Strings of Fate

56- Steeped in oolong

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I was going to break this up into two chapters but I didn't... So extra long chapter today!

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Seongho pulled the rusted door closed behind him. It squeaked, grinding and protesting about being used after being neglected so long. They had been led to this abandoned building by the beta Himchan. It must have been a small manufacturing factory at some point. There were dusty shelves with abandoned merchandise, sewing machines still threaded, tables with rusty scissors and unspooled ribbon.

There was evidence that animals had found refuge here, but they hadn't seen anything since they took it over. It was mostly out of convenience. They needed a place close to Y/N to lay low while they waited for the package that was now cradled in his hand.

There were air mattresses they had set up in the middle of the factory and that's where he headed. He could sense it, the tension in the air. He was still weaving through shelves and didn't have a clear line of sight of his mates, but something happened while he was away.

None of them looked his way as he came closer. Uri was sitting on one of the air mattresses, shoulders slumped. Mireu was standing apart and had his back to Seongho and his other mates. Jihun was sitting rigidly on the table, staring at nothing.

What happened? Uri looked up at him, there was a look of defeat there. It was an alien expression on his mate. Uri never accepted defeat, but here he was crumpled and sad.

Yeongsu died. Seongho's stomach dropped. It had only been a little over a month since the boy had last been treated by Y/N. How had his condition deteriorated so quickly?

Jihun didn't look up at him when he approached. Jihun was trying hard not to let his sadness into the bond. He placed his forehead against his mate's, holding both of his hands. Seongho loved how all of his mate's hands were smaller than his. It made him feel like he owned the role of protector in this pack. It was a role he took very seriously. He could not protect his mate from emotional pain though.

Yeongsu had been sickly the moment he was born. None of his mates, including him, could understand why that child became Jihun's favorite. Maybe because Jihun himself used to feel helpless. His father was an abusive alpha. He had killed Jihun's mother and brought him close to death many times. That was before Jihun had presented as a powerful alpha and before he had mated with four other equally powerful alphas.

The day they tore his father apart together as a pack was still an exquisite memory for Seongho. It had been erotic, freeing and empowering.

Seongho had thought many times before that maybe Jihun thought Death was a reincarnation of his father and was hounding his child, Yeongsu. Now that Death had won, he was worried what his mate would do next.

"I want to make her suffer, bring her close to death over and over until she's lost all shred of hope and then I want to eat her heart." That explained Uri's look of defeat. He knew Uri dreamed of coupling with the omega. Uri believed himself in love with the omega, though Uri's version of love had always been twisted and askew. It fit their pack, but Y/N did not.

Even if Uri claimed to love her, Seongho knew that she would eventually end up dead, just like all of the other omegas Uri took. It was just his nature and his obsession with her grew because she was the one omega he couldn't have complete jurisdiction over.

"She can bring people back from the dead." Whatever had happened in the forest, had put Uri in a strange place. Seongho wondered if he had hit his head too hard.

They had sensed his pain and came to meet him in the forest. The back of his head had been covered in his own blood, matting his black hair down. He had said that Y/N did it, which made no sense. She now somehow had the power to blast an alpha wolf off his feet? Seongho had patched him up and then he went to get their package.