Got my claws in you

Chapter 61- love unravels

TAE POV:

"Little cub are you ready to go-" I call as I draw open to (Y/N)'s office door, falling silent at the sight of her curled against Jimin's side, Hobi hyung coming to still behind me. His hand splays across the low of my back, head peering over to see before I feel him still.

"Oh sweetheart, what happened?" voice a low empathetic murmur, tinged with protectiveness and hurt, watch her lean away, rubbing at puffy eyes, slightly red-rimmed as she shakes her head and draws herself up and away from the embrace she'd been encased in. Draws herself away from the mattress and the blankets I've seen Min-Jun roll around and nest in, see them be folded away with a ducked head and eyes that don't meet ours for fear of giving away just how much she's trembling inside; her fingers fumbling with the fabric until I move forward and draw it out her grip and let it fall aside. Bring her forward, head ducking to peer at her, meeting eyes framed with damp lashes and lips that smile unconvincingly.

Nose at cheeks both damp and tearstained, lips brushing against the high of her cheek, tail curling to wrap around her waist with the same fierce protectiveness that my arms band across her back, drawing her closer, cheek rubbing against hers.

"Some bad news." Jimin murmurs, taking over folding the blankets, eyes raw and aching with restless instinct, but still they soften, throat tilted unconsciously in submission when Hobi hyung draws him closer, hand drawing him forward and away from the heaviness of pheromones clouded with sorrow and misery. Heavy enough to break through the scentblockers that were slathered heavily across her skin, entangling with sharp mint that makes my lungs burn as I inhale.

My hands tighten, a small growl rumbling in my chest at that; visceral and sharp and predatory, carnal with the need to protect and defend from whatever makes her ears fold as she tucks closer, lips brushing gently against my gland. Even now trying to bring comfort despite being in pain.

"But we're working through it. We'll get through it." she murmurs, fierce and determined, a sharpness to the usually soft tone.

Our mate's a fighter.

But even so my hands linger, unwilling to draw away from the aching sight of what was clearly tears that had just begun to abate when we'd made our rounds and swapped over with the employees slotted to take the next shift. And something connected to the case if Jimin's still around, away from his usual holed up space in the private, guarded ward or at the station.

"A friend, a herdmate. The web gets messier." Jimin murmurs, fingers ghosting along her nape before leaning to brush a kiss there, tail poofier and bristling; as if every hair stands on edge, fur crackling with unexpelled energy and anxiousness. With a raging instinctual need to guard.

His words make (Y/N) still in my arms, her posture hardening before it dissolves, tension seeping away; forcefully levelled out as she withdraws, nodding encouragingly at me even as her ears flicker uncertainly.

"I spoke to SJ. He'll... he'll take care of things." She mumbles, reassuring herself more than me, doe eyes flickering and falling away. Scanning the room for discrepancies, for anything unusual.

It physically pains me to think and wonder how much of that cautiousness has been trained into a habit, how months have moulded her this way.

SJ.

Whatever it was, whoever the friend Jimin mentioned was was connected to her pack then, to her herd. And my stomach lurches painfully at how much of the important people in her life we don't know or have met. How much of her pack, the people she loves and protect are mere names and faces and nothing more.

"Everything doesn't weigh on your shoulders alone kit." Hobi hyung murmurs, slowly drifting back after drawing the blinds and curtains, flitting about with a comfortable ease of knowing how to set the office to rights, just as familiar to it as (Y/N) is.