Taken by my mate

Evadiene

I gave her a cursing glare as she stood to leave, opening the door and letting Covyn in. He stood at the door, thanking Daley and then whispering something amongst themselves.

He remained at the door even when she left and closed it, looking away from me like he was embarrassed. I wasn’t about to spare him the awkwardness and break the silence first.

“I know I was wrong. We both know I was wrong.” He inched his way into the room and I wondered if wolven girls had a tendency to attack their mates when they were upset.

Instead of replying I gave half a nod, trying desperately to contain the smirk pressing at my lips.

“Do you know why you were wrong?”

He looked confused. “I hit you. I promised I would never hurt you and I did, and even if I had been trying to hit Sequoia, I shouldn’t have done that either.”

I shook my head and he came over to where I sat on the bed, kneeling before me. As far as apologies go, that was a nice touch and I considered deeming it mandatory.

“No Covyn. It’s because you were worried what your men thought enough to touch me at all.”

He opened his mouth to rebuttal, stopped himself, and then thought back on the events. His lips parted again, and the confusion on his face was adorable while he tried to remember, and then it apparently clicked in.

He picked up my hands and kissed the backs of my fingers. “You’re right.”

I nodded. “Get use to it, it’ll happen a lot because I don’t argue unless I know I’m right. And I’m loud, and blunt, very outspoken.. I’m not a serious person, and I live on the whim of how I feel. If that isn’t something you can handle,…” I hesitated, pulling my hands back as I looked down on a hunk of a man ready to grovel for forgiveness, on something I had honestly stopped caring about when I heard Ellion was already on him about it, and caved.

“I wasn’t completely straight with you. I have tons of places I could go while I deal with this mess. I was honestly bound to get on Sal’s bad side eventually, especially if he ever licked me again…,” I stifled a cringe from leaving my face to shiver down my spine.

Covyn’s voice turned rough again. “He did what?!”

I waved him off. “That was a lifetime ago, what I’m meaning to say is you don’t need to feel responsible for me, and I won’t change for you. What you see is what you get, and I’m only going to get more obnoxious if I learn people’s names and get comfortable. If you can’t handle me now, just have Spencer drop me off in Pipski, I can take it from there.”

I wasn’t sure when I had stopped looking at him, avoiding meeting his eyes directly for too long, but I didn’t see how he reacted to what I was offering. “I know of a way you can severe the bond even though you’ve marked me. You won’t even feel any pain.”

I neglected to tell him that that was because I would be feeling enough pain for the both of us. That would be my parting gift to him for not letting a mob boss kill me in a bikini.

“You would just.. hop on a bus and leave me?” He asked sadly.

My eyes drifted back over and met his. Mistake one.

“Well I mean yea, if you wanted to get out of this. I’m sure I’d only be a burden in all the ways that matter in a wolven pack…”

My eyes wandered south to his lips, even as I was giving him an open and easy opportunity to bail out, and I still wanted him to kiss me. Stupid, Evadiene, Stupid.

“You are not a burden. No one would ever think that protecting their Luna was a burdensome task. Many would beg for the opportunity just to be considered for the position, but most will never be so lucky as for me to ever trust them with such precious cargo.”

I looked into his eyes now, waiting for it. The snide comment, or even some backhanded compliment about it being about honour or their worship to their Goddess. Not about me, but about not wanting to anger her.

He raised himself off sitting on his heals to press his forehead to mine. “As long as you are happy, I will be happy, and as long as you are with me I guarantee your safety, but I will /never give you up willingly.”

—-

Covyn

She seemed genuinely surprised by my answer. “But why not?”

I was confused again. “What do you mean?”

“I’m giving you an out, an easy one at that,” she blurted out. “You don’t need to be stuck with me, and hardly anyone has seen me, you could lie. Say I was Spencer’s mate, and he rejected me so you don’t get any guff.”

Again with Spencer. I growled in response that I would let anyone believe she had ever been his. He could never be in her league.

I tried to calm myself, pulling a big breath in through my nose, pulling in the smell of gunpowder and sawdust, and breathing out through my mouth.

“Why do I need an easy out?” I asked instead, eyeing the cat that eyed me from behind her.

I’m pretty sure she believed I was an idiot with that question. “Because I’m not wolven. It’s a disgrace for wolven, an alpha especially, to have date out of their species.…”

“Did someone say this to you?!” I shouted, but eyed the cat again and lowered my voice. “Whoever it was is not only ridiculously wrong, but I will give them ten lashings for dare speaking to you like that.”

She looked.. surprised. Genuinely surprised that I would stand up for her.

“I’m a stripper,” she continued lightly. “People don’t date strippers, that’s by design part of the reason I got the job. I wasn’t looking for anyone to love me…”

“I don’t care what you did. I’m jealous, of course, of others seeing you sexy enough to make my toes curl, and that likely won’t stop as long as they live but I’ll manage.”

I took her hands back in mine.

“Before I knew you were my mate I passed you in traffic every Friday, and that carefree energy around you calmed me to my soul. The Goddess chooses mates for us to complete us. Everything I lack is in you.” My hands moved up to rub her arms and I stared into her green eyes that looked ready to cry. “You are everything to me, your happiness is mine and your pain is mine…”

“So why did my mom’s mate take her from us only to beat her every day until she died.”

And there it was. The pain that she felt earlier, the pain that she couldn’t say and why she had been sincere when saying she was in a better place.

And there were also the answers to the questions I never asked. Why she never asked more questions about Wolven, the way Ellion and Spencer thought she would, and why she would so willingly walk away from us, despite knowing that she felt as I did.

Her fear of being mistreated the way her mother was, was greater than the pull she felt through the mate bond.

But she was tough. Tougher than I probably deserved in a mate and partner. Despite my hurting her, she was still willing to stand up to me for herself, and I love that about her more than anything else, more than I thought possible.

“If he felt her pain, why did he put her through that? Why did he refuse to reject her or sever the bond even when she begged?” Her voice cracked and I leaned forward to pick her up in my arms.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I don’t know how anyone could do something so cruel to anyone let alone if your mother was even half as lovely as you.”

In the beginning she sat rigidly in my arms, but as I spoke she calmed. Her body molded to mine and she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“He sounds like a terrible leader, and I will challenge him for his pack if you want him wiped from this earth.” I muffled the words into her neck, trying desperately to only breathe in her scent and not lick or kiss her skin.

Out of no where there was a sharp pain in my neck and I realized she had bit me. It wasn’t out of anger, or even possessiveness; it was like she just needed to put me between her teeth right at that very moment for some kind of relief.

A high content sigh vibrate through her teeth until she laid her head on my shoulder. “He’s long dead already, but thank you.”

What a strange reaction from a human.

“I need to go to my office for a little bit before dinner, will you come with me?” She nodded against my shoulder and it made me smile. “Will Sequoia be okay in here?”

“Yea, she’ll be okay.” She stopped in front of the door. “I need to know… Daley told me they found the video of me at the pole contest. The club had a no phones or cameras policy, but videos of me doing all sorts of contests or jobs are out there. I don’t have the energy to lie about who I am and what I’ve done.”

She looked up at me and I chuckled. “There was no question in there love.”

She nodded knowingly. “I don’t know what people know, but my super power is basically honesty. I can’t lie for you.”

I sighed and bent a little so we were eye to eye. “Some things I might have to ask you to keep secret, as Luna, to protect the pack, but I could never ask you to lie about who you are.”

She smiled more at that. “Okay.”