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“hey kookie!” taehyung chirps happily, plopping down into the seat beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and ruffling his hair. “have you seen the match list yet?”
the omega’s smile dips into a scowl and he shrugs off the older’s grip quickly, shaking his head with a grunt. “figures,” taehyung muses. “I have though, your father matched people up really well this year. he’s a smart guy, observing rivals from the sidelines and then putting everyone in the worst positions possible.”
jungkook raises an eyebrow. taehyung isn’t usually this blunt about his displeasure. “who’s your opponent?”
“you know the guy that can’t stop laying his hand on hoseok or eyeing him like a piece of meat? yeah, him. that’s why I’m eating like a beast, I’m gonna take him to the brink of death,” taehyung murmurs, growl seeping into the timbre of his voice and jungkook shivers like a typical unmated omega would at the sudden release of pheromones. but then, taehyung’s turning to him with an evil grin that barely matches the seriousness in his eyes. “wanna know who you got matched with?”
jungkook cocks his head curiously.
“seungmin. you know the new omega pup that joined the pack a few months ago and quickly climbed up the ranks? the one that somehow managed to snatch the ever-lovely jimin from your side? the next most sought after omega after you.”
“that’s enough, kim taehyung.” jungkook threatens lowly, teeth gritted, can of soda crushed in the palm of his hand subconsciously, eyes flashing silver.
“maybe you should’ve paid jimin more attention before the seungmin dude appeared, showed him that you were this interested too. then, he wouldn’t have run off and settled for some other—”
jungkook grabs taehyung by the collar and pins him to the wall, knuckles white, silver eyes glinting dangerously. “whoa, easy there, pup,” the older laughs, a little breathless, surrendering and jungkook growls as he lets go, chest heaving as he tries to relax, to get the wolf up and out of his mind. stupid taehyung.
“there’s a chance he could take your place as number one omega too, kookie. he’s second right now, and if you lose…you’d drop a rank, you know?” taehyung whispers into his ear, and jungkook snarls.
“tae! kookie! I have something to—what the fuck is going on?” a familiar voice calls and jungkook whips around on his heels in record time, only to chew on his bottom lip so hard he breaks skin.
jimin says something to taehyung and him that jungkook vaguely registers, because his mind is reeling from the way seungmin has the fucking audacity to drape himself smugly around jimin, who’s an alpha and biologically tuned to be attracted to omegas. jungkook’s fucking alpha. the older alpha even has an arm curled around his waist and jungkook feels bile filling his mouth before he can help it, wolf howling, hurt.
he does the only thing he can think of, running far, far away to mope by himself, whimpering angrily.
seungmin is hateful, but really, jungkook thinks jimin is the worst.
it’s his fault in the first place, for being so entirely attractive and persistent in getting jungkook to return his feelings. and when he finally did, it was almost like jimin couldn’t tell that he was pulling away because he was shy, not because he hated it. and then shitty, annoying seungmin had to come along, seeking jimin’s attention futilely at first, until jimin began to notice him and started giving the omega credit for it.
maybe it was jungkook’s fault too, for being so entirely dumb about feelings and confused around people. around jimin.
maybe, just maybe, they just weren’t meant to be.
with only a week left to the start of the duels, training had been extra tough, for both omegas, betas and alphas alike. jungkook hated how competitive everyone got around these times, thirsty to move up the ranks. he hated how his father trained them all to be like this, as the pack leader.
he’d sparred with only alphas growing up, even senior ones like his father’s men, earning his strength and title from scratch. it was practically an understatement that everyone expected him to present as an alpha, but alas, on the day his heat washed up on him, jungkook lost everything. he’d lost his father’s recognition, the respect that everyone else had for him…he’d lost jimin for a while too.
unlike him, jimin was soft-spoken, firm with his beliefs and yet submissive most of the time, choosing to avoid trouble. nobody expected him to present as an alpha, and jungkook had pushed him away for that reason, afraid that his feelings would continue to grow while they would never be able to be together.
he’d never told jimin any of that though, and like taehyung said, it was no wonder that the older lost interest when another worthy omega showed up around him.
“jungkook-ah!” yugyeom smiles, waving and the omega jumps up in surprise from where he sits at the dining table, beaming as he quickly goes to hug the boy.
“were you that busy with preparations that you couldn’t come see me?” he teases, feigning irritation and yugyeom plays along with a grin, clutching a hand to his heart and bowing deeply. “I’m sorry, my dearest jungkookie. I forgot about you for a moment there.”
they both burst into a peal of laughter, jungkook holding onto yugyeom for dear life.
and then suddenly, jungkook’s entire body freezes, going rigid as the mixed scent of pine and apricot surrounds the group, whirling around to see seungmin trailing after jimin and plopping down at their table. taehyung gives the older alpha a hi-five, winking, and pointedly ignores seungmin’s outstretched hand.
jungkook almost snorts at the subtlety of taehyung’s actions, or lack thereof, satisfied, and namjoon tries to mask a laugh, but it comes out as a strangled cry and hoseok has to pretend to smack his arm in warning.
but then, jungkook realizes that jimin’s eyes are fixated on yugyeom’s hand resting low on the plane of his back, snarl resting on the tip of his tongue and panics.
“let’s go,” he mumbles softly, wanting to avoid any confrontation between to two alphas, just loud enough for yugyeom to hear. jimin had always been overprotective over jungkook after all, and it was expected that such contact could set an alarm off in the other alpha’s bones. a part of jungkook wants the ringing to hurt too, let jimin feel the twinge of pain in his heart caused by jealously. yugyeom complies obediently, to jungkook’s relief and the alpha hurries to sweep him away, but jimin is faster.
“hey, competitor,” jimin drawls mockingly from where he’s seated at the table, and jungkook scrunched his nose, feet coming to a stop. yugyeom spins back to shoot him a fake smile and jimin chortles, but jungkook can feel the tension in his muscles from across the room. “if you’ll excuse me, I need to escort my precious omega away, so,” he says from beside jungkook, before they backpedal out of the room in record time, voice practically dripping in sarcasm.
“you…did you mean that?” he asks later, breathless, digging crescents into his sweaty palms, still shocked. “you’re really going up against jimin? for me?”
yugyeom shrugs, scuffing at the ground, not meeting his eyes.
“I like you a lot, jungkook-ah,” is all he says.
on the day of the challenge itself, jungkook wishes he hadn’t woken up at all. his muscles are sore from the countless hours he’d spent practicing his attacks, eyebags settling beneath his eyes.
his father gives him a pat on his back that sets more pressure on his shoulders than it does comfort him, and jimin won’t even look his way, even after a week of not seeing each other, too busy being fawned over by whom jungkook will not bother to name. it would be a waste of time for jungkook to try to deny the pain blooming in his chest.
he’s already irked enough when he enters the ring, stripping down to his toes before transforming into his wolf, bones cracking and reforming, a shade of pale silver hooding his vision, pure white fur glowing in the sunlight. omega or not, he’s still the pack leader’s son, capable of taking down any given alpha, presence enough to fill the room. he surveys the audience from where he stands outside the ring, and grunts softly when he spots jimin standing towards seungmin’s side of the ring.
his father issues the starting command from where he stands, overseeing the match, shooting him a look that all but screams lose this, and you’re gone and jungkook steps into the ring wanting nothing more than for it all to end already.
he meets seungmin’s narrowed gray eyes from across the battle ground and anger rushes into his limbs, fight or flight system kicking into his body, tension curling around his throat so tightly it almost hurts to breathe. the wolf howling defensively in him has half a mind to sink his claws into the other omega’s sides, pin him down and fuck him up so badly, until he’s breathing in his own blood.
before he even registers it, his father sounds the alarm. seungmin comes charging at him in full force, a rookie mistake, and they clash right in the center of the ring, teething and clawing at any vulnerable spot possible. as much as jungkook hates to admit it, seungmin, too, worked hard to earn his position, fending off jungkook’s attacks relatively well for a newcomer, even managing to land a few scratches up jungkook’s side.
halfway into the fight, he catches the sight of jimin in the corner of his eye and loses focus for a split second, letting seungmin fling him across the ring, landing on the hard ground with a heavy thump, groaning when the other omega pounces on him and claws at his ribs, effectively wounding him. he’s dizzy on his feet by the time he manages to turn the tables, flipping seungmin over with more force than necessary, claws landing blow after blow to the omega’s body, each one meant to immobilize him for a while, until they announce the end of the first round and someone pulls him off.
pain arcs up his back as he hits the floor and jungkook winces slightly, using the ground as leverage to pick himself up but the sight before him has his heart clenching in his chest.
park jimin, the one and only alpha that had managed to capture jungkook’s heart, the person that had always been by his side, now has his hands pressed to seungmin’s wounds in concern, not even sparing a glance at him, as if jungkook had hurt him any more than what seungmin had done to him.
by the time jimin turns around to glance at him from where he’s seated, seungmin’s head in his lap, it’s too late. jungkook catches his eye for a few good moments, holding back tears, disappointment and sadness written all over the omega’s face, before he looks away and limps weakly out of the ring, blood pooling out of the deep slash running from his left nipple down to his right hipbone, and he realizes only then that he’d shifted back into his human form.
it’s pretty much clear-cut for anyone to see that jungkook had won that round, but somehow he feels very, very much like he’s lost.
somewhere between his thoughts, he falls straight into yugyeom’s arms, vision fading to darkness.
he figures he must have blacked out for the next fifteen minutes or so from the loss of blood, because when he comes to he can hear taehyung mutter a breathless prayer full of thank yous and oh my gods.
he whimpers as he tries to sit up, pain shooting up his torso, hair matted to his forehead uncomfortably, feeling like he’s going to accidentally rip open the gash marring his chest if he’s a little too forceful.
for a few moments, his vision swims and jungkook growls, annoyed that he’d let another omega, his rival, hurt him like this. but then his eyes land on seungmin’s body, laying not too far away from his on the ground, still unconscious though his wounds are far less severe and his wolf temporarily feels satisfied.
“where’s jimin? and yugyeom?” he asks, voice cracking, throat parched and taehyung hushes him with a finger, mumbling something about settling scores the alpha way.
he doesn’t think much about it, just wonders if jimin’s okay and unharmed.
jimin returns to the ring an hour before the next round starts, taking a seat beside taehyung quietly, watching with soft, cerulean blue eyes as jungkook lies, eyes shut, head cradled in taehyung’s lap, face scrunched in pain as his body tries to fight against his injuries. the younger barely even notices his presence, overheating, and jimin silently wishes he could do something, anything at all, to help.
taehyung says nothing to his side, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he sponges jungkook meticulously, trying to bring the younger’s fever down. “best friend or not, I feel like I have to tell you that you shouldn’t be here, park jimin,” he mutters.
“really, tae? you too?” the older alpha sighs, burying his face into his palms. taehyung shrugs, not looking at him, pressing the back of his hand to jungkook’s forehead. “you don’t deserve to be here, not like this. not while disregarding jungkook’s feelings on a daily basis, letting some other omega touch you everywhere like you guys are promised together or something, and then suddenly treating him like you seriously take him as your mate.”
“he is—I mean, I’ve wanted him to be my mate for so long and you know it, tae,” he says, digging crescents into his palm, surprised at taehyung’s words.
“do I really? ‘cause I’m not so sure I do now, jimin-ah.” taehyung turns to look at him with a half-hearted smile, changing jungkook’s bandages carefully, cautious not to put any sort of pressure on the wound.
“just go. you’ll only make things harder for him.”
the second time he’s asked to take his place at the end of the ring, jungkook feels like every inch, every fiber of his being is burning up as he stumbles to his feet, blood rushing in his ears. he thinks his recovery system’s probably overworked right now, trying to heal his aches and wounds from all over at once.
seungmin doesn’t exactly look any better from across the battle ground, limbs spasming involuntarily, and more than anything, jungkook knows this is going to be a fight against themselves. when his father sounds the alarm, they don’t clash immediately like they’d done in the first round, instead circling the arena defensively, ready to protect themselves from any more harm. seungmin loses patience first, and tries to strike at him but jungkook is faster, more coordinated on his feet and dodges the hit easily, counterattacking with a kick that sends the other omega flying across the ring.
somehow, the attack takes more of a toll on him, the world spinning around him and jungkook vaguely questions if he’d accidentally reopened the slash across his chest. seungmin, on the other hand, grabs the opportunity to pin him to the ground, trying to clamp his teeth down on any part of jungkook’s body.
jungkook’s prepared to fight back, he’s practically trained for this his entire life, practicing to defeat his opponent with his front legs tied, and vice-versa, but some part in him also wants to give up, jimin’s concerned demeanor towards seungmin factoring in those thoughts, so he takes a deep breath and lets himself go limp beneath the other omega. seungmin sinks his teeth into jungkook’s neck, a mistake that jungkook knows will get him disqualified and pushed down five ranks, but he clamps down hard on jungkook’s throat and blood foams in his mouth.
his breathing is shallow and everything seems to be moving in slow motion when the panic sets in for the crowd, and then seungmin’s thrown off him roughly, a familiar shadow cupping his cheeks gently, calling his name, picking him up in bridal style, running for something, begging for him to stay with me, jungkook please but ironically, the world goes dark.
jungkook dreams for a long, long time. he dreams of finally confessing to jimin, being accepted by his alpha, kissing jimin, hugging jimin, holding jimin, moving in with jimin, being mated by jimin, being knocked up with kids and staying together with jimin for the rest of his life.
he dreams of taehyung and hoseok coming over to their house with two kids of their own in their arms on a regular weekend, spending time together talking as they watch their children fool around in the sandpit, bickering over the most random things ever.
he wakes up praying not to wake up to reality forever.
jungkook hears only the monotonous tick-tock of the clock for the first ten minutes, sleep still heavy on his eyelids, refusing to open. it takes a while for his vision to adjust when they do, and the comforting warmth of a hand wrapped around his left one suddenly settles in his bones. he crooks his head slightly, yelping at the sharp pain that runs down his spine, the sound seemingly waking the other boy.
“hyung,” he whispers, hoarsely, a little shellshocked as jimin’s tear-stained face morphs from tiredness to disbelief. “you—you’re really awake, right? I’m not dreaming?” jimin asks, shaking his head furiously before staring jungkook down again. then the realization sets in, and jimin’s entire body starts trembling as he reaches out to kiss the crown of jungkook’s forehead.
“y-you stupid boy! how could you just stop defending yourself like that! you almost died while I carried you to the nursing room, you know that, jeon jungkook?” jimin chokes harshly, wiping his tears, voice breaking. “god, do you even know how fucking worried I was? the nurse said if seungmin had bitten any deeper than he did, you would have choked and suffocated on your own blood! even then, your wounds had reopened and you were losing so much blood that she said you might not survive and I didn’t know what to do but hold your hand and kiss you and pray that you’ll come back to me…I thought—I thought I was never going to be able to see you and your dumb smile, or hear your cute hyena laugh, or watch you try to outdo taehyung in some pizza eating competition again. I thought I was going to regret being one step too late to tell you that I love you for the rest of my life, you idiot! don’t you dare do that again, jeon jungkook. don’t you dare.”
if the situation were any less serious, maybe jungkook would’ve commented on how cute jimin was being so worried about him, but instead, he just curls fingers into the hairs lining jimin’s nape and tugs the older down to press their lips together. they kiss for three, four, five minutes, and it isn’t the stars aligning or whatever like the legends had said, but jungkook feels fireworks explode behind his eyelids and neither of them try to pull away until they’re both forced to part for air.
“I’m never going to let you go again. I’m sorry,” jimin whispers, mouthing against his forehead, panting lightly and jungkook giggles. “good, ‘cause I’m not gonna let any other omega land a finger on you without a fight anymore.”
jimin tsks, cracking up slightly and jungkook shifts on the bed, lifting the duvet, beaming, a silent invitation for the alpha to cuddle him. jimin pauses, looking up at the ceiling and tapping his chin dramatically, to which jungkook pouts at, grumbling as he releases his hold on the fabric, turning to lie on his right side.
“like you’re the one to talk, yugyeom’s practically been running his hands all over you.”
jimin tucks himself in quickly, wrapping arms around the tall omega securely, nosing at the back of jungkook’s neck and littering mini kisses all over the smooth skin.
jungkook blushes down to his toes. “what are you doing?”
“loving you,” he mumbles cheekily, voice dipping into a lower register, and jungkook flushes even more. clearing his throat, he tries to play it cool and ask if he can remove his bandages. jimin gives him the go, saying that the nurse had given him permission earlier but he’d fallen asleep. when he unwraps the fabric, though, his face falls at the long, ugly scar running down his chest.
“how long has it been?” he asks quietly.
jimin can sense his disappointment. “three days.”
jungkook doesn’t stop glaring at the mark until jimin rolls him around and straddles the younger. “it doesn’t matter, jungkook.”
“it does! I’m not…not that perfect anymore.” jimin sighs, cupping his cheeks firmly. “listen, jeon jungkook. I’m the one that’s going to be seeing this scar whenever we have sex, or when I want to pamper you physically, and I think it’s beautiful. it’s nice, because it reminds me that I could’ve lost you and I didn’t, understand? and I don’t want perfect, I want you.”
“but if you’re really that bothered by it…I can try to make it go away?” the alpha offers, universe in his eyes, and jungkook nods, submitting to the older. he shudders as jimin leans down to kiss the deepest part of the scar, sensitive, eyes fluttering shut, and then jimin’s tongue is darting out to skate over the wound, licking over it gently. jungkook thinks he whines at the sensation, pleasure ripping through his body, back arching, jimin’s apricot scent dulling everything else in the world out, and he tangles fingers into the alpha’s hair tightly.
jimin moves seamlessly, mouthing down, down, down in a continuous, smooth motion, and jungkook gasps as he tongues over the last of the scar for longer than necessary, body trembling under jimin’s ministrations. “better?” the older asks, wiping his lips with the back of his hand and jungkook nods, chest heaving lightly, pants tight. he doesn’t have to look to know that the scar has faded into a faint discoloration on his skin now, and he brings jimin down for another kiss, tasting himself on the alpha, wolf howling, sated.
“if this is how it feels like to be scent marked, I want you to do it all the time,” jungkook says later, still breathless, and jimin laughs, pressing their foreheads together.
“I might never let you out of bed if I do.” jimin jokes harmlessly, but jungkook grabs the chance to let his gaze go dark and hazy in the way he knows drives every living soul crazy, breath skating across jimin’s lips as he murmurs a soft why don’t you keep your promise then, my mate.
he has to commend jimin on his incredible self-control, actually, because the older waits until jungkook’s discharged that very morning to take him to his home and fuck him up hard against the door, and then slow and raw on the couch, then quickly against the wall of the corridor, and softly on the bed, teasing the shameless whimpers and mewls out of jungkook’s throat one by one.
taehyung is barely surprised to see jimin’s claim on jungkook’s neck when he drops by in the morning, even less so when he sees jungkook being fucked six ways to sunday with his oversized shirt still on, bed hair and all.
really, he thinks the phrase fucking like rabbits should be changed to fucking like wolves, because his life doesn’t really change much from there.