Stay (BTS x Reader-Polyamorous romance)

Chapter 39

I could see some of the anxiety fade from Taehyung's eyes and I could have hugged Owen for making my mate feel better. As the tension left his frame, Taehyung turned to me, an embarrassed smile on his face. "I... I probably sound pretty silly, don't I?"

I shook my head. "Not at all. It's a common worry for hybrids to be nervous about their human mates. They don't feel the bond like we do so we tend to think that they are more likely to leave us." Taking a deep breath, I reached over and squeezed Taehyung's hand. "However, with Y/N? It's different. It is so clear to me that she loves us. When... when Kook left, she was devastated. She felt that broken bond almost as deeply as if she was a hybrid, but it's because she loves so deeply. She may not feel the bond like we do, but she falls in love and she has fallen for us."

Taehyung nodded, his eyes thoughtful. "Part of me wishes that when Jimin rejected her, I wouldn't have listened, but... but the other part of me that worried about her rejecting me, leaving me won over."

Squeezing Taehyung's hand again, I tried to reassure my mate. "Don't... don't even think about that anymore. All Y/N wants is to move on with her mates, have the love that she has been looking for, wanting this whole time. That type of love, of want, of need is so important to her, something that she will fight for."

As I spoke, I knew Taehyung's worries were dissipating. It was going to take some time before he felt completely at ease, but it was understandable. When most of your experiences with humans were negative, what are you supposed to do? I knew Taehyung had a rough background and he ended up in the sanctuary because of an incident with humans. The feathers on his beautiful wing had started to fill in nicely, but the still bare spots reminded me why Jimin had been so hateful towards Y/N. She may not have been responsible for Taehyung's wounds, but to Jimin, being a human automatically made her guilty, made her the bad guy.

Owen nodded at my words and I could see he agreed with me. "Trust Joon kid. I promise he won't lead you in the wrong direction. And trust your mate. She's a real one." Giving Taehyung and me a final grin, Owen headed back into the kitchen, whistling as he exited the room.

Sometimes I wondered if Owen was secretly a hybrid. Some of his behaviors were definitely animal-like. He was a creature of habit and I knew what he was baking based on the song he was humming. Today's song was Beethoven's Fur Elise so I knew he was making lemon bars. If it was a Linkin Park song, particularly Crawling, it would be muffins and Luke Bryan's Country Girl was a signal of cookies. Owen's eclectic taste in music was another of the things that made him one of a kind. He could talk rap artists with me, but then turn around and discuss country music with Eli, the goat hybrid that would come in on Tuesdays. He was a people person through and through and it was one of the reasons the shop was so successful. He genuinely cared about people, both hybrids and humans, and it made me happy to know him, to consider him a friend.

After the short lull in customers, the shop filled up again and we were racing around serving customers, both human and hybrid alike. Although I had been worried when I first started working for Owen, it soon became clear that he would not put up with people mistreating his employees, human or not. It had only happened a few times, but Owen had threatened them that he would be contacting the authorities before so nicely (not really nicely) informing them hat they were no longer welcome in his shop. Although it had been strange to see a human that stood up for hybrids, I had been grateful to him for his kindness and for his willingness to take me on and give me a job like he did.

As I was taking an order, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Not wanting to appear rude to the customer, I disconnected the call and turned my attention back to my customer. My phone rang a second then a third time and although I would have like to check it, I knew customer service came first.