Safe With You | Yoonmin

Chapter 5: Helping Hyun-Joo

| Jimin |

JIMIN COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS HEARING. He was kneeling on the polished wood floor of Ryu Okgyn's reception room. The pack Alpha sat opposite him behind a shallow desk littered with parchments and several ornately carved ink wells.

"You...y-you want me to heal the Min wolf?" Jimin asked in shock. Now that he understood why he had been summoned, he could not stifle the wave of panic that crashed over him. His hands fisted in the sides of his robe, trying to hide the tremors in his fingers.

It was five days since the Kim brothers had carried the injured alpha through the village gate. That night, scouts had combed every inch of the mountainside for signs of other survivors and had found none.

Alpha Ryu's response was to send three warriors to the Min village in search of answers. The journey to their sister pack took four or five days for a trade convoy of heavy wagons, but a strong alpha in wolf form could make the journey in as little as two days.

Just hours ago the three alphas had returned with terrible news. Both the trade convoy and the Min village had been massacred by some unknown enemy. The charred remains of warriors, elders, mothers, and children had been found in the smoking ruins of homes, while even more bodies had been found in the streets and fields, barely visible beneath the fresh snow. Each building had been pilfered of food and valuables before it was set to flame.

In all this time, the injured Min alpha did not wake, despite the best efforts of the pack's healers to save him.

And in all this time, Jimin had not left his chambers, taking no chances of his existence being discovered. That is, until Alpha Ryu had summoned him.

For as long as he could remember, Jimin had always felt uneasy in the Alpha's presence. He knew it was dishonorable and ungrateful of him, but he resented the fact that he owed Ryu Okgyun his life. Alpha Ryu had the final say in all matters involving the omega, and it made Jimin feel trapped, helpless to do anything except whatever the Alpha asked of him, desperate to prove that sparing his life all those years ago hadn't been a mistake.

Ryu Okgyun had never spoken it, but Jimin knew that the only reason the Alpha had saved him was because he was a male omega. A rare blessing from the Goddess. But it was painfully obvious what a disappointment Jimin had turned out to be, with his freakish hair and blind eye. Since his arrival, there had been no sign of favor from the heavens. In fact, the pack's current plight seemed evidence of quite the opposite. Almost everyone in the pack could see that Jimin didn't belong. It was only a matter of time before the pack Alpha saw it too. Jimin only had to fail him once...

"I've never healed anyone before," the omega's strained voice betrayed his nerves, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you expect me to do."

"Don't worry, Jimin, I don't expect you to perform miracles," said Okgyun, sensing his distress, "Although, our legends tell of male omegas possessing unique healing abilities, so I'm sure a few of the elders might have hopes. But at the very least, I believe you can calm him. I am told that there isn't much more our healers can do. The fight for survival depends on the alpha now, but he is greatly weakened by his journey and his injuries, plagued by fevered dreams yet refusing to wake. Your presence and scent might be enough to calm him, to allow his body to heal."

Jimin's body relaxed slightly at these words.

If I can help this alpha just by being near... It is a chance to do something honorable that will help the pack. And surely this means I am being sent to the healers' lodge, away from here. It will be much more comfortable than the workshop when the first storm comes.

Perhaps the Goddess was merciful after all.

"Alpha, my entire life I have been told that no outsider can know of my existence here. I mean no disrespect, I only wish to understand," said Jimin, bowing his head to show his submission, that he was in no way challenging his Alpha's decision.