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Part 1/2

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Yaya's POV

Mitchell's unspoken worries soon came true.

"Morning," Muir said, fully awake. The first thing our morning birdie did was to separate Mitchell from me. "You hate her, don't you? Go find something useful to do and stop bothering her," he said and threw Mitchell out, shutting the doors behind him.

Mitchell tried to fight, but he couldn't do much against a penta and performed a dramatically strategic retreat.

Muir knelt beside the bathtub and kissed my cheek, "You didn't sleep last night, did you?"

I shook my head, "I have too much energy to even sit still, let alone fall asleep."

He helped me wash my hair and body, his movements gentle but thorough. "Do you want to take in Zeus?" he asked, "He seems to know his place, so we don't mind accepting him if you want."

"I don't, not for me at least," I said, "I would rather have him imprint Bart instead of me. If there is someone, who can help Bart get rid of his rootless side, it's Romeo's spousal imprint."

Bart wasn't a fresh rootless. He would die if I put him through what Skaris had to go through.

Muir paused and his hands froze on my head, then smiled softly, "A spousal imprint is a sacred vow to cherish and protect the person we mark. I could never put it on anyone else other than the one I love, but for you, I would."

"Who said anything about putting a mark on someone they don't love?" I reached my hands back, cupping his face, and guided him down to press my lips to his. I could feel his smile under the kiss. The happiness emanating from him made me feel a little better, as well.

I didn't doubt his words. He wanted to sacrifice himself for Vick and was ready to offer his body as a vessel, knowing how much that stupid Kraken meant to me.

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The bathroom door opened and closed again.

A half-naked Gold appeared with a cup of steaming hot coffee in his hand, his under-eye bags prominent and dark. He stood by the door, watching Muir finish cleaning me up and dry my hair in silence. It looked like he got lost while looking for me and stumbled upon the living room first.

Not having the benefits of a spousal imprint on me was beginning to affect his mind. It was obvious when he tried to bite and scratch me after emptying his load inside of me, and now the look in his eyes was getting darker by the minute.

Gold approached hesitantly, standing stiffly in front of me. "What if I will never be able to imprint you?"

I lifted my legs for Muir to put on my underwear and pants, "Then you won't. It's no big deal."

"It is." Gold clenched his teeth, his expression pained as he placed his coffee on the shelf and helped me put on my bra and tank top, "I want to tie your life with mine. I want to ensure you will always be a part of me and not an illusion I can't grasp."

Muir hugged me from behind, stopping Gold from looking at me as if he wanted to eat me alive, "I condensed my beast's essence in the tip of my feather and then released it inside her through her wound. You don't have a full beast form, so maybe that's why it didn't work."

I nodded, "Gold can gain stripes like all beastmen, which makes him a beastman... possibly an undeveloped one."

Gold could only change his legs into a long and beautiful fishtail and make fins and scales appear on his body, but his core wasn't strong enough to take the form of a sea creature.

"Your final form must be something that requires a lot of effort and energy. Something that would put your life in danger if you were to shift into with your current capabilities. It seems like the inbreeding within your species had its consequences after all."

Gold's grip tightened on my wrist, "So the only way to find out if I can imprint you is by reaching level penta and seeing if I can obtain my beast form?"

"Maybe? Who knows? It's just a theory," I replied and took them both to the lab. "I'll need a few samples from both of you to see the difference."

They cooperated without complaint, and I had fun studying their genes, comparing and observing the differences.

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The rest of the boys woke up and visited me throughout the day, each leaving after giving me their sample. Vick, Gold, and Muir went to check on the construction site, while Curtis and Skaris stayed behind with Mitchell and Bart, familiarizing themselves with the futuristic devices.

They were impressed by the appliances and gadgets Romeo had and asked if they could take some of them home.

I said no.

They stared at me with their big, round eyes and asked again.

Curtis held up a washing machine, "Sweetheart, just let me take this, please."

Skaris stood behind him, holding a small wine fridge, his head hidden inside, "Dear, this one is smaller than the other one. Please, let me have it."

Bart held a kettle for boiling water in his hands, refusing to let go of it.

Mitchell pointed at a huge camping tent, his face lit up with excitement. "Look at this thing. It even changes colors, and you just have to press a button, and it will set itself up. How cool is that?!"

I said, "No."

They looked at the object they wanted to take and then at me.

"No," I said.

They looked at the object once again and then at me.

"No."

They looked at the object and then...

"No."

Their faces fell, and their shoulders dropped, their eyes getting watery.

Romeo's eyes darted from one person to the other, his lips curving upwards, "They are all charged remotely by this ship's energy core, so you can take them without having to worry about the power source, and..." he stopped, raising his arms in defeat when I narrowed my eyes at him, "Never mind."

"Nothing leaves this ship," I said, "If you want to use something, go ahead, but everything stays here. Got it?"

"Got it," the boys grumbled and scattered, taking Romeo, their guide, with them. Even Curtis, the antisocial, tagged along. All showed interest in automating and mechanizing their daily chores.

I was left alone, enjoying the peacefulness and calmness that settled in my heart.

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It was not until the sunset, when Vick, Gold, and Muir returned, that the peace crumbled to shambles.

"I've decided to look for a heart donor," Vick blurted out, his arm wrapped around Romeo's shoulder like they were best friends. He was smiling like a child, looking very happy. "Zeus agreed to take me to his dragon's homeland."

"I can't grow stronger by staying here, so I've decided to venture into the ocean. There's a chance a penta-ranked merman might be out there with the answers we need," Gold added, "Muir agreed to watch over my tribe and the construction site while I'm gone."

"..." I stared at them for a minute before nodding, "Sure."

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Part 2/2

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Yesterday was a welcome party, and today it was a goodbye one. We settled in the living room, and everyone was doing their best to make the most of the remaining time with the boys, telling them to return soon and stay safe.

Romeo told everyone he would like to mark one of my boys before leaving (turning me into a villain with extreme requirements), and I expressed he should mark Bart (not caring what everyone thought).

"Do I have to wait until Bart can put his spousal imprint on you?" Romeo asked without protest as if expecting another one of my crazy decisions, "I heard you are using Bart as your experiment, which reminded me of how you treated me as one too. I would love to imprint Bart, so I don't mind waiting, but I hope that the day will come sooner than later."

"It's unnecessary," I gestured for Bart to straddle my lap. His cheeks blushed a bright pink as he obeyed. His hand rested on my shoulders, his knees on either side of my hips. "Pass me half of your imprint," I said, my lips tracing Bart's neck, kissing and nipping on his sensitive skin, making him moan quietly.

Romeo was a bit taken aback before recollecting himself. "I see, so this was what you meant," he said as he approached the couch, his lips tracing the other side of Bart's neck. "How clever, Princess. This was your plan all along. I should have seen it coming when you said only they mattered."

If he was ready to sacrifice himself for my boys, then the least I could do was to make him matter to me.

"Give me the phone that Karak gave you," I asked. He immediately took it from his inner suit pocket and handed it to me. I crushed the device in my hand, causing the screen to break into pieces.

His brows twitched, his eyes narrowing. I didn't let him protest, my fangs digging into Bart's flesh. The scent of blood filled the air as he repeated after me, sinking his fangs into the other side of Bart's offered neck, marking and sharing his bond with us.

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I sent a familiar inside Bart to assist him with accepting and sharing the new spousal imprint with me, which would be too complex for him to handle on his own.

It required an understanding of the body on an atomic level, so the familiar would act as a second brain and help him figure out the correct sequence of steps to achieve what I needed.

Romeo had experience with this, thanks to father's familiar and the dragon. The moment he located me ─ a wall ─ a stronger entity he couldn't turn into a vampire ─ he circulated his energy inside Bart and began the spousal imprint ritual.

My familiar did most of the work, becoming a channel that connected Romeo with Bart and then with me.

My senses heightened as I felt Romeo's essence seep into Bart's bones and muscles. I sent a part of his imprint toward Bart's right iliac region and another toward my left.

The familiar left Bart's body and returned to me, bringing back a memory of Bart's first experience of receiving the imprint, his thoughts and feelings, and how Romeo's energy felt to him.

Bart hugged me tightly, his face buried in my shoulder. He didn't know what was happening to him, but the moment he understood, tears started streaming down his cheeks.

"You must have been a good boy," I said, patting his butt, "You even earned yourself a husband see?"

I glanced at Romeo, who wiped his chin with his thumb, his tongue darting out to lick the blood from the tip. "Not just any husband," he whispered, leaning over and pressing his lips to Bart's cheek, "But one who will love and cherish you forever."

The concept of a male being attracted to another male was foreign to the boys. Romeo's show of affection and gentleness toward them was taken as a way to gain their favor, not something sexual. And Bart seemed to be no different since his reaction to Romeo's words could only be described as whatever.

"How far do you plan to take your experiments on me?" Bart asked me, beginning to see my pervy hands and touches as something normal. He reacted, yes, but he didn't overreact as in the beginning, "First, you turn me into a rootless, and now you make another male imprint me. What else do you want to do to me?"

"Many more things," I smiled, my hands cupping his butt cheeks and squeezing, "Don't worry. I will take responsibility."

"I don't care anymore," Bart melted into a puddle on top of me, his burning cheek resting on my bare shoulder, "Do whatever you want," he mumbled.

"I will," I promised while flicking Romeo away. He flew to the end of the couch, crashing onto Curtis, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Vick took the opportunity to pull Bart away from me, seating him beside me then pulled up my tank top.

The boys took it as a sign to surround me.

They stared.

They gawked.

They gasped.

They sighed.

"They are matching," Mitchell mumbled as Vick positioned Bart next to me.

The two halves of red hearts above our hips aligned to create a full heart.

"Does it mean Bart will be able to activate Zeus' powers through his spousal imprint?" Skaris asked, his tail swishing against my palm back and forth, urging me to stroke it, "I'm so jealous right now. Bart is so lucky."

"You think?" Bart raised his head, eyes staring at the imprint on our bodies, "We have a matching imprint..." he muttered as if it was hard to believe.

I seated Skaris on my lap, stroking his tail while glancing at Romeo, "You don't get to play innocent after this. They should know about your true intentions with them."

The look of betrayal in Romeo's eyes made me smirk when the boys surrounded him, pouring down their questions, demands, and accusations on him.

"What?!" Mitchell exclaimed, stretching his pants to look inside, "What's so hot about male's genitals? I know females chose us based on their looks and size, but I still don't get it."

Romeo tugged at his tie, loosening it and opening the first few buttons of his shirt to cool down, "Well, it's not something you need to get."

Just when they thought Romeo was the most normal of all, he came out with a shocking confession of being attracted to males the same way he was to females.

Vick acted cluelessly with everyone despite catching on to the situation way earlier. The boys should know that Romeo's touches and kisses had ulterior motives, and whether they wanted to indulge him or not was on them.

"How can a relationship between two males work?" Muir asked, his brows knitted in confusion.

"Would you still love Princess if she became a male?" Romeo asked.

"I would love her either way. It would not make a difference to me," Muir responded without much thoughts, "I wouldn't have fallen in love if she was a male initially. Now, it didn't matter, I already did."

"How I look at people is the same as how you decide on your future mate. Would I fall for them if they looked like this or acted like that? The answer is usually no, but there are exceptions," Romeo answered, his hand brushing against Bart's cheek, "Sometimes you get attracted to the strangest things. What you found beautiful before becomes ugly, and what you didn't care for becomes beautiful. But if it feels right, why fight it?"

"I was never in love with more than one person, but if Princess is open to sharing, then I will try too," Romeo smiled at them, and they all created some distance, their expressions saying: This dude is a freak.

Bart straddled Romeo's lap, looking at him seriously. "No matter what you feel toward other males and females, you should only express your loyalty toward Yaya before others. I don't want outsiders talking bad about you," he muttered, "Thank you for sharing your spousal imprint with me. I will do my best to return the favor."

Romeo's eyes widened in surprise, and then he smiled, pulling the little people-pleaser into his embrace. "No. I'm the one who is lucky to have you." His gaze landed on me, mouthing, "Thank you."

╔═══ Author's note ════╗

When you realize Yaya introduced Romeo into the family after finding out he was single─not for herself, but for her boys to receive more attention and affection? Way to spread love, Yaya. Lol. 🤣 To me, it sounds like a payback time for what they did to her ─ forcing love down her throat. 🤣

Gold's true beast form? 🧐

Vick's breaking free from his curse with the help of a heart donor? 🤯

Bart carrying half of Romeo's spousal imprint?🤡

Yaya forcing Karak out of his cocoon? 💀

There is still so much to expect and explore in the following chapters, and I don't know where to start first, ah!😵‍💫

But I'm so excited! 🤭

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