Chapter Text
It’s the prickling chill of wind piercing Namjoon’s fur that tells him definitively on a sunny day at the end of October: winter is coming.
“Early this year,” Yoongi says when his body has finished the muscle-twisting, bone-rending transformation from wolf back to human. “Winter. I can feel it.” Like he’s just read Namjoon’s mind, but then when you’ve known someone as long as they’ve known each other, it’s hard not to just sort of operate on that same wavelength all the time. Yoongi shivers, naked beneath the trees, and runs a hand through his hair, which catches the sunlight and glints blue through the black. He sighs as Namjoon bumps his nose into Yoongi’s thigh. “Stop that. Come on, you’ve had your morning run, and you’ve even dragged me along.” He lifts his trousers off the log he’d left them on when they’d run out of camp earlier and steps into them as Namjoon yips and races one last lap around the clearing. “We’ve got shit to do.”
Namjoon darts up a small outcropping of rock and leaps off of it, eyes closing happily as the wind catches in his fur, all autumn pine and harvest nostalgia. Namjoon has always loved this time of year, even if it’s a period of hard work in the pack. They have to winterize the settlement, check that they have enough firewood and cut more if they don’t, make sure the recently installed indoor plumbing is insulated well enough against the chill. Their food stores should be entirely prepped already, each household in possession of its own rations even though a supplemental stash is kept in the kitchen of the community hall: preserved fruits and vegetables, frozen meat, flour for bread making, salt, sugar. Just in case someone runs low on something and ends up needing more. If there’s one progressive thing that can be said about Namjoon’s father’s command, it’s that all wolves are kept well-fed regardless of status or age or work ability.
Yoongi sighs again. “Joon-ah, I swear to god, I will tell your mate-to-be if you don’t stop messing around. Your father will have your hide, and mine.”
Namjoon sobers and nearly falls over himself like a pup when he turns back into a human at Yoongi’s feet, not bothering to stand up. “Don’t tell Taehyung-ah. Don’t tell my father, either.”
Yoongi snorts. “You know I’m not really gonna. I’m very trustworthy.”
“Sure, except that you tell Hobi everything, and he can’t keep his mouth shut worth a damn.”
“Hobi just gets excited and runs his mouth by accident.” Yoongi rolls his eyes. “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know.” Namjoon drags his trousers up his legs and slips into his sweater. “I’ve heard way too much from him about your secret romantic side over the years.”
Yoongi looks vaguely horrified, and Namjoon hides a smirk. “Come on, Yoongs. Like you said. We gotta hurry.”
“I— Yoongs —did Hobi tell you he calls me— I will fucking END him, fucking— ”
Namjoon laughs and finishes tying his shoes as Yoongi continues his fond rant. They head back towards the center of camp in easy harmony, Yoongi eventually letting go of his mostly fake rage to muse about whether Hoseok would rather Yoongi bring him meat pies or fruit pies for breakfast in bed on their anniversary next week. “You’ll have to think about that kind of thing soon too,” Yoongi says when Namjoon snorts. “Taehyung-ah deserves to be taken care of. He’s a good wolf.”
“He is,” Namjoon agrees, half wondering why Yoongi is needling at this. It’s not like it’s some new thing, the betrothal to one of the pack’s most beautiful omegas. It doesn’t even really matter that Taehyung is beautiful—the arrangement of the pack alpha’s first alpha child to the Kims’ first omega child was decided before either Namjoon or Taehyung’s birth. Namjoon’s father was nearly killed on a hunt, and Taehyung’s mother saved him. In return, she asked for her child to mate with the future heir to the position of pack alpha.
It wasn’t a strange request; although most wolves in the Kim Pack don’t have arranged matings anymore, pack leadership is still determined via blood lineage and strategic political partnership. The pack alpha is more a figurehead than an absolute ruler, but that wolf does wield some power, and of course there’s the matter of decorum. Tradition states that the heir must marry a virgin omega who will bear pups to lead the pack in the future. Taehyung’s mother had simply wanted her child to be the one who would bear those pups.
It’s not the worst thing in the world. Namjoon was never under the delusion that he would be able to mate for love. And Namjoon and Taehyung have known each other since they were baby- babies. Namjoon watched Taehyung grow up, and grew up alongside him—of course, it wasn’t certain that they would mate until they both presented, but Namjoon remembers the years before that fondly. He remembers a time when they were just young, energetic bodies used for exploring dead trees and dried up creek beds, bodies that were tools you used to do things and didn’t have all the meanings you become aware of when you grow up. Namjoon remembers the time before they even chose their genders. Wolf pups aren’t designated as boys or girls, and whether they use either or both of those labels or another label entirely is up to them, whenever they choose— if they do ever choose. It’s not part of their society the way it is with humans, but Namjoon remembers Taehyung saying one day, I love being a boy, I think I wanna stay a boy. And have short hair, but sometimes wear dresses? They’re so swooshy and nice!
What matters is presentation. That’s when the elders check your scent and your hormones, examine your body for a womb and a heat slit and the blood that comes along with that, presuming you were born with a body that doesn’t look like it has a womb. Of course, those bodies can present as alphas, if they don’t bleed and if the mating cycle is a rut cycle with symptoms that only occur twice a year instead of three times, like with omegas.
Taehyung’s womb hadn’t been obvious at the time of his birth. He would’ve been designated male if he’d been born a human, and his presentation had come with the discovery of his womb and the opening of his heat slit, apparently a painful experience, from what Namjoon has heard. But Taehyung had presented and been designated omega, and Namjoon alpha, and now, nearly thirty years after Taehyung’s mother had saved Namjoon’s father, Namjoon and Taehyung are expected to mate as soon as Pack Alpha Kim decides it’s finally time.
“You’re late,” Jeongguk says with a grin as Namjoon and Yoongi hurry up to the community hall in the center of camp. There’s already a crowd gathered inside, everyone ready for the morning assignment of duties.
“Yeah, yeah, shut your yap,” Yoongi snaps. Jeongguk grins and it’s toothy and bright.
“Down, pup,” Jeongguk says.
Yoongi growls a bit lazily, trying hard and failing as usual to be strict with the utterly adorable Jeon Jeongguk. “That any way to talk to your hyung?”
“I’ve heard you say ‘calm down, woman’ to Jihyo-noona before,” Jeongguk says, shrugging all nonchalant, grin shit-eating.
“Yeah, and I got smacked upside the head for it because it’s a shitty thing to say and I was an asshole pup who learned his lesson—”
“Ain’t that the truth,” a voice says from behind Namjoon, and then Hoseok is leaping into the midst of their little group with a sunshine grin and autumn-auburn hair, delighted as he throws his arms around Yoongi and smacks a kiss to his cheek. “The asshole part, not the learning his lesson part. Yoongi-hyung never learns. Morning, babe.”
“You said morning to me before I left this morning,” Yoongi says, shoving his nose into Hoseok’s neck, scenting him thoroughly. Hoseok hums happily and says something too quiet for Namjoon to hear, and soon enough the two omegas are lost in their display of domestic bliss as Jeongguk and Namjoon look on, vaguely amused.
Namjoon turns to Jeongguk and takes in his bedhead, the way he’s blinking dry, red eyes open and shut like he’d been up late the night before. There’s a small dark bruise half hidden by the collar of his shirt, which Namjoon supposes isn’t really that scandalous considering Jeongguk is a grown wolf who’s had his share of hookups with various pack members over the years, but still. Namjoon purses his lips and inhales deeply, relieved to find that Jeongguk doesn’t smell like anything—just his usual alpha pheromones and strange lack of any real identifiable scent.
“What,” Jeongguk asks.
“Nothing,” Namjoon says, touching his own neck pointedly. “Just, you might wanna.”
“Oh.” Jeongguk blushes and adjusts his collar, hiding the mark. “Good?”
Namjoon nods. “Yeah.”
“Hey, Joon-ah. Kookie.” Seokjin saunters up with all his usual grace, chin held high. Jackson and Jihyo are flanking him, and all of them look particularly formidable even surrounded by a whole pack of wolves.
“Morning, Heir Apparent-nim,” Jackson says with a smirk. “Jeongguk-ah.”
“Jackson-hyung. Jihyo-noona,” Jeongguk greets, bowing respectfully to each of them. “Morning, Jin-hyung.”
Seokjin’s smile turns from wicked to genuinely affectionate in the course of a second. “I swear you get taller every time I see you, my darling dongsaeng!”
“You saw me literally yesterday.”
“And you’ve grown so much since, dear pup!”
“Aish, I’m 24, I’m not some growing teenager—”
“Come here, let hyung fix your hair—”
“Yuck! Hyung. Stop— ”
“No Taehyung today?” Jackson says, looking around and then settling his gaze on Namjoon.
Namjoon shrugs. “I guess not.”
“Shouldn’t you know?” Jackson says, all tease. “Figure he’s not around because he’s sleeping in the future royal cabin , you get my drift.”
Namjoon rolls his eyes. “Jackson, you know as well as I do that we’re not allowed to spend time together unsupervised. Protect our virtue and all that shit.”
Jackson shrugs. “Yeah, but I also know that you don’t give a fuck about pack rules or virginity or whatever the fuck else the elders are on about all the time. Besides, Taehyung wasn’t in his cabin last night. Figured he must’ve been in yours.”
Namjoon’s blood goes icy for a second, and he hopes the sudden tension in his shoulders isn’t obvious. “Really? He must’ve gone to his parents’ or something, or maybe you just missed him? Did you go over there needing something, is he okay?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jackson says, patting Namjoon’s arm. “I just noticed that all his lights were off when I was walking home yesterday. But he probably went to bed early.”
Namjoon nods. “Yeah, maybe that. But since he’s not here now, I feel like we should go check on him, you know?”
“Later, man. He’ll probably show up all covered in paint like usual, say he got distracted teaching the pups about Impressionism,” Jackson says, smiling.
“You know speaking of Taehyung, now that I’m thinking about it, I haven’t seen him since like Tuesday,” Hoseok says, frowning.
Yoongi nods. “Me neither. He hasn’t come to my place for medicine or anything, but I guess if he’s really sick or something, maybe he wouldn’t be able to…”
“He’s not in heat, right?” Seokjin asks. “I know he’s irregular, but he just had one a couple months back, didn’t he?”
“Very cool to just discuss an omega’s cycle without him present,” Hoseok says coolly.
“I’m normalizing it,” Seokjin says.
“You’re not an omega,” Hoseok says. “I don’t know if you’re the one who’s supposed to decide the appropriateness of talking about the bodily functions of omegas when you’re not one.”
“Are you saying that there’s a chance that it’s okay, though?” Seokjin asks, sounding actually quite serious.
Hoseok sighs. “Well. Okay. There is a non-zero chance that maybe you’re doing good work normalizing heat cycle discussion. But I’m not entirely sure. I guess it depends how you talk about it.”
Yoongi snorts. “Look, wolves discuss ruts like they’re nothing shameful or even that interesting. I think heats are the same or at least should be, and Seokjin was saying it without any rude implications, so I vote that it is actually fine and normalizing.”
“Thank you, Yoongi-yah,” Seokjin says with a nod.
“How about you, Kook? Have you seen Taehyung recently?” Jackson says, tuning back into the conversation. “I know you guys aren’t really close or anything, but have you run into him?”
Jeongguk looks a little surprised to have been asked. “Uh, no? I only ever talk to him if we’re on a hunt together, really.”
“Yeah, yeah, childhood rivalries die hard, huh, Kookie?” Hoseok teases gleefully. “Never gonna get over the fact that Taehyung took down that elk all by himself when you couldn’t even manage a buck.”
“I was thirteen and it was literally more than ten years ago!” Jeongguk protests. “I am very over it. Taehyung and I just don’t have anything in common.”
“Uh-huh, definitely,” Hoseok teases. “It’s not that you’re still giving him some lowkey silent treatment due to wounded pride—”
“Look, Jeongguk and Taehyung are never gonna be friends, and it’s fine, because we’re adults, and adults don’t all have to be best friends,” Yoongi says, rolling his eyes. “As long as they’re not ripping each other’s throats out on hunts, it’s not a big deal.”
“The rest of us are best friends, though,” Hoseok whines, “it’s just those two who don’t like each other—”
“We don’t not like each other; we’re just never going to, like, hang out alone?”
Hoseok wrinkles his nose, pausing as he thinks about it. “Okay, you’re right. That would be weird.”
Jeongguk snorts. “Okay, so anyways—”
“Hey, shh,” Jihyo says as Mina and Momo join the line they’ve all made across the side of the room. “It’s starting.”
Thank the gods. Namjoon’s pulse calms down as that train wreck of a conversation is cut off by the arrival of Alpha Kim and his entourage of Elders. A hush falls over the crowd, everyone turning towards their leader.
“Greetings everyone, good morning,” Alpha Kim says, voice booming merrily. He’s a good-looking alpha, regal and tall with thick salt-and-pepper hair, but his real power is in his charisma. Maybe Namjoon is a little bit immune because he shares DNA with the man, but he can see the way everyone wants to listen to him, knows that his father’s power to command attention is nothing to scoff at. “I hope you all slept well after our busy day yesterday. I want to start by thanking all of you for your hard work over the past weeks as we prepare for a long winter. I think you all must have felt it this morning: snow is just around the corner.”
A low murmur of agreement passes through the room, and Alpha Kim nods gravely. “Today the duties will remain as they have been, unless anyone requires a change due to injury or illness. Should anyone wish to trade jobs, please decide that amongst yourselves. I know you are all capable of negotiating.”
Another hum of understanding.
“Next. Scouts, anything new to report?”
Soobin and Amber step forward. “Another stretch of our grounds were marked by a Park sometime yesterday,” Amber says. “They’re not venturing beyond the disputed areas, but they’re still trying to claim those sections of forest despite the agreement. They may be hunting there, but we aren’t sure. We didn’t detect any scent of blood or evidence of fallen prey.”
Alpha Kim’s eyes narrow. “Why did it take until today for that to be discovered and reported?”
Momo sighs loud enough that Namjoon can hear it even though she’s standing a few feet away from him. She steps forward. “Alpha Kim, I was on duty with Mina-ssi yesterday and we covered the disputed border, but we did not venture into it, as that would have violated the agreement. If the Parks venture into it, our wolves are only able to detect them if they come all the way to our borders. But we can’t scout land that we can’t step into.”
Amber nods. “We only discovered it early this morning because we could smell the Park wolves right at our border.”
Alpha Kim nods. “Okay. Fair enough. Permission granted to enter disputed territory for the purpose of surveillance.”
Namjoon growls and steps forward. “They’ll know if we step foot in that territory, and then we don’t have a leg to stand on if they claim we’re violating the agreement.”
Alpha Kim turns to Namjoon and nods diplomatically. “I understand your instinct to preserve the purity of the Kim Pack, son, but in this case, the Parks have violated the treaty first. We have a right to investigate their wrongdoings.”
“But we can’t exactly timestamp their violations, or ours,” Namjoon protests. “They can just claim we went in first. This isn’t going to be productive for anyone.”
Alpha Kim narrows his eyes. Wolves are allowed and even invited to speak their opinions and ideas freely during pack meetings, and for the most part, they do. But to single-handedly oppose the Pack Alpha himself—that takes a certain kind of bravery that most wolves lack.
“All right,” Alpha Kim finally says. “I’ll go myself. If I witness any violations, I will take the matter to Alpha Park directly.” He nods at the other Elders. “Kim-ssi and Choi-ssi will accompany me. We will be out by the southern border for the rest of the day,” Alpha Kim announces, nodding at his scouts. “The other Elders will remain here. Five members of the guard shall accompany us as well. Kwon-ssi, as head of the guard, I trust you to select the wolves who will be best suited to this task.” Alpha Kim takes a moment, looking around the fifty-or-so pack members gathered in the hall. “Does anyone have any other issues to raise?” No one says anything. “Good. Should anything urgent arise, my son will be in charge.”
Namjoon nods. The rest of the pack nods back at him, agreeable.
“Dismissed,” Alpha Kim announces. “Before I go, son, a word.”
The rest of the pack begins to disperse, the noise ramping up again as everyone starts to speak at once, arranging their daily duties and worrying over supplies and joking happily. Yoongi shoots Namjoon a look as he follows Hoseok and Seokjin and Jeongguk out of the hall, but Namjoon only shrugs and heads towards his father.
Most of the wolves have already exited the hall by the time Namjoon gets up to the front. His father stands large and imposing, eyes dark and lined with the wrinkles of age and experience. Alpha Kim gazes at Namjoon and it’s forceful, proud. “I’ve come to a decision and I am ready to share it with you.”
“Good morning to you too, Appa,” Namjoon frowns.
Alpha Kim does not crack a smile. “Namjoon, this is serious. I expect you to treat this matter with the utmost respect, dedication, and delicacy.”
Namjoon blinks. “I—okay? What, is something wrong? Is there something you’re not telling me about the situation with the Parks?”
“Nothing of the sort,” Alpha Kim says with a curt shake of the head. “It is, rather, about your betrothal to Kim Taehyung.”
Namjoon’s heart skips a beat, and he feels himself heat up, instantly guilty with that sort of terror you get when you know you’ve been caught doing something you shouldn’t. “Father, it’s not—”
“When we have settled this dispute with the Parks once and for all, I will be handing the pack over to you.”
Namjoon freezes, mouth open and spine tense. “What?”
Alpha Kim nods resolutely. “I wish to enjoy the remaining years of my life in peace. I no longer wish to bear the burden of making decisions for all of us, even with the council’s help. You are 27 years of age, Namjoon. You are ready to lead. And your mate has now been through seven full heats, if I am not mistaken. He is fully of age—older than the usual mating age in these sorts of arranged bonds, as it were. There is no reason to continue delaying the proceedings.”
Namjoon blinks. “I—I mean—”
“Son,” Alpha Kim says, “I don’t have time to discuss all of this now. But you know it means you will be married sooner rather than later. We will resolve the land disputes, and you and Taehyung will marry. This is how things will be.”
“Father—”
“I must be off. We can discuss the specifics later,” Alpha Kim says.
He turns his back and strides out the back door in a cloud of alpha pine and spice.
“Come chop firewood with me,” Namjoon says, grinning as casually as he can as he lopes up to Jeongguk. It had taken a few minutes of deep breathing before he felt ready to leave the community hall, and he already feels drained even though the day has barely started.
Jeongguk frowns. “Are you okay—”
“Firewood. Come on. Uh, Seokjin-hyung, will you and Hobi be okay leading the hunt without us?”
Seokjin looks over from his spot a few feet away, where he and Hoseok are stretching with several omegas and a few alphas, warming up for what will likely be the last hunt of the fall, assuming the snow starts within the next couple days. Seokjin nods. “Of course. You’re a useless hunter, as we all know. Jeongguk isn’t, but I think we’ll be okay without him for one day.”
“Hey, is that any way to talk to your future pack alpha?” Namjoon asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes,” Seokjin says. “That is exactly how everyone should talk to a good pack alpha. As an equal.”
Namjoon narrows his eyes into a glare for a few long seconds, but then he breaks into a grin. “Damn straight.”
“You know, actually, it’s Taehyung we’re missing,” Hoseok teases out of nowhere. “He’s the best hunter in the pack. And better company than either of you scrubs.”
“Speaking of which, Joon-ah, aren’t you going to go check on your betrothed? Make sure he’s okay?” Seokjin bats his eyelashes suggestively, and Namjoon rolls his eyes.
“I’ll check on him later in the afternoon. Jeongguk. Come on.”
The walk over to the wood storage shed is quiet, a little tense. The building is a ways off from the rest of the camp, half-dug into the earth beneath an outcropping of rock, where it’s harder for the elements to rot the wood or render it too soggy to burn. The shed is well-sealed against humidity and rain and snow, and when Namjoon and Jeongguk round the side that isn’t dug into the stoneface, the wilderness opens up before them, nothing but trees for miles. Namjoon looks around and inhales deeply—no one is around. He crosses his arms and turns towards Jeongguk. “So. Taehyung. Haven’t seen him in a couple days. He wasn’t in his cabin last night, Jackson thinks.”
Jeongguk looks up from the log he’s standing on the chopping block. “Yeah. I heard everyone talking about it. He probably went to bed early.”
Namjoon sighs. “Look, let’s just be real here. I am actually worried about him, you know.”
Jeongguk looks around like Namjoon had just a minute earlier, inhales just in case anyone is eavesdropping. He must deem it safe, because he sighs. “I…he’s fine.”
“Go on.”
“Okay, look, just—don’t get mad?”
“So he was with you. Overnight.”
Jeongguk’s expression twists, lips pursing as his eyes take on a worried slant. “He’s been really out of it lately, falling asleep everywhere, feeling sick for no reason. We think it’s probably something he’s been eating, or maybe his pre-heat is starting really early and things aren’t agreeing with him…it’s just been rough, but being close to me and…” Jeongguk blushes. “Like. Scenting, and stuff, even though I don’t really smell that strongly of anything…I guess it helps, for some reason. So he’s been staying with me for a couple days.”
Namjoon closes his eyes. “Jeongguk, you know how fucking risky that is.”
“ Yes, but—but he’s sick, and—and even this morning, like he stayed over at my house last night and this morning I woke up and he was puking again, and I didn’t want to leave him, but—getting ready for winter and everything, the pack needs me…he tried to come out and help too, actually, but I guess he really did feel shitty, because he actually gave in and stayed in bed.”
“So he’s still there, then. In your cabin.”
Jeongguk says nothing.
Namjoon lifts the ax over his head and swings it down, the blade easily splitting the log sitting vertically on the chopping block. “Well. Risky as that is, it’s still good that he’s not out here if he’s not feeling well. I’m sick of everyone acting like they all need to be working when they’re not feeling well, whether it’s physical or mental. We have the manpower and the resources to support everyone in our pack, and that means dismantling this concept that work is what makes your life worthwhile.”
Jeongguk huffs and throws Namjoon a smirk, and then he splits another log. “Been reading up on politics and economics again?”
“I may have bought a few last week when Hobi and I were in the city,” Namjoon admits. “The packs are better at communal support than humans, I think, but we could still be better.”
Jeongguk nods. “Tae just doesn’t like feeling bad. I think it’s less that he wants to work and more that he just really doesn’t want to be sick. If he pretends he’s not, then it won’t be true.”
Namjoon laughs, and all the nerves and tension fall out of the air between them, forgotten on the cold forest floor. “That sounds like Tae,” he says, and for once it feels like Namjoon could just be one friend teasing another about allowing—eagerly inviting, even—his headstrong, resilient lover to camp out in his bed for a few days despite potentially contagious illness.
Jeongguk must pick up on the relaxed air, because he nods. “I picked the wildest boy in the pack, I swear,” he gripes fondly, grinning and standing a little straighter, chest puffing up proudly.
“Hey, that’s your hyung you’re talking about,” Namjoon teases.
Jeongguk goes inexplicably pink-cheeked. “I know,” he murmurs, alpha bravado dropping off him as soon as it had arisen, replaced with that Jeon Jeongguk shy bunny boy that Namjoon knows and loves. “He reminds me, um, a lot.”
“Ew,” Namjoon says, wrinkling his nose at the vague hint of arousal suddenly coloring Jeongguk’s scent a little richer.
“Shut up,” Jeongguk mutters around a smile he clearly can’t suppress.
Namjoon inhales and the cool autumn air tastes the same as the melancholy clawing its way up his throat. “Come on,” he says, instead of spilling any of the insecurities and fears that always plague him when he thinks about Jeongguk and Taehyung, the greatest scandal in pack history just waiting to happen. He should tell Jeongguk about what his father said just this morning. He should tell Jeongguk I might have to mate with him sooner than we thought, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry .
But Jeongguk’s grin is so utterly smitten and happy that Namjoon doesn’t have it in him to shatter it. He hefts his ax up a little and turns to the pile of unsplit logs still waiting off to the side. “Come on,” he says, “Bring me another. We should at least get through the rest of this pile.”
Jeongguk nods and retrieves the log. He smiles the entire rest of the morning. Namjoon’s heart aches and aches.
Run.
Run.
Run towards the river, dive in the water, downstream far enough so when you get out on the other side, they won’t catch your scent.
As if anyone is even following him. As if anyone will really care that the pack alpha’s eldest son has disappeared. There will probably be a cursory hike through the woods, more for show than for any actual desire to find the runaway. Everyone will be glad to be rid of him, even if none of them will say it.
Run. The snows are coming. Run, and get as far away as you can. Anywhere is better than here. Go towards the city, maybe you can make it before winter comes.
The first flakes of snow come only minutes later, downy and small at first, but the sky is a gray blanket, a foreboding harbinger of the blizzard to come. The wolf inhales and he can smell the frosty cold of the storm.
Underneath, though, he can smell his own omega scent, sweet and dark like chocolate-covered cherries, but somehow tinted medical and syrupy, sick. Maybe all those stories his parents told him when he was a pup were true, maybe wolves really can go feral if they don’t get scented and touched enough. It’s been—what, six months since someone even brushed arms with him? When was the last time he had a hug? The last time someone slung an arm around his shoulder, or pressed their nose into his neck, or held his hand, or felt his forehead?
Years. It’s been years, and he’s been all alone, and he’s going feral. He must be—that’s why he’s finally snapped, that’s why he’s running, that’s why conscious thoughts constructed out of the language which has structured his understanding of the world since his birth are slipping away into pure instinct, the drive to feel his paws tearing themselves to shred against the harsh winter ground with its sharp broken branches and its unforgiving thorns—that’s why he can hardly even remember his own name.
Not that it matters. He’s lost that name now. There is no going back, not even if he wanted to.
Park Jimin, a far-off voice seems to whisper through the trees. Slipping away, Park…Jimin…Jimin…
The wolf leaps over a log as the snow falls harder. He runs.