Beast, Blood, & Soul

* 12 *

Hobi coughs as my question takes him by surprise. "Um, ah, I kept to the chair."

I look around the room and I can see the embarrassment on their faces and I hide my smile. I wasn't mad that these men slept in my bed in disguise, after all, nothing bad happened and it wasn't like I walked around naked in front of them. But sometimes, you just have to call people out on their shit.

"We're sorry about that," Namjoon apologized. "Our animals are very drawn to you. They don't like staying away."

"Your animals.....?" That was their excuse? I raise my eyebrow as I look at them with deep skepticism. Okay, if they want to play it that way. "Well, now that I know it's you, no more sleeping in my bed."

I hear a small whine come from Jimin beside me, but I ignore it. I change subjects. "So is Jungkook okay now?"

"Ah, no, the full moon is still going on and he's having a harder time of it," Jin answered.

"Why?"

Jin looks at Namjoon and back to me. "Well, when we said our animals are drawn to you, it goes a little bit deeper than that. So his drive to be close to you is very high. He can probably smell you this close."

I startle a bit at that. I felt drawn to him as well. In fact, I felt drawn to them all. Ever since that first night when I had to listen to their voices behind my blindfold, they had invaded my dreams regularly. "Is he still locked up then?"

"Ehem...yes." Jin clears his throat.

"May I see him?" I ask them.

"I don't see why not." Hobi answers. Namjoon and Jin give him a look but he just shrugs. "He's pretty riled up as it is, he probably can already smell her, and seeing her might help him calm down."

Hobi stands up and offers me his hand. I take it and he leads me through the kitchen to a door that opens to the caves below. Last night, when I came up these stairs, I had no point of reference for where I was. Now, it felt more connected as he leads me down stone steps. The cool air caresses my skin and raises goosebumps on my arms. Namjoon and Jimin follow us down. Hobi leads me through a tunnel and around a bend and there I find V and another man with a serious face standing in front of a cage that holds my dance partner.

Jungkook is staring at me. His breathing is deep and his chest moves with each breath. The cage is tall but wide enough to pace in. It has long bars that space a few inches apart but also has some type of ground cloth around it to keep anything from slipping through the bars. I suppose that means that Jungkook is the rabbit because he'd be the only animal small enough to slip through the bars.

That just leaves the tiger and coyote left to identify. Clearly, they belong to V and the other man.

"Why is she here?" the serious man asks. His displeasure is evident.

"Answers, which she's owed." Namjoon states. The severe-looking man grunts and returns to checking Jungkook.

"What have you told her?" he growls.

"Almost everything," This makes the man curse.

I can't take my eyes off of Jungkook. His red eyes are mesmerizing in their jewel-like intensity. The pull to go to him is overwhelming. I take a few steps toward him but V puts a hand out to stop me.

"Be careful. He could hurt you by accident," he warns.

I nod but still keep moving forward until I'm a foot away from the cage. "How are you doing?"

"Better, now that you're here," Jungkook replies.

"I'm sorry you have to be locked up." my eyes brush over him, making sure he's okay.

"This happens every month, I'm used to it. I'm sorry if I scared you. I don't want to scare you." his voice is compelling and I feel it vibrate through my body from my ears to my toes.

"I should be scared. My training says I should be scared, but I just can't find it in me to be scared." I step closer, pressing my hand to the ground cloth surrounding the cage.

Jungkook matches his palm to mine and breathes deep, "Thank you for coming. I feel better with you here. I was worried I had scared you away."

"Do you want me to stay?" I can't look away from his eyes. Their jewel tone draws me in and I can see all the desire and want that any girl would love to see in her lover.

My lover? Do I want this man as a lover? The pull I feel for this man, for the men around me makes me feel reckless. But I've never felt anything like this before in my life and I think I want more of it. I certainly didn't feel any of this in college. The desire radiating in Jungkook's eyes makes me want to shiver in anticipation. Life every promise a woman would want is radiating within.

He rests his head against the bars and closes his eyes and whispers, "Yes."

"Okay," I reply.

"Shit." I hear a severe murmur behind me. I look up and Jungkook's spell is broken as I look into another pair of jewel-like red eyes.

"You have no idea what you are agreeing to," he says severely.

"I know that. But I can't pull away from him. I don't want to." I'm defiant in my quiet claim.

"We're cursed men, precious. We're not only monsters but we're poisonous. Why do you think we had to check on your scratches that first night? One misstep and we could accidentally kill you." The pain and bitterness in his voice were hard to miss.

"Poisonous?" that startles me.

A sigh escapes V's lips and he raised his hands, "the curse prevents us from having ANY contact with anyone. Our bodies are poisonous. That makes having human contact difficult. Last night was very risky for you. Jungkook, here, put your life in danger. Twice"

"I'm sorry," Jungkook says, his eyes intense. "I just couldn't stay away. Once the moon wanes more, My animal nature will back off and I will have better control."

"It's okay, Jungkook. I am not mad." I reassure him. A smile graces his beautiful face.

I look around the men and see the severe one, "What's your name?"

"Yoongi," he states simply.

"Are you a doctor?"

"Yes."

"Well, Yoongi, I'm not going anywhere. I don't think I could even if I wanted to. So, why don't you bring me up to date, and maybe I can help you guys figure something out?"

He looks at me for a moment and then a hint of a smile cracks the side of his lip. "Come on, let Jungkook get some rest and we'll see what you can do."

I look at Jungkook and he nods for me to go. They lead me back up to the house where Jin stayed to make dinner. We weren't down there for very long but Jin has set out an impressive array of sandwich-making materials, with pasta salad and fruit.

Hungry, I join the others to make a sandwich and take my food to the table. As I sit down, I look at each man around me. The pull for Jungkook was intense, but I feel that same pull for each man here. I notice that each man tries not to look at me for too long. Averting their eyes when mine catches them. Do they all feel the pull as well? How can I feel strongly about seven men?

What have I gotten myself into? 

A/N:  Hey lovers, I hope you're having a good summer.   It's taken me a while to figure out where this story is going but I now know how it ends so now we have a direction.  Woot!  lol, I don't know how I could handle being attracted to seven poisonous men.  I like kissing too much.  lol 

 Make sure to comment and vote for the chapters.