Safe With You | Yoonmin

Chapter 29: Everything Falls

| Jimin |

THE MARK WAS HURTING AGAIN.

Why? Why now, of all times, Jimin thought as he lay curled in the nest, digging his palm into his shoulder in an attempt to smother the mild stinging sensation. In only a matter of hours his heat would be here in full force. He was already dreading that enough, and now this?

A thin sheen of sweat coated his skin, evidence of the uncomfortable warmth building within.

Taehyung's hand felt cool against Jimin's forehead as he leaned over to brush away a damp strand of hair. "How bad is it?" he asked, leaning over the omega, brow creased in worry.

Dear, sweet Taehyung - every loyal, ever attentive - hadn't left his side ever since Jimin's first heat signs appeared yesterday. The beta appeared unusually tired and withdrawn, and yet he insisted on staying, determined to help his best friend through another heat. Jimin couldn't complain. There was no one he trusted more.

"It stings," Jimin grumbled, turning to bury his face in the fabrics of the nest.

"Let me see..." Taehyung carefully pulled Jimin's hand away from the mark, examining the pale white scar. "It looks the same as always, Jimin, like it could fade away entirely any day now. There's no redness or swelling that I can see, I... I don't understand."

The pain flared again. A sharp, stabbing sensation not unlike a bee sting. Jimin muffled a whine against the blankets, clutching the side of his neck again. Blindly he reached out for a shirt tucked into the far side of the nest. A light blue shirt that Yoongi had scented just for him. He craved the relief of the alpha's citrus scent right now. Wanted to breath it in, and empty his mind of everything that-

The garment was tugged out of Jimin's fingers before he could bring it to his nose, and he reacted with a shocked yelp of distress.

"Jimin, no," Taehyung warned. "You're too close to your heat. Hyun-Joo already told you, we need to clear all of Yoongi's belongings out of the nest today. Jungkook's too."

The scent of an alpha would only spur an unmated omega's need during heat, and might even prolong the ordeal beyond the typical three days. Jimin knew this, logically, but he hated it. Yoongi's scent was his greatest comfort. How was he supposed to endure three whole days of misery without it?

Hyun-Joo had promised Jimin that he would do everything possible to ease his discomfort, but it was a difficult thing to believe. Jimin had experienced four heats in his life, and all of them had been filled with nothing but pain, loneliness and fear.

He recalled his very first heat at the age of sixteen. A palace servant - a beta - had found Jimin huddled in a secluded corner of Alpha Ryu's library, whimpering in confusion as he clutched his aching stomach. She had quickly escorted the embarrassed omega back to the servant's wing, herding Jimin into his little room and instructing him to stay put. A short time later she had returned with a jug of water, a wooden pail, soap, and a small green bottle of tonic to lessen the pain. Then, without so much as a word of instruction or comfort, the beta had left.

Jimin's tutors had taught him how to speak, how to act, how to respect the alphas and serve the Moon Goddess. But no one had prepared him for this. He remembered the uncomfortable, empty ache building within him, and the bereft howls of his wolf as it insisted that an alpha could help. Terror had seized Jimin then, understanding that his omega was prepared to submit to any alpha in this state. In the last moments before the fog of heat fully claimed him, Jimin had dragged his wooden wardrobe in front of the door to the little room, piling his meager belongings against it as a barricade before retreating to the farthest corner, whimpering, clutching the bottle of tonic like a lifeline. In the days that followed, Jimin remained curled up on a straw mat in the corner, drifting in and out of consciousness as the heat ravaged his body. On the night of the third day Jimin woke to find himself entirely naked, skin tacky with slick and sweat, his limbs trembling and his stomach cramping from hunger. His wolf was oddly quiet, exhausted by the grief of a heat spent alone.