The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 319

Chapter 319: Sell Tickets To The Reckoning, Damn Right

Four hours ago, Garrett called him a shark while he threw a rubber ball at the ceiling.

Right now, the shark was standing in a doorframe unable to move because the person who was dying was someone he had no reason to grieve. Grateful, yes. Gavriel Sterling had saved his life in an act of courage Fin would never forget. But debt and grief were different currencies, and the grief sitting in his stomach was heavier than anything he’d felt for Guinevere, his own cousin, who was scheduled to die.

The math was so broken he stopped trying to solve it.

✦✦✦

SHADOWCLAW - FOUR HOURS PRIOR

Fin’s study in Shadowclaw was the one room in the castle where the king stopped being a king and started being a man with too many problems and a rubber ball he threw at the ceiling when he was thinking.

"I still don’t like that Agnes is hiding it from you. Why doesn’t she just tell you?"

Garrett was sprawled in the chair across from him. "I think she thinks she’s protecting me. I also refuse to ask her to betray her father outright. This way, I follow her, gather intel on my own."

"So you’re both lying to each other."

"Pretty much."

Fin let out a breath and tossed the ball. Caught it.

"I said this once, and I stand by it. She’s crazy."

Garrett rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. I know your feelings. She’s done crazy, unforgivable shit. I agree. She would also agree." He dragged a hand down his face. "Am I making the wrong call by gathering intel instead of confronting her?"

"No." Fin’s voice shifted into the register he used when the king showed up and the friend took a step back. "This is a situation where you are an Alpha King first and a mate second. Notify a select few to track her movements alongside you when she meets with him, and pull the rug when it stops being safe."

"Already done," Garrett said.

Fin shook his head and let out a laugh that carried genuine amusement, which was rare enough that Garrett filed it away as evidence.

"The moment she finds out you’ve been a double agent too, I want to be there. Send a raven. I will clear my schedule. I will bring a chair. I want front row when she realizes the man she’s been lying to has been lying right back, because that woman’s face is going to cycle through every emotion in the dictionary in under three seconds and I want to see every single one."

Garrett laughed. "I’ll sell tickets. Now what’s going on with you?"

Fin sighed. "I am co-mating with Dexmon Drakenfell, to start with."

"We are admitting it out loud now," Garrett said, and the grin that crossed his face was broad and genuine and entirely too pleased with itself.

Fin shot him a look that could have frozen a river.

Garrett put both hands in the air. "I’m happy for you. Continue."

"Yes. My wolf and I have come to terms with it. But she is still struggling. When both of us are in the same room, she freezes up. The anxiety hits her before the thought does, and I feel it coming through our matebond." He threw the ball once. Caught it. "I was working through my own shit and didn’t notice how bad it was until recently."

Another throw. Another catch.

"She also hasn’t slept here in a week, and it’s bothering me, but I refuse to upset her right now because she’s under enough stress." He exhaled. "But I can also feel that she misses me through our matebond, and the distance is doing more damage than the discomfort of being in the same room as both of us ever could."

Garrett looked at him for a long moment.

"That is the most human thing that has ever come out of your mouth, Finnick."

"Don’t repeat it."

"Your secret emotional depth is safe with me."

"Garrett."

"Buried in the vault. Locked. Key swallowed."

Fin gave him the kind of look that on another man would have preceded a thrown object. On Finnick Shadowclaw, it preceded a very deliberate decision to let it go, which Garrett appreciated more than the thrown object.

"I’ll tell you what I would do, and this might be terrible advice, but it’s the truth," Garrett said, leaning forward. "I would go around Serena entirely and just talk to Dex about it. If he’s accepted being co-mates, and she is uncomfortable and doesn’t know how to navigate the logistics, you two should sort it out between yourselves. Set up a damn schedule if you have to. Take the navigation out of her hands so she stops drowning in the guilt of choosing one room over the other every single night."

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