Safe With You | Yoonmin

Chapter 32: The Attack - Part II

| Jimin |

TAEHYUNG’S HARD TUG SENT JIMIN crashing to the ground with a surprised yelp, a sound that was entirely drowned out by his hammering pulse and the deafening roar of alpha fury which shook the air. It shook Jimin down to his very bones, loud and disorienting. But instinctively he knew that the terrifying sound had come from Yoongi. His alpha.

Deep down Jimin could feel his blood singing in reply to Yoongi’s roar, his wolf howling in revelry at the realization that his pack alpha was fighting for him. His inner wolf was brimming with jubilance unlike anything Jimin had ever felt before -- so strange and powerful. For a second, the combination of his wolf’s delighted howls  and the constant lungfuls of Yoongi's warm citrus scent was enough to make Jimin forget the peril they were in.

But then, like a splash of cold water, a nearby scream wrenched him back into the horrors of the present.

He was huddled down on the side of the street, body still weak and trembling in the aftermath of his heat. His fingers twisted into the blue shirt which Taehyung had tied to cover his nose as mouth. The beta crouched over him, prepared to use his body as a shield if need be.

Jimin dared to peek through Taehyung’s limbs, catching a glimpse of the enormous gray wolf just as it leapt at one of the rogues. A small knife glinted in the man's hand, and he plunged it into Yoongi's side just as the wolf fell upon him. But the wound did nothing to slow the alpha, did nothing to stop his fangs from tearing into the rogue’s neck in a spray of blood. Suddenly one of the other raiders ran toward the red-stained wolf, spear raised.

“Yoongi!” Jimin didn’t even realize he had tried to lunge toward the alpha until he felt Taehyung pulling him back by the collar, then wrapping both arms tight around the omega’s middle.

The gray wolf danced to the side of the rogue’s spear just in time. Yoongi crouched low, a vicious snarl rumbling deep in his throat, sharp fangs bared as the two remaining rogues tried to flank him from opposite sides. But then several of the villagers were running forward, emboldened by Yoongi’s bravery – one wielding a sword, another holding a shovel, and yet another shifting into their own beta wolf form, their unfastened robe slipping off them as they leapt forward to join the fray.

A fearful keening sound escaped Jimin as he lost sight of Yoongi in the tangle of weapons and teeth and fur, but then Taehyung was urging Jimin to his feet, slinging the omega’s left arm across his neck and dragging him along. “Come on! We cannot linger here. Yoongi is fighting so that we can run!” Several women and children followed after the pair as they slipped past the battle and continued up the street and toward the village’s center.

Jimin concentrated hard on running, on keeping pace with his friend as they led the small group through the smokey streets and toward the Great Hall. He tugged the blue shirt closer to his face, drawing in Yoongi’s pheromones, praying the alpha was safe.

“I need you to be brave for me, omega,” the alpha had said. And now Jimin repeated those instructions to himself, a desperate mantra as he stumbled through the ash and smoke.

Be brave. Be brave. Be brave!

They ran until they burst out of the narrow street and into the field at the center of the village, grass whipping about their ankles. Ahead of them, in the very heart of the village, the magnificent Great Hall loomed against the night sky.

In the peripheral of his good eye, Jimin caught sight of other stragglers who were running toward the large building for refuge – the young and old streamed in from all directions, some still in their night clothes.