The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 153

Chapter 153: Ripped From His Arms

Do all mages speak Sylvarae? Gods.

She certainly wouldn’t have shared all of that if she knew Aeron and Archibald were listening too. Her confession was a letter she’d sealed and addressed to one person. Instead, she’d read it aloud to the room.

"Maelor cloaked it temporarily," she added. She noted that did not change the alarm on any of their faces.

Gavriel had been listening. He recognized Sylvarae and caught the name Maelor, and knew exactly what conversation was being had.

"It went away after we met with Maelor," he vouched. "And she practiced Operculum."

Hyran and Archibald both glanced down at Gavriel in disbelief. Gavriel knowing advanced magical terminology visibly offended them on a professional level.

Aeron also stared. The way a professor looks at a dog that has fetched the newspaper and opened it to the right section.

Gav gave all three mages a flat, unimpressed look that clearly said, I’m not a chimpanzee contrary to what you think.

Then he resumed floating on his back, arms spread, with the energy of a man who had been underestimated his entire life and oscillated between being annoyed by it and weaponizing it.

Serena exhaled. Gav stepping in for her was a card played at the exact right moment. The mages were distracted enough that the tension lessened by a mile.

She looked down at the water, not at Hyran, hoping the conversation would have come to a natural conclusion on its own.

"Did it go away fully?" Hyran asked in common tongue.

Of course he did, because why not inform the entire cave.

All conversations stopped and every head turned towards Serena.

You can’t un-ring a bell, and Hyran had swung the clapper with both hands.

"Yes," she lied. Fin’s arms tightened around her. She could feel his protective instincts flaring through their matebond and he didn’t even understand why she was anxious. She was anxious about herself being the problem. Not Hyran.

And he was ready to fight Hyran for making her anxious, which was sweet and spectacularly misguided.

That was the thing no one understood. She wasn’t afraid of what was coming for her. She’d accepted that. She was afraid she was the thing that was coming, and that every person protecting her was standing on the wrong side of the wall.

She gave his arm a gentle squeeze. A don’t-worry squeeze that she hoped would be enough to work. She felt his reluctant compliance through their matebond. It tasted like someone swallowing an argument sideways.

Hyran was about to speak again when Serena sat up abruptly. A burning sensation in her core was yanking her so hard it almost stole her breath. It felt like déjà vu mixed with espresso.

"Have you been here before?" Fin asked.

"Just déjà vu," Serena answered. She felt her crown vibrate on her head. She touched it, bewildered.

"In the throne room, were you not controlling it there either?" Aeron asked.

"No," she said quietly, her voice trailing off as she looked down at her glowing pink hands and sighed.

She was glowing, her crown was vibrating, and she was sitting in pink water. The absurdity of her life had lapped itself.

"New rule," Gavriel commented. "When the crown shows up, we all pay attention. Adding that to the list."

"Don’t worry. I like it," Fin said.

Him trying to make her feel better made something in her soften.

She put her glowing hands on top of his where they held her. He opened his fingers, lacing them through hers. Together they looked like a religious painting.

She almost turned to kiss his shoulder, but remembered Dexmon, and caught herself. Her smile fell, and the inner turmoil started.

What the hell was wrong with her?

She was in a healing lake with one mate while missing the other, and the guilt was so sharp it had its own damn pulse. Dex was gone and she was here, softening against another man’s chest, and the tenderness she felt made her sick because she couldn’t tell if it was loyalty or betrayal.

Her ribs felt too small for what was inside them. The wanting. The missing. The shame of wanting while missing. All of it packed in so tight she couldn’t breathe without one of them shifting.

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