Arrows, Swords and a Little Bit of Magic ( Rated M )

The first ally

His arm and side throbbed where they were encased by the stranger's strong grip as he was being pulled away, even further into the gap between the two houses and onto the empty street on the other side.

Seokjin tried his best to free himself of the bruising grip but it was futile, his almost non-existent physical strength dwindling even further due to the lack of air, both his nose and mouth obstructed by the unknown person's hand.

By now, Namjoon was completely out of sight and out of range for the other to be able to smell him, even if the prince's scent had gotten stronger, fuelled by distress. He was being half-walked, half-dragged backwards and could distantly make out the presence of another person behind him, apart from the one currently restraining him.

Seokjin's mind whirred with thoughts, briefly losing all logic and panicking before he recovered slightly as his brain registered new pieces of information.

He wasn't blindfolded and his sight was not obscured in anyway way and this made him feel just a little bit better as he would be able to know the way back, in case he managed to escape.

The arms around him clearly belonged to a female. The person was certainly physically strong and probably trained, but the shape and size and the bone-structure of the hands clearly indicated that it was a woman.

He could not tell anything about the other person behind him but Seokjin came to a quick realization that they were definitely not faeries and in fact, were shifters, judging from the faint scents that he could smell beneath his own amplified one.

The woman had a sweet fragrance to her scent, flowery but not too sweet and saccharine to belong to an omega – so a beta then.

The other scent was musky but not very strong, belying the dynamic of an alpha but probably a young boy who had only just recently presented - the pheromones were definitely not overpowering enough to belong to an adult alpha.

In his mind, Seokjin went over possible scenarios that might be the cause of his current predicament. Maybe the shifters were just thieves, trying to rob him of his money. Maybe they belonged to one of those wild packs who were rumored to be involved in omegan slave trade. And maybe, but hopefully not, they were allies of the Royals, sent in search of the prince. The first two options were safer, Seokjin concluded – at least he would have a future, no matter how bleak. The last option, however, involved an almost certain death.

Seokjin heard the creak of a door behind him and then he was pulled into a house. The inside was dark, despite it being daytime – the widows barred with wooden planks and cloth draping over them to block out the outside and the sun.

He could feel the presence of other people inside the room too, shuffling and murmuring in tones too low for him to make out properly over the sound of his heart which thumped and thudded loudly inside his chest as he watched the door being closed and locked, cutting off the only visible escape route.

For a few minutes his mind went into overdrive – thoughts and ideas and plans swirling like a tornado and churning his brain to mush. Everything went quiet then, the murmurs around him, the sound of his heart beat and the metaphorical, non-existent ticking of his brain as all the thoughts in his head flew out, leaving only one.

Was today going to be the day he died?

***

Seokjin noticed two things as his panic subsided and his senses returned. One was that the room was pin drop quiet and two - the arms restraining him were no longer present.

The prince swallowed dry, slowly turning around while he simultaneously took a few small steps back towards the locked door. The sight that greeted him then, however, was not one he was expecting.