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It had been a few days now since Ian became my suitor and I noticed he got along well with my other mates so I thought that this might be the perfect time to finally accept him as my mate.

"Ian!" I smiled and greeted him when I saw him arrive at the castle, holding a basket with fruits and vegetables he probably found.

"Sera" he smiled and went to me. "For you" he chuckled and handed me the basket and I thanked him. "I see that you've been getting along well with my mates and they seem to accept you so I finally decided to take you as my mate" I said, smiling at him.

I had to stop myself from chuckling when I saw him blink several times, doing a double take as he looked at me. "I... What?" He asked, smiling like an idiot which caused me to laugh a bit.

"I said, I'm accepting you as my mate now. Seeing that you and my other mates got along well and that none of them seem to be complaining about you or anything, plus your a strong male" I smiled and laughed a bit when he suddenly hugged me gently but firmly.

"Thank you" he said, nuzzling his face against my hair. "Mhm" I just hummed in response to him, smiling to myself.

"But can you wait until tomorrow until we mate?" I asked and I felt him nod. "Of course" he said, finally pulling away from the hug as he looked down at me with a smile.

"You really know how to wrap up males in those tiny and beautiful fingers of yours huh" Kenji said, appearing from one corner.

"Of course" I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows at him which made him shake his head as he laugh and smiled softly at me.

"And your damn proud of it? I should have known. Every mate of yours is completely whipped with you" he laughed making me snort with a smile.

"You do know that it includes you right?" I asked with a chuckled and he nodded with a smile.

"Of course, I'm one of them. And he will probably be too" he said, pointing at Ian who was still holding me and is now softly and gently petting my head.

"Yeah, that's right" I laughed and shook my head. "Alright, come on now. Tell the others on who wants to go with me, I want to go to the market and have a look around" I said to Kenji before turning my attention back to Ian.

"Do you want to go with us?" I asked and he nodded with a smile. "Alright then! Let's go!" I said, pulling away from the hug as I drag him and Kenji to pick up my males who want to come with me too.

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I was being carried by Denver and was in the middle. Kenji, Marlo, Carlos and Xavier were in front while Calvin, Archie, Lucas and Ian were behind us.

Rio, Kali and Florence were on my left while Tora, Roscoe and Kei were on my right which basically means I bought my whole family to the market.

My three older cubs, the Pantherns, were in front, happily playing with each other as they chased after each other but also made sure not to stray far away from us while my two chicks were in the basket I was carrying.

As I looked around and being carried around, I can see the envious, jealous stares from the other females while I got many lustful and many males eyeing me up but none of them were stupid enough to approach me. Not with all my mates present and were currently glaring at each male who were staring at me the wrong way.

As I continued to look around, I can hear the mutters and whispers of the other females. Some good, while the others were bad.

A few of the things I heard were

"She must be lucky to be that fertile"

"I wish I was fertile as her"

"Tsk, does she have to go around here to brag about it?"

"Hmph, doesn't mean she's fertile all the males need to fall for her"

"I can't even understand why the males are so desperate for her"

"I wanna be friends with her"

And a few other things that I heard, but I just ignored all of them and continued on my way of looking around.

That was until I spotted the line of males waiting for honey nectar. "Can one of you please get me some honey nectar?" I asked my males and Tora nodded with a smile.

"I'll wait in line, you can go look around more if you want. I'll bring you the honey nectar once I got it" he said and I nodded with a smile.

"Thanks Tora!" I said and watch as he went to wait in line with the several dozen males who were also trying to get some for their females or the females they wanted to court.

"Where do you want to look around next little mate?" Carlos asked, turning back to me slightly.

"Hmm, I don't know. I mean we have a lot of things back at the den. We got ample supply of herbs thanks to Denver, we also have enough furs to make clothes and all of you would always bring fresh fruits and vegetables so we don't run out of those" I spoke, thinking of where I might want to go next.

As I was busy thinking, my thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a distance howl was heard.

Every male in the vicinity all tensed up, and without a second doubt all the mated males dropped all of the things they were doing and rushed to their females.

Tora too, stopped waiting in line and immediately went back to me. I glanced at Kei and Florence, silently asking for them on what the howl meant.

"Rootless beast" Kei answered. "Get her back to the castle now" Kenji ordered, making Denver, Kali, Kei, Rio and Ian nod. "I'll stay there with her just in case" Ian said and Kenji nodded before shifting into his fox form and let out a warning call, alerting more males to go to the city gate and defend it.

"Come on little one, let's get you back to the castle" Ian said and with that, Denver put me on Kali's back since Kali was already shifted into his lion form.

"Don't worry about the cubs, I got them" Kei said, gesturing to the three older cubs who were all now standing close to us. And with that, we made our way back to the castle.

As we did so, I can see many males rushing off towards the gates while others were busy bringing their females back inside the safety of their dens and only a few going out while the rest stayed to protect their female.

'I wonder how big the group of rootless beast is, I hope it's not to big to cause several casualties' I thought to myself as we arrived at the castle after a few minutes.

Kali then rushed up stairs, and into the main bedroom. "Stay here with the cubs okay? Rio and Kali will stay with you inside just in case while we're gonna stay outside" Ian said and I nodded.

"Alright" I muttered, holding the basket where my two chicks were while my three older cubs also snuggled close to me. Although the three of them look defensive too, as if ready to attack anyone who would dare harm their mother and younger brothers.

∘∘∘∘

It had been an hour and a half now, and the others still haven't arrived back yet and I would always find myself constantly looking and gazing at my body. Silently counting if all my marks were still there, even though I would have known of them died but I just couldn't help myself from glancing at my body, or rather at the marks on my body.

"I hope their fine" I mumbled to myself which caused Rio to pet my head gently. "Don't worry little mate, I'm sure they'll be able to handle it" He said, trying to reassure me.

[Meanwhile... 3rd person's POV ]

Carlos, Tora, Calvin, Archie, Kenji and Sera's other mate were all in their beast form standing and hovering near the gate of the city.

Roscoe growled and lunged himself at two tiger males who tried to run up to them, instantly killing the two rootless tiger beast.

Carlos on the other hand was sending several rootless beast flying with every hit of his tail, making sure that none of the rootless can go inside the city, not when it's the same city his precious and treasured mate was staying at.

Roscoe, Kenji, Marlo and the other all took turns in killing rootless beast, while the other males from the city also joined in. With the flying males defended the sky where a few rootless males who can fly, mostly eagles, Hawks and owls, tried to flew off and into the city.

Xavier and Lucas were also flying around, picking up on some of the males one by one and literally dropping them off once they pick a male and fly up high.

What the males didn't know though that this was only the start, and more disasters were about to come. Some more intense and fearsome than other while some would be even barely noticeable with how weak it is.

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