Chapter Text
Very few things feel better than wet grass under your paws during an afternoon run. I’m sure of it. Maybe the sun, shining down on my white and caramel fur as the wind blew against my face. Or drinking fresh spring water after said afternoon run. I don’t know. Does it really matter? They are all equally great perhaps. At least I thought so.
“Tae, come on. We need to shower before the pack meeting begins.”
Pack meetings definitely were not on my list of great things in life.
“Already? We still have hours ahead.”
It feels like we had just started running, but I tend to lose track of time when I’m in my wolf form, and now that I look around I can see that the sun isn’t as bright anymore. It must have been hours, but to my wolf, it had felt like minutes.
“Shit. I didn’t notice how long we had been running for. Why didn’t you say something sooner? You know you can’t be exerting yourself too much!” I bark at Jin.
“Yah! Is that some way to talk to your hyung? I’m okay. I’m pregnant, not dying.”
“Well, you are getting older…” , as I say these last words, I sprint out of there before Jin can react.
“Yah! Just wait till I get my claws on you, you ungrateful shit! Come here!”
I go just fast enough to be out of his reach but not so fast that he would be winded or trip and get hurt. I'm one of the few people that know Jin and Namjoon are expecting a pup. He’s still early into the pregnancy and his scent hasn’t changed, so they want to enjoy these early happy days with just family. Soon, the whole pack will be talking about the possible next Head Alpha and doting on Jin like he’s carrying the Moon Goddess’ embodiment in his womb. The bitch is going to eat that up like the finest chocolate.
I speed up when I catch a glimpse of the main house and leave Jin just a little further behind me.
“What was that about getting your claws on me, Jin hyung? I think you have to catch me first!”
“Just you fucking wait! Who will cook for you tonight, huh?”
I chuckle and speed up further, already seeing the entirety of the house. When I arrive in front of the house, I quickly shift and run up the porch steps and pick up my discarded clothes. I don’t wait around for Jin to come and knock me on my ass and instead open the screen door and walk inside the house. Immediately the scent of home invades my nostrils and I breathe in the perfect amalgamation of all of my favorite things. It smelled like old books, pine trees, and the mated combination of Jin’s vanilla and Namjoon’s peppermint scent. It was home.
I head upstairs and into my room to get undressed and hop in the shower. The Kim pack has many traditions, one of which is a weekly pack meeting that also serves as pack dinner and get-together. I love the food and music part of those evenings, but the meetings? Those I often fell asleep for or just simply zoned out midway through Namjoon’s “agenda.” I understand the importance of the weekly meetings as much as I understand the importance of the weekly dinners. The former is meant to keep the order within the pack by keeping the pack mates up to date on what is going on around us. The latter helps keep us bonded to each other and further strengthens those bonds. One of those two things is simply much more fun and easier to get through than the other.
After showering and getting dressed in a pair of loose-fitting jeans and an oversized sweater, I lie down on my full-size mattress, that I swear I’ve had for over half of my life, and grab my favorite book from the bedside table. I have probably read books that have excited me more, but no other book smells better than this one.
I found the book in a thrift store one evening a couple of years ago when I was helping Jin buy things for any future lone wolves that decided to join our pack. We don’t get many, but we have taken in a few people that had nothing and given them a roof over their heads, food for their stomach, and clothes to put on their backs.
During this specific clothes run, I decided to snoop around and see if I liked anything for myself. I headed to the back to look at some old vinyl records and was walking by a bookshelf when I smelled it. It was the most comforting scent I had ever encountered. It was the scent of sandalwood and something spicy. It was slightly musky and gave off the feeling of a very old and well-loved book.
I sniffed around the bookcase until I found where the sandalwood scent was the strongest and pulled out a copy of Pride and Prejudice. I have always favored mysteries, but I had to have that book simply for its enticing scent. Fortunately, I happened to really like the plot of Pride and Prejudice, cementing the book as my favorite one for the years to come.
I'm in the middle of reading about Elizabeth’s visit to her sick sister when I hear Jin’s call out for me to “Get my ass down there before he drags it down, and that he should do just that after I called him old.” There is also something about not respecting my hyungs and not caring about him being pregnant and hormonal.
“Yah Jin hyung, are you going to keep being dramatic and using your pregnancy to get us to treat you like a princess? Because if so, these will be the longest fucking five months of my life.”
“You better get used to it. I AM a princess, thank you very much. Tell me, have you ever met anyone more handsome or perfect than me? No? I thought so.” He says with a cocky grin.
Jin is definitely beautiful. That can't be taken away from him, but neither could his ego.
“Mmm, maybe not yet, but maybe soon I will,” I say with a wink before I open the door to walk out of the house. Teasing Jin was definitely my favorite pastime. He was like a brother, a mother AND a best friend all in one.
“Good luck with that. No one is more perfect than I am. I bet you the rights to the name of my unborn child that no such person exists.”
“So, if I met someone more handsome and perfect at things than you, you’d let me name your child?” I say as we walk across the pack’s housing area and head to the meeting hall, a big building with dozens of picnic tables where the pack meets as one.
“Of course, but I am completely sure in the fact you won’t meet anyone more perfect than me.”
“But hypothetically speaking, if I met such a perfect specimen, I could name your child Taehyung? Even if you have a girl?” I ask with one of my big boxy grins plastered on my face.
Jin glares at me and then barks out, “Yes, but that’s never happening so don’t get your hopes too high.”
I smirk and say, “Of course, Jin hyung. I wouldn’t dream of it.” That makes his scowl lessen slightly but his lips remain pouty for the remainder of the walk.
When we got to the meeting hall, Namjoon's already at the door, greeting pack members, another Kim pack tradition. These weekly meetings are mandatory unless someone had a very serious excuse to miss one, and the Head Alpha greets every single member at the door before heading inside himself.
“Joon! Am I old? Taehyung called me old. Can you believe the little shit?”
My brother just grins at us and says, “You ARE old, but your beauty hasn’t aged a day babe.” That seems to be good enough for Jin, who starts purring at his words and looks at my brother with a smirk I wish I could erase from my memory.
“Fucking hell, we’re in public! The pups… My ears… My eyes… My everything!”
Jin bursts into his windshield wiper giggles and Namjoon’s grin grows while my face twists up in disgust at Jin PURRING at my brother in front of me.
“I’m heading inside before he starts scenting you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the changes ever since… you know…” I say while I look down at Jin’s stomach and point with my head slightly. The truth is that although Jin’s body hasn’t changed enough for the rest of the pack to notice, or Namjoon’s reaction to the news changed so much as to raise alarms, I have noticed quite a lot since we live together.
For starters, Jin can’t go beyond a minute after seeing Namjoon for the first time in a while without scenting him for what feels like an hour. There’s also his incessant need to change absolutely everything about our house apparently. He has painted the dining room walls a deep chocolate brown, rearranged the living room furniture, and yesterday he painted the kitchen cabinets yellow. I’ve taken to locking my door when I’m out of the house because I fear I’ll find my walls painted over, and I worked on painting the mural on my walls for over a year. I will be damned if I let a pregnant omega ruin it, even if said omega is the closest thing to a mother I’ve had in a really long time.
Then there is Namjoon’s inability to let Jin so much as open a jar of jam if he’s in the same room. He has taken to giving Jin foot rubs every night when he gets home and getting up to get the smallest things if Jin so needs. Jin has the happiest grin on his face every night before going to bed. The fucker. I love him.
I take a seat at the only table facing the rest, the Kim family one. The table is reserved for the Head Alpha and his or her family, and the Head Alpha’s Second and his or her family. Jung Hoseok, Namjoon’s Second is already sitting at the table when I get there and I reach out to ruffle his hair.
“Hobi hyung, how’s it going? You haven’t gone on a run with me in a while.”
Hoseok turns to me and gives me a bright smile that I swear could make the grouchiest man in the world smile back at him. “Hey Tae, I’m sorry. We’ve been super busy this week. You’ll find out tonight why. I definitely suggest you stay awake for this meeting.” He says with a smirk.
I lick my lips in embarrassment at being called out and give him a boxy grin as I say, “I’ll definitely keep that in mind then.”
His smile grows slightly and he says, “You do that.”
Our conversation is interrupted by my brother finally entering the meeting hall and reaching the front of the room. He stands by our table, behind his chair, and clears his throat to get people’s attention. He only has to do it once for silence to fall upon the hall.
“Good evening everyone. I missed you all this week and hope you are all in good health. We have a few things for tonight’s agenda so I want to start as soon as possible if you please remain attentive…” And so on it goes for about an hour, until the last point of the meeting is being discussed.
“Lastly but definitely not least, something a bit exciting is happening soon. Some of you might not feel comfortable with this, so I understand if you choose to stay home for that time and not take part in pack activities, but next weekend we are having visitors.” At this, a wave of murmured questions and hushed exclamations washes over the meeting hall, but everything falls quiet once again when Namjoon raises his right hand with his palm opened, and then closes it into a fist at the same time his eyes flash red in a warning.
That doesn’t keep us from feeling through the pack bond. It's a bit overwhelming how much excitement pack protect joy wonder joy I can feel through the bond. It makes me giddier.
“A friendly pack is heading up from Busan. The Head Alpha is one of my closest friends from puphood and we are hoping our packs can get along and have a great time together. They will spend next weekend with us, starting Friday. They are scheduled to arrive an hour before our pack meeting, which will give them time to settle in and then join us to hear about our plans for those three days. More details will be shared during that meeting but I can tell you that we will be going on a pack run that Saturday and they will be running with us. This will be the biggest pack run in many years of this pack’s history so it will surely be something you won’t want to miss. The pack visiting is the Jeon pack.”