A/N:  If you don't follow me, or perhaps you follow a lot of people you might be scratching your head and wondering why I am updating on a Tuesday on a week that isn't a Legion of Dionysus update week.  

Well, the reason behind that is because this story won 1st place in the OT7 category of "The Dionysus Awards" contest.   So, this another celebratory chapter! ☺☺☺☺♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 

I'm honestly glad too, because I left you all with a cliffhanger last chapter.

So, lets pick up where we left off.  Shall we?

Oh, and before I forget.  The font I was using on the banners was a free for personal use so I purged it and used a different font.  It's called Adventure Script, and I will be sure to link it here.  

Also, there isn't a Yoongi POV this chapter, but I would like to address how his banners are also changing.  Originally he was going to be a panther shifter.  I thought it would be ironic with how I addressed Panthers in Encoded in Our DNA, but then I decided to go the extra mile and make him from the Winter Court and a Melanistic Snow Cougar made more sense.  So from here on out his "real" banners will be different.  Once I get through all the contests I am currently in I will be editing the previous chapters to reflect that as well.

"I'm sorry." Everleigh said before shutting her eyes. If it wasn't for my empathic abilities, I would have been questioning why she was apologizing. Somehow I was able to feel the secrets she had been carrying inside of her shatter before she dropped her glamours completely.

Her hair changed from the shiny black color to having strands of teal green and silver in it as well. That was the only thing about her that screamed Demon though. Her ears were completely Fae. And not just Fae, but Sidhe'de'Ahrtne. She was essentially a royal like me, it wasn't until she opened her eyes though that I knew just how accurate that statement was. I gasped as I saw her true eyes for the very first time.

The others all gasped right alongside me with the exception of Taehyung. I gathered from his emotions that he didn't understand the magnitude of the situation. A situation that all began and ended with her unique irises.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Damn. She's confused and scared. I should comfort her, but...

"You're a royal, Everleigh. A Spring Court Sidhe royal." I don't know how else to explain our reactions other than to state it plainly.

Her confusion only expands and grows bigger. With her next statement I realize I didn't explain it well at all with my simple matter of fact statements. "I thought all Sidhe were royal."

"They are." Seokjin, the only other Spring Court Fae in our Legion, responds. "However, only true heirs to the throne can ever inherit the enchanted eyes like yours."

Namjoon sighs. "Spring Sidhe heirs can have the flower irises like yours. Summer Sidhe heirs can have a butterfly iris. Autumn Sidhe heirs have a maple leaf iris. Winter Sidhe heirs a snowflake iris."

"So that means what? That I'm in line for a throne to a court, no I'm sorry a world that I have never set foot in? A court that never would accept a Half Fae Half Demon hybrid as an heir to begin with. Guess what? The only throne I am going to sit my happy ass on is a toilet! I don't fucking care that some Spring Court royal couldn't love me enough due to my fucking parentage that they basically threw me away!" Everything else she said was honest. She didn't care about the throne or being royal, but she more than cared about the idea of being tossed aside. I didn't even need my empathic abilities to know that either. It was as crystal clear as the tear drops falling from her eyes.

None of us reached for her. None of us pulled her close. Except for our heartbroken mate the rest of us were simply too stunned to react. I only lifted my eyes up to look at her when her mood soured. "You know what! This is my room! So all of you can get the fuck out of it! Now!"

I try to reach her telepathically. To hope that perhaps I can communicate with our minds; what I couldn't seem to properly communicate with words. I'm immediately shocked to find that I'm not able to sense any of her thoughts or emotions. "I've been shut out. I can't talk to her telepathically, and even worse I can't sense her emotions at all."

Namjoon barely veils a sigh before he replies. "There's nothing we can do but respect her wishes. You may not be able to get a read on her emotions, but it is pretty obvious that she needs some space."

So, that's what we all try to do. Seokjin leaves food by her bedroom door for each meal, and knocks before whispering to her that it's there. She never touches it.

Yoongi scratches at the door as his alter. He's hoping that while she might not want to see him as a man, perhaps she might want to see him as his snow leopard form. But she never answers.

Hoseok has moments where he leans against her door and talks to her. About anything at all. She never responds.

Namjoon has locked himself in his bedroom. He's determined now more than ever to try to work out who her sibling might be that is causing all this trouble for her. So he is pouring over the information at his desk in the corner of his room.

Jungkook is taking it the hardest. Before she was able to completely shut off her thoughts and emotions from me I could tell that her heart was metaphorically breaking. Only moments later Jungkook's heart responded in the same manner. He's leaving his door open because he insists upon staying locked in his rabbit alter. He won't respond to us telepathically at all, but he isn't able to lock away his emotions like Everleigh has apparently learned to.

It's been three days now and we are all worried. Not just about how she is doing, but how we are going to be able to regain her trust and hopefully earn her heart. "I think I have an idea." Taehyung shares with us out of the blue.

Day three of crying until my tears run dry. Day three of shutting the world out. Day three of trying to survive on the few snacks that one of them smuggled for in the middle of the night while I was suffering from cramps that first day and tap water. Day three of not thinking of them as my mates, but as the Legion who almost had my heart.

I wouldn't think to myself. All my worries I spoke out loud, because I couldn't risk unintentionally letting them in. I wanted them to realize how they fucking did the same thing to me that they have had to deal with Fae strangers all their lives before they became demons. Before they became Dionysus' Legion.

I mutter to myself softly. "I know I'm not being rational about it. I know they are just past my door regretting how coldly they each reacted. But I have never been in an adult relationship before. I don't know how I am supposed to handle one adult relationship let alone seven." I pause for a second. "Six?" I don't know how to count Taehyung. While I have been drawn to him since the first moment I saw him other than a few kind smiles and words he hasn't really opened up to me. It makes me wonder if he is interested in being my mate at all.

"Technically though neither has Jimin." He was the first one out of all of them I kissed, but that was the very first night. "I registered how his shoulders seemed to tense though, as if he were expecting some big secret reveal. So, I guess he must have sensed all along that I was not being one hundred percent myself."

I roll my eyes as one of them raps on the door. I give the door the middle finger salute before I roll up into the fetal position on my side. "Everleigh?"

"I'm surprised to hear his voice." I mutter softly again.

He knocks again. "Okay, I'll just talk through the door then. I think out of all of us I probably can understand you, and what you are feeling, the most. I wasn't so readily accepted into the fold because of what I am."

Before I realize it I am standing a foot from the door. Suddenly, my curiosity is winning. I unlock the door and step back. "I'm not going to open it, but now if he really wants to come in he can." I think I mutter that thought louder than the others because in the next moment the knob is turning.

I start out by explaining to her my history. I didn't go into what I was yet, but I explained to her how males were unwanted by both sides of my family. "Until becoming a part of this family I was wholly unwanted."

She strokes the scales that adorn my cheeks, and something within me immediately blossoms and comes alive. "Can you explain in more detail? It's hard for me to follow and understand, and I want to more than understand you Taehyung."

I offer her one of my rare smiles. "My grandfather was human. He, like many humans before him, fell in love with a Quientdel Ahnee." Her eyebrows wrinkle in adorable confusion, which prompts me to attempt to. "You'd probably know them better as a Melusine or perhaps a Siren."

"Oh yes. Sirens I haven definitely heard of. I know they either appeared in the Iliad or the Odyssey. I just don't remember which one. I'm guessing that means you must have a beautiful singing voice."

I cringe at that. "My songs are a lot like the abilities you gained from being half Succubus."

She bites her lower lip at that. "You can't sing one song without putting power behind it?"

"Ever, I realize we haven't really gotten to know each other, but trust me when I say that it will damage my heart to hurt you." I almost added how my heart as well as all her other mates' hearts were already damaged because of how callously we reacted. If I do that though I won't gain any more headway. She isn't ready to hear it. "So, as I was saying, my grandfather fell in love with my grandmother. They shared one blissful night that resulted in the conception of my father, after that night my grandfather drifted back off to his world on the sea more than likely forgetting all about his night with a Siren."

"One night? That was all they had?" I can tell now that she is lost in the story and has forgotten what I originally told her about males in the society I grew up in. So, I decided to explain in more detail.

"Sirens don't mate with a male of their own kind, and when a male is born one of two things happens. The first is the moment the mother notices the genitalia of her son, he is pitched into the salty waters off the coast and rocks the Siren Colonies claimed as their home." I give her a moment to absorb that. "Our kind has gills when we are in the water, but they don't come in until around five years old."

She gasps in shock. "They drown their own babies just because they turned out to be boys instead of girls!?!?" I nod my head in response. "Please tell me that the second option isn't as tragic."

"No, it's not. The second option is that they try to raise him until he is about fifteen or sixteen. They wouldn't raise him in a loving or nurturing environment, but it isn't abusive either. Once he reaches that age though they give him over to the Gorgons." I let her catch up mentally with the story.

"Gorgons? Like Medusa?" I nod my head in response. "But wouldn't they turn to stone?"

"That is unfortunately a possibility if they found him lacking." I wait until after her gasp of shock fades. "Their Petrifying Gaze is a magical ability, much like everything else in our world. It isn't always activated like you were probably led to believe due to the stories."

"So, once they are about halfway into their teenage years the Siren mothers hand them over to the Gorgons to raise for the last few years?"

"No, they either turn them to stone. Like you suggested, or they mate with them."

"Oh, so you had a Half Human Half Siren father and a Gorgon mother?" She asks.

"Yes, but Sirens don't see themselves as half of anything. Not to mention the only way to end up with more Sirens is for Female Sirens to entice Male Humans to their shores. Also, Medusa and her sisters are thought to have first been Goddesses or Humans themselves before Athena turned them into the Gorgons. Of course that's Mythology, so I can't attest to the accuracy of those facts in regards to the Gorgons of Mesmere." Her eyes glaze over at all the information I have given her. "Did I lose you?"

"No, I think I was just trying to work out how much of you would technically be considered human. Because, I don't think half would be remotely accurate."

"Ah, and there you have just another reason I was alienated by not only both of my parents but other Fae around me as well. I was male so neither the Sirens nor the Gorgons wanted me. The Gorgons and Sirens weren't about to let me pair off with any of their females because they were afraid of the genes being too closely knit. I should also mention that it is exceptionally rare for a Gorgon to give birth to a male." I once again let that sink in.

"That really sucks." She bites her lip. "So, I have another question though."

I smirk. "Of course you do."

"Sirens have often been depicted in many ways. Some look practically identical to mermaids, others have two tails instead of one. Then I think I even read a tale once about Sirens having wings."

"Oh." I almost wish she weren't as intelligent as she is. I sigh. "Two tails is correct, but only in freshwater or natural saltwater. So, the pool wouldn't count due to the chlorine. Regarding wings." I sigh as I take off my shirt and turn around to show her my back. "I did have them once upon a time, but one of my Gorgon relatives was jealous of them and tore them off before they abandoned me with the Sirens."

"Oh Tae."

My heart aches not because of how she immediately sympathetically aches for my loss of wings, but because no one has ever shortened my name like that before. I don't think she has shortened anyone else's name before either.

"So, I have two mates with broken wings." She sniffles, and as awkward as I feel about it I still pull her into my arms in an attempt to offer her comfort. She pulls away from me to ask, "How come I didn't see the scars in the pool? Or your gills for that matter?"

"Jimin helped glamour them for me. I didn't want to have to explain myself then." I don't think she realized that she claimed the others again despite her initial anger. I definitely hope that my choice to open up to her is the way to bridge the gap that grew between us.

A/N:  When I originally came up with the concept for this story I knew I wanted Taehyung to be unusual.  I played off the word alien, and the ideas basically spun from there.  I am sure a lot of you were wondering what he could be, and I excited to here what you think of the concept I came up for him.  I also specifically gave him wings just so I could use that image here.  ☺♥♥♥

Attached to each section below you can find the resources I used.

I used the group name for sea lions since in my head Sirens laze on the beach like sea lions more often than swim in the water.

I used this to figure out the physiology of a Siren/Melusine, although it is more about Mermaids not Sirens I used the similarity to find the information I was hoping for.

I didn't really read it myself, but here's a site more about the Melusine just in case you might be curious.