Chapter Text
Mingi braced himself against the corner of the tiled washroom wall, attempting to shield himself with his arms as another barrage of cold water hit the back of his head.
Be patient. Focus. Wait for an opening.
“Gotta clean your filthy Omega ass up for tonight’s showing,” one of the masked Wolves, a Beta, taunted him, laughing.
The jet of water from the hose finally relented, and one of the others, a large female Alpha, jeered, “He’s pathetic, once you take his weapons away and rough him up a bit. All that muscle and for what?”
“Don’t antagonize him,” another Beta warned. “You saw what he did to the others.”
The Alpha scoffed, “I’d like to see him try that shit with me.”
Mingi lowered his arms, but his head was spinning. His body felt like one giant wound. The bruises he had received on the day of his capture were half-healed, but they had been layered with even more over the past few days. He tried to move his legs to stand, but they stiffened and cramped. He gritted his teeth. He was ready to make a move, if only his useless body would fucking work correctly.
“My brother says the only thing he’s good for is making super Alphas,” the first Beta said. “He’s going to be bidding tonight for at least one breeding season with him.”
“There’s no way your broke-ass brother is going to win the auction,” the Alpha insisted. “There’s so many bidders interested, including some pretty high profile Alphas. I got a glimpse of the invite list and…” The Alpha let out a low whistle. “It’s going to be impossible for him, I’m afraid.”
“What the fuck is a super Alpha, anyway?” the second Beta asked. “Seems a bit delusional to me. This Omega is probably just a genetic accident. Who knows if he’s actually capable of passing the genetics on to make something like that.”
“Many are willing to risk it,” the first Beta answered. “Talk to me again when I’ve got super Alpha nieces and nephews.”
The Wolves laughed, and Mingi felt like he was going to vomit. He could still feel the effects of the daily dose of sedatives in his system, but the drugs were wearing off more quickly than his tormentors seemed to realize.
Another blast of cold water hit him, this time concentrated on his back. He hugged his legs tightly to his chest, gasping from the shock of the icy water against his bare skin.
As soon as the water stopped this time, Mingi jumped to his feet and lunged. He managed to tackle one of the Betas to the ground and began pounding his face in without hesitation. The other two shouted in alarm, and the other Beta, who might have actually pissed himself, dropped his cattle prod and bolted for the door. Mingi immediately dove for the weapon. Just as Mingi’s hands clamped around the abandoned weapon, the Alpha slammed her prod into his back and activated it.
He clenched his teeth as every nerve in his body lit up with pain, every muscle contracted, waiting for the charge to run out. As soon as the Alpha seemed to think Mingi was incapacitated and pulled her own prod away, Mingi whirled around and jabbed her, triggering the debilitating electric shock.
The Wolf who had dashed out of the room returned with several more guards, three of which aimed tranquilizer guns at Mingi’s bare chest. The Alpha that Mingi had electrocuted dropped to the ground unconscious as the guards with the guns closed in.
Mingi backed into the corner of the shower, brandishing the prod defensively and glowering at the guards. Rivulets of water coursed down his face from his wet hair, and he shook his head to shift the hair out of his eyes. There were too many of them for him to fight off in his weakened state, but he didn’t want to surrender. He couldn’t. He had to get out of this place.
“That is quite enough,” Jeong’s voice sounded sternly from the doorway. He walked up to the guards with the tranquilizer guns, holding his hand up authoritatively. “Stand down, idiots. You know we aren’t supposed to use those right now,” he told them, then pushed them out of the way so he could approach Mingi.
“Fucking incompetent…” he muttered under his breath as he stood looming over Mingi.
Mingi lunged for him, brandishing the prod, but Jeong was faster than the still partially-drugged Mingi. The Alpha grabbed the end of the prod, wrenched it out of Mingi’s hands, and tossed it aside. It clattered across the floor to the opposite end of the shower.
Mingi tried to move towards it, but Jeong imparted a savage shove to Mingi’s chest, and Mingi slammed back against the wet tile wall. He lost his footing and slipped, barely managing to catch himself on all fours before he could faceplant into the floor. He gasped as the pain from the force of his fall radiated up his palms into his wrists and forearms.
Before Mingi could recover, Jeong crouched down and grabbed him by the hair, forcing him to look up at him. “If you don’t learn to behave yourself, things are going to go even more badly for you,” the Alpha told him. And there was that arrogant smile again.
Mingi tried to spit in his face, but the Alpha, used to this by now, blocked it with his other hand. He smirked as he wiped the saliva onto Mingi’s bare, muscular thigh, swiping his palm roughly over Mingi’s damp skin, moving much too close to Mingi’s exposed groin. Mingi hated himself for the shudder that coursed through him at Jeong’s touch. The Alpha surveyed Mingi’s naked body with something that looked like hunger in his jade-green eyes.
“That’s enough of your bullshit for today, Omega,” the Alpha ordered. “Now be a good boy and come with me.” Mingi’s breath hitched and his knees went weak as the Alpha spoke the command. He dropped his gaze, despising how helpless he felt any time he interacted with the Alpha. He had tried to fight him off multiple times already, but the Alpha had always overpowered him. If Mingi hadn’t been so weakened by the sedatives they kept giving him, he knew he could have taken him down.
Jeong’s long fingers formed a vice-like grip around Mingi’s wrist, and the Alpha yanked him to his feet. Mingi’s head spun from the potent combination of Jeong’s stifling scent and the remnant of the drugs in his system. He staggered drunkenly after the Alpha as he was dragged out of the shower and back to the room they had been keeping him imprisoned in.
Once they were back inside, Jeong released Mingi’s wrist, and Mingi’s knees gave out. He collapsed to the floor, reeling as Jeong locked the door behind them. The Alpha retrieved a folded pair of black leather pants from the table adjacent to the gurney that they had been keeping Mingi strapped to most of the time. He tossed the trousers at Mingi, who didn’t even move to try to catch them. They smacked into his broad chest and slid into his lap, partially covering his nakedness. Mingi glared at Jeong.
“It’s either you put those on, or I dress you myself,” the Alpha told him, then smirked as he also threw him a fresh pair of underwear. “And I really don’t think you’ll like my method of dressing you.”
Mingi scowled, then braced his hand on the wall as he pulled himself to his feet. Jeong’s scent was overwhelming. It was so hard to think about anything else when the man was in the room. There had been other Alphas around Mingi in this compound, but this man’s effect on him was ten times worse than any of the others had been.
He craved Jeong’s touch.
He hated it when Jeong touched him.
He wanted the Alpha nearby.
He wanted Jeong to go away and never come back.
Mingi was losing his mind. His heat was nearly upon him, and it seemed the Wolves had no intention of allowing him to suppress it.
Mingi pulled the clean underwear on, then struggled to tug the trousers up over his thighs. Jeong watched apathetically with a hand on his chin, until Mingi finally managed to squeeze into them and fasten the buttons.
“That’s the biggest pair I had,” Jeong commented. Mingi scowled down at the straining fabric, embarrassed that he was being forced to wear this asshole Alpha’s clothing. To wear his scent on his body.
“Why are you doing this?” Mingi asked. “Where are my clothes? Where’s my shirt?”
Jeong smiled, and Mingi was overcome with the desire to break the Alpha’s jaw so he could never smile again. But Mingi also didn’t want to move any closer to him.
“Your clothes were covered in blood, bodily fluids, and frankly, they were disgusting,” the Alpha responded. “So we had them burned. And no shirt yet, gorgeous, you’ve got to go impress some potential buyers.”
“I am not for sale, you motherfucker,” Mingi growled, balling his hands into fists. His head pounded painfully as his body fought the sedatives, but he forced himself to stay upright, instead of sinking to the floor like he wanted to. He sensed his legs trembling with the effort.
“Debatable,” Jeong replied, looking him up and down. He sighed and began to unbutton the vest he was wearing over his long-sleeved shirt. Mingi was mortified by the whimper that escaped his own lips as he backed away to the opposite corner of the room, trying in vain to distance himself from the Alpha.
What was Jeong doing, undressing himself in here, while alone with Mingi? The Alpha could have nothing but evil intentions.
Mingi flattened himself against the wall as Jeong approached him with the vest in hand. He stepped right up to Mingi and watched him curiously. Mingi held his breath. Jeong was standing much too close to him.
Mingi questioned himself— why wasn’t he fighting back right now? Why couldn’t he bring himself to attack the Alpha again? His brain and body felt incredibly sluggish. It was difficult for Mingi to form even a single coherent thought.
They stared at each other for a long moment. Eventually, Mingi could no longer endure the Alpha’s piercing gaze, and he lowered his eyes. Jeong responded by shoving the vest against Mingi’s chest.
“Put it on. That’s the best you’ll get,” Jeong told him. Mingi reached up cautiously to take it from him, relieved that was all the Alpha seemed to want. For now.
Jeong suddenly leaned over Mingi’s shoulder and took a long, deep inhale, then took a few steps back from Mingi. The Alpha shook his head and furrowed his brow, looking either frustrated or annoyed. Mingi couldn’t tell. He was just glad the Alpha had put a bit of distance between them.
Mingi grudgingly pulled on the vest and buttoned it. He supposed he would rather have something on than be shirtless. The dark leather matched the trousers he wore, and was cut in a deep v-neck, exposing half of his chest. He tugged at the bottom of it, trying in vain to cover the exposed sliver of skin just above his hips. Despite Mingi being slightly shorter than Jeong, the vest didn’t quite cover Mingi’s broader torso the same way it had the Alpha’s.
Jeong tapped his chin as he inspected Mingi. “I may have made things worse,” he muttered. He grabbed a small towel from the table and approached Mingi again. Mingi stood frozen as Jeong lifted the towel and began scrubbing at Mingi’s wet hair to remove some of the dampness. Mingi couldn’t help but lean slightly into the Alpha’s touch as the man’s fingers grazed his scalp over and over.
He bit his lip to keep any sounds from escaping. He knew he shouldn’t be enjoying this, but the last few days he had been on the receiving end of nothing but violence from the Wolves, so finally experiencing a touch that wasn’t aggressive made him yearn for more. It certainly wasn’t because he needed the Alpha to touch him.
When Jeong finished, he smoothed stray pieces of Mingi’s hair down with a surprisingly gentle touch. Something about the look in Jeong’s eyes as he arranged Mingi’s hair inhibited Mingi’s urge to smack the Alpha’s hand away like he wanted to. Jeong almost seemed… concerned. He even smelled like it, giving off the faint perspiration-tinged scent that Mingi associated with worry. But that couldn’t be right. There was no way an asshole like Jeong was capable of having a sympathetic emotion.
When he finished with Mingi’s hair, Jeong stepped back to inspect his work. Then he grabbed something off the table and walked right up to Mingi, invading his personal space again. The Alpha’s scent was so intoxicating, so chokingly pervasive as it continued to build up in this small windowless room, that even holding his breath did Mingi no good this time. His body responded in a way that horrified and embarrassed him, and he shifted away uncomfortably. Before Mingi could regain his composure, Jeong slapped cold metal into his wrists, and Mingi found his hands restrained by thick, heavy handcuffs.
“What…” Mingi trailed off, knowing that protesting was of no use here. At least the shock of it had startled his body into a less aroused state.
“It’s just for the show tonight,” Jeong explained, as if that made it any better, “To help ensure that you’ll be on your best behavior.”
Mingi groaned and rolled his eyes. It wasn’t as if a pair of handcuffs could stop him from much. He envisioned smashing his fists into the side of the Alpha’s face. He just had to wait for the right moment to try again. To catch him off guard.
Jeong clapped his hands together loudly, startling Mingi back into reality, and announced, “Off we go. You can either follow me like a good little Omega, or I’ll fucking drag you. Your choice.”
Mingi reluctantly followed Jeong down the corridor, secretly thankful just to have a chance to stretch his legs some more after being strapped down to the gurney for hours at a time. They took several turns, which Mingi did his best to memorize, passing a few guards along the way who nodded deferentially at the Alpha. Mingi didn’t see any obvious exits on the way to their destination, but he tried to get a feel for the flow of foot traffic through the compound to see where most of the Wolves seemed to be coming and going from.
They finally entered a room with two doors on adjacent walls, and Jeong turned to face Mingi. “You’re going to go in there, and you’re going to stay in the goddamn circle until I come back in to get you, do you understand me?”
Mingi was already glancing around the room, looking for anything he could use as an improvised weapon. Unfortunately, there was nothing here but four empty walls. Jeong grabbed Mingi’s chin and forced Mingi to look at him. “Pay attention,” he demanded. “You are not to move, do you fucking understand me?”
“Yeah,” Mingi mumbled, deciding maybe he would wait and see what happened next before attacking again. He glanced up unhappily at Jeong, feeling a heavy, nauseating dread beginning to settle in his stomach. He didn’t want to be looked at like a piece of fresh meat by a bunch of ravenous Alphas.
Stupid, he was so stupid. He never should have gone to Sector 12 for the heat suppressants. He should have just tried to tough it out. He’d survived it twice before. Barely. But he’d had a lot of help. He missed Hongjoong. He missed his family. He hoped they would come for him soon. Mingi’s vision blurred.
“Stop it,” Jeong said, releasing his chin and running his hand through his dark, silvery blue hair as he paced back and forth in a small circle. He smelled frustrated again. Mingi furrowed his brow. He didn’t know what the Alpha wanted him to stop doing. He was standing still. He was behaving.
“I’m not doing anything,” Mingi said, keeping his head bowed and glancing up at him as he blinked back the tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
“That!” the Alpha said. “You’re…”
As he watched Mingi, the Alpha’s expression suddenly changed from something like annoyance to anger. Mingi didn’t even see it coming when Jeong backhanded him across the face so hard that he reeled sideways and almost fell to the ground.
“What the fuck, you asshole?!” Mingi said, clutching the side of his face as Jeong abruptly opened one of the doors and dragged him inside. The room was too dark for Mingi to see much at first.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” Mingi told Jeong, stumbling in the dark until the Alpha brought them to a halt. Mingi ripped his arm free of Jeong’s iron grasp, then struggled to stay upright as another wave of dizziness assailed him.
The Alpha hissed, “Stay in the circle!” and left Mingi standing alone in the middle of the small, dark room.
A bright light switched on overhead, and Mingi shut his eyes to block out the harshness of it. He heard Jeong exit the room, the door slamming shut behind him. When Mingi finally opened his eyes, he found himself standing on a shiny tiled black floor with a thick white painted circle in the center. He had been placed directly in the middle of the circle.
The side of his face still smarted from Jeong’s slap, and Mingi rubbed it gingerly as he glanced around the room. He realized upon seeing his own faint reflection that he was facing a thick pane of clear glass that divided the room in half. In the other half of the now well-lit room stood several people, some of them masked Wolves with guns, along with a few important-looking people in suits. Many of them gestured towards Mingi like they were speaking about him, but Mingi couldn’t hear anything they were saying.
Mingi spotted Jeong as he slipped into the opposite half of the room from a side door and joined the crowd. Mingi looked down at the painted circle on the ground, then back up at the Alpha, who was making prolonged eye contact with him from over the shoulder of one of the men with suits.
Mingi glanced back down at the floor. Why had Jeong told him to stay in the circle? The Omega in him wanted to do as the Alpha said. But the Hunter in him said fuck you, I’ll do the opposite of whatever you tell me.
He made eye contact with Jeong and took a step outside the circle.
Nothing happened. A couple of the Wolves on the other side of the glass glanced at him, shifting their weapons uneasily. Jeong continued to stare at him, a slow smirk growing on his face. Mingi wanted to punch it off him.
He took another step forward.
Again, nothing.
Jeong’s smirk was diabolical, almost like he was daring Mingi to come for him. So that’s what Mingi did.
He ran for the door they had entered the room by, and found it had sunk into the wall almost seamlessly, with no handles or any other way of being opened from this side. He snarled and charged at the glass separating himself from Jeong, lowering his shoulder for a blow as he crashed into it.
There was a loud thud as he rebounded off the glass and fell back on his ass. Everyone on the other side of the room appeared to have stopped their conversations and were staring at him now.
Jeong smirked and shook his head mockingly at Mingi. The glass was probably bulletproof, so it would be very thick. Very impact resistant. Very good at holding someone in.
It just hadn’t been introduced to Mingi yet.
Mingi scrambled to his feet and crashed into the glass again, being sure to hit the exact same place. There was another loud thud as he smashed against it, and several of the guards lifted their weapons in warning.
Mingi let out a furious yell and began to throw himself into the same place in the glass over and over again, all while making eye contact with Jeong and his mocking smile. Several of the guards seemed to be scrambling about, asking for orders. Many of the people in suits backed away behind them, gesturing frantically at Mingi. They were becoming frightened. Good. That meant he probably had an actual chance at breaking through. As long as he was persistent.
Mingi’s shoulder began to ache so badly from the repeated blows that he switched sides and began crashing against the glass with renewed vigor. He knew this was going to hurt like hell later, but it would be worth it if he could just reach Jeong and wipe that smug smirk off his face.
The next time Mingi threw himself against the glass, he thought he heard something crack. Hoping it was not his bones, he backed up a little to inspect it. Most of the people on the other side were scrambling around in a full panic now, and some had begun to leave the room.
Mingi had managed to crack the glass.
He only had eyes for Jeong. He backed away as he leveled his most venomous glare at the Alpha, then ran full force at the glass. This time, he finally broke through. Shards of shattered glass impaled themselves in his skin as he tumbled to the ground, skidding into the other half of the room with considerable momentum.
He came to a stop directly in front of the Alpha. Mingi instantly grabbed Jeong’s ankles and pulled him off balance, sending the tall Wolf crashing to the ground. Ignoring the guards and immense pain in his arms, Mingi clambered on top of the shocked Alpha, and raised his fists to beat that fucking smirk off his face.
Several things happened at once. Mingi swung at Jeong, several tranquilizer darts speared into Mingi’s back, and Jeong reached up with both hands… and caught Mingi’s fists. Mingi bellowed with wordless rage as his blow was halted just inches from the Alpha’s face.
Jeong smiled triumphantly.
Mingi groaned as the sedatives overwhelmed his body, then collapsed forward onto the Alpha.