far enough for today. He wasn’t going to relax again until he was back in the nest and their goal was not to stress Jisung out as much as possible.

              ‘Go,’ Hyunjin mouthed to Felix.

              “Yeah Sungie, we can go back to the nest,” Felix said, helping Jisung to stand up. Jisung clung to Felix’s side as they headed out of the room, where Felix ended and Jisung started was almost indistinguishable with how close they were.

              When they reached the door, Felix turned to wave goodbye to Hyunjin and Seungmin. Jisung turned too and to Hyunjin’s surprise, spoke. “Thanks for painting my nails, Hyunjin, they’re really pretty.”

              Before Hyunjin could get over his shock to respond, Jisung tucked his head back into Felix’s neck and the two of them disappeared down the hall.

              “I mean it could have gone worse,” Seungmin said once Felix and Jisung were out of earshot.

              “I suppose so,” Hyunjin sighed. “Sometimes it feels like two steps forward and three back with Jisung.”

              “I don’t know, that might have only been two steps back, I mean Jisung didn’t even drop that time.”

              Hyunjin turned towards Seungmin so that he could see Hyunjin roll his eyes.

              “We do have to do something about the separation anxiety though. I mean Felix really can’t be around Jisung 24/7.”

              “He’s doing a good job at it right now.” But Hyunjin knew that being cooped up in the nest all the time was going to drive Felix crazy. Hyunjin could tell that Felix was already getting restless. Plus, Felix was going to start missing the alphas of their pack soon, he hadn’t gone this long without scenting them or even really being around them since they became pack.

              “Yeah, but Felix is probably going to want to be around the rest of the pack more and more in the next week, this has been a really long time for him to go without interacting much with the rest of us,” Seungmin said. “I just worry that Felix is going to sacrifice his emotional health for Jisung.”

              Hyunjin worried that too. “We’ll figure something out. Jisung can’t stay terrified of everyone that isn’t Felix for forever.”

Chapter Text

              “Jisung, I’m going to go crazy if we don’t leave the nest today.”

              Jisung had noticed that Felix was more antsy these days, choosing to pace around the nest, play a video game or two before abandoning his console to scroll on his phone for a while before going back to the video game or getting up to walk another lap around the room.

              Jisung was perfectly content to stay in the nest and nap all day, but Felix clearly longed for more than that and Jisung felt bad for keeping his mate cooped up all day, even if Jisung still found leaving the nest daunting.

              “Okay, but you can’t leave me.”

              Felix turned to look Jisung in the eye. “Jisung, you really can’t expect to follow me ot the bathroom, that’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

              Jisung paused. That was maybe crossing a line, but then again, Jisung really couldn’t lose Felix. What if something happened? What if someone hurt Felix? What if someone hurt Jisung?

              “You do know that I chose this pack, right? I trust them all with my life, nothing bad will happen to me within the walls of this pack house unless it’s like me slipping on the tile and falling or something.”

              Jisung wrinkled his brow. Felix was pretty clumsy, maybe that was something he should start worrying about.

              “No, I didn’t mean it like that!” Felix sighed and dramatically flopped into the nest. “But seriously Jisung, the alphas aren’t out to get you or whatever. They’re all very nice and reasonable and not at all like you think. They’ve been respecting our space so far, right?”

              That was true. Jisung didn’t like or trust alphas but Felix’s alphas did seem to be better than the alphas Jisung had known in the past. The alphas of Felix’s pack didn’t even seem to care that Felix hadn’t seen them for over a week now. Jisung’s old alphas would have broken down the door to the nest a couple of hours in, but Felix’s alphas respected the boundaries he had set and only even broke them accidentally. Maybe they really were different.

              “I suppose,” Jisung acquiesced.

              “And you like Seungmin and Hyunjin,” Felix said it as if it were a fact.

              “They’re not awful.”

              “So we’re going to go out and do stuff today around the house?”

              That seemed like quite a leap to Jisung, but Felix looked so excited at the prospect of going out, that Jisung couldn’t find it in himself to say no. “Who is home right now?”

              “Uh,” Felix faltered. “So it’s a Saturday so like everyone is home.” Felix did something with his phone. A part of Jisung still marveled at the access to technology Felix was allowed. “Well it looks like Minho and Chan are at the grocery store, so everyone but them is home. I mean I won’t promise that you won’t see Jeongin and Changbin, but they’re not going to like hang out with us or anything.”

              Jisung squinted his eyes at Felix. He really didn’t want to see Jeongin and Changbin at all, even in passing.

              “Please Jisung?” Felix begged. “I really am going stir crazy. It’ll mean so much to me if we go out today.”

              Jisung was a sucker for Felix’s puppy eyes. “Okay, fine.”

              “Thank you!” Felix kissed Jisung on the cheek before grabbing his phone to text someone, presumably Seungmin or Hyunjin.

              “Would you be okay with going in the backyard again? Seungmin and Hyunjin have a game they want to play.”

              Jisung glanced at the window. It did look nice out and the last time he had gone outside had been fun up until the point where he had accidentally ran into Minho. But then again, once Jisung thought about it, Minho had fled the moment he had seen Jisung, clearly not wanting to scare Jisung any more than he already had. Maybe it would be okay for Jisung to go outside again.

              “We can go,” Jisung said.

              “Great!” Felix clapped his hands. “I’ll be so much fun!”

              The game turned out to be some sort of soccer modified for the size of the backyard. Jisung was absolutely terrible at ball sports and somehow managed to fall over when he kicked the soccer ball once, but his failures were just met with good-natured laughter. Jisung was on Hyunjin’s team and they still ended up winning despite the fact that Jisung was almost certainly more of a detriment to the team than an asset.

              No one made fun of Jisung when he failed at kicking the ball, though, instead Seungmin and Hyunjin would encourage Jisung to try again, would celebrate his few successes. Every time Jisung expected to be shoved to the ground, to be mocked, to be ridiculed, he was met with patience and kindness.

The gentleness of it all made Jisung’s head spin. He wasn’t used to being treated kindly, wasn’t used to people encouraging him instead of pushing him back down, telling him that he was a good-for-nothing omega.

When they stopped for a break, Hyunjin passed Jisung a water bottle and brushed his sweaty hair out of his face. “I can tell you’re getting better already,” he praised. “You’ll be a pro in no time.”

Jisung blushed at the kind words. “Thank you,” he muttered. “I’ll never be as good as you though.”

Hyunjin laughed and patted Jisung on the back. “Never say never. Truly all you need is a bit more practice.”

Felix bounced over with a smile on his face. “Jeongin just texted that Minho and Chan are home from the store and they brought popsicles, do you guys want some?”

“Of course!” Hyunjin answered. “Tell him to bring them out.”

Felix paused and looked at Jisung. “I was actually thinking that—”

“It’s fine,” Jisung said, surprising himself. “I mean Jeongin will be quick, right?”

“Are you sure?” Seungmin asked. “I can just run inside and grab them.”

“I’ll be okay,” Jisung said with false confidence. “I think the surprise is the worst part of it. It should be okay if I know that Jeongin is coming and it’s not like he’s going to do anything to scare me, right?”

“Of course not!” Felix answered.

“I’ll protect you if he does.” Hyunjin puffed up his chest. “I can be really scary when I want to be.”

Jisung laughed even as his heart quickened at the thought of coming face to face with an alpha in a couple of minutes. It was going to be fine, at least Jisung knew what was coming this time and had Felix, Hyunjin, and Seungmin with him.

Felix slid his hand into Jisung’s. “It’s okay to be nervous, I’m right here.”

“Thank you.” Jisung leaned into Felix’s side, taking comfort in Felix’s scent, calm and happy without an undertone of fear. Felix really did trust the rest of his pack and Jisung wished that he could feel the same. A part of him was tired of being scared all the time. Jisung knew that he was holding Felix back from being with his pack, from doing the things that he liked to do. It wasn’t fair to Felix that he had to miss out on things because he was stuck babysitting Jisung.

Jeongin knocked softly on the back door as a warning before entering the backyard, box of popsicles in his hand. “I heard you guys wanted some?”

“Innie!” Hyunjin exclaimed, throwing himself at the alpha.

Jisung tensed, waiting for Jeongin to growl and knock Hyunjin to the ground, but instead Jeongin just stood there patiently as Hyunjin cooed and ruffled Jeongin’s hair. Jeongin pretended to hate it, but even Jisung could smell the undercurrent of pleasure in his scent.

“Are you guys having fun?” Jeongin asked once Hyunjin was done assaulting his hair and had moved on to rifling through the popsicle box to find his favorite flavor.

“Yeah!” Seungmin answered. “It’s such a nice day. Are you sure you don’t want to join?”

Jisung tensed, grip growing tighter on Felix’s hand. He didn’t want the alpha to join, didn’t want to have to play soccer with him, didn’t want cruel laughter when he messed up kicking the ball, didn’t want an alpha looming over him when he fell.

But Jeongin didn’t agree to join the game. Instead, he shook his head. “Absolutely not. You and Hyunjin always make fun of me when I fall.”

Hyunjin looked up from the popsicles. “But Innie you’re so cute when you’re tripping over your own feet like an oversized puppy.” Hyunjin reached over to trap Jeongin’s face between his hands. “You’re just my little baby.”

Jeongin rolled his eyes but made no move to break out of Hyunjin’s grip. He was an alpha, he could easily throw Hyunjin to the floor, use his alpha voice to force him to let go, but Jeongin did none of that. He just stood there and let Hyunjin bully him, only half-heartedly tugging at Hyunjin’s arm.

“I should get going,” Jeongin finally said. “Minho wanted to show me how to make something.”

“Hmm, I think I’ll only release you if you give me a kiss.”

“Fine.” Jeongin pecked Hyunjin on the cheek before turning to leave. He acted like it was a chore, but Jisung could smell how pleased both Hyunjin and Jeongin were.

“Sorry about them.” Seungmin handed Jisung a popsicle from the box.

“Are they always like that?” Jisung couldn’t help but ask.

“Pretty much,” Seungmin responded. “It’s terrible.”  

“You and Changbin are no better,” Felix teased, shoving at Seungmin’s shoulder.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

              That night, when Jisung was lying in bed, he couldn’t help but think that maybe leaving the nest today hadn’t been the worst thing in the world and that maybe he’d be okay seeing Jeongin around the house. An alpha that let a beta bully him like that couldn’t be that scary.

              Felix had been skeptical of Hyunjin and Seungmin’s plan to get Jisung to be more willing to leave the nest and interact with the other member of the pack, but he had to admit, their plan was working.

              Felix had thought that everything was going to fall apart when Hyunjin had launched himself at Jeongin and Jisung’s scent had soured so fast the Felix had almost sneezed, but then Jeongin hadn’t reacted, hadn’t even tried to push Hyunjin away like he normally did, and Jisung had calmed down.

              Then, the next day, Felix had asked Jisung if he wanted to help him make brownies and Jisung had agreed without any arguing or pleading. Then, Jeongin had walked into the kitchen when they were baking and Jisung barely even batted an eye.

              Seungmin and Hyunjin thought that if they could show Jisung that the alphas weren’t a threat, then he would acclimate to them being around quickly like he had done for the two betas, but Felix hadn’t been so sure. They had started with Jeongin since he was the youngest and the least threatening alpha and it seemed to be working great so far.

              Felix thought that Chan, Changbin, and Minho were going to be much harder to get Jisung to be comfortable around than Jeongin. They were all older, bigger, stronger and much more intimidating than Jeongin. Plus, Jisung had already had some negative experiences with the other three alphas.

              However, Hyunjin and Seungmin weren’t planning on focusing on the other alphas just yet. Their next step in getting Jisung to be more comfortable around the house was going to be to try and tackle his codependency and separation anxiety around Felix. They were going to start with Felix just leaving the room to grab things and then slowly expand the amount of time Felix was gone.

              Felix was a little skeptical.

              The last time Felix had left Jisung to go to the bathroom, it had resulted in Jisung almost dropping and the last thing Felix wanted to do was push Jisung to the point where he dropped.

              “Lixie?”

              “Sungie?” Jisung was blinking his eyes open, starting to wake up from the nap he had taken curled up against Felix’s side in the nest. Jisung was starting to stay up for longer and nap less, but he was still unable to make it through a full day without at least an hour nap.

              “’M hungry,” Jisung whispered, rubbing at his face. He looked so cute like this, face puffy with sleep, eyes only half open that Felix couldn’t help but press a kiss to Jisung’s forehead, taking pride in the way Jisung’s scent sweetened at the action.

              “I can run to the kitchen and grab a snack,” Felix offered.

              “No,” Jisung whined, wrapping himself around Felix like a clingy koala. “Don’t leave me.”

              Felix still didn’t fully understand Jisung’s fear of being left alone or away from Felix’s side for more than 30 seconds, but he supposed that he would never understand that full extent of what Jisung went through.

              “You’re going to have to get up then.” Felix ran his hands through Jisung’s hair.

              “Mmm, I don’t wanna.”

              Felix wished that Seungmin and Hyunjin were still dropping food off at their door. The two betas had stopped the service, claiming that it wasn’t doing Jisung any favors. They were probably right, but times like these when Felix didn’t want to leave the nest and had to forgotten to restock the food cabinet in his room, he really wished that they still got food delivery service. Maybe Felix could text Jeongin and ask him to bring them food.

Felix:

Innie baby, could you bring Sungie and I some food?

Jeongin:

Sorry, I promised Seungmin and Hyunjin that I wouldn’t

Felix:

They don’t have to know 😉

Jeongin:

Sorry Lixie ☹

              Hyunjin and Seungmin needed to stop blackmailing their packmates.

              “C’mon Sungie, the quicker you get up, the quicker we can get food.” Felix tugged on Jisung’s arm, but Jisung went boneless in the nest, purposefully making it as hard as possible for Felix to move him.

              “Fine.” Felix sat back down. “We can stay here. I’m not the one who’s hungry, you know.”

              “Wait!” Jisung scrambled to his feet, almost tripping over the blankets in the process. “I’m up.”

              “Great.” Felix held out his arm for Jisung to grab and they headed towards the kitchen.

              As soon as they got to the kitchen, Felix realized he had forgotten to check if anyone was already there. Standing in front of the stove, humming as he cooked was Minho. Jisung went as stiff as a board next to Felix as soon as he saw the alpha, his scent souring.

              Minho chose that moment to turn around, freezing as soon as he saw Jisung and Felix standing in the doorway. “Oh, um…”

              “We were just looking for a snack,” Felix said, trying his best to stay calm despite Jisung’s terror.

              “Oh, well I made extra if you want?” Minho gestured to the pot on the stove.

              “Sure, that sounds great!” It was hard for Felix to force cheer into his voice when Jisung was next to him, smelling and feeling as if the world were ending.

              “Okay, um.” Minho served himself a bowl. “This is all I want, so you guys can have the rest.” And with that, Minho all but fled the kitchen. At least Jisung hadn’t dropped.

              Back in the nest, Jisung seemed better than Felix had thought he would after running into Minho in the kitchen. At least there was no spiralling, no panic attack, no threats of never leaving the nest again. All Jisung had said on the matter was “Minho’s a good cook.”

Chapter Text

              Seungmin thought that their plan was going pretty well. Jisung was fine with Jeongin being around them for short periods of time, mainly just to drop things off and he could now tolerate being apart from Felix long enough for a bathroom break. 

              Admittedly, the separation anxiety was turning out to be harder to tackle than Seungmin and Hyunjin had thought it would. Jisung still wasn’t comfortable with Felix leaving him alone in the nest for any length of time, and he started to panic if Felix was in the bathroom for more than a couple minutes.

              At least they were able to get Jisung to leave the nest every day now. It was starting to feel less like Jisung was a ghost roaming the halls and hiding in the nest and more like he was a member of the pack.

              “I want to meet him,” Changbin said after he had finished assaulting Seungmin’s scent gland. Seungmin had let Jisung scent him earlier when they had been watching a movie together and Changbin was seemingly obsessed with Jisung’s scent on Seungmin’s skin.

              “You’ve already met him,” Seungmin replied, trying and failing to shove Changbin off of him.

              “Yeah, but not properly,” Changbin pouted. “Plus, I miss my Lixie.”

              That was another problem they were running into. The pack bond did require upkeep and Felix being unable to interact with Minho, Changbin, and Chan was starting to stress it. Seungmin had noticed that all four of them had started to become more irritable and clingy lately and it was only a matter of time before someone gave into their instincts. It was honestly a miracle that it hadn’t happened yet.

              At the bare minimum, they needed a pack scenting session within the next week. The stopgap of Hyunjin and Seungmin carrying everyone’s scents on their skins could only work for so long.

              “Hmm,” Changbin hummed. “Jisung and Felix’s scents mix so well with yours.”

              The next thing Seungmin knew, Changbin was licking over his scent gland like some kind of dog. “Ew, stop it!” Seungmin tried to wriggle out of Changbin’s grasp, but Changbin just tightened his grip and moved to pin Seungmin against the wall. Seungmin would be a liar if he said that the display of strength didn’t turn him on.

              When Changbin picked Seungmin up and moved him to the bed, Seungmin didn’t complain at all.

              “Five minutes,” Felix tried to negotiate.

              Jisung frowned. “I don’t believe that it’s only going to take five minutes to scent all four alphas of your pack.”

              Felix sighed. “Well, how long are you willing to be away from me then? Because I thought you said five minutes was the max.”

              Jisung flinched at Felix’s harsh tone even though he knew that he deserved it. Jisung was being difficult. Felix needed to see the alphas of his pack and the alphas needed to see Felix to soothe their instincts, but Jisung was causing problems.

              It meant something that everyone was trying to work with Jisung and find a compromise instead of just sweeping Felix away for a scenting session like Jisung was sure all the alphas wanted to do. However, Jisung just couldn’t find it in himself to agree to be away from Felix for any amount of time. Jisung was safe with Felix and Felix was safe with Jisung. Any deviation from that and either one of them could be hurt. Jisung had finally found someone he loved, someone who cared for him in return and Jisung couldn’t let Felix out of his sight. Something could happen. Felix might never return.

              “Jisung if we can’t figure something out, I will just leave you here alone to see my alphas, got it?” Felix’s voice was hard, not the usual soft voice he used when he talked to Jisung.

              Jisung knew that Felix said the words because he was frustrated, because his instincts were screaming at him, had been screaming at him for the past couple of weeks. That didn’t negate their effect.

              Jisung’s heart plummeted to the floor, his insides felt as if they had just spilled out his body. Despite all of the blankets of the nest, Jisung was cold. Bone cold. The room was spinning, someone was saying something, but Jisung couldn’t hear anything but Felix’s words.

              I will just leave you here alone.

              I will just leave you here alone.

              Alone.

              Alone.

              Felix was going to leave Jisung. He was abandoning him. It was what Jisung deserved. Jisung was too much and he knew it. He was too demanding, too scared, too needy. Jisung had come in and upturned the entire pack’s life, he knew that it wasn’t going to stay like this forever. Jisung couldn’t just monopolize the pack omega for forever.

              “It’s fine, you can just go,” Jisung choked out, trying his best not to cry.

              “I—right now?” Felix looked confused, anger bleeding out of his scent, replaced by something akin to worry.

              “I’ll be fine,” Jisung said with false bravado, trying his best to keep his scent from souring too much, but it was hard. Jisung was being a bad omega, he deserved to be left alone.

              “Do you want me to call Seungmin or Hyunjin?”

              Jisung shrugged. “I’ll just take a nap.”

              “Okay.” Felix seemed to sense that something was wrong, but in the end, his desire to see his alphas won out. “Here, take my phone, call any of the pack members if you need me to come back to the nest okay?” And with that, Felix stood up and left, the door clicking shut behind him.

              The minute Felix was gone, Jisung’s suppressed scent billowed out, filling the room with the scent of rotting citrus. Felix was gone. Felix was going to come back with his alphas in tow, was going to realize that they provided him with things that Jisung couldn’t, that Jisung was an awful, waste-of-space omega.

              Felix was gone and Jisung was alone.

              Jisung curled into a ball and pressed a blanket that smelled like Felix to his face as he cried, shoulders shaking, breath hiccupping. He was alone and Felix was never coming back. Jisung was as bad, as unwanted as ever.

              Felix regretted the words instantly. But then Jisung had said that Felix could go see his alphas and Felix’s brain was clouded by the thought. He missed Chan, Changbin, Minho, and Jeongin so much that it hurt. He wanted nothing more than to scent them, to feel their skin, their scents on him.

              Felix knew that something was wrong, but he left anyway, leaving his phone with Jisung with the hope that he would call for help if he needed it, even though Felix knew that Jisung had never used a phone like Felix’s before.

              Felix was worried about Jisung when he left the nest, but the minute Felix felt Chan’s arms wrap around him, everything was forgotten except for the fact that his alpha was here.

              “I missed you.” Felix buried his head in Chan’s neck.

              “I missed you too, Lixie.” Chan’s scent thickened and Changbin, Minho, and Jeongin took that as their invitation to join the hug, and that was all it took for Felix to sink into his omega space, bracketed by his alphas, his instincts finally soothed.

              “I think that we should just go in,” Seungmin said, staring at the door to Felix’s nest. Jeongin had texted them that Felix had shown up at Chan’s door, leaving Jisung in the nest alone.

              “That might scare him and make things worse.”

              “Or it could make things better if he’s in there all alone and dropping.”

              “Let me call Felix’s phone one more time,” Hyunjin said.

Seungmin rolled his eyes. He and Hyunjin had already tried calling Felix’s phone countless times to no avail. He knew that it was bad to just barge into an omega’s nest, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Hello? Jisung?”

Seungmin met Hyunjin’s gaze with wide eyes, had Jisung actually answered?

“Is it okay if Seungmin and I come into your nest?...Yes, Felix said that it was okay….Okay, we’re heading in now.” Hyunjin nodded towards the door and Seungmin opened it, almost physically rearing back at the smell he was met with.

Seungmin had never smelled Jisung’s scent be this sour, this distressed. Every time that Jisung had dropped, his scent had gone muted, but this was the opposite of that, this was a cry for help.

“Hey Jisung,” Seungmin called softly. “It’s just me and Hyunjin.”

A couple of blankets moved in the nest and then Jisung’s head popped out, his hair tousled, eyes puffy and rimmed with red.

“Is it okay if we come closer?” Hyunjin asked. “We’d like to cuddle with you if you’d like.”

Seungmin and Hyunjin waited with bated breath as they waited for Jisung to respond. Seungmin’s instincts were yelling at him to scoop Jisung into his arms and smother him in his scent until Jisung smelled less like rotting, sour fruit and distress, but Seungmin knew that was a bad idea, knew that he had to wait for Jisung’s permission.

“Felix said it was okay?”

Seungmin’s heart ached. Jisung still cared about Felix, about what he would think about people in his nest when he wasn’t there to invite them in.

“Yeah Felix said it was okay,” Hyunjin answered. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but Seungmin was confident that Felix would want them to enter his nest right now to comfort Jisung.

“Okay.” Jisung laid back down in the nest and it was all Seungmin could do to keep himself from rushing to Jisung’s side and bundling him in his arms. Instead, Seungmin let Hyunjin take the lead. Hyunjin had already gotten Jisung into omega-space once—albeit accidentally—so Seungmin was willing to follow his lead.

Hyunjin knelt by Jisung’s side just inside the nest and held out his wrist to Jisung, pumping out his scent, making it as calming as possible. Seungmin followed suit and soon the air was full of a calm beta scent instead of the panicked omega it had been previously.

“It’s okay to miss Felix,” Hyunjin said. “But he’s going to come back, I promise.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

Seungmin hated the way that Jisung’s voice broke, the way that he curled into himself at the thought of losing Felix.

“He will.” Hyunjin bared his neck to show off his pack bite from Chan. “Felix bit you, remember? You’re a part of his pack now. It may be an incomplete bond, but it still means something. Felix won’t leave you, he can’t.”

“He won’t leave? Felix is going to come back?”

“Of course.” Hyunjin reached out to brush Jisung’s hair out of his face. “Felix will always come back for you, Jisung. That’s how pack works.”

The next thing Seungmin knew, Jisung was tugging on his hand, pulling both him and Hyunjin fully into the nest.

Hyunjin laughed and laid down next to Jisung. “Do you want to cuddle now?”

Jisung’s response was to tug even harder on Seungmin and Hyunjin’s arms that he now had held to his chest.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Seungmin reassured. “You can scent me if you want.”

Jisung did, pressing his face into Seungmin’s wrist, breathing in Seungmin’s scent until the tension started to leak out of his body.

“Careful,” Hyunjin warned, using his free hand to run his fingers through Jisung’s hair. “You’re going to get scent drunk if you keep that up.”

Jisung blinked up at Hyunjin with wide eyes.

“I think he already is, Jinnie,” Seungmin said, watching as Jisung pulled Hyunjin’s wrist to his nose next.

Hyunjin shook his head, a fond smile on his face. “I suppose that’s probably okay, he’s been through a lot today.”

              Felix was feeling lightheaded and floaty. He was surrounded by the scents of his alphas, but something was missing. There was something wrong, something Felix needed to fix.

              “Jisung?” Felix asked. Where was his omega?

              Chan nuzzled the top of Felix’s head. “Jisung is in your nest with Hyunjin and Seungmin, remember?”

              Felix frowned. There was something wrong with that. There was something wrong with Jisung.

              “Lixie, it’s okay,” Changbin soothed, rubbing Felix’s arm in a calming motion. “You’re going to bring yourself out of omega space like this.”

              A part of Felix just wanted to relax back into Changbin’s arms and let himself get lost in the scents of his alphas again, but a bigger part of him wanted to see Jisung, to make sure he was okay. “Jisung. I need to see Jisung.”

              “Okay Felix.” Minho shifted to give Felix room to get out of the bed. “Say hi to Jisung for us,”

              Felix nodded as he clambered out of the bed. It was like once he had started thinking of Jisung, he couldn’t stop. Felix stumbled down the hall, feeling slightly off balance, probably the remnant of the omega space he had been in until he had been wrenched out it by the thought of Jisung lonely in their nest without Felix.

              Felix fumbled with the door to his room for a second before finally managing to get it open, instincts flaring when he was met with the scent of rotten citrus. It was faded, but Felix didn’t care about that. Jisung had been distressed at some point. Felix had left his packmate alone and something had happened to make him upset when Felix wasn’t there to fix it.

              “Jisung,” Felix said, feeling slightly out of breath as he looked around the nest, searching for Jisung.

              “Felix?”

              “Jisung?” Felix could see him now, head just barely peeking out from underneath a pile of blankets, bracketed in by Hyunjin and Seungmin. Good. At least Jisung had Hyunjin and Seungmin to watch over him when Felix could not.

              Jisung started to struggle with the blankets he was under, but Felix was across the room in a second, burying his head in Jisung’s neck and taking deep breaths of Jisung’s scent. He was less upset now, smelling happy now that Felix was at his side again.

              “You came back,” Jisung said, wrapping his arms around Felix. Felix went easily as Jisung pulled him down until Felix was lying on top of Jisung. “You didn’t leave me, you came back.”

              “Of course I came back. I could never leave you Sungie, you’re my omega.”

              “Yours,” Jisung confirmed happily.

              “Mine,” Felix repeated, nipping at the bite on Jisung’s neck. “All mine.”

Chapter Text

              Surprisingly, Jisung was more willing to be away from Felix for longer periods of time after the whole debacle. Hyunjin’s theory was that the fact that Felix had returned after leaving him had shown Jisung that Felix was always going to come back, especially since when Felix had left Jisung alone in the nest, it hadn’t been on the best of terms.

              Felix had just been grateful that Jisung hadn’t dropped. According to Hyunjin and Seungmin, it had been close, but they had gotten to Felix’s nest in time.

              Felix still felt guilty over leaving Jisung all alone like that, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to forgive himself at all if Jisung had dropped like that, all alone, thinking that Felix hated him.

              After the incident, Felix had spent the next week by Jisung’s side, never more than an arm’s length away, indulging Jisung’s every want. Felix would have continued doing do for longer than a week if Seungmin and Hyunjin hadn’t put a stop to the behavior.

              “This isn’t helping anything, Felix,” Seungmin had said, arms crossed.

              “If you want Jisung to ever become comfortable with the rest of the pack, you have to push him outside of his comfort zone,” Hyunjin had added.

              Felix shook his head. “No, I don’t want to push him after what I did to him. I left Jisung all alone in our nest, scared that I was never going to come back, that I was going to abandon him like everyone else in his life!”

              Hyunjin put his hand on Felix’s shoulder. “But you came back. Sure, your instincts go the best of you and you made a mistake, but you fixed that mistake and Jisung doesn’t hold it against you.”

              “He’s too forgiving.”

              “Maybe you’re not forgiving enough of yourself,” Seungmin shot back. “It never should have happened, but it did and now all that matters is how we move forward. Staying locked up with Jisung isn’t helping anything. Hyunjin and I were thinking about having a craft night.”

              “And?” Felix asked, waiting for the catch.

              “And maybe you’d leave to grab more snacks for us and not come back for like 10 minutes.”

              “No,” Felix said immediately. “Jisung is going to get stressed out, grabbing snacks from the kitchen doesn’t take a full 10 minutes.”

              “We’ll call you back if Jisung gets too anxious,” Hyunjin said. “It’s going to be fine.”

              And it had been fine. Felix had left for snacks from the kitchen, staring at his phone for the full ten minutes he was supposed to be gone, waiting for a text from Hyunjin or Seungmin to come back early, but it never came. When Felix returned, Jisung had just glanced up from the collage he was working on and said “What happened? You get lost in there?”

              Felix hadn’t known how to respond. Jisung didn’t smell or look stressed, in fact, he seemed like he had barely registered Felix’s absence.

              After that, Felix was forced to admit that Hyunjin and Seungmin were right and their plan really was working. Seungmin told Felix that their goal was to for Felix to be able to go to his doctor’s appointment in a month without having to worry about Jisung the whole time. Felix had protested, saying that a month was too short of a timeline and that Felix could just reschedule again. It wasn’t that important of a doctor’s appointment, just a yearly checkup that could be pushed back another month.

              But here they were, the day of Felix’s appointment and Jisung was waving goodbye, only the smallest hint of sourness in his scent.

              “I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” Felix promised, scenting Jisung one last time. “Hyunjin is staying here with you and Jeongin, Chan, and Changbin will also be home.”

              “And Seungmin and Minho are going with you,” Jisung said. “I know. We’ve gone over this a million times.”

              “Okay, but if you don’t want me to leave, just let me know, I can always reschedule this appointment.”

              “I know,” Jisung responded, pecking Felix on the lips. “But Seungmin said you’ve already pushed this back a lot because of me and that it’s important that you go to this. I’m going to be okay. I have Hyunjin.”

              “Okay.” Felix was still a bit uncertain, but Minho was waiting in the car and Seungmin was standing behind him, arms crossed, tapping his foot.

              “You’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up,” Seungmin warned.

              “Go,” Jisung urged, shoving playfully at Felix’s shoulder. “Everything will be fine.”

              “Okay.” Felix gave Jisung one last hug and then got in the car, Seungmin sliding in next to him.

              “I think you’re more anxious than Jisung is,” Seungmin said once the car door was shut.

              Felix rolled his eyes and pointedly didn’t respond. He had good reason to be anxious. Felix hadn’t left the pack house since Jisung had arrived and had barely left Jisung’s side for more than 30 minutes.

              “Jisung is brave,” Minho said. “Plus, Hyunjin will text you if anything goes wrong. It’s just a quick checkup.”

              “Yeah,” Felix muttered, unable to get rid of the feeling of unease he had. Leaving Jisung behind felt wrong, all of his instincts screaming against it. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

              Jisung would be lying if he said that he wasn’t nervous watching Felix drive off. But also, Jisung wanted to prove that he was getting better, that he wasn’t holding Felix back from doing things that he needed to do. Going to the doctor was important and Jisung would be a bad mate if he kept Felix from going.

              “Are you ready for some painting?” Hyunjin asked, throwing an arm over Jisung’s shoulder.

              “Yeah,” Jisung responded as they headed to Hyunjin’s room.

              Hyunjin’s room was as pretty as it was messy. He had the biggest room in the house next to Felix, but his had the best view. Hyunjin had clearly spent a lot of thought into the décor of his room, but it was hopelessly messy. Hyunjin never seemed to put anything back in its place, his desk covered in sketches and a paint palette, colored pencils spread across the floor because Hyunjin had taken to laying on his floor and drawing since his desk was too cluttered to work on. There was an open book on Hyunjin’s bed, another on his night stand, a spoon acting as a bookmark.

              Jisung carefully picked his away across the room to the chair that he liked to sit in while Hyunjin painted. The chair was in front of the window so that Jisung could look outside while he mindlessly doodled in one of Hyunjin’s many sketch books.

              “Oh, sorry,” Hyunjin hurried to clear the chair of a sweatshirt that reeked of Changbin and a pair of glasses that looked like the pair Seungmin used when he read. “Will Changbin’s scent bother you?”

              Jisung shrugged as he sat down in the chair. He was used to smelling the alphas around these days. Seungmin had a habit of showing up freshly scented, usually by Changbin or Minho. For someone that complained about Minho constantly, Seungmin sure seemed to like being scented by him. Hyunjin tended to have more decorum than Seungmin, but more often than not these days, he seemed to smell like one of the alphas as well. Jisung wondered if the only reason Hyunjin and Seungmin hadn’t smelled like the alphas from the beginning was because they had been trying to be mindful of Jisung’s apprehension when it came to their other packmates.

              “What are you going to work on today?” Hyunjin asked, sitting down at his desk and looking into a cup that either held tea or paint water.

              “I don’t know.” Jisung was planning on just doodling mindlessly in the sketchbook Hyunjin gave him and try his best to pass the time until Felix came back. “Are you still working on that painting for Jeongin?”

              “Yeah,” Hyunjin responded. “I think I’m almost done.”

              Hyunjin had been saying that for the past month. Jisung wasn’t sure he was ever going to be satisfied with it.  

              Hyunjin turned on his painting playlist and Jisung stared out the window as Hyunjin started to paint. Jisung hoped that everything would go well at the doctor’s. He would never admit it because he was trying to be brave, but he missed Felix. It had been hard to watch Felix walk out the door without Jisung. Jisung knew that Felix would be back, that Felix would never leave him, but Jisung couldn’t help but worry.

              Jisung sat in the chair looking out the window for an hour before he started to feel hot. At first the sun coming through the window had felt nice on his skin, but now it felt borderline unbearable.

              Jisung stood up and stretched. “Hyunjin, I’m going to go to the kitchen to get a glass of water.”

              “Okay,” Hyunjin responded, but Jisung wasn’t sure that he had really heard him, it would take a bomb going off to get Hyunjin out of the zone once he got engrossed in a painting like this.

               Jisung walked to the kitchen, wiping the sweat from his brow as he headed down the hall. He didn’t know why he was still feeling so hot when he was out of the sun now, maybe Jisung just needed to be better about drinking water.

              When Jisung reached the kitchen, he downed three glasses of water before slowing to sip at the fourth. The heat under Jisung’s skin wasn’t going away but instead was starting to get worse. Jisung really hoped that Felix was coming home soon.  His scent glands were starting to ache and Jisung knew that a scenting from Felix was the only thing that would fix it.

              “Do you want to head to the gym later today or are you still—oh hey Jisung.”

              Jisung looked up to see Chan and Changbin standing near the entrance to the kitchen.

              “Sorry, we didn’t realize you were in here.” Changbin turned to leave, but Chan furrowed his brow as he looked at Jisung.

              “Hey Jisung, are you feeling alright?”

              “Um.” Jisung leaned against the counter. The world was kind of starting to spin and he felt really hot.

              “Where’s Hyunjin?” Chan asked, taking a step into the kitchen.

              “Still in his—” Jisung got a whiff of Chan’s scent, rich and thick and Jisung’s body responded to it before he even realized what he was doing, head tilting to the side and scent blooming.

              “Whoa,” Chan said taking a step back. “Jisung, I think you’re in heat. Changbin, could you please text Seungmin and Hyunjin for me?”

              Jisung whined and then slapped a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry, I don’t—” Jisung tried to take a step back, but his legs collapsed out from under him and he ended up on the floor.

              “It’s okay,” Chan soothed. “It’s just your instincts. When was the last time you had a heat, Jisung?”

              Jisung furrowed his brow as he tried to think, but he couldn’t remember. Jisung had a couple of heats with his old pack, but they were awful and stressful and at some point Jisung had just stopped having them all together. It happened to omegas when they didn’t feel safe.

              “It’s okay if you don’t know. It’s just that if you haven’t had one in a long time, this heat might be a bit more…intense than what you’re used to.”

              Jisung whined again and hugged his knees to his chest. “I want Felix.”

              “He’ll be back soon. Seungmin says maybe half an hour.”

              “But I want him now.” Tears started to clog Jisung’s throat. “I miss Felix.” Jisung was hot and miserable and he could feel slick starting to leak out of his hole and his instincts were screaming at him to submit to Chan. Jisung wasn’t even sure that he could get up to walk to the nest right now even though he wanted nothing more than to be surrounded by Felix’s scent.

              “Hyunjin’s not answering his phone,” Changbin said.

              Chan sighed. “Can you go to his room and get him? And maybe bring that sweatshirt Felix scented for you yesterday?”

              “Okay.”

              Jisung sat on the kitchen floor in misery for the next few minutes, sniffling and trying to ignore the cramps that were starting to build in his lower stomach. The one saving grace was that Chan didn’t try to get any closer to Jisung, stayed standing on the other side of the kitchen where Jisung could barely even smell him.

              Any other alpha Jisung had known would have jumped him the second that they entered the kitchen, but the thought hadn’t even seemed to cross Chan’s mind. “Are you doing okay Jisung? Is there anything I can get you while we’re waiting for Hyunjin?”

              Jisung shook his head.

              “That’s okay, you’re being very brave, Jisung. I know this is hard for you.”

              There was an awkward pause, the only sound filling the silence was the soft hum of the fridge.

              “You know, during your heat, you have my blessing to bite Felix.”

              Jisung’s head snapped up as he stared at Chan with slack-jawed astonishment, the symptoms of his heat temporarily forgotten.

              “I mean he’s already bitten you and I know that the two of you want to complete the bond, and honestly I don’t see a problem with that. After your heat, we can talk about whether you want to join the pack or not—I mean you don’t have to, it’s totally okay if you just want to be mated to Felix and not the rest of us.”

              Before Jisung had a chance to respond, Hyunjin rushed into the kitchen, Felix’s sweatshirt in his hands. “Oh Jisung I’m so sorry, I should have realized sooner. I mean I guess I did think that your scent smelled a bit sweeter than usual, but I never expected it to be your heat. Seungmin and I thought that wouldn’t come for another couple of months at least.” Hyunjin pressed the sweatshirt to Jisung’s face and he breathed in Felix’s scent, cramps starting to ease instantly.

              “C’mon.” Hyunjin helped Jisung to his feet. “Let’s get you to your nest.”

              Hyunjin had to support the majority of Jisung’s weight, but they eventually made it to Felix’s room and Hyunjin helped Jisung lay down in the middle of the nest. Being surrounded by Felix’s scent helped, but it also made Jisung miss Felix even more.

              “I know,” Hyunjin soothed, brushing Jisung’s hair away from his face as he keened, a cry for his missing mate. “Felix is on his way home, he’ll be here soon.”

              Soon couldn’t come quickly enough. Jisung’s lower stomach hurt, he was hot, he was sweaty, he was achy, and most of all, he missed Felix.

              Jisung keened again, eyes wetting with his tears. Where was Felix? Why was his mate not by his side?

              “Shh,” Hyunjin soothed, trying his best to tie up the sweaty strands of hair that were plastered to Jisung’s face. “You’re okay, Felix will be here soon.”

              It felt like an eternity had passed before Jisung heard the door to the nest opening, fresh apples and cinnamon thickening in the air. “Lixie?”

              Jisung was on his feet in seconds, launching himself into Felix’s arms.

              “I’m here, Sungie, I’m here.” Felix cupped Jisung’s face in his hands. “Oh Sungie, you’re so hot. I bet you’re really uncomfortable right now, huh?”

              Jisung whined, baring his throat for Felix to scent. Distantly, Jisung heard the door to the nest closing, but Jisung didn’t care. All that mattered was that Felix was back.

              Felix scented Jisung’s neck and nipped at his mating bite, making Jisung go boneless. “I’m here, Jisung. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore.”

Chapter Text

              “Felix, Lixie, please,” Jisung begged, hands fisting in the sheets.

              “Yes?” Felix asked, pretending like he didn’t know exactly what he was doing to Jisung, like he couldn’t smell it in his scent.

              When Felix had gotten out of that doctor’s appointment to the news that Jisung was in heat, Felix had been terrified. Heat was when it was easiest for omegas to drop and Jisung going into heat without Felix by his side was worse than what Felix had ever imagined would happen while he was away from the pack house.

              “He’s going to be okay,” Seungmin had tried to soothe on the drive home while Minho broke almost every traffic law. “He only went into heat because he feels comfortable with us.”

              “But why right now?” Felix had asked, biting at his lip.

              Seungmin ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. My only theory is that Jisung’s omega wanted to keep you close. That could explain why it came on so quick and why you didn’t smell it on him before you left.”

              “I knew that this was a mistake.”

              “Going to a doctor’s appointment you had put off for months wasn’t a mistake,” Seungmin chided. “None of us could have known that this was going to happen.”

              Felix rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue any further—he knew that arguing with Seungmin was often a fruitless endeavor.

              When Felix had gotten home, Jisung had looked and smelled miserable, but it honestly hadn’t taken much for Felix to turn Jisung into puddy under his hands. A few soft words and touches and Jisung was melting.

              Jisung in heat was needy, but also eager to please.

              “Felix,” Jisung gasped as Felix licked at his entrance, savoring the taste of Jisung’s sweet slick.

              “You taste so good, baby,” Felix muttered against the skin of Jisung’s inner thigh. “So good that I could just eat you right up.”

              “Felix,” Jisung moaned, hands coming up to tangle in Felix’s hair. “Please.”

              “Be good,” Felix chided, pulling away until Jisung’s hands returned to his sides, tears starting to form on the corners of his eyes. “I told you not to touch, remember?”

              “I’m sorry.” Jisung was practically shaking now with the restraint it took not to reach up and pull Felix closer. Felix knew that he was being mean, but Jisung looked so pretty like, this spread out on the nest in front of him, hands clenched in the blankets by his side, cock leaking against his stomach, tears in his eyes.

              “You’re so pretty,” Felix cooed, pressing a kiss against Jisung’s lips before returning to Jisung’s entrance, determined to eat Jisung out until he forgot his own name.

              Jisung had never had a heat that felt this good. Felix was attentive to Jisung’s every need, coaxing him to choke down a couple bites of food between waves, holding a water bottle to his mouth until Jisung had at least sipped at it.

              During the waves, Felix pleasured Jisung like he had never been pleasured before. Jisung had asked Felix in a moment of clarity how he was so good at this, and Felix had just smiled and said. “It takes an omega to pleasure one.” Then, he had stuck four fingers in Jisung’s pussy and fingered him until he had come 4 times in a row and couldn’t even feel his legs anymore.

              As Jisung’s heat continued, his moments of clarity dwindled, until all Jisung could feel was heat and pleasure, Felix’s body on his, Felix’s cock in his hole, Felix’s mouth roving over Jisung’s skin, Felix’s teeth sucking marks into his body.

              “I want you,” Jisung begged at what he was sure was the height of his heat. Jisung’s body felt like it was on fire, and his teeth ached, a throbbing pain that Jisung could probably ignore if he tried, but he didn’t want to, he wanted Felix to belong to him as much as he belonged to Felix.

              “You can bite me if you want, Sungie,” Felix urged, tilting his head so that Jisung had easy access to his neck. That was all it took for Jisung’s instincts to take over.

              Jisung tackled Felix to the nest, pressing him down into the blankets with a growl, gaze locked on Felix’s neck, the blank spot between the bites of Felix’s other pack members that was calling Jisung’s name.

              Jisung’s sat himself down on Felix’s dick in one smooth motion and started to roll his hips until Felix was moaning. This late into his heat, Jisung should be exhausted, but the thought of mating Felix kept him going, his thighs flexing as he moved up and down on top of Felix until he felt Felix started to moan underneath in in the way that meant that he was about to come. Only then did Jisung lean and sink his teeth into Felix’s neck, the taste of blood filling his mouth as he felt the bond snap into place.

              It felt so right, feeling Felix’s happiness alongside his own as Felix’s breath tickled Jisung’s skin.

              “I love you, Jisung,” Felix whispered into Jisung’s ear.

              “I love you too, Felix,” Jisung responded, slumping into Felix’s side as he felt the heat seep out of his body, the bond filling a hole in Jisung’s heart that he didn’t even know that he had.

              When Jisung wok up after his heat finally ended, he was sore, but sated. Felix, his mate, was sleeping by his side, their limbs intertwined. Jisung couldn’t help but press a kiss to Felix’s nose.

              “Hmm,” Felix groaned, blinking his eyes sleepily. “What is it?”

              “I love you.”

              Felix softened immediately. “I love you too.”

              “We’re mates now.” Jisung smiled. “We’re fully bonded.”

              “Yeah.” Felix snuggled closer to Jisung’s side. “You’re my mate so you’re never going to leave me and I’m never going to leave you.”

              Jisung’s heart warmed. He finally belonged somewhere, finally felt safe, felt loved by someone and loved them back. “I love you.”

              Felix giggled. “You already said that.”

              “I know, I just wanted to say it again.”

               “Okay, now go back to sleep, I’m tired.” Felix closed his eyes and his breathing started to even out almost immediately, but Jisung had too much on his mind ot go back to sleep.

              He and Felix were finally fully bonded, and Jisung had even gotten Chan’s permission to do it. Now that Jisung could feel Felix’s emotions, he could also feel the absolute trust he had for all the members of the pack, his firm belief that none of them would ever do anything to purposefully hurt Jisung, and the more Jisung thought about it, the more that seemed to make sense.

              Chan, Changbin, Minho, and Jeongin were weird. After that first day, they hadn’t tried to hurt Jisung, hadn’t done anything to threaten him. Chan and Changbin had even watched Jisung go into heat right in front of them and hadn’t done anything about it. Any alpha in Jisung’s old pack would have been on top of him in matter of seconds.

              Jisung had thought that he never wanted to be in a pack again, that he never even wanted to be around alphas, let alone coexist with them. But Felix’s pack was making Jisung second guess himself. Jisung liked Hyunjin and Seungmin. They were nice and funny and caring. Jisung even found himself not minding the presence of Jeongin who had been starting to show up more frequently when Jisung and Felix hung out with Hyunjin and Seungmin. It was never for very long, but sometimes Jeongin would drop something off of run in to grab something that he had forgotten.

              Jeongin didn’t seem like any of the alphas Jisung had known before, he was shy and slightly clumsy, seemingly scared of looking Jisung in the eye when they were in a room together. Hyunijn had explained to Jisung that it was because that Jeongin was scared of scaring Jisung and Jisung found the sentiment kind of cute.

              Jisung was now mated to Felix and that meant that maybe Jisung should start trying to get to know the rest of Felix’s pack. If anything went wrong, Jisung knew that Felix would defend him, that Hyunjin and Seungmin had his pack. And maybe if everything went right, Jisung wouldn’t mind being a part of their pack.

              “Let’s go eat breakfast.”

              “Mm,” Jisung groaned.

              “Minho made it for us.” Felix tugged at Jisung’s arm. “We can’t let it get cold.”

              “Okay, I’m getting up.” Jisung sat up and smiled as he caught a glimpse of his bite on Felix’s neck.

              “What?”

              “Your bite, it’s beautiful.” The skin around it was bruised a dark purple, but the teeth marks themselves were clear. Jisung was sure that it was going to heal beautifully, a claim that the whole world would be able to see, would know that Felix was his omega.

              Felix sighed and swatted at Jisung’s arm. “C’mon let’s go.”

              Hyunjin and Seungmin were waiting for them in the kitchen; a beautiful breakfast spread on the table.

              “Wow,” Felix said as he sat down. “Minho really outdid himself this time.”

              “He’s not the only one,” Seungmin said.

              “Yeah,” Hyunjin agreed. “Let us see your bite.”

              Jisung puffed with pride as Hyunjin and Seungmin praised his bite on Felix’s skin.

              “You smell good, Jisung,” Seungmin said as he sat down. “Before you had this sour undertone to your scent, but now it’s gone. You smell more like a lemon and orange dessert than unsweetened lemonade.”

              “It suits you,” Hyunjin held out his hand and Jisung obliged, letting Hyunjin scent his wrist. “You’re happier now. I’m glad.”

              “I think…” Jisung paused, not sure if he wanted to say what he had been thinking since the end of his heat. Chan and Changbin hadn’t acted at all like what Jisung had expected two alphas to do when they entered a room to find an omega in heat ready to present to them. Instead of taking advantage of Jisung, they had backed up, tried to help him out. Not just any alpha would do something like that.

              Jisung’s relationship with the alphas of Felix’s pack had started out rocky to say the least after he had been kidnapped out of an abandoned building and then Chan and Changbin had made him drop. But ever since then, none of the alphas had ever done anything to purposefully scare or mistreat Jisung. In fact, they had all gone out of their way to make sure that Jisung was comfortable, going as far as to avoid parts of their own house for months just in case that they accidentally ran into Jisung and Felix in the halls.

              Felix trusted Chan, Changbin, Minho, and Jeongin, cared for them enough that he had become part of their pack. Maybe it was time for Jisung to get to know them better.

              “I think that maybe I’d be okay with doing something with the whole pack. Like maybe a movie night or something?”

              “Um, yeah.” Seungmin was the first to respond, Hyunjin’s jaw was still on the floor. “We could do something like that and make it as lowkey as you want. The alphas can wear scent blockers if you want and you and Felix can sit by the door in case you need to leave.”

              “Cool, but first, could you cut my hair, Hyunjin?”

              Hyunjin blinked and finally closed his mouth. “Uh yeah, of course.”

              Felix smiled and reached under the table to squeeze Jisung’s hand. Jisung had always wanted short hair, but he knew that alphas had always preferred it long. Jisung had endured hair sticking to his face and neck when he was sweaty, always falling in his face when he leaned over for too long because of alphas. It was time for Jisung to do what he wanted.

              “Can we do it after breakfast? I think I’m ready for a change as soon as possible.”

Chapter Text

Three years later

              Felix woke Jisung up with a kiss on the lips. It was the best way to start the morning in Jisung’s opinion.

              “Wake up sleepyhead,” Felix urged, pocking at Jisung’s side. “Today’s the big day.”

              Jisung sat up once he remembered. They had been planning this outing for what felt like forever. It was hard to line up the schedules of eight people in a pack, but somehow Felix and Seungmin had managed, and now they were all going to drive to the beach for a picnic lunch.

              “That’s today?” Jisung asked even though he knew that it was. He and Felix had spent all last night packing the car with everything they could possibly need: swimsuits, towels, sunscreen, umbrellas, and some games to play.

              “Let’s go wake up the others,” Felix said, grabbing Jisung’s arm and dragging him out of their nest.

              When they reached the kitchen, Minho was already up, packing the cooler with the lunches he and Chan had prepared the night before. “Good morning,” he greeted. “Are you excited?”

              Jisung smiled. “I’m so excited. I can’t wait. I haven’t been to the beach in years.”

              Minho smiled back. “Well, I heard that Seungmin ended up in Changbin’s room last night, so maybe you should start there.”

              Jisung and Felix took off, running down the hall to Changbin’s room. Felix got there first and flung the door open as Jisung ran past him and jumped onto Changbin and Seungmin still lying asleep in bed.

              “Wake up!” Felix exclaimed, shaking Changbin’s shoulder. “We’re going to the beach today!”

              Changbin groaned and rolled over in bed. “Just a few more minutes.”

              Jisung pouted and purposefully made his scent go sour. “You don’t want to go to the beach with us?”

              Changbin was immediately up and reassuring Jisung. “No Sungie, of course not. I’m sorry. I was just tired. I do want to go to the beach with you, I promise.”

              Jisung blinked up at Changbin with wide eyes. “You promise?”

              At that, Seungmin snorted. “You just got played, Changbin.”

              Jisung whipped around to glare at Seungmin. “I seem to remember you waking up at the smell of my distress too.”

              Jisung had discovered about a year ago that the alphas were super sensitive to any hint of unhappiness in Jisung’s scent and ever since, he’d been using it to his advantage. He and Felix would practice controlling their scents and tears on command in their nest and Jisung had it down to a science by now.

              “That was fake?” Changbin asked in awe. “You should go try that on Chan and Jeongin next, you might actually wake up Chan in record time.”

              “That’s a good idea!” Felix exclaimed, grabbing Jisung’s hand. “But we better see you two in the kitchen when we return with Chan and Jeongin, if you go back to sleep, then Jisung’s tears will be real next time.”

              “We’ll be there,” Changbin swore.

              Seungmin groaned and flopped back into the bed, but Jisung was confident that Changbin would manage to drag Seungmin to the kitchen by the time Jisung and Felix managed to wake up Chan and Jeongin.

              “Channie! Innie!” Felix yelled throwing open the door to Chan’s room. Jisung was a little surprised to see Jeongin curled up with Chan in Chan’s bed, Jeongin wasn’t known to be the most cuddly member of the pack and oftentimes preferred to sleep in his own bed.

              Jeongin groaned and threw an arm over his face as Felix opened the curtains, but Chan didn’t even stir. “Just a few more minutes, Lixie?” Jeongin asked.

              “No!” Felix replied, tugging at Jeongin’s arm. “We’re going to the beach!”

              “You can sleep in the car,” Jisung added helpfully.

              “I suppose.” Jeongin rubbed at his eyes. “You have to wake up Chan first.”

              “Don’t worry! Jisung has a trick up his sleeve.” Felix nodded at Jisung and Jisung focused on making his scent smell as distressed as possible, imagining how he would feel if Chan slept through the whole day and didn’t come on the trip with them.

              “Wow,” Jeongin said, covering his nose. “That’s impressive, I know it’s fake and even still my alpha is screaming at me to help you.”

              Apparently, Chan felt the same way because withing seconds Chan was sitting upright, eyes scanning the room until he landed on Jisung still standing in the doorway. “Sungie?” Chan asked, throwing the covers aside. “What’s wrong, baby?”

              “You weren’t waking up and I was really looking forward to this trip today,” Jisung responded, voice even wavering a bit.

              “Oh, sweetie.” Chan wrapped Jisung in a hug and Jisung melted into his arms, nuzzling at Chan’s neck until he tilted his head to the side to give Jisung access to his scent gland. The alpha of Jisung’s old pack never allowed anyone to scent his neck, saying that a real alpha would never show that level of vulnerability to anyone, but Chan loved to comfort his packmates by allowing them to scent his neck.

              “You know that you just got manipulated, right Chan?” Jeongin asked, sitting on the bed with his arms crossed. Jisung sent him a glare over Chan’s shoulder.

              “By Jisungie?” Chan asked. “He would never do such a thing.”

              Both Felix and Jeongin snorted at that.

              “Minho’s making breakfast for all us,” Jisung said as a distraction. “We should go before it gets cold.”

              When they reached the kitchen, everyone else was already there, including Hyunjin who looked like he had stayed up late again, probably working on the painting that he refused to show to anyone yet, saying that it was going to be a surprise.

              “Wow,” Minho said. “How’d you manage to get Chan out of bed so quickly?”

              “Manipulation,” Jeongin, Changbin, and Seungmin all said at the same time.

              “Felix is a little devil,” Minho agreed, reaching over to ruffle Felix’s hair.

              “Actually, it was Jisung,” Jeongin said.

              “Jisung? No, he’s too sweet for that.”

              Jisung sent a sickly-sweet smile in Jeongin’s direction as he dug into his breakfast.

              The drive to the beach was relatively uneventful. Hyunjin napped in the front seat while Seungmin drove and Felix played DJ, him and Jisung singing loudly the whole way.  Jisung got along well with all the alphas now, but even still their scents could get a little overwhelming after a bit, so they had decided it was probably best to segregate the cars by subgender.

              “We’re here,” Seungmin announced, pulling into a parking space next to Minho’s car.

              As soon as Jisung stepped out the car, he could smell the ocean, hear the waves crashing on the beach, the seagulls squawking overhead. It reminded Jisung of going to beach in his childhood before he presented as an omega, the fun that he would have building sand castles and playing in the water.

              “Are you ready?” Felix asked, grabbing Jisung’s hand.

              “Yeah,” Jisung responded.

              They took off running towards the beach, the pavement turning into sand that was warm under Jisung’s feet. The sun was out, the water sparkling as Jisung and Felix ran towards it, only stopping once they were ankle deep.

              “Ah!” Felix yelped. “It’s colder than I thought.”

              It was, under normal circumstances, Jisung would barely be able to stand the temperature, but Jisung couldn’t bring himself to retreat when he had come this far. Jisung had never thought that he’d be able to go to the beach again. Omegas like him weren’t usually allowed out of the house, but these days Jisung found himself going everywhere with the pack, the grocery store, the park, and even the beach.

              The tide retreated in a rush of water and Jisung’s feet got a chance to warm up before a small wave crashed ashore, the water rising to mid calf this time.

              Felix yelped again, but didn’t let go of Jisung’s hand or retreat. “It’s pretty isn’t it?”

              “It is,” Jisung agreed, staring out at the sparkling water, watching the waves break further out before they rushed ashore. Birds flew overhead, occasionally diving towards the water, spotting something that they could eat in its depths.

              “Do you want to stay here a little longer or go sit with the others?”

              Jisung turned to see that the rest of the pack had made it the beach by now and was setting up their umbrella, towels and chairs in the sand. Chan had his shirt off and Minho was rubbing in sunscreen, clearly using the opportunity as an excuse to feel up Chan’s muscles.

              “We can go join them,” Jisung said. There would be time for swimming later once Jisung had changed into his swim shorts and had put on sunscreen.

              “How’s the water?” Changbin asked when Jisung and Felix returned.

              “Cold,” Felix answered.

              “Did you expect it to be warm? Have you even gone swimming in the ocean here and it was warm?” Seungmin taunted.

              Changbin lunged for Seungmin and Seungmin let himself be caught, folding in half easily as Changbin twisted his arm behind his back. “Did you expect me to let your bratting slide?” Changbin asked.

              Seungmin just laughed in response.

              Jisung had been terrified the first time he’d seen Seungmin and Changbin interact, ready to try and take on an alpha twice his size to save Seungmin, but then he’d heard Seungmin laughing as Changbin put him in a headlock, scent blossoming instead of souring.

              Felix had apologized later that night for forgetting to warn Jisung about Seungmin and Changbin and explained that it was normal for those two to get into fights over nothing, Seungmin taunting Changbin until he snapped and then taking pleasure in Changbin’s reactions.

              Jisung thought that Seungmin was weird, but then again, he thought that a lot of people in this pack were weird, so it really wasn’t anything new.

              “Will you be up for swimming later, Jisung?” Chan asked. Minho had finally stopped putting sunscreen on his body and Jisung found it hard to avert his eyes from Chans’ glistening chest.

              “Uh yeah, I just have to change, but just to warn you, I don’t swim that well.”

              “That’s fine,” Chan answered. “Hyunjin and I will make sure that you won’t drown.”

              Hyunjin gave a thumbs up from where he was sitting on a beach towel, Jeongin on a chair behind him, tying Hyunjin’s long hair up into a ponytail. Jisung was glad that his hair was short enough now that he didn’t have to worry about tying it up, it had been such a hassle to deal with when his hair was long.

              “Sungie, can you help me with sunscreen?”

              Jisung turned to see Felix standing shirtless next to him holding out a bottle of sunscreen. “Of course,” Jisung responded, grabbing the bottle out of Felix’s hands and pressing a quick kiss to his shoulder.

              “And can I put sunscreen on you after?”

              “Yeah,” Jisung said, knowing that Felix was going to be handsy. “I’m wearing a sun shirt, though.”

              “But it’s short sleeve, so I can at least do your arms for you.”

              Jisung rolled his eyes and started applying Felix’s sunscreen. His hands didn’t linger as much as Minho’s had on Chan or as much as Felix’s were likely going to on Jisung, but Jisung did take longer than necessary rubbing the sunscreen into Felix’s tanned skin, enjoying the feeling of Felix’s muscles under his hands.

              “Jeongin!” Hyunjin screeched. “You’re wearing a long sleeve sun shirt? But that means I can’t help my baby put on sunscreen.” Hyunjin reached for Jeongin’s face, but Jeongin predicted the movement and dodged, running towards the water while Seungmin cheered him on.

              Seungmin had apparently made peace with Changbin and was now comfortably sitting in his lap, reclined against Changbin’s chest under the shade of the umbrella.

              Hyunjin squawked in indignation when he realized that Jeongin had escaped him and collapsed dramatically in a chair.

              “They’re a lot, aren’t they?” Felix asked softly, noticing Jisung’s distraction.

              “Yeah,” Jisung answered honestly. “But it’s fun.”

              Felix smiled and squeezed Jisung’s leg. “Just let me know if you need to take a walk.” Jisung appreciated the gesture, but he didn’t think it was needed. Earlier on, Jisung had needed to take breaks from being with the whole pack, but he was pretty used to their chaos now. It was now fun to watch them interact in a way that had previously been overwhelming. Jisung didn’t regret his decision to stay for one second. He had thought that he was doomed to be a packless omega forever, that he was better suited to a solitary lifestyle, but now Jisung knew differently. He thrived with the pack, was now comfortable around them, could joke around with the alphas, didn’t flinch when they rough-housed anymore.

              “Okay,” Felix said. “You’re done with my back, it’s my turn to put sunscreen on you now.”

              Jisung collapsed onto a towel next to Minho who was chilling in a chair reading his book. Minho wasn’t one much for swimming, so he had been perfectly content to sit and watch everyone’s things while they swam.

              “Tired?” Minho asked.

              “Yeah,” Jisung responded, stretching out in the sun. He hadn’t felt the chill of the water as much when he’d been in it, but now that he was out, Jisung was cold. The sun was warm, but not enough to penetrate the cold that had sunk into his skin from the chill of the water.

              “You’re shivering.” Minho abandoned his book to drape two towels over Jisung.

              “I’m okay.”

              “Your lips are turning blue.”

              Jisung frowned, were they really?

              “Take off your sunshirt and put on my sweatshirt, you’re never going to warm up with that wet fabric against your skin.”

              Jisung did as Minho told him because he knew that there was no defying Minho when he got like this. To Minho, the health of his pack always came first. Jisung thought the sweatshirt and all the towels were maybe overkill, but he couldn’t deny how good he felt with the soft fabric against his chilled skin, drowning in Minho’s homey scent.

              “You should eat something,” Minho said, digging through the cooler. “You were out there for a long time and you’re not as used to the activity as the others.” Minho glanced out at the others still messing around in the water. “Felix is going to be exhausted when he finally comes back in. Chan’s going to have to carry him to car I bet.”

              “It’s fun,” Jisung defended.

              Minho smiled. “Yeah, that’s why I’m not dragging him back myself. But you…” Minho frowned. “Your lips are still blue. Come here.” Minho opened his arms and Jisung happily obliged, wriggling into Minho’s side. Minho fretted, wrapping the towels more securely around Jisung’s body.

              It was definitely overkill, but Jisung knew better than to complain. Instead, he sunk into Minho’s side and watched the others play in the water as the sun started to set over the beach. Today had been a good day.

              Half an hour later, Seungmin and Changbin returned from their walk, looking slightly more sandy than when they had left and Seungmin started to pack up their stuff, while Changbin went to fetch the others. The sun was truly setting now, pinks and oranges painting the sky, and they were going to have to leave soon if they didn’t want to be packing up in the dark.

              Hyunjin ran out of the water, Felix, Chan, and Jeongin following behind. Felix had a wide smile on his face, but Jisung could see the tiredness in the way he walked, arm wrapped around Chan. Minho was probably right that Felix was going to end up being carried to the car, but then again, that may be less about Felix’s exhaustion and more about Chan’s strong desire to care for his packmates in every way possible.

              “Lixie,” Jisung greeted, wrapping a towel around Felix as he reached them. Felix leaned into Jisung, getting him wet again after he had just dried off, but Jisung didn’t mind, he still had a dry pair of clothes to change into. “How was swimming?”

              “Good,” Felix responded. “Did you have fun?”

              “So much. It’s so beautiful.” Jisung gestured at the sunset.

              “That’s not half as pretty as you are,” Felix responded, capturing Jisung’s lips in a kiss. Jisung melted into Felix’s touch, pulling Felix closer as he deepened the kiss.

              They were only broken apart by Changbin’s wolf whistle. “As cute as that is, it’s time to go.”

              Felix rolled his eyes and kissed Jisung one last time before dramatically collapsing to the sand. “I’m too tired to walk all the way to the car.” As expected, Chan swooped in and offered to carry Felix.

              Jisung glanced back at the ocean as they were leaving the beach, the last remnants of light were leaving the sky, but it was still beautiful. Jisung turned to look at the pack in front of him. They were beautiful too, even more so than the beach. Jisung was happy to call them his.