** WARNING: This chapter contains some violence, as well as material having to do with suicidal thoughts and behavior. The chapter is not meant to glorify these behaviors in any way, it is only included because it is important to the plot of the story. If you are sensitive to these topics, please read at your own risk. If you want to avoid the scene, you can skip over the italicized paragraphs.**

⊰ E I G H T ⊱

KITTEN

"Where is Jimin?"

My frustration grew with each passing moment that Hoseok stayed silent. He squinted his eyes in thought and scratched the back of his head.

"He was here a whiile ago... maybe he snuck away when I wasssn't lookin'," he slurred, adding a shrug at the end.

I groaned before walking up to Tae, who was busy trying to grab the bottle of rum out of Namjoon's hand.

"I'm going to find Jimin. Please don't get as drunk as the rest of them, you need to get everyone back to the ship on time," I hollered so he could hear me over the music. He just nodded his head before turning back to Namjoon.

I rushed out of the tavern and back onto the quiet street. I looked to my right and to my left, not knowing where to start. Where would he have gone off to? He suggested this morning that he had no intention of leaving us, so why would he have walked off by himself?

On a whim, I decided to turn right and head toward the docks. The last rays of sunlight were fading behind the horizon line of the ocean. An orange hue allowed me to see the docks, and as I approached them, I could make out the small outline of someone sitting with their legs hanging over the edge.

As I neared the sitting figure, my shoulders dropped in disappointment. Instead of Jimin, the person sitting there was the same old man that had collected our docking fee earlier. I grunted, quickly losing what little patience I had left. Why was I the one that got stuck searching for Jimin while the rest of the guys got to enjoy themselves and get drunk?

I decided to walk down to the shoreline, hoping maybe I'd find the damn siren there. As I walked down the beach, I heard a low whistle from behind me.

"Looking good, lass," a deep voice called. I turned around to see two grimy men following me with lazy smiles and stumbling feet. My nose scrunched up in disgust as I knew exactly what kind of men they were. I turned back around.

"Get lost before you do something you regret," I threatened over my shoulder, continuing to walk ahead. A couple of moments passed, but then a large hand grabbed my upper arm and yanked me back.

"Get your hands off me!" I yelled, ripping my arm out of his grasp. I spun around and kneed him right in his abdomen with as much force as I could muster. The man groaned and fell to his knees in pain. Before I had a chance to move, the second man grabbed my hair and yanked my head to the side, causing me to yell out.

"Feisty bitch!" he spat, pulling my head up to meet his gaze. "We're going to have lots of fun with you." His eyes raked over my body and I shivered.

I tried to escape his hold, but he continued to pull and yank my head any time I made a move. Realizing that I wasn't going to stop struggling, he roughly pulled me closer to him and latched his hands around my throat. I dug my nails into his hands and tried desperately to get him to let go, feeling my lungs constrict. I gasped for air but got none.

"Let her go."

A smooth voice rang out from somewhere beside me. The man choking me loosened his grip in surprise and turned toward the voice. While his guard was down, I used all my strength to push away from him and get out of his hold. As soon as I was free, I swung my fist and punched him straight on his nose, a loud crack splitting through the air. His head flew back from the contact, blood oozing from his nostrils, then his body fell to the ground heavily.

"Get over here you—" the man I'd kneed earlier started grumbling as he tried to get up, but before he could finish, I had already elbowed him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground roughly and join his friend in unconsciousness.

"Damn Katherine, that was hot." Jimin's familiar tone met my ears. I looked to my right, noticing that he was standing there with a raised eyebrow and an amused smirk.

"It's not supposed to be. I don't like beating people up, but they were asking for it." I shook my hand and winced at the throbbing pain from the punch I threw.

"Obviously. I'm just not used to seeing a woman hold her own like that," Jimin said as he walked up closer to me. I jumped slightly in surprise when he grabbed my hand to stop me from shaking it. There was a pause as his chocolate eyes moved from our hands to meet my own gaze. "That's annoying," was all he said before letting go.

I scoffed in response. "Well excuse me. Where do you get off calling me annoying when you're the one who just disappeared and made me come looking for you?" My voice rose as I remembered how frustrated I was with him.

He started walking ahead of me and I stomped after him.

"I didn't force you to come looking for me. That was all you, love," he said as he continued walking. I caught up and matched his pace.

"Maybe you didn't force me, but I didn't really have any other choice. The crew isn't as responsible as I am and I know you're too valuable for us to just lose you. We need your help finding our treasures just like you need my help to become human." I finished speaking but he never even glanced in my direction, only looking forward as we walked.

"How do you know what everyone wants is treasure?"

His words caught me off guard. "I guess I don't, but it's a fair assumption considering we're pirates," I answered. I hadn't considered the fact that some of the crew might desire things other than treasure, same as me.

"How did you end up with them?" he asked instead of responding.

I frowned. "Huh?"

"How did you end up as part of the crew?" He finally glanced at me, and I noticed a strange emotion cross his eyes, though I couldn't place it.

"Well... Yoongi and the rest of them saved me." I hesitated, not sure where I wanted to start or how much I wanted to tell him. There was a lot about that day that I didn't like talking about. But of course, Jimin had this way of making me more vulnerable around him than I would've been with anyone else in such a short time. I had a hard time not giving him what he asked for, so I decided to tell him the short version.

It was early dawn, and the sky was still dark. The violent wind blew my hair across my face and tugged at my dress so that it hugged my frame. The tears on my cheeks quickly dried from the harsh air, and my teeth began chattering. I shivered, both from the cold temperature and from all the emotions that plagued my heart.

Why did I have to do it? Why did I have to kill him? Mom and Anna will never forgive me, I thought as my mind was attacked with flashes of the two people I cared most about screaming at me and telling me to leave them.

I looked down at the rushing water below me, wiping the tears from my eyes. It was a long and steep drop with a mess of jagged rocks at the bottom, jutting out of the sea. There was this strange attraction I felt toward the ocean like it was calling out to me, coaxing me forward as if singing a lullaby. I didn't have the strength to resist its pull any longer.

Without letting myself think further, I stepped off the edge and then I was falling, falling, until I felt the impact and everything went black and I was freezing. I was only vaguely aware of my lungs constricting as I ran out of oxygen. My chest burned and it felt like a ton of bricks were weighing me down. The sound of my heartbeat pounded in my ears, but aside from that, I remembered nothing else.

The next thing I knew, I was coughing and spitting up water. When I could finally catch my breath, my eyes opened to see five men standing over me with curiosity and concern. The sixth man was on the floor, holding my head in his lap and staring down at me with wide eyes. He looked relieved.

"W-who are you?" I gasped out, my voice raspy.

"I'm Min Yoongi, the captain of this ship. And this is my crew." He gestured to the five men circled around us.

"What am I doing here?" I asked. I was supposed to be dead.

He frowned. "We saw you jump from that cliff. You were...drowning. I couldn't just let you die."

His explanation was vague but I didn't ask any questions. These men saved me from myself. But did I really want to be saved?

"Thanks," I muttered numbly.

"Do you want us to bring you back home now? Just tell us where to take you," the man named Min Yoongi said. He helped me slowly sit up. I looked from him to the other five males and shook my head. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

"I have no home."

When I finished speaking, Jimin looked at me with furrowed brows.

"So you killed someone, you were shunned from your family, and then you tried to end your life, but the pirates saved you and you decided to stay with them because you had no home to go back to?" Jimin summed up what I'd just told him.

"Yes," I said neutrally. It wasn't an easy thing to talk about, but I wasn't about to show him how much it truly affected me, so I held my composure.

"Who did you kill?" Jimin asked.

I shook my head and started walking faster so that I was ahead of him. "Is that really all you care about? You're not going to ask me if I got better, if I'm still suicidal or not?" I looked over at him curiously. I wasn't too offended by his response, it was just an unexpected one.

"Sorry, but I'm a siren. We aren't able to feel compassion. My curiosity, however, is still going strong. So who did you kill?" he asked as he jogged to catch up with me.

"That's a story for another time."

"Oh, come on! You can't just tell me you killed someone and not explain who or why," Jimin nearly whined. It was a stark contrast to the usual cocky tone he used.

"I didn't have to tell you anything in the first place. Take what you can get." I said, hoping he would stop pushing. If he continued to ask, I knew I would give in and tell him.

He sighed. "Alright, fine."

We continued walking down the beach in silence. After a few minutes, I decided to question him.

"So why did you run off on your own? I thought you told me you weren't planning to try to escape."

"I'm not. I just couldn't stand the smell and the noise in that hellhole." He scrunched his nose up. "I decided I'd go explore until we needed to meet back at the ship."

"Well, thanks for making me worry over nothing," I mumbled.

"Not my fault you're so invested in me," he teased with a sly smile.

"Okay, clearly you know something I don't, so why don't you explain why I feel this weird connection to you," I demanded. I wanted answers. Without them, I felt crazy for caring so much about anything that had to do with Jimin.

He stopped walking and turned to face me. I copied his actions and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting to be enlightened. When he saw how stern I looked, he threw his head back and laughed.

"You're cute when you try to be intimidating. And it's just the kiss. When a human kisses a siren, they develop a deep loyalty to them. That's why you have such a hard time disobeying me when I tell you to do something. Like if I said, I want you to hug me," his voice shifted into a silkier, less-human tone.

At his words, I instantly stepped toward him, ready to wrap my arms around him, but he stopped me before I could.

"Just kidding, I don't want a hug." He smirked, clearly enjoying his influence over me.

My eyes narrowed. "I know you have an influence over me but even before the kiss, I was abnormally invested in you. You're not telling me everything," I accused, knowing there was more to it than just the kiss. I had felt this connection to him since I first saw him in the brig that night.

"Sorry kitten, I don't know what to tell you. I guess you're just infatuated with me. And who could blame you?" He winked, then he was walking ahead of me again. I groaned and jogged to catch up with him.

"How could you have come off so innocent and harmless that first night, only to turn out to be an arrogant prick?" I asked, remembering how gentle and curious he had first appeared to me. He was quiet and curious and he had let me clean his wounds.

"I just needed to get you to trust me enough for me to trick you into letting me out."

His answer stung, but I wasn't surprised. I was just a tool for him, a means for him to break the curse and become human. I needed to remember that.

"Wait a minute, did you call me kitten?"

He glanced over at me and smiled. "You go by Kat, right? So it makes sense to call you kitten."

"Don't call me that!" I yelled. The last thing I wanted was for him to start calling me pet names.

"I want you to let me call you kitten, kitten." Jimin sung the words as he used his power over me.

"Fine," was all I could say, no matter how much it frustrated me.

• • •

Author's Note

Sorry it took a while for me to update! I'm hoping to update every 7 days, and sooner than that whenever I'm able to.

I know not a lot happened in this chapter, but I tried to still make it entertaining with Kat and Jimin's relationship. And a small part of Kat's past was finally revealed.

What do you guys think about the story so far?

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a good day! ♡

-Hoseokiiss