Necessary (BTS X JJK)

Chapter 11

A few hours later Hobi came into the living room to find the omega still sleeping on top of Taehyung who was whispering soothing words as Jungkook rested.

"Tae, it's time. How is he doing?"

Taehyung let out a long sigh. "Not the best but I think he'll make it. He's starting to become a bit warm, probably a false heat brought on by the mating marks. I think if it was just one mark it wouldn't be so bad, but when we stack them on top of each other it's making it worse. I don't envy anyone who still needs to mark him. Marking is supposed to be full of joy but this just feels agonizing."

"I know." Hobi ran his fingers through Taehyung's hair before reaching for the omega who whined a bit as he was pulled away from the alpha he had settled on.

"Come here baby, I know you're comfortable but we have to keep going. I'll try to be fast but gentle. I know it's a lot but the sooner we get started the sooner we'll be done."

Seeing how Jungkook looked even before he had the second bite, Hobi had already re-thought his approach to marking the omega. He wanted something slow and gentle where they could lose themselves in each other, but by now he'd decided the best case scenario was to actively scent him until he was thoroughly relaxed and then immediately proceed to marking, maximizing the amount of time he had to recover afterward.

As soon as Taehyung left the couch Hobi laid Jungkook back down. "Can you open your eyes and look at me, omega? I want to make sure you're ready. Please at least give me a nod if I can get started. I'm going to scent you quickly and then bite. I know this isn't the best but it will give you more time to rest."

Jungkook opened his eyes just long enough to nod yes, and then closed them again, preparing himself for the next marking.

After a quick peck to the omegas forehead the alpha began to scent him aggressively. He was thankful that Taehyung had marked the same side as Jin, leaving him space to scent more aggressively. He would have liked to do the same, keeping some uninjured skin for his mates to comfortably scent before their own mating bites. Unfortunately it looked like another mark next to the existing ones would be unnecessarily painful. He would mark the other side and resign himself to the pain and discomfort that was to come for the omega.

Hobi nipped, licked, and went so far as to openly suck on the omega's scent gland, trying to work him into a totally relaxed state as quickly as possible. When the little wolf seemed fully relaxed he allowed his teeth to come forward. "I'm sorry if this hurts my omega, but I promise in the future I'll do everything I can to keep you from any pain at all." With one more soft lick to the omegas skin to relax him, the alpha bit into the unmarked juncture between the shoulder and the neck. The omega jerked and tears began streaming down his face as the pain of one more bond set in.

Hobi pulled back as quickly as possible, moving to cover the omegas face with kisses and wiping away the tears that were streaming down his face. "Good job omega, you are doing so good. We're halfway there. I know you can do it."

Jungkook offered a small nod in exchange before Hobi scooped the boy up into his arms, hoping to hold him close and see him relax. The alpha softly hummed to the boy, rocking him in his arms and whispering sweet words of assurance.

Looking up, the alpha caught the eye of Namjoon who was standing in the hallway and gave him a sad smile. This really was torture.

It wasn't long before Jungkook was hot to the touch and sweating through his shirt onto the alpha that was cradling him. "Jin", Hobi called as he saw the other wolf walk toward the kitchen, "Our omega is burning up, can you help me get his shirt off and get him some cold water?"

Together they peeled the damp shirt from Jungkook's back, seeing the flushed skin underneath. "Poor baby must be miserable, experiencing multiple false heats at once has to be torture. At least we know they aren't dangerous but still..." Hobi trailed off in thought.

"Maybe we should take his pants off too. He'll be more comfortable in just his boxers and I'll get some damp towels so we can try to cool him down." Jin began pulling Jungkook's pants down his legs and as soon as they were discarded on the floor he went to the kitchen, grabbing another bottled water and running some towels under the cool water.

Hobi gratefully accepted one of the damp towels and began running it all over the small omega who seemed to relax a bit under the feel of the cool material on his skin. "I think it's helping," he whispered to Jin.

"I'm glad. I'll stay nearby so I can get more cool towels if you need them. We're going to need to do everything we can to keep him comfortable if we're going to get through this."

By shortly after lunchtime it was clear that Jungkook was in no condition to be marked again and they still had three more alphas to go.

"Let's wait until after dinner," Jimin proposed. "Normally the false heat only lasts for 24 hours. By then the heat from his marking from Jin should have faded, so at least he won't be so hot. Then if we do another tomorrow morning and the final marking right before we leave for the council it should be 24 hours from Taehyung and Hobi's markings too. I know we don't want to wait for the last minute, but the alternative is too awful to even think about."

Everyone reluctantly agreed that Jimin's proposal made good sense and felt like the least terrible option available. The pack would spend the day trying to make Jungkook as comfortable as possible in an effort to buy more time.

As they watched over their suffering omega they couldn't help but wonder if they should have taken a different approach.

"I know it would have been overwhelming to mark him before he even got to know us but I think we should have started early so he had more time to recover."

"I understand what you're saying but then we wouldn't have had any time to get to know him, he'd spend the whole time recovering from mating bites. While this is not great I still think it is better than the alternative."

"It just makes me so mad at the council. This really wasn't reasonable at all. How could they force this timeline on us? We should have had six months!"

"I know, but based on what we heard from the elders last week I was worried we may not even get the full week. I do think the reign of the current supreme pack is quickly reaching its end. I worried it would happen even sooner than we expected."

Each of them had to resign themselves to the situation. It was terribly unfair. It was frustrating. They hated starting their relationship with their final packmate this way. But it truly was necessary. The longstanding peace between humans and wolves was at stake. Even if they had to make sacrifices now it would be worth it in the long run. They just had to hope their omega would understand.

Jungkook did seem to be cooling slightly to the touch by the time dinner was over. They were able to coax him to drink a cold smoothie but he simply refused to eat no matter what they tried. With a sad nod Namjoon motioned to Jimin that the time had come, he needed to place his mark on the omega.

Jimin carefully brought their final mate upstairs to the den and laid him back. He was thankful that Jungkook's shirt was removed, it offered him more areas where he could scent the omega without brushing against the delicate wounds on his neck. Jimin poured all of his love and affection into his scenting, working carefully and checking in regularly to ensure his omega was comfortable.

"Little one, it's time for me to mark you now, are you ready?"

Jungkook once again nodded yes even in his false heat induced daze.

"Thank you" the alpha whispered in his ear, returning to scent along his sternum and collar bones until the omega was fully relaxed. The rest of the pack could see the tears in Jimin's eyes as he brought out his teeth to mark the boy, biting right next to Hobi's mark on his neck. Taehyung had moved to soothe Jimin, running a hand up and down his neck. Jin was similarly attempting to comfort the omega, softly running his fingers through his hair and whispering words of encouragement.

Tears once again sprung to Jungkook's eyes, causing both Namjoon and Yoongi to look away and wipe the tears from their own faces. This was absolute torture and they knew they both still needed to take their turn and time was running out.