TAE POV:

It's relief to see (Y/N) cheer up when she steps outside of the bathroom with Yoongi hyung, smiling as she takes in all of us hovering outside.

"You didn't have to..." she begins, lips curving up and showing just how touched she is.

"Of course we did jagi. We promised every step of the way." I say, finally letting go of the restraint I'd had as I'd rushed out after her without a word and waited outside, patiently biding my time as I heard hyung comfort her. But no longer. And tugged her close to wrap my arms around her, feeling those unsettled instincts abate with each passing moment of holding her close.

Ever since she'd announced she wanted us to mate her, it had triggered a psychological shift in our instincts, causing them to become restless, once dormant needs rising to the surface. And I knew it would stay like that for a while. That our urges would be to hover near her, to be close to her and to fulfil her needs- unconscious or consciously expressed.

And when she'd left in a hurry, bond feeling tight and full of grief, the sight of her leaving had prompted me into movement, pushed me to go after her. The countereffect of the thrill a chase had was this- an instinctual need to seek out your mate, to want to have them close, to herd them all up and feel content with them being within your line of sight. It was an instinct I had with only Kookie and (Y/N)- my only two younger mates.

So I couldn't even begin to imagine how Jin hyung must be feeling as our eldest mate, as the one who had all these instincts but for seven mates. And true to that he seems to have the most crumpled expression and stays with her whilst the others mention going back in, whispering softly to her- and her shaking her head, reassuring him immediately.

He leans into her for comfort, for grounding and when he seems to be in more control of the instincts and emotions flaring and yet when we step back into the living room, he doesn't relinquish her to be surrounded by the parents but tugs her down onto his lap, face silently expressing...no challenging and daring someone to say something, to question it.

And no-one does.

No-one challenges his authority.

Because they may be parental figures in our lives, but they don't come close to matching the authority Jin hyung holds in this moment, in the room. He's the eldest mate, he's the protector and shelter for our coven- our safe space, and there's no way he's letting our youngest, our baby mate feel unsettled.

But it seems as if they've all silently understood, because they don't complain or huff- or maybe they're equally endeared by the sight. Not quite the puddle of goo that I know I most certainly am but somewhere close, especially given the way she's noticeably lost a lot of the tension that her stiffened posture had indicates whilst she was sitting straight between our mothers.

"I heard that there are a few siblings, are they not here?" (Y/N) asks, looking towards them, a smile there to ease away lingering feelings of guilt that crowd the air.

Her naturally soft demeanour and smile eases the furrowed brows.

"They are. But we didn't want you to be bombarded. We can be quite the handful." Mr. Min, appa number two, says.

A handful? If this wasn't bombarding our mate then how could the sudden rush of eager adults congregating around her be described by?

But he wasn't wrong.

A handful was right.

Especially when it came to the siblings. Some of them were handfuls in one right and others in a different one. 

But it was a good thing we didn't live together like Jin hyung's eomma, eomma number one, had suggested- to be like the traditional families of the era she'd been in her prime at. It wasn't a good idea, sure we adored them but being a mated coven and living in a house with parents with excellent heightened senses wasn't ideal. Not the way some of us got particularly vocal as our mates laid their claim on us.

And I couldn't imagine trying to live side by side with a house full of parents and siblings, I'd grown to adore and cherish and love the dynamic we'd had, the individual spaces should we want some downtime alone, the bedrooms that we all had but rarely ever used alone and the spaces that were decorated and furnished with our personal touches. Our house was our home because it carried pieces of us within it, because it represented who we all were together.

And we'd seen the touch (Y/N) had slowly started to leave behind, felt my heart fit to burst when I saw her clothes being folded up alongside ours, saw the products on the bathroom shelves and her toothbrush waiting for her in the cup that held all of ours.  Loved that where the house had been cold in the hallway for a century and a handful of decades that I'd been there, it now held a permanent warmth- awaiting (Y/N)'s arrival, and though she didn't need it anymore, the house was attuned to making comfort a priority- and as such the house was filled with a soft warmth in rooms that were most occupied, always seeming to sense her arrival before it happened so the temperature could rise a few degrees. She'd slowly began to immerse herself into our home, had made it her own, accepted it as her own.

I knew that no matter how lavish or large or grand a house could be, if our hearts weren't in it, it wouldn't be home. And the last time we'd stayed for an extended period of time, it hadn't ended well.

And it seems like Jin hyung is keyed up, alert for something too. And that something happens within the next few minutes.

The doorway is filled with the presence of a tall man, sharp features, and all harsh angles. He enters, eyes red and narrowed as they rake over each member in the room before falling onto his brother, eyes widening with interest and intrigue when they land on the mate on his brother's lap.

"Seokjin-ah!" Seok Jung hyung says, smiling as he enters and makes his way over. I notice Jin hyung's arms tightening protectively around (Y/N), eyes sharply taking him in, silently warning him not to say anything that would hurt her.

But he does nothing of the sort, holding a hand out for (Y/N), who slides it into his, smiling warmly up at him.

He smiles back at her, face softening as he brushes a kiss to the back of her knuckles- a gesture perhaps intended to be gentlemanly and chivalrous. But to see him doing it to (Y/N), to our mate, has feelings of jealousy stirring up, as well as the growing need to snatch her hand away and wipe away the foreign touch.

Her cheeks warm, head ducking down shyly at the unexpected gesture and her eyes slide away from his intense red ones, but he smiles- an easy curve of his lips as he takes in the sight of her.

"It's nice to meet you (Y/N)." he says, voice gentle- and just as my unsettled instincts have settled because there's nothing but genuine friendliness in his voice and posture, it snaps all of a sudden. Because her ducking her head had caused her hair to slide forward, and his eyes widen, hand almost unconsciously moving to touch her skin, finger touching the scar, now silvery and significantly smaller, from the top of her shoulder- where Chul had torn her skin open.

It makes me shudder, the room swells with protective need, (Y/N) stiffens and freezes under the foreign touch, body locking up and Jin hyung's hand snatches his hyung's away, gripping his wrist tightly as he shoves it away from our baby mate, scooping her close and further into him.

"Don't touch her without consent." He hisses.

But the damage is done.

And Seok Jung hyung has seen.

And without preamble or hesitation he directs a question to hyung over her stiffened form, as if she's not even there.

"Why does your mate have a scar disfiguring her shoulder?" he asks, voice calm and collected.

As if he hadn't just insulted her before our very eyes.

And the air seems to still and freeze, and the hand gripping his tightens, whitening, veins prominent.

Handful indeed.

(Y/N) POV:

The initial impression I'd had of Jinnie oppa's brother as someone who was charming and gentlemanly is wiped away when his finger touches my scar, the feel of his finger unfamiliar and unwelcomed. And when he speaks I feel the bond burn with anger and rage and protectiveness.

"Why does your mate have a scar disfiguring her shoulder?" he asks, not even directing the question towards me. As if I'm not there. As if he doesn't care to ask me.

And maybe I'm reading into it, maybe it's because I'm feeling sensitive already given the flux of emotions pulsating through the bond, the way my mates have already had their instincts surging in preparation for mating. Or maybe it's because I don't care for his cool tone, or the fact he hadn't asked before touching the scar- something so private and painful for me.

But I straighten up, firming up against Jinnie oppa and feeling the way his body is tightly coiled too, the hand gripping his brother's wrist tight and unyielding.

"First of all scars aren't disfiguring. Second of all why don't you ask the person who bears it?" I say, making no move to get off oppa's lap.

Two can play at that game. Of slipping things into conversation. He hadn't given me the respect to ask me directly, I won't give him my attention, of showing him how much it bothered me, echoing his cool calm tone.

His eyes flare red with surprise, hand retreating.

"Seokjin comes from a line of powerful, perfect vampires. Perfect as in no scars. It just came as a...surprise" he says delicately, as if he wasn't indicating how horrific he seemed to find it.

It makes me bristle with anger, bristle with rage and I can feel the tension suddenly swirling around the room.

"Seok Jung enough." Jinnie oppa's mother says, face hardened as she speaks, voice firm and demanding respect.

He shrugs his shoulders, loose and casual.

"Isn't that what you've always wanted eomma? A perfect dainty doll mate for Seokjin? Someone he can breed to pass on the family line? A line of perfect Kims...couldn't really happen with male mates could it?" he says.

His voice is calm and level- and I seem to sense that he genuinely means no ill by it, just the extremely traditional, old-fashioned, and pitifully misogynistic way he seems to think. But it doesn't mean that his words hurt any less. A perfect doll. A thing to mindlessly breed.

He's made me sound like a common whore in the way that I seem to be something to easily use but he's also degraded the mating bond, he's degraded the others for being male, degraded me for being female and degraded the entire special cherished nature of having mates, of melded souls.

There's a snarl behind me, suddenly propelled upwards, stabilised as Jinnie oppa stands seething, and hand fisted into the perfectly ironed and pressed white shirt that his brother wears.

"Don't you ever disrespect my mates, you have no right Kim Seok Jung, just because you haven't found your mate yet. I say the universe found you too pitiful to give one to, probably saved your would-be mate from the heavy burden of lugging your sorry self around." He says, teeth gritting, each word spat like a curse, a physical blow.

But no-one acts on the venomous rage that seeps through the bond, no-one gets to save for me.

And no-one says anything when my hand collides with his cheek, palm stinging.

All I cared about today was making a good impression on their family, about wanting to be accepted by them.

But right now, frankly I don't care anymore.

"A mate bond is precious, so don't sully it. If I bear children, it's because I wanted them and my mates wanted them. We're not mindless animals like you seem to be and breed, being mates is more than that. And don't you dare suggest my mates mean less to oppa just because they're male." I say, finally stepping forward and staring intently at him, eyes boring into his.

There's no nervousness, no fear now. No shyness and no hesitance.

Not when it comes to my mates. Never when it comes to them.

And a small distant, tiny part of my mind bemoans that I've probably made their families hate me. But then the silence is interrupted by Yoongi oppa speaking.

"We're leaving. You've met our mate, don't expect invites." He says, already stepping forward and gripping Kookie and Minnie with either hand, hands curled tightly and protectively around their arms.

The others, I hadn't realised have already hovered close and had formed a huddle, and nod tightly already moving the others out of the room in front of them.

"Sweetheart listen..." Mrs. Min starts, but the tightness to her jaw as her eyes fall on Seok Jung makes me wonder just what it is she's thinking.

"I'm sorry eommoni, but pleasantness never seems to last long. Give Dawon my love and apologies." Hobi oppa says, face tight and lips curved into a frown.

Dawon.

His sister.

The one person I'd really wanted to meet too.

"I'm sorry for him, Seok Jung is just..." Mr. Kim starts but tails off, exasperated, and upset.

It makes me wonder just how common his behaviour is.

How much they must've endured of this to be at their wit's end.

"It was lovely meeting you eommonis and abeonims. I wish the day could've ended well." I say apologetically towards them.

I'm warmed and touched by the bright softened expressions my terms of address gets.

And whilst Jinnie oppa ushers me out, there's the sound of a sudden grunt of pain and curse that reaches my ears and the hissed 'Seok Jung how dare you...' as Jinnie oppa's eomma turns to him.

Before we get to the door though I found myself tugged back, a firm but gentle hand turning me around.

Mr. Min.

My eyes widen.

"I really am sorry. Seok Jung just never moved with the times, and that doesn't excuse him whatsoever. But I'd love to meet you again, all of us would." He says.

I nod, lips wobbling as I dredge them into a teary smile.

"I'd love that abeonim." I whisper.

He shakes his head.

"Appa will do littlest one." he say, brushing away a tear that spills over. And then his lips press against my forehead, warm- sending tingles out through my body.

"You will always have our blessing dear heart." he murmurs.

"Thank you...appa." I say, feeling my heart suddenly clench.

Because he'd given me a shoulder to lean on, he'd become a support system for me.

Just like that he decided to fill that role of being the father I never had.

And it was something I'd remember and cherish for eternity.

(SO THERE WE GO! I KNEW THE HAPPINESS COULDN'T LAST SO I INCLUDED THE TINIEST BIT OF ANGSTY HURT! I KNEW LOTS OF YOU REMEMBERED HOW MUCH JIN'S MUM WANTED A FEMALE FOR KIDS BUT HIS BROTHER STOLE THAT TITLE OF HORRID FAMILY MEMBER- IT'LL BE EXPLAINED MORE JUST WHY HIS MOTHER CAME ACROSS AS NICE, AND I SWEAR NO HIDDEN AGENDA MORE SO A REVELATION! AND YOONGI'S DAD! THE SWEETEST! AND BABY MATE? YOU GO GIRL!! TELL HIM! I REALLY DO HATE THAT VERY TRADITIONAL OUTDATED MINDSET- WOMEN ARE MORE THAN JUST CHILD BEARERS (THOUGH THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS WOMEN ARE STRONG WARRIORS!) AND BABY SHOWED THAT! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE NEXT CHAPTER BRINGS- HOPE IT DIDN'T HAVE AN ODD STRUCTURE AND WAS FUN AND ENJOYABLE TO READ! STAY SAFE, TAKE CARE AND ENJOY DEARS! CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!!)

No-one has the power or right to tell you who you should be except yourself. Only you decide your identity, the person you are, the person you will be and the person you'll be remembered by. Don't let anyone bring you down, you deserve to be surrounded with those who will raise you up and help you flourish and bloom.

Borahae! 💜💜💜

PurpleQueenie <3