Beast, Blood, & Soul

* 35 *

Taehyung and I held each other until a throat cleared behind me. I turned around and saw the others watching us with small smiles on their faces. We pull away from each other, giving small smiles and I return to serving up the rest of the breakfast bowls.

"Feeling better?" Jin asks Taehyung, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Getting there," his raspy voice replies. Jin smiles, squeezing his shoulder, and then moves over to see what I'm doing.

"That looks delicious. Thank you, Y/N" He says. He takes one bowl from me and heads to the table.

I smile at him as I keep my hands busy with serving breakfast. I place bowls on the table and slowly everyone comes to breakfast.

Before I sit down, Namjoon pulls me in for a hug and murmurs in my ear, "How are you? Still feeling weirded out?" he asks softly.

"Yes, but I'll be okay, eventually," I reassure him by squeezing him back in the hug. It's true, I'm still terrified of what they can do, but these men have done nothing to make me think they are dangerous to me. They have loved me, protected me, even if it was from themselves, and I really do trust them. They are just...a little scary.

"It's okay to feel worried about things," Hobi says. "You went through a lot yesterday."

"Learning our true selves would be a shock," Jimin confirms.

"We don't expect you to be okay with what we really are," Yoongi continues. I can see Jungkook and others nod with Yoongi's statement.

"What you really are?" I ask.

"We're monsters in every sense of the word," He says. Yoongi's eyes are serious and as I look at each man at the table, I see that same sense of confirmation in each of them. What they've been through has left them feeling like they are monsters first. As much as they terrify me in one regard, I know they are anything but monsters. Real monsters would revel in their strength and the terror they could instill in others. Bangtan instead took that strength and bent it toward protecting the forest they were bound to.

"That's complete bullshit," I tell him.

"What?" his jaw drops.

"If you were true monsters, you would take the strength and power the witch gave you and rule like kings. What you are capable of could dominate the area very easily. Did you do that? Did you indulge the darker side of your nature and turn on the world?" I ask. My eyebrow raises as I look at them. They can't answer of course, because they didn't do that. They did the very opposite. They exchange looks as they consider my words.

"Given what you've told me of the witch and what she wanted, I'm certain that if you had surrendered to her, she would have taken your power, your gifts, and used them to control and be a queen. You'd be her enforcers while she takes power. Am I right?" I look at them sitting around the table, listening to my question.

"You are not wrong," Namjoon says and the others nod their heads. "What she wants from us is slavery so deep that we have been fighting it for 500 years."

"Exactly," I nod. "You took what she gave you and turned it to protect others. You protect this forest. You protected Mindy and me yesterday. You contribute to the town. You help with scholarships. You contribute to the world around you." I get up and walk around the table. I let my hand glide over shoulders, pat heads, and tousle hair as I pass each man. "You are the very opposite of being a monster." I look at them as every man watches me closely.

"Did watching you disembowel an entire wolf pack terrify me? Hell yes, it did. Does that mean I think you're monsters? No. You did not enjoy or revel in what you had to do yesterday." I took my seat again. "But it doesn't change the fact that yesterday did happen."