The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 127

Chapter 127: Mommy’s In Chains, Sweetie

The entire room rose, hundreds of people in unison.

It caught her off guard.

"Chin up. Shoulders back." Elara’s hand found her elbow. "If you trip in front of these people I will never recover."

The courtroom was full. Most faces reflected surprise at her presence. She saw it in their widened eyes, their exchanged glances. They hadn’t expected her to attend.

She hadn’t expected to attend either. Not until this morning, when Elara told her who was being tried.

Cass. The seamstress. Single mother. The woman who had sewn every gown Serena had worn since arriving at Drakenfell, who had taken her measurements with warm hands and quiet conversation, who had a daughter she spoke about in the way only single mothers do.

But the woman being tried today had laced both of their clothing with poison.

They needed to be here.

They moved down the center aisle toward the seats reserved for the Crown. The whispers grew louder.

Hale looked up from his position near the front. His expression darkened the moment he saw them.

Dex’s head turned a second later.

She could feel his displeasure through the matebond. He didn’t want her here. She hadn’t seen the High Emperor since the night Maelor came.

But she was still having nightmares and nowhere near back to resembling normal. Dex dreamwalked into one the night prior for the third night in a row.

The last thing she wanted was to give him one more reason to worry.

Serena pushed calm into him through their matebond.

Dex stiffened, eyes flickering with surprise. It was supposed to be the other way around. He was supposed to be doing that to her.

He closed the distance in three steps. The entire kingdom had heard what happened, and now every eye in Drakenfell watched their interactions everywhere they went. No one bothered to hide their staring.

Dex pulled her into a hug, taking her by surprise.

Gavriel leaned forward, whispering to Hale. "Twenty gold says he kisses her before the first defendant sits down."

Hale didn’t look at him when he responded. "That’s not a bet. That’s a prophecy."

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Dex whispered against her ear. He could have mindlinked her. So this was 100% an excuse to hold her. She almost laughed.

"Yes, Dex. I need to be here."

Dex kissed her forehead and grabbed her hand, guiding her to her seat. Elara settled beside her, close enough that their shoulders touched.

The proceedings began.

Lord Varric Mournel went first.

He stood in the defendant’s box, a raised platform surrounded by iron bars, and he did not grovel or weep. He looked at King Tiberon with the flat, dead eyes of a man who had already calculated his odds and accepted the outcome.

The charges were read. Supply audit manipulation. Falsified records to conceal the movement of restricted alchemical substances, including Viper’s Kiss and its component reagents, through Drakenfell’s trade channels. Direct facilitation of Agnes Viremont’s poisoning campaign against the Crown Princess.

Varric said nothing in his defense.

Tiberon stripped his titles, lands, and ordered his holdings redistributed to the families of those who’d served in the battle.

Varric was escorted out in chains. The hall buzzed, then settled.

Then it was Cass’s turn.

The side doors opened, and the guards brought her in.

Serena’s stomach dropped.

Cass looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Her wrists were bound in iron, not silver, but the cuffs were too large for her and they’d rubbed the skin raw.

Serena’s own wrists ached in sympathy. She pressed them together in her lap, trying to push the sensation away, but it stayed, phantom pain for a woman she wasn’t allowed to help.

She was a seamstress. Not a lord. A woman who sewed clothes for a living and raised a daughter alone.

The guards placed her in the defendant’s box. She gripped the iron rail with both hands, and Serena could see them shaking from across the hall.

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