Unexpected truth

"Don't worry, you can have multiple males as your mates here, so you don't need to worry about it," Levi replied calmly, trying to relieve Jessica from the mental pressure of accepting another mate, which would have been hard for her after living in a society promoting monogamy according to him.

His words brought another wave of embarrassment for her, so she suddenly blurted out, "Alright, alright, fine, okay?"

"I can't believe that you accepted me as your mate," replied Blaze in a cheerful voice as he pulled Jessica into his tight embrace.

"Wait, wait," Jessica said, pushing him on his chest, "I haven't accepted you as my mate, but rather as my pursuer," because she needed to clarify herself when Blaze took her in his arm again and said, "Don't worry, that's the same anyways."

Maybe Jessica didn't hear his words clearly because she didn't say anything, but when Blaze released her, she noticed that Ell was sitting near her legs on the ground, looking at her with his teary red eyes. When his gaze met hers, he hurriedly entrapped her waist between his arms and said, "Jessica, please accept me as your mate. Please!"

"Let go, Eleanor!" Jessica hurriedly said, pushing him away from her sensitive waist, but she couldn't move him an inch, while Ell continued to repeat his words in a pleading, childish tone. Looking at him behaving like a child whose mother refused to buy him a gift, Jessica couldn't control herself from laughing, even when the guy in front of her was crying.

Jessica kept on trying pushing him with no result when Levi who started to get irritated by looking at Ell behaving this close, he stretched out his hand to grab his shoulder but was stopped by Jessica, she said while trying to controlling her laugh "okay okay, let's talk while sitting normally".

Ell parted his head, but his arms remained around her as he looked at her with his crying face, which Jessica wiped with her hands. Ell acted this way because he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her accepting Blaze on the spot, who in reality wasn't even putting any effort in pursuing her and even left those despicable marks on his body, which hurt his pride because he was the first pursuer that Jessica accepted, so how can he still not get recognition?

When he realised she had accepted all of them as her pursuers, the only decision she had to make was who would get to mate with her; after all, she had just passed her heat. Accepting someone as a pursuer is more akin to accepting them as temporary mates with the promise of mating with them after the next heat cycle.

Ell was looking at Blaze hugging her so intimately after confirming his position as a pursuer, whereas he himself was not in a state to openly say that he made Jessica accept his soul feather without her knowledge because he was afraid of the aftermath.

He looked at the three-person world in front of him, feeling left out, which he couldn't accept. He knew Levi helped Blaze because they were brothers, but he didn't have anyone to rely on except himself, so he decided to bet all of his dignity on his last move because he also wanted to stay by her side, in the same glow as her, with full confidence.

(Present)

Jessica wiped his tear-filled face as she said, "Eleanor, I can accept you as my pursuer. If you don't mind me being with Blaze and Levi," she said, her words freezing Ell's expression instead of changing it to a happy one because she just said "pursuer," which meant she would choose someone else to mate with her, which meant it wouldn't be him and her first children wouldn't be his nestlings.

Ell was stunned while his mind was running wild, giving him every single reason to despise himself, when Blaze suddenly blurted out, "Then who would you be mating with?" in a surprised and shocked tone,

Ell was the infamous first prince of the Phoenix clan, and after staying with him for so long, Blaze knew him much better. He knew how crazy Ell had become just to get accepted; him kneeling down in front of her and crying so pathetically was something he couldn't even imagine in his imagination.

Him being a phoenix was sufficient to tell how haughty he could be, but on top of that, he was the first prince, and that too was an eighth-level beast.

After confirming himself and Levi as her pursuer, he already had the idea that Ell would become her first mate, which was definitely disheartening for him, but he still accepted this setting because of Ell's determination, but to his surprise, Jessica made him her pursuer as well, which meant that if he got lucky, he could still become her mate.

"Huh?" were the only words that came out of Jessica's mouth because she just thought that she heard something wrong.

"I'm talking about mating, your heat period just ended, so you'll be mating with one of us, right?" Blaze said in a slightly confused tone when he looked at her dumbfounded face, which made him wonder: how can she not know this basic knowledge about herself?

His words made Jessica sure that by mating he was talking about sex, but she still didn't get why the hell they were bringing up this kind of topic suddenly when it wasn't that long since she got to know them and what he meant by "I have to"? It was true that she thought of accepting them, and that's why she allowed them to become her "pursuers," but that only justifies that she will allow them to woo her because she would also get to know more about them this way; after all, that's what pursuing means, right? So she asked "Why?" while squinting her eyes.

"Because you accepted us as your pursuers..." Blaze replied slowly because he noticed her expression, which told him that she didn't know what he was talking about, when it suddenly occurred to him and he said, "Don't tell me it was your first time getting into heat." with a shocked tone when he noticed Jessica's dumbfounded expression, which made him believe that he got the right point, so he continued in a calm tone, "Don't worry, I will tell you everything you need to know about your heat so you can stay relieved," as he slowly took Jessica into a soft hug and patted her back as if trying to calm her in a full protective manner, but suddenly Jessica pushed him while cursing "Fuck off!" with an expression telling how irritated she was.

Before Blaze could have said anything, she said, "Firstly, stop using that word "heat." I'm not a bitch that you're using that term so often." She said in a rage-filled, irritated voice, which shocked Blaze and Ell, but Levi was not as surprised because he knew she could lose her cool if irritated too much, so all he could do was pray for his brother, because her rage was directed at him.

"Secondly, it's called a menstruation cycle or period if you want to talk about it, and it wasn't my first time for your kind information," Jessica continued while holding her forehead in irritation because it started to hurt. Levi passed her water in a glass at the right time with a smile.

Jessica took some sips when Ell slowly said, "but Jessica, your heat—"

"PERIODS" suddenly interrupted Jessica while she was looking at Ell with her sharp gaze.

"Yes, yes, Periods…So, now that your periods have ended... aren't you supposed to mate with someone?" Ell instantly changed his words and asked in a meek tone.

Jessica couldn't help but squint her eyes in confusion because she recalled Blaze talking about the same thing, which she didn't get because they were relating her periods and having sex as mutual events that were obliged to happen, so she again asked, "Why?"

"To have cubs, Jessica, you have to mate at the right time in order to get pregnant," replied Blaze to her question.

Blaze was sitting prepared, waiting for her reply, which was expected to be in another rage filled voice, because no matter how unaware they were of the reason behind her behaving like this but they still knew one thing for sure: they were directly involved in it.

Blaze waited, but no response came from her mouth; instead, he noticed that her face drooped and her grip on the glass tightened; and it was during this time that Jessica said, "But I never said that I could get pregnant."