The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 223

Chapter 223: Risked Him To Respect Him

She could still feel it. Three hours, a shower, and a change of clothes later, and Gavriel Sterling’s mouth was still on hers like a ghost that wouldn’t leave. Some mistakes don’t wash off. They just wait for you to confess them.

A letter would have let her tell him from a distance. But Serena Drakenfell wasn’t a coward, and tonight wasn’t going to change that.

Instead, she walked to his room and whispered, "Can I sit with you?"

Dex didn’t look up. He was staring at the fire like it owed him answers, the whiskey in his hand untouched, his bruised knuckles still swollen from what he’d done to Gav an hour ago.

"Yes," he finally said.

She crossed the room and sat at the chair opposite him.

"Dex, I need to tell you something." Her voice cracked, and her eyes already started welling. She had practiced this by herself so she wouldn’t cry when she told him, and she was breaking before she even started.

He didn’t respond or turn his head.

"The scroll today made a one-time portal when I touched it. I shouldn’t have..." she wiped her eyes. "After we got the Moonthread Amulet, Gav told me he was in love with me."

Nothing. No acknowledgement. No muscle moved. Just stone-cold empty.

"He kissed me. I kissed him back."

Silence.

"It happened so quickly, I wasn’t expecting it. And I pushed him away. But it still happened, and I have no excuse. I am so sorry, Dex."

The fire popped. A log shifted. Embers rose and vanished.

Dex still didn’t look at her. His face was closed. Sealed. The version of Dexmon Drakenfell that she had never seen. The version that had nothing behind the eyes except walls.

"Is that everything?"

The question was clinical. Inventory. A man checking whether the full report had been delivered before deciding what to do with it.

"Yes."

"And you kissed him back."

"Yes." Her voice was smaller now. She hated that it was smaller.

Dex set the glass on the table beside him. The clink of it was the loudest sound in the room. He leaned back in the chair and looked at the fire instead of her.

"I need you to leave."

The words hollowed her out in a way that only he could.

"Okay." Her voice was steady. "I understand."

She stood and moved to the door.

"I am sorry, Dex, for everything." Her voice broke at the end. She opened the door and left.

Dex didn’t move.

The fire was dying. The whiskey was still full. His bruised hand was gripping the armrest, and the leather was creaking under the pressure, and the room smelled like her and the absence of her at the same time.

He could feel her through the matebond. The grief was pouring through in waves, each one heavier than the last, and he sat in the chair and received every single one and did nothing about it. All of it coming through clean and clear, the way it always did, because their connection had never once failed to deliver her to him in perfect fidelity.

Three seconds.

Three seconds of his mate’s mouth on his best friend’s mouth. Three seconds of her hand in Gav’s hair. Three seconds of a version of herself, given to a man who had no claim to it.

He replayed it. Again. Again.

His grip on the armrest tightened. The leather groaned.

He didn’t go to the door.

Xeon: She is healed. Her ribs and back are all healed. She has been crying for hours.

Fin: I can see that.

Xeon: Fix it.

Fin: Working on it.

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