Brothers

42

Jongho tapped on the door repeatedly while Mingi drove them down the winding road.

His nerves were officially shot, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep control of himself.

He had let his pack down...

Yunho he knew could handle himself. He was a formidable beta, that was part of what drew Jongho to him.

But Wooyoung... Wooyoung was too precious and vulnerable right now.

The thought of anything happening to his mate and unborn pup sent waves of emotions rolling through Jongho that honestly made him sick. He went from being so worried about them that he wanted to cry, to being so upset that he wanted to tear the van carrying them to their destination to shreds.

"Jongho." Mingi growled through gritted teeth. It wasn't the first time he had showed his annoyance at his brother's tapping.

The younger clenched his fist for a moment and took a deep breath.

They had only been driving for a couple of hours, but it felt like they had made no progress.

The trees had diminished into rolling fields of yellow and gold, with the faint outline of blue mountains far in the distance.

It was something Jongho had ever seen before, and it set him even more on edge.

There was no place to hide. No cover or protection...

The tapping continued.

"Jongho."

"What?!" He snapped, jerking his head to glare at Mingi.

His brother squeezed the steering wheel and exhaled sharply. "I know you are struggling right now, but I need you to try a little harder to keep yourself under control. Remember the calming training we've been working on."

Jongho growled, but closed his eyes. He tried taking a few deep, long breaths. He could feel himself getting calmer with each one.

Until the van started to jolt and make a clicking sound.

"Fuck." Mingi groaned, pulling over to the side of the road before stepping out to look at the engine.

A hand squeezed Jongho's shoulder and San's vanilla scent filled the van. "Jongho. Deep breath." The beta said.

But Jongho was too far gone. He growled and kick the door open. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Jongho get back in the car." Mingi said, shooting him a warning look. "I'm handling this."

"Handling what? This piece of shit car?! Can we even call this thing a car?! It hardly even runs!"

Mingi growled again. "It's better than nothing. It was nice enough of Mom to loan this to us. Otherwise we would be running the entire way there. Is that what you want?"

"Guys, can we please stop?" San said, sticking his head out the window.

"It would probably be faster than this junker!" The younger clenched his fists.

"I am doing the best I can!" Mingi cracked his neck and also flexed his hands. A snarl curled his upper lip.

Jongho felt his wolf bursting from within him, dying to lash out at something.

"Who's hungry? Seonghwa made us food." San tried again, a little bit of a whine in his voice.

"Well you're not doing enough! What if it was Seonghwa who was taken! You'd be doing a hell of a lot more than this!"

"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME I'M NOT DOING ENOUGH OR THAT I HAVEN'T LOST AS MUCH AS YOU!" Mingi finally rounded on Jongho, his eyes blood red.

"STOP IT!" San forced his way out of the car and stood between the two alpha. "Your mothers would be ashamed of you right now!"

Both alphas hesitated for a moment, but Jongho felt his anger fizzle out a little when San faced him and gave him a stern look. He fell to his hands and knees, panting heavily.

San knelt down in front of him and cupped his cheek gently while looking over his shoulder. "Mingi fix the car." He said gently.

Then he helped Jongho up and pulled him into the van. The middle of the van was open, the seat having been removed to allow people to lay down if needed, which allowed San to sit against the closed door on the other side and pull Jongho's head to his chest.

The younger whimpered and closed his eyes as he his emotions jumped to the other side of the tracks.

"I understand now why you picked Wooyoung." San said gently. He lifted a hand up and ran it through Jongho's hair. "He's your anchor. He's always been able to calm you down more than either Yunho or I could."

Jongho closed his eyes and did the best he could to find control again. His wolf wanted to rip everything apart until he found Yunho and Wooyoung.

"Jongho, my love, I need you to focus on me. We are going to find them, okay? I promise, we are going to find them. But you need to calm down." San whispered. His vanilla scent got stronger, filling the van.

The alpha he held inhaled deeply and tilted his head up to nuzzle against the mark on San's neck.

"That's it." San's voice quivered a little and he held Jongho tighter. "That's my alpha." He paused for a moment, then whispered, "I miss them too."

"I'm sorry." Jongho whispered. "Just when I thought I was getting better at controlling my wolf..."

San was about to speak, but Mingi appeared at the door and sat on the edge of the car. "You're allowed to slip up. It's a tense time for all of us. But we need to be careful and work together. I'm sorry I lost my temper with you. I need to set a better example."

Jongho scoffed and turned his head to look at the other alpha. "Don't pull that 'I'm older so I'm wiser' bullshit on me." The corner of his mouth curled in a smile.

"Better?" San continued to rub his head.

"Did you fix the car?"

Mingi nodded. "She's old, but she'll get us there. One of the knobs just needed to be tightened. Let's drive a little longer and try to find a place to rest for the night."

"Sounds good to me, because I'm starving!" San perked up.

Jongho started to laugh. "You've had this whole back area to yourself! And you said that Seonghwa packed food. So how are you the one who's hungry?"

San pursed his lips and started to turn bright red, but didn't speak anymore.

Mingi chuckled and looked at Jongho.

The brothers both exhaled at the same time, then returned to their seats at the front of the car.

They still had a couple of days to go before they reached the zoo in questions, and that was even if they were to attempt to drive through the night.

Jongho worked to push his fears aside and focus on the task at hand. Every second of this trip was going to test his limits, he knew that.

But as he felt San snake a hand between his seat and the car to hold his hand, Jongho also knew he needed to do the best he could to remain in control.

He would do everything he could to rescue Hongjoong and Yunho. The pack needed their two other betas.

And he would kill anyone who attempted to get in the way of his mate and unborn pup.

••••••••

Written by flamewhipper