The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 488

Chapter 488: OH, COME ON — A Hyran Memoir

Fin was already across, still holding pace behind Serena. Dex followed without looking down. Gavriel crossed while looking down, because the quicksand was fascinating and the fascinating was almost worth the risk.

Maelor reached the edge and stopped.

"No," he said.

"No what?" Aeron asked.

"No," Maelor repeated. "I am not crossing a bridge built by possessed Serena over volcanic quicksand on a mystery continent inside a volcano."

"Yes you are," Hyran said, passing him.

Aeron stepped onto the bridge next.

"Fine," Maelor snapped.

He stepped onto the bridge with the enthusiasm of a man walking a plank. "If this collapses and volcanic quicksand, gets on my robe, I am sending you the bill Serena!"

Ahead of them, Serena was already running again.

They ran only a short distance before she stopped dead, her arm snapping out as a pink shield flared around all of them.

Then her eyes flickered. Pink to green. The ancestors released her like a hand letting go of a steering wheel.

She blinked. Looked at the jungle. Then at seven people standing behind her in various states of sweat, debris, and fury.

"We’re in a jungle," she observed, glancing at the pink dome around the group.

"Yes," Hyran snapped. "You jumped off a volcano and led us here."

"Neat," she replied, still looking at the dome.

She wasn’t wrong. It was neat.

She glanced down at her hands, then looked back at the dome, clearly trying to figure out why it was up.

That’s when she felt deja vu, so hard that her hand flew to her chest.

Even with the necklace, Dex, Gav, and Fin all felt it. A memory trying to surface, but she couldn’t grasp it.

The jungle answered for them.

A vine dropped like a noose, smashing straight through her shield as if it were parchment.

It snagged Aeron by the waist, yanking him off the ground so violently he shouted on the way up.

"SERENA! YOUR JUNGLE IS TOUCHING ME!" he called.

More vines shot down at the same time. Too many to track.

One coiled around Fin’s ankle and ripped him upside down into the air. "Shit."

"Fin!" Serena screamed.

He had his sword out in a flash, slashing it clean through, dropping three feet before another vine replaced it. He cut that too, spinning midair, landing in a crouch. A third one whipped past his ear.

"Did that one just dodge my sword?" he asked.

"They’re learning," Hyran said from behind a ward. "The vines are adapting to your cutting patterns."

"GREAT. LEARNING PLANTS. Love that for us," Fin said, slashing one before it touched Serena.

Gavriel barely had time to twist as a vine snapped around his waist. He spun out of it, slicing with a brutal downward stroke that severed the vine at its base.

"For the record," he called out while dodging the next one, "the trees in Drakenfell don’t do this. Our trees are civilized. Our trees mind their own goddamn business."

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