Bound by Blood

Chapter 124- a fire that lives inside us all

YOONGI POV:

There's crackling fiery sparks that come with each touch, with each graze, with every lingering gaze that makes the air thicken and swell, cloying and intoxicating and heady. A mixture of each mates' natural pheromones seeping out and mingling to form the most inebriating cocktail that acts as a drug injected straight into our bloodstreams.

It's the longest car ride we ever take, each second passing like an infinity in itself, the closed atmosphere making the air harder to breathe in, each breath bringing a swirling rush of emotions to course through the bond and each nerve cell electrifying and sending delicious tingles zinging through me.

It's hard enough that my mates look utterly delectable, temptation and ethereal sin all dressed up, faces glowing with deeply-rooted instinctual satisfaction and longing, bodies magnetically drawing close to each other, instincts heightened and prepped for that final push, for that moment of finality when the mating would conclude and our souls would be intertwined and merged together in a way that transcended any living thing in existence, a corded braided tether of molten gold, of the purest finest example of love.

And I hoped that infinity would pass and that we'd always stay gold, that the molten radiance of our bond never dulled for a single instant.

It's hard to avoid being distracted when I can see how Jin hyung's hands are tight around the steering wheel- eyes molten lava and crimson pools whenever they flicker to the back through the rear-view mirror, hard to focus when I can see the way Kookie's throat bobs unconsciously when Hobi's strong firm hands grip his thighs, keeping them slightly parted and lips mouthing across Kookie's neck. It's hard to not lose control of my senses when I can see the dizzying enthralling effect Jiminie is having on (Y/N), nosing lightly at her exposed shoulder, eyes sparks of red flames as his own emotions wind around her heart and heighten it double fold- theirs mingling together. Her eyes flutter, lashes resting delicately against the curve of her cheek, flickering back and forth between her own colour and red, instincts pushing to the surface- recognising the pheromonal shift as the build up to mating.

It's hard to not pin Tae into the seat and trail my lips and teeth and tongue across the enticing expanse of skin now that he's unbuttoned his shirt, revealing golden collarbones and the top of his chest.

It's hard because I can see how the car thickens with desire, want, need and longing, see just how distracting it all is. And infinities later, Jin hyung pulls up into the garage, air suddenly silent and charged with the energy of eight mates, the silence before the storm.

The storm that'll engulf and consume us whole.

That'll sweep away everything we knew and wash away to reveal a changed better coven.

A storm that'll be the explosion, the outlet of months of seeing unmarked, unpierced skin of our youngest mate and finally be the fulfilment of the beautiful agony that came with waiting, with chasing.

And the moment the front door shuts behind us, it suddenly seems as if we've been plunged without warning, until our lungs are filled with the essence of her, with the thickened sweetness of her scent, until it's all I can smell, breathe, taste.

The air is shattered by Jin hyung.

Who's words aren't rough and laced with blinding need.

But rather with the soft tenderness he's always held for us.

"Do any of you need anything? Hungry? Need to feed? Tired?" he asks, eyes roving over us with an examining gaze- first and foremost the eldest mate of this coven, the glue that binds us together. And as the oldest he's tending to all of our mates first; this too is a subset of heightened instincts. To keep his mates in prime, optimum condition.