Beast, Blood, & Soul

* 19 *

I wake up the next morning feeling...trapped. I'm laying on my back in the bed and I feel cocooned, almost. I feel an adorable rabbit snuggled into the side of my head sharing my pillow. My eyes start to check out my surroundings and see who I feel up next to me. I have a wolf and coyote on either side of me. The golden retriever is sleeping across the coyote's back. I have a tiger lying partially across my legs, which explains the trapped feeling. I hear the rustlings of feathers and look up toward the top of the bed and notice the eagle and owl sleeping on the headboard. I smile, they look upside down from this angle.

I relax back into the pillows and smile at the cuteness around me. Nobody had been willing to give up a chance to sleep with me last night, so they voted to sleep with me in their animal forms. It was the only way to make them all fit. We might need a bigger bed if this is going to continue. My poor queen-sized bed just doesn't fit all of us.

I relax into my position and marvel at how things have changed. Its been four days since the full moon and not only have I learned about the real situation here at the Center, but I have found seven boyfriends.

These seven boyfriends are bound by a curse that prevents them from having normal intimate contact with other humans and forces them to live as animals, but hey, all relationships have challenges. This might be a bit much, though. Still, I have given them my word that I will help them and I can't help but feel the pull inside that says they are mine.

My eyes drift to Jin sleeping peacefully in his wolf form. The burden he carries is so great. I can see the heartbreak in his eyes when he looks at his friends who willingly gave up their own lives to help him, who also have been trapped in this same curse with him. I think most people would go mad, yet these amazing, generous men instead turned to protect the forest that they have to live in. In turn, to help the forest, it helped the local town and it thrives on their generosity.

In a way, the curse has benefited so many. That always seems to happen, a bad thing often proves to have a benefit in some way, helping another.

I wonder if the witch knew what she was doing when she started this curse? Did she know she was trapping these men here eternally or did she think they'd finally come to her in desperation after a few years? Did she envision that they would fight her 500 years later to remain free? Is she patiently waiting for them or has she moved on to another plan? I don't think I could be so patient. If I had seven gorgeous men bound to me, I'd want to claim them as soon as I could.

Jungkook was so sexy that night at the club. I'm not one for hookups, but if he'd asked, I bet I'd have said yes. I know I would have said yes. He had me mesmerized and no way I could have said no. I didn't realize at the time I was feeling the pull between us, but even without it, I'd have willingly melted into his arms. The look in his eyes even then was intense and drew me in. I have seen that fire in all of them since then.

I close my eyes and try to feel that pull that is drawn to them. I search for my feelings and hunt for that elusive tell that says they are mine. Where is it coming from? Ah, there is something there, around my heart. I try to feel it, move it, touch it, somehow. Examine it with my mind's eyes and my feelings to understand what it is. My mind gets an impression of seven strands of emotion that connect from my heart and flare out. I can't see where they go, but I concentrate on each strand and feel like each one is different in some way.

Whoa, this is a little freaky.

As I concentrate, I get a feeling of each strand and I start to identify who is who. I isolate the biggest one and pull on it gently to see if I can touch it with my feelings and I hear a grunt beside me. I open my eyes and see the wolf move and nestle into me a little more. Huh...interesting.