Chapter Text
Namjoon isn’t a people person; much less a party person, yet it doesn't stop his friend, Jackson, from forcing him into one at least once a month. Sometimes it’s a frat party, some other times it’s the club, and this time it’s a rave (Jackson likes the term “Music Festival” better).
Namjoon dislikes raves the most; they are dirty, filled with strangers in the really bad way that make Namjoon uneasy, and worst of all, they are always held in the woods; the one that, as humans, you are told to never wander into.
“No.”
“C’mon, Joonieeee,” Jackson whines. He’s carrying clothes, and by the outfit Jackson is already wearing, Namjoon knows the clothes on his hands are for him. Namjoon’s face winces at the sight of the fake leather jeans Jackson gifted him a couple of days ago for his birthday and quickly looks back down at his phone. “It’ll be fun, I promise!”
Namjoon sighs. “Every party is fun to you.” He looks up from his phone to stare Jackson in the eyes. “Besides, I’m tired of you dragging me to parties. It’s always the same with you, you always end up ditching me for a hookup and then I spend the night surrounded by complete strangers, so don't even bother, you're not making me go this time.”
Jackson blinks, a smile slowly appearing on his lips, knowing damn well he will make Namjoon go; just like he always does.
…
And Namjoon goes.
The tight clothes Jackson bought him for his birthday hugged his body obscenely. Namjoon feels sweaty, naked, and uncomfortable. He always wonders why he gives in to Jackson’s requests so easily. Everytime he says he will stand his ground, he ends up… not doing that at all. Their friendship always seems to benefit the younger man more than it does Namjoon.
Jackson is younger than him and he’s also Namjoon’s only friend. He’s the only one that cared enough to still hang out with him when his family disowned him for being gay shortly after high school.
Namjoon likes Jackson, even if they’re completely different people with different lifestyles. Deep down he wonders if they would still be friends had things been different. And the truth is that no, they probably wouldn’t have. They met at the right place, right time. If Jackson hadn’t taken Namjoon in, he wouldn’t have anyone in his life right now.
And that thought is terrifying.
If keeping Jackson in his life meant having to go to a party at least once a month, then Namjoon would do it. Because friends like Jackson aren’t easy to find.
But why did it have to be a rave of all things?
People are already overdosing (another reason why he hates raves). Namjoon, at 23 years old, is already so desensitized to it, he wishes he could be alarmed just like he used to be a couple of years ago. Back when Jackson took him under his extrovert wing and everything was new and scary and just plain alarming.
He considers leaving, usually by this time Jackson wouldn't notice and the taller man could easily pretend he stayed all night. It’s not like he is Jackson’s ride anyway, and the man is far more experienced with the whole ‘riding a cab and making it home safely while drunk’ area than Namjoon is.
It’s cold and Namjoon regrets not bringing a jacket. He walks until the music doesn’t ring in his ears anymore and carefully takes out his phone to call an uber. If he remembers correctly, it is a 20 minute walk to the nearest road and a 40 minute drive back to the city. If he calls an uber now he’ll even have time to walk slowly and think about his essay due next week.
He makes a satisfied noise with his throat once the app confirms there is an uber driver on their way. He starts walking back as people pass him heading to the rave. Namjoon walks without making any eye contact, not realizing the path he's taken isn’t the one they arrived in.
Namjoon never realizes his mistake.
…
Yoongi knows times aren't like before.
Back when he was a pup, shapeshifters and inhuman beings were still in hiding; the world knew of them but treated them like monsters. So in a way, it was more convenient to just live apart from humans.
And honestly? 6 year old Yoongi didn't mind it. He liked being surrounded only by his own kind. Why would he ever want to be surrounded by humans? They were mean, racist, dumb, and just plain inferior. They never listened and all they cared about was themselves.
He has heard multiple stories of his ancestors being executed in public just for existing, something about ‘sending a message’. He was 5 years old when his father came home, winded and hurt after running away from a group of hunters.
Since then, Yoongi grew to despise them.
When he was 9 years old, the inhuman rights movement succeeded; he suddenly had rights in the human world. And he begrudgingly took his place alongside them even though he didn't want it, just to please his mom.
His mom had always joked he was an old soul stuck inside a young body and he liked to agree, even if he didn’t quite understand what she meant. He was just happy to share an inside joke with her.
Learning how to be human was boring. They had all these stupid rules and even more stupid manners. There were terms like hyung, noona, oppa, and unnie, and he had to keep tabs on what to call who. It was stupid! After school they were forced to have human etiquette classes, it only served to make Yoongi despise them more.
Why learn how to read and write when you obviously don't need to in the wild?
“Reading and writing are useless when you're hunting!” He would complain to almost anyone who would dare listen. Most of the time, that ‘who’ was Hoseok, the only other werewolf in his class,, a nice beta with a loud laugh who played with Yoongi every recess (Hoseok is the reason Yoongi wasn’t completely hated by everyone just by his association to the beta. Being friends with Hoseok had automatically made him tolerable, even if he wasn’t aware of it).
“Being fast and having a good sense of smell! Now that's what keeps you safe in the wild, knowing how to hunt and not be hunted!”
Yoongi had always been good at that; surviving. His father would always tell him that after going on a hunt together; Yoongi liked to think it was for a reason (In reality, he mostly just followed behind and watched as his father and the rest of the men of the pack hunted, but his father never failed to praise how well Yoongi did at catching up).
Eventually, though, he grew up, just like everyone else; and fell in love with music at 15. Yoongi had decided to stay in school and study music after falling in love. His mom had supported him, she always did. His father, on the other hand, felt disappointed, thinking his only son would settle for human life, marry a human girl and end the Min Pack for good.
It took Yoongi a while to deal with his father’s disappointment.
…
Fame wasn’t part of Yoongi’s plan. He’s a private person after all, and he’s seen the way humans worship anyone nowadays. Why would he want strangers knowing where he lives and camp outside his property? He’s seen enough news of artists getting killed by their own fans as well. Why would he want that?
He just wanted to make music and share it with the world.
But then his songs started to sell well. An ‘upcoming’ record company that paid him enough to eat and have warm clothes during winter hired him almost on the spot. He started writing songs and eventually began to produce for small names. Then bigger and bigger until the enigma of who is Min Yoongi? became a hot topic in social media, forcing Yoongi to write under different pen names for a while.
After that, he decided to move out of Seoul. His work easily allowed him to work from home, rarely needing to go back into the city. And he liked it that way. Staying in his home studio for hours and making music he loved and was loved by many others, too.
Multiple awards, fame and money had come with it. Suddenly, he wasn’t “Min Yoongi, The only Alpha descendant of the Min pack in Daegu.” but “Agust D, Rapper, Songwriter and Producer for one of the biggest labels in the industry.”
At some point, during his transition from college student to being a fully fledged adult, he and his friends had decided to become a “pack”. If you could call 2 werewolves, 2 vampires, a hybrid, and a nymph a pack then they were most certainly a pack. One of the most peculiar packs for sure. Nevertheless, Yoongi was happy. All 6 of them made enough money to buy a house big enough for the pack, and thanks to Yoongi, Hoseok and Taehyung, they all agreed on a house on the outskirts of the city. It was good, even if they had to travel 40 minutes to get into the city.
It was still worth it. To Yoongi, everything that included his pack would always be worth it. And luckily for him, his pack felt the same.
…
The wolf rose from his spot inside a hollow tree log and stretched. Napping had always been his favorite hobby, he even enjoyed it in his human form. But there was nothing better than taking a nap and putting his natural fur to good use, if you asked him. A couple of days ago there had been a rave in the forest a few kilometers south from his home. There has also been a new scent that Yoongi can’t quite place that bothers both the alpha and the beta. But since it hasn’t reached their home, at least not near enough for the alpha to worry, he doesn’t think too hard about it.
He still leaves his scent even outside of the boundaries that are set by law, just to make sure there are no intruders near his pack. It’s probably a little over the top and maybe unnecessary too, but Yoongi likes being cautious either way.
He began his commute back home lazily. Autumn is finally here and while he doesn’t mind the chilly air that comes with it, he knows Jungkook and Taehyung aren’t big fans of the cold weather. Yoongi makes a mental note to take out the small heater out of their attic once he gets home and also thinks about maybe making a small den for Hoseok near the house; the beta has been under too much stress lately.
He’s making a mental checklist of the things his pack might need when a small whine stops him dead in his tracks. The wolf blinks, scanning his surroundings looking for the source of the sound. The cry had been too high pitched for an adult.
The canine begins to sniff around the leaves on the ground as the whining gets louder. It tugs at his instincts, to find it; to protect it.
It's a cub, Yoongi thinks as he frantically searches with his snout. A cub that’s calling for help. His nose aggressively touches bare skin and it whines again, louder, in pain. Yoongi's heart drops to his stomach.
He carefully removes the fallen autumn leaves from the small cub. It’s trembling and crying. Probably no older than a few days. Yoongi sniffs him, wondering where his mother could be when he realizes that it's useless to even worry about it. The cub has no smell, the poor thing was probably left behind and it unconsciously searched for warmth under the leaves. Another day here and it would have died.
Yoongi sighs. Since this pup had no pack smell then it meant it wasn't a shapeshifter but rather just a normal wolf that’s been left behind by its own pack. It's Not surprising, wolves would often abandon one or even a couple of their cubs if they deemed them weak or not strong enough to survive. The baby kept writhing, looking for warmth as Yoongi slowly grabbed him from his pelt, but releasing it as soon as it started crying. The cub was too weak to even be carried by his pelt.
Yoongi stared at him for a couple of seconds, his brain thinking too fast. If his mother had left it, it was for a reason. Maybe he would just have to let natural selection do its thing.
Yoongi wonders if the cub’s parents were the reason Yoongi and Hoseok had felt a little on edge for the past month. That would make sense. The alpha felt a small amount of relief, at least it wasn’t a rogue werewolf ready to murder his pack for food. Just some good old fashioned wolves doing their own thing.
Normally, he would just move on and forget it. His father would tell him to do that.
The pup cries again and the alpha remembers his father will be disappointed in him no matter what. So he might as well try and save the dying pup.
He huffs before nonchalantly turning into his human form. Yoongi stretched his arms and legs as quickly as he could, the cold air burning and pricking at his naked skin. He gently took the shivering pup in his hands and finished his commute home as fast as he could on his 2 bare human legs.
He makes sure to keep the cub in his hands as warm and safe as possible as one could with a naked human body during Autumn.
…
Yoongi came back home naked; which wasn’t really strange for Jimin. Everyone knows he’s seen Yoongi arrive home in much much weirder states. What did catch his eyes, though, was the small pup between his hands.
“Whatcha got there, hyung?” Jimin asked, eyebrows raised and waiting for a convincing answer. Yoongi has never been a ‘pet’ person, so the reason for him to bring a small pup home must be good and Jimin, who can be too curious for his own good, is eager to know.
The alpha ignores the vampire, promptly walking towards his own room. Jimin snickers and happily continues texting Taehyung.
…
Yoongi isn't a fan of clothes; as a wolf, the mere concept of clothes was futile, but being amongst humans made it a necessity for him to own clothes and that necessity turned into a habit. Being a somewhat public figure gave him lots of expensive and soft clothes that now Yoongi gladly uses to make a small nest for the pup on his bed.
Yoongi lays the pup inside the nest. It had stopped shivering sometime during his commute and is now asleep. Content to be curled up against the soft fabric.
Or at least Yoongi hopes so because the smell of death in his bed is the last thing he needs. The pup is probably starving. Maybe that’s how he survived these past few days; by sleeping. Yoongi isn’t an expert, but he knows baby formula could work as a good substitute for the mother’s milk.
Too bad they don’t have baby formula.
The alpha sighs before putting clothes on. He will need to go to the nearest convenience store and a pharmacy for non-humans. He rushes downstairs, keys and wallet on one hand, his shoes waiting for him at the door entrance.
“I'm going to the city, need anything?”
“A can of Type-O would be nice and Jin hyung’s running low on Type-B, I think.” Jimin says with a nonchalant face, idly looking at his nails. Jimin’s phone suspiciously resting next to him.
He hums, making sure he remembers the request. “Okay then, ‘be back in a few..”
Yoongi knows his pack isn't conventional. They don’t really care about pack etiquette or social standards, not when they have much better things to focus on. Because no matter what, they would always be a family. And it doesn’t bother Yoongi. Even if the rest of his pack didn’t feel the need to be a pack they understood Yoongi and Hoseok did.
Jimin and Jin are vampires. Vampires don't tend to stay in big groups and it’s rare when they do. They’re old enough to remember a time where South Korea wasn’t even Korea yet. And while they’ve aged just enough to lose the baby fat that was once around their cheeks, Jimin jokes they’ll probably live long enough to see South Korea and North Korea turn into just Korea once again. Seokjin slaps him in the arm and likes to pretend it's funny by laughing. Everyone else pretends to find it funny too.
Jungkook is a hybrid. Born and raised in a government facility for studies, then rescued and promptly left in the system until he turned 18. Jungkook doesn’t remember much of said facility, he was rescued when he was 5 years old. At that time, his rescue was a big thing for the non-human rights movement and a big reason Yoongi was forced to attend school soon after that.
Taehyung, on the other hand, is nature nymph, more specifically an oread. A nymph that protects and cares for the mountains. Nymphs, like every other creature usually found in Greece, promptly migrated to the rest of the world once the empire fell. Taehyung, true to his nature, is beautiful enough to leave you breathless for a second.
He finds beauty in everything and, sometimes, Yoongi wishes he could be a little more like Taehyung.
Yoongi is thankful they all understand. They let him feel like an useful alpha. He takes care of them the best he can; wakes up every morning to scent their border to make sure no other alpha will come near without knowing there's another alpha present. He hunts for food in the supermarket. He Remembers Jungkook’s monthly heats and makes sure there are always “feel good snacks” for Jungkook after they’re done. Meanwhile, helping with Jungkook’s actual heat was a task Hoseok was better at. The Alpha's knot being too big for Jungkook to handle. Which was okay, Yoongi was happy the Beta could help Jungkook just fine.
The alpha is happy as long as his pack is.
Yoongi hums contently as he deems the ‘hunting’ finished. He thanks the cashier and hurriedly heads home.
He only hopes Jimin didn't disturb the poor pup while he was away.
…
“Hyung! You brought a puppy!” Taehyung greets him, his hand opened and pressed against his chest. Yoongi almost hisses at him once he realizes what the nymph is holding.
The alpha drops the bag on the kitchen counter and cautiously takes the puppy away from Taehyung.
“Where is everyone, Taehyung-ah?”
He sets the pup against his chest, once he makes sure the pup is still alive, if anything, just as weak as the alpha left him, he lets out a relieved sigh. Yoongi needs to feed him. Quickly.
The nymph starts to sort through the bag on the counter, putting away the blood for the vampires and the snacks for Jungkook's upcoming heat. “Jimin went out to the city a couple of minutes ago, he didn’t say what it was for.”
Strange, his mind supplies, if Jimin needed a ride to the city he could have just told him. Yoongi doesn’t reply. Instead he gets to work on making baby formula with just one hand.
Taehyung continues, “Jin hyung called and said he’ll be home early tonight. Jungkookie also texted me he was on his way, the bus was just very late. And Hobi hyung hasn’t called or anything, so I don't know. But he’s probably at the studio, still. You know how he is.”
Yoongi nods, a small frown set on his lips. Hoseok’s been in a rut lately. Yoongi hopes Jungkook’s heat will help the beta clear his mind, at least for the three days it usually lasts.
“Thank you, Taehyung-ah, you're the best,”
The nymph smiles. He has a habit of smiling so hard his mouth resembles a tiny rectangle that everyone has always found endearing. Taehyung says it’s his nymph nature but Jimin says it’s simply Taehyung nature.
They stay together in silence. Taehyung happily assists Yoongi in his formula making quest.
And it is only when the formula is finally in a nursing bottle that Taehyung hesitantly speaks:
“Are we going to keep him, hyung?”
Yoongi freezes.
The whole pack knew how both Yoongi and Hoseok felt about ‘pets’ so it wasn't surprising to hear wariness in Taehyung's voice. Yoongi focuses on carefully waking up the blind pup and helping him find the small nipple of the nursing bottle. Once he succeeds and the pup urgently begins to eat, Yoongi's heart feels more at ease. And by the looks of how much he is eating, it wouldn't hurt to start making a little more formula.
The alpha finally sighs. “I don't know, Taehyung-ah.”
The nymph bites his lip before pouting. Big pleading eyes and his palms pressed together.
“Please. Hyung, please, please, I promise he won’t be a pet, he’ll be like another pack member, please, I’ll even convince Hobi hyung, please. We—”
Yoongi blinks. His bottom lip is caught between his teeth and an uneasiness quickly settles in his gut. The pup is happily eating baby formula and it makes him worry about how malnourished he really was, and also just how desperate he is to live.
Yoongi sighs. As the Alpha of the pack he knows everyone respects his decisions— even Seokjin, who had the hardest time adjusting to not always doing what he wanted but having to listen to Yoongi.
And even then, Yoongi knows not to overstep his power. He knows when to use his alpha voice and when not to, when to make a decision that can affect everyone, like giving Jungkook the room with the private bathroom thanks to his heats, and when to step back and listen to his pack.
But a werewolf taking in a non shapeshifter wolf is taboo. His grandpa had taught that to his father and his father had taught that to him and so forth. Yoongi ignores the small tug his alpha makes when his father appears in his mind and concentrates on the small pup that is mostly alive by pure will.
A part of him knows that once Hoseok sees the small pup in his hands he won’t say no. He’s sure because he can’t say no himself. Not when the pup presses himself against Yoongi’s chest to huddle for more warmth.
The alpha looks up to meet Taehyung’s eyes, licks his dry lips and before he can stop himself he says:
“I’ll discuss it with Hoseokie, okay?”
The nymph’s boxy smile appears once again. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, hyungie! I swear we’ll love him so much! He’ll be the cutest pack member!”
Yoongi quickly evades the younger man’s kisses, not wanting the pup in his hands to be distracted from his much deserved meal.
“It’s okay, Taetae, I’m not making any promises, though, there are a lot of things to think through. So don't get too excited, okay?”
Taehyung giggles, his fingers are quickly tapping away on his phone screen and Yoongi suspects he's texting Jimin about what just happened. Wondering if what just happened was all planned by Jimin, who knows how hard Yoongi has it when it comes to saying ‘no’ to Taehyung.
“Okay, hyung!”
Yoongi gives the small pup in his hands one last look, he’s almost eaten all of the formula by now and a part of Yoongi, his alpha, is proud of providing the small pup with food, warmth and maybe if he’s lucky, a family too.
…
“We should keep him.”
“I’m not even done tal—?”
“We should keep him, hyung.” Hoseok shrugs, the pup is sleeping in Hoseok's arms, and it makes Yoongi a little uneasy. The alpha wasn’t really expecting the beta to agree so easily. “Winter’s about to start and we can't just let him out in the wild, Taehyung would mope all winter and be devastated, Jimin would get upset because Taehyungie is devastated. Then Jungkook would get upset, too, because he has abandonment issues, remember? And to top it all, Seokjin hyung would then pretend to care too, just to get on their good side.” Yoongi can’t help but nod in acknowledgement, Hoseok is right. “And also,” The beta breathes in, face hard and disbelief clear in his voice, “How would you tell this pup to go back to his death hole and not feel bad?!”
The beta raises the pup to his face and begins to make puppy eyes at Yoongi, the pup still calmly asleep in his hands. “C’mon, alpha, pwease dun’ gwlet me dwie outswide.” The beta whispers with a fake whine. The alpha huffs, trying not to let his beta’s cute face get a reaction out of him.
“Hoseok-ah, stop,”
“Pwease, alphaaa” he presses, a smirk on his face.
Yoongi looks away, he can hear his pack downstairs; Taehyung and Jimin are telling Jungkook about the pup, meanwhile Seokjin is cooking for them and pretending to be interested in their conversation.
The alpha inside him is tranquil. He looks at Hoseok again, lips pouty and furrowed brows.
Yoongi thinks.
And thinks and thinks and thinks until his brain hurts.
Starting a pack with grown pups was one thing, but having an actual pup be a part of a pack was something entirely different. A baby, quite literally; a responsibility, and without a mother in the picture most of the said responsibility would fall into the head omega’s pack. Except their pack is, for a lack of a better word, lacking an omega. After the omega, the responsibility would fall on the head beta. And while Yoongi knows Hoseok is more than fit to raise a pup by himself, he also knows the beta’s life is already a handful for him, adding a baby to his main responsibilities wouldn’t be fair on him.
There’s the rest of his pack too, of course. And while he knows all of them would gladly care for him, it wouldn’t be the same as caring for him like a pup in growing needs.
Yoongi, on the other hand, has more free time combined than all of his pack does. Working from home is like a never ending vacation with a very consistent hobby, or at least that’s how he’s been managing it so far.
And while it wasn’t unheard of to hear about Alphas caring for pups, it certainly was rare for an alpha to be the main nurse of a pup. Alphas don’t produce milk, but rather just provide.
Yoongi thinks and thinks.
Ever since they bought this house and moved in with his pack, the alpha has long accepted that his life will be anything but what the standard for a werewolf should be.
So what if he’s the head Apha of a head Omega-less pack? Who cares if Yoongi hasn’t had a proper rut for years now? No one should care about what goes on inside Yoongi’s personal life, the media already has fun knowing he’s not mated at his big age.
Yoongi is, in almost every way, a very unconventional alpha, and certainly, nursing a pup wouldn’t be the most unusual element of his life.
Yoongi sighs. A part of him is hesitant, dubious, even.
And the other part is excited.
It’s his alpha.
The idea of raising an actual pup was something Yoongi had never really thought about, but now that it’s right in front of him, he's completely thrilled at the idea of passing down the knowledge his own father gave him to someone that will actually listen.
Yoongi looks at the pup, who survived just by pure will. If he makes it through the night Yoongi swears to give him the best life he could possibly wish for.
“Okay, but the pup stays with me.”
The moment he agrees is the exact same one he can hear his pack downstairs celebrating, he rolls his eyes as Hoseok celebrates quietly, trying not to disturb the pup’s sleep.
“Alright, then, I guess we can finally go eat, hyung. I’m starving!”
Yoongi blinks and next thing he knows he's holding the pup. By the time he’s protesting, Hoseok's already out of his room and chanting along the lines of “one of us-one of us- one of us” with the rest of their pack members.
The alpha finds it hard to be annoyed. Instead he opts to leave their new pack member to rest on the small nest he made for him on his bed.
When he arrives to the kitchen he sees their eldest, Seokjin, a tall, broad shouldered beautiful vampire, drinking blood through his favorite maxi glass (a gift from Hoseok and Yoongi, many years ago back when the werewolves were young and stupid and a pack was the furthest thing from their minds.)
Jimin and Taehyung are eating meat off of the same plate while Hoseok tickles their youngest over a plate of salad. Yoongi sighs. Immediately everyone's attention is focused on him. There's a teasing smile on Jimin’s lips and before he can even talk Taehyung interrupts him with a bright smile; the kind that makes Jimin happy.
“Hyung, let’s give him a name!”
“A name?”
A name.
Names are important. They define you and give you a meaning to the rest of the world. Yoongi snorts, hoping it will hide his blush. He hadn’t even thought of that yet. So much for being the pup's main caregiver.
“Yeah, hyung. We can’t call him pup forever.”
“I say we name him ‘Baby’”
“That name is so—” Seokjin starts but Taehyung is quick to interrupt him.
“Oh my god, yes! It’s perfect! Our cute little baby!”