The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 229

Chapter 229: Omega Said Catch These Goddamn Flames

Gavriel Sterling was walking back from the healer’s ward with an ice pack pressed to his jaw, the split lip from Dexmon’s knuckles still tender under his tongue.

He turned the corner into the main corridor.

Two Drakenfell guards, with the bruised, thousand-yard look of men who had recently survived a combat tour, were escorting a fully nude woman in manacles.

He stopped.

"That is a new one," he said pleasantly, to the nearest guard. "What did she do."

"Bit the crown prince, Gamma. And the Beta. Among other colorful crimes, I am told."

"Why is she nude."

"She stripped while she was chasing the crown prince."

"What do you mean chasing the crown prince."

"Not my place to say, Gamma."

Gav touched his jaw, running the math. Dex punched him for kissing Serena, then was being chased by a naked woman.

He reached for his wolf who had been silent since the kiss.

Gav: If Dex cheated on Serena after punching me in the jaw. I will kick his ass.

His wolf did not answer. His wolf was, at that moment, very carefully not answering.

That’s when her scent hit him. The ice pack in his hand hit the stone floor.

Fin Shadowclaw turned the corner at the far end of the hall.

"Sterling. A word. Now."

"No."

"No," Fin echoed, the word landing like he was tasting something sour. His eyes flared molten, Xeon pushing to surface. "I wasn’t asking."

Gav didn’t even spare him a glance. He was staring down the corridor with the wide, unblinking focus of a Gamma watching his life derail in real time.

"Oh no. No. No. Noooo. Fuck No."

"Sterling."

Gav’s wolf spoke.

✦✦✦

At the opposite end of the castle, the Beta of Drakenfell was following his mate’s scent like a two-hundred-and-forty-pound anxiety attack with legs.

Hale: Elara? Where are you? Please. Answer me.

"Fuck," he said out loud, to the corridor. "Kitten?"

He mindlinked her four more times in the next thirty seconds. Each one slightly more unhinged than the last.

Dexmon ran past him, pants still on backwards, with determination in his eyes.

Hale followed.

✦✦✦

In an abandoned storage room three floors below, the Crown Princess of Drakenfell and the Beta Luna were having a meltdown.

"I thought Hale was one of the good ones," Elara sobbed. "I thought he was. I told you he was."

"There is an explanation, Elara."

"He was on top of a naked woman."

Serena’s head lifted a fraction. "Was HE naked too?"

"No. Just her. But he was on top."

"Elara." Serena shook her head, her voice soft and certain. "Hale fell over a candle stand the first time you walked into his study. I highly doubt he was doing something like that."

"Serena."

"Mm."

"Remember what I said about Dex. The night you walked in on him."

Serena’s chest went still.

"Yes," she whispered, her own morning still lodged in her throat. She came to talk to Elara about it, but Elara was so upset she hadn’t mentioned it yet.

"Sorry. This is like that. I would not have believed it myself. But I saw it."

Serena pressed her forehead to Elara’s hair and said nothing for a long moment. She more than understood.

Two women. Two men. Same morning. Her mind turned it over once, then set it down. She didn’t have enough information to make it mean something, and Serena did not build theories on pain. She built them on facts. The facts would come.

Right now, Elara needed air, and Serena needed to stop seeing her mother’s necklace every time she blinked.

"Come on."

She stood, pulling Elara up with her.

✦✦✦

Two minutes later, Dexmon Drakenfell burst through the storage room door with his shoulder, the impact hard enough to crack the frame. Unnecessary, because the door had been unlocked.

Hale entered three strides behind him.

"FUCK." Dex kicked the crate.

"They were here."

Serena’s scent lingered. So did Elara’s. Both trails led to the door and then scattered in two directions, because of course they did.

✦✦✦

Serena and Elara rounded a corner in the east wing, going to get some fresh air.

Across from her, standing in the middle of the corridor with her hands on her hips as though she owned it, was Guinevere Ashford in a Drakenfell training suit.

She was no longer in manacles and apparently, never under arrest.

Elara’s eyes filled immediately.

"Serena... "

"Is this the girl, Elara?"

Elara sniffled. "Y-Yes."

"Gang-banged into relevance and still not interesting. How does it feel to be yesterday’s news?" Guinevere said unbothered.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify