Chapter 18

**Asher**


When Nova finally joins us in the alley next to the incubus's house she looks flushed and has a small smile on her face. What the hell did he do to her now?

"What happened?" Eli asks her.

Her eyes snap up to us and the flush on her cheeks grows even more. If I wasn't annoyed because of that incubus asshole I would find it cute.

"I had to deal with one of Chase's many fans. Nothing too serious." She says with a shrug.

My eyes widen in shock. Is our little sweet mate scaring off some random woman? I'm surprised she would want to. Although I have seen a peak of different sides of her, mostly she's been too torn up about things to be herself. I look her over. She's dressed in a pair of sweats she borrowed from the incubus again and the slip of a shirt we found her in. She must have washed it at some point. All that is covered with a large hoodie that swallows her pretty well.

To most people, she wouldn't look threatening, but we know better. She must have put on quite a show to run off some strange woman.

"We should go." The Mage says holding his hand out to her.

He didn't give off the vibe that he liked physical contact much, but I guess I was wrong.

She takes his hand and smiles at him. I want to punch in his face for making her smile like that, but I refrain. I have to learn to share her but damn would I get a thrill out of laying these guys flat for touching my mate. My wolf on the other hand could care less. He seems to be fine with all this, after all, the bastard.

The Mage waves his hand and his purple-clouded portal thing opens in front of us. I already told him the location of the property, but he waves me to go first. Apparently, his little cloud portal is sentient enough to know the location needed if the person who knows it steps through first. At least that's what the Mage told us. He could be full of shit and I wouldn't know.

I hesitate at first because for all I know he can be sending me to another dimension, but remind myself that I can bring myself back if I need to. part of me was born from the fires of hell and that gives me a lot of power. I'm sure teleporting is in there somewhere.

When I step through my skin prickles at the cold swirling around me, but before it becomes too much my feet land on damp earth. A yelp of surprise startles me and I turn my head to see the relator standing by her car a few feet away.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me!" She says with a relieved laugh.

Once she seems to have collected herself she starts to walk toward me. Her eyes examine the dark clouds I stepped through just as Eli appears. She gasps and stumbles back. Her wide eyes move up his body and she has to crane her head to look at his face.

"Wow! You're tall." She says before covering her mouth with her hand.

I glance at Eli who looks at me with a raised eyebrow. I smirk at him and shrug. He steps aside and a second later the Mage appears with Nova just behind him.

"This is crazy." The relator says which draws Nova's attention to her.

Nova tilts her head to look the woman over and I bite back a smile. She is fucking cute when she does shit like that.

The mage releases her hand and she steps closer to the relator before offering her a smile.

"Hi! I'm Nova. You must be the person we talk to about buying this place."


The relator glances my way with a confused look before pulling on a fake smile of her own.

"That would be me! I'm Tonya." She holds her hand out to Nova and gasps when Nova takes it.

My mate moves slowly and carefully so she doesn't hurt the lady but the woman still looks nervous. As soon as they touch the woman releases Nova's hand and takes a small step back.

"So as you can see there is nothing built yet, but the land is large enough for a substantial home to be built." The woman starts walking toward the center of the clearing. "There is no line for electricity yet and no water, but those things can be added once you start building."

"That won't be necessary. I can handle those things just fine." The Mage says.

She turns to look at him. "Are you familiar with construction?"

He watches her for a second before shaking his head. "No, but I have abilities that suit what we will need."

She doesn't say anything for a while and then I realize she is probably expecting him to prove it. He doesn't seem to understand that either because he doesn't move.

"How?" She finally asks him.

I step closer to Nova and slip my arm around her shoulder.

"This should be good," I whisper to her and she smiles.

"I am a Mage. My abilities are substantial. It does not need to be proven." His monotone voice and lack of facial expressions seem to throw the woman off.

"Oh...uh...right." She stutters.

"What steps must we take to acquire this piece of land?" Eli cuts in.

She looks over at him and once again checks him out. Nova tenses next to me and I smirk. Our little mate is itching to put that bitch in her place and I would love to see that. First the incubus's little fan girls and now this lady.

"Ma'am?" The Mage says moving next to Eli. "My companion asked you a question."

The woman blinks out of whatever trance she was in and clears her throat.

"Yes, of course. I'll grab the papers." She rushes off to her car and we crowd together to wait for her.

"It seems like you guys attract quite a lot of attention," Nova says with an amused sound in her voice. "How did I end up with such attractive mates?"

Eli smirks and puffs out his chest with pride. "Among my people, it is a matter of pride for the female to attract a well-looking mate."

Nova laughs softly. "I guess you'll do then." She smiles up at him and he moves closer to pull him against him.

She looks up at him and he down at her. They look lost in each other when the relator returns. She stumbles when she sees Nova and Eli, but quickly glances away with a pink flush on her cheeks. Nova may not know it, but she's laying claim to her mate right now.

"Here are the forms." The realtor says holding a small stack of papers out to me.

I cross my arms and nod in Charles's direction. She glances between us and turns to hand them to him. He takes the papers and starts to read over them. Nova moves to stand beside him with Eli's hands resting on her hips. She doesn't seem to mind him crowding her space which is a good sign. Three of her mates are very hands-on creatures and that means she will have to get used to being touched by one of us at some point.

"How does it look?" Nova asks Charles.

"It appears satisfactory for a rental agreement. What are your thoughts?" Charles asks handing the papers to me.

I read them over but I never bought a property in my life, so I can't say for sure if this is correct. Shit, I guess we should have brought the incubus with us. That reminds me that he made a fuss about us exchanging numbers.

"Let me make a call," I say turning and taking a few steps away from the group.

I pull out my phone and find the incubus's number. I select it and wait through several rings before he answers. It's loud wherever he is, but I can hear him well enough.

"Hey, pup!" He calls out making me clench m jaw in annoyance.

"I'm not a fucking pup! We're at the property but none of us know if the contract is fair. None of us has ever needed to sign anything like this before." I say and the words feel like sand in my mouth.

"Lay it out for me." He says.

I read him the information and I notice the background sounds have died down.

"Sounds pretty good. It will give us plenty of room, so that's good. None of us are strapped for money, so that doesn't matter much. I say go for it!" He sounds so laid back about the whole thing which grates my nerves.

The guy is way too chill sometimes.

"Okay," I say hanging up on him.

I rejoin the group and nod at the other before turning to the relator.

"We'll take it."