"Hey, settle down. Baby, you look like you've got ants in your pants," Yoongi said amongst giggles as he snuggled into my side, purrs filling the air as my fingers wound through his silky hair to scratch his fluffy ears.

I couldn't help it. Today Jimin was moving in with us and I was simply too excited to sit still. It had been a busy week for our family with everyone working in shifts to pitch in and help the Arctic fox pack up his one-bedroom apartment while he was out of town for work. Initially, we had been bargaining on Jimin being able to take a couple of days off and move in earlier, but the case had taken an unexpected turn – what that was, well we weren't allowed to know.

So, to help my mate, everyone else had gone over to his place early on Saturday morning and come late afternoon, all of Jimin's belongings had not only been packed and moved, but we were able to unpack them too. All that was left was for him to rearrange things the way he wanted.

I had been counting down the hours and minutes all day until my handsome mate would finally come in through the front door with the key Yoongi and I had given him last week. My heart was beating wildly in my chest, a mixture of excitement and nervousness flowing through me. I wasn't anxious about the three of us living together, more so about Yoongi's next rut that was due in little under a month seeing as he had just finished his last one a few days ago. I had heard stories of hybrids who were in a multi-mate group but not all mated together and how there was sometimes jealousy or infighting whenever heats or ruts came along.

For all our sakes, I hope that my two mates won't be like that.

The sound of keys jingling and the lock turning caught Yoongi's attention first. Feeling him nuzzling into my neck and whispering a quiet 'he's here' in my ear had me jumping from our seat on the couch. I giggled at the death stare my cat hybrid gave me as he fell into the cushion; it was the exact same look Yoongles often gave me whenever I would backcomb his fur to make weird hairstyles.

"Jiminie!" I cried out in excitement the second the front door opened, startling the Arctic fox to the point he fell on his butt. "Oh shit," I whispered as I ran to help him up.

"Someone's just a tiny bit excited," Yoongi muttered sarcastically as he sauntered over and grabbed Jimin's bag, placing it on the sofa carefully. "Cara's been waiting and watching the door for the past three hours."

Jimin let out his angelic giggle, the one that made my heart sing with happiness whenever I heard it. "Darling, I told you I wouldn't finish until at least 6pm and it takes a little longer to get here than my last place in the city," he said with a wide smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around my waist, mine finding their way to his shoulders as I scratched his white ears. "Did you miss me that much? I just saw you yesterday morning."

I mumbled something, trying to hide it from my mates. But I should have known that with their enhanced hearing, Jimin and Yoongi caught every word. The grey cat hybrid joined in on our hug, my back warm from his body heat. "We always miss you too, Kitten. If Jimin is anything like me, you're on our minds all day, every day." I shuddered as his breath tickled my neck as his hands kneaded my hips like he often did to his soft blankets while in animal form.

"Yep, you're not wrong. I have gotten into trouble with my team for how often I talk about you, Cara," Jimin laughed, his breath fanning across my cheeks. "Sehun says he practically knows everything about you even though he's never met you. They call it the 'Cara Effect', whereby I morph from a tough cop into a soft little furball whenever I talk about you."

"Joon and Hobi said the same thing when we were in the recording studio," the man behind me murmured into my neck between kisses. "Apparently I've gone from savage stray street cat to a pussy cat in the span of being with Cara, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

As much as I was thoroughly loving being the filling of a hot man sandwich, my stomach had other ideas as it gurgled in the most un-ladylike manner, sounding like a growling monster had taken up residence in my body.

"Come on Kitten, let's get that tummy of yours fed before it consumes you whole." I nodded, pleased that Yoongi and I had cooked a lovely dinner that was being kept warm in the oven.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ⋆͛♡⋆͛ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

"This is nice," I whispered as the three of us snuggled in bed together. Over the past few nights that Jimin had been able to sleep over, I had never slept as soundly before in my life. I don't know whether it was because my soul was happy that the bonds were strong between my two mates and I with their marks laid out proudly on my skin, or if I just loved feeling so warm when I slept.

"It is, but..." Yoongi began but then stopped, as if he didn't want to say anything that could make Jimin or I uncomfortable or angry.

"But what?" Jimin coaxed softly, giving Yoongi time to open up when he felt comfortable.

"But... this bed is a little small for the three of us, don't you think?" I giggled, not expecting that to have come from my mate who loved to snuggle into me so much that he was practically sharing one body with me.

"Now that you mention it, it is," Jimin agreed, demonstrating how if he rolled slightly too much that he would fall off.

"Well in my defence, I did buy this bed when it was just me who would be sleeping in it," I retorted. "I never thought one man would share it with me, let alone two."

I heard growls come from either side of me. "Do I have to fuck that mentality out of you again, like I did last time you talked badly about yourself, Baby?"

Flashbacks of the night that Yoongi had gotten fed up with my self-depreciating humour popped into my head. He'd warned me several times that he didn't like it when I talked down about myself and that if I didn't stop that he'd fuck that thinking out of my system. I learned the hard – and extremely fun – way that Yoongi makes good on his promises. Seven orgasms later and I had no energy or voice left to even utter a single syllable, let alone anything bad about myself.

"No," I grumbled. I wasn't opposed to Yoongi fucking me; it was more that I was speaking the honest truth and it wasn't meant to come out that way. "I was just meaning that when I bought the bed, I thought it would be just for me to sleep in," I tried explaining, but noticed the unimpressed looks on both of my mates' faces. "Ugghh," I groaned, turning over and burying my face into the pillow. I was never going to win this fight.

"How about we look at getting a bed made for us," Jimin suggested, rubbing my back in a soothing manner. "We can get it made to whatever size we want and that way we can all fit comfortably, especially on nights when it's warm like this."

It was a good idea, one that Yoongi and I agreed to wholeheartedly.

As we laid cuddled up together in one large pile of bodies, we talked about things that would need to be altered around the house to fit the three of us, as well as things that Yoongi and Jimin wanted to add so the place felt more like their house too. My Arctic fox mate wanted to have some obstacle course items added into the backyard so he could maintain his high level of agility, while Yoongi asked if we could put in a firepit down the back so we could have bonfires in winter – he also stated that the use of fluffy blankets out there was an absolute must.

My cat and his desire for soft fluffy things to lay on.

"Cara?" Jimin murmured quietly, waiting to hear that I was listening before he continued. "Have- have you thought of my punishment yet?"

I had been thinking over the past week about what I thought Jimin's punishment for marking me without consent should be. On the one hand, what he did went against what hybrids held sacred; however, on the other, I had wanted him to claim me as his mate like he did. It was a fine line of finding a consequence that was strict enough without being unnecessarily harsh or cruel.

"I did. As I said to you that night, I wanted to be your mate and have you mark me. That hasn't changed for one bit. So, because of not speaking to me first and getting my consent, you are to do the laundry for the household for the next two months."

I hoped that with this punishment that Jimin wouldn't see this as me trying to use him as free labour or that I viewed him as my slave to do what I wanted.

"That's a very fair punishment, but..." I held my breath wondering how the Arctic fox was going to finish that train of thought. "But two months is not long enough, so it should be four months."

Yoongi and I both argued that his amendment was too harsh, that he didn't have to do that; however, Jimin maintained that he broke our trust by marking me like that, so if doing the laundry for four months would help to atone for that, then he would do it again and again.

"And I want to take you both out on date nights once a fortnight," he added on. "My treat." Looking at his face, I knew that there was no way I would win the fight to negotiate this, so I accepted. Yoongi did too, although he suggested that Jimin should take me out every two weeks on a date, and Yoongi once a month as a platonic day out. Seeing that there was no fighting the cat on this, Jimin accepted.

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

"Cara, we're needed in the emergency room immediately," Bang Chan called out from the doorway to my office. By the way his shoulders and chest were heaving, it looked like he'd run here from the other side of the building.

Together, we rushed downstairs as fast as we could whilst not running. Unless someone was dying, no staff ran through the halls of the hospital as to avoid dangerous situations. We couldn't have the patients freaking out thinking something was wrong either.

Entering the ED, we found the room in complete pandemonium. Doctors rapidly called out orders to nurses, their voices loud and overlapping each other. Hospital janitorial staff were hurriedly cleaning and sanitising so the bays could be turned over to new patients. And somewhere was someone screaming, loud and in pain.

"Talk to me, Dr Jin," I said, sidling next to my brother who was treating a patient with deep lacerations to his chest.

"It's bad, Cara," he murmured between calling for more drugs to be administered so he could put in a breathing tube since the hybrid wasn't breathing on his own. "23 injured hybrids were found and brought in. All seem to be from that same organ harvesting ring, though some – like this beaver hybrid here – appear to have been tortured too."

"Shit," I murmured under my breath. "Okay, I'll get in touch with Jimin and have him come down here. Do we have enough beds to treat them all?"

I listened as Jin calmly filled me in on the situation; apparently, the eight hybrids currently in the ED were stable for the moment. Three had been pronounced DOA (dead on arrival), three were in surgery, four were up in the ICU ward in critical conditions, with the remaining five in the paediatric ward since they were children. My heart plummeted hearing about the five kids.

How could anyone do this to a poor defenceless child?

"Call in however many extra staff if you need to," I said, "I don't care how much this will cost, patients come first. No matter what."

I looked at the poor defenceless beaver hybrid and sighed. There was too much cruelty against hybrids in my city at the moment and I just prayed that my mate could put a stop to it soon. "I've got my phone on me. Don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything, Jinnie. I'll be back once I've spoken to Felix. And I'll make sure Taemin knows that I've approved if staff need to be brought in." I placed my hand on my brother's shoulder, squeezing to try and pass any of my strength onto him. There was no one I would rather have here right now since Jin was always calm under pressure.

The trip upstairs was quick, and from talking to the medical team running the Paediatric Department, I learned the status of the five new patients. Felix and the head doctor of the Paed's wing, Daniel Kang, filled me in – three of the young hybrids were receiving care for their life-threatening injuries, one was currently in surgery and unfortunately the last was not able to be saved.

While Felix tended to the young children, I stole Dr Daniel away for a moment so the doctor could update Bang Chan and I about the extent of the injuries they had seen on the young hybrids. The more the Labrador hybrid doctor spoke, the more my heart felt like it was filled with stones; these poor young hybrids had suffered from some horrendous things.

While I was happy these kids were in a safe place now, I hated that their short lives had been subjected to violence, malnourishment and mistreatment. Dr Daniel and I shared a look, one that said the injuries would be the least of these hybrids' problems. We both knew that their mental health would have taken a battering too.

"I'm sure you're already onto it, but it might pay to get Baekhyun Byun up here to help the kids," I suggested. Baekhyun was our best paediatric psychologist; he was able to connect with children in a way that made them feel safe so they were able to open up. I nodded, pleased upon hearing that he'd already been called.

Seulgi Kang, Daniel's wife and mate, came in from one of the PICU rooms that was being used to treat one of the patients. "We did everything we could," she said, sadness and anger swimming in her eyes, "but her injuries were too severe to sustain life."

As she brought me into the small room to see the patient, Dr Seulgi briefly filled me in on the specifics of the case. My heart shattered and I could feel tears welling but I needed to stay professional and strong for my staff.

"So, that now makes five deceased," I sighed dejectedly coming back to stand at the nurses desk, where Dr Daniel and Felix were. I hated losing any patient, nonetheless everyone working at the hospital knew we couldn't save every hybrid who came through our doors. "Keep up the good work and let me know if you need anything, okay? I'll shortly be calling the detectives looking after the case and I suspect, when they get here, they will want to speak to you all about these poor little ones." All four nodded, each saying that they would be happy to talk to the police.

As I listened to Bang Chan ask for the names and breeds of the hybrid patients, I sent off an order to our café, organising for some coffees and other beverages to be sent to the paediatric wing, the ED and also the janitorial staff. I also sent another one to the resident grief counsellor, asking them to be available should anyone feel the need to talk.

I could feel it was going to be a long afternoon and evening, so if there was anything I could do to help ease my employee's burdens, I would do it.

As Bang Chan and I headed for the elevator to head back down to the ED, I pressed my mate's contact. Hearing his sweet, angelic voice answer excitedly made me feel better for a moment; but then, as I tried to convey what was happening here, I found myself breaking down.

"Jimin, it's Bang Chan," my assistant said, after taking my phone from my hand when my sobs became uncontrollable. "You and Eun-Woo are gonna want to come down here. Bring your Captain too. It's bad, man." I tried to pay attention to the rest of the phone call, but everything felt like it was going under water. Noises were garbled and I felt numb, like I was floating.

Until everything simply faded away suddenly, like a light switch had been flipped.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ⋆͛♡⋆͛ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

"Oh, thank God. Baby, can you hear me?"

Yoongi? Why is Yoongi at my work and why does he sound worried?

Why am I in a bed?

What the hell happened?

Thoughts were running through my mind as my eyes fluttered open, squinting at the bright overhead lights. "Kitty? Why are you here? What happened?" I tried to sit up, but his strong hands kept me prostrate.

"Shhh, don't try and sit up just yet, Kitten. You had an anxiety attack and fainted."

Oh, that explains so much.

I remembered not being able to breathe properly after being in the children's ward and seeing the tiny baby hybrid who tragically lost her life. It felt as if there was an elephant on my chest and it wouldn't let me catch my breath.

"Don't worry, you weren't out for too long, Kitten. Jimin called me because he and Eun-Woo needed to collect and catalogue any evidence the doctors collected. I've already messaged him to let him know you're awake."

"Sis, I always thought you were more like Snow White than Sleeping Beauty," Jin joked as he entered the room. I huffed a snort as I reminded him that both of those Disney princesses fell into a deep slumber. "Meh, stop being a brat and let me enjoy my joke. See what I must put up with?" he turned, asking my mate who simply chuckled softly at our banter.

I grumbled the whole time Jin was checking me over, stating that I was okay and that as the CEO, I needed to go talk to Jimin and Eun-Woo. After a few minutes of testing my eyes, co-ordination, blood pressure and blood sugar levels, Jin gave me a clean bill of health, telling Yoongi and I to keep an eye on my anxiety and stress over the next week and to let him know if I felt under the weather at any point.

Just as I was about the leave the ED with Yoongi, Bang Chan rushed in, his shoulders relaxing instantly as he saw me standing. "You scared the shit out of me, Cara," he murmured into my neck as he hugged me tightly. "Are you okay?"

I assured the beagle hybrid that I was fine and was ready to get back to work. He nodded and turned to Yoongi. "Jimin has asked if you're able to come and sit in on the meeting to help keep Cara calm."

Yoongi nodded, saying that he didn't have anything important on his schedule and that he'd prefer to be here anyway. As much as I wanted to tell them that I was okay, having Yoongi there with me when Jimin was in detective mode would be a huge comfort. I knew what I had seen today would haunt me for a long time and to have both of my mates in the room with me would make it a lot easier to deal with the hard discussion we were about to have.

The walk up to the conference room felt like it took no time at all and an eternity at the same time. My assistant told me that everything was organised, that he had arranged for coffee and waters for everyone, as well as worked out a schedule for Jimin and Eun-Woo to talk to the doctors and other staff.

"Angel!" Jimin rushed to me as soon as I opened the door to the conference room, my mate pulling me into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to be there when you woke up. Are you okay, Darling? Yoongi said you had an anxiety attack. Are you sure you're up for this?"

I halted Jimin's word vomit with a chaste kiss. I cupped his cheeks and whispered that I was okay and that I needed to be here. "It was seeing the kit that triggered me," I admitted, remembering the poor little Arctic fox's tiny lifeless body. "All I could think about when I saw her was how our babies would have cute little white ears and chubby cheeks like she did. She was only six weeks old, Jimin! A baby... how could they do that to a poor, defenceless little baby?"

I sobbed into Jimin's chest, heartbroken that whatever future that poor little kit could have had was stolen so harshly. I felt Yoongi envelop me as well, both of my mates hugging me like they were the only things keeping me from breaking into a million pieces.

"We're gonna catch who did this," Jimin promised softly as he pressed his lips to mine. "My team and I are not going to let the scum who did this get away with the murder and torture of hybrids." I whimpered as he pulled away. "But to do that, we need your help, Darling."

Sniffling and wiping away my tears, I nodded my head decisively. I would do anything I needed to help Jimin catch the assholes who did this. "Good girl," he murmured just for Yoongi and me to hear, chuckling as a shiver ran down my back.

"Come on, Baby. Let's get this over with and then at home we can finish what Jiminie just started."

I allowed Yoongi to pull me over to the empty side of the table. Seated opposite us in the middle, was Eun-Woo, with Jimin to his left. Eun-Woo smiled warmly at me; we had gotten to know the gorilla hybrid fairly well seeing as he was Jimin's partner and close friend. On his right-hand side was a man I didn't know, but as soon as I heard his name being introduced, I couldn't help but exclaim that it felt like I had known him for ages. Sehun beamed, telling me in a teasing manner about how he felt like he knew everything about Yoongi and I since Jimin hadn't ever stopped talking about his 'wonderful, stunning, beautiful mate' and the cool cat that had become his platonic mate.

Jimin's face flushed a dozen shades of pink, whining about being called out like that.

As much as I wished the light-hearted banter could continue, the knock on the door brought us all back to reality. Doctors Jin and Daniel entered the room, along with Baekhyun Byun, the psychologist. I breathed an inaudible sigh of relief the red panda hybrid was also here to speak about the mental health of the children involved.

It was hard to listen to the long list of the injuries sustained by the hybrids brought in today. Each one of them had been recipients of unnecessary organ harvesting, along with other forms of abuse or torture. In the end, out of the 23 patients that were brought in today, we lost seven adults and three children. It was a tragic outcome, the darkest day for Sanctuary in a long time. I didn't hold the bad outcomes against the staff as I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they did absolutely everything humanly possible to save them.

It's those animals who did this. They're the ones who have to pay.

While the two heads of department doctors spoke about the physical injuries and health conditions the patients had suffered, Baekhyun discussed the mental traumas. Even though he specialised in Paediatric Psychology, Baekhyun was able to also report on what the adult victims would have experienced too.

He also talked about the work he and the other psychologists had been doing with the previous survivors, helping the police to know more about the type of people they were looking for. Baekhyun commented how many of his patients suffered from nightmares or night terrors, but he couldn't go into specifics as he would need their parents or owners' permission to break confidentiality like that, especially since they were minors.

Jimin looked at his two co-workers, who both nodded slightly. It was as if they shared one brain and knew what each other was thinking. "This doesn't go anywhere outside of this room," he addressed pointedly, waiting until each of us had promised not to talk to anyone else. "We have narrowed it down to a few possible suspects, but we are needing more evidence. So, if any of your patients are able to assist in any way, even if it's from their dreams, it might help us with what we do have."

"I'll ask them and let you know," the psychologist reassured the officers. "If – and I do mean 'if' – any of them agree, it might be best for only one of you to talk to them as they are still trying to process their trauma. Children are resilient but we are talking about their living nightmares here. Also, do you have anyone who is not a predator hybrid working with you so they don't feel as threatened?"

Sehun suggested their assistant, Sana, who was a field mouse hybrid. The only issue with her doing the interviews was she's not a police officer and apparently, as he stated, "any interviews involved in a case like this need to be overseen by an officer as to not have them thrown out in court."

"We do have observation rooms that have one-way mirrors in them if that would help," I offered. "They each have both video and audio recording capabilities, and you can observe and listen from the other room." The three observation rooms had been part of the latest upgrades to the hospital and were where the adoption department conducted interviews so that one of the psychologists could observe potential adopters.

"That would work," Eun-Woo commented, making notes on the paper in front of him. "We'll wait to hear from you, Baekhyun."

"I think that's all we need at the moment Doctors," Sehun said, moving to stand and shake Baekhyun, Jin and Daniel's hands. "We appreciate everything you have told us and hopefully we catch these bastards soon. Now, would we please be able interview any patients who are conscious and stable enough?"

I tuned out the rest of the conversation as I felt Yoongi squeeze my hand, silently asking if I was okay. I nodded. I was okay despite the horrific things I had seen today. All I wanted to do right now was sip on my favourite coffee as I snuggled into my mate.

"Darling, shall we?" Jimin asked, holding his hand out for me to take. I looked at him in confusion, wondering why he wasn't going with his co-workers, who were following the doctors out of the room. "Sehun and Eun-Woo are going to talk to the patients while the three of us grab something to drink. I don't know about you two, but I really just want coffee and to snuggle up with you both."

"It's like you read my mind, Foxy," I winked, grabbing his hand and leading both my mates to the cafeteria. I knew I wouldn't be able to unsee the things I observed today but having my two loving men with me helped so much.