"Baby, time to wake up," I heard the deep, husky voice I loved so much whisper into my ear moments before kisses littered my face.

"Mmm, do I have to?" I groaned, trying to pull the sheet over my head, but the movement was halted by my mate's handsome head being bunted against my hands. Yoongi purred as my fingers found their way into his hair and scratched his furry grey ears. Mornings, especially those I woke up in his arms, were one of my favourite times of the day even though I didn't like early starts.

"Yes, you do have to. I have made coffee and breakfast," he murmured before quickly placing his lips on mine for a quick, chaste kiss as he ripped the sheet off me completely. I whined, moving to try and catch him for another kiss. "You can have more kisses once you're out of bed."

"Meanie," I pouted, earning myself a deep chuckle as a hand connected with my exposed ass.

"C'mon Kitten, the faster you get up, the more kisses you get. If you're not in the kitchen in one minute, I'm withholding all kisses for the rest of the day."

I gasped as my eyes widened. "You wouldn't!"

"Guess there's only one way to find out..." he proclaimed in a sing-song manner while walking out of the room.

I quickly threw on a robe and rushed down the stairs, hoping that I made it in time before the punishment kicked in. "There's my good little mate," he praised, handing me a steaming cup of coffee served with a kiss on the side.

As we drank our delicious, caffeinated beverages and ate our honey ricotta toast topped with fresh berries, Yoongi and I fell into an easy conversation. He told me he was meeting with a producer who was interested in helping him record his follow-up album. We talked about Jin, JK and Tae, as well as trying to figure out what the information the alpaca hybrid had to share was. This led to me wondering what the new detective on the case was like and if he lived up to all the praises my assistant sent his way.

Taking the plates to the sink, Yoongi returned to give me a long, loving kiss that left me breathless and wanting more. "Later, Kitten," he murmured against my lips, "I promise to continue this later. I love you. Have a good day."

"Love you too, Honey," I whispered before stealing one last kiss.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ⋆͛♡⋆͛ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

I was busy perusing the concept drawings from the architect for the expansion of Sanctuary's shelter; we had outgrown the space and needed to add another wing to help house more hybrids. I was pleased to see that he had included all the specifications Joy and I had asked for – specifically some purpose-built temperature-controlled rooms that we could use for specific breeds of hybrids.

A noise startled me and when I looked up, I found my assistant standing in front of my desk, a tray of takeaway coffee cups in each of his hands. "The detectives will be here in a few minutes, they're just parking now," he said, his ears semi-flattened on his head and tail hanging limply behind him. It was unusual to see Bang Chan not with his normal sunny temperament, but the seriousness of the upcoming conversation was weighing just as heavily on him as it was for me.

I stood, sighing as I quickly smoothed my skirt over my hips and extended a hand, silently asking for one of the trays. "Let's do this," I murmured, more to myself than anything.

A comfortable silence hung over us as Bang Chan and I made our way downstairs to the conference room. As I placed the coffees on a side table, my assistant grabbed glasses and jugs of water from the fridge; he had been busy to try and make things comfortable for everyone.

I noticed a stack of fluffy blankets placed on one of the chairs and thought how my mate would love to curl up in those as he slept in the sun. A smile blossomed on my face as I thought of Yoongi; I really loved him, and I was so lucky to have such a wonderful man to call mine.

A knock on the door broke me from my daydream of napping in the sun curled up with my mate. I looked up and saw Taemin enter with Detective Eun-Woo Cha, along with another hybrid man, who was insanely attractive. His white, platinum blonde hair was the same colour as the adorable upright rounded ears that peaked out from underneath his luscious locks. From my guess, he was a small white fox hybrid, possibly one of the rare Arctic fox breeds. 

As I wondered whether those were his natural eyes, or if they were contacts because they were two different colours, I saw the new man murmur something under his breath, but I couldn't make out what it was. I did see the three other hybrids still for a second with troubled and slightly disturbed looks in their eyes before they took their seats around the large table.

"Cara, good to see you again even though it's under terrible circumstances," Detective Cha smiled politely as he sat across the table from me. As the other officer took the seat beside him, Eun-Woo began introducing us all. "Cara, Bang Chan and Taemin, this is Detective Jimin Park, my new partner." I smiled at the new man who showed us his badge as the gorilla hybrid continued speaking. "Jimin, may I introduce you to Sanctuary's CEO, Cara Randall; the COO, Taemin Lee; and Cara's assistant, Bang Chan."

"It's nice to meet you all," Detective Park replied, maintaining brief eye contact with each of us. I was shocked hearing the deep voice that sounded like smooth silk. With his angelic looks, I had pictured his voice to be higher, but the tone and timbre was deep, smooth and silky. It was nearly as attractive as Yoongi's.

Nearly.

Bang Chan's phone buzzed on the table. "Ah, Taehyung, the patient we are meeting with today, is on his way up now," my assistant said, reading the message. "Dr Jin and Jungkook Jeon are also coming if that is okay with everyone?"

Eun-Woo, in the space of his investigation, had met my brother but not his husband. "Seokjin is the head doctor in the ED," he said to his partner, who I noticed was writing down the new information.

"Jin is my brother too," I added for clarity. "He and his mate husband, Jungkook, found out yesterday that Taehyung is also their mate."

The thought of my brother finding another mate brought my mind back to my own, especially how he said we would continue what we started this morning when I get home later. "I can smell that you have a hybrid mate too?" Detective Park asked me in a clarifying statement rather than a question. Many hybrids often asked humans who smelled like hybrids if they had a mate, so his words weren't unusual to me.

I nodded, proceeding to tell him a little bit about Yoongi as we waited for the others to join us. I noticed that while he was listening to me, a dark look flitted across his eyes but was gone a second later. Thinking that it wasn't my business, I pushed it out of my mind and at the same time, the three men came into the room. Jungkook was pushing Taehyung's wheelchair with Jin holding the door open.

As coffees were handed out, introductions were made. After the detectives asked us to call them by their names rather than their profession, we started to get into the reason why we were here. I listened as Eun-Woo and Jimin asked Taehyung questions about himself, not yet getting into the difficult and potentially triggering ones about his experiences.

I learned that Taehyung was a huacaya alpaca hybrid, and by his curly hair that resembled this particular breed of alpaca's fleece, I wasn't surprised. He was 27 years old and had grown up his whole life in an illegal breeding farm. I was horrified to hear that the breeding farm was run out of a hybrid shelter; instead of helping them, the humans were profiting off the exploitation and sale of the hybrids in their care.

"I was different to many of the other hybrids," Taehyung said sadly, his tall pointy ears laying back on his head. "I was owned by the man who ran the shelter and was used as breeding stock. He kept a few select hybrids of different species to keep his breeding farm operational, but all the others who came through the shelter were not adopted," he paused to gather his emotions. "They were sold like commodities."

I was impressed by the softness Jimin radiated as he asked the hard questions. His approach to the difficult conversation was helping to keep Taehyung calm; having Jin and Jungkook here helped too.

"I heard a whispered conversation of how hybrids were being sold for organs, while others were to be used as sex slaves or as fighters in underground fighting rings," the alpaca admitted sadly, his shoulders stooped.

"Do you know who you heard who was talking about this?" Jimin probed gently, writing in his book.

Taehyung nodded. "A few months ago when I was coming back from breeding with a female alpaca hybrid, I accidentally overheard my owner on the phone since his door was slightly open. I don't know who he was talking to since they weren't on speaker phone. But whoever it was, from the tone of their screaming, it was clear that they were not happy. My owner promised that since their last shipment had not met their expectations, he would send them a bunch of cria, pups, kittens and snakelets to make up for it."

"Fuck," Eun-Woo whispered under his breath. "So, you're saying the shelter bred alpacas and snakes hybrids? Along with cats and dog hybrids?" he asked, nodding as Taehyung confirmed that and the alpaca also added that some exotic bird species and wolf hybrids were also bred there.

"Do you happen to know the name of your owner or what the shelter is called?" Jimin inquired after writing down the new information.

Taehyung shook his head, his eyes rimmed with tears as his bottom lip trembled. "We were to only call him 'master' or 'sir'. If I did hear any names, it was always code names," he said, pausing so the detectives could write down this information. "I know they call him 'Noah' like the man who had the arc because he supplies the hybrids. There was another man called 'Taipan' because he allegedly had a penchant for using snake hybrids as fighters. And there's also 'Big Bad Wolf' who, like his name, is apparently big, bad and likes wolves."

"You've been very helpful," Jimin said softly after Taehyung had finished answering all the detectives' questions. "I'm so very sorry for everything you've been through."

"You need to stop them," Taehyung murmured quietly as tears streamed down his face.

"We're not going to stop until we catch these animals," Eun-Woo declared. I could see fire behind his eyes, and I knew that neither he, nor Jimin, would rest until the people responsible were caught.