The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 168

Chapter 168: Pine, Skin, & Plausible Deniability

She came back in pieces.

Warmth first.

A heartbeat beneath her ear. Steady.

She opened her eyes slowly.

Fin was shirtless, the hard lines of his abs on full display. She was tucked against him with her legs tangled in his, and from the position of his arms, he had not adjusted his grip once since he’d settled her here. He had not moved. He had held her exactly like this and waited.

His breathing was too controlled, the kind of controlled that meant he’d been barely keeping it together and the effort was costing him.

She felt his relief crash through their matebond so hard it made her heart ache.

She shoved calm into him again. Gently this time. Not the emergency push from the study but something slower. The emotional equivalent of, I’m here. I’m breathing. You can stand down.

He jolted. Then his entire body loosened by degrees, like tension he’d been carrying for hours finally finding permission to leave.

His lips found her hair again. His breathing slowed, thumb tracing a line down her spine, the same absent, grounding habit that she was starting to think had nothing to do with grounding and everything to do with memorizing her.

The gentleness of it was disarming, and she almost missed it when his voice shifted.

"Why did you leave Shadowclaw without telling me."

Serena’s pulse kicked. "I wasn’t feeling well."

"Aeron said you were in tears."

"He was mistaken."

Fin was quiet for a moment. The kind of quiet that had weight behind it. His hand didn’t stop moving in her hair, but his breathing changed, just enough that she noticed.

"Did someone say something to you."

She didn’t answer.

His arms tightened around her and she felt the shift through their matebond before he spoke. Something dark rolling through him. The thing that comes right before anger, when the shape of it is still forming and looking for a target.

"Who." One word. Low. The voice of an Alpha King who was already compiling a list.

"Fin, nothing happened."

"Serena." He said her name the way people say don’t. Like a warning and a plea braided together.

"You left Shadowclaw without saying goodbye. You were crying. And right now you’re telling me nothing happened while your emotions and heart rate say otherwise." His jaw worked. "I’m not interrogating you. I just want to understand."

"There’s nothing to understand."

The words landed between them like a door shutting.

She felt him flinch through their matebond. Not physically. Somewhere deeper. The place where a man who’d already lost one mate registers the specific pain of being shut out by the person he’s terrified of losing.

He didn’t push again. But he didn’t relax either.

His hand stayed in her hair. His heartbeat stayed too fast. And the silence that followed wasn’t comfortable. It was the silence of someone who knew he was being lied to and was choosing, for now, not to break the door down.

But the for now had a shelf life.

She let her eyes close.

She let herself be small again. Not for ten seconds this time. For as long as he’d hold her. Which, based on the grip, was going to be a while.

✦✦✦

Morning came through his windows like it had places to be.

Serena stirred against him. She was still on his chest, exactly where she’d fallen asleep, his arms locked around her.

She tried to sit up but her entire body screamed in protest. Her ribs ached and her throat was raw and bruised.

Her Fae magic was gone. The well she’d started to recognize inside herself was dry, scraped clean, and the absence of it left her feeling hollow in a way she hadn’t expected.

"Don’t," Fin said. One word. His arm tightened, keeping her against him.

"I need to get up."

"No you don’t."

She looked up at him. He looked like he hadn’t slept, which was a lie because she’d felt him breathing steadily under her for hours.

But the shadows under his eyes said the sleep he’d gotten hadn’t done much. His eyes tracked over her face, her neck, her throat, cataloguing damage with a dark intensity.

His fingers brushed the bruises at her throat. Light. Barely touching. But his eyes went dark in a way that had nothing to do with the morning light and everything to do with the fact that someone had left marks on her.

She tried to sit up again. He let her this time, but only enough that she was upright in his lap. His hands stayed on her waist like letting go wasn’t part of the plan.

"You’re staying in Shadowclaw today," he said.

He shoved calm through their matebond. The kind that said I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you, so stop fighting this.

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