Taken by my mate; Second Chance
Chapter 33 - Understanding Acocia

Daley

When we returned to the room Ev… Nova and the boys were just coming back in. Sequoia came in behind them but ran passed and directly into the bathroom. Nova’s cheeks were flushed and she was panting slightly behind her smile, both boys stark naked behind her, bundles of clothes covering their junk. If we weren’t shifters and I didn’t know better I would have thought something more went on, but that smell wasn’t present and neither man looked satisfied.

“What’s going on?” Ellion chuckled, setting the tray down and looking them over.

They both looked heavily frustrated. That’s when I noticed that both men were incredibly grimy, a thin layer of sweat and dirty covering their bodies and Spencer had some bits of tree still in his hair.

“Novaestarus,” Spencer grumbled. “She pit us against each other and took off.”

Mr. Durem was grumbling too. “She’s not incredibly fast but damn she’s crafty. We lost sight of her in the trees…”

Nova entered the bathroom as Sequoia came out, now in her human form. “Thank you for getting food,” Sequoia mused calmly but Mr. Durem was shaking.

His finger struck out towards the closed door. “She climbed the trees, hid in them for twenty minutes while we ran around like crazy. If she hadn’t started laughing so hard we never would have found her, she was twenty feet above the ground, and as she was climbing down a branch snapped and she almost fell just as far.-“ he sighed and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “I know Spencer was more emotional than I was but that just goes to show… I nearly had a heart attack.”

Spencer scoffed. “I’m pretty sure I did,-“ a smile returned to his face, “-but then she laughed as I caught her and cupped my cheek.” He growled lowly, catching her eye as she exited the bathroom, “She has me right where she wants me.”

Nova smirked as she walked back over to him. “Are you boys going to shower? Or at least get dressed, I’m not exactly thrilled you’re showing everyone what’s mine,” she cooed the last part in Spencer’s ear, but we all heard her anyway. Mr. Durem made a sound and she smacked him in the hip. “Yes Alpha, I’m sure you’re quite impressive too but that’s something for your mate to admire and I wouldn’t want to ‘pit you against each other’-“ she rolled her eyes. “Really boys, just because I said Emrys was a little broader than Navi…”

The two of them started growling again but she rolled her eyes.

“You two reek,” Sequoia complained, plugging her nose. “Go shower or go back outside.”

I heard Nova sniff. “I kinda like it.”

I laughed. “That’s the mate bond for. Even their strangest qualities become endearing.”

Nova leant in against him and I heard him growl. “Nova….”

She straightened up, blushing heavily but her head still looking like it was swimming. “Sorry..”

He led her over to a chair to sit and kissed her head. “No need to apologize, but there is a time and place. And it’s definitelynotin our Alpha’s bedroom.” She nodded sombrely. “I’m going to shower in our room, will you be okay here without me?” She bit her lip, a coy smile spreading over her face, and shook her head. He chuckled and kissed her head again. “I’ll be right back,” he assured.

Me and Ellion moved to sit as well, and I watched her as she watched him leave. “Why don’t you follow him?” I suggested.

She shook her head as she picked up her plate. “If he was in the mood he’d have carried me off with him, but I think he’s worried about me seeing the room. Truthfully I think seeing it would kill the buzz for me anyway.”

Mr. Durem pat her head as he walked by and I swear her hair shifted near black as she glared at him. She straightened it out and stuck out her tongue as he made his way to his own bathroom. The door closed and we heard the water turn on shortly after.

“Nova…” I hated that I was going to bring this up now, when we seemed to really be forming a friendship, but I was dying to know. “What really happened with your clowder and the wolven.” I nudge my book, that had made it onto the coffee table with my foot.

She was chewing a bite considerately and swallowed before looking at me, taking a deep breath. “We are among the oldest beings, for a while the creatures on the ground fought for dominance and territory, the masters of the sky and sea lived well.I will not tell you where we live, but trust it was away from the chaos that raged between other creatures.” She turned away from me, smiling to herself. “But my mother thrived in chaos. Where there was absolute mayhem, there was my mother handing out hail-Mary’s and saving people. Her deals bettered others on both sides of the deal, and even those the bet their souls were comfortable dying in her hands.”

She looked up at me, only a sad smile pulling at the side of her mouth. “I know how that must sound to you, but it was a wonder to behold. She is the reason most of the species that are still around now lived at all. The wolven were dying off a pack at a time, and she helped to created warded areas around pack lands to protect them against those with negative intentions to those that lived there.

“I grew up with the wolven, learning and playing… some of your founders and the original members of the first wolven council were my very good friends.” She seemed proud of herself with that statement or, more likely, proud of her friends. “Anyway… she often attended the council meetings to remind the leaders and Alpha’s of the deals they made when making their decisions. It was at one of these gatherings that a wolven saw her as his mate. I…”

Nova hesitated. “.. He wasn’t one of the good ones. Taking my mom, he didn’t care what happened to me or my brothers when he left us behind. The coward hid in and amongst other packs and places along the way back to his own lands, but my father decimated each one looking for my mother. When he got back to his own lands the barrier my mom and I had created to protect them kept my father from getting in. When I got there I had no ill-intentions for the man, I just wanted to get my mom, and the magic recognized me. I had no trouble getting in but it was too late, and in his rage he had killed her.”

I gasped. “But she was a phoenix right? Wouldn’t she come back?”

Nova shook her head. “I missed the actual event, but he had an unhealthy glass of vodka even I arrived, and told me it was her own fault for angering him. While I don’t think it was actually her fault, if she did or said something knowing she would die as a result, the ash would stay ash.”

My hands covered my mouth. “What happened to the alpha?”

A cruel smile curved her lips. “I made him a deal he couldn’t pass up.”

“Who was the alpha?” Ellion asked beside me, his whole body shaking in anger.

“alpha Regael,” she replied easily. “Unfortunately I couldn’t save his pack, but their loyalty to a shit leader is what did them in. All they saw was his blood on my hands and it began. Confidence, for someone like me, is a huge asset. If you truly believe you won’t die doing what you’re doing, you’ll come back…”

“That’s why they tried to break you.” Spencer’s voice came as a surprise, but looking up both he and Covyn had returned, standing in the two doorways they had disappeared through with them closed to their backs. They both looked horrified and it took me a minute to catch up to his line of thought.

“They tortured you and told you it was deserved so you would ask for death,” Covyn breathed.

She nodded curtly. “Because we die in ash, a Phoenix trophy for a hunter is hard to obtain. They weren’t prepared, and even if I had been able to shift they wouldn’t have been able to remove my head in one blow. But the cold does cause me pain in my human form, so they knew that much.”

Spencer was beside her in a second, pulling her up into his arms. “You waited in the cold for me, more than once.”

I couldn’t see his face but I saw her smile over his shoulder. “Worth it.”

He sat back down with her, holding her so tightly and smelling her scent like he was reminding himself she was alright. She hummed into his neck like she was also reminding herself that he was safe.

“What happened to Ragael?” Mr. Durem asked idly as he came to sit down.

“He found out what real anger looks like.” Nova muttered as Spencer moved her into the seat beside him but she noticed our lingering looks and rolled her eyes. “I made him a deal for his soul that I wouldn’t let my father or brothers harm him… and then I tore him into little pieces.”

Ellion spurt water out of his nose. “You what?”

“We reached acocia, it’s not my fault he never saw me as a threat,” she shrugged.

“What is acocia?” Ellion continued, dabbing his nose with a tissue he’d gone to get.

“It’s… how do I explain this to a wolven.. how did I explain it to you?” Nova asked Spencer, who made her cringe up at an apparently deep pain in her foot that he had started rubbing.

“It’s kinda like the mind-link on heroin. When they form their deals they clasp wrists and nearly instantly the intricacies of their deal are debated and resolved. There are rarely loopholes because if you can think about it they can counter it. Acocia is what happens after they’ve weaved that web of give and take, resulting in the agreement.”

“Yes,” Nova agreed, “but that connection to the deal continues. Acocia also means that if I falter on my end I lose all the power I received as the deal ends and I need to give back what I took, or, more likely, when they falter I can feel it and collect.”

“So… let me get this straight. Your kind sense loopholes, and others can’t?” Covyn asked, seemingly studying her explanation.

She nodded. “We study the art of deal making from a young age, making our first deals with our parents at 13. That deal sets the pace for how we will be the rest of our lives…” she looked at us like she was expecting judgement, and I couldn’t be sure if that’s what she saw in our eyes.

“So you make deals for power?” Covyn asked. “And when it suits you, manipulating the situation to serve your interests? This is the exclusive way of all phoenix?”

“Covyn!” Ellion barked and I was so proud of him. “He killed her mother! If it had been your mother you would have killed him with or without a bargain!”

I turned to see how Nova was taking his out burst but she looked more contemplative than anything. She looked at him carefully, narrowing her eyes even as he yelled something back at Ellion about not eating souls. Spencer stopped rubbing her feet and tapped her leg affectionately.

I watched Nova reach out for his hand and squeeze his fingers as she said, “I will entertain your questions.”

Ellion stopped defending her and turned to look at her. “What?”

She ignored him, holding up one finger as she listed answers. “Yes it gives us strength, but it’s more like food. The stronger we are the more or bigger deals we need, like needing to eat more the more you work out.

“Like all beings, everyone is different, and some manipulate the situation more than others. We’ve never claimed to be angelic beings, but warnings about making a bargain at a crossroad run through society. No one is forced to, we can’t force someone to make acocia happen. If a deal can’t be met it can’t be completed.

Lastly, no. It is not just the phoenix that make deals. Everyone from our race can once they turn of age.”

The room was put on pause. Ellion been ready to go to bat for her, I could feel it, but paused. Spencer looked sad beside her, like he wanted to just scoop her up and take her far away from this conversation. Even I was surprised by the turn of events, but Covyn looked pleased with himself. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Everyone from your race?” Covyn asked. “Your race isn’t phoenix?” As she shook her head he continued. “Then what is it?”

Nova turned to Sequoia and they began talking quickly in their old, dead language before she said, “like… sex?”

“If the fairer sex of your race are predatory birds as large as planes, what are the males?” Ellion asked carefully.

Nova could see the unease in the room, but still said proudly, “dragons.”

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