"He's not with the Chen's pack in Busan." Taemin sighed as he walked in to Junghyun's office room.

"It was a long shot anyway, right?" Junghyun looked up from his work to give a small smile to his friend.

"Yeah. He wouldn't go anywhere familiar."

"Then there's only one place to check. Seoul."

"It won't be easy to check there. Should we get help from other packs?"

Junghyun scoffed at that. "I'm sure others will love it! Everything we did to keep this under wrap will be useless then. Min-ah, we can't let anyone know."

Taemin sighed at that. Yoona's condition kept getting worse and it was evident that she didn't had much time left. At first, both of them had made up their minds that they will not get to see Taehyung again and they were okay with it. But after Junghyun started to look for Taehyung, Yoona began to grow a hope to see her son for last time. Anyone could see that she's just holding on till that time.

"Not all of them then." Taemin said in a quiet voice and Junghyun looked confused a bit at that. "The Yangs, Yoos and Wangs. They are loyal. Wouldn't ask too many questions."

Junghyun tapped the table with his index finger. Taemin was right, those three are indeed on friendly terms with him. But it is definitely gonna be a blow to his alpha pride to ask help from other packs to find his own pack member. Hell it was not even just a pack member, it was the next head of White Claw pack.

How humiliating would that be??

But after few seconds of negative thoughts, Junghyun gave a short nod to his friend. Alpha pride doesn't mean shit, if you can't look after the members. His duty as the pack leader mattered to Junghyun more than his pride.

Taemin made the calls to each pack leader, explaining the situation as vaguely as possible. Like they already knew, the head alphas of Yang and Yoo clans didn't ask much question and promised to do what they can. The Wangs however, had a different reaction altogether. Something that Junghyun and Taemin didn't expect at all.

_____________________________________

It was a Sunday and Jimin had an off day. Him and Taehyung cleaned the house in the morning half and was watching a movie when suddenly Taehyung's phone rang.

Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when he noticed the caller ID of Namjoon, as the elder rarely calls him on weekends. Jimin peeking over his arm to look at the screen and raised his eyebrows too. Taehyung shrugged his shoulders as a response to that, before answering.

"Joonie hyung."

"Tae.. uhh.. there's someone to meet you."

Taehyung immediately got up from the sofa in alarm. The subtle nervousness in Namjoon's voice was making the red lights in his head blaze. There shouldn't be anyone coming to see him.

Taehyung quickly ran to his room to get changed, as he needs to go there as soon as possible. "Hyung, don't worry. Give the phone to them."

There was a sound of rustling from the other end and Taehyung held his breath in worry.

"Hello, Tae."

_____________________________________

It only took Taehyung 20 minutes to get to Namjoon's house, with Jimin as the latter insisted to accompany him. His heart was beating so fast, trying to think of the reason for this sudden visit.

Namjoon opened the door even before Taehyung had a chance to ring the doorbell and the latter walked in quickly. If Taehyung had not been in such a hurry, he would have noticed that Namjoon didn't look scared, but rather like a little annoyed.

In Namjoon's living room, sitting on his sofa, was Jackson. He had his playful flirting mode on and Jin, stood next to the guest, with a hand over his face to hide his blush. It took a moment for Taehyung to absorb this friendly interaction, instead of the one he was dreading all the way.

Taehyung was worried about Jin, whom he thought was forced to accept a stranger in to his house on behalf of Taehyung. But it looked like Jin was enjoying the new alpha's company very much.

Taehyung had to clear his throat to gain both their attention. Jackson gave him a radiant smile while Jin looked little ashamed. Maybe Jin felt a little bad for warming up to Jackson this soon, when he gave such a hard time for Taehyung and V.

V was specially in a sour mood at that.

"Tae!" Jackson exclaimed in a happy tone and pulled the other for a hug. "I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Yeah." Taehyung mumbled as he tentatively hugged back the other. "What are you doing here?"

"Straight to business, I see." Jackson replied with a small smile. "Maybe we should have this conversation privately."

Taehyung gave a nod to Jackson's meaningful look and after getting an okay from Namjoon, he led Jackson in to Namjoon's study room.

"So.." Taehyung trailed off without saying anything and Jackson picked up from there.

"Uncle Junghyun sent me. He wants you back."

Taehyung widened his eyes at that. Since his pack had made no attempt to contact him all this time, Taehyung actually thought that they never will. "Jackson, I can't-"

"Your mother is sick, Taehyung." Jackson quickly interrupted what Taehyung was going to say. "She's- she doesn't have much time."

"What?!"

Jackson quickly explained Yoona's condition, how Junghyun and Taehyung's father tried to find him for days and how they contacted Jackson's pack for help.

Taehyung's heart ached at the thought of his mother and he so badly wanted to see her. But can he really go back? It took everything he had to leave his life behind, Taehyung might not survive doing it twice.

Suddenly, another thought came to his mind. "But how did you know I was here?"

"That's a funny story actually." "Jackson gave a playful wink before he started.

"Two of my pack members, who had been living in Seoul for few years, return to us about a week ago. And they begged for my father to take them back in to the pack. Said they encountered a powerful alpha wolf, who made their wolves fully submit within seconds. They got shit scared and didn't want to be... uhhh... pack-less anymore."

"Oh.."

"Yeah. The power they described was phenomenal, and it could only be from a fully awakened wolf."

"" V huffed proudly, his previously hurt ego recovered nicely with that thought.

"Of course we had no idea who it was. But when uncle Junghyun called for help to find you, we put two and two together. It wasn't hard to get Seokjin's name from that family and then his details from the kindergarten. Although think I gave him and his partner quite a fright when I showed up on their doorstep."

"I'm sure you did." Taehyung mumbled again. "Jin gets scared easily, he is such a gentle person."

"I know right!" Jackson was beaming from ear to ear. "He's amazing. Makes killer cookies too."

Taehyung didn't answer to that. His mind was torn between two thoughts. He wanted to see his mother again too, how can he live with himself if he didn't fulfil his mother's last wish?

Jackson sighed, all playfulness gone from his system. "Look, Tae. I don't know what your reasons for leaving but I'm sure they are valid. But your mother needs you too. I didn't actually told anyone that I found you incase... you know. Just talk to uncle Junghyun and see."

Taehyung looked up to see Jackson extending his phone to him and with a shaky hand, he took it. Junghyun's number was already picked, he just had to press the call icon.

Taehyung took a deep breath and dialled the number. It got connected in few rings and a rushed voice answered.

"Jackson, did you find him-"

"Uncle Junghyun."

A sudden gasp was heard from the other end. "Tae... oh my god, he found you!"

"Yes." Taehyung gave a soft chuckle at that. "Yes, he did. How's mom doing?"

"Not so well, Tae. Not so well, at all. She's- she's just holding on for you."

"Uncle.. I-I.."

"Tae, I know what you are thinking. It'll be okay son. Just come back. We will figure something out."

"I.. can't. Jungkook can never know about us."

"Okay. Then he will not. Look, just think of your mother for now. Come back and... let her leave in peace. You can think of the rest later."

"I don't know.."

"There's still about a month left for Jungkook's 20th birthday. So he won't be able to sense your bond. And besides, I don't think he'll give you much trouble anyway."

Something about the way Junghyun said that got Taehyung's attention. "What do you mean, uncle?"

Junghyun sighed again. "You will see soon enough, I guess."

There was a silence for few seconds where Taehyung thought about things. But no matter what his excuses and reasons were, he just couldn't give up on his mother.

"V, should we do this?"

""

"Thanks, V. Let's go home."

Taehyung took a deep breath to calm his heart and spoke to the phone.

"Uncle, I'm coming back."