39 ⋆ Transformation

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Jungkook's POV

"I pray you never know the feeling of losing a mate." I recalled my mother's words to him at my father's funeral.

Anxiously outside of the pack doctor's home, my foot tapping as I winced in pain - another broken rib filling my senses.

The transformation was getting more and more bones and flesh on his body, and soon, it would eventually reach his neck. Sounds of his pained cry filled my ears, making me drop my head in my hands and sob. I wasn't allowed inside.

I ran my hands anxiously through my hair, gripping the long strands as I hadn't necessarily taken care of myself over the past few weeks.

"Jungkook!" Jimin cried from inside of the facility, making me look up with wide eyes. Disobeying the rule, I instantly slammed open the door, startling the doctor as he walked past.

"You shouldn't be in here!" He protested, but his words fell on deaf ears as Jimin's mangled body came into view from the bedroom.

I pushed past the frazzled man as I winced once more, another broken rib filling my senses as Jimin could only whimper in pain.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. I've got you. I'm here." I reassured as I sat down on the chair next to him, his body sprawled out on the bed. His face was deathly pale, drenched with sweat, tears, and pained eyes.

He looked over at me, panting heavily, and shakily reached out to take my hand in his. I gripped it tightly as I cried, more from being terribly scared than from his pain filling my body. His sternum and upper arm bones, humerus, broke in a crackle, making him toss his head pain with the loudest scream as his body shook violently.

I squeezed his hand. The sound made my ears tingle and my skin crawl as his pain was only mirrored within me and I let out a desperate cry of pain.

"Can't you do anything?" I begged the doctors who stood uselessly in the room.

The doctors shifted nervously, until one came next to me. He pulled an extra chair beside me and sat down, looking at me with saddened eyes before looking at Jimin whose eyes were scrunched closed and his lips were parted in an attempt to find help in breathing.

"Alpha. This is nonreversible. Until it reaches his neck, which will happen rather soon, we don't know what fate will become of him."

The information shook me to the core, a cold hard stone landed in the bottom of my stomach, even though I already knew and understood that the transformation cannot be stopped once initiated.

I slowly looked back at Jimin's whose eyes were already staring back at me.

"It's okay, Kookie." He whispered, tightening his hand around mine with a smile that wrinkled his eyes. I gave a strained smile back before I leaned over him and placed my lips gently against his. His small, shaky hand reached around my neck and held me in place, savoring a moment we didn't know if we would ever have again.

"I love you." He whispered after he pulled away. Tears filled my eyes at his somber words.

"You said that like you're saying goodbye." I whispered, my eyes searching for any sign of hope within them. There was none that I could see.

I closed my eyes tightly and placed my forehead against his, squeezing his hand in assurance as his collar bone snapped. He wailed, making me pull away and sit back down as my body ached.

"I remember," Jimin started, out of breath, "when I first met you I thought you were going to kill me."

I laughed pitifully, looking at his beautiful face through watery eyes as I placed my hands around his broken hand and held it to my lips, kissing his knuckles.

"I was so lost in those woods and I thought I'd never make it out. And then you came along... scared me even more than being lost in the damn woods did." I laughed again, astonished at how he was making jokes despite the circumstances.

Jimin smiled fondly, looking off into space, "I never knew being lost meant finding your way." He looked over at me with the most loving eyes and smile, the face alone making my heart beat quickly in admiration for the boy.

I kissed the back of his hand as his lower arm bones snapped, the jolt rushing to my hands as he squeezed his eyes shut and whimpered painfully. "It's okay. I'm here." I squeezed his hand and kissed it some more.

Jimin opened his eyes once more and looked at me without a smile this time but with teary eyes.

"I don't want to die, Jungkook." He said quietly.

My face hardened at his words as the reality of the situation came crashing onto my shoulders once again even harder than before. I was going to lose my mate. Jimin was going to die with me next to him and there was nothing I could do about it. I had never felt so helpless in my life, and for the first time, I lost it. My head dropped to the bed as I let out terrible sobs, shaking uncontrollably.

I sobbed harder than I ever had, holding his hand tightly through it all as quiet tears slipped down his face. I rose my head and looked back at Jimin, as I realized everything else had broken already, except for the determining factor.

He stared back at me, knowing the same exact thing. "I want you to know that I love you, and I always will love you." Jimin whispered as he looked at me with quivering lips but the most loving eyes.

"Don't say that, Jimin. Don't say that." I said desperately.

"You were the best thing that's ever happened to me. If I have the chance to do this all over, I would go to the forest, and be lost again, so I would meet you again. I love you so much and I wouldn't trade it for the-" The snap filled my ears before he could even finish his sentence. I jumped with wide eyes, staring at a body that simply went limp and lifeless.

His eyes glazed over and the hand in my own fell limp. No motion followed after the break, and all I could do was stare, my wide eyes scanning his body quickly, over and over again to search for just the slightest movement.

"Jimin. Jimin!" I screamed, shaking his hand in mine. His beautiful dull eyes just stared at me, no sign of pain or sadness or anything. Just... nothing. There was nothing there.

I continued to stare at Jimin, half in shock and half paralyzed by a new pain that ravaged my body. It filled every muscle, every vein, every cell in my body with the feeling of utter loneliness and isolation. The feeling of losing a mate.

The doctor rose next to me, grabbed a stethoscope and placed it to his cold chest, moving it around slowly in different places before retracting it from his skin and pulling the ear tips away. He stared down at Jimin who remained motionless.

I looked at him, my hands shaking and eyes watering as I awaited his announcement, even though I already felt it, in my core.

The doctor shook his head softly and looked down before making his way out of the room quietly and closing the door, leaving us some time alone. My eyes slowly drifted back down to his body, the eyes of my dead mate staring at me lifelessly. Tears fell down my face as the feeling of being alone and helpless ran through my veins.

"Jimin, please wake up. Come on, please." I whimpered, leaning over to kiss his forehead.

There was nothing. I choked out a sob and slowly climbed into bed next to him, holding his cold body in my arms as tightly as I could. The warmth leaving his skin. The bones were out of place and not his usually soft body, but I still loved them just the same. My mark stood out beautifully on his pale neck, a symbol of my love for him that would never fade. I cried at the sight, touching mine on my neck.

"I'll love you forever. I'll never stop loving you. I love you so much. Please come back, please. I love you." I rocked us back and forth, holding him close to my chest as the scent of his hair filled my nose. Vanilla and lavender, my favorite. I ran my fingers through his hair, savoring the feeling of the strands. I cried and cried, for who knows how long.

After an unknown amount of time passed, the door slowly opened to reveal Taehyung and the doctor. Taehyung's eyes widened at the sight.

"He's gone." I whimpered.

He nodded and slowly approached us as I cradled Jimin's limp body in my arms, still rocking us back and forth.

"It's time to say goodbye, Jungkook." Taehyung whispered painfully as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I shook my head as tears fell rapidly on Jimin's pale skin, the bones underneath destroyed in pieces. Although he was dead, another bone cracked suddenly, making me jump as his body jolted lifelessly in my arms.

"We have to let him go. Yoongi's here for his body." He said, gently pulling my arm. Taehyung looked over his shoulder at a few other men who appeared in the doorway, all of them staring at Jimin and I with pitiful eyes.

I knew what they were here to do, but I wasn't going to let go. "No. No! No!" I screamed as the men and Taehyung grabbed my arms, Yoongi rushing past us to get to Jimin. "Don't touch him! Let me go!" I screamed as I fought their arms, the men dragging me from the bed and the room.

I could only watch as Yoongi quietly grabbed Jimin's limp body and turned to the doorway I was being dragged out of, walking past me with Jimin.

My neck craned in painful angles to get one last look of him, one last glimpse of his beautiful skin, his swooping hair, his pretty eyes, his everything. Tears streamed down my face when he finally left my vision and I was left alone.

Jimin wouldn't be there when I got home. He wouldn't kiss me after a rough day. He wouldn't be anywhere. He would be dead.

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