43

                                    

                                          
"Hobi, talk to me please." Yoongi was crouching beside Hoseok's limp body, desperately trying to get his mate to speak without any luck.
                          
The usually happy red haired pill wasn't so happy anymore. Face pale, lips dry and eyes empty. He was shut off.
Yoongi's heart broke each time he stared at his lover who's now only a shell of a man.
                          
What he couldn't understand was the fact that his mate, who was an alpha, was suffering so much while he wasn't feeling as much as a spark of pain.
Sure, his chest constricted at his mate's state and the mark at the side of his neck did burn due to the stretch in the bond. But apart from that, nothing really happened to him.
                          
Yoongi had had a long conversation with the shaman that was responsible for Hoseok's case. The old woman was very wise and well spoken. The hundreds of wrinkles decorating the skin of her face could only count as the years of experience she had in healing werewolves.
                          
"It was meant to happen." She spoke, "your bond was meant to fail you from the beginning. I'm sorry, son."
                          
Yoongi had plainly refused to acknowledge the fact that there was no possible way to cure his dying lover. He refused to cry and mourn what can still be mended.
                          
Therefore, here he was standing beside his boyfriend, who was refusing to exchange words with him, and thinking of ways to be useful.
                          
"Son?"
                          
"Father." Yoongi stood up to bow at the Alpha who entered their bedroom after a small knock. His father only held his hand to help his son up, dismissing him from the usual formal greeting.
Alpha Jeon was a tall, strong wolf whose white hairs on his otherwise still black hair were the only signs betraying his real age. Those and the occasional wrinkles which only appeared when he frowned too much or smiled too wide.
The latter hardly ever happening often as of last.
Yoongi knew his father was distressed.
Still being hung up on Jungkook's departure and now his other son was losing his mate.
It was enough worrying about. And even though the Head Alpha dismissed his first son from his Beta duties, the latter did his best to assist nonetheless. Something his dad didn't appreciate.
But what could he do about it? Yoongi was thick-headed and stubborn. Like father, like son.
                          
Yoongi reluctantly left his mate's side to follow his father into the living room where they could converse more freely.
                          
"How's his state developing?"
                          
"Badly, Father. The medicine they gave him does nothing except making him fall asleep. He sleeps all day and only wakes up to eat. Forcefully."
                          
"This is bad, indeed." Alpha Jeon hummed, brows furrowed in concern. "I'm curious about why this doesn't affect you. The healer linked Hoseok's sickness to the mate bond. It should go both ways, am I wrong?"
                          
Yoongi shook his head. It had to go both ways. After all, he did witness first hand how his brother and his mate equally suffered from it.
                          
"You're not wrong, Father. We just don't know why it's only affecting Hoseok and not myself."
                          
-
                          
"No not this one, the other one!" Yeji was screaming orders left and right and the poor Ten was all over the place trying to get her what she needed and perhaps avoid getting scolded for the hundredth time in an hour. "Goddess, I said the flour not the sugar!"
                          
"You said the white one! They're both white!"
                          
"Hold up." Chaeyoung grabbed the packet from the distressed boy, and suddenly dipped a finger in it, darting her tongue to lick the tip afterwards. "It's salt, not sugar."
                          
"For fuck's sake, Ten!" Yeji raged. If he put salt in the batter instead of sugar, she was actually going to castrate him.
                          
"There you go, buttercup."
                          
"Thank you, love-bug." Haechan kissed his mate on the cheek, taking the chocolate from him before chopping it finely on the cutting board.
                          
"Why can't we work like this?!"
                          
"Because you're a stupid hoe!"
                          
"How am I supposed to tell the sugar from the salt? They look exactly the same!"
                          
"Taste them, you twat!"
                          
When Lucas and Jungkook entered the house after going to get more ingredients from the village, the kitchen resembled more a war zone than a baking station.
                          
"Uh, I'll just put these in here." Lucas put the bags containing eggs and flour on the farthest countertop before trying to slip past all the shouts and curses thrown left and right.
                          
"Where do you think you're going?" Yeji called out the sneaking boy from where she was assisting Ten in his batter, afraid he'll somehow blow it up if she as much as looked away from him.
                          
"No where." Lucas sighed in defeat.
                          
"Good. Because we need someone to separate the egg yolks from the whites." She smiled at her brother evilly.
                          
"How's it going, Jimin?" Ryujin passing by the blonde who was in charge of making the whipped cream, asked curiously.
                          
"Great! It's coming together nicely." He assured. However, the girl was still suspicious.
                          
"Uhm where's Taehyung? I thought he was supposed to do the coloring?"
                          
Jimin stopped whipping, suddenly looking around him. The alpha was indeed by his side when they started but that was quite a while ago.
                          
"Toilet?" The blonde lucked out. Ryujin rolled her eyes.
                          
"Even in group activities, he manages to slip away." She huffed, continuing to where she was originally headed, beside Yeonjun and BamBam since they were in charge of the cupcakes.
                          
Jimin frowned. Where the hell did Tae go? Just when he thought the boy was actually having fun to spending the day with them, he disappears.
                          
"NO, NOT THE FLOUR!" Yeji's booming voice made the entirety of the wolves flinch.
What did Ten do now?
"It's called baking soda! BAKING SODA!"
                          
"But I tasted it this time! It's tastes exactly the same!" Ten defended but Yeji only snatched the can from his hands and decided to go fetch the ingredient herself.
                          
"I bet you fifty bucks they'll end up mating."
Mark whispered to Lucas beside him who only snickered.
                          
"Make it a hundred." 
                          
"Bet."
                          
Soobin with the help of Sehun, were busy making crepes with Soobin's mom's trusty recipe he and Yeonjun swear by.
                          
"As soon as you put the scoop in the pan, you move it so the batter spreads out evenly." Yeonjun translates his boyfriend's instructions to the concentrated boy.
                          
"Like this?" Sehun asks, showing them to see if he was doing this right.
                          
"Yeah!" Soobin clapped, impressed by Sehun's quick understanding and didn't hesitate embracing the slightly shorter man. Don't be fooled though, those two were basically giants comparing to the rest of the wolves present.
                          
"I think you can manage without me now." Yeonjun smiled before returning to his station where Ryujin and BamBam were nearly finished filling the cupcake molds.
                          
The atmosphere, albeit chaotic, was very homey and fun; the smell of sweets filling everyone's noses and making their already empty stomachs grumble with hunger.
That until Lucas suddenly asks.
                          
"Hold up, where's Jungkook?"
                          
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