Taken by my mate

Evadiene

He did as he threatened, carrying me all the way down the halls to the dining room. The grip he had on me made it very clear that I couldn’t say anything to make him change his mind, so I didn’t bother trying to resist. That would only serve in embarrassing me. Instead, I placed my elbow on is shoulder and looked bored, like this was already a habit I was use to.

He grabbed my ass firmly and I heard a bunch of men approving of the gesture. This pack was almost entirely men, and from the women I did see I would assume almost all of them were there because they were mated to one of the men.

Tables were laid in long straight lines; 5 across and one sat a little further out then the rest. Covyn moved down beside that table towards the end, and I noticed the empty chair to his right.

“You ever notice you sit at the end of a giant middle finger?” I asked him in a mumbled voice as we got to his chair and he was moving around it to mine.

He chuckled, the sound deeper than usual, and sat with me in his lap in his chair. “I guess now so do you.”

He shifted me to sit on his leg and I chomped the inside of my cheek to remain neutral faced and keep from blushing. Of course he found this hilarious as he felt my embarrassment through the bond.

“Covyn, is this necessary?” I groaned.

I was wearing far more than I usually did, but I felt absolutely naked perched on his knee in front of a room of large men.

He rubbed his nose under my ear, along the curve of its edge and then brushed his lips over it as he spoke. “Absolutely. With so many unmatched men here, I need them all to see you with me so nothing like earlier happens again, and no one lays a finger on you.”

I shifted uneasily in his lap. “Okay they’ve seen, can’t I just sit in my own chair?”

He kept going towards my ears like he knew they were my weakness, and I hated this bond that probably told him they were. He kissed my neck, then licked up the side of it possessively. I felt his tongue reach my ear and my whole body caved to him.

A soft whimper left my lips before I could control it and I knew he had heard.

“Mmmm,” he moaned, biting my ear with his lips and sending the sound to create tingles through my body. “You keep moving and making sounds like that and I might rethink my stance on public mating.”

My face must have gone absolutely ashen when those words sunk in and my heart picked up. “You wouldn’t…”

He laughed at my expense. “I can’t tell if that horrifies you or turns you on,” Covyn admitted.

I closed my eyes and leaned against him as I tried to control my racing heartbeat. I needed to turn this around before people started thinking he had me around his finger.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him through my lashes. “If a spectacle is what you want, you already know that I can put on a three thousand dollar show.”

I saw his eyes dart to Spencer and then back to me, warningly. “Careful Evadiene.”

I smirked. “Don’t start what you can’t finish love.” I moved toward his ear and brushed it with my nose as I spoke, “you know I like to be watched, what makes you think I’d mind?”

He began growling at me now. “Evadiene…”

“Covyn?” I returned, running my fingers in circles over his inner thigh. “If you’re going to mate me in public you should know I’m loud, and I like praise.”

Spencer was drinking something, and I heard him spit it across the table behind me. I kept my eyes glued to Covyn who seemed to still be deciding how he felt.

From the corner of my eye I saw Ellion’s mouth drop and Daley looking like she could explode from prolonged laughter restraint.

I heard Covyn swallow, watched his adam’s apple bob up and down with the action, before he spoke. “How the fuck did I get so lucky.”

I was going to gasp in shock but his mouth was claiming mine and I thought for a moment he was serious about doing it here.

When he finally released me there were two plates of food in front of us and I knew portion control would be a problem. Even Daley’s plate was piled high so I figured it was a shifter thing but there was no possible way I could eat even half of it.

With the food, that uncomfortable feeling of everyone watching us left. I knew many had heard our conversation, and with new gossip there would be a telephone version of it going around the pack soon enough.

They would talk. People would always talk, but somehow it was harder to remind myself here that their opinion didn’t matter as long as I was true to myself. I wanted his pack to like me. I wanted to believe that I could have a life here for even a little while, and that, just once, I could be myself and believe people when they accepted me.

I was distracted, and Covyn bit my neck suddenly and hard enough to make me yelp. Finally, after everyone’s attention had returned to their food he kissed the side of my head and smacked my thigh.

“Okay, if you want your own chair, you can go,” he said softly, running his hand up and down my arm.

“Okay,” I returned, moving over and sitting beside Spencer.

I almost felt bad knowing I’d taken Spencer’s place, but I also felt Covyn’s emotions that beamed for me sitting as his right hand. His demeanour changed from when we first entered, and I wondered if he had been testing me, trying to make a spectacle to see how I would react on the spot.

We ate in relative silence. I was far to hungry to hold a conversation and eat. With the small distance, Covyn struck his long leg out under the table to keep contact with me, and I wrapped my ankle around his to reciprocate the sentiment.

Halfway through dinner alcohol was brought out and I stared at the glass, feeling the essence of the bad idea at me picking it up.

Covyn caught my uncertainty and chuckled. “Don’t drink?”

I shook my head. “The problem is I do.”

“Just not beer?” He questioned, leaning towards me with his own drink.

I shook my head. “Not without a babysitter-,” I rolled my eyes, “-it tends to make me reckless.” He laughed and I knew he didn’t understand.

“I’ll be your babysitter,” Daley offered, and I loved her for it.

Girls probably needed to stick together in this pack to remain heard among the men.

I smirked at her. “It took Ash multiple nights out to be able to handle my level of crazy,” I laughed. “Maybe I’ll just stick to water.”

Covyn pushed the beer towards me and I could see the curiosity and jealousy in his eyes. “I can handle your crazy, drink with us.”

I laughed now too, more ironically than anything. “If you insist. Will you have someone bring a plate of chicken to Sequoia?”

Covyn sent Spencer who came back looking hilariously pale. I probably should have warned him that, when she was hungry, she had a different sort of growl. He had panicked and dropped the plate as he took off, but I knew she was probably very pleased at scaring him.

My first beer was gone before he returned and I had ended up back in Covyn’s lap. When people came around with fresh glasses he handed me mine with a certain smile that made me realize he had thought I had meant I was crazy in bed with Ash.

I accepted the glass with a different smile. He was not in for the night he was expecting.

—

Covyn

Evadiene snuggled into my lap when our food was gone and her first beer was gone soon after that. Her face started to flush by the second glass and then she was nuzzling into my neck by her third. I was not seeing the crazy she was talking about, and wondered what she had been so worried about.

Someone started an arm wrestling contest and when Spencer won I had to knock him down a peg. I placed Evadiene on the table beside me and stepped up to the bar he was standing at.

Buxon held our hands, counted down, and I dropped his hand to the table in a second.

“You couldn’t let me have this streak, just once?” Spencer groaned, rubbing his wrist.

I boomed a laugh, beer soaking into my own thoughts. “And miss an opportunity to show off to my mate?”

I gestured towards her but Spencer looked confused. “Where is she?”

“What?”

I turned around but she was indeed gone, along with four bottles I had placed beside her for us. I looked around the dining hall but, even being a full half foot shorter than a lot of the men, I knew she wasn’t there.