~Y/N POV~

The estate has never been this loud in a long time.

Even before sunrise, I can hear footsteps moving through the corridors.

Doors opening.

Voices almost everywhere. Orders being called from one end of the kitchen to the other.

The Eclipse Banquet is tonight.

Everyone knows it.

The annual banquet is the one night of the year when the High Council gathers the most powerful families in the city beneath one roof.

And every year, the same expectation hangs over the Seven Crowns.

Find your soulmate.

Accept the bond.

Continue the bloodline.

As if it is that simple.

As if seven men who have spent their entire lives being watched, judged and controlled by everyone around them can simply choose someone because the Council says they should.

I don't know what it feels like to have a choice.

I don't think anyone has ever asked me what I want.

So I keep working.

That's what I'm good at.

Invisible.

Useful and quiet.

The banquet hall is almost unrecognisable.

Flowers cover the long tables. Hundreds of candles flicker beneath enormous chandeliers. Gold fabric hangs between the pillars, and the great glass panels in the ceiling have been polished until they reflect every flame below.

People are everywhere.

Council members.

Guards.

Servants.

Important families.

Beautiful hybrids dressed in clothing that probably costs more than I earn in a year.

I stay where I'm supposed to be.

Behind the scenes, in the kitchen through the corridors and into the banquet hall.

Then back again.

Carry.

Serve.

Clean.

Repeat.

My feet hurt. My head hurts too.

I press the back of my wrist against my forehead as I walk through the kitchen.

Warm. It's too warm.

I haven't felt quite right all day.

Maybe I haven't eaten enough?

The thought barely registers before Minseok calls from across the room.

"Y/N. Those drinks need to go to the east table." Minseok

I nod.

"Yes."

I pick up the tray. The glasses wobble slightly. I steady them and no one notices.

Good.

I carry them through the doors.

The banquet is beginning.

Music fills the hall.

I keep my eyes down.

The Seven are seated at the head table.

All seven of them.

Namjoon.

Jin.

Yoongi.

Hoseok.

Jimin.

Taehyung.

Jungkook.

They look nothing like the men I pass in the corridors every day.

Tonight they look like what everyone says they are.

Crowns.

Predators.

Power.

Namjoon sits straight-backed, silver wolf ears barely visible through his dark hair.

Jin's white tiger tail moves slowly behind his chair.

Yoongi looks bored, though the black claws resting against the table say otherwise.

Hoseok's red fox ears twitch every time someone approaches him.

Jimin's snow leopard eyes scan the room.

Taehyung sits almost completely still.

And Jungkook looks like he would rather be anywhere else.

I don't stare.

I never stare.

I move between the tables.

One glass.

Then another.

My hands feel strange.

My fingers are trembling.

I tighten them around the tray.

Don't drop it.

Don't make a scene.

Just finish.

That's what I tell myself.

The music changes and the room begins to quiet.

I stop near the edge of the hall.

Something is happening.

I look up.

The enormous glass ceiling above us has darkened.

The moon is slipping into shadow.

The eclipse.

A murmurs move through the banquet.

Everyone turns to look up.

For a moment, I forget I'm supposed to be working.

The sight is beautiful.

The moon hangs above the glass like a silver coin slowly being swallowed by darkness.

Then...

My vision blurs.

I blink.

Once.

Twice.

The room moves.

No.

Not the room.

Me.

My stomach turns.

My ears begin ringing.

I reach for the nearest table and miss. The tray slips from my hands and glass crashes against the floor.

Every sound disappears beneath the pounding in my ears.

I try to breathe.

My knees buckle.

Someone shouts.

I don't know who.

I barely feel myself falling.

Then...

Pain.

A violent crack against the top part of my forehead.

And everything goes black.

**********

~JIN POV~

Blood.

The scent hits me before I hear anything.

Fresh.

Warm.

Human.

My entire body freezes.

My tiger's instincts explode awake.

My ears snap forward and my pupils narrow.

Across the table, Namjoon's head jerks toward the sound.

Yoongi's claws slide from his fingertips.

Hoseok's ears flatten.

Jimin is already standing.

Taehyung's eyes have gone completely dark.

And Jungkook?

Jungkook is gone.

His chair scrapes violently against the floor as he moves.

"What the hell..."

I don't finish.

The scent gets stronger, much stronger.

I turn and see she's lying on the floor.

The human girl.

The one from the estate.

The one I barely noticed before tonight.

The one Namjoon nearly hit with a glass the other week.

Blood is spreading beneath her head.

For one horrible second, none of us move.

Then my tiger roars inside my chest.

Mine.

The word doesn't come from me.

It comes from somewhere deeper.

Older.

Instinctive.

Terrifying.

My gaze snaps toward the others.

Namjoon's wolf is reacting too.

So is Yoongi's panther.

Hoseok's fox.

Jimin's snow leopard.

Taehyung's lynx.

Jungkook's jaguar.

All of them.

Every single one.

My stomach drops.

No.

That's impossible.

The Eclipse.

The soulmate bond.

The reaction.

We all know what this means.

Except...

No.

Not her.

A human.

"Move." Jungkook

Jungkook's voice is barely human.

He reaches her first.

He drops to his knees and carefully slides one arm beneath her shoulders and another beneath her knees.

Her head lolls against his chest. Blood smears across his hands.

His entire body goes rigid. His jaguar wants to tear apart anyone who comes close.

The banquet has gone silent.

Then the whispers begin.

"The reaction—" ?

"They found them." ??

"Which one?" ??

"The Eclipse revealed it." ?

"The Seven have found their soulmates." ???

A Council member rises from his seat. His eyes move eagerly around the room.

"Which family?" ?

I look at him, then at the woman in Jungkook's arms.

His expression changes. He hasn't realised yet. None of them have. Or perhaps they don't want to.

Jungkook looks down at her. His fingers tremble as he moves a strand of hair away from her face.

"She's bleeding." Jungkook

"I can see that," Yoongi snaps.

"Jungkook." Namjoon

Namjoon's voice is sharp.

"We're leaving." Namjoon

"But the banquet—" Jungkook

"Now." Namjoon

Hoseok steps forward before anyone else can. His smile is perfectly controlled.

"We apologise for the interruption. Please continue with the banquet." Hoseok

His fox tail is rigid behind him.

"We'll return shortly." Hoseok

No one argues. Not with him. Not when all seven of us are standing there looking like predators ready to kill.

Jungkook carries her from the hall.

We follow him.

Every step away from the banquet makes the silence heavier.

Nobody speaks. Not until the bedroom door closes behind us.

Jungkook lays her carefully on the bed.

She's so small.

I'd never noticed that before.

Six years.

Six years she's worked in our home.

Six years of passing us in corridors.

Six years of serving food, cleaning rooms, carrying linens.

And somehow none of us truly saw her.

Until tonight.

Until her blood filled the air.

Jimin moves towards her immediately.

"She's still breathing." Jimin

He presses his fingers carefully against her neck.

"Pulse is fast." Jimin

Jungkook crouches beside the bed. He doesn't move. His fingers are still tangled in her hair.

"Jungkook."

He doesn't answer.

Jimin takes a clean cloth from his pocket and gently wipes the blood from her forehead.

The wound is deeper than I first thought.

Not catastrophic, but enough.

Enough to scare all of us.

The door opens.

Minseok pokes his head inside, keeping his body on the outside.

"Your Highnesses?" Minseok

All seven of us turn to look at him. His eyes immediately fall on Y/N.

"I heard the commotion. Do you require assistance? I can have the medical staff brought here, or I can take care of her so you can return to the banquet—" Minseok

"Fuck off." Yoongi

Yoongi crosses the room. The door slams so hard behind Minseok that the walls seem to shake.

Silence.

Yoongi stands with his hand still on the handle.

"Nobody touches her." Yoongi

His voice is low.

Nobody argues.

Not even Namjoon.

Jimin continues cleaning the blood from her forehead.

Carefully and gently. Almost painfully gently.

Jungkook hasn't moved. His fingers remain in her hair.

"She's human," Hoseok says quietly.

We all know.

We don't need him to say it.

Human.

The word feels like a sentence.

A human soulmate.

Our soulmate.

All seven of us.

It shouldn't be possible.

Soulmates aren't supposed to work like this. Each Crown is supposed to have one.

One bond.

One person.

One bloodline connection.

Not seven.

Never seven. And certainly not with a human.

Yoongi lets out a humourless laugh.

"This is fucking impossible." Yoongi

"I know," I say.

Namjoon is staring at her.

His wolf ears are pinned back.

"We don't know anything yet." Namjoon

Hoseok looks at him.

"We know enough." Hoseok

"No." Namjoon

Namjoon's voice hardens.

"We know our instincts reacted. That's all." Namjoon

"All seven instincts reacted." Taehyung

"That doesn't prove anything." Namjoon

Yoongi looks at him.

"You smell her." Yoongi

Namjoon's jaw tightens.

"Yes." Namjoon

"You want to protect her." Yoongi

"I said we don't know what this is." Namjoon

Jimin pauses.

His fingers hover above the cut on her forehead.

"Then why are we all reacting?" Jimin

Nobody answers.

Because there isn't an answer.

I look at her.

Her face is pale. Her breathing is shallow.

She looks nothing like the powerful soulmate the Council expects us to reveal tonight.

She's just...

Y/N.

The quiet human girl who cleans our rooms.

The girl who bows whenever we pass.

The girl who was terrified when Namjoon threw that glass.

The girl who has been here for six years.

And somehow...

She's ours.

The thought makes my stomach twist.

Not because I don't want her. Because I do.

My tiger knows it.

My entire body knows it. And that is precisely the problem.

The Council will take her.

They will call it destiny.

They will call her a vessel.

They will call her a miracle.

And then they will decide what happens to her.

"What happens now?" Jimin asks.

Namjoon doesn't answer immediately.

His eyes remain fixed on her.

Finally, he speaks.

"We ignore it." Namjoon

Jungkook's fingers stop moving through her hair.

"What?" Jungkook

"We ignore it." Namjoon

Namjoon looks at each of us.

"For as long as we can." Namjoon

Hoseok stares at him.

"You think that's possible?" Hoseok

"We have to make it possible." Namjoon

His voice is cold and controlled now. The way it becomes when he's already building a plan inside his head.

"If the Council discovers that all seven of us have bonded to the same person, there will be chaos." Namjoon

"They'll take her," Yoongi says.

"Yes." Namjoon

"They'll dissect the fucking law apart trying to decide who owns her." Yoongi

"Yes." Namjoon

"They'll kill her if she doesn't cooperate." Yoongi

Namjoon's eyes flash.

"Which is why nobody finds out." Namjoon

Jimin looks down at her.

"And what about her?" Jimin

"We say nothing." Namjoon

The words hang in the room.

Jungkook finally looks up. His expression is almost angry.

"We're supposed to pretend this isn't happening?" Jungkook

"Yes." Namjoon

"For how long?" Jungkook

"Until we figure out what we're dealing with." Namjoon

Jungkook's jaw clenches. His hand moves again, slowly stroking a strand of hair away from her face.

He doesn't seem capable of making himself stop touching her.

Hoseok watches him, then looks at Namjoon.

"You know this won't last long." Hoseok

Namjoon says nothing.

Hoseok's expression darkens.

"The bond will get stronger." Hoseok

Yoongi's claws flex.

"How long?" Yoongi

"Days." Hoseok

Hoseok swallows.

"Maybe less." Hoseok

Nobody speaks.

The seven of us stand around the unconscious human girl.

Our impossible soulmate.

The one person none of us were supposed to find.

The one person the world will never allow us to keep.

Outside the room, the banquet continues.

Music plays.

People laugh.

The Eclipse hangs above the city.

And somewhere beyond these walls, the Council is already wondering why the Seven Crowns disappeared together.

Namjoon finally turns toward the door.

"Nobody says a word." Namjoon

His eyes move from one brother to the next.

"We return to the banquet when we can." Namjoon

Then his gaze settles on Y/N.

"And we forget this happened." Namjoon

Jungkook looks down at her. His fingers are still buried gently in her hair.

None of us believe Namjoon.

Not really. Because our bodies have already decided something our minds are desperately trying to deny.

And whatever this bond is...

It has already begun.