The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 170

Chapter 170: Onyx Slept Through ALL Of That

"I want to crown you." Fin said it without turning around from the window.

Serena’s stomach dropped. She hadn’t been expecting that. "Fin..."

He turned to face her, and his expression was serious. "Serena, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. "

They were in his study, Onyx was asleep in his basket. She’d been in Shadowclaw for four days. Long enough to know they worked. Not long enough to know what to do about it.

"I don’t know how that would work," Serena whispered, swallowing. "Fin, I need to be honest with you."

He waited.

She took a breath. "After I found out about Viper’s Kiss, I had fully planned on still annulling things with Dex. But Dex took care of me. He stepped up when everything was falling apart. I owe him the chance to work things out. I’m still trying to figure out what that looks like."

Her hand drifted to her neck, fingers brushing the bruises without thinking.

"It’s been confusing, and I never meant to..." The truth was she cared for him and that was the problem. She didn’t want to say leading him on because that implied it was one-sided.

Fin moved towards her, closing the distance between them until he was standing close enough that she had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes.

"I’m not going anywhere, Serena. Just because I was gone for a month and he had more time with you doesn’t mean he gets to have you by default. Time doesn’t determine this. I won’t let it."

She didn’t have a response for that.

"If you had met me first," Fin said, and the question hung in the air between them, unfinished.

Her throat tightened, because she knew the answer, and the answer was that she would be standing in exactly the same position. She would be just as torn, just as broken, just as unable to choose.

"You already know the answer to that," she whispered.

"I do," he said. "I wanted you to know it too."

He reached up and tucked a strand of white hair behind her ear, his hand lingering along her jaw.

"No one is telling you that you have to decide right this second." His thumb traced her cheekbone.

She looked up at him, and whatever wall she’d been holding in place started to crumble.

Fin sensed the turmoil inside her, the pull toward surrender warring with her instinct to fight, to hold onto control.

He pulled her onto his lap as he sat back in the chair, her straddling him, his hands clamped down on her hips, unyielding.

To his surprise, she closed the distance, kissing him. But then she pulled back for a second, torn on if she should continue.

His mouth moved to her neck, careful of her bruises, lips brushing her mark.

His tongue traced the edge of it, and the sensation shot through her body like a current, lighting up every nerve between them. His arousal was bleeding through their matebond and a moan escaped her before she could stop it.

"Fin..."

He ignored the plea, lifting her dress over her hips and yanking her closer until her heat pressed against the bulge in his pants

"Let me touch you," he said against her mark. "I love you, Serena."

His words broke her out of the moment like a bucket of ice water being dumped on her head.

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