Stigma

Chapter 11 - Trust

"The Best way to find out if you can trust someone is to trust them" Ernest Hemingway

The first thing Taehyung's body registered when he woke up was pain. A pain so real and immediate that it sucked out all the breath from his lungs. Made him hunch over to clutch his shaking body, squeezing it so tight, as if it were the only thing that would keep him together, as if the second he let go, he would fall apart.

The second thing he registered was longing. A longing so deep within his soul that he felt hot tears begin to spill over his cheeks unconsciously. He wanted something so bad, needed it like he needed air to breath, but the pain clouded his mind, made it murky and too deep to grasp onto any substantial thought.

He felt himself falling, deeper and deeper into his mind and body, with nothing to anchor him. Thoughts spiralling too fast. He knew from the desperate breaths he drew in, the air too cold in his clammy lungs, that he was in heat. His body was heaving, pain coursing through him at an alarming rate.

He was right about one thing, it was worse than last time, so much worse, and he didn't know how he was going to survive this one.
The third thing he registered was a smell, a smell so familiar yet impossible to label in his current state. It wasn't the smell of his heat or his distress, yet it was all around him. On the surface he lay on, even drenched all over his very skin.

Summoning every morsel of energy, he had left within his body, he inhaled deeply trying to recognise who or what it was that had dropped its scent over every inch of his surroundings. Taehyung hummed in contentment at the fresh and dominant smell that flooded his senses. There was something deep within him that recognised it, coaxing him into trusting it, giving in to it.

Craving more, Taehyung let his nose guide him, desperate to find its owner, however as his body shifted, a new wave of heat rattled through him, and with that the pain. It tore through his body viciously and without mercy, lighting his body on fire. He couldn't hold back the whimper of distress that left his lips. Sound escaping him as he felt as if he was being scorched from the inside. His organs being lit aflame.

Then as suddenly as the wave had surfaced it reseeded, cooling to a dull ripple. Simmering out of his body like water flowing down a stream. Taehyung felt his being slump down exhausted and grateful for whatever had made the heat recede.

It was only when he had surfaced from his heat-induced pain that he noticed the touch of another, light and hesitant on his bare shoulder. He lifted his eyes to meet a pair of dark obsidian ones, lit with an emotion Taehyung couldn't decipher. The eyes belonged to the owner of the touch.

"Taehyung?" The owner's voice was questioning and doused with worry.

Then all of a sudden, the world around Taehyung clicked into place. The smell, the touch, the satisfied heat. It was all Jungkook. Jungkook. An alpha. A potential mate. Taehyung flushed immediately under the gaze. Suddenly hyped aware of the fact that they were both still practically naked. His rational mind snapping back to him, now that the pain of his heat had been temporarily sedated.

"Taehyung?" Jungkook's voice called out to him again, hand gripping his skin tighter now, in concern. However, the strength in the touch only served to make his pheromones spike. The omega couldn't help the moan that slipped from his trembling lips.

Jungkook's grip loosened then, eyes confused as he was taken aback by the sound from Taehyung. Taehyung groaned again, this time in agony, as the cooling touch almost all but vanished, a sick feeling rising within his gut at the retreating contact.

"Heat" Was all he managed to gasp out. An ability he was surprised by, considering he was almost never lucid during the early stages of pre-heat.

Suddenly he saw Jungkook's eyes widen in understanding and his nostrils flare as he took in Taehyungs scent. Their black colour lit with desire, as he suddenly removed his hand from Taehyung's shoulder completely, as if he had been burned by the contact, to clamp it over his mouth and nose, stopping himself from taking in any more of Taehyung's scent than necessary.