Taken by my mate
Chapter fifty-two

Covyn

Evadiene will not be the one for the many. If her first mate has been reborn among us I know they would rather die for her as I would.

After she left our room I could still smell her. It was not a smell I ever wanted to forget, nor the taste of her on my tongue. Her refusing to let me mark her, her worry for my pain when whatever her plan is, happened… It was enough to make any mate snap. Maybe I had lost my goddamn mind, but for her I’d live the rest of my days in a padded room.

As I left I saw her outside with Spencer and Tam, Lucas’s wolf. She was smiling and laughing, even as Tam knocked her out of the tree. Spencer caught my eyes first and I made sure they understood their assignment before continuing out. That laugh is what I would do this for.

I had a pair of shorts strung though a band on my leg, so I could replace this crossroad and wait for Novaestarus’s father. I wasn’t about to wait with my dick hanging out, smelling like sex, to meet her father like I was proclaiming that I had rearranged her earlier.

I will give them the choice.

I would replace out who her first mate was and give them the choice to come forward for her.

I won’t hold it against them. We will fight if we need to. .. no one who wouldn’t give themselves up for her deserves her.

I tried to remind myself to stay calm. I was not a dictator, they would get a choice.

or I will kill them myself for their cowardice.

I heard the sound of wings above me and the ground around me was completely blacked out in the shadow of the creature. The ground shook under the weight of the green scaled dragon and it a glared at me with all the venom of a snake.

Navi was growling before I could stop him and smoke started to curl from the dragon’s mouth. I shifted, trying to remain confident as I took the short and threaded my legs through them. He remained in his form until I was done, eyeing me up and down, and when he shifted into a man he didn’t loose any of the power.

He wore a dark green, nearly black, suit without the coat, and his wings folded around and over him like a cape. I tried to remain confident and strong in front of him but as a cruel smile drifted over his face he laughed.

“So you are the Moon Goddess’s most recent attempt to replace a mate worthy of my jewel.” He laughed again, a certain sneer to his smile. “She’s done better.”

“You know why I’m here?” I asked, keeping my voice firm despite the obvious insult.

“You are at a crossroad,-“ I look around myself, at the clearing we stood in and he laughed again, “-a mental crossroad, torn between direction while your goal remains clear. You want to save my daughter from the fate she has accepted.” I nodded. “Then tell me what she had decided.”

“She will offer her human form to remain a phoenix forever to come home to keep her old mate safe, or she will threaten her death to protect everyone,” I told him easily, neither were choices I’d accept and he looked to be feeling the same.

“My jewel, Novaestarus, always the self sacrifice for others. Her mother made her too good for this world. Her first deal was to be able to help others by being whoever they needed her to be. She can learn anything, at first it was only by observing it, but now she can will the knowledge to herself.”

I growled lowly. “What did that cost her?”

He laughed. “So they can teach an old dog new tricks after all. You’re learning. By being anyone she needs to be she can never trust when people genuinely appreciate her or when they are using her. There’s common sense, of course, but the betrayals she has endured for it…. The deals are her own, I cannot change them, she knew the price.”

“She is sure her death is the only way this ends,” I informed. “I will not accept that as her fate.”

He smiled a little more. “That makes two of us. What is it that you want?”

“I want my mate…” I began but he glared at me. “I want her safe, I want her to have her phoenix back and be able to see her brothers.”

“The only way any of that is possible is if her first mate dies,” he confirmed, picking his talons like he was getting bored of me already.

“I don’t want her to feel the pain of them dying, and remembering who they are,” I growled and his eyes snapped to mine.

“Tough, that is part of the deal she and I made. Just as I must feel the drain from breaking our deal, she must feel his death like she should have the first time.” He flicked something from under his nail at the ground, then he stretched and flexed his hands.

“So what can you do?” I snapped looking over this apparently all powerful dragon, master deal maker who couldn’t meet my demands

“The man must die, as after that she will get back her Phoenix as my end of our deal is broken. I will leave her bond with you, but it will be up to you to gain her forgiveness.” His smile didn’t waver and I felt a bit of dread in my stomach. “We can sense the different bonds and deals each other make, as family, but her deal with me hid his exact identity from us.

I extend that deal to you now. You will replace the wolven, and kill him to return her Phoenix and everything that comes with it.”

I gawked at him. “You want me to kill one of my own, in cold blood!?” His lips remained in a line as he nodded.

“Because if you do I will also declare a cease fire between my family and the Wolven. We will repair all the failing boarders as good faith.” His face told me he hated this additive but threw it to incite me.

“You may want to hurry, my sons will kill indiscriminately until her condition changes.” He seemed to sense my questions as he continued, “it seems my son Caius has found a way through your protective wall early, and you had a rather strong enemy that was all to willing to help. If they beat you to him,-” he shrugged.

My pulse stopped. She had warned me against making enemies and I had sent alpha stone home with the beta’s son, one arm shy of a pair, this afternoon. I hadn’t been gone long, but he was very confident that my pack was currently under attack.

I tried not to let him see my emotions pick up. “How do I identify him?”

He stepped forward, grinning and quickly took my wrist as he spoke. “Her name can have its own type of power…”

“The power to break spells…” I remembered.

She had been testing it when she gave me her real name. He nodded in return, his large wings then unfurling around him as he released me and a dart that smelt of poison appeared in my hand. His wings stretched out as if he had been standing with them tucked in for hours while I quietly took in the dart I held.

“It will end their inability to remember each other and what happened in that time. You should be able to identify them in that moment.

“I will be watching, my jewel is not handling the strain on her magic well and will need to be brought home to recover when this is through.” He shifted, taking on the form of a dragon once more and I heard his voice continue in my head. ‘You better hurry young wolven, everything you want is in turmoil while you waste time here.”

He took flight, flying back towards my pack lands effortlessly and casually. I shifted as well, taking off in the same direction as quickly as I could. I had travelled far enough away, trying to replace a physical crossroad where he would appear, that I couldn’t hear any of the action happening at home.