The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 493

Chapter 493: She Is The Goddamn Weapon

"Serena, put this on."

Dex pulled the golden bow and quiver from his back and held them out to her. He had been carrying them since they left the study, the weapon slung across his back alongside his own blade.

"Thank you," she said, strapping the quiver across her back. The weight settled against her spine, familiar.

Warriors were supposed to carry their own weapons. Fin didn’t comment. Gavriel didn’t comment. Both of them were completely fine with it.

The mages were a different story.

"He carried her bow," Maelor said to nobody in particular. "Warriors carry their own weapons. Basic. Fundamental. First-day-of-training protocol. The weapon is an extension of the warrior."

Aeron rolled his eyes. "Prodigies don’t have to carry their own weapons, Maelor. She is the goddamn weapon."

"She has the bow now," Dexmon said. "I’m her Commander. I carry her weapons when she’s possessed. It’s my call."

Hyran gave Dexmon a flat look. "You are not carrying that because you are her commander and we all know it."

Serena nocked an arrow, ignoring them. She would make sure to carry it the rest of the trip.

The arrow was drawn. Ready. The bow was an extension and the extension was back where it belonged and the belonging was producing a confidence in her body that the bow’s absence had been quietly eroding.

A sound came from above.

Heavy. Precise. The specific weight of something dropping from a height with controlled intent.

A male vampire landed on his feet three paces from Hyran’s dome.

He was different from the females. Taller. Broader. His grey skin was smoother, less rotted, carrying the specific preservation of a creature that was older and more powerful and whose power was visible in the way the other vampires shifted away from him when he landed. His eyes were black. Deep black. The black of something that had been alive for so long the alive had become its own form of dead.

He looked at Hyran through the gold dome. Locked eyes.

"Drop your shield," he said.

Hyran’s hands trembled. Once.

The dome flickered.

Three things happened in the same second.

Maelor’s green shield slammed into place around the group. Aeron’s gold shield erupted a fraction later. Serena threw a third dome of gold over all of them, layered on top of the first two, three constructs stacking simultaneously, three mages and a princess racing to replace the barrier before the barrier’s absence could kill them.

Hyran’s dome fell.

The male vampire was inside.

He had moved during the flicker. During the fraction of a second between Hyran’s dome falling and the three replacements going up, the creature had crossed the threshold and now stood inside the layered shields with them, three feet from Hyran, fangs extended, his hand closing around Hyran’s throat before the gold light had finished stabilizing around the group.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify