Hope & Perseverance | ym

VI

Namjoon stopped abruptly in the middle of the forest, nose twitching. Hoseok was about to nudge his side to see what was wrong when he suddenly caught onto the same scent Namjoon had: burnt cinnamon. Recognizing the cinnamon from the camp they had come across weeks before, they both took off running, not stopping until they came across a sobbing Taehyung.

The already distressed omega looked up in fear at the sound of footsteps approaching him, but quickly calmed when he recognized the scents of rain and smoke permeating towards him followed by two very familiar wolves bursting through the trees. Taehyung cried in delight, launching himself at Hoseok who just barely managed to shift in time to catch the omega in his arms. Taehyung then began to sob harder into Hoseok's shoulder, nails digging into his shoulder blades as he tried to hold the alpha as tightly as possible.

"Taehyung, where's Jungkook?" Namjoon asked once he'd set Soyoung down as gently as possible and shifted.

The omega somehow managed to cry even harder as he wailed into Hoseok's shoulder. "Alpha didn't want me!"

The two alphas looked at each other in confusion before realization hit them. Namjoon sniffed around until he caught onto a faint trail of black pepper. "I'm gonna go make sure he didn't run too far then wait out his rut. Take care of our omega." Hoseok nodded as Namjoon shifted and ran off through the trees.

Namjoon ran for about 15 minutes until he hit what seemed like an invisible wall of black pepper. Recognizing the territorial scenting, he paced around for a bit until he was sure Jungkook was in the immediate area, then settled down to wait for his pack's newest alpha to get through his first rut.

~*~

Jungkook groaned as he opened his eyes, wondering how he was supposed to move with how achy his body was. He mustered up all his strength to sit up, looking around at his surroundings. He couldn't recognize what area of the forest he was in and wondered if he would even be able to find his way back considering all of his memories after pushing Taehyung away were a blur.

He finally managed to stand up, brushing himself off until he caught a waft of rain. He froze as he looked up, his heart stopping at the sight of his pack alpha standing just a few feet away from him. "You feeling okay? Not too sore?"

"Namjoon?" Jungkook whispered, not fully believing the alpha was standing in front of him. He stared at him until enough time passed that he was convinced it was the actual alpha, then he ran towards him, wrapping his arms tightly around him. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"

Namjoon chuckled slightly as he hugged Jungkook back. "And leave you and Taehyung all alone?"

"Oh my god, Taehyung~" Jungkook exclaimed, extremely concerned for the omega. "We have to find him!"

"He's fine, Hoseok's with him." Namjoon informed the freshly presented alpha, Jungkook breathing in relief both from Taehyung being okay and from hearing that Hoseok was there too. "He was a bit upset when we found him, but I'm sure after a few days with Hoseok and getting to play with Soyoung has calmed him down."

Jungkook nodded a bit as Namjoon turned to lead him back to where the pack was. "You said Hoseok and Soyoung were with you. What about Yoongi? And Seokjin and Jimin?" Namjoon looked back at him, and his expression was enough of an answer for the young alpha. "Oh~"

"We're going to get Seokjin and Jimin back." Namjoon assured Jungkook before leading him back to the others.

When they finally did make it back, the first thing Jungkook saw was Taehyung playing happily with Soyoung, the sight making a funny feeling erupt in his stomach. "Welcome back!" Hoseok exclaimed, holding up some fruit. "Taehyung and I picked some of this a while ago. Jungkook, I'm sure you're hungry."

Taehyung looked up from the pup in his arms, smiling over at Jungkook. "I finally got some berries!"

Jungkook sat down next to the omega, quietly thanking both him and Hoseok for the food. "I'm so sorry, Taehyung, I-"

Taehyung waved off his apology. "You have no reason to be sorry. I know you were just trying to protect me; I can't be upset over that." He rested his head on Jungkook's shoulder in a small attempt at a hug.

"But I left you alone." Jungkook said. "Who knows what would have happened if Namjoon and Hoseok hadn't shown up?"

Taehyung shrugged. "We'll never know, so there's no use dwelling on it." He nudged the alpha. "Now eat, you need to build up your strength after all that." Jungkook shook his head slightly, wondering how he got so lucky to have such a kind and understanding person as his best friend.

~*~

Yoongi smelled the rotting flesh first, gesturing with his head for Hyun to stay back with the pups before he went further to explore. His heart raced with worry that his biggest fear would come true until he finally came across the almost fully decomposed corpse and realized that it wasn't a member of his pack. He tried to block out the pungent scent of the dead wolf so he could possibly pick up a familiar scent.

When he finally caught a whiff of Jungkook, Taehyung, Hoseok, and Namjoon all in the area, he couldn't help but yip in delight. He bounded back to the others, gesturing to let them know they were on the right track before leading them around the corpse, not wanting the pups to have to see that at their age, and back in the direction his pack had gone in. As the scents began to grow stronger, he wanted to increase his pace, but held back so as not to leave his new future pack behind.