"I wanna know more about mating bonds."
"Mating bonds?" Zodiac echoes.
Jimin squeezes his thighs together—he can still feel the ghost of Jeongguk's knot inside of him. Every fiber of his being is screaming at him to return to his alpha, but he valiantly wrestles for control against his instincts in order to keep his ass planted on Zodiac's couch. This is a conversation he needs to have. "The bonding process, specifically. Like, do you need a bond beforehand to mate?"
Running a hand through his hair, Zodiac chuckles dryly. "If I'm being perfectly honest, I may not be the best person to ask."
"You're mated, aren't you?"
"I am," Zodiac says, "but having an antisocial disorder affects the way I bond with people. I don't, basically. The extended explanation is a little more complex."
Jimin shrugs. "I have time."
"Well, my understanding is that bonding is a sign of compatibility. If a bond forms between you and your partner, that's generally the potential mate litmus test."
"That's basically what I remember from psych," Jimin replies.
"It's the accepted modern interpretation."
Narrowing his eyes, Jimin regards him carefully. "...I assume you have an alternate theory."
"Bonding and mating are independent variables," Zodiac says. "You can mate without bonding and bond without mating. A mating bite will create a corporeal link, which is what physically ties a pair together. I know where Dutch is, I know his physical state of being, and I'll know if he dies. A bond is an empathetic link. That's what allows you to share thoughts and emotions. And while a bite is permanent, a bond alone can fade over time."
"So, you know Dutch's physical condition," Jimin responds, "but not his mental state."
"No, I have complete access to him. But my end of the bond basically acts like a mirror and reflects his own emotions back onto him. That sort of amplification has produced some... unfavorable circumstances, so I've learned how to block him out," Zodiac says. "Unfortunately, that leaves me a little bit like a walking corpse to him."
Jimin furrows his brow. He's never heard of anything like that. Although, by the time he took that psych class, he was so dead set on biochem, there was no desire to pursue the subject further. "What do you mean?"
"I can cut him off from the link. The first time I did it, it scared him, because even though I was sitting right next to him, he said it felt like I'd died. But as uncomfortable for him as it is, it's easier for him to handle our time apart that way. Otherwise, it's just this endless feed of his own anxiety."
"Oh," Jimin says softly, thinking back on how detached Dutch seemed with regards to his mate. Zodiac was rarely mentioned, and when he was, it was never by name. "So you don't... feel anything for him."
"I would advise you," Zodiac says slowly, carefully. Threateningly. "...not to dig any deeper about our relationship. Dutch is mine; he belongs to me."
It's telling in its own way, Jimin supposes, that he doesn't want to discuss Dutch anymore. Even so, he's already explained a lot. More than Jimin anticipated getting out of him. "He isn't who I'm here to talk about."
Zodiac sighs, regarding him with a certain amount of disinterest. "You're going into heat soon, aren't you? I can smell it on you. Well—" He makes a big show of inhaling, tasting the air with his tongue. "I can smell Jeongguk's rut on you. He's always been a bit of a needy bitch."
"He's mine now," Jimin snaps without thinking. "Not yours."
A coy, crooked grin spreads across Zodiac's face. "...I suppose he is. The point I was getting to earlier is that mating bonds are a social construct. Over the course of history, mating bites were a sign of possession. This omega is the property of that alpha. But as ethics entered the picture, and it no longer became socially acceptable to abuse the binding of mating bites, this new hybridized version of mating was invented—the kind where your 'soulmate' is indicated by whether or not you develop that empathetic link."
