his territory | markhyuck

20

— chapter twenty: soft —

the rest of the day was spent, cuddled together in mark's bed. the latter had pulled out his laptop and him and donghyuck watched a few christmas movies together. mark felt donghyuck getting all giddy again but the omega quickly took his heat suppressants to prevent either of them from losing their control.

later doyoung called them for dinner. donghyuck, who had been dozing off, happily took the opportunity to finally move around a bit. mark followed him closely, not wanting to stay from the omega at all. both his hyungs seemed to have noticed the alpha's clinginess as they exchanged looks but neither of them commented on it.

as the table was set and the food was ready, everyone sat down. they chatted for a bit while they ate before doyoung finally spoke up about what had been occupying mark's mind ever since this morning.

"so me and taeil-hyung have been talking about the possibility of you moving in with us, donghyuck." the beta said to donghyuck who suddenly tensed. under the table mark took his hand to keep the boy calm.

"as i already told mark and i'm sure he told you as well, we can't have you liver here without some sort of rent. bit of course, we're very understanding of your situation and because you're also working for us, we decided to take parts off your salary and keep it as 'rent'. would that be okay with you?" doyoung asked. donghyuck nodded eagerly causing everyone at the table to smile brightly.

"great. if you want, you can come join me in the office and we will talk about everything, how about that?" doyoung questioned.

"good idea." donghyuck replied and let go of mark's hand to follow the beta.

with the two gone, mark and taeil took it upon themselves to clean the table and do the dishes. mark couldn't help but notice that taeil seemed very amused by the whole situation.

"you're glad huh?" the beta asked mark after they had finished.

"of course, i am. i'm not leaving donghyuck to live with an abuser. under no circumstances." mark answered, feeling all giddy inside at the thought of donghyuck living with him.

"so do you think he's your mate?" taeil asked casually. mark, being caught off guard by the question, coughed loudly before replying "i don't know. i think he might be? i definitely have felt the desire to mate him. it's like my inner alpha is pushing me to do it and he's kind of getting impatient."

taeil nodded to himself before turning his head back to mark. "have you asked him about it? if he feels something similar to what you're experiencing?" he questioned, his voice slipping into his therapist tone. mark knew that taeil wasn't doing this on purpose and it was rather a subconscious thing but it freaked him out a bit.

"uh yeah, i have actually. he said that he felt the same but we didn't talk about it any further. i think he might be scared of the possibility." the alpha explained.

"if i can give you advice, even as someone who hasn't found their own mate, i would say make sure he's comfortable around you. i know that if i were to suspect that i found my mate i would be freaking out too. i'm actually surprised by how well you're handling it." taeil noted and gave mark an acknowledging nod.

the alpha laughed and after said "don't be fooled. i'm kind of freaking out too on the inside. but whenever i'm with donghyuck i just get this huge urge to protect him from any harm. which is probably also why i keep insisting on finding a solution for him. but i just can't stand the thought of him hurting. he's too precious for that and even though he acts all confident and sassy, i just know he is scared."

the beta next to him grinned and said "you're seeing right through him, huh? well, he certainly is a very interesting and charming boy and if he's actually your mate i wish you two the best of luck."