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Jeongin knew this day was coming.
It had taken another three months of arguing, with their own managers protesting decisions that the company had been making as they made the best of what they could.
It was the final meeting. He had persevered under intense scrutiny from the company as they navigated another comeback, travelling for schedules, as well as their own solo schedules.
Nobody missed how he was the quickest to react, the one who had to visibly stop himself from following his instincts, from lashing out when people would make remarks behind their backs or even in some cases, directly to their faces.
Chan shielded him when he could, as did the other two alphas in the pack. The one time Changbin tried, it took Jeongin a full day to let the older omega out of his sight, much to the rest of the pack's amusement.
“We’ve reached the decision that to allow you a pack house is simply unreasonable. Considering there are no pups within the group and under contract, there won’t be any accidents to allow for it to happen.”
Jeongin stared at them.
None of them missed the little smirk on the division lead manager's face and Chan stiffened.
“So what you’re doing is punishing our pack when we rightfully protected our youngest alpha as he presented, due to his instincts having been given crossed wires thanks to my own actions when I first presented?” The smirk grew wider as others looked uncomfortable. He knew the pack's scents were muted, but even he could smell the anger in the room - scents that were usually comforting - turning sour in their anger.
“I’m so glad you understand why you are being refused, Chan-ssi.”
His pack was being punished for a decision his pack alpha made because of his own actions.
“You’ve already punished me for what happened, or was the mass scheduling not punishment enough in your eyes?” The words were out of Jeongin’s mouth before he could stop them and immediately Chan’s hand was on his shoulder.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about-”
“You forced me into scent starvation. Even the company medical staff said that I needed to be kept off schedule for a week at minimum with the rest of the pack, but you instead forced me to attend meetings and schedules. You made sure that their schedules never lined up with mine.” The realisation was startling as he began to understand exactly what had been done.
All because his pack alpha had chosen him.
“I don’t know what-”
“I’ve seen my records!” His voice snapped out louder than intended, the red tinge appearing in his vision, but he wasn’t scared by it like he had been when he’d first presented.
They’d kept him from his pack intentionally.
“Your records are-”
“My records are mine and for those I choose to share them with. I am an adult, I have presented and had permission from my pack alpha. They said nothing at the time or if they did, I don’t remember it clearly because I was so sick. But it’s there in my records, in black and white what was going on. And now you’re refusing us a home where we can finally protect ourselves, our mates?”
Nobody missed the sneer on the man’s face and things began to click into place for the others, the anger that had been muted was more present now, overwhelming in the worst way as Jeongin tried to keep his temper in check.
“Jeongin-ah, what do you mean about scent starvation?” Chan’s words were clipped and he turned to see lines of anger and concern in his pack alpha’s face, understanding that none of them likely knew what had happened.
“After the awards ceremony. Our schedules were so packed, but everyone else seemed to be paired up or at least scheduled alongside someone else in the pack. I never was. I didn’t even think about it until now, because sometimes when I get stressed, I get ill.” He snapped back, irritation flaring up as everything settled in like puzzle pieces.
“When did you get access to your files?” His pack alpha’s words were much softer, clearly intending to at least allay his irritation.
“Yesterday.” Jeongin’s tone was more defiant than he intended, earning a sharp look and a tight squeeze on his shoulder. Immediately he tipped his head to the side in submission, a silent apology.
“Is that why we found you in our nests, Ayen-ah?” Changbin’s voice was soft and he felt the rush of blood colour his cheeks.
“Yes. I always felt a bit better to get through another day of schedules after being in them and I realise now it’s because your nests were a substitute, albeit a poor one, to get the scents I desperately needed. I never said anything because I thought this was just normal as we were all so busy.” He looked between the dawning looks of horror on his packs faces, before his gaze moved to the other side of the table and watched various emotions from shock to unease cross the faces of management.
But one look seemed more frightened than shocked.
He wasn’t even aware of his body moving or Chan’s arms wrapping around him as he snarled.
“What did we do?!”
This time the fright looked genuine, not the fear of being caught out, but the fear of facing a feral young alpha whose pack was still in the room.
“You broke terms with your presentation!” The manager snapped back and the silence that followed would’ve been impressive if the scents in the room didn’t smell so sour.
“What?” Chan’s voice was by his ear, low, dangerous. His arms went slack in surprise and he held himself still, unwilling to make his pack alpha aware of the slip up.
“In your contracts the terms of presentation are clear! He was denying your pack omegas and so it would’ve-”
Chan wasn’t quick enough this time to tighten his arms as Jeongin lunged forward, his fist colliding with the man's face before he was hauled back by his pack, anger surging through his veins.
“You let me suffer for something I could not control!”
He was struggling against the hands that were holding him in place until Chan stepped in front of him, holding his face.
“Jeongin, stop!”
An order from his pack alpha. One that was much harsher than his first experience of it.
He fell to his knees, a low whine in his throat as he bore his neck, feeling the others move with him.
“I’ll have him out for this!” The voice behind Chan was shushed and before he could react, Felix and Seungmin were in his space, their scents soothing even if they were distressed. His attention remained on his pack alpha, however.
“Don’t move.”
He knew that he could break from this order if he wanted to, but the idea of rebelling against Chan - especially after attacking someone - made him feel nauseous. Instead he remained still as the others carefully scented him, the red haze around his vision receding in the wake of their reassurances.
Shame filled him.
Chan turned then - to face the team - and his anger swept through the room.
Jeongin whimpered.
“You will not touch what is mine. I am prepared to break every fucking contract we have and walk out of here right now. You scent starved my youngest and thought we would never find out?”
Hyunjin nudged Seungmin to the side before kneeling next to Felix, both of them quietly reassuring Jeongin that he was okay.
“He needed to be taught-”
“He is not your charge. I am his pack alpha. I have been from the day I presented and claimed him, even as an unpresented pup. What happened within our pack was fucking terrifying until we realised what had happened and made adjustments to what he needed. It was none of your business to step in until you tried to separate him from us. So no, he did not need to be taught anything.”
The silence was loud, with only Jeongin’s soft whimpers breaking through occasionally.
“If you think I’m about to let some punk alpha kid-”
If he hadn’t already been on his knees, Jeongin would have fallen to them at the guttural snarl that left Chan’s lips, a warning and a threat all in one.
“You’ve overstepped with my pack too many times. We have asked for one thing - a home for us to remain safe within and allow our youngest to settle completely. I don’t care if I have to have a meeting with PD-nim himself to get this to happen, but I am done letting you treat us like this. Any attack on my packmates is an attack on me, and I’m far more fucking familiar with the system than you might realise, because unlike some piss poor apparent alpha, I look after my pack. The only reason that I nearly failed was because you made a decision without my knowledge.”
If Jeongin hadn’t been certain of Chan’s anger before, he certainly was now. No one had ever heard him be so disrespectful to an elder, let alone a higher up.
Before any kind of answer or acknowledgement could be given, he turned back towards the pack and instinctively, Jeongin found himself leaning away from the anger in his pack alpha’s scent, a look of apology replacing the elders scowl as he crouched down in the spot that Hyunjin had vacated seconds previous.
“Lets go home, hm Ayennie?”
The youngest didn’t protest as he was helped up by his packmates, knees aching from the force of how hard he’d dropped to the ground.
It was almost startling at how well they arranged themselves, their scents blooming out to hide his own distress and keeping close together, so that those who would walk past them casually, couldn’t see how Jeongin was leaning heavily on Chan.
His head was still feeling dazed, allowing Changbin to help get him in the car with Chan, but couldn’t stop the grumble as the omega climbed in behind them.
He laughed.
“Aish, I know you want hyung and I’m not taking him from you, but there’s not enough room for all of us in one car.” The gentle chide settled his grumblings and before he knew it, they were back at the dorms.
“Do you want to be in your den or hyung’s?” Chan’s question was reasonable and for once, he wanted to concede.
He wanted to be surrounded by his pack alpha’s scent and nothing else.
“Yours hyung, please.” The words were a whisper, but Chan heard him and held him a little bit closer as they carried on walking to the dorm. If the others were surprised, no one commented on it as they all piled in.
Felix slid underneath one of Jeongin’s arms, his alpha surprisingly not protesting the intrusion.
“Let me help you get changed so we can crawl into the nest in hyung’s den.” He whined this time as Chan reluctantly pulled away, but he didn’t fight as he was pulled into the bathroom.
Felix was gentle in his care, purring all the while he was doing the skincare routine he’d learned from watching Jeongin in the rare evenings they had together, fingers massaging his skin and the baby alpha let his scent bloom - this time the smell of roses overpowering the apples and cinnamon - making Felix giggle quietly as he continued his ministrations.
It seemed to unravel the stress that had been building up, the tenderness stopping his own inevitable spiral, unwilling to sink into the panic over the fact he’d punched one of their higher ups, and had he not been stopped, he would’ve kept going.
He wasn’t violent, but even he knew that they’d pushed him far beyond his breaking point and were waiting for him to snap.
The tears began to fall then, and Felix didn’t hesitate as he moved to comfort him.
“Oh Yeni.” His name was a soft sigh, so close to a prayer as the omega wormed his way closer, his body pressed tightly against Jeongin’s.
“I fucked up, hyung.”
“No. And Channie-hyung will not let you think that way either. The idiot deserved it, especially if they really were trying to scent starve you. Why didn’t you say anything?” The concern was clear as day, and he kept his eyes closed, pressing his face into the side of Felix’s neck, nose against his scent gland.
“I didn’t really understand until I looked at the records yesterday. Hyung showed me the schedules that we’d had and I put it together. I was always on solo schedules and it always “happened” to be timed that I wouldn’t see any of you.” The last word came out choked, a lump in his throat preventing anything else to try and explain.
Felix peppered soft kisses against his collarbone in return.
“If anything, you may have just cleared up a lot of problems, but it’s going to be rough for a little bit longer.” Jeongin knew it would be. Unless Chan pulled something out of the bag, it was going to be an uphill battle. One that he was terrified of facing alone.
“Don’t leave me.” The words were almost strangled and Felix could only let out a soft noise of comfort.
“Never. We’re by your side and so is Chan-hyung. I promise.”
By the time they made it to Chan’s den, everyone else was all changed. Jeongin was well aware that his eyes were still red, and didn’t protest as hands pulled him closer, wrists catching his scent glands and offering comfort as Chan pulled him onto his lap.
Nobody spoke for the first five minutes, even with his scent tinged with shame, they allowed him the space - allowed Chan the opportunity to comfort him - before Felix spoke up.
“I think we need to take a look at what happened and where we go from here. Because they aren’t going to be happy with what happened today.” Seungmin snorted at that.
“You think? I’m still surprised hyung didn’t rip his throat out.”
This earned a few giggles, but Chan didn’t deny the accusation of violence. He simply held Jeongin a little bit tighter, fingers carefully moving up and down his back in a soothing motion.
“I’m sorry.” The words finally slipped free from Jeongin and everyone protested immediately.
“You weren’t in the wrong, Ayen-ah.” Jisung murmured and he shook his head at that.
“I was. I hit him and-”
“It’s no different to when you bit me!” Changbin protested, and the whine that escaped him, followed by the scent of rotten roses, made them fall silent.
“Aegiya, do you really believe that you’re in the wrong?” Minho was softer with his words. Jeongin nodded.
“I’ve already spent this long stopping myself from reacting, and I just couldn’t anymore. It was like something else had a grip on my body.” The omegas fell silent at the admission, looks of understanding appearing on both Minho’s and Hyunjin’s features.
“We all made mistakes today, I think.” Chan finally spoke up, his hand still continuing the motions that kept the youngest's panic in check.
“How so hyung?” Seungmin asked quietly as he let his fingers wrap around Jeongin’s ankle, he didn’t pull away from the touch.
“The first mistake was having all of us in there. We’ve been under immense pressure; because of Jeongin-ah being unwell they decided to push that on us, yet his illness was apparently scent starvation. His alpha was reacting to the hostile scents from all of us.” Chan looked at him then, using the hand that wasn’t moving up and down his back to curl under his chin, moving his head and holding his gaze. “Your alpha viewed them as a threat, that’s why you lost control. Yes, we had to pull you back, but the fact that you only went for a punch and didn’t bite the fucker - I’m proud of you Ayen-ah.”
He couldn’t duck his face away at the praise, a soft noise escaping his lips as the pack alpha pressed a kiss to his cheek before letting go.
“Hyung is right, Jeongin-ah. I certainly wouldn’t have been as restrained if I’d been in your place, but you were.” Minho’s words settled the embarrassment, letting out a short breath of air.
“Thank you.” The words were barely a whisper, but both alpha’s smiled at him in return, something in him unfurling at their praise.
“Do you think that they will actually be able to do anything to Jeongin?” Jisung’s own worry shone through now, and at least three of them snorted.
“I mean they can try. STAY have been very understanding that Jeongin-ah is still newly presented, and it’s easy to see how much they’ve been pointing out when he has dealt with people who either cross boundaries or straight up attempt to set him off.” Hyunjin pointed out, and Jeongin found himself really looking at his pack.
“Whilst medical records are protected, whispers aren’t. It wouldn’t take much to get the rumour mill going about Jeongin-ah’s scent starvation.” Seungmin murmured and ducked away from Changbin’s hand that ruffled his hair.
“Speaking of which, Jeongin-ah, why did you not tell us?” Minho’s tone had turned firmer, and he knew that if he wasn’t wrapped up in Chan’s arms, he’d have been squirming from the look that he was getting.
“I never actually knew what it looked like. You’ve- all of you have been so on it when it comes to scenting. It didn’t even occur to me that it was scent starvation. I thought they were just pushing me to my limits as punishment, not something like that.” Minho’s features softened at the admission, his hand reaching out and carefully running through the youngest's hair, curving his hand to slide down his face until the palm was resting on his cheek. Jeongin didn’t hide his own affection as he tilted into the touch.
He ignored the soft looks he was getting.
“Regardless of what is decided, we’re finished for promotions and we can cite the illness of a pack member for our solo schedules. Unless we absolutely cannot pull out, you’re not going to be alone for the next couple of weeks Ayen-ah”
No one protested Minho’s words, and something in him eased knowing that they were prepared to look after him no matter what.
-
The first attempt of a consequence came the following morning.
Chan and Minho leaving the nest was what had woken him up, his head feeling fuzzy as they both scented him, before pressing kisses to his face, despite his whined protests.
“We’re going to handle this attempt of an ambush on you and pick up breakfast. Stay with the others.” Chan’s words eased any worry as he settled back down, ignoring the grumble in the back of his mind at both alphas being away from the nest.
They’d scented him well enough so when Jisung cuddled in close, with Felix pressing in behind him, it was hard to keep his eyes open.
He wasn’t sure how long had passed, but when they came back into the nest, their scents were suspiciously neutral. Jeongin had only just woken up, eyes bleary as he registered that they were back, not smelling like the pack, so both of them got scented, making the others laugh as movement began to happen and food was brought into the nest for breakfast.
Only when they’d eaten did Chan tell them what had happened.
“They tried to call Jeongin into a private meeting alone.” He started, and Seungmin raised an eyebrow at that.
“That was their first mistake, thinking that he’d ever want to be alone with them after yesterday.” He muttered and the others giggled, earning a smile from Chan as he leaned over to pinch Seungmin’s cheek.
“Correct Seungminnie. That’s why Minho-yah and I went instead. They were very surprised to see us both, but it looked like an ambush. They had a few lawyers present, most likely to try and intimidate you into agreeing with whatever plan they cooked up.” Chan continued explaining and Jeongin wasn’t too sure how to feel knowing that.
“Hyung can be scary when it’s directed at you, but he looked very hot growling at the idiot.” Minho’s tone was casual, almost like he was talking about the weather, and he found himself smiling as their pack alpha blushed.
“Yes, well, he tried to state that you’d attacked him unprovoked. I think even his colleagues protested that, and it was clear to see what he’d expected to happen.”
“That I would’ve seen the lawyers and rolled over to show my belly?” Jeongin asked, the scathing tone making the others smile.
“Pretty much.” Chan explained, and there were a few looks of surprise.
“Wait, seriously?” The look of shock on Felix’s face made the baby alpha snort, but he stayed quiet.
“He didn’t think it through. The second I mentioned his medical records and scent starvation as retaliation, he was trying to backtrack. As I have access as your pack alpha, I’ve made them aware of what happened, but only with your full permission will I give it to them.” He knew it was the bare minimum, but the respect that Chan always showed them, it was overwhelming to really consider.
“You have my full permission, hyung. What happened after?” At this, the pack alpha smirked and that made everyone pause.
“HR are very interested in how our scheduling is done and why you were diagnosed with scent deprivation. So we’ve made them aware of the pack decision and also advised them that this whole thing started because of our request for a pack house. So they’re going to look into that as well.”
The fuzzy feeling seemed to return in full force, and he launched himself from the spot between Jisung and Felix, the others laughing as Chan pulled him down, pressing a kiss to his temple.
“Thank you, hyung.”
“No, thank you. I’d do anything for you, I hope you know that.”
The feeling in his chest whispered that he did, and he loved his pack alpha for it.