The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 162

Chapter 162: Courtesan Composure Then Crying In A Bath

The warmth at her back disappeared around a corner with Fin and a captain, and Serena stood alone in the entrance hall of a castle that wasn’t hers, surrounded by people who hadn’t decided yet whether she belonged.

When she was with Fin, the stares were curiosity. Alone, a third of them looked at her like she’d tracked mud into their home.

She’d thought she’d outgrown the flinch. Her body hadn’t gotten the message. Her shoulders pulled inward half an inch before she forced them back.

The two throne rooms she stormed had dirty looks too. But it stung more with wolves than it did with Fae.

In a castle full of strangers, confidence was the only armor that didn’t require magic. She kept her head up and started walking like she had somewhere to be.

By some grace, she found a set of glass double doors left ajar like an invitation, and Serena took it. A courtyard with a moss-edged fountain at its center. Flowers she couldn’t name. Silence that felt like permission to exhale.

"Excuse me."

Serena jumped, hand flying to her heart.

She turned to see a woman at the opposite entrance to the courtyard, one hand resting on the doorframe, the other holding a porcelain teacup like a scepter.

High cheekbones, dark hair pinned with gold, green silk that moved like water when she shifted her weight. Everything about her said she belonged here and Serena didn’t.

"These are private courtyards."

Serena dipped politely on instinct. Even if she was technically a princess. She was in someone else’s castle and she knew it.

"Apologies, I was walking and the doors were open. I didn’t realize this was private." Serena said, softly.

"Name," the woman demanded, not politely.

"Serena Frostborne."

"You are very pretty," she remarked. "Inconvenient."

Serena didn’t know what to do with that. "Thank you."

It came out before she could stop it. Serena had been raised polite. It was a sickness.

"Don’t thank me. It wasn’t a gift."

Serena mentally filed that under compliments that feel like a slap.

The woman sat on the stone bench across from her, crossing one leg over the other like she was holding court.

"Your clothes say soldier but your curtsy says servant, and I can’t tell which lie you’re more committed to. Where are you from, Serena?"

Serena’s brain was already building a profile. Beautiful. Comfortable in this castle in a way that wasn’t casual. Proprietary about the courtyard. On a first-name basis with the space, which meant she’d been here a long time.

Or lived here.

Either way, this woman had territorial energy that would make a dragon nervous.

The thought arrived before she could stop it: Was this someone Fin was seeing?

He said there hadn’t been anyone serious since his mate died. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t seeing women. And she was standing in front of a stunning one who moved through his castle like she owned it.

Serena found her voice after a second. "Born in Frostborne. But I am in Drakenfell now."

"As in Garrett’s Frostborne?"

"You know Garrett?"

Her face gave nothing away. "Yes."

Serena nodded. "I grew up with him."

"Your last name is Frostborne. So you are some one from a high house or part of the Alpha’s lineage." It wasn’t a question. "So why would a noblewoman be wearing a training suit made for a warrior and wandering someone else’s castle? Without escort, a lady-in-waiting or so much as a proper introduction. You do know how this looks, don’t you? People will assume you’re auditioning."

Auditioning. For what, Serena wanted to ask, but the answer was mistress if she had to guess, and she did not need to hear it twice.

She looked down at her training suit. She’d completely forgotten she was wearing it. Ironic considering she used to feel shy wearing them because they were so tight. And now she preferred them.

She gave a warm laugh. The woman wasn’t wrong about that part.

"I am visiting for the day, and came here last minute."

Which was the truth, but it sounded exactly like what someone who was lying would say.

The woman seemed genuinely taken aback by the laugh, disarming her for a second. A laugh was apparently not in her interrogation playbook. She recovered like it was a glitch.

Serena was about to excuse herself when she spoke again.

"Who invited you?"

"King Shadowclaw," Serena answered, deferring to his formal title.

"He invited you," she repeated.

"He did."

"Interesting he invited you. He just got back."

"If you know Garrett, I assume you’re also close with King Shadowclaw?"

"Intimately," she answered.

Serena kept calm, which seemed to irritate the woman more than anything she could have said.

"You have a very practiced composure for someone who isn’t here with an agenda," she observed."A courtesan composure. But you don’t look like the typical kind he goes for."

Her words still landed like a bucket of ice water. Was Fin the type to have courtesans? Was she that naive to assume otherwise? Hell she didn’t even know if Dexmon had entertained those before they met. It never even crossed her mind to ask.

Serena had been dismissed by queens, threatened by princesses, and nearly killed by kings. Being called ’very nice’ by this woman somehow stung worse than all of it.

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