Taken by my mate; Second Chance

AMBROSE

I turned on the shower water, making it as close to perfectly warm as I could. Evadiene looked exhausted, and struggled to pull the shirt off while staring at herself in the mirror. I came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her hips and gently tore the shirt down the middle to slide if of her arms and away from her face where she’d gotten stuck pulling it off.

She giggled but sighed sadly again. “Your mark is gone… I had a feeling… the only scars that carry through being reborn are ones made by our own kind.”

I kissed up and down her neck, over her jaw and down to her shoulder. “You are safe now, that’s all that matters.”

Emrys growled in my head, ’she is ours. Those fuckers hurt her, our mate, mark her now and remind everyone who she belongs to.’

I growled in return to my wolf and the sound made Evadiene pressed her naked back against my chest. “Later?” She both promised and requested. “I’m already so tired and if you bite me…”

“You don’t need a reason, your wish is my command,” I declared and she smiled at me, turning to kiss me, and pressing her breasts against my chest.

I growled again, for a different reason. “Don’t tempt me Angel, this isn’t our room and there are four people waiting outside this door for with questions.” She didn’t seem to care at all. “There is also food…”

At that her stomach growled angrily and I laughed.

“Food,” she cooed and pecked my nose. “Fine, but only for food. Nothing is more important than you, but I don’t think I could stand let alone walk with what I want to do with you, with how hungry I am.”

I groaned against her neck but picked her up and carried her to the shower. “Than let me take care of you, my love.”

I brought her under the warm water, removing the shower head and gentle soaking her hair and wetting her skin. She moaned under the feeling and I watched her tensions begin to relax. Replacing the shower head I worked the shampoo into her hair, marvelling at how it changed colour under my touch as her every defence relaxed with me. She closed her eyes as I rinsed it out, unconsciously sighing contently every so often I worked the conditioner into her hair and ran the wash cloth over her body. Even her skin seemed to warm under my ministrations darkening slightly like it had been kissed by the sun.

My mate may have been gifted to me by the moon Goddess, but the Goddess spared nothing in making her in her image. I was not keeping it together, standing fully at attention and ready for her, but there was a time and a place and it was definitely not now. When I rinsed her off for the last time she closed the gap between us and wrapped her arms around around me. I knew she had wanted to before, but was trying to not be cruel while she was covered in soap and I was already barely keeping it together.

I lowered my head to meet her lips, pressing them firmly together when I knock came at the door. “It’s Sequoia,” she whispered. “Come in.”

“Just dropping off your clothes, and letting you know food is here,” the other woman mused, putting them on the counter before going.

“Come my love,” I said, kissing the top of her head, “let’s get something in you.” Her eyes seemed to glow despite darkening to almost black with my words. “Some food Angel,” I chuckled. “You’re more incorrigible than I am.”

She made a sound in her chest that I couldn’t identify but with her emotions I quickly wrapped her in a large towel. After helping her to dry off, I helped her get dressed in the sweat pants and my shirt that Sequoia had brought for her before getting dressed in a second one of my shirts and my own sweat pants.

I led her out into the room and everyone had gathered on the sofas around the fire except Daley and Ellion who sat on the edge of Covyn’s bed.

“Fooood,” Evadiene cooed and moved to a very large plate bedside Sequoia, that she had pointed to.

I saw Daley open her mouth and interrupted her. “Please, just let her eat something first.”

Her mouth quickly closed and she nodded, turning to Sequoia instead. “I saw you shift when we came back in… It’s so quiet.”

Sequoia chuckled. “My bones don’t break for my shift. I was born the leopard. My human form is to me as your wolf form is to you. My shift comes from pure magic, just like…” She drifted off, eyes glancing to and away from Evadiene before she continued, “it’s also why I don’t shift and wind up completely naked. Don’t get me wrong, your shift is incredible, but it’s also rather crude. I supposed that goes along with the deal though..”

“Sequoia!” Evadiene snapped and the way the other woman bowed her head in immediate regret prevented any questions, for now.

The others were nearly done eating and Evadiene brought her plate onto the side of her leg and snuggled up against me on the sofa. She ate some of the pie and salad in silence, before humming gently at the feeling of her stomach calming. I pet her head, stabbing at my own food where it sat on a side table.

“Her hair,” Covyn mused, leaning forward to look at her. “The colour...”

She sat more rigid and touched it as if she could feel what colour it was now. “Oops, does that happen often?” She begged the question.

I shook my head. “Not usually, more today while we were in the shower.”

She blushed brightly and hid her face into my shoulder. “How embarrassing,” she mumbled into my arm. “A woman of my age...”

I chuckled and kissed the top of her head but I saw Sequoia lean forward, eyes widening. She looked at Covyn and then back to me, taking slow deliberate breaths and shuffling her hands and feet where she sat like she was working herself up to speak.

She instead motioned for me to keep stroking my mate and I did, brushing her hair slowly and then moving to her neck and shoulder. It took a minute but she relaxed again, nuzzling against me with her nose. As she sighed her shoulders relaxed and her hair starting to shift under my hand again. Sequoia gasped and if Evadiene heard her she didn’t show it, enjoying my touch for another minute before sitting up and taking a small bite of her meat pie.

Sequoia smiled gently before saying, “I’m glad you were able to find your true mate, Novaestarus.”

She dropped her fork and it clattered off her plate and onto the floor. Fear and panic welled up inside her, and I pulled her tighter to me. I carefully picked up her plate and moved it beside mine on the table as she had begun shaking.

“Did you say,-“ I began and she turned to me sharply but I kept speaking, “-Nova..estarus?”

Like a file opening on a computer, a whole life that had sat like a distant memory I could never remember played through my head. Everyone else in the room fell away and all I saw, all I felt, all I could smell.. was her. I breathed her in deeply, smelling that same cedar and gun powder but now it seemed to hit me deeper the way a smell from a childhood memorywould. After a moment, I moved to pull her over onto my lap, her legs on either side of mine and I pressed my forehead against her collarbones, pulling her to me.

“Nova, my nova, my Angel,” I cooed.

I felt her twist to look behind her at Sequoia or Covyn, but as my hands rubbed up and down her back she slowly turned back and draped herself over me. “My laendi.”