The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 303

Chapter 303: I Sent For Mates And Got You

"Serena, please don’t." His voice was rough, strained, the words of a man who was watching the woman he loved bleed herself to heal him and hated every second of it.

The skin sizzled on contact just as Dex’s did, the wounds sealing in real time. His breathing became less ragged.

She didn’t stop, moving her hand to his dislocated shoulder. She wasn’t sure if her blood could even help that, but she squeezed more of it onto him without flinching.

His expression was tense watching her, but the relief that he felt was something that even he couldn’t hide with Alpha composure.

Fin pushed himself upright, two massive bruises already replacing the puncture wounds, color returning to his face with a speed that made Alaric’s left eyebrow climb toward his hairline. His hand found the flask in his coat. One long swig. So much for a quiet night.

Serena was turning towards Gav, brows knit.

"Don’t even think about it," Gav said flatly. "I didn’t get one."

It was true. He was the only one the creature had never pierced. Every spike, every barbed tentacle, every corrupted blade that thing had driven through flesh had found Dex, Fin, or her. He had been in that water just as long. Dove twice. Carried bodies to the surface on empty lungs.

The lake had every opportunity to open him up the way it opened them, and it chose otherwise. Luck like that didn’t feel like a gift. It felt like an oversight, and Gavriel Sterling was acutely aware that he’d built his entire rescue on borrowed time the creature forgot to collect.

Serena hadn’t even looked at her own injuries. She hadn’t unzipped her own suit, hadn’t asked for treatment, hadn’t so much as acknowledged the three wounds in her back that were still seeping through Gav’s bandages. Too focused on everyone else to think of herself. As always. As every single time.

Fin reached for her, intending to pull her into him, but she flinched the instant his hand brushed her side. Her training suit was damp. Soaked. And when Fin lifted his hand, it came away drenched in red. Not gold.

His eyes went dark. He said her name, sharp, urgent, but the sound was already distant, muffled, falling away from her.

Because to her, there were two rooms.

The High Emperor, entering the cavern they had just escaped, his rage so vast it shook the stone beneath his feet. Serena’s heart lurched violently. He felt her watching. His head snapped towards his own reflection, and his eyes glowed with murderous satisfaction.

Her eyes squeezed shut. She dragged in a breath that barely made it into her lungs. Then she fell on all fours. She coughed, blood splattering the floor under her.

"Baby, fuck." Fin was next to her in a heartbeat.

A bolt of agony tore through her skull so sharply that Fin winced, hand shooting to his temple.

Alaric spoke, ordering something, calling her name, but his voice was fading, distant, coming through water. Serena blinked against the black spots eating at her vision. She didn’t notice Fin pulling at the zipper of her suit. She didn’t hear Alaric barking at his assistants.

Another flash struck. The High Emperor again, moving through swirling smoke, traveling with impossible speed, his aura coiled around something she couldn’t see.

Serena: Aurelia, can you see this too?

Aurelia: Yes. I do not understand what it is.

Serena: Am I losing my mind?

Aurelia: No. He has his claws in us, and I do not yet know how to free us. But I am going to find out, and when I do, I am going to bite him.

The room tilted. Her pulse thundered. The vision clawed deeper.

And Serena realized she wasn’t just seeing the Emperor. He was seeing her.

Through her eyes, he could see the recovery room, the fireplaces, the Drakenfell crest on the wall. He could see Fin beside her, Maelor against the far wall, Alaric frozen mid-assessment. He was cataloguing every detail of the room where she stood, and the smile on his face said he intended to remember it.

"Hello, Serena."

Her entire body locked. His voice sounded as though he stood beside her, whispering against her skin.

"Are you in pain?" Alaric’s voice cut through the haze. Serena didn’t register the question.

"I asked if it hurts to breathe," he repeated, firmer.

"No. I’m all right, thank you, Alaric," she answered calmly. Too calmly. Her voice didn’t match the panic roaring through her bones.

And then it hit Fin.

A vision slammed into his mind through the matebond, violent, intrusive. The exact one tearing through Serena. The High Emperor traveling through smoke, stepping out of it as though it were a doorway. Fin saw him standing inches away. The Emperor lifted a hand and waved. Mocking. Deliberate.

Fin’s eyes went gold.

Xeon: KILL HIM.

Fin: He’s a vision. I can’t.

Xeon: FIND HIM. THEN KILL HIM.

Fin: I will.

Across the room, Gav’s hand flew to his forehead and he hunched over. No one had noticed.

He could see the recovery chamber, firelight, Alaric’s back. But the lake was there too, superimposed over the room like a second image laid on glass. The Emperor stood at the water’s edge, dark magic coiling around his boots.

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