The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Daddy Drakenfell’s Adopted Daughter, You Dickheads

"Serena!" Fin was holding her, the mark on his arm flaring hot.

Serena’s eyes were completely black, with no whites or iris. The aesthetic of someone having the worst week in recorded history.

They were in Drakenfell’s infirmary and Fin held her in his arms, sitting on a bed in a private room

"Do something," Fin gritted out, his head snapping up to Alaric. Then he looked at Aeron. "Someone."

"You have wards. How is it Dark Fae?" Hyran snapped.

"Something has latched onto her," Aeron answered, voice calm. "She came back to Shadowclaw today with a fever, but said she was fine. Whatever it is, it’s not shadow-tether related. But it is definitely Fae."

Alaric nodded, hands glowing, and he shoved everything he had into Serena with a force that made the air in the room compress.

He stopped after a moment, panting, sweat beading along his temples, his hands trembling in a way Serena had never seen from him and couldn’t see now.

"Agreed, it’s Dark Fae with wards against mage magic." He turned to Tiberon. "She needs Fae magic. We can try to stabilize her, but we need a Fae to remove it."

"Nightspire’s Master Mage is half Fae, and understands both types of magic to the degree needed.."

Tiberon’s jaw tightened. The name sat in the room like a blade on a table, and everyone present understood the weight of what it meant for Tiberon Drakenfell to ask Nightspire for anything. He’d already asked for a favor four days ago, and now he’d be doing it again. Everything with Nightspire came at a price. But what choice did he have?

"Nightspire. Contact him immediately."

"On it," Gav said, moving out of the room before Tiberon had finished the sentence.

The color was gone from Serena’s face and her lips were blue. Her breathing was shallow, each inhale a fight she was losing by degrees. She looked like she was dying.

Fin held onto her with both arms, pulling her against his chest, and Elara had to look away, because the expression on his face was the expression of a man who had already lived this exact moment before.

He had mentioned it the night he said he would claim Serena, when she was dying the first time. That his last mate had died in his arms. Elara hadn’t pressed Serena for details.

She also swallowed down guilt at something else entirely. Something she hadn’t told anyone and wasn’t planning to. She had looked Serena in the eyes, said "heads," and watched her accept it like fate.

The coin landed on tails. Shadowclaw was the winner of the coin toss.

Elara told herself it was the right call. The math was simple, even if the feelings weren’t. She had been trying to be a good friend and do what she felt Serena already knew was the right thing but needed a push. Serena held more ties to Dexmon. Their wolves were true mates. They had Velkaris. And Dexmon loved her. She knew him longer. She was already crowned.

Fin had baggage from a dead mate and grief. But the look on his face right now said the math was dead fucking wrong.

He loved Serena just as deeply, and the math didn’t account for that, because love was never something you could reduce to arithmetic without losing the part that mattered most.

Alaric stepped forward and made a portal at that moment. "Let’s try the lake while we wait."

Fin stood with Serena in his arms, and moved through the portal first.

He waded into the lake without pause, cradling her against him. But to his surprise, it didn’t glow like usual. It was dim.

"Keep her in there," Alaric called, his voice steady in the way that only a man who has watched too many patients slip away can manage, the steadiness itself a warning.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify