Taken by my mate; Second Chance

ELLION

“I wouldn’t have had it shipped here if I knew about hers?” Daley defended herself and it pained me to feel her guilt. “You can’t say it but holding up that feather would have been quite telling.”

“I…” Nova stopped, the ridge between her brows forming.

“What do you want to say?” Spencer squeezed his arm around her. “Can you tell us about that book and your deal?”

She smiled up at him despite her tired eyes. “I can’t trust people… because my first instinct is to trust everyone. I’ve always wanted to help people, so I made a deal so that I could be anyone people needed. It’s why I’ve worked so many jobs, I can learn anything very quickly, I don’t even need to try anymore. It’s all like.. instinct.“ She paused to laugh without any humour. “I just.. I want to be helpful, I want to be who my mom was. She saw people who needed help and found a way to take them from surviving, to living. Half the time they didn’t even realize she’d been there.” She spoke stoically, and you could hear the admiration, but then she frowned. “I can never have that because people gravitate to me when I can help, but I never know who I can trust.

“So I made myself a deal that unless they had seen me, unless it was one hundred percent undeniable that they knew what I was… I wouldn’t show them my book or tell them anything. At that point, if they knew what I was, the only thing left to wonder was their intentions, and all I could do by showing them was making them fully informed onwhoI was.” She slouched and continued.

“It is hard for me to genuinely trust anyone, because everyone seems so trustworthy… but.. but the last person I trusted invited me to travel across the world with them on a holiday. When I got to their cabin I found vampire teeth disguised as those from a shark, and pelts big enough to only be from shifters. I broke my leg ‘skiing’ the next day after no sleep to stay in the hospital. There they declared my veryhumanresults, with regular healing, and he broke up with me when we got back, thank the Goddesses”

Daley gasped and I think all of the men were growling at that thought; at the thought of someone hunting our kind, an openly displaying their pieces for sport, and the thought of how vulnerable she must have felt. My mate squeezed me in her arms as she felt my growl and my chest tighten.

“I can’t imagine,” I breathed honestly. “That would be wholly horrifying.”

“Wait.. that’s how you broke your leg last year?” Ambrose gasped and she nodded.

She squeezed Ambrose’s hand in hers. “I couldn’t even trust my mate, but now that we remember, well, he was the last person I trusted with this truth.”

Her head dropped suddenly, hitting his shoulder before she picked it up. “You need sleep Angel. The boarder will keep your brothers away, so we have time to deal with this later.” Spencer spoke so softly it seemed to push her closer to sleep.

“But there’s so much they haven’t asked…” she started to say but griped her head in pain through the last few words.

“You’re not even paying attention anymore,” Sequoia snipped. “Keep overstepping and you’ll be asleep whether you like it or not!”

Nova nodded. “Okay, bed.”

It felt wrong, somehow, to part. Like despite the boarder protecting us from the outside threat, she had just beenkilledinside the territory after she’d been kidnapped and tortured, all by our own people. Spencer was the most skilled among us, but if those five had waited until night time to strike it would have been a one sided fight.

“Your room is a mess,” Daley said suddenly, “Why don’t you stay in our room. We can bring in your mattress.. I would feel better if you two weren’t alone.”

“As would I,” Covyn agreed. “Ellion, your room is closer, bring your mattress in here, Spencer you two can use my bed. I’m just one person, I’ll take the couch.” Everyone stared at him, myself included. “Remember I had my doors and windows replaced last month? Not only is this room nearly completely sound proof, but nearly impossible to break into. It is the safest place to sleep.”

“Thank you Alpha,” Spencer gasped but he got a stern look in return. “Covyn, really thank you.”

“Ambrose? Will you get my pillow?” Nova asked with a small yawn.

He nodded and kissed her forehead, whispering something softly in her ear before going. Sequoia followed him which I thought was strange, but she did it in her cat form which was even more peculiar. Still, me and Daley followed them down the hall to our own room. We would get ready for bed and then I would bring the mattress down while she grabbed the bedding.

The adult part of me said this was obtuse, but the friend, mate, and child in me screamed for a sleepover. I tried not to feel sorry for Nova, but I still felt myself worrying about her. I wondered if this was a part of natural draw she had on people, and that dropped a few pebbles into my stomach before I realized I didn’t really care. I don’t think I would survive if I lost Daley, and I would never want another mate pair to feel such pain.

If sleeping in the same room as one of my best friends and his mate saved their lives, I would do it for as long as it took to find a solution. With everything that had happened that day, no one would have been in the mood for anything more than sleep anyway, but I felt an odd amount of respect for my other best friend. Our mateless Alpha had now offered his space up like it was nothing and, with how well I knew him, I knew he did it partly to keep an eye on them. I had also been concerned they would run off in the middle of the night.

—

COVYN

When everyone left Nova got up and walked slowly over to me. I could see how tired she was in the deliberation she seemed to have with every step. She draped her arms around my waist and pulled me into a hug that I wasn’t expecting.

“I know Covyn,” she said softly and I stilled.

“Know what?” I returned but she continued like I hadn’t spoken.

“I hope you know how grateful I am for the deal you made, and I can never repay you for that.” Her words were soft and gentle, like the caress over my lower back that her fingers ran idly.

My hands joined around her to hug her in return now. “Just… trust that I owed it to you,” I said painfully, my head starting to throb.

She squeezed me and I noticed she was crying. “I, Novaestarus Vesperous, reject you, Covyn Durem as my mate.”

I felt the band that seemed to wrap around my heart tighten and then loosen to a gentle but irritating squeeze. “How did you know?”

“I pieced it together. Remember I can feel the deals my family makes, but there’s a deal that hangs in the air like it’s happened and hasn’t. Osric told me just enough to put the remaining pieces in place. You need to reject me so thi\s timeline can flow on its own and you can finally be free of me.”

I tightened my grip on her. “I…”

Spencer walked in and I saw him immediately, but Nova had her back to him. I pulled my hands away from her and held them up, ready for him to start growling. She didn’t move, squeezing me for a moment while she ran her hand relaxingly up and down my spine. The longer she held me the more nervous I got, but she was waiting for me to say it and I didn’t want Spencer to know.

“Nova….”

“I know he’s here,” she said gently and he started walking towards us. “Like I couldn’t feel him walking all the way down the hall back to me with the wrong pillow.”

“Wrong pillow?” He gasped.

She let go now and turned to him while laughing. The sound was still beautiful.

“I’m teasing you, I know you grabbed the right one-,” she took the pillow from him and inhaled it deeply, “- yours. But I don’t want to take your bed Covyn, we are just as okay on the couches….”

I waved a very dismissive hand. “You died today, take the bed and get some sleep.” I moved to grab my own pillow from the bed and take it to the couch.

“Covyn..” Nova whined but I shook her off. “Sleep..” I nearly called her my love or beautiful so many times, but now that she’d rejected me I felt like the words could actually fall carelessly from my mouth.

Ambrose took her hand and spun her around into him. One hand continued to hold hers up and the other ran down her side to her hip… I had to look away. I had done much better with her this time; more understanding, more patient, less over-powering.. Despite that, she figured out what I had done and still chose him, but I would do it again. I poked the fire out into a thin layer so it would burn out faster and kicked my legs up to lay down.

I didn’t deserve her before. Why did I expect that to change when she had her true mate?

Before my head hit the pillow I took a regretful look toward my bed in time to see Spencer tuck her in and round the bed to the other side. He hesitated, grabbing the blanket on the side I normally slept, and staring at it. It took me a moment to realize my scent told him not to lay there, but Nova was already asleep. Another moment passed before I decided to end his panic.

“Spencer, lay down already. You’re starting to make me think that I smell,” I grumbled, slouching down onto the couch.

He nodded appreciatively and slid under the cover, sliding closer to Nova. I watched through slotted eyes, trying to not look at all, but I saw Spencer’s hand touch her hip and she jumped up right.

“Sshh, Nova it’s alright, you’re safe, I’m here.” She didn’t even move, and looked like she wasn’t. seeing. “I didn’t mean to scare you, you’re safe here. … Sequoia is here, and there are four wolven sleeping around you.” He was rubbing her back as he tried to calm her down, and I resisted the urge to try to help. “No one but me is going to touch you.”