The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Mate Is Flame: It’s Brotherhood Time

"Alright Frostborne. What now?" Fin asked amused.

Serena didn’t answer, instead handed folded robes to Fin and Aeron. She grabbed a third robe already hanging, pulling it on herself.

Fin’s lips visibly twitched at how large it was on her.

She pulled her hood up, knowing how ominous this looked because she was on the receiving end of this a few months ago. But she was sworn by blood oath and couldn’t tell them anything.

"Last chance to back out." She turned back over her shoulder to Fin and Aeron.

"Not a chance in hell. Lead the way."

She opened the door, and everyone in the chambered turned to see her first. Dexmon was at the other end. She made eye contact with him, and looked away quickly swallowing.

The chamber was exactly as Serena remembered it. Dark stone. No windows. The basin of fire at the center, casting long shadows that bent unnaturally against the carved walls.

Serena led them to the front, then took her place in the stone pews beside Elara, both in their oversized cloaks.

Dex was still staring directly at her and she still was avoiding his eyes, trying to pretend that it was fine and she didn’t feel a literal furnace of intensity fifteen feet away.

Heat crawled up her spine. Her pulse spiked. Something low in her stomach tightened involuntarily, an instinct she couldn’t override, a reaction her body produced without consulting her brain.

She didn’t move or breathe, willing her body to not betray her to either of her matebonds.

Every member of the Brotherhood stood in formation, hoods up, faces concealed.

The oath began, her and Elara joining this time. Fin and Aeron didn’t react to their credit. It started in common tongue, then changed half way. Five full minutes of Draken-Vorah spoken in perfect unison without a single voice breaking.

Then Serena noticed how large Elara’s cloak looked and she smirked. Elara gave her an unimpressed look right back.

Both had their hoods up, and both were trying very hard not to laugh.

Elara: We look like we’re being swallowed by curtains.

Serena: Dignity is a luxury we lost when we met Thor Crushturn, Myrtle.

Elara: You said you would never bring that up again in Orosia.

Serena: I said I wouldn’t in public. It’s a catchy name, have to hand it to him.

Elara: Fine, Frostborne. What did he say about you? Choke-me-while-I-finish—

Gavriel: I can hear you both and so can the Alpha and Beta.

Elara and Serena shut up immediately.

Twice now they’d done that. Then the question dawned on both of them, has it been like that every time?

They glanced at one another, then shook their heads. Impossible.

Then the doors opened.

The Brotherhood preceding Drakenfell was not common knowledge. It was an oddity that Fin was here at all, given how fiercely Drakenfell preserved its bloodlines. Their royal lineage had produced only sons for generations, something in their blood ensuring it, and typically only one per generation. The bloodline was cultivated, deliberate, controlled.

But Aeron had been confirmed as a descendant of the First Dragon King. His lineage, however improbable, was legitimate.

And Fin had Onyx. A bonded dragon. That alone qualified him, regardless of where he was born.

Hyran spoke, voice cutting through the silence.

"For those not yet sworn. Step forward."

Fin and Aeron advanced to the basin.

Hyran offered the ritual blade.

Aeron took it first. He cut his palm with out a flinch, then handed the blade to Fin.

Fin cut his palm in one clean motion and held his hand above the basin. His blood struck the flame.

The fire roared black, then shifted to a deep, violent gold that made the walls shake.

Several members stirred. Hyran’s brow rose a fraction.

Fin’s expression didn’t change. But something in his posture said he had felt that more than he let on.

They placed their bloodied hands on the stone slab. The slab drank, the same way it had with Serena and Elara.

Hyran began the oath.

"The Brotherhood of the Hidden Flame predates Drakenfell. This oath cannot be altered. It binds blood, bone, and lineage."

His voice carried the same weight it had the first time.

"Do you swear before dragon fire to bind your lives to the Brotherhood of the Hidden Flame, sworn to the survival of it above crown, kin, and self?"

"I do," Fin and Aeron said together.

"Do you swear to live by dragon code? To keep the Hidden Flame secret, even from those you love?"

"I do."

"Do you swear this oath will pass through your blood? That your descendants will answer the call until the fire releases them?"

"I do."

Hyran paused for a few too many seconds, with the same dramatic timing he used at every ritual that Serena now knew he practiced.

"The Brotherhood of the Hidden Flame was bound for this charge above all else. Do you swear to protect the chosen one, to kneel in reverence, and to answer when summoned?"

"I do."

The flame roared once, then collapsed inward.

Aeron’s eyes widened slightly. Then wider. His gaze swept the chamber, the runes, the fire, the cloaked figures, processing at the speed of a mage who had just realized this was cool.

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