The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 276

Chapter 276: She Led. They Followed. No Questions.

Elara shook her head, her eyes scanning the canopy, the distant waterfalls, the dragons circling high above.

"No. But Frostborne is surrounded by a similar wall of ice." She paused, something shifting behind her expression. "I always thought ours was the only one."

Maelor turned to her so fast Gav thought his neck would snap. "There’s another ice wall?"

"There was," Elara said. "Whether it still stands is a question I can’t answer."

Maelor opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "How many hidden civilizations are you women casually aware of?"

Elara looked at him with the patience of a woman who had answered stupid questions her entire life. "More than your sources cover."

Maelor’s eye twitched.

The jungle pressed in around them, gold light cutting through the canopy. The sounds of distant waterfalls echoed ahead, and the warm air sat heavy, almost blistering. Unnatural for a place walled in by a thousand-foot prison of ice.

Serena lifted her hair, twisting it up off her neck.

"Damn, it’s hot," Elara said, taking off her cloak. Serena and Dexmon were the only people not wearing cloaks.

"I’ll take it," Serena said. She summoned a small pink portal the size of a window. On the other side was her and Dexmon’s chambers, specifically their bed. "If anyone else wants to drop their cloak too. Feel free."

Maelor stared at the portal. Then at Serena. His face shifted through three distinct phases of academic outrage before settling on grudging fascination. "I didn’t teach you that, Serena. Since when can you hold an open window portal with no anchoring ward?"

"Is that unusual?" Serena asked.

Aeron answered for him. "The word ’unusual’ is doing a tremendous amount of heavy lifting in that sentence."

Everyone else tossed their cloaks in without question, not batting an eye. It took Hale a moment to get his off due to the baby dragon refusing to let go. His was last.

Maelor huffed. Opened his own portal window to his study and threw his cloak inside.

Serena stopped, and held up her hand. The group stopped behind her on instinct.

The corner of Dex’s mouth pulled up as he watched her raise that hand. Every single person behind her stopped. He was unmistakably amused.

Next to him, Fin wore an identical expression.

Her eyes were green. Fully herself. She crouched, pulled a stone from the moss at her feet, and the instant her fingers made contact, a rune flared across its surface.

She exhaled softly and tossed it ahead.

The moment it crossed an invisible line, the earth in front of them shimmered, then collapsed downward into a churning pit of quicksand, swallowing the stone whole in less than a heartbeat.

The group froze.

Hale pulled Avalon tighter against his chest on instinct. The hatchling, still asleep, didn’t stir.

"Good gods," Gav muttered.

Maelor stared at the pit with the wide eyes of a man recalculating his life insurance. "How did you know that was there?"

Serena didn’t answer him. She lifted one hand in a flat motion, and pink light obeyed her immediately, shaping itself into a bridge suspended above the quicksand. It hummed softly, alive with energy, glowing bright enough to cast their shadows across the canopy.

She stepped onto it without hesitation.

The others followed. Fin first, then Dex, then Hale with Avalon, the rest filing behind. The bridge held firm beneath each step, steady and warm, reacting to weight as though it had been built for this exact group.

Aeron regarded Serena with a grave, measured stare. He waited until they cleared the pit before speaking.

"You’ve improved since the last time I saw you." He glanced at Maelor, then back towards her. "You’ve mastered Aether Fabrication in two types of magic. I dare say you are the best I have ever encountered. Present company included."

Serena reacted a heartbeat late, as though startled out of a distant thought. She flushed, caught off guard by the sincerity. "Thank you, Aeron. That is kind of you." A pause. "Hyran and Maelor deserve that praise. They laid the groundwork."

Hyran practically glowed, pride written across every line of his face.

Maelor looked away. Adjusted his cuffs. Adjusted them again. "Well," he said, and then didn’t finish the sentence.

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