"i-it's okay, i can do it..." the omega spoke in a low voice, his eyes looking at his feet as he fidgeted with his fingers, too intimidated by all of the pairs of eyes that were on him.

"you really don't have to, if it bothers you." kun patted the boy's back gently. "we don't want you to feel forced."

"i know, b-but i don't mind..." shotaro assured.

"really?" taeyong crouched in front of the omega to look at him in the eye. "we can ask the makeup artists to draw them on us if you feel uncomfortable."

"n-no, i d-don't want you t-to appear with f-fake marks..." shotaro stuttered more than before. "i-i want p-people to see m-my marks on y-you..." he finished; his cheeks as red as tomatoes as all of the nct members stood frozen on their spots at the words that had left the boy's lips.

i want people to see my marks on you.

shotaro wanted people to know the nct members were his.

he wanted everyone to know that they were taken.

he wanted to claim them by marking them.

omegas were the least territorial beings on earth, far behind betas, and even further behind alphas. this secondary gender was known to be the weakest, and so, they weren't supposed to be able to claim their territory. if anything, they were the ones to be claimed as someone's territory or belonging.

but there was one exception; omegas could become territory towards their alphas. and this wasn't exactly territorialism, it was more possessiveness or not wanting to share what had been declared yours. and the omega's mark on an alpha was a claim from the omega that the alpha was theirs and their only, meaning that no one could think about doing anything with that alpha again. and this was shotaro's exact comportment right now.

"excuse me to interrupt, but..." the photographer approached the omega, catching the attention of the alphas. "...he's your mate?"

"yes." chenle replied simply.

"oh my god, i didn't know!" the photographer exclaimed. "hello, little guy! i'm the photographer." he introduced himself, holding his hand out for the omega to shake.

"h-hello..." shotaro shook the beta's hand shyly.

"aww, you're a cutie pie. i wonder how you're surviving with those 22 angry alphas that are always hor- "

"yeah, he's ours, stop harassing him." ten pushed the photographer away, standing between shotaro and him.

"of course." the man chuckled. "overprotective alphas, i should have guessed."

"yeah." jisung raised a brow, his arms crossed over his chest.

"okay, i'll let you figure out whatever you need to figure out, and we're starting the shoot again in ten minutes." the photographer declared. "don't hesitate to go and see the makeup artists if your mate thinks he's not ready to mark all of you."

the photographer and the other crew members that were there walked away, leaving the 23 mates together alone to figure out what they should do in peace.

"so... w-who wants to start...?" shotaro asked with a cough.

"do you really want to mark us, pup?" yuta questioned, making the omega blush at the pet name he loved so much. "we won't be mad at you if you say you don't feel ready."

"i-i do feel ready." shotaro nodded. "y-you all marked me... a-and... and i-i want to mark you too..."

there was a long silence during which the omega looked successively at all of the boys.

"well..." taeyong sighed, glancing at his alpha mates. "if you want to then... we're ready to have you marking us..."

α

"aghh, fuck..." mark swore in english as jaehyun pinned him to a tree, his hand deep inside mark's trousers, palming the boy's aching member through his boxers.

"silence." jaehyun warned. "let me remind you that the others are in the clearing and that the woods aren't soundproof."

"try keeping your fucking voice in when someone is palming you." mark answered through gritted teeth.

"well, i know how to keep my moans in compared to someone." the older male snorted, raisng a brow at mark.

"oh, really now- aghh..." mark moaned loudly at the end of his sentence.

"i assure you."

with a growl, mark pulled jaehyun's hand out of his trousers and flipped their positions, the older male letting himself being pinned to the wall without complaining.

"let's see how long you can hold your moans in." mark declared, getting on his knees and opening jaehyun's zipper before pulling his hard member out.

"see for yourself." jaehyun smirked.

mark didn't wait a second more to swallow jaehyun's member, the tip of the boy's dick hitting the back of mark's throat. the canadian male then started sucking slowly on jaehyun's cock, letting his tongue swirl around the length and adding teeth when playing with the tip. he alternated between slow pace, when he used his hand to jerk the base of jaehyun's member while focusing on the tip, and fast pace, when he took his dick in his mouth until it hit the back of his throat each time.

and surprisingly, jaehyun didn't let out a moan.

despire not moaning out loud, mark could see that jaehyun was enjoying the blowjob very much as the older was tugging on mark's hair and pushing his hips forwards from time to time, also letting slip out little groans and ravaged breaths.

but to mark's dismay, the boy let out no loud surprised moan.

"what the hell are you two doing?!" a voice startled the two boys, making mark pull out from jaehyun's dick and turn around, still kneeling on the ground. jaehyun stood right next to mark, his dick still out and hard as rock as it claimed to be taken in mark's mouth again.

"h-huh..." jaehyun breathed out, his voice hoarse.

"nothing." mark replied immediately, flashing his leader – who was standing there with his brows in a frown – a sheepish smile.

"shut up, idiot." jaehyun groaned, moving his hips towards mark and making his hard dick hit mark's cheek lightly.

"eww!" mark exclaimed, using his hand to rub the mix of saliva and precum that jaehyun had left on his cheek.

"i repeat." taeyogn sighed. "what are you doing? we are having a photoshoot and one of you could get caught any second. and worst of all, shotaro is here with us, and i'm positive he doesn't want to see his mates involved in live porn in the woods."

there was a long silence during which mark and jaehyun both lowered their heads.

"we were just horny..." jaehyun said. "shotaro marked us. we felt the need to eveacuate all the horniness we felt when this happened."

"yeah..." mark nodded. "one thing led to another, and then jaehyun said he knew how to keep his moans in when getting pleasured. so, i wanted to see if he said right." mark admitted, making taeyong raise a brow and look at jaehyun.

"oh, really now?"

"god, why is no one believing me?" jaehyun rolled his eyes in exasperation.

taeyong smirked at mark. "the others may have asked me to come and get you, but i'd be very happy to prove you we can make you moan."

"good luck with that." jaehyun snorted.

after approaching mark and whispering something in his ear, taeyong faced jaehyun, leaning forward so that their faces were centimetres apart.

"how long do you think you can keep a moan in?" taeyogn whispered as jaehyun tensed, feeling mark starting to suck him off again.

"l-long..." jaehyun breathed out, leaning his head back again the tree as mark played with his balls with his hands while his mouth worked on his member divinely.

"cocky bastard." taeyong chuckled, bending forward to place a kiss on the boy's nipple. "i bet we can make you moan in less than twenty seconds."

jaehyun let out a noise that was between the grunt and the snort. "who's the cocky bastard now...?"

taeyong didn't answer, simply lowering to his knees by mark's side.

"count out loud." taeyong stated.

"twenty... nineteen... eighteen... seventeen..."

as jaehyun started the countdown, taeyong tapped mark's shoulder, signalling him to stop sucking jaehyun off and just jerk him while playing with his balls.

mark obliged, keeping his two hands busy while he waited for taeyong's next move.

"eleven... ten... nine..."

taeyong placed two fingers in front of mark's mouth, making the canadian look at him weirdly.

'suck' taeyong mouthed to the younger male who opened his mouth to let taeyong slid his fingers inside. mark licked the two digits eagerly, making sure they were coated in enough saliva before taeyong pulled them out.

mark then stared as taeyong smirked, sliding his hand under jaehyun's manhood, and lifting it until it almost touched his hole.

"four... three... two... on- aghhh!"

and here it was.

a loud moan escaped jaehyun's mouth as taeyong slid his two fingers inside his hole, igniting something more powerful in jaehyun.

mark stared at taeyong with wide eyes as the boy scissored the other's hole open, making the taller male moan and squirm shamelessly.

taeyong then pulled his fingers out, giving jaehyun's hard-on a pat before standing up to face jaehyun again.

mark stood up as well, looking at taeyong bewildered.

"h-how?!" he stuttered.

"johnny told me how loud jaehyun was whenever he took it up the ass. guess that's where he is the most sensitive." taeyong smirked flashing jaehyun a smile.

"fuck you..." jaehyun growled.

"do you really thing you get to say that right now?" taeyong raised a brow, making jaehyun roll his eyes. "great. now get dressed because the others were calling you."

"b-but we're still hard." mark informed.

"then make it seem like you aren't."

after letting out a few groans and huffs, jaehyun and mark followed taeyong across the forest to reach the clearing where a few other members were there, sitting around shotaro.

"here you are, guys." lucas declared, making the others turn around to look at the three boys.

"yeah, i found them in the woods." taeyong informed, sitting down cross-legged with the others.

"what the hell were you two doing in the- oh... yeah..." donghyuck spoke, stopping himself to smirk in the middle of his sentence as he caught a sniff of the boy's horny pheromones.

"shut up, we were just having a small talk." mark replied, flicking donghyuck's forehead as he did a head motion in shotaro's direction to signal that donghyuck should keep his mouth shut.

donghyuck diverted his attention to shotaro who sniffed the air a few times before coughing loudly. "a-are you sure you were just talking and not fighting?" the omega asked, making all the boys around look at him curiously. "i-it smell like the special fight pheromones sungchan told me about after i walked in on him, renjun, jeno, donghyuck, jaemin and jisung fighting on the bed."

before anything else could be said, all of the alphas turned around to face donghyuck – the only of the boys mentioned that was present.

the tanned male smiled sheepishly, rubbing his nape in embarrassment. "y-yeah... we had a few things we didn't agree on..."

the alphas' glares didn't get less intense, making the boy gulp.

"who's laughing now, huh?" mark teased the boy as a smirk decorated his face.

α

"here, i brought you some violet syrup."

"oh, thank you so much, doyoung." shotaro smiled brightly at the older male as he grabbed the glass of purple liquid that he was handing him.

"my pleasure." doyoung grinned as he sat down next to shotaro.

the omega took a sip of the drink, humming in content as the light flavour invaded his taste buds.

next to him, doyoung studied his every move fondly, a small smile appearing on his face the longer he stared.

"you are so cute, pup." he spoke simply, making shotaro choke on his drink.

doyoung gasped, taking the glass from shotaro's hand and tapping his back to help him regain his breath.

"s-sorry..." shotaro apologised after he could breathe properly again. "i-i got caught off-guard."

"i'm sorry for making you choke on your drink." doyoung smiled at him. "i just wanted you to know what i thought of you."

shotaro's cheeks darkened again as he flashed the alpha a smile. "y-you guys are too perfect for me..."

doyougn huffed, raising a brow and bopping shotaro's nose with his pointer finger.

"that's not true." he stated. "if anything, YOU are too perfect for us."

"n-no..." shotaro shook his head.

"yes, you are."

"n-no..." the omega denied again.

"yes." doyoung nodded. "and too cute and precious too."

"no- ahh!"

the pastel purple boy was caught off-guard once again as doyoung wrapped his arms around his waist and pulled the omega on top of him while he lied down on the grass. shotaro was now lying on his stomach on top of doyoung while the alpha had his arms wrapped around him, holding him in place.

"stop denying everything and trust us for once, pup." doyoung whispered as shotaro placed his chin on his plexus to look at the older male in the eye. "you are the best thing that ever happened to us."

shotaro smiled shyly, his cheeks tinting pink again. "y-you are the best thing that ever happened to me as well..."

doyoung smiled hugging the omega tighter as both boys got caught in their own world, their bodies surrounded by a bubble of comforting pheromones that conveyed nothing but happiness and love.

"you know, now that you left, the house is much less lively..." doyoung stated after a while, breaking the comfortable silence that had taken place between the two boys. shotaro had almost fallen asleep again, his eyes closed as he was lying on top of doyoung while the alpha kept one of his arms around his waist and the other playing with his hair and massaging his scalp.

"hmm...?" shotaro hummed, his eyes fluttering open so that he didn't fall asleep immediately.

"we miss all those moments when you made the dorm feel like a home." doyoung spoke again.

there was another silence, and doyoung sensed how the air thickened around them. shotaro's pheromones suddenly changed, conveying fear and anxiety.

"pup? is everything alright?" he asked, his brows frowning as he looked down at the boy who seemed as peaceful as he was before from the outside.

"c-can i ask you a question...?" shotaro spoke, looking into doyoung's eyes.

"of course. tell me."

shotaro took a deep breath. "i-i... i miss l-living with you..." he stated. "d-do you think that... t-that we could live together again...?"

doyoung's heart started beating a hundred miles per hour as his eyes widened.

the 22 alphas had told themselves that they would imperatively need to ask shotaro to come and live with them again, but they were all stressing about shotaro's answer, fearing that he would think it was too much for their new relationship.

but now, everyhtign was even better. shotaro himself was asking if they could live together again...

"not only we can live together again, pup." doyoung chuckled. "but we will, as soon as possible."

and with that said, the previous smell of fear and anxiety died down, slowly replaced by the usual happiness and love... and perhaps a bit of excitement.