Chapter Text
Mingi woke up sweaty and groggy, attempting to get up only to be stopped by the warm body lying partly on top of him, arm wrapped around Mingi’s waist like he was a plushie. He gazed softly at Yunho’s sleepy form, enjoying the faint rumbling purr that came with each exhale. Mingi enjoyed the bubble of comfort he awoke in until the feeling of blankets and Yunho sticking to his sweaty skin became intolerable. He slowly removed Yunho’s arm from around his waist, attempting to wiggle out without waking the sleeping beta, only for the arm to reattach itself to his waist with an accompanying quiet growl from Yunho.
“Stay” mumbled the man in his half asleep state.
“I’m not going far pup” Mingi coos, petting the arm Yunho had thrown over him. “I need to get up and shower, I’m all gross.”
A small whine comes out of Yunho, “noooo” he complains, eyes finally cracking open “you smell so good, spicier than normal, I don’t wanna let you go.”
Mingi chuckles lightly “that’s the pre-heat pup.” He taps Yunho’s arm “now come on, let me up so I can get ready for work.”
Yunho finally does let him up after Mingi bribes him with some sweet kisses and a promise to return quickly. Mingi vanishes into the bathroom, Yunho enjoying the lingering warmth in the nest for a few more minutes before finally pushing himself to wake up properly, sitting up in the nest and reaching for his phone to check his messages. He responds to a few of them before a new message comes in.
Emperor: just got word Youngkook will be released in a week. There’s reason to believe he’ll make a move shortly after that
Emperor: we need you here. Say it’s a business trip
Birdwing: okay. I’ll be there in an hour
Yunho puts his phone away and sighs, running his hands down his face. He sits there and focuses on the soft sound of Mingi singing in the shower; soaking up as much of the omega’s presence as he can before he has to leave.
Mingi comes back into the room about 15 minutes later, towel wrapped around his hips and smiles when he sees Yunho. He putters around the room to get ready for work, not paying attention to the utterly besotted look on the beta’s face. Yunho waits until Mingi is dressed to get up and wrap his arms around him, pulling the omega into a back hug and putting his head on his shoulder.
Mingi laughs lightly, placing his hands on top of where he’s being held “you’re awfully cuddly today. What’s gotten into you?”
Yunho doesn’t respond, hugging Mingi tighter and taking in his scent like he’s trying to drown in it.
“Pup? Yuyu? Is something wrong?” Mingi asks, worry seeping into his tone.
Yunho places a small kiss on Mingi’s neck “I just heard from my boss, there’s been a last minute business trip that came up. I’ll be gone for a few weeks.” He says, apologetic.
“Oh, okay.” Mingi sighs, disappointed “will you be able to message at least?”
“Of course baby,” He places another kiss on Mingi’s neck. “I’m sorry this is so last minute.”
“It’s okay Yuyu, thank you for letting me know.”
The rest of their time together is somewhat subdued, neither party wanting to separate from each other as they have breakfast. Yunho takes Mingi to work, sharing one last kiss with the man before departing, leaving Mingi to go about his day.
Mingi watches until Yunho’s car is out of sight before going about his first day at work on punishment. It’s not so bad, he’s frustrated his work is stalled, but framing web story purgatory as a break from his normal tasks brightens his mood considerably. Over all the day passes uneventfully. It’s only when he gets home and catches the lingering lemongrass scent in his nest that he remembers he forgot to tell Yunho about what Jongki said about the beta.
—-
It’s like forgetting to tell Yunho that Jongki knew about them kicked his mind into a paranoid overdrive. In the following days Mingi swears he feels eyes following him when he’s out in public, sometimes getting so bad that it feels like a presence is lingering just out of sight. He takes comfort in the form of messages from Yunho and lunch breaks spent with Gyeong.
“Are you planning to take your heat break soon?” Gyeong asks on one such break in between bites of her meal. “I don’t mean to overstep Mingi-ssi, but I can smell you even with your patch on.”
“I’m hoping to last until Friday,” he responds. She certainly isn’t wrong, he can feel that his approaching heat is going to be worse than normal. There have been a few studies done that show partnered or mates pairs are more likely to overproduce hormones before heats or ruts in an attempt to keep their partners close. Mingi would blush at the implication of his pre-heat being worse than normal if he wasn’t already feverish and used to his heats being very difficult for him. “I have to take enough time off for heats as is. I need the two free days the weekend affords me if I want any hope of keeping enough holiday time for emergencies.”
“Are you spending it with anyone?”
“No”
“No? What about that friend of yours you’ve told me about, Yunhwi right?” She asks, curious.
“Yunho” he gently corrects before continuing “he got called on a last minute business trip a few days ago.” He half-heartedly pokes at his food with his chopsticks. “Even if he was here I wouldn’t spend it with him. My heats aren’t fun the way they should be and I don’t want to disappoint him.”
She makes a small sound of acknowledgement, letting the silence linger for a moment before shifting to lighter topics for the remainder of lunch.
—-
He’s taking the bus home from work on Thursday when he notices something is…off.
Even on the best days the bus can be a bad time for Mingi. His nose picking up the hundreds of scents lingering inside from passengers both past and present. Normally it can be mitigated by being near one of the doors so he can get fresh air when the bus stops, but even then he spends most of the ride trying to focus on something to avoid a headache from developing. The bus was fairly empty when he got on - only 6 or 7 other passengers - but they all were near the door, leading Mingi to select a spot towards the back to maintain the unspoken contract of public transit and stranger closeness. He feels the same presence of eyes on him, turning around to see an average man looking at his phone before he turns back around, ‘it’s probably nothing, you’re just paranoid.’
It starts slowly, like turning up the heat to boil an unwitting frog in a pot. The strangers gradually release their scents, the putrid combination only making itself known to Mingi when it becomes too strong to ignore, taking a seat when he gets vertigo while standing - his head feeling like it’s been both stuffed with helium and hit with a rubber mallet. He reaches over to pull the stop line so he can get off at the next stop ‘I’ll just have to walk today.’ The bus makes its usual chime to show it registered the stop request, the digital signs reflecting the upcoming stop.
The stop comes into view a minute or so later, Mingi forcing himself to stand to prepare to get off…
The bus doesn’t stop.
Mingi moves closer to the driver cabin “excuse me, you missed my stop, I pulled the line and - AH!” He exclaims in surprise, grip tightening on the support rail as the bus makes a sharp turn, going off route.
“Hey what’s the big deal!” He yells, “This street is on this route, are you new or something?” Mingi pulls the stop line again and is met with silence.
It’s then that the cacophony of scents becomes overpowering, Mingi covers his nose and turns around to head back to his seat only to be met by one of the passengers standing right behind him. The man smiles, an overpowering smell of mildew coming off of him.
“Hey there sweetheart” he drawls “want to come home with a real alpha?” The alpha reaches out and grabs Mingi’s wrist.
“No I don’t!” Mingi responds angrily. He attempts to rip his wrist out of the man’s hand and fails. The Alpha’s grip tightens further, causing Mingi to wince when he feels his bones grind together. “Let me go f*cker!” He yells before kneeing the man in the balls.
As expected the man lets go with a breathless groan of pain. Mingi takes the opportunity to get away from the alpha. He doesn’t notice the other passengers moving closer in between the fog forming in his brain and tunnel vision he has on trying to get off the bus. He manages to get to one of the emergency exit windows. He’s stopped again by a different passenger when she pulls him back by his hair. Mingi elbows her in the stomach, causing the beta to release him and giving Mingi enough time to pull the lever that opens the emergency window. He quickly pushes the pane into the road, moving to jump out himself. He sees the pavement rushing under him and hesitates for a second.
That second was enough time for the beta woman to kick the back of his legs where the bend of the knee is. Mingi goes down, hitting his head on the frame where the window was before the woman grabs him, putting him into a chokehold.
To his credit - Mingi continues to struggle even as spots begin to dance his vision, weakly kicking and flailing in an attempt to get loose until his vision goes dark, going limp in her hold.
—-
“As it stands now our best course of action is to lay low and track Youngkook’s movements.” Seonghwa says from his spot in the front of the meeting room. “If we figure out his pattern we can ambush him at a meet up with one of his clients.”
San raises his hand, “How confident are we that he’ll want to take point on that as a newly released person?”
“Because he’s a co*cky old-timer and being in the limelight will re-establish his presence in the area” Wooyoung snarks from where he sits next to San.
Seonghwa smiles at the other omega “youngie isn’t wrong. We saw from the old files Yeosang pulled that Youngkook has always had a penchant for the public eye. Speaking of public eye-“ Seonghwa clicks the projector remote in his hand, switching to a slide with a looping video from a CCTV camera pointed at a back alley. The video shows a blurry figure hiding, then three men entering the alley, going through a door. After the men enter the building the blurry figure moves to the door, the light from the back door illuminating his features briefly before he moves again.
Yunho swears he can feel his heart stop “Mingi?”
The video continues, speeding up until the moment the three men exit the building and leave the alley. Another man exits later, only to be attacked from behind and shoved into the wall, the shadowed figure of Mingi pinning him there.
“It seems our Birdie’s little friend has more teeth than we originally thought.” Hongjoong comments from his seat at the head of the table, looking impressed.
“We’re lucky Pendelton is such a weakling.” Jongho pipes up from his spot near the computer. “Our cover could have been blown.”
“Exactly, thank you Jongho.” Seonghwa says.
“So what do we do about it?” Wooyoung asks, “we’re not in the business of killing innocents.”
“We’re not going to harm him.” Yunho interrupts with a growl.
“Easy there tiger.” Hongjoong chuckles, enjoying himself
“Joongie,” Seonghwa warns, his tone enough to get his mate to sit straighter in his chair. “Wooyoung is right yuyu. If he finds out about the pack before you tell him it won’t go well.”
“I don’t want to get him involved in all this.” Yunho responds quietly.
“That isn’t an option hyung” Jongho says, expression dark. “I tried to do that with Sangie and it almost got him killed.”
“Are you serious about him Yunho? About your relationship?” Hongjoong asks seriously.
Yunho nods “I am hyung. I know we’ve only been dating for a short time but every day after I moved away for school I thought of him. I missed him so much my heart hurt.” He looks up to make eye contact with Hongjoong. “When I had to go no contact with everyone after joining the pack I thought it would kill me.”
Hongjoong nods, satisfied.
Seonghwa smiles softly at Yunho “there we go then.”
“I’ll tell him after our territory is settled” Yunho promises “my princess deserves that much.”
The table coos at their sweet beta; except for Jongho, who makes a fake gagging sound. “Can we get back on topic please?”
Before they’re able to start again Yunho’s phone starts to ring, playing a song that Yunho set for Mingi’s contact when they first exchanged numbers in middle school and he had put in the work to reinstall it on his phone when they reconnected. Yunho smiles at the pack apologetically before stepping out to answer.
The line crackles for a few moments “Sweetheart?” Yunho asks, his gut clenching with an impending sense of wrongness.
“I don’t swing that way Birdwing” an older, rough sounding voice answers. “Put me on speaker, I have a message for your boss.”
Yunho feels a growl building in his chest “Where’s Mingi?”
“Do what I asked and I just might tell you.” The voice teases.
“Where. Is. He?” Yunho bites out, tone eerily calm.
The man tsks, the sound crackling over the phone “don’t take that tone with me young man. If you value your sweetheart I suggest you don’t test me.” His voice dripped with condescension when he said sweetheart.
“Fine.” Yunho goes back into the meeting room and sets his phone on the table on speaker. His pack watched his change in demeanor closely. Seonghwa shoots Yunho a look and he responds with a shake of his head, signaling the table to be quiet.
“Good evening Emperor and company” the voice crackles over the speakers. “I heard that you are trying to make a play for my territory, so I thought I’d take a little something of yours for leverage.”
Hongjoong’s eyebrows furrow “What do you want Youngkook?”
“Stay out of my territory, you and your f*cking flutter.”
Yunho responds before Hongjoong has a chance, “if we do you’ll give Mingi back?”
Youngkook hums, considering “No, I don’t think I will. Jongki has been wanting a new toy and he seems quite taken with yours, so I think I’ll give Mingi to him.”
Yunho growls “why would we listen to your f*cking demands then?”
Youngkook chuckles “Because Bird, if you don’t I’ll make sure to send your toys back to you in pieces.” Yunho makes a lunge for his phone like he’d be able to punch Youngkook through the screen, luckily San grabs hold of him before he can land the hit, grunting with the effort of restraining the furious beta.
“Toys?” Seonghwa asks “Who else do you have?”
“Another associate of yours.” Youngkook’s smug grin can be heard over the phone “If I were you, I would check in on Apollo.” With that the call goes dead, filling the silent room with the droning of a dead line.
Jongho is the first to move, getting up in a rush and pulling out his phone, dialing Yeosang’s number as he leaves the room. His voice fades as he continues down the hallway “Sangie?!…”
The next person to move is Yunho, who bites down hard on San’s hand to get him to let go, then turns and runs out of the room after Jongho. Yunho feels the foreign sensation of fear settle into his bones as he runs, his front brain shutting down until all he can think is ‘mate’ and ‘danger’. He hears shouting behind him and speeds up, not about to be stopped from finding Youngkook and tearing him apart. He’s able to reach the central courtyard before being tackled to the ground by Wooyoung, the omega sitting on top of Yunho’s back and holding him down by his neck, pumping out calming pheromones to try and calm him.
If anything the omega’s patchouli scent serves to make Yunho more frantic, struggling in vain to get out of his hold. The rest of the pack arrives in the courtyard a few moments later.
“What the f*ck was that!” Hongjoong growls at Yunho “do you even have a plan Yunho? You f*cking bit San! How is that supposed to help Mingi?” His yelling is angry but the pack members can hear the underlying worry in his tone.
Unfortunately for them only one word stuck in Yunho’s mind, the beta whines in distress. “Mate” he lets out a high whine “danger… need to save mate.” Yunho never stops struggling to try and buck Wooyoung off of him.
Seonghwa looks pained at seeing Yunho so upset, taking a few cautious steps toward him before Hongjoong lets out his own protective growl. “Yuyu” the omega calls gently “pup can you focus on my voice please? If we want to get Mingi out we have to have a plan first.” He tries his best to keep his tone soothing.
“Mate” Yunho whines again, his struggling getting weaker as he loses steam. “Mate danger help save danger mate-“ he keeps repeating the words like they’re the only ones he knows, they get more and more garbled with each repeat as Yunho’s anger gives way to despair, tears starting to prick at his eyes. The pack stands near the beta in a loose protective circle and watches him dissolve into high whining and pained howls, like his wolf could call Mingi back through sheer force of will. Jongho enters the courtyard in the midst of the scene, looking far more composed than he did when he ran out of the meeting room.
Hongjoong turns his attention to the baby alpha “any developments?”
Jongho nods “I was able to get ahold of Sangie, he’s fine.” Almost instantly the air in the courtyard felt lighter, the pack taking a collective sigh of relief.
“Is he being moved to the safehouse?” Seonghwa asks.
Jongho shakes his head, “Yeosang told me that moving to the safehouse would be playing into their hands. That Youngkook is trying to goad us into moving him because they can’t find where he is currently.”
The leaders seem satisfied with that answer.
“So how are we gonna find Mingi?” Wooyoung asks, still sitting on top of Yunho even though the man stopped struggling a little before Jongho returned.
Jongho answers “If I send Yeo his phone number he should be able to track the SIM card and give us a location.”
Hongjoong pats Jongho on the shoulder in appreciation. “Did I ever say how much I love that you mated a f*cking genius? Because I really do.” He turns to address the pack “gentlemen! We got a rescue on our hands.”
—-
Mingi regained consciousness slowly, the first thing he registered was how his ears rang, drowning out the sounds of almost anything else. Almost because he could also make out the sound of someone pleading and sobbing. It was muted for sure, but present all the same. The next thing he felt was the persistent itching feeling on his neck that comes from wearing his scent patch too long; but when he tried to move his arm to scratch at the spot he felt ropes around them, and around his legs as well. The last thing he feels is a soft pressure around his head, when he opens his eyes he’s met with darkness.
“Well well it seems our other guest is finally awake.” Says a voice from the other side of the room. Mingi whips his head toward the voice, only to instantly regret the action when a dizzy feeling overtakes him. “Careful pretty boy.” The voice chuckles “I heard you took quite a hit on the way here.”
“Who are you?” Mingi asks with all the anger he can muster “why am I here?”
The whimpering sound gets louder, followed by a loud crack and a scream. Mingi feels his heart rate pick up further. “Take off his blindfold!” The voice barks.
The pressure around Mingi’s head lessens and he’s momentarily blinded by the harsh fluorescent lighting in the room. When his pupils finally adjust he sees that he’s in an almost empty concrete room. There’s cracks along the walls and mold building in the corners where water has pooled. In the center of the room is a drain on the floor, next to it is a cart with medical instruments on it.
And sitting directly across from Mingi in a similar predicament is Charles Pendelton. Charles, the source of the scream, is begging in barely comprehensible Korean. His nose is broken, blood dripping into his mouth. There’s a series of cuts on his body, all of them deep and straight, clearly made by a practiced hand.
“Please” Charles begs “I can get you the money! Please just two more days.”
The man backhands Charles, “This isn’t about your paltry loan dipsh*t. This is about you betraying us.”
“But I-I didn’t. I did everything you asked” Charles stutters out.
The man’s face pulls into a snarl, “you also decided to make a deal with the Emperor and his f*cking crew. What did they promise you huh?”
“Nothing! They promised nothing!” He cries.
“I find that hard to believe.”
Mingi watches in horror as the man picks up a cigarette from the cart and lights it, only to put it out on Pendelton’s face. Pendelton screams so loudly his voice gives out. It takes all of Mingi’s willpower to stay quiet, hoping to avoid his capture’s ire.
The man turns his attention to Mingi. “And you! You’re lucky my son wants to keep you pretty or I would’ve had your body in the ocean by now.”
‘Son?’ “You’re Lee Youngkook.” Mingi says.
Youngkook chuckles “So you do have a brain, that’s good to know.” He picks a handgun off the tray and fiddles with it lazily. “And here I thought you were just a dumb slu*t had stumbled his way into something too big for him to handle.”
“So you kidnapped me to what? Intimidate me into silence?” Mingi tries to maintain an intimidating tone but the slight tremor in his voice gives him away.
“Partly,” Youngkook smiles, co*cking the gun and taking aim. “I’m just getting started.” Youngkook fires the gun.
Mingi screams.
