Chapter 26

26

By the time all of the guys finished work, came home, and changed clothes, I had dinner ready and on the table.

I’d also put just a little bit of makeup on and changed into my favorite jeans and a comfortable black t-shirt I had stolen from Grant. I had first stolen it because it smelled like him, but now I wore it because it was something of his. I had a shirt from each of the guys in my room now that they had seemed to accept were now mine. Reed had also given me his largest sized sweater that I wore when we hung out on the couch watching shows and relaxing.

“This smells delicious,” Reed said and kissed me on the side of my head as he one-arm hugged me.

“Hopefully it tastes as good as it smells,” I said as we all took seats at the dining table.

Jong-min and Jong-hyun suddenly stood and went to the door.

Reed, Grant, and I looked at each other curiously. Since they looked at confused as me, that meant they hadn’t expected a visitor either.

The twins returned with their brother behind them. He bowed his head and said, “I apologize for my rude behavior up to this point.”

He was here to ruin my plans to talk about becoming mates!

“We invited him for dinner because he is here alone and because of some other things we’ll discuss shortly,” Jong-min explained.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

The three looked at each other, realizing they hadn’t officially introduced him to us yet.

“I am Jong-kyu,” he said and tried to smile, but it was so forced I almost laughed.

“It’s nice to officially meet you, Jong-kyu. I’m Kassidy.”

“You know us,” Reed grunted, arms folded across his chest, clearly not happy with Jong-kyu being here.

Jong-hyun grabbed a chair and set it at the table, grabbing a plate as well.

“Let’s eat before it gets cold. Kass put a lot of work into this,” Jong-min said. He grabbed my plate and filled it up, set it back in front of me, and then filled up his own plate.

Jong-kyu watched it happen with his eyes narrowed, but instead of commenting, filled up his plate as well.

I had planned to take less food since there was an additional person that I hadn’t accounted for, but Jong-min had prevented that. Instead, the three brothers split up their food between them.

We ate in silence, but it was happy silence for me as I could tell everyone genuinely liked the food.

As soon as everyone was done, Grant and Reed stood, stacked all the dirty dishes, and took them to the sink.

“I got dessert,” I announced.

“Cake?” Jong-hyun asked hopefully.

“Chocolate,” I said with a nod.

His eyes sparkled and he quickly went to the cupboard for plates.

“Dinner was really good. Your cooking has definitely improved,” Jong-min praised and slipped an arm around my waist.

Tilting my head back to look up at him, I smiled and raised on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.” Leaning into his hold, I relished the rare moment of affection and praise from the notoriously grumpy male.

“Let’s take the cake to the living room so we can talk,” Jong-min said.

Grant and Reed helped carry the plates while Jong-min steered me out of the kitchen and to the living room.

“You’ve helped enough for today, darling,” he whispered in my ear.

“I can just sit and look pretty now?” I teased.

He kissed the tip of my nose. “Yes.”

The high level of sweetness worried me a bit. Was he buttering me up for bad news?

He sat down on the couch first and instead of sitting next to him, I sat on his lap, turned sideways with my legs draped over the arm of the couch. I rested the side of my head against his shoulder, my nose near his throat to draw in his scent better.

At first he tensed, but once I was comfortable and still, he wrapped his arms around me and stroked his fingers along the skin he had access to, which was mainly my forearm and leg.

Jong-kyu, who had followed us into the room, didn’t like it judging by his thinned lips, but he smartly kept quiet and sat on the couch opposite us.

The others joined us and while I knew this was an important meeting, I let my eyes close and relished the moment with Jong-min as he explained to the others about my parents leaving and the restaurant now being theirs … ours.

“So, we can quit the aquarium?” Reed asked.

“Yes,” Jong-min answered with a nod.

“Finally,” Reed exhaled.

“This is great news!” Grant exclaimed. “We finally have a pack business like we always wanted.”

“We’ll have to come up with a restaurant name,” Jong-min said, “but that can come later.”

My eyes opened as I started coming up with names to share.

“You know, if you advertised that you two, former pop star idols, are running the restaurant, you’d get a lot of customers coming. Your former fans would come in droves for a chance to be served food by you,” Jong-kyu said, a smirk on his face.

He was clearly trying to make me jealous or mad. He obviously didn’t know me.

Sitting up, I said, “That’s a great idea! You could even help out with the tourism in this area by drawing in more visitors from your homeland.”

Jong-kyu scowled, his plan thwarted by my acceptance.

“Oh!” I gasped and looked at Jong-min, who was smiling at me. “Do you have any of the outfits you two wore while on stage? You could wear one of them during the grand opening to really draw in customers! Even do photo ops! There’re so many ways you could use your former fame to help the restaurant really take off. I mean, having four hot males like you there will be enough of a draw, but wearing suits or tuxedos or things like that would increase it even more.”

“Being unmated would be the ultimate draw for their fans,” Jong-kyu said and folded his arms over his chest.

“Speaking of that!” I said, stood, and went to the side table where I had stashed the presents. Walking to each of my four men, I set a present in each of their laps.

“What is this?” Grant asked, bending forward to look at the small wrapped gifts.

“I, Kassidy of Atlantis, tiger shark, pool shark, and outcast, officially ask for Grant, Reed, Jong-min, and Jong-hyun to accept me as mates. In your laps are your mating gifts, if you accept.”

Despite my flawless delivery, wide smile, and straight back, it was all false confidence. There was still a huge part of me that worried they would decline.

All four of their eyes widened.

Jong-kyu’s mouth had dropped open in disbelief. He said, “This is not how it is done! They are supposed to ask you.”

I scoffed. “This isn’t the old days.”

My nerves grew as all four looked at each other and at the presents on their laps, but still didn’t respond. Standing there, I felt my heart start to sink. Were they really not going to accept? After everything we’d been through?

Jong-min stood, set his gift on the coffee table next to his slice of cake, and walked out of the room.

Despair coursed through me, my heart felt like it had fallen through my stomach and through the floor of the house. I rarely cried, but tears threatened as my eyes burned.

After everything we’d been through, they still weren’t ready? Even after the poker tournament and all the things that had tested us there and shown we’re better together? They all swore they loved me, that I was the only female they had eyes for. So why were they hesitating?

What was it about me that they still had doubts? Was it my job? Was it because of my infertility? Why?

Why was I still not good enough?

I took a step back, ready to flee, but Jong-min returned with a small box in his hand with a teal bow atop it.

Stopping in front of me, he held out the box on an upturned palm. “We were going to give this to you later, but now seems better.”

As I reached for it, my hand shook. Jong-min noticed, scowled, and gently grabbed my hand with his free hand. Squeezing, he whispered, “Open the box, Kass.”

Box in my hand, I untied the teal bow and opened the box. My eyes widened and I gasped as I stared at the ring inside.

“We accept your mating offer and offer you this ring as our mating gift,” Jong-min said softly.

Tears fell as the whirlwind of emotions over the last minute hit its crescendo. “When you left the room I …”

He put the ring on my finger, pulled me into a hug, and whispered in my ear, “I love you, Kassidy tiger shark. And while it may have taken us longer than it should have, we don’t want to be without you ever again. I know I was the most resistant at first, but at the end of the day the one thing I look forward to the most is coming home to you.”

Jong-hyun hugged me from behind and kissed the back of my head.

Grant and Reed came forward as well and pried the twins off me to hug me next.

“We’re sorry we froze, but you’d ruined our plan,” Grant whispered in my ear.

“We’d planned to surprise you later with the ring and ask you to be our mate,” Reed said and rubbed his cheek against mine. “You seem to always surprise us when we least expect it.”

Chuckling, I wiped my tears on his shoulder. “Sorry.”

“Really? You’re taking her as a mate? All four of you are sharing one woman. A shark shifter on top of that? Not even a land shifter like you all?” Jong-kyu demanded.

“Love doesn’t care what race they are. Love can see past all inconsequential things to show you the true value of a partner,” Jong-hyun said. “Kass is smart, brave, kind, and would destroy the world for us.”

I nodded emphatically. “Torch it to the ground.”

“And we would do the same for her,” Jong-min said. He reached forward and gripped my hand. “We almost lost her twice and it opened our eyes to a world without Kass. A world that would be devoid of meaning.”

Squeezing his hand, I sniffled and said, “You’re going to make me cry again.”

“Let’s sit and finish our discussion, yeah?” Jong-min said with a smile at me.

Nodding my agreement, I planned to sit between the twins, but Reed pulled me to the couch he and Grant sat on and tucked me between them, nuzzling my cheek and kissing it.

Jong-hyun brought out a notepad as they discussed what types of food they wanted to serve, restaurant theme, and other items, marking it all down in the notepad.

“The reason we brought Jong-kyu here tonight was because he has decided to live here for a while and he is going to work at the restaurant as well,” Jong-min explained. “Any objections?”

“Nope,” I said and Grant and Reed shook their heads.

During the discussion, Grant opened the gift I’d given him and immediately put the magical ring on. It would change size and shape when they shifted, to ensure they didn’t cut off a finger or something when they shifted. They weren’t cheap, but I’d been saving up for them for a while, plus the severance pay from the aquarium had helped me refill my savings so it didn’t hurt as much.

When the others noticed the gift was also a ring, they all, while still talking, opened their boxes and put their rings on.

Looking around the room at my four soon to be mates, all wearing the rings I’d gifted them, I couldn’t stop smiling wide and I wasn’t sure I ever would.

We still had to go through the official mating process, but as all our rings glistened on our fingers, it was the best sight of my life. A sight I had never thought possible.