Stigma

Chapter 3 - Change

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not of fighting the old, but on building the new"  Socrates.

Tae had been at the Kim apartment for a few weeks now, and to say that he was settling in would be an understatement. He found himself feeling more and more at peace within the apartment, even having maintained and added to his nest within his room, his smell finally keeping put despite the more dominant smell of mates surrounding his more muted tones.

Along with many things that had changed, Tae's relationship with Namjoon had evolved from sceptical, to treating Namjoon like the leader of his pack, seeking the Alpha out whenever he was needy and wanted attention. The said Alpha found himself highly fond of Tae's behaviour deciding that slowly but surely, Tae was becoming more cheerful and carefree day by day. Namjoon smiled thinking of the shy yet sometimes cocky youngster. When the 21-year-old warmed up to you, he was omega through and through.

It was a lazy Saturday morning, the rain pattering on the windows creating a warm and cosy bubble, that Namjoon mentioned something that caught the young omega's attention.

"Tae, what would you say to having a few people over for lunch tomorrow afternoon?" Namjoon asked walking closer to the omega to smell his reaction off him. Namjoon was getting used to Tae, but he still needed his wolf senses to truly gauge his feelings. He noticed the boy had a nasty habit of saying the invert of what he was feeling. Many omegas from repressive homes did. Namjoon saddened at the thought.

"yeah of course. Don't mind at all" he brightened at the idea of meeting others, as much as he was coming to love Jin and Namjoon, they were disgustingly in love, making Tae feel the need to vomit constantly. Namjoon sniffed Tae out satisfied that his smell came back relaxed and even a little excited. So far so good the alpha thought, taking in a large breath to inform Tae of the second piece of information he had to deliver to the young boy.

"I should let you know, two of the people coming will be alphas" Namjoon finished trying to gauge the omega's reaction.

Not to the alpha's surprise, Tae stiffened for a second. He had grown fond of Namjoon, and dare he even say even trusted the elder, but other alphas coming into the home? Near a room where he had made his nest? He felt vulnerable at the very thought. Namjoon seemed to notice his hesitancy, quickly scrunching his face up at the smell of distressed omega. His wolf howled in upheaval. He was quick to reassure the youngster.

"They are honestly nothing to worry about TaeTae. They are both personal friends of mine. Hobi has mated anyway, to a Beta, and Kook is younger than you so you shouldn't even think of him as threatening." Namjoon held a breath at what he had told Tae. If was true that neither of his close friends would ever even think of treating Tae like a second-hand citizen, but Kookie was newly presented, and while the youngster was shaping up to be one of the calmest alphas he knew, newly presented wolves could always be a little unpredictable. However, Namjoon was confident, with Tae emitting pheromones that literally screamed 'stay the hell away from me' to any alpha in a 5k radius, Jungkook would be wise and do exactly that.

Tae felt conflicted, on the one hand, he wanted to shy away from these alpha guests Namjoon had mentioned. Crawl away to Yoongi's house as he would do sometimes when he felt particularly stressed or upset. One of the best things about moving to Seoul was that Taehyung had his best friend back. However, no matter how tempting running to Yoongi for cover was, Tae knew deep down that he had to be open to this. To meeting other alphas, he had to know if Namjoon was telling him the truth. If there were really other alphas just like him within the world.

Sighing in defeat and pushing himself out of his comfort zone Tae nodded tentatively, making the alpha smile wide and dimpled. Tae's omega let out a happy bark, proud to have drawn the smile out of the elder who always seemed so serious, especially for his age. Tae rolled his eyes. It was an alpha thing, he supposed.