The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 515

Chapter 515: Too Late: The Official Motto

Serena’s eyes flashed pink. She wiggled out of Fin’s arms, who was absolutely unprepared for Possessed Serena.

One second he was holding her and the next second she was gone, her body twisting free with a strength and fluidity that Regular Serena did not possess, the ancestors lending her muscles that didn’t technically exist and whose lending was producing a Serena-shaped projectile aimed directly at the serpent.

She stepped in front of the group.

"Serena, stop—" Fin tried to grab her—

Too late. Too late was becoming the official motto of this mission. Too late should have been printed on their thermal weave suits. Too late should have been embroidered on Serena’s quiver.

Too late was the two-word summary of every interaction between Serena Frostborne and the concept of personal safety.

The serpent struck, but its head hit something invisible. Ancient runes beneath the cracked stone suddenly blazed to life, golden, bright, pulsing. The runes had been dormant.

Dead for millennia, carved into the trail by hands that had anticipated this exact moment, this exact bloodline standing in this exact spot, and the anticipation was ten thousand years old and the old was activating with the fresh, violent energy of something that had been sleeping and was now very much awake.

A shockwave rippled outward, knocking molten fire back into the pit.

The serpent recoiled with a shriek that rattled the mountain itself. The shriek was pain. Genuine, ancient, tectonic pain.

Seven people watched the lava serpent nightmare that had been chasing them up a volcano, get bitch-slapped by floor runes activated by a possessed girl. The continent had been trying to kill them all day, and the continent’s own goddamn defense system had just switched sides.

The creature that had been unkillable, unfreezable, and un-cuttable had just been hurt by runes that predated its existence, and the hurt was producing a retreat so fast the lava river splashed when it dove back in.

"Did she just activate something?" Gav asked.

Serena stared at the glowing runes beneath her feet. Her pink eyes were scanning the symbols with the rapid, focused intensity of a woman whose ancestors were reading through her eyes and whose reading was producing comprehension at a speed that made Hyran’s literacy look glacial.

"It would appear so," Hyran replied. He had stopped being surprised by Serena activating ancient defense systems approximately fifty activations ago. She had given him a professional numbness that no amount of academic curiosity could penetrate. A defense mechanism and the only fucking thing keeping Hyran from sitting down in a volcano.

"Excellent," Maelor wheezed. "Can it recognize that we’re being roasted alive?"

Aeron looked at Maelor. "Your robes are melting."

"I KNOW my robes melted. I can FEEL my robes melting. The melting is HAPPENING on my BODY, Aeron. I do not need a goddamn narrator."

"Nightspire silk."

"Was Nightspire silk. Past tense. The silk is dead. The silk died doing its duty. I want a funeral for the silk. A small one. Tasteful. Unlike this fucking continent."

More serpents surged, hissing. The recoil from the runes had bought them seconds that were expiring. The serpents were regrouping.

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